3 CURTAINS

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and reject not your mother's teaching; A graceful diadem will they be for your head; a torque for your neck.

PROVERBS 1:8-9

The Prophet Jeremiah

Posted: 25 July 2015

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Had it not been for our prophet today telling us that the ushering in of the Gentile kingdom was during the time of Jeremiah, we would have taken the “times of the Gentiles” dispensation to be starting from Paul's ministry, who was the apostle to the Gentiles. Paul started his ministry about 53AD, after he had met the Pillar of Fire on the way to Damascus, and Paul addressed Him as Lord. Imagine the impact when He said "I am Jesus" when Paul asked "Who are you, Lord?" Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin, hence his name was Saul at the beginning before his conversion. Jeremiah, like John the Baptist came from the priestly family. Paul was an apostle, teacher and prophet. His message was salvation to the Gentiles.

Jeremiah was a prophet of doom to those who did not heed his warning. He spoke about God purging the land off her evil doings, who prophesied that the great Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar was going to conquer Israel and set her up as a tribute and denude her of all her people and goods. Only a remnant heeded Jeremiah's warning about taking refuge in Babylon itself to preserve their lives. How odd and difficult for a prophet to tell his own people that they were safer if they fell as captives!?? Only God can tell us how we shall be treated in the future. At that point, the people would have even thought that Jeremiah was a traitor, putting fear into the people's hearts as one of the ministers (prince) accused him of.

In the book of Ezekiah, we find similar charges against the leaders of Israel and Judah.

Eze 22:6-14

(6) Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.
(7) In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
(8) Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.
(9) In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.
(10) In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.
(11) And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.
(12) In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.
(13) Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.
(14) Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.

The Bible, God's word tells us that as long as the people obeyed God, no harm will come to them. This is true in each and every case you hear. That when the people turned back to God in humbleness and abjection, God will pardon their past doings In our previous article, we spoke "that God is Just and disobedience will bring about consequences". For example, if I say, don't flaunt your wealth by wearing your jewelry in public because you will attract robbers and thieves and evil intentions, and you say, nay, I want to do it...well the consequence for such an act of disobedience will result in being robbed or cheated or even killed. Don't you know that whenever you announce you have money, that there will be some around you very willing to help you spend it? Isn't that a consequence of directly understanding the basics of money handling?

Psa 49:6-8
(6) They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
(7) None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
(8) (For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

So likewise in the matter of saving your soul. Paul taught us to avoid all appearances of evil, even the smell of it. Yes don't wait to see smoke coming out because that would mean there is already a fire.

God's word is the oracle for our lives. It foretells and forewarns what is going to happen when you act in certain ways, hence, the warning to take heed. Not that God enjoys punishing us. Do you think a father enjoys beating his own children? What kind of father would that be? No in the olden days, a father would rather foster his own son to a well known teacher, one who could guide and tutor the boy to be able to take over his father's business. In fact the bible showed us God did the same thing with His only begotten Son. When the son grown into the full stature of the perfect man, the Father at Mount Transfiguration displayed His love for His Son by declaring Him (the practice of re-adopting the heir), to be the Heir.

Back then in the Eastern customs, there will be a feast and important and relevant guests invited to witness this ceremony of “adoption of son”. God our Father said, “This is my beloved Son” and He had three men there to witness the event, Peter, James and John. Even Moses and Elijah was there as well. That Voice that thundered in the Mount, was the same Voice that spoke at the River Jordan, upon Jesus' baptism. The same Voice spoken by the Holy Spirit in the form of the dove descending upon Jesus when He came out of the water, when baptized by John the Baptist to fulfil all righteousness. But here at Mount Transfiguration, the Father added these words : “Hear ye Him”. This means from that declaration, we must believe everything and every word from Jesus. Yes, we are to hear Jesus in all things because He was, is rather, the Heir and we the joint heirs. Praise be the Name of our God, the Lord Jesus. Aren't you glad the prophet came and told us these things? Yes, being a prophet of God, sometimes is unpopular. Many will misunderstand and some will doubt. Man's words may fail but God's Word fails not. In the second half of verse 14, Ezekiel 22, He said: “I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it”!

Do you think Jeremiah would have avoided his prophesy just so that he could not be put in prison? He spoke to the King, to the princes, to the nobilities and to the common people. He spoke of the land falling into the Babylonian kings and how the Jews would be persecuted in a foreign land, but if they fall away to them, that they would preserve their lives.

To the princes, who probably enjoyed, their status and comfortable living, continuing to lust after each other wives, and give no heed to helping the poor, it was bad omen to weaken the hearts of the people by such prophesies. That there was no more will to fight off the enemy...so Jeremiah's mouth must be stopped.

