Lamentations – Lam 1:1-22 Part 1, The Lord was as an enemy

The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation – (Lam 2:5)

[Study Aired August 12, 2023]

The Lord’s direct juxtaposition of marital intimacies with positive and negative spiritual associations is undeniable. It is a major, if not the underpinning theme of the Bible, that sub-themes radiate. Marriage’s beautifully complementing sexuality is a temporary God-given aberration of the spirit of God, designed in mankind to reflect righteous and unrighteous spiritual connections. It all points to our deepest honor and respect for the order and belief in God’s headship.

At the end of the One Thousand-Year reign with the rod of iron, our sexuality is redundant ~ finished  with its assignment (Gal 3:15-28)

Every study’s purposeful and hopeful outcome is the ‘terrible blue crystal’ clarity. It started in Eden with nakedness and concludes with us clothed in lightning-white clothing.

Mat 28:3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: 

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The book of Lamentations results from fickle Israel being against her Husband ever since leaving Egypt. When life is joyful and rich, we are powerfully inclined to celebrate with friends, and opposite-sex friends are always a part of the mix, or a spouse particularly offers greater righteous sensual celebrations. Unrighteous celebrations resulted in the “daughter of Judah” mournfully sitting alone, a widow. Yet, she always pleases herself to ‘snuff up the wind in her season’ (Jer 2:24) to reclaim the Lord’s name to console her lamentations. So, the dissolute and bitter cycle goes around and around until the Lord kisses us with the ‘wind’ (spirit) of His truth in the season when He pleases.

Celebration is fine if it glorifies our Husband. It results in us immersed in His breath of apples (Son 7:8).

Rom 14:6 He who regards the day regards it to the Lord; and he not regarding the day, does not regard it to the Lord. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives God thanks.

The Book of Lamentations summarises our journey of disobedience and directs us to call on the Lord’s name for deliverance. Yet this book graphically highlights our utter inability to follow our Lord without God’s spirit. The last three verses of Lamentations reflect that bewildering dilemma.

Lam 5:20 Why do You forget us forever and forsake us the length of days? 
Lam 5:21 Return us to You, O Jehovah, and we will turn; renew our days as of old,
Lam 5:22 unless You have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us. At our Lord’s table, let us give thanks and glorify him.

Perplexed, we throw up our hands and ask why He has forsaken us, then, we want to return to the riches that the flesh offered in Egypt and Babylon. Our demeanour is like King Agag coming ‘lightly’ before Samuel (1Sa 15), expecting Saul to overrule Samuel’s assurance of Agag’s death with a nod and wink for life ~ that our sins are nothing. We want to cajole the Lord’s anger into peace without our repentance.

Of course, with our Lord’s spirit within, we can conversely see those verses reflecting positively on a genuinely changed heart.

How Lonely Sits the City

Lam 1:1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! 
Lam 1:2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies. 
Lam 1:3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. 
Lam 1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. 
Lam 1:5 Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
Lam 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer. 
Lam 1:7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths. 
Lam 1:8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.
Lam 1:9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.
Lam 1:10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation. 
Lam 1:11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: see, O LORD, and consider; for I am become vile. 
Lam 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. 
Lam 1:13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. 
Lam 1:14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. 
Lam 1:15 The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress. 
Lam 1:16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. 
Lam 1:17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. 
Lam 1:18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
Lam 1:19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. 
Lam 1:20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death. 
Lam 1:21 They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. 
Lam 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. 

Interpretations:

The term “daughter of Judah” and “daughter of Zion” are one and the same; she is us who are becoming a faithful city after being harlots. Unfaithfulness is our failure to righteously walk our sexual correlations spiritually.

Isa 1:21 How has the faithful city become a harlot? It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.

Lam 1:1 How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! [Tributary H4522 –  1. gang or body of forced labourers, task-workers, labour band or gang, forced service, task-work, serfdom, tributary, tribute, levy, taskmasters, discomfited From H4549 – 1. to dissolve, melt a. to waste way 2. to faint, grow fearful 3. wasted, worthless]

The spiritually discriminating saint will know that “city” was Old Jerusalem with the odd mournful owl now roosting in her once beautiful, now decimated, stained glass arches. The echoes of lying foxes yammer in the night, the sermons long gone.

No woman is more lonely than our former Babylonian selves moaning and groaning that we are not loved as we once sat lonely, waiting for our Lord to work physical wonders for sensual joy.

Isa 13:19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
Isa 13:20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
Isa 13:21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs [hairy goat. To storm; shiver; dread] shall dance there.
Isa 13:22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons [lizards; serpents] in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city [you and me; Old Jerusalem], which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt [Babylon], where also our Lord was crucified [within].

In verse one, she becomes “as a widow”, but she doesn’t believe she is one! She doesn’t realise that His death cancelled the marriage covenant, yet she still worships the dead Christ through her dead works of the flesh and doesn’t know it.

Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Luk 9:58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests [in Old Jerusalem within]; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
Luk 9:59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. 
Luk 9:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. 
Luk 9:61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. 
Luk 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Lam 1:2 She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

In August 2015, I wept sore in the night (as no doubt we all did) with tears upon my cheeks without a lover among any of my imagined friends whom I thought wanted to see the Lord’s truth; they all dealt treacherously with me and abandoned me ~ well, I abandoned them by not realising that it was the beginning of me coming out of Babylon and them rejecting my strange breath.

Job 19:15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. 
Job 19:16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. 
Job 19:17 My breath [the newness of the Lord’s word] is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. 
Job 19:18 Yea, young children [my own children unconsciously and my disappearing sins in my land] despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. 
Job 19:19  All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. 

Joh 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 
Joh 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

We can glory in those hatreds, not because we are masochistic, but because it identifies us with Christ and the world’s hatred for His commands which we follow.

Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

When we are dragged out of Babylon and look back, not lustfully but astonished for having been strongly deluded (2Th 2:1-12), our weeping turns into Shulamite joy. We escape the slavery of Sodom, Egypt and Babylon that is the old Daughter of Zion in the flesh, and in the new light of the word, take pleasure in afflictions and fiery trials that we know will build gold in the Lord’s temple.

Lam 1:3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits. 
Lam 1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

The priests of God, the Lord’s budding Elect, Judah, have gone into captivity in Christ. None of our former friends in Babylon come to ‘the Jesus’ table, His feast, to eat the true bread of life. We eat up the “little book” of which John in Revelations speaks and are given to understand its bitterness that dramatically turns into joy. All that the daughter of Judah experienced (us before being dragged to Christ) was a bitter experience of evil flesh that the new daughter, the Bride of Christ, is filled with the joy of understanding that is better than wine.

Rev 10:9 And I went to the angel and said to him, Give me the little book. And he said to me, Take it and eat it up, and it will make your belly bitter, but it will be sweet as honey in your mouth.
Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up. And it was sweet as honey in my mouth, and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was made bitter.
Rev 10:11 And he said to me, You must prophesy again before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.

