Finding the right path.

This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.’” (Jeremiah 6:16-17)

Where and when this word from Jeremiah originated no-one can be quite sure. It is another of his words of warning during the reign of King Jehoiakim, who was quite unlike his godly father, Josiah. Jehoiakim and his political advisers were only interested in a life of carefree indulgence. The Mosaic traditions and righteous laws upheld during his father’s reign were being discarded and everyone was doing as they liked, including the priests and prophets at the Temple.

There is no direct evidence of Jeremiah leaving Jerusalem and wandering in the desert, but the words of this prophecy certainly do not reflect city streets. The ‘ancient paths’ is a well-known phrase for the wilderness and it is very possible that Jeremiah, like other prophets and spiritual leaders of Israel, loved the desert. For those who sought to be in communion with God, like Moses or Elijah, the solitude of the desert was a haven.

The desert was not a place of separation from God – quite the reverse – it was separation from the world. It was a place of seclusion with God where the prophets could speak with him and hear his voice clearly, without the cacophony of the city streets.

The ‘ancient paths’ is a well-known phrase for the wilderness. It is very possible that Jeremiah, like other prophets of Israel, loved the desert.

Ask for the Good Way

Jeremiah was probably thinking of the Judean wilderness south of Jerusalem, or the Desert of Paran near Beersheba. These places would have been familiar to David, the shepherd boy of Bethlehem, before he became King of Israel.

In the wilderness, there are many desert paths. Some are broad and inviting, but dangerous, running alongside a precipice. Others are narrow and difficult, but safe. The shepherds know every path in the wilderness, some of which are so narrow that the sheep have to go in single file. The good shepherd goes ahead of his sheep just as David would have done, leading them to a good pasture where there is both food and water. David beautifully expressed this in the 23rd Psalm: “He leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness…”

In his time of reflection, Jeremiah was probably thinking of the wilderness and a time when he reached a crossroads. Being more used to city streets, he would probably have stood there waiting for a shepherd to come along, to ask him for the good way. This is expressed in this prophecy, “Ask for the good way”. It would have been an ancient path over which shepherds had led their flocks for centuries.

Jeremiah might even have been familiar with the words of Isaiah some 200 years earlier, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isa 30:21).

A Voice in the Wilderness

Back in Jerusalem, the wilderness paths came into Jeremiah’s mind and he pronounced this reading, warning the nation of the dangers that lay ahead as a consequence of idolatry and unbelief. It grieved him to listen to the people and to know what would befall them. He longed to run away into the desert and to stay there. He wept before the Lord:

Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travellers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them... (Jer 9:1-2a)

The shepherds know every path in the wilderness, some of which are inviting but dangerous. The good shepherd leads his sheep to safe pasture.

Jeremiah was a lone ‘voice in the wilderness’ patrolling the city streets, warning of the terrible consequences that would befall the nation if they no longer kept the terms of the covenant with God. He knew that God would not defend an unrighteous people and therefore disaster lay ahead.

God had already sent them many warning signs, all of which had been ignored, so Jeremiah now went on to make a devastating prophecy. In his quiet time in the wilderness he had heard God calling upon the whole world of nature to observe and to learn from what he was about to do with his own covenant people, who had deliberately discarded his teaching and ignored his warnings:

Hear, O Earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law. (Jer 6:19)

Truth Then is Truth Today

If God will not defend his own covenant people when they deliberately reject his teaching and despise his words, what hope is there for Gentile nations who have known the word of God for centuries and yet deliberately turn away, despising his warnings?

The tragic history of Israel shows what happened to Jerusalem and the people of Judah in Jeremiah’s own lifetime when God’s warnings were ignored. He allowed the invading army of Nebuchadnezzar to break down the walls of Jerusalem and take the people captive to Babylon. Jeremiah knew that there was no army in the world that could have conquered Jerusalem if the people had remained faithful to God.

Jeremiah’s words are as true today as they were in the 6th Century BC, because God does not change. His truth then, is truth today. He is still saying: “Ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls”.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

Discerning the signs.

“Announce this to the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah: ‘Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear: Should you not fear me?’ declares the Lord. ‘Should you not tremble in my presence?’” (Jeremiah 5:20-22)

Jeremiah was outraged by the unbelief that he saw among the people, both in the city of Jerusalem and across the land of Judah. It was almost unbelievable that they should be so foolish with their great heritage embedded in the history of the nation. “Hear this!” he proclaimed; but he knew that it was useless - because although they had eyes to see and ears to hear, they did not use them.

The words are reminiscent of those used by Isaiah at the time of his call to ministry when God told him that he would be ministering among a people who were “ever hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing, but never perceiving” (Isa 6:9). It was just the same in Jeremiah’s time some 200 years after Isaiah. And in another 500 years Jesus would be saying exactly the same thing of the generation in his lifetime. He spoke to them with simple stories because of their lack of understanding. He said “This is why I speak to them in parables: Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand” (Matt 13:13).

