06/06/10 "Is it Later than You Think?"

Jeremiah the Prophet was a true patriot of the little Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Saul/David and Solomon had split into two nations in 930 BC with the Northern Kingdom consisting of 10 of the original 12 tribes, called Israel, and the remaining two tribes called the Kingdom of Judah. The north fell to the conquering Assyrian Empire in 721 BC because of their gross immorality and