The old Zion within is done mourning and lying back on her couch, waiting for her lovers to awaken her torrid desires yet remaining bewilderedly torpid. Our virgins within are tearfully afflicted, wondering why our husband in the flesh is bitter. In time, we are given to experience our spiritual Husband’s arousing kisses (Son 1:2-7). The culmination of those kisses His wife gives to her children in the chastising resurrection to judgment.

Lam 1:5 Her enemies have become as chief; her haters are at ease; for Jehovah has afflicted her for the multitude of her sins. Her children have gone, captive before the enemy.

The stolen waters of fornication are sweet until the next day when we as a woman realise our folly. In contemporary terms, we cry ‘rape’, and the next morning feel stabbed through our liver with a dart, and we now sue our cohort for his violation of our imagined purity.

Deu 22:23 If a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, 
Deu 22:24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones that they die; the girl because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall put away evil from among you. 

Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious sons, says Jehovah, who make advice, but not of Me; and who cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they add sin to sin; 
Isa 30:2 those who set out to go down to Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to take refuge in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 
Isa 30:3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt shall be your curse.

Lam 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty has departed. Her rulers have become like bucks: they find no pasture, and they have gone without strength before the pursuer.

Rachel is, in type, the “daughter of Zion” who felt her beauty had departed. Her sister, Leah, ruled humiliation over her for being barren. Leah’s ten “bucks” in Babylon waxed fat in their green pasture, not realising their food was to become moldy. Rachel, as we sometimes do, felt defeated and unloved before Leah (Babylonian family and friends), her pursuer.

Like Rachel, we impulsively strike out at our Lord for Him not validating our beauty by our measures; and imagine ourselves barren for not changing more rapidly than we expect. We easily forget that Christ is building His temple within us and awakening our love in His timing.

Gen 30:1 And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. And she said to Jacob, Give me sons, or else I will die.
Gen 30:2 And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said, Am I in God’s stead, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? 
Gen 30:3 And she said, Behold my slave woman Bilhah; go in to her, and she shall bear upon my knees, and yea, let me be built up from her, me also.

Lam 1:7 In the days of her affliction and her wandering Jerusalem remembered all her desirable things from previous days; when her people fell into the hand of the foe; and there is no ally for her. The foes saw her; they laughed at her annihilation.

As carnally expressed in the prelude, we remember our Vashti-like beauty and, too late, don’t see the coming rejection.

There will be nothing more humiliating for us to experience than to revel in our God-given beauty without bringing forth righteous children and thus miss out on the First Resurrection. Our unconverted family and friends (foes) will laugh at our disgrace. We will thus be naked, and the world will see death beneath our skirts and the desecration of our orchard, our vineyard that brought forth rotten fruit. We will not be comforted!

Mat 2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”

The following verses all speak about our fornication we didn’t reject. Like Solomon showing the Queen of Sheba all the temple treasury, it is not wise to flaunt our inheritance before family, friends and dogs.

Lam 1:8  Jerusalem has grievously sinned, therefore she has been removed. All knowing her despise her because they saw her nakedness; yea, she sighs and turns backward.
Lam 1:9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; she did not remember her end, and has gone down astoundingly. There is no comforter for her. O Jehovah, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself. 
Lam 1:10 The enemy has spread out his hand upon all her desirable things; for she has seen the nations enter her holy place, whom You commanded that they should not enter into Your congregation.
Lam 1:11 All her people sigh; they seek bread. They have given their desirable things for food to relieve the soul. See, O Jehovah, and look on me, for I have become vile.
Lam 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which is done to me, with which Jehovah has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger.
Lam 1:13 From above He has sent fire into my bones and it has laid them low. He has spread a net for my feet; He has turned me back; He has made me amazed and faint all the day.

Thankfully, our Lord does comfort us by sending fire into our bones. Our heart was a snare and net and hands like bands (Ecc 7:26) for our Lord that He has reversed, and we look back in amazement and temporarily faint at our humiliation. However, our Lord will patiently raise us up into heavenly places.

Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. 
Jas 4:10 Be humbled before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Joh 16:21 The woman has grief when she bears, because her hour has come. But when she brings forth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of the joy that a man is born into the world. 
Joh 16:22 And therefore you now have sorrow. But I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Lam 1:14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by His hand; they intertwine; they rise on my neck. He has made my strength to falter; Jehovah has delivered me into their hands. I am not able to rise up.
Lam 1:15 Jehovah has trampled all my mighty ones in my midst; He has called a gathering against me to crush my young men. Jehovah has trod the virgin daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.
Lam 1:16 For these I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who could refresh my soul is far from me. My sons are desolated because the enemy prevails.

Our bones being burned with fire and bodies trodden in the winepress until our blood runs deep unto the horse’s bridle sounds terrifying; it is terrifying to the babes in Christ. It all is part of our dragging from exile in Babylon.

Even though we are a bunch of harlots in Babylon, our coming out of her at our Lord’s hand causes Him to attribute virginity to us. Just as the faithful city becomes a harlot, she becomes a virgin.

Lam 1:17 Zion [daughter old Jerusalem] spreads forth her hands; none is comforting to me; Jehovah has commanded concerning Jacob that his enemies should be all around him; Jerusalem has become as an impure thing among them.
Lam 1:18 Jehovah is righteous, for I have rebelled against His command. I beseech you, all peoples, hear and behold my sorrow. My virgins and my young men went into exile.

The Lord’s people do get immeasurable comfort from reflecting upon our former lamentations when we return to Him with our entire heart.

Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, says Jehovah; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. 
Isa 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 
Isa 1:20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken. 

Jer 29:11 For I know the purposes which I am purposing for you, says Jehovah; purposes of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jer 29:12 Then you shall call on Me, and you shall go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 
Jer 29:13 And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 
Jer 29:14 And I will be found by you, says Jehovah; and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says Jehovah. And I will bring you again into the place from where I caused you to be exiled.

Lam 1:19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and my elders expired in the city while they sought food for them to bring back their life.

How spiritually poetically true is verse 19?! All sensual joys of the flesh deceive us to lust for more. We don’t want to consider that they are all vanity of vanities (Ecc 1:2-11) as Solomon ultimately ‘lamented’. Yet, that is the only dirty trough water (Jas 3:11-13) we had in Babylon as we dipped our sop in the blood of Christ’s death, ignorantly thinking we were saved by the letter of the law. 

Lord willing, let’s not be like Judas and Queen Vashti learning their fate too late as their inward parts dissolved. It is incredibly wise to authentically acknowledge our sins before our accusor before we mourn our house of death. Nonetheless, mourning that produces righteousness is infinitely superior to mirth in a house of revelling.

Ecc 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made better. 
Ecc 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of laughter. 
Ecc 7:5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. 

