09/26/2020 – Day 125 – Jeremiah 27 – 31 – The 10 Days of Awe, the Return – all connected by His grace this day!
“A small man can see when it is growing dark… but he cannot see beyond the darkness. He does not know how to put a sunbeam into his picture. A great man pierces the darkness and sees the glory of a hidden dawn.” Charles Jefferson (Jimmy note: God is great. It is only through the grace of God that a man’s greatness shows through. Example: Solomon’s prayer for wisdom)
I hope many of you were with us today as we prayed with brothers and sisters at the national mall in D.C. – a day of global and national prayer and repentence. Little did I realize the Lord’s unfathomable patchwork quilt of connectivity to His truth: The Jewish 10 days of Awe / TheReturn event (thereturn.org) / and our Jeremiah study this day. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Let me start with the 10 days of Awe festival, one of seven Jewish festivals – “Feasts for the Lord” instituted by God for the children of Israel in Leviticus 23. This 10 days of awe is enveloped between the Feast of the Trumpets in the seventh month of the 1st day, and Rosh Hashanah – 09/19/2020, the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur – The Day of Atonement, the holiest of days – 09/28/2020.
Some might say: “Jim, those festivals are Jewish.” I would answer that by saying that Jew and Gentile are going to be united as one, in the body of Christ. Are y’all taking note of the geometric growth in just the past few years of Messianic Jewish Rabbis proclaiming the Good News of Yeshua (Jesus) the Christ! Take a look at 2 Timothy 3:16 – All scripture is God-breathed! These festivals are a foreshadowing of Yeshua, redemption, His eternal Kingdom.
What a day it has been! Wow!: Soli Deo Gloria! For those that did not hear the simulcast today, I encourage everybody to just listen to this day that gave glory to God. My hope is we will be able to procure recordings of the full 12 hours or so.
I will prayerfully work diligently through tomorrow (Sunday, the 27th) in bringing this all together. We were born to serve our Lord in this time!, just as Jeremiah was “formed”; “sanctified”; and, “ordained” by Him (Jeremiah 1:5) to serve in the midst of the destruction of Judah, Jerusalem and the temple. It is not about the messenger, but we are blessed by Him to walk with Him to fulfill His sovereign will for His kingdom. His ominpotence and Holiness have no bounds. How unfathomably sublime is that?
Stay tuned. Always connected through prayer and by His grace!
Sunday morning – the morning after the sacred assembly on the national mall yesterday:
https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/jeremiah/the-potter-and-the-clay
Yesterday, Jonathan Cahn smashed the vessel on the stage, just as God instructed Jeremiah to do, when the people refused to turn their hearts back to him. I have attached Ray Stedman’s article on this sublime analogy of the potter and the clay, a review for us back to Jeremiah 18 & 19. I hope to play his presentation again, as well as other messengers, but if I heard right, I think he noted that it was 19 years from the day of “shakings” to the destruction of Israel 19 years later . Likewise, it was 19 years from our day of “shakings” on 09/11/2001 to where we stand today.
Through Jeremiah, God tells the people to the very end that yet they still repent and call His name, he will heal their land. But they refuse, and he says: “Enough, thy will be done!”. And so it is with us today in America. But, our mission is not over regardless. It is not about Donald Trump, or anyone else in Washington. We need to be messengers that turn hearts to almighty God. The same urgent message needs to go out to future Christian brothers and sisters in the case where evil prevails, with the minions of Satan prevailing through the horrid face of cultural marxism. Did Jeremiah give up? I think we need to only look at chapters 19 to the end of the book for that answer. How much support did he have? If God is for us, who can be against us? No?
Ok, let’s look another analogy that repeats through these last days for the southern kingdom of Judah, the symbol of the bonds and the yokes. In chapter 27, God instructs Jeremiah to construct bonds and yokes, and to place them in the hands of kings through messengers. The evil minions got the word for in chapter 28, Hannaniah breaks the wooden yoke off of Jeremiah’s neck in the presence of “all the people”. And then in verse 11 proclaims: “I will break the yoke of the Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.” Here we go again! : “Not us, we are the people of the covenant, the children of Abraham”. Jeremiah replies to him that the Lord would cast him from the face of the earth that year, and so it was.
And check this out from “Be Decisive” by Ken Baugh: “The message to Hananiah was both national and personal. As far as the nation was concerned, because they would follow his deceptive counsel, an iron yoke would replace the wooden yoke (see Dueteronomy 28:48). The nations would not escape, Nebuchadnezzar would enslave them. It’s always the case that that when we reject the light yoke of God’s will, we end up wearing a heavier yoke of God’s will , we end up wearing a heavier yoke of our own making. The personal message was that the false prophet would die before the year was up, and two months later, he did (Jer 28:1,17) But even this striking event didn’t awaken the hearts of the people, for they were bent on doing evil. “
As Jonathan Cahn pointed out yesterday, 911 was a shaking event for us. And , there was a call for spiritual renewal, but it fizzled out quickly, did it not?
And how about from today? How would we respond if God sent us prophets that told us we should now submit to the yoke of China, post- disintegration of “America”? We are talking pagans , just as was the case of Babylon. I don’t think China would respond either to the burning of bibles by the minions of the devil in Portland. Btw, Where is the righteous anger in this “christian” nation of ours? I haven’t even heard it from the pulpits. But on the other hand, I can’t see China standing idly by as mobs perpetrate violence against police officers and destruction of property on a mass scale.