The spiritual blockage among the people of Israel was seemingly endemic. Jeremiah struggled to understand it. He saw that the people had lost respect for God; they had no sense of awe: “‘Should you not fear me?’ declares the Lord. ‘Should you not tremble in my presence?’” This message was not only to the people, but to their leaders and teachers.

“Hear this!” Jeremiah proclaimed; but he knew that it was useless - because although the people had eyes to see and ears to hear, they did not use them.

Spiritual Vacuum

Jeremiah accounted for this disrespect of God as stemming from the loss of recognition that the God of Israel was actually the God of Creation, who had created the universe, measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and weighed the mountains on his scales (Isa 40:12). The people had turned aside from the truth of the word of God, which resulted in a total lack of spiritual discernment.

They couldn’t even recognise what God was saying to them through the failure of the spring and autumn rains, which were causing havoc with the harvest and meant that there would be food shortages in the near future. God had withheld the rain because of the sins of the people; but they were so foolish they could not discern the signs of his activity.

When people fail to acknowledge the God of Creation, they create a spiritual vacuum that makes them insensitive to the activity of God. It leads to every kind of wickedness that affects the whole of society, which was the teaching of Paul in Romans 1. Jeremiah pointed to the social sins that had produced great inequalities in the nation. The rich had become powerful and had “grown fat and sleek” (Jer 5:27). These greedy men did not care for the poor or give justice to the powerless (Jer 5:28), which was abhorrent to God. “‘Should I not punish them for this?’ declares the Lord” (Jer 5:29).

The Reason for Indifference to God

It was at this point that Jeremiah exploded with indignation. He knew that all these social aberrations were due to a lack of spiritual truth in the nation. The people had turned away from truth; they had abandoned any thought of God in their daily lives – God was an irrelevance. This led them to worship the local Baals in the countryside, and to careless indifference to God in the city where they were intent upon making their fortunes, or struggling with poverty.

But Jeremiah went to the heart of the matter – to the reason why there was such indifference to God. It was surely due to the priests and prophets, the religious leaders of the nation, who had the word of God but did not rightly use it to teach the people: “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way” (Jer 5:31).

Why was there such indifference to God? Surely it was because the priests and prophets had the word of God but did not rightly use it to teach the people.

The prophets made up their own visions and prophecies. Their major objective was to be popular with the people – to tell them things they wanted to hear. They weren’t bothered with the truth. Jeremiah said, “The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly” (Jer 23:10). “They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord” (Jer 23:16). “Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness, declares the Lord” (Jer 23:11).

It was the priests who were most responsible for the state of the nation, according to Jeremiah; they ruled by their own authority. Instead of faithfully teaching the word of God as given to Moses and delivered to the people at Mount Sinai (Deut 4:10), the priests made up their own teaching, misusing the divine authority they had been given. Their teaching was popular, no doubt reinforcing their own authority and ensuring gifts from the people which kept them well fed.

No Excuse

There was no excuse for the priests because the scroll of the Torah had been discovered during the repairs to the Temple ordered by King Josiah just a few years earlier. The priests were the ones who had access to the scrolls that were being copied by the scribes, so they knew the truth, but they did not handle it righteously. They did not declare the word of the Lord that would establish truth in the nation.

The consequence was that the people could not even discern the reason why the autumn and spring rains had not fallen. The whole nation was lacking in spiritual understanding. They had eyes to see and ears to hear, but they had no discernment.

Could this be said of our own generation in the 21^st Century? If God still holds the religious leaders responsible for the state of the nation, we have to ask: do we have church leaders who have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear? If so, we must conclude that God is saying the same thing to our leaders today: Should you not fear me? declares the Lord. Should you not tremble in my presence?

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

The limits to God's patience.

“This is the word of the Lord to Jeremiah concerning the drought: ‘Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and the cry goes out from Jerusalem. The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water. They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads.

The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads. Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass. Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyesight fails for lack of pasture.’” (Jeremiah 14:1-6)

Jeremiah presents a terrible picture of a prolonged drought covering the whole land of Judah during the reign of Jehoiakim the ungodly king (son of godly king Josiah), in the final decade of the 7th Century BC. The drought was not confined to Judah; it covered the whole region of what we now know as the Middle East.

Climatologists say that this was a period of ‘global warming’ and historians note that it was probably one of the reasons why Nebuchadnezzar conquered neighbouring countries: to recruit an army of labourers to dig canals around the rivers Tigris and Euphrates to irrigate the land.

Jeremiah knew nothing of global warming, but he certainly saw the hand of God, the Creator of the Universe, in what was happening to the people among whom God had called him to minister. The Hebrew word for ‘drought’ used in this passage is plural, indicating a series of droughts that had now become so severe that all life was being threatened.

Rich and poor, young and old, city-dwellers and farmers were all suffering; even the wild animals were dying of thirst: “wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals”. In the cities the wells had run dry and in the countryside the streams and river beds were cracked and empty. It was a scene of desolation and death.

