I Am Who I Am

Big questions that demand an answer

Part 1: Comparing realities in Israel and her neighbours

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Mount Sinai in Arabia’ by Joel Richardson (Winepress, 2019)

Frances Rabbitts reviews a compelling DVD series about the events recorded in Exodus.

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Living Fully for the Fulfilment of Isaiah 19’ by Tom Craig (2014, Drawbaugh Publishing Group).

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.

Or is it a deceptive plot to keep us tied to Europe?

As votes are counted in an election that should never have taken place in the UK, suggestions of conspiracy and betrayal abound amid feelings of being in Alice in Wonderland territory, where the Queen of Hearts and her entourage turn out to be nothing but a pack of cards.

Why, after a majority (17.4 million people) voted to leave the European Union nearly three years ago, are we still so committed to this Tower of Babel project that we are spending over £100 million to choose representatives who will only be sitting in Brussels for a couple of months?

Unless, of course, that was never the plan! For the message we have been consistently giving to Euro leaders - acting collectively like a petulant Pharaoh - is that we are not really serious about leaving. We prefer to be enslaved to their godless laws, and we just love the leeks and onions.

A Fait Accompli?

A secret document witnessed by someone I am assured is a reliable source suggests that our future in Europe was stitched up at a meeting between British Prime Minister Theresa May (now shortly to vacate her post) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel before being presented to the Cabinet at Chequers last summer as a fait accompli.

The two leaders are said to have agreed to ‘appease’ Brexit voters while at the same time keeping as close to the EU as possible, leaving the door open for re-joining the club at a later stage.

The message we have been giving to Euro leaders - acting collectively like a petulant Pharaoh - is that we are not really serious about leaving.

In other words, it is claimed that both leaders agreed that the only realistic future for the UK was as a member of the EU and that the likely course of events is that Britain would re-join in full at some time after the next general election.

So it transpires that the Withdrawal Agreement presented at Chequers was essentially a German production, with the original draft completed in Berlin last May.

Theresa May announces her soon departure as Prime Minister, 24 May 2019. Alastair Grant/AP/Press Association ImagesDeath Blow for Democracy

Of course this whole sorry saga got off on the wrong foot from the word ‘go’ when, in the wake of the 2016 Referendum, Mrs May – a Remainer – was charged with the task of taking us out, against her own convictions. It was a death blow for democracy, and hardly a recipe for job satisfaction, to expect someone clearly convinced that our best interests lie with Europe to spend the next three years negotiating our way out.

Unless, of course, as our information suggests, that is not what she has really been doing. It would explain why Brexit has turned into such a chaotic, crazy circus in which clowns are trying to tame the tigers.

It would seem that the long and tortuous route to freedom has been blighted by deceit and double-dealing to make it look like we are doing one thing when we are really doing quite another.

I’m very suspicious of the message the mainstream TV media are trying to convey by repeatedly showing Mrs May coming out of church, as if to assure us that she means no harm and is doing her best – perhaps even seeking God’s will – to fulfil her promise that ‘Brexit means Brexit’.

The long and tortuous route to freedom has been blighted by deceit and double-dealing.

But in her days as Home Secretary, she was a key figure pushing the same-sex marriage agenda, helping to turn our centuries-old Judeo-Christian values on their head and presiding over the ruin and destruction of a society once the envy of the world.

Now we are a nation, like Israel in Isaiah’s time, that has been separated from God by our iniquities, with hands “stained with blood” (particularly through abortion) and tongues that have muttered wickedness, where “truth is nowhere to be found” as we rely on “empty arguments” (Isa 59:2-4, 15).

A Modern Moses

A leader of integrity is a rare find these days, but Nigel Farage strikes me as such, passionately committed to the single issue of getting out of Europe. I am aware that his popularity could open the door for Jeremy Corbyn if it were repeated in a general election, but unless we regain our sovereignty forthwith, we may forever remain in the manipulative hands of our bureaucratic puppeteers in Brussels.

I am not alone in comparing Brexit to the exodus from Egypt of the enslaved Jews in ancient times. It was hard enough for Moses, and it took ten plagues before a stubborn Pharaoh would let his people go.

But we don’t even have a Moses, unless things change dramatically when Mrs May is replaced. For our leader has no conviction either about the necessity of our exodus or of God’s involvement in the process.

God’s Awesome Sovereignty

But I am a little encouraged by the newly-postponed date for departure – 31 October. Yes, I know Hallowe’en has come to be marked by darkness amid ghostly goings-on, but it was originally celebrated as the eve of All Hallows (or All Saints), a period of the church year dedicated to remembering the faithful departed. More to the point, it was the date in 1517 when Martin Luther sparked the Reformation with his personal revelation of faith in Christ.

It was also the date, exactly 400 years later, when the British Government (through the Balfour Declaration) promised to help restore Jews from around the world to their ancient land, made possible on the very same day when brave soldiers from Australia and New Zealand triumphed against the odds in the Battle of Beersheva.

I am a little encouraged by the newly-postponed date for our departure – 31 October.

