Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Then the Lord spoke to me again and asked, “What do you see now?” And I replied, “I see a pot of boiling water, spilling from the north.” “Yes,” the Lord said, “for terror from the north will boil out on the people of this land. Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem. I, the Lord, have spoken! “They will set their thrones at the gates of the city. They will attack its walls and all the other towns of Judah. I will pronounce judgment on my people for all their evil—for deserting me and burning incense to other gods. Yes, they worship idols made with their own hands! “Get up and prepare for action. Go out and tell them everything I tell you to say. Do not be afraid of them, or I will make you look foolish in front of them. For see, today I have made you strong like a fortified city that cannot be captured, like an iron pillar or a bronze wall. You will stand against the whole land—the kings, officials, priests, and people of Judah. They will fight you, but they will fail. For I am with you, and I will take care of you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Jeremiah 1:13-19(NLT)
Samaria and Judah, the two
kingdoms of Israel in the 8th century (B.C.) were an “America kind
of place”. I characterize Israel that
way because theirs was an affluent and powerful dynasty, rich in gold and
possessions, with a reputation of being God’s people, respected and feared
by their enemies. It was an era where
the Hebrew children of Yahweh knew they had the world by the tail!
Enter Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah,
and all the other iah’s, and in 724BC the northern kingdom was conquered and
taken into captivity by the Assyrians.
Roughly one hundred years later Jeremiah pointed back to the North and
said: Do you remember your northern
neighbors? Do you not realize the same
thing will come down on your heads…for the same reason…you’ve ignored God, and He
will judge you for that? Get ready; the
pot is about to boil!
It didn’t happen that same day
Jeremiah preached his sermon…but 40 years later the next generation (in 587BC) experienced
Babylonian fury, and the fall of the southern kingdom. The pot boiled over…just like Jeremiah warned
it would!
Many people shake their heads thinking
how
unfortunate, bad luck for Israel.
Friends, look closely at the words which GOD had spoken
about how this was going to happen:
Listen! I am calling the armies of the kingdoms of the north to come to Jerusalem. I, the Lord, have spoken! Jeremiah 1:15(NLT)
This was not bad luck or
misfortune…this was God making good on His promise. And when the Babylonians and Assyrians swept
over the lands God had given to His people, the devastation was overwhelming;
just ask the Psalmist:
Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept as we thought of Jerusalem. We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.
Psalm 137:1-2(NLT)
There were no goose bumps for the
national anthem singing in Israel, no parades for the victorious warriors
returning home. The good life in the fast
lane was history, along with fortunes, power, and world-class
prestige. Israel, born out of slavery to
a land of milk and honey, was back where they started, slaves to the Arab world
once again. The state of the union
address in those days was written with a black pen, on black paper, under a
black cloud, picturing a bleak future.
God had spoken; then God acted, and those who refused to serve God,
those who had rejected God, were rejected by God.
And I’m not certain our nation,
born out of the struggle for freedom from religious persecution and the heavy
hand of oppressors of a ruthless British Empire, has learned that lesson any
more than those who received that lesson from Moses, the one who heard it
directly from a burning bush.
For You Today
If there is any truth to the
Scripture, and the fact that history repeats, and that God should be obeyed,
not ignored, and if we love our children, and our children’s children, it is
time for all people, especially America, to return to obeying and honoring God
with our lives, not just our lips.
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