Jeremiah knew nothing of global warming, but he certainly saw the hand of God, the Creator of the Universe, in the drought around him.

God’s Rebuke

Jeremiah had been told to remind the people of the terms of the covenant (Jer 11:1), but they had not listened or heeded his words. The consequences of breaking the terms of the covenant were perfectly clear: “The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron” (Deut 28:23).

No doubt Jeremiah also was suffering and his vivid description of the effects of the drought led him to pray for the nation – one of the rare occasions when Jeremiah interceded on behalf of the whole nation and the land of Israel: “Although our sins testify against us, O Lord, do something for the sake of your name” (Jer 14:7).

His pleading with the Lord was met by a fierce rebuke: “This is what the Lord says about this people: they greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet. So the Lord does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins” (14:10).

In order to stop him asking the Lord to break the drought and send rain upon the land, Jeremiah was told to stop praying for the wellbeing of the people because God would no longer listen to their pleas. In fact, he was told, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go!” (Jer 15:1). This is an exact reversal of the message given to Moses when he was told to go to Pharaoh with a call to bring the people out of Egypt into the presence of the Lord.

Limits to God’s Patience

The reason for this harsh rebuttal of Jeremiah’s request on behalf of the nation was that God had forgiven the people time after time, but they had never kept their promises of faithfulness. The discovery of the ‘Book of the Law’ during the repairs to the Temple ordered by Josiah had led the king to rededicate the nation to God, re-affirming the terms of the covenant. But his son, Jehoiakim, had reversed all that and the people had rapidly returned to worshipping the Baals.

God’s patience had reached its limits after all the warnings had been ignored. The God of Israel was now exercising his power over Creation. The drought was the consequence of breaking the covenant in turning away from the Lord. The teaching that had been given to Moses was, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands…blessings will come upon you” (Deut 28:1). But, conversely, disobedience would bring terrible curses on the land and on all its inhabitants.

Jeremiah’s pleading with the Lord was met by a fierce rebuke.

It is a serious thing to enter into a covenant with God. It carries awesome responsibilities. Once we acknowledge him as our God, we belong to him: we are his servants, as well as his beloved children.

There are wonderful blessings and benefits from the love and protection the Father gives to his children, but there are also responsibilities. Jeremiah was well aware of this and although prophecies of peace and prosperity were being given to the people by some of the official prophets linked with the Temple priests, Jeremiah knew that the nation thoroughly deserved judgment.

Declaration of Faith

Jeremiah ended this time of intercession with a declaration of faith in God: “Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? Do the skies themselves send down showers? No, it is you, O Lord our God. Therefore, our hope is in you. For you are the one who does all this” (Jer 14:22).

Surely this is a timely reminder to all the Western nations who have had the Gospel for centuries that there are inevitable consequences of turning away from the truth.

This article is part of a teaching series on the life and ministry of Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

No-one sees the Father so clearly as the prophet with tears in his eyes.

“Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart! Oh, my anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. Oh, the agony of my heart! My heart pounds within me, I cannot keep silent. For I have heard the sound of the trumpet; I have heard the battle cry. Disaster follows disaster; the whole land lies in ruins.” (Jeremiah 4:18-19)

This was another of Jeremiah’s pronouncements in the early part of his ministry, most probably during the 11-year reign of Jehoiakim from Jerusalem (607 to 598 BC). The atmosphere in Jerusalem was one of complacent, easy-going affluence. Already strict moral and religious requirements from the days of Josiah’s Reform were being pushed into the background.

The young king was 25 when Josiah was killed in battle with the Egyptians. Jehoiakim made peace with the Egyptians – at a price, and promptly set about loosening the strong restraints that his father had imposed upon the people. He preferred a life of pleasure and turned a blind eye to what was happening in the countryside, where people were re-opening the altars to Baal on the high places.

What was more shocking to Jeremiah was that everywhere in Jerusalem there was evidence of moral corruption, self-indulgence, family breakdown, sharp business practice and even the re-appearance of altars to foreign gods. Jeremiah was a great patriot. He was not a nationalist, blindly supporting his country right or wrong; his patriotism involved a love for his nation and the welfare of the people that translated into a longing to see righteousness and shalom, justice and truthful behaviour.

Foreseeing Disaster

This pronouncement is very revealing, both for its reference to the international scene with the growing threat of a Babylonian invasion, and for what it shows us of Jeremiah’s personal character and ministry.

There were, no doubt, plenty of reports coming in from travellers and merchants of the activity of Nebuchadnezzar’s army that was on the move across what had been formerly Assyrian territory. Despite the fall of neighbouring countries to the all-conquering Babylonians, there was a dangerous lack of concern in Judah and especially in Jerusalem, where the priests and prophets constantly reassured the king and the people that God would never allow an enemy to enter the gates of the holy city, with its Temple that was the home of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Jeremiah was not a nationalist, but he was a great patriot.