And it was also the date, in 1940, of a British victory over Nazi forces that proved a crucial turning-point of World War II. Its cropping up again as the next proposed date for our deliverance from the EU is a small reminder that the Lord – who answers prayer - holds all our times in his hands, and exercises sovereign rule over the nations as he pleases.

But while I do believe that Brexit is crucial, it will not be the turning-point of our present spiritual battle against the forces of evil unless, as a nation, we repent of the heinous sin of turning our back on the God who brought us through the dark years of the 1940s, in answer to the prayers of people all over the country who queued outside churches to seek him for deliverance (see also Isaiah 59:13).

As the great Prophet urges us, “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near” (Isa 55:6).

Postscript

On another positive note, a Doncaster primary school used for polling purposes nevertheless went ahead with an assembly in which I took part (in a second hall) declaring the power of the Gospel – the real need of the nation - to hundreds of children!

How will God deal with Britain?

An incredible battle is raging over Britain. It is raging in the heavenlies above, and on the earth below, where it is centred upon our Parliament. Our MPs are in total disarray, fighting each other and not understanding the battle. Few of them realise that they are being driven by the powers of darkness intent on destroying this great nation that has turned its back upon God and despised its spiritual heritage.

The battle in the House of Commons is being fought between those who want to see Britain free from the European Union and those who want to see Britain continue enslaved to the rules and regulations of Brussels. It is as simple as that. But most of our MPs have no understanding of spiritual warfare and do not perceive the forces of darkness that are moving them like pawns on a chess board, driving them to destruction.

Come Out and Be Separate

The Prime Minister appears to have panicked under pressure and turned to Jeremy Corbyn, a notorious Marxist atheist, as her saviour, in a last-ditch attempt to get her deal approved by Parliament. As a professed Christian, has she never read the warnings in Scripture about being unequally yoked with unbelievers? The teaching of Paul could not be clearer:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).

In verse 17 Paul urges “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.” This is an instruction that all our MPs should take to heart in dealing with Brexit. Undoubtedly, the best outcome for Britain and the most feared outcome for the EU is that we leave next Friday without a deal. But if that cannot be achieved, provided we leave with any kind of deal that leaves us free to make changes in the future, that would be better than a long delay with the possibility of never getting away at all, which is the objective of the majority in our present House of Commons.

Undoubtedly, the best outcome for Britain and the most feared outcome for the EU is that we leave next Friday without a deal.

Egypt…or Babylon?

A number of commentators, including prominent politicians, have compared the present situation with the time of Moses and the release of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. But this is not the best biblical analogy, because we are not having to fight the EU for our freedom, as Moses fought Pharaoh. We are having to fight the morally corrupt and spiritually blind Members of our own Parliament, who do not understand the issues that face them.

A more instructive biblical analogy is the release of the faithful remnant of Israel and Judah from Babylon in 538 BC. Babylon had fallen to the Persians whose Emperor, Cyrus, issued a decree freeing all political prisoners. The people of Israel were free to return to the land of their forefathers, to rebuild Jerusalem and to restore the shattered economy, social structure, and towns and villages across the land.

A wonderful new opportunity was presented to Israel if they could face the one-thousand-mile trek across difficult country and undertake the great task of reconstruction and renewal. For many who had become comfortable in exile, the offer of freedom in the Promised Land was rejected for the fleshpots of Babylon. They were too comfortable and prosperous to risk embarking on an uncertain future.

But for those who had faith and vision and were prepared to put their trust in God, a wonderful new opportunity was presented. They obeyed the call to come out from Babylon and totally put their trust in God for the future. They were the faithful remnant who God would use to rebuild Jerusalem and prepare the way for Messiah and the coming Kingdom.

Yes, they had lots of hardships to face and difficulties to endure in the rebuilding of Jerusalem and its surrounding walls, but they had a shared vision which enabled them to work together, and God blessed their labours - especially when they rebuilt the Temple in the heart of the city and re-emphasised their faith in God at the centre of national life.

A more instructive biblical analogy than the Exodus is the release of the faithful remnant of Israel and Judah from Babylon in 538 BC.

Calling on God

This is surely a biblical parable for us today caught up in the conflict of Brexit with an unbelieving Parliament leading the nation.

The great unknown at the moment is precisely how God will deal with Britain. We know that judgment is thoroughly deserved for the way we have rejected our spiritual heritage, squandered the responsibilities we had for bringing the light of the Gospel to more than a third of the world’s population in the great Empire to which God entrusted us, and in the terrible way that we reneged on our promises to Israel - as Charles Gardner shows elsewhere in this week's issue of Prophecy Today.

Despite deserved judgment, we know that our God is loving and merciful – more ready to forgive than we are to repent. And we know that the Referendum result was a gracious allowance from God to give us a greater opportunity to return to him. Now is the time to petition God for his help to overcome the powers of darkness that are trying to sweep Britain into an abyss of chaos, which will inevitably result if we fail to leave the European Union within the next few weeks.

We ask all Bible-believing Christians to call upon the Lord for his mercy and intervention in what appears to be a hopeless situation. Let all the prayer groups and intercessors throughout the land acknowledge the plight of the nation before the throne of grace and call upon God for an outpouring of his power, which is the only means of saving Britain from the folly of its own leaders.

In the current confusion - our only hope is in God!

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.