This evil by the princes and leaders led to Jeremiah being imprisoned and beaten. After that he was again captured and thrown into a well-shape prison being lowered by a cord (rope) filled with soft mud or mire and he sank deep into the mud and would have died from hunger had it not been for Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, who dared to speak up and told king Zedekiah about the danger of killing God's prophet. Because of his kind act and being a believer, God spared Ebedmelech later when the Babylonians conquered the city. Yes God will show His love to those who are His and who love Him. How many such Ebedmelechs are there today? Out of all the princes and lords of Judah, none came to help but a gentile! Oh, learn this lesson well.

Jer 39:16-18

(16) Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
(17) But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
(18) For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.

God would destroy Israel because of how they have polluted themselves in carrying on with their evil deeds, that the end of Israel begins and after the captivity into Babylon, Israel was never the same again. The era of the Gentiles begins from Babylon, as the dream of the golden image of a man was given to the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. He was called the king of kings (note, not the King of kings because that title belongs to the Mighty Conqueror of Revelation 19).

Daniel was about 14 years old when he was captive to Babylon. And it was to Daniel because he was the beloved of God, that was made to known to understand what would become of the Jews in Babylon even until the end of the world. Daniel was given a full preview of future events pertaining to his people, the Jews, right up the the second Coming of Christ and the White Throne Judgment. By the mouth of two or three witnesses, let everything be established. More than twice, he understood from the visions and dreams he had that the prophecy of Jeremiah of captivity for 70 years in Babylon and God gave him wisdom and knowledge to how the world will end. First God gave Nebuchadnezzar a dream that he quickly forgotten when he woke up but the king knew it was important. And God allowed the king to meet up with His prophet Daniel to get the interpretation. In the interpretation, we are given to understand the Gentile dispensation will pass through six stages of dominant powers, before the seventh establishing the glorious kingdom of God on earth.

1) the head of fine gold, Babylonian empire
2) the breast and arms of silver, Medo-Persian,
3) the belly and thighs of brass, the Grecian (note: this part of the male's body comprises of the buttocks and male genitals, Alexandra the great splitting up with the four generals after his death),
4) the legs of iron, the Romans, which became eastern and western Rome,
5) the feet, part iron and clay, five toes on each foot, representing the beginning of the NATO and Warsaw nations, represented at that time by Eisenhower and Kruschev, the two big toes (incidentally, Eisen means "iron" in Russian, and Krushchev means "clay"), that Iron and Clay will not mix (no peace pacts)
6) the stone cut without hands which smote the image and brake them to pieces, like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away (world wars) and they disappeared entirely and finally,
7) the great mountain which filled the whole earth (God's kingdom established forever).

Dan 2:30-37

(30) But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.

(31) Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
(32) This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
(33) His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
(34) Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
(35) Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
(36) This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
(37) Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

Heed these things well. What was that stone cut without hands? It is the Word of God, the unfolding of the great Masterpiece of God's handiwork, in the expression of the Word is God as in John 1:1. What do we know about the Word of God? We know it is the true testimony, love, grace and mercy and God's plan for the inhabitants of the earth when He formed Adam and then through Adam, Eve and Seth and their children's children. Abraham was specially chosen after the great flood and he became a friend of God. Whosoever bless thee will be blessed and whosoever curse thee will be cursed. If the stone hit the image at the feet level, when was the image five toes this side and five toes that side? It was the beginning of the formation of the United Nations from the League of Nations. So that stone was there already....

What do you think was the Word the true word restored? When all the mysteries becomes unfolded in our time! The baby boomers years. Who was given the task to unlock these mysteries in the bible. Not even Daniel, John or Paul could express them clearly because the times of the Gentiles are not over yet. No, it came to a simple, humble and nameless country boy, but today that ministry alone accounts for new churches around the globe, lives cleaned up, the sick healed and broken relationship restored. Like Jeremiah, he preached an unpopular message. Clean up your lives. Live like Christians and not Hollywood, think right, speak right, hear right, do right and you will walk alright! Praise be the Word of God, but do the majority of the people want it? No, they rather like the crowd that came out of Egypt, calling for Aaron to build them their gods so they could dance and lusted after the flesh, calling the gods of Egypt their gods instead of Jehovah. The earth opened up and swallowed ALL of them.

Yes, the destruction has began. The Word of God today stripped the world's pretence of safety and glittering glory. Nothing for us in this world to brag about because people are living to cater to their own flesh. There is no more love for the other person but everything is centred around the gratification of ourselves, how well we dressed, how delicately we eat and how the eyes lust after the beauty contraptions particularly the beauty of women. To sell anything in billboards or media, a young beautiful female is chosen to be the key image rather than the product. Are the advertisers subtly telling the viewers that if a "bimbo" can use it, can drive it, or can master it, so can you! Who is paying for these extravagances? The buyer of course. So who is the "bimbo".

Isa 55:1

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.