Jeremiah, in his times of standing in the council of the Lord, knew that the covenant that protected Israel and the land of Judah depended upon their observing the Torah and being faithful to God - especially having no other gods in the land or in the hearts of the people. Jeremiah’s was a lone voice on the streets of Jerusalem warning that the spirit of complacency which he saw all around would lead to disaster.

The Weeping Prophet

In his quiet times before the Lord, Jeremiah could actually foresee the future with vivid clarity, as though it was actually happening in front of his eyes. This caused him immense pain which he said pierced his heart: “Oh my anguish my anguish! I writhe in pain…How long must I see the battle standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?” (Jer 4:21).

No-one sees the Father so clearly as the prophet with tears in his eyes. The tears of love and trust form the spiritual bridge between the human prophet and the divine Presence. The prophet is expressing the total dependence of the human condition upon the grace of God. He sees the hopelessness of the situation facing the nation that he loves, and can do no other than bring it before God in utter humility and loving trust.

Jeremiah is known as the ‘weeping prophet’, a label often thrown at him by those who wish to denigrate his ministry. But the truth is that he learned to draw close to the Lord in his quiet times and, as a result, could see the consequences of what was happening in the nation so clearly through his tears that he could not keep quiet in public.

As he walked the streets of Jerusalem and saw the little shrines to foreign gods and as he listened to the chatter of people in the marketplace; housewives bickering and merchants exchanging obscenities, he could almost hear the hooves of the Babylonian cavalry clattering across the cobbles and the cries of anguish as they swung their swords, splattering blood on the market stalls.

Jeremiah knew what was going to happen unless there was repentance and turning in the nation – among its leaders and the ordinary people. The ‘unless’ was still there. But for how long?

Jeremiah could see the consequences of what was happening in the nation so clearly in his times with the Lord that he could not keep quiet in public.

Stirring Prophetic Voices

The knowledge of what would happen if there was no repentance was the driving force behind Jeremiah’s ministry: he could not keep quiet, whatever the consequences for himself and the threat to his personal safety. He suffered cruel abuse and physical pain because he could not stop declaring the truth and warning of what he had already foreseen so vividly.

The true prophetic ministry is no different today. Those who have learned to stand in the presence of the Lord with tears in their eyes as they speak of the state of their nation have foreseen for a long time the things coming to pass today – the breakdown of family life, gangs, guns and drugs leaving young people dying on our city streets. This is just some of the daily evidence of the crumbling of Western civilisation that has turned its back upon the Bible, abandoning its Judeo-Christian foundations.

As political and economic instability increases and the dormant churches stay silent, the sense of hopelessness and despair will grow. BUT will God use this to stir prophetic voices in the nations that will awaken humanity to the danger facing it, opening the way for a 21^st-Century spiritual awakening? Are we getting nearer the day that Paul foresaw when many in Israel will recognise Jesus as Messiah, combining in ‘one new man’ with believing Gentiles to bring the message of salvation to a dying world?

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.

Blow the trumpet!

“Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say: ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’ Cry aloud and say: ‘gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities! Raise the signal to go to Zion! Flee for safety without delay!’

For I am bringing disaster from the North, even terrible destruction. A lion has come out from his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to lay waste your land. Your towns will lie in ruins without inhabitant. So put on sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us.” (Jeremiah 4:5-9)

This is Jeremiah at his strongest and most confident; delivering a broadside in the early days of his ministry when news had reached Jerusalem that the Babylonian army was on the march. The whole pronouncement is in poetry, which would no doubt have made it more striking for those who heard it in Jerusalem, at a time of complacency and comparative prosperity.

It is difficult to date this passage but the indications are that it came soon after the untimely death of Josiah and early in the reign of his son Jehoiakim, which puts it in the period 607-600 BC. The Babylonians were busy acquiring sections of the old Assyrian Empire and steadily moving towards Judah (the Northern Kingdom of Israel having already been scattered by the Assyrians).

This proclamation from Jeremiah is a perfect example of the prophetic ministry in action, performing his role as the ‘watchman’ of the nation and messenger of God. It is a series of announcements, each in the imperative to add drama to the news being conveyed: “A lion has come out of his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out” (v7). But this was no ordinary piece of news. The Babylonians may have been the army that was threatening Judah and the holy city of Jerusalem, but the agent was God!

Claiming Immunity

Ever since the Temple, envisioned by King David but built by Solomon, was dedicated, it had been more than just a place of worship for the God of Israel. It was a living monument to the covenant between God and the house of David – the dynasty that David founded, that was endorsed and blessed by the Lord.

Hear God’s solemn promise at the dedication: “If My People who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

This proclamation from Jeremiah is a perfect example of the prophetic ministry in action

That promise had become the focal point of a ‘royal-temple ideology’¹ that screened out covenantal reality and permitted self-deception. The aristocratic families surrounding the King who were in charge of the national government, and the priestly aristocratic families who were in charge of the Temple, were all under the deception that Jerusalem (represented by the Temple) was inviolable and that Judah as the Promised Land could never be invaded by a foreign army because it was under the protection of Almighty God. It was this delusion that Jeremiah’s harsh poetic pronouncement aimed to dispel.