Lam 1:20 Behold, O Jehovah, for I am in trouble; my inward parts ferment; my heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled. On the outside the sword bereaves; in the house it is as death.
Lam 1:21 They hear that I sigh; there is none to comfort me. All my enemies have heard my evil; they are glad that You have done it. You will bring the day that You have called, and they shall be like me.
Lam 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before You; and do to them as You have done to me for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint. 

The initial dreadful lamenting of our humiliations matures into gladness since we are given to see the future and the Lord’s reasoning behind His tailored trials. By waiting and enduring the pain and suffering, we will look upon our inherited family, the world, in the Resurrection to Judgment with Joseph’s mixture of emotions. We will be ecstatic that the world’s children are nearing their spiritual birth, yet, no doubt, a little angry against their sin, as the Lord was against ours.

Indeed, “the Lord was as an enemy,” and he still is anytime we fall short of His commands, teaching [i.e. chastening – paideuō] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world – Tit 2:11.

Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, [scourging, chastening, rebuking] grace did much more abound:

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Amo 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!

Joh 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master does. But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Jer 36:1-16 When They Heard All The Words, They Were Afraid

[Study Aired April 17, 2022]

Jer 36:1  And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 36:2  Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
Jer 36:3  It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
Jer 36:4  Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.
Jer 36:5  And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:
Jer 36:6  Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
Jer 36:7  It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.
Jer 36:8  And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’S house.
Jer 36:9  And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.
Jer 36:10  Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house, in the ears of all the people.
Jer 36:11  When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,
Jer 36:12  Then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.
Jer 36:13  Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.
Jer 36:14  Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.
Jer 36:15  And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
Jer 36:16  Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

To give this 36^th chapter and the preceding 35^th chapter the impact the holy spirit intends them to have, we must remember that these two chapters are set in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, at least eleven years earlier that the events of chapter 34, which took in the reign of King Zedekiah and concerned the giving of liberty to their Hebrew slaves to procure the Lord’s favor against the king of Babylon.  As soon as the siege was lifted, the people of Judah and Jerusalem broke their covenant with the Lord to let their Hebrew slaves go free. These two chapters contrast the fidelity of the Rechabites to the covenant they made with their patriarch, Jonadab, to live the life of a stranger and pilgrim while living in the promised land, and to drink no wine, their fidelity is being contrasted with the infidelity of Israel in breaking their covenant with their God to set their Hebrew servants free.

Chapters 35 and 36 are inserted into the story of Judah and Jerusalem being under siege from Babylon in the days of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah to demonstrate to us just how fickle and unfaithful we are to our covenant with the Lord. We all seek His favor while under siege by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, whom the Lord uses for the very purpose of showing us our infidelity to Him and the covenant we make with Him. Judah and Jerusalem agreed to set their Hebrew servants free as commanded by Moses, and when the Lord sent the King of Egypt to help Zedekiah the King of Judah, the siege was lifted and the people of Judah and Jerusalem immediately forgot their covenant with the Lord and put their Hebrew servants back under their bondage. In doing so, they were perverting the covenant they had with the Lord into their own self-righteousness and to the agreement they had made with the king of Egypt.

This 36^th chapter of Jeremiah is set in the 4^th year of King Jehoiakim, and it is also designed to show us just how little we think of the Lord’s judgments, and how little we believe that we will be made to give an accounting of our self-righteous rebellion against the Lord and His prophets.

This is how little King Jehoiakim thought of the words of the Lord given to him and his people by the certified prophet of the Lord. It is all being reviewed before the people of Judah and Jerusalem in the middle of the siege of King Nebuchadnezzar who Jeremiah had prophesied to come against Jerusalem eleven years earlier:

Jer 36:1  And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 36:2  Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.

Jeremiah’s prophecy commenced in the 13^th year of Josiah’s 31-year reign:

2Ki 22:1  Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.

Jer 1:1  The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
Jer 1:2  To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

Both Jehoiakim and Zedekiah were sons of Josiah, and they both reigned for eleven years with an eight-month reign of Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin, also known as Jechoniah, separating their two eleven-year reigns. The events of this chapter being in “the fourth year of Jehoiakim” means there were seven more years remaining of the eleven-year reign of Jehoiakim, followed by the eight months of Jehoiachin’s reign, followed by nine years into the eleven-year reign of Zedekiah when King Zedekiah and Judah covenanted with the Lord to release their Hebrew slaves. Therefore, the events of this chapter which took place in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, were at least 16 years and 8 months earlier than the time of the siege under King Zedekiah. The warning of the Lord’s impending judgment is the same now as it was then. Instead of repentance there was anger against the Lord for His judgments:

Pro 19:19  A man of great wrath [each of us] shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
Pro 19:20  Hear counsel, and receive instruction [We are so instructed because we do not do so], that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.

Jehoiakim had been besieged and was taken captive to Babylon, yet there was no change of heart in the king or in the people. As soon as the siege was lifted, they forsook the covenant they had made with the Lord:

Jer 34:8  This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
Jer 34:9  That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
Jer 34:10  Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.
Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

It is all being done for our benefit and our admonition and to let us know how stubborn we just naturally are and how longsuffering the Lord is with us:

Jer 36:3  It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

This is exactly what will eventually be done by the Lord as He Himself reveals to us in these incredibly comforting words:

Jer 33:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, [Under King Zedekiah]
Jer 33:2  Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name;
Jer 33:3  Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

What we just naturally “knowest not” is that all the Lord’s chastening and scourging in our lives is the fiery trials which He has determined are essential to our deliverance from our unfaithful, rebellious and self-righteous ways.

Jer 33:4  For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the mounts, and by the sword;
Jer 33:5  They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men, [the ‘men’ whose doctrines operate as the soldiers of our old man] whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid my face from this city.
Jer 33:6  Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
Jer 33:7  And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
Jer 33:8  And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.
Jer 33:9  And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it.

Those words of the Lord to King Zedekiah back in chapter 33 give us the comfort and encouragement we must have to endure the fiery trials that bring us to our wits’ end before the Lord will bring us to our desired haven of rest in Him (Psa 107:21-31).

Before the Lord can give us His rest, we must first be hated of all men and of the leaders of the Lord’s own people, and be brought to our wits’ end, as was Jeremiah:

Jer 12:6  For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have dealt treacherously with thee; yea, they have called a multitude after thee: believe them not, though they speak fair words unto thee.

Jer 20:7  O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
Jer 20:8  For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
Jer 20:9  Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Just as the Lord was so hated by the leaders of “Jewry” that He could not go up to Jerusalem for a season, so it was with Jeremiah. Nevertheless the Lord’s Word was not ‘shut up’:

Jer 36:4  Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.
Jer 36:5  And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:

We are not told why Jeremiah could not go to the house of the Lord in the days of King Jehoiakim, but it was not because he was in prison as he was under King Zedekiah. We know this is so because we are told later in this same chapter:

Jer 36:26  But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet: but the LORD hid them.