The people of the exile to Babylon were called to be fruitful and multiply. They were called to “witness”. And take note, that Jeremiah prophesied to them that God would bring them back to the promised land in 70 years. And so it was with the decree of Cyrus, with the Persians having disposed of the Babylonians, to return to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem through the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra. And that decree to the birth of our Messiah ran 70 weeks of years (490 years calculated) as prophesied in Daniel. The people needed God’s grace for the vision to see beyond the span of their lifetime, and so do we. As I have noted let’s put aside the idea of plopping our rear ends down on the sofa as we wait for the rapture. God forbid!
Chapter 29 brings us to Jeremiah’s letters to the captives in Babylon. As verse two notes, the first wave of captives includes : ‘Jeconiah the kings, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the craftsmen, and the smiths’ During this period there wasn’t a pony express but there were numerous runners that would send messages back and forth between Babylon and Jerusalem. So Jeremiah is sending his flock letters of encouragement. My book aptly points out: “One of the first steps in turning tragedy into triumph is to accept the situation courageously and put ourselves into the hands of a loving God, who makes no mistakes.”
I oftentimes think of a classic example of a “good soldier”: I suspect that many soldiers on D-Day at Omaha beach were hit sharply with the stark reality, spoken in worldly terms: “I don’t stand a dog’s chance in hell.” And there is no distinction for those who did in fact die on the beach or for those who were miraculously delivered by God, for they were all heros. Hopefully, the later group finished strong as well. Our freedom comes from their sacrifices.
And yes, that brings us to victory by God’s grace!: Chapter 30 – Restoration of Israel and Judah and Chapter 31 – The Remnant of Israel Saved. These two chapters are the first two of four called: “The Book of Consolation.” As was noted yesterday in the sacred gathering in D.C. and also in my book:
” ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘ plans to give you hope and a future.’ (29:11)”
And look in 30:7 – 9: “For it shall come to pass I that day,” Says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds; Foreignors shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord their God, And David their king, Whom I will raise up for them.” (Yeshua (Jesus the Christ) – resurrection!) “
My book, “Be Decisive” notes: “
The promise in 30:9 applies to the future kingdom age, following the tribulation, when the Messiah shall reign over his people. You find corresponding promises in 23:5 and 33: 14-26. When Jesus was here on earth, His people said, ‘ We will not have this man to reign over us’ (Luke 9:14), but in that day, they will recognize their Messiah-King and welcome Him (Zechariah 12:8 – 14:21).”
And check this out, as it goes further in verse 30:21: “.. But here is a suprising revelation: Not only will the Messiah be their King, but He will also be their Priest! ‘ Then I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach Me’ (v 21 NKJV). This is a language that applies especially to the Jewish high priest, who alone entered the Holy of Holies on the on the annual day of Atonement (Lev. 16) Only Jesus Christ, who is both King and Priest (Hebrews 7-8), can quality to fulfill this prophecy.”
And we conclude our reading in session six of ten with 31: 31 – 39: “A New Covenant”. It is new in that as noted in verse 33 that God will write it on our hearts. And as noted in my book commentary aid: “for the heart of every problem is the problem of the heart.” (2 Corinthians 3; Ezekiel 11: 19-20; 18:31; 36: 26 – 27) The old covenant could direct our conduct but it didn’t change our character.
So , I will conclude with our connective tie in between 1) this scripture reading assigned yesterday (saturday, the 26th); the sacred assembly in D.C. – call to global repentance and prayer; and, the day of atonement Yom Kippur , concluding the 10 days of awe tomorrow, Monday, September 28th.
From “Be Decisive” once again: “Jewish history is punctuated with a number of covenant renewals that brought temporary blessings but didn’t change the hearts of the people. The book of Deuteronomy records a renewal of the covenant under Moses, before people entered the Promised Land. In addition, before he died, Joshua led the people in reaffirming the covenant (Joshua 23 -24). Samual called the nation to renew the vows to God (1 Samuel 12), and both Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29 -31) and Josiah (2 Chronicles 34 -35) inspired great days of “revival” as they led the people back to God’s law.
The fact that blessings didn’t last is not argument against times of revival and refreshing. When somebody told Billy Sunday that revivals weren’t necessary because they didn’t last, the evangelist replied,
“A bath doesn’t last, but it’s good to have one ocassionally.”
A nation that is built on spiritual and moral principles must have frequent times of renewal or the foundations will crumble.”
Soli Deo Gloria!; as we pick it up next Saturday with session seven of ten – Chapters 32 through 36. In another parting note of humor, I point to Robert Earl Keen’s song: “The road goes on forever, and the party never ends.” (God has a perfect sense of humor.)
and a p.s. sidebar note on our “Christian remnant” since the title of my chapter 31 is ‘The Remnant of Israel Saved”: In the sacred assembly yesterday, Kevin Jessip noted that only 3% of American colonists actually fought for Independence, the “black robe” brigade. And 47% of colonists fought against us by siding with the British. And I would add once again, the lesson of God’s remnant that the Lord winnowed down to a valiant three hundred from a starting number of 32,000 before their decisive victory against the Midianites. (Judges 7) “If God is for us, who can be against us?”