Jeremiah alone seemed to perceive that they had failed to recognise that their covenantal relationship with God was conditional! It was conditional upon the people of Israel being totally faithful to the Torah, with the Decalogue at its centre – especially having no other God than Yahweh, the God of Israel.

Judgment Inevitable

The royal-temple ideology assumed that the covenantal conditions were fulfilled through morning and evening prayers in the Temple, conducted by the priests on behalf of the nation. But this was a mere religious ordinance.

This was the message that Jeremiah was called by God to proclaim (hence the imperative in his poetry): “Sound the trumpet throughout the land!” The purpose of sounding the trumpet was not simply to warn of the dangers on the international horizon, but to bring a message of warning from God: “I am bringing disaster from the north, even terrible destruction”.

There is no call for repentance in this pronouncement – only a call to put on sackcloth and lament. Jeremiah perceived the inevitability of judgment upon the nation and he knew the hardness of the hearts of the people. He had already called for them to break up their un-ploughed ground - the hardness of their hearts - but there had been no visible response.

Without repentance and turning, the covenantal relationship between God and Israel was dead. In fact, it was worse than that: it was a dangerous delusion that would bring disaster upon all the people, the priests and the prophets as well as the King and his family. No-one would be spared.

But the stark message of this pronouncement was that it was not the Babylonians who should be feared, but the God of Israel who had been deserted through the idolatrous practices of the people. There were even hints of this within the Temple itself, which showed the utter spiritual corruption that had become embedded into the nation.

Jeremiah perceived the inevitability of judgment upon the nation and he knew the hardness of the hearts of the people.

Depths of Conviction

The poetic pronouncement concluded with a declaration from God himself, beginning with the apocalyptic phase “In that day”. It stated the stark reality of the judgment that was about to descend upon Judah: “The King and the officials will lose heart, the priests will be horrified, and the prophets will be appalled.”

The fact that there is no ‘unless’ - no call for repentance or softening of the message - shows the depths of conviction that Jeremiah had received in his time of standing in the council of the Lord. In those moments in the presence of the God of Israel, time had been suspended, the future had become the present, shadow had become reality. The full horror that was about to descend upon the nation had been revealed to the Prophet. Like the Apostle Paul some 500 years later, he could not keep silent: “Woe unto me if I do not declare the truth of the word of God!” (1 Cor 9:16).

Of course, Jeremiah knew that if there were repentance in the nation, the Babylonian army could not penetrate the walls of Jerusalem or bring devastation to the cities of Judah, because there was no power on earth that could defeat the God of Israel. But he also knew the hardness of the hearts of the king and the priests and the leaders of the nation, who were blinded by a powerful spirit of corruption from the world that prevented them from perceiving the truth.

We Need Prophets!

The New Testament has many warnings of a similar blindness coming in the days leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus. 2 Timothy 3 speaks of this and the letters of Peter have strong warnings of the delusion that will drive the nations into a time of darkness and infect the Church with different forms of corruption.

Those who have prophetic gifts today need to spend more time in the council of the Lord, as Jeremiah did, and then to declare boldly what they are hearing and seeing revealed. In these days when the leaders of the Western nations have turned away from truth, and when many church leaders are also blinded by various forms of spiritual delusion so that they are unable to declare the word of the Lord, the greatest need is for the Lord to raise up prophets in our midst.

May those who have learned to stand in the council of the Lord, to recognise his voice, to understand how he is working out his purposes today – be given boldness by the Holy Spirit to declare the word of the Living God in this godless generation that is hungry for truth, but does not know where to find it.

References

1 E.g. Brueggemann, 1999. A commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and homecoming. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

This article is part of a series. Click here to read previous instalments.

The first prophet to recognise God’s missionary purpose.

“If you will return, O Israel, return to me,” declares the Lord. “If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives’, then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory.”

This is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: “break up your unploughed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts, you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done – burn with no one to quench it.” (Jeremiah 4:1-4)

This is another of Jeremiah’s early pronouncements, made during the reign of Josiah when the king was making a great effort to reform the nation. Jeremiah perceived that Josiah’s great reformation had, so far, not achieved its purpose of bringing the people back to the God of Israel. His opening statement was that returning to traditional religious practices was not enough: God was calling for them to return to him.

Josiah’s reform had not yet touched the hearts of the people. He had ordered the desecration of pagan altars and the breaking down of totem poles and all the other symbols of worship of foreign gods. But this had not really changed the people and produced the faith in God that both Josiah and Jeremiah were longing to see.

Putting away the detestable idols was not enough. God was looking for his people to be in a right relationship with him, whereby they could truthfully and honestly make the statement of faith: “As surely as the Lord lives” (v2).