Nevertheless, we are told that Jeremiah was “shut up [and could] not go into the house of the Lord” at that time, but nothing can restrain the Lord’s words.

Paul himself was in prison when he wrote these words:

2Ti 2:9  Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

Jer 36:6  Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD’S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.
Jer 36:7  It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.

The most unpopular thing on this earth is the wrath of God. The lack of appreciation for the wrath of God comes from the marred condition of our “vessel of clay” and its corruptible composition.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made [Hebrew: is making] of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made [Hebrew: is making] it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood [earthen vessel of clay] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

The plan and purpose of God is not depending on anything we do on our own. The will of God does not depend upon, nor does He struggle against, our fabled “free will”. A will that is free from the sovereign hand of God is a mere illusion of our minds. Such an illusion the scriptures call “strong delusion”:

2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The Lord’s words will not be silenced:

Jer 36:8  And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’S house.
Jer 36:9  And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.

Here is this ninth verse in the Proper Names Bible:

Jer 36:9 and it came to pass in the fifth year of (Jehovah establishes – Jehoiakim) the son of (sustained by Jehovah – Josiah) king of (praised – Judah), in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the lord to all the people in (founded in peace – Jerusalem), and to all the people that came from the cities of (praised – Judah) unto (founded in peace – Jerusalem).

I am reading the meaning of each of these names because the exact opposite of their intended definition is what is actually taking place at this time of the Lord’s judgment upon His people. Jehoiakim at this time is not being ‘established by the Lord’. Instead, he is being dethroned by the Lord and is carried away captive to Babylon. Judah at this stage, is doing nothing for which to be ‘praised’, and Jerusalem is certainly not at ‘peace’. Both are being besieged by the king of Babylon.

King Josiah himself was sustained by the Lord until he was no longer ‘sustained by Jehovah’. Instead, He died in battle because “he hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God”, which is what we are told:

2Ch 35:20  After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.
2Ch 35:21  But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
2Ch 35:22  Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
2Ch 35:23  And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.
2Ch 35:24  His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
2Ch 35:25  And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.

King Josiah, whose name means ‘established by Jehovah’, had not inquired of the Lord before going to battle against the king of Egypt, and the Lord refused to establish Josiah’s presumptuous ways.

It is instructive that this happened after King Josiah “had prepared the temple”. He had become self-confident and failed to enquire of the Lord before going to battle against the King of Egypt.

2Ch 35:20  After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.

This ‘fast’ proclaimed by King Jehoiakim, at which Baruch was to read the words from the mouth of Jeremiah, is not the day of Atonement, which is the tenth day of the seventh month. This is an additional fast which Jehoiakim called in an attempt to earn the Lord’s favor absent of any acknowledgment of Jeremiah as the Lord’s certified prophet. King Jehoiakim was not calling on the people to acknowledge their transgression. This fast was called without any repentance for their disobedience and their self-righteous idols of their hearts. This is all written for our admonition to tell us we cannot just lean to our own understanding, ignore the Lord’s words by His prophets, and continue in our sins and expect the Lord to answer our cries for His help in our time of trouble. It was at this point the Lord had Baruch, via “the mouth of Jeremiah”, give His people a piece of His mind concerning their presumptuous, self-righteous, rebellious and adulterous ways:

Jer 36:10  Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the LORD’S house, in the ears of all the people.

“All the people” means all the people who were there to hear the words Baruch read from the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet. It was enough people to share what they had heard with their families and friends who were not there. It was enough that it all got back to the king, and it was enough to be considered as a witness against the whole nation.

Jer 36:11  When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD,
Jer 36:12  Then he went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber: and, lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

These are the same ‘princes’ who rescued Jeremiah from the priests and from the prophets back in chapter 26 which is set at the same time during the reign of King Jehoiakim:

Jer 26:11  Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.
Jer 26:12  Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.
Jer 26:13  Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
Jer 26:14 As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you.
Jer 26:15  But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.
Jer 26:16  Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.

All of this occurred fifteen or sixteen years before the siege of Jerusalem under King Zedekiah. It is all being rehearsed in chapters 35 and 36 to show us just how quickly we all just naturally do what is convenient, rather than what is the principled thing to do. It is so easy under certain circumstances for all of us to conveniently forget and ignore our own covenant with the Lord and do what is the easiest most physically profitable thing to do. Judah and Jerusalem hypocritically went back on their covenant to give liberty to their Hebrew servants after the Lord lifted the Babylonian siege, and the Lord is informing us of what happens when we do that to Him:

Jer 36:13  Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.
Jer 36:14  Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, unto Baruch, saying, Take in thine hand the roll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Baruch the son of Neriah took the roll in his hand, and came unto them.

The Lord patiently warns us time and again of the fruit of our ways and of His chastening wrath against our rebellious, self-righteous old man. He is so patient that when He lifts His siege against us, we tend to think He will never deal with or punish us for our infidelity. These are His own words:

Mat 24:45  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?
Mat 24:46  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Mat 24:47  Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
Mat 24:48  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
Mat 24:49  And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
Mat 24:50  The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
Mat 24:51  And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The Lord inspired Peter to give us the same message in these words:

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

That is the essence of all the warnings the Lord gave Israel and Samaria, and Judah and Jerusalem for many decades before He took them out of their inheritance. That is the message of the words of Jeremiah to the leaders and the people of His day, and that is the exact same message for us today:

Jer 36:15  And they said unto him, Sit down now, and read it in our ears. So Baruch read it in their ears.
Jer 36:16  Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king [Jehoiakim] of all these words.

Here is how the Lord begins this prophecy of Jeremiah concerning you and me, His own, blinded, and apostate people:

Jer 1:1  The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: [Remember for a future study that Jeremiah is from Anathoth in Benjamin]
Jer 1:2  To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
Jer 1:3  It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Jer 1:4  Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 1:5  Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jer 1:6  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
Jer 1:7  But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
Jer 1:8  Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
Jer 1:9  Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Jer 1:10  See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
Jer 1:11  Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.
Jer 1:12  Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
Jer 1:13  And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north.
Jer 1:14  Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer 1:15  For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.
Jer 1:16  And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands. [False doctrines]
Jer 1:17  Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.
Jer 1:18  For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. [Inwardly and outwardly]
Jer 1:19  And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee.

This promise is repeated in the epistle to the Romans:

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is what we are told about our old man in the next chapter of Jeremiah:

Jer 2:26  As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,

‘Ashamed when [we] are found’ refers to being afraid of being exposed for our lying false doctrines which demonstrate our infidelity to our Lord and His doctrines, and having our self-righteous hypocrisy exposed for all to see.

We are all at first believers in the lies of their own hearts. We all first justify our weakness and our hypocrisy.

Chapter 35, contrasting the faithfulness of the Rechabites against the infidelity of Judah and Jerusalem, and chapter 36, revealing the rebellion of our old man against the impending judgments of the Lord, are inserted at this point in the reign of King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, to remind us of the character and composition of these “corruptible… vessels of clay” (Jer 18:4, 1Co 15:50).