Israel a Light for the Nations

Jeremiah saw this in the wider context of God’s missionary purpose for Israel: that they would be the means of conveying the knowledge of his salvation to all the nations. Jeremiah said that when Israel was truly in a right relationship with God, declaring his truth openly on the world stage, then the Gentile nations would also be blessed by God and would experience the glory of his presence.

In making this pronouncement, Jeremiah was ahead of all the other writing prophets who preceded him, although what he was declaring had already been embedded in the history of Israel from the time God called Abraham to leave his country and people and go to the land that God would show him. At that time, God made a solemn promise: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3).

Putting away detestable idols was not enough: God was looking for his people to be in a right relationship with him.

God’s intention to use Israel to reveal his truth to the Gentiles was confirmed to the exiles in Babylon when God sent them a message of hope: he was about to overthrow the Babylonian Empire and release his people to go back to the Promised Land and to rebuild Jerusalem, thereby preparing the way for the fulfilment of the promised new covenant.

At that time God revealed to the exiles his purpose to use their little nation of Israel, purified from idolatry by exile in Babylon, as his servant and ambassador to the nations of the world: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isa 49:6).

To the ends of the earth: God's missionary purpose for Israel. Photo: Israeli coastline at Caesarea. See Photo Credits.God’s purposes are always much greater than our meagre perception of them, as well as our own small plans for our contribution in the service of the Kingdom. God sees the bigger picture, while we only see the little bit in front of our eyes.

King Josiah’s objective was to stop idolatry among the people by physically breaking down the pagan idols and centralising worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. However, Jeremiah saw beyond this, to God fulfilling the greater purpose for which he created the nation of Israel and revealed his Torah through Moses. Jeremiah could see God’s greater purpose in setting Israel aside from all the other nations in order to reveal his nature and purposes to humankind.

The Need for Circumcision of the Heart

However, in order for Israel to be the servant of the Lord, something of great spiritual significance had to happen in the nation. There had to be a spiritual awakening, enabling them to understand the purposes of God. That meant breaking up the ‘hard ground’ in their human nature so that they were receptive to the truth that God was longing to convey to them.

The people had to experience a spiritual circumcision - a circumcision of their hearts: cutting away the corruption of the world that had infected the nation through worshipping false gods of wood and stone. This idolatry had led them into fertility cults and sexual aberrations, adultery and family breakdown, and failure to teach their children the truth. It also meant greed and corruption permeating their business practices and affecting every part of national life.

In order for Israel to be the servant of the Lord and fulfil his covenant purposes, there had to be a spiritual awakening.

Most of all, the nation was no longer trusting in God for their protection - even as storm clouds were gathering on the international horizon. The Babylonian army was conquering one nation after another, across the Middle East. Clearly, Judah would soon be the next target, but they were grossly vulnerable and underprepared. They were a nation in disarray and would easily fall victim to an army said to be even more cruel and despotic than the Assyrians.

Jeremiah could foresee the future as clearly as if it were already happening, which gave great urgency to his calls for something more than Josiah’s reformation. He wanted to see a heart transformation across the nation – a spiritual revival that would not only ensure God’s covering of protection against an enemy attack, but would actually achieve God’s purpose for the nation to be his servant, bringing his salvation to the Gentiles.

The Final Word

The final word in this pronouncement was a dire warning of what would happen if Israel failed to understand the situation that faced them, not perceiving the purposes of God and not grasping the opportunity he was giving them to turn to him and be saved. The consequence of these failures was national disaster on an unimaginable scale: a fire no-one could quench.

The historical fact is that Israel and Judah ignored the warnings God sent to them through Jeremiah. The unquenchable fire fell as the Babylonians carried out a systematic destruction of towns and cities across the land, including Jerusalem.

God sees the bigger picture - we only see the little bit in front of our eyes.

Today, the nations of the world are being subjected to an unprecedented shaking of their pillars of state, creating turmoil, instability and international foreboding of what lies ahead. There have been plenty of warning signs, such as the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York, the Notre Dame fire in Paris and the Brexit turmoil in Britain: all signs of the threat of destruction coming upon Western civilisation.

The warnings Jeremiah gave to Israel need to be heard in the world today.

This article is part of a series. Click here for previous instalments.

Christians called to support Jews in every way they can

Jeremiah's first public prophetic word.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 2:2-3)

This is the first word that Jeremiah was given to declare publicly in his ministry. Previously in his communication with God, the words he heard were for him personally. This first message to the nation was highly significant. Although Jeremiah knew that he was going to have to say some very hard things that would not be well received, this first word was a message of love which would have been easy for him to declare publicly. It was just what the young prophet needed to begin his ministry.

All the prophets of Israel constantly referred back to the history of the nation and what God had done for them. Here, Jeremiah is reminding the people of the amazing way God had cared for them, provided for them and protected them throughout their 40 years’ journey between leaving Egypt and entering the Promised Land.

Israel’s Spiritual Sojourn

For most of that period, Israel travelled through the desert. It was an exacting time for the tribal leaders and a time of enormous strain for Moses in maintaining order, discipline and unity among the tribes. But it was also a formative time when the Children of Israel became a nation.

There is nothing so powerful as shared hardship and danger in bringing unity to a disparate group of people. This is what happened to Israel in the desert. They were a group of nomadic tribes living in tents with no homeland, but the shared experience of facing the dangers and privations of the wilderness welded them together. They learned the value of community, co-operating in the gathering of manna, and caring for each other - especially the weak and the elderly.

The first word that Jeremiah was given to declare publicly was a message of love.

Above all, the sojourn in the desert was a spiritual experience that established them as a covenant people under God. They were his bride, newly brought into a sweet covenant relationship with him: a relationship of growing love and trust, as he practically demonstrated his love and his power in one miracle after another.

The first miracle was in persuading Pharaoh to let the people go. The deliverance from slavery was followed by the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and the disaster that overtook the Egyptian army who were closely following with the intention of once again reducing them to slavery. But God had amazingly delivered Israel and thereby demonstrated his love and his power to protect his soon-to-be covenant people in fulfilment of his promises.

This love and power was demonstrated numerous times by the Lord’s provision of food and water in the desert. Many times the Israelites would have starved or died of thirst if he had not provided for them. But the desert was not only a time for the people of Israel to learn about the very nature of God, it was a time for sealing their bond with God and learning to trust him completely.

Separation unto God

The desert was not a place of separation from God. It was a place of separation from the world and from foreign gods: for leaving behind the fleshpots of Egypt, for ridding themselves of the pariah mentality of a people in slavery. It was a time of separation unto God, where there were no worldly attractions to compete for their attention. The conditions of the covenant relationship could be fulfilled – “I will be your God and you will be my people”.

The great silence of the desert was filled with the presence of the Living God. It was here that Israel learned holiness – separation – as they learned to love and to trust the Lord. In this first message given to the young Jeremiah, God remembered the devotion of Israel, her dependence upon him and her love for him.

This was to set the scene for all the dramatic warnings of danger that Jeremiah later had to pronounce – none of which were intended to be declarations of judgment so much as loving calls to recognise the folly of breaking the covenant with God by running after false gods. Israel’s worshipping of bits of wood and stone had tragically put them outside the protection of Almighty God and at the mercy of cruel enemy armies.

Israel’s sojourn in the desert was a profoundly spiritual experience that established them as a covenant people under God.

God’s Suffering

This first message reminding the people of God’s great love and care for their fathers in the desert was followed by a plea that was full of pathos:

This is what the Lord says, “What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They did not ask ‘Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no-one travels and no-one lives?’

I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal following worthless idols.”

God’s question, “What fault did your fathers find in me?” shows the pathos in God’s heart when his people are faithless and turn away from him. It is as though God was saying, ‘After all I have done for you, how could you possibly deny me and turn your back upon me?’

It is almost inconceivable in human relationships that someone would turn against you if you had spent your whole life caring for them. And yet, it does happen! The sense of rejection and personal suffering is intense in such circumstances. But this should enable us to understand the suffering in God’s heart when those whom he has loved and cared for turn against him and no longer trust him.

Foundational Teaching

This is the truth about the nature of God that was revealed to the prophets of Israel, that laid the foundation for the revelation of God as our Father which was at the heart of the ministry of Jesus. The Gospel Jesus gave to his disciples to take to all nations can never be fully understood and embraced without the foundation laid by the prophets of Israel.

God’s question, “What fault did your fathers find in me?” shows the pathos in God’s heart when his people are faithless and turn away from him.

Sadly, this is missing in so many churches today, where the preachers do not bother to preach the whole word of God – because they rarely study the life and teaching of the prophets of Israel.

If we do not learn from the history of Israel, that disaster struck them when they departed from the word of the Lord, we will make the same mistake again!

Surely, the preachers in Britain and all the Western nations should be declaring with all the energy and power of the Holy Spirit that, like the people of Israel in Jeremiah’s day, we too have turned our backs upon truth and embraced powers of darkness that are leading us to destruction.

We too worship bits of wood and stone in our consumerist society where we compete with one another to show off our possessions which are worthless. In so doing we make ourselves worthless to God in working out his purposes of communicating his love, his faithfulness and his good purposes to the nations. We become, like Israel in Jeremiah’s day, useless servants!

This article is part of a series. Click here to read other instalments.

Advice for petitioning Heaven at this dark time in our nation.

Britain has a choice ahead.

I have been looking at things we published in Prophecy Today back in 2016, prior to the Referendum and the vote to leave the European Union. Amongst the many comments and articles about the EU and about Britain, its heritage and present social and spiritual condition, we also published what we believed to be an authentic prophecy given by David Noakes.

Although we left readers to assess whether or not they believed this to be a genuine word from God, we clearly felt that there was the truth in it, or we would not have published it. We therefore believe it is right to revisit it at this crucial time in the nation’s history.