That hypocritical, self-righteous spirit of rebellion is within every one of us, and that is what we have now rejected. We are still rejecting that spirit daily only because we have been granted faith that the day is coming when all those lies which were within us will be revealed for what they are. It is faith in the Truth that today is our present day of judgment which strengthens us to endure to the end of this age in great anticipation of the incomparable rewards of being faithful to the Lord and His doctrines.

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature [all men of all time] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Here is just how critical faith in the Lord’s word is to our salvation:

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. [Our gift from God]

I thank and praise the Lord for the faith He has placed within each of you and in me. I am persuaded that He will keep each of us faithful until the end of our struggles and that He will finish the work He has begun in these vessels of clay.

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Psa 118:27  God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light [The Truth, which is]: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The princes who saved Jeremiah are like Jonathan, the son of King Saul, a prince who helped to save David. The Lord hides us from evil until the storm passes, and He has placed His assets in the right position to preserve us and keep us safe even in the most adverse circumstances. Our faith will be tried, and it is that ‘trial of [our] faith” which makes it so precious to our Lord:

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

May all the ‘princes’ within each of us be afraid of the sure judgments of our Lord:

Jer 36:16  Now it came to pass, when they [the princes] had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and other, and said unto Baruch, We will surely tell the king of all these words.

Next week we will see that Jehoiakim, the symbol of the man of sin within us, does not fear the Word of the Lord, which assures us of His impending judgments upon our rebellious kingdom within and without.

[Study Aired March 27, 2020]

Jer 34:1  The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying,
Jer 34:2  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
Jer 34:3  And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
Jer 34:4  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:
Jer 34:5  But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.
Jer 34:6  Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
Jer 34:7  When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah.
Jer 34:8  This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
Jer 34:9  That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
Jer 34:10  Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.
Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

The first four verses of our study today tell us of the fate of our old man. His fate is to die as a blind man in Babylon being lamented by those who honor him.

Jer 34:1  The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying,
Jer 34:2  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
Jer 34:3  And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
Jer 34:4  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:

That is the fate our old man, and this is what happened to King Zedekiah:

Jer 39:2  And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up.
Jer 39:3  And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Jer 39:4  And it came to pass, that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them, and all the men of war, then they fled, and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls: and he went out the way of the plain.
Jer 39:5  But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.
Jer 39:6  Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
Jer 39:7  Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.
Jer 39:8  And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house, and the houses of the people, with fire, and brake down the walls of Jerusalem.

Look once more at what the Lord told Jeremiah to tell King Zedekiah of his fate:

Jer 34:2  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
Jer 34:3  And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
Jer 34:4  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:

“Thou shalt not die by the sword” is not a positive pronouncement of the Lord’s love and mercy. Whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges (Heb 12:6). Whom the Lord loves, as He loved King David, He tells him “the sword shall not depart from thy house”:

2Sa 12:10  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

King David in scripture, with all his faults, typifies our new man who is “a man after mine own heart” as the Lord speaks of King David.

Act 13:21  And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.
Act 13:22  And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

King Saul and King Zedekiah both typify our old man who at first loves the Lord, but then loses that love, and typifying our own flesh, are not given to inherit the kingdom of God.

King Zedekiah would no doubt have preferred to have died by the sword before having to watch all his own sons, all the princes of Judah, and all his closest associates and friends, “all the nobles of Judah” be slain before his eyes, just before having his “eyes… put out” and carried away alive to Babylon. Everything Jeremiah prophesied came to pass, and more:

Jer 39:6  Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah in Riblah before his eyes: also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.
Jer 39:7  Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

Let us compare all these words about the “king of Babylon… and all the kingdoms of the earth…” who are fighting against God’s unfaithful wife, Judah, and Jerusalem, with the spiritual application of these words in:

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and  sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Revelation 14 makes clear that even the Lord’s elect must endure the torment in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, [“all men” do (Rev 13:16)]
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond [“all” inclusive], to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Remember how the Lord looks upon King Nebuchadnezzar:

Jer 27:6  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

As ‘the Lord’s servant’, Nebuchadnezzar’s judgment upon Zedekiah signifies the Lord’s judgment upon our own old man. It is we who [Isa 40:1-3 and Rev 14:9-12] “receive double” at the Lord’s hand for robbing Him of our worship, and it is our own old man whose “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God”, and it is he, our old man, who receives double at the Lord’s hand for all his iniquities and sins:

Exo 22:4  If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox, or ass, or sheep; he shall restore double.

Isa 40:1  Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Isa 40:2  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.
Isa 40:3  The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Mal 3:9  Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

It is our judgment in “this present time” (Rom 8:18) which ‘prepares the way for the Lord’ to establish His “house”, His kingdom within us (1Pe 4:17). When we refuse His residence and His dominion over us, we are robbing Him of His rightful claim upon the throne of our hearts and minds because we are all “bought with a price”.

Gen 47:23  Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
Gen 47:24  And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.
Gen 47:25  And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.
Gen 47:26  And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh’s.

1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1Co 7:23  Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

Compare the spirit of the seventh verse of Revelation 18 with these words which concern the Lord’s own people:

Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Compared with:

Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and  sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Those two verses are addressed to the same ‘whore’, and they give the Lord the occasion He is seeking to give us the same dire warning Jeremiah gives King Zedekiah:

Jer 38:17  Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:

Those are the same words the Lord uses in speaking with us via “the church of the Laodiceans”:

Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and  that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten [in “this present time” (Rom 8:18 and 1Pe 4:17)]: be zealous therefore, and repent.

There are two points which must be seen and understood if we are to understand who “Babylon the great” is. The first point is the fact that “her fornication is with the kings of the “earth”, and it is “the earth” which “is waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies”. If we are granted the gift of comparing spiritual things with spiritual (1Co 2:13-14), then we will know that the ‘earth’ signifies spiritual “Judah and Jerusalem”, the Lord’s own unfaithful wife, as Jeremiah has already revealed:

Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Speaking to the same people in this same 22^nd chapter of Jeremiah, Judah and Jerusalem are addressed as:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

It is few indeed who understand that it is “the earth” which stands over against and in opposition to the heavens. The opposite of ‘heaven’ in scripture is not ‘hell’ as so many suppose. Rather the opposite of heaven is the earth. It is fewer still who are given to see and understand that “Judah and Jerusalem” are the great whore whose ‘fornication and delicacies have enriched “all nations… and the kings of the earth” (Rev 18:3).

This is the fate of our self-righteous, iniquitous, rebellious, adulterous old man who is robbing Christ of His throne which is in our hearts and our minds:

Jer 34:5  But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.

Here is the New Testament spiritual fulfillment of these five verses which concern the fate of our rebellious, self-righteous old man:

Rev 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

“The kings of the earth” lament the destruction of our old man, and they are quick to let it be known. But the Lord has devised means to bring about both our destruction and the lamenting of the demise of our old man by those who identify with him and were made rich by him, the king of Judah and Jerusalem, who is also “become a harlot” (Isa 1:21).

The natural man will say, “Revelation 18 is a prophecy of the great harlot, and it has nothing to do with Zedekiah, the king of Judah and Jerusalem.” Nothing is further from the truth! The King of Judah and Jerusalem is labeled by the Lord himself as this very harlot of Revelation 17-18, and that very title was given to “Judah and Jerusalem” by the prophet Isaiah 70 years prior to these prophecies of Jeremiah:

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

The Lord’s covenant with His people at Sinai was a marriage covenant, and these verses demonstrate that Judah and Jerusalem had not been a faithful wife. Lest anyone miss this point Isaiah goes on to place the label of ‘harlot’ squarely upon the “kings of Judah and Jerusalem”:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Isa 1:22  Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Isa 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Nothing changed between the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah except that ‘evil men and seducers waxed worse and worse’. The only change was that Jerusalem became even more of a harlot, and that is our story for many necessarily sinful years of iniquity while we all justify our self-righteous transgressions.

Jer 34:6  Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
Jer 34:7  When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah.

Notice that the events of this chapter of Jeremiah transpire “When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem.”

This is the state of our own ecumenical Christian mind. In our appointed time, we all are fighting against ‘the Lord’s servant’ by denying that we are already in spiritual bondage to “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of this world” (Rev 17:4). We all, in our own time, deny the fact that the “time is at hand” that we must “read… hear and keep [all] the things which are written” in this prophecy of how Christ must come to be revealed within us. That confession must include the fact that we have been a harlot and not a faithful wife to our Lord.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that  hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

King Zedekiah typifies our self-righteous old man who ‘reproves, contends with, disannuls the Lord’s judgment, and condemns God to make himself righteous.’

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

The answer to the Lord’s question to Job is, “Yes we have done all those things to make ourselves righteous. We have done ‘many wonderful works’, and we did them in Christ’s name (Job 27 and 29).” We simply cannot see ourselves as an unfaithful whore, and yet it is of this very whore within us that the Lord speaks these words:

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity [self-righteousness (Eze 33:13)].

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

Acknowledging our infidelity to our spiritual Husband is integral to our salvation. Christ Himself was “called… out of Egypt” and confessed that even His flesh was not ‘good’:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

Mar 10:18  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Jer 34:8  This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
Jer 34:9  That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
Jer 34:10  Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.

Our old man, signified by King Zedekiah, all his ‘good works’ notwithstanding, despises the word of the Lord by His certified prophet, Jeremiah. Yet he self-righteously “made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto [their Hebrew servants].” This was done “When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem” (Jer 34:7). Even if this were done to seek the Lord’s mercy while under siege, it was the right thing to do, and no doubt it was given Jeremiah’s approval. Indeed, the king of Egypt came up against Nebuchadnezzar and caused the Chaldeans to lift the siege for a short time, during which time the people went back on their word to their Hebrew servants.

Here is the New Testament fulfillment of this story of going back on their word to release their Hebrew slaves:

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

Releasing our “Hebrew servant” from bondage to ourselves, typifies our willingness to receive and be obedient to the things the Lord tells us to do. Christ asks us:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

This story about King Zedekiah’s covenant with the people to release their Hebrew slaves right in the midst of the siege of Jerusalem signifies that the Lord’s chastening hand has begun its work in our lives when we “anon with joy” receive His word. However, when we realize how hard things are “because of the word”, when we don’t have the services of a Hebrew slave, that trial is more than we are willing to endure, so we go back on our own word and demand the services of our Hebrew slave. It is a ‘Hebrew servant’ because it is the word or Christ and not the doctrines of men. A Hebrew slave signifies our willingness to use the Lord’s own words to serve us instead of us being obedient to the Lord’s words. We begin to twist and wrest His words to mean what we want them to mean, and Christ goes on to tell us the result of doing that. It is the very same thing that happened to Jerusalem when they refused to be obedient to the Word of the Lord by Jeremiah. Here are the very next verses in Luke 6:

Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. [(Psa 15:4) “sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not”]
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Psa 15:4  In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

When we release the bondage of our Hebrew slave, we are setting the Word of God free to show us how we are to obey Him. Setting our Hebrew servant free typifies being given the dominion over sin in our lives and being willing to bear the cross to achieve that liberty. We are now grateful to be given to “labor to enter into His rest” knowing that it is the Lord who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Php 2:12-13).

Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Part of that “example of unbelief” (Heb 4:11) was the example of Judah and Jerusalem who agreed to release their Hebrew servants but when the trials came, “because of the word”, and from having to labor without their subjugation they were offended and went back on their covenant.

“These things happened to them, and they are written for our admonition” (1Co 10:11) and this is what our Hebrew slaves do to us when we abuse them:

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

The release of our ‘manservants and maidservants’ signifies spiritually our obedience to the Lord’s words which serve and nourish and minister to us. We are all given to release those doctrines to minister to us when we first come to the Lord. Then we are all also given to ‘lose our first love’ as we twist and wrest and force the Lord’s words to cover the idols of our hearts. The idols of our hearts always accommodate the flesh of our old man and require much less labor on our part.

Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil [at the first]: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars [at the first]:
Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted [all at the first part of our walk with the Lord].
Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

When we bring our ‘servants and handmaids’ back into subjection to ourselves we are no longer being submissive to the Lord. Rather, we begin to wrap and wrest His words around the idols of our own self-righteous, iniquitous false doctrines to justify not letting them go free to serve the Lord. When our servants are free to serve the Lord, then we, too, are free from the bondage of all our false doctrines and self-righteous iniquities:

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Eze 16:18  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
Eze 16:19  My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze 16:20  Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

The Lord’s gold and silver, His broidered garments, His oil and incense, His fine flour, oil, and honey, and His sons and daughters, are one and all symbols of His doctrines and His words which we bring into bondage to our own will and to our own false doctrines. We make His words into our doctrines, and in doing so we are placing ourselves under the bondage of sin in our lives, and yet sin’s dominion comes to an end at the appointed time in the life of “every man” (Rom 6:14, 1Co 3:13-16).

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. [God’s chastening grace (Tit 2:11-12 and Heb 12:6)]

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Greetings,

I was looking for an answer to this on your website and did a search but couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I hope you don’t mind if I ask you directly (my apologies for the length of the question). One verse that has been troubling me recently is Matthew 23:37, when Jesus laments over Jerusalem. He clearly states that he ‘longed’ (or ‘desired’ or ‘willed’….depending on the translation) to gather Jerusalem’s children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but Jerusalem was not willing. A rudimentary reading of it makes it seem like Jesus’s or God’s will was thwarted, that it was Jesus’s will versus Jerusalem’s will and Jerusalem’s will won. Why did Jesus lament over something that He Himself (or God) had caused? Why give any credit to Jerusalem’s ‘will’ as having any power when God controls Jerusalem’s (and all of creation’s) will? Jesus does not appear to be lamenting over the fact that it ‘had to be this way’ or that it was an unfortunate part of The Plan but rather over the fact that Jerusalem was ‘not willing’ to cooperate, and thus Jesus’s longing was not fulfilled.

I once read about there being a duality to God’s will, in that there is His ‘desired will’ that expresses His desire or ‘wishing’ of something to happen, but He will not enforce it and lets nature take its course, so to speak, and then there is His ‘perfect will’ where He actively brings about His desired results and nothing can thwart Him.

I didn’t want to believe in that because I believe God’s will is God’s will, and if He wants something, He’s going to get it because He’s God! But throughout the Bible God echoes similar sentiments of the wishing or desiring of a different result than what ended up happening, due to mankind’s stubbornness and sin, or when He expresses regret over an outcome as though the final result was not what He intended even though He caused events to unfold as they did (such as Gen 6:6 or Sam 15:34).

If anything happens, it’s because God wills it, desires it, requires it to be so. Why then does He lament or regret as though He has no control over the final result(s)?

Any help for this question that you could provide (even pointing me in the direction of an article if you’ve already addressed this type of question) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Kind regards,

R____

Hi R____,

Thank you for your question. You are asking the same question we all ask when our eyes are opened to understand that God truly is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and that His will is not dependent upon anything mankind may or may not choose to do.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worth all things after the counsel of his own will:

The reason we fail to understand why God makes this statement and at the same time tells us “it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth” is that we do not understand that God is deliberately deceiving those who are not given to understand that Truth is only to be found in “the sum of His Word… line upon line… that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

Isa 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Isa 28:13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

The reason we cannot understand why God tells us that he is working all things after the counsel of His own will and then laments that Jerusalem does not accept His as their Messiah, is that we do not yet fully appreciate the fact that Christ is deliberately speaking in parables to keep the multitudes from understanding the mysteries of the kingdom of God and that when a prophet is deceived, it is the Lord who has deliberately deceived that prophet.

Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;

Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

So that is the Biblical answer to your question, when we consider that the sum of God’s word is Truth and that it is purposely written in a way that is line upon line… here a little and there a little…that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

The sovereign God has decided and decreed that He has deceived that prophet, and that He will now punish that prophet and those who listen to that prophet. He then tells us that He has deceived the multitudes so He can reveal Himself and His plan and purpose to but a very few who He will then use to show mercy to the many who He has deliberately deceived:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

I hope this helps you to understand why the Bible appears to contradict itself so many times concerning God saying that He repents of this or that, and why Christ lamented Israel’s blindness.

I will suggest that if you want a deeper appreciation of how to understand the Bible as the apostles understood it, that you read the article Rightly Dividing The Word at this link: Rightly Dividing the Word

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

Video Links

Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Rev 18:6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.
Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Introduction

These are words we are to “read, hear, and keep” (Rev 1:3). They are not addressed to physical Babylon in Iraq. Neither are they addressed to spiritual Babylon in physical Rome or Jerusalem. These words are addressed to “He that hath an ear” (Rev 2:7). If we are granted “ears to hear and eyes that see”, then we will want only to know ‘How will I “keep the things written therein”?’ As we are about to see, ‘Mystery Babylon The Great The Mother of Harlots, is within us as God’s own backslidden wife. As King Solomon demonstrated for us last week, in 1Ki 10, it took time for us to become the slave of all that Babylon has to offer. King Solomon, a type of us having lost our first love, had 700 wives, and 300 concubines, who were all daughters of the nations surrounding Israel. That is one thousand women, ten (the flesh) to the third power(the process of judgment), who were riding the beast, the king of Israel, a type of you and me, and their traditions were a snare to King Solomon.

1Ki 11:1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;
1Ki 11:2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
1Ki 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Christ had twice appeared to King Solomon and had made him both rich and wise. Nevertheless our Lord had somewhat against King Solomon because he had “left his first love”, his own God, and “His wives [ had] turned away his heart after other gods”. Solomon’s wives are this “great whore… sitting upon a scarlet colored best”. She is “Mother of Harlots, and abominations of the world”, and she who “sits upon [ the] many waters” of the many false doctrines and ungodly traditions which are typified by the 1000 wives and concubines of King Solomon. The apostasy of King Solomon is the Old Testament type of the overwhelming majority of Christians who had apostatized while the apostles were still alive. The apostasy of King Solomon, by the traditions of his many pagan wives, demonstrates how this world rules over us when we ought to be ruling over the land of Israel. Instead of being rulers over the land of Israel, we have placed the gods of outsiders above our God, and we are being ruled by these 1000 wives, “Babylon the Great The Mother of Harlots, and Abominations of the Earth.”
Now let’s see how our Lord judges this harlot within us. Let us notice how this harlot has the same mind as the church of Laodicea of which we all read, hear and keep at our own time. Let us also notice that these vials of God’s wrath, are called the “great and marvelous” work of God. Remember, this is all a part of the seventh vial of God’s wrath, which is being poured out upon us to destroy the beast we are, and the influence of this harlot over that beast within us.

Rev 15:1 And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

This last vial is poured out into “the air”, a type of the realm of the spirit, in which the four winds blow. So let us take on the spiritual mind of Christ, and view all seven vials as the “great and marvelous… wonderful works of God to the children of men”, which they are. That is how God sees His work of our judgment within us. Here is how Christ is judging the business of this harlot who is “sitting on many waters” within us:

Psa 107:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

The Hebrew word translated ‘great’ in verse 23, is the word ‘rab’. It is most often translated as ‘many’, as in this verse in which it first appears.

Gen 37:34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many [ Hebrew, rab] days.

So Psa 107:23 can also be translated “They that… do business in [ the] many waters… on which the whore sits”.

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

So this harlot within us is being judged and is being destroyed. But what is the outcome of it all?

Isa 40:2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.

It is through “receiving double for all of our sins”, that “our warfare is accomplished and our iniquity is pardoned”. Here is Isa 40:2 in this book of revelation.

Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

Truly these seven last plagues of God’s wrath are “great and marvelous… wonderful works to the children of men” by our God within our lives, even while “we have this treasure in earthen vessels”.

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure [ Christ] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Let us now observe how our Lord performs the great and marvelous work of judging the influence of this great harlot upon our lives.

Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

This is a wonderful work in our lives. This is what we were told at the introduction of the pouring out of the seventh vial into the air of our heavens.

Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

This, our judgment, is the greatest work God will ever do in “the earth” which is our lives. It is a work “such as was not since men were upon the earth”, and here is why that is so.

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Rev 18:6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

The power of this verse comes from the book of Isaiah which gives us the glorious outcome of having the cup which we have filled, filled to us double.

Isa 40:2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.