We now face the appalling prospect of a second referendum, which is being continually pushed by the BBC in all their news bulletins and interviews - or another general election, in which there is a strong possibility of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime Minister.

Let’s review the situation. Theresa May has rightly won the respect even of her strongest opponents, however grudgingly, for her resilience and persistence in the past two years of hard bargaining with the officials of the European Union, succeeding in agreeing a deal with them which has now been presented to the British Parliament and will be voted upon in the near future.

The deal itself is vastly complex and is set out in 500 pages of legal language that makes it difficult to summarise and assess. It sets out the financial settlement with Brussels for allowing the UK to leave the EU; the establishment of a transition period, giving businesses and individuals time to adjust; and it establishes the rights of EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU at the end of the Brexit period. 

We now face the appalling prospect of a second referendum, which is being continually pushed by the BBC in all their news bulletins and interviews.

The Irish Question

The most controversial part of the deal is the agreement over the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, to ensure that Britain cannot gain a competitive advantage over the rest of the EU.

Anti-Brexit protesters in Westminster. See Photo Credits.

There is agreement between the two sides to make every endeavour to secure a satisfactory agreement during the transition period. But if no agreement is reached, a temporary backstop would come into effect whereby all EU rules and regulations would apply keeping Northern Ireland effectively within the European Union – a situation that could only be resolved by joint agreement. In other words, Northern Ireland could only be joined up to the rest of the UK with the permission of the EU! This of course is quite intolerable to the DUP and to all Brits who uphold the Union of the United Kingdom!

What a strange quirk of history that the Irish question, which has bugged the English since the time of Oliver Cromwell, should be the main stumbling block to our agreement in getting out of the European Union! It has long been a joke among Westminster politicians that if they ever discovered the answer to the Irish question, the Irish would change the question! They have done just that now. It is no longer a question of whether or not there should be a border, but how the border should operate.

But we cannot blame the Irish for the problems of the European Union, which conflict much more deeply with the foundational values of our democratic civilisation. For centuries these ‘British’ values have been founded upon biblical principles of truth, integrity, faithfulness, righteousness, liberty and freedom of expression. It is because these values were being threatened by the European Union and its unelected cabal of Eurocrats, dedicated to secular humanist philosophies and the principle of ‘ever-closer union’, that many people in Britain voted to leave.

What a strange quirk of history that the Irish question, which has bugged the English since the time of Oliver Cromwell, should be the main stumbling block to our agreement in getting out of the European Union!

Revisiting Prophecy

So, what is God saying to Britain today in the face of the utter chaos in our House of Commons, where every MP has a different point of view and there is no shared vision? We hardly need to remind our readers that where there is no vision, the people perish! (Prov 29:18) or, to use the Living Bible’s translation – “Where there is ignorance of God, the people run wild.”

Our greatest problem in Britain today – and the reason for this absence of vision - is the lack of understanding of even the basics of biblical truth. It is now a whole generation ago that we ceased to teach schoolchildren the basics of the Bible. This is why this present generation is suffering so much from knife crime, guns and gangs in our cities. And this is why there is such a vast amount of mental disorders, depression and suicide among young people – and adults.

A whole generation has been raised without any understanding of basic truth. Now they are even being told that they can choose their own gender – the one fixed point of reference that they have in their childhood! Indeed, we are a nation thoroughly deserving of judgment! We are certainly on the road to ruin unless there is a fundamental change in social policy, currently driving the nation to disaster.

We need to read again the central paragraph of the prophecy given to David Noakes in November 2015 (published in April 2016):

Rather than rely on Me and my faithfulness to you, you chose, for worldly purposes, to join yourself to an institution [the European Union] which has denied my Name and refused to acknowledge Me in its councils. My fierce anger is upon that institution on account of its rebellion, its defiant rejection of me and its hardness of heart towards my ancient people Israel.

I warn you now that the European institution will not repent, even though I bring disaster and destruction upon it. I urge you, O Britain still beloved by Me for the sake of your godly forefathers, come out of her, so that you may not be caught up in that same destruction, for I am even now arising in judgment to bring to nothing what she has sought to achieve. If you will separate yourself from her declared rejection of God, I will have mercy upon you and restore my hand of protection; and I will use you once again to bring light to many lost in the darkness which is now steadily increasing.¹

Our greatest problem in Britain today – and the reason for this absence of vision - is the lack of understanding of even the basics of biblical truth.

Choice Ahead

The choice facing the British nation today is a choice between re-asserting our independence as a sovereign state and (crucially) putting our trust back in God for the future, or being driven onto the rocks of destruction through social chaos and violence. This will inevitably follow if the secular humanists continue to get their way – particularly if they succeed in forcing the nation to hold a second referendum.

It does not really matter whether we leave the EU with Mrs May’s deal or with no deal. If we put our trust in the Lord, blessings and prosperity are guaranteed for the future of the nation. The one thing to be avoided at all costs, is a second referendum. The prayers of all Christians should be directed to this end.

References

1 Read the full prophecy here.