Let us acknowledge that it is through “receiving double for all of our sins” that “our warfare is accomplished and our iniquity is pardoned. Here is Isa 40:2 in this book of revelation.

Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

When “it is done”, we have fulfilled the seven plagues of the seven angels, have gotten the victory over the beast, and we are now worthy to stand with the overcomers upon the sea of glass mingled with fire.

Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Let us never deny the justice of our God. He will indeed “double to us all double what injustices we have fulfilled. As we have “glorified ourselves at the expense of our Lord and our brothers, so much torment and sorrow we will receive.

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

It is a false and an insidious doctrine which teaches that “mercy rejoices against judgment” contradicts “whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap”.

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, thatshall he also reap.
Jas 2:13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

In time we will come to see “Thou art the man”.

2Sa 12:4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
2Sa 12:5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
2Sa 12:6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
2Sa 12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
2Sa 12:8 And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if [ that had been] too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

We are so quick to say “He shall have judgment without mercy, that showed no mercy” while we are thinking of some other man who “had no pity”. Like King David, we are so quick to forget that it is we who are “chief of sinners” and who must “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, and we forget that it is our own house from which “the sword [ of God’s Word] will never depart” if we are blessed to that degree in this life.
So “mercy rejoices against judgment” is true, but it in no way denies the justice or the judgment of God in our lives. Our Lord, who is the Truth, puts it all in these words:

Luk 12:47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luk 12:48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

“All things come alike to all men” does not mean that the details of our experiences are all the same. What it does mean is that Christ has but one way of doing the work of His Father upon this carnal earth, and that way is “the way of the Tree of Life”. The way of Christ is the way of His Father. That being so, it is a fiery way, because our God is a consuming fire. You and I are “the earth” on which Christ has come to send the fire of His Word to purify us and to make us worthy to stand with Him on that sea of glass mingled with fire, and to make us worthy to enter into the temple in heaven.
This verse of Rev 18 is speaking to us about ourselves.

Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

It is we who have said these words in our hearts while we took comfort in the lies of this great harlot to whom we are all slaves in our own time. This harlot is the same as the church of Laodicea, because “she has said [ these same words] in her heart.

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

“Be zealous therefore, and repent”. What is it that leads us to repentance?

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Far too many Christians do not realize that “the goodness of God” is His chastening grace, as it is described for us in Psa 107.

Psa 107:8 Oh that [ men] would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Psa 107:10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
Psa 107:11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
Psa 107:12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was none to help.
Psa 107:13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
Psa 107:15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

That is what we are being told concerning the wonderful works of God when this great harlot within us “contemns the counsel of the most High” within us. Only then is this harlot within us judged, our hearts are “brought down with labor and there is none to help”. So we continue in the description of the judgment which is needed to extricate us from the clutches of this great harlot who dominates the beast we all are.

Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

“Her plagues” are the seven last plagues of chapter 16. “In one day” is a scriptural term for the short work which the Lord is working in us all as we are being judged and perfected in these vessels of clay. The “death, mourning and famine” are all accomplished through the Words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God. Babylon has been suffering a famine of the word all along; she simply has not been aware of that fact. Speaking of “the faithful city which has become a harlot”, Isaiah makes this statement.

Isa 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Isa 3:1 is the recipe for this kind of famine.

Amo 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

We will all endure this famine before we are granted to have this great harlot and her doctrines within us judged and “burned with [ the] fire” of the Word of God within us.
Here is what “the Lord God who judges her ” is doing in that judgment.

1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

The only way to avoid being “condemned with the world” is to have this harlot within us judged and destroyed by “losing our lives” in order to find life.

Mat 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Losing this life and its pleasures in the flesh is very hard on the kings within us who rule over our flesh.

Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

“The kings of the earth” are all the principalities against whom this “war in the heavens” is being waged within us. Ours is not a physical battle. Rather it is a spiritual battle which must be waged every day.

Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Eph 6:12 For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against authorities and powers, against the world- rulers of this dark night, against the spirits of evil in the heavens. (BBE)

Our warfare is “not against flesh and blood”, but it is “in the heavens”, against the principalities and powers of that realm. Only those who have fought this fight are granted to “turn to see the voice behind them” and to realize just how great is this battle, and to know just how great is the loss of this battle to “the kings of the earth” who have for so long ruled our earth, and been nourished within us by the doctrines of this great harlot. “The smoke of her burning” is a terrible loss to the kings of our flesh, who are said to “lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning”.
As our Lord has told us:

Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

What Babylon has is our life which we must lose if we hope to find it. Babylon is our way of life, in opposition to the ways and mind of our Lord. What Babylon is, is just as much a “mystery” as is the mystery of Christ being in us. Look at the contrast of these two mysteries.
Here is Babylon:

Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead [ was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Here is the end of her work and her ways within us.

Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.
Rev 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

That Babylon is God’s own fallen people is beyond question when we place these verses beside the words of our Lord concerning the church of His time.

Luk 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Luk 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen [ doth gather] her brood under [ her] wings, and ye would not!

It is, and always has been, those who believe on Christ who want to kill him.

Joh 8:30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, [ then] are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you

“The sorceries” of Babylon deceive the whole world and kill Christ within us. The mystery of Christ destroys Babylon within us and brings to us “the hope of glory”, which glory cannot be experienced while living in the pleasures of Babylon. The inward nature of this struggle is revealed in these words.

Col 1:23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and [ be] not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Col 1:25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Col 1:28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

“The gospel… which was preached to every creature under heaven” is the heavens and the creatures within us which Babylon has deceived and ruled over for so long. There are 24 verses in this 18th chapter, and they are all dedicated to demonstrating to us just how deeply Babylon has permeated our lives. It is in Babylon, that we live until she is destroyed in the day of our judgment. That day for a few is now, and the fire of that judgment is “already kindled”. It is unquenchable fire which will burn until the fuel for that fire is spent and is destroyed.

Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

We are to “keep the things written in this book” (Rev 1:3). The fact that the fiery trials of life are working in us is not some strange thing. It is rather a great and marvelous work, that the fire our Lord came to bring us is already kindled within our lives while we are yet in these clay vessels. This is “His goodness and his wonderful works to the children of men”. Oh, that we can learn to praise the Lord for this work within us.

Psa 107:1 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Psa 107:3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
Psa 107:4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
Psa 107:5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Psa 107:6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
Psa 107:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Next week we will see even more of the depths from which His goodness and His wonderful works have delivered us out of the wilderness that is our journey in Babylon, and we will see just how much our old man has lost. What we will see is that Babylon is filled with every tradition and way that is valuable to the natural man, as well as the very building materials with which we are told to build upon the foundation of Christ. But Babylon, even with the proper building materials, is not built upon the foundation of Christ, because His words have no place in Babylon, and in the end, it is Christ’s words which cause us to want Him dead.

Joh 8:37 I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Rev 18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Rev 18:13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.
Rev 18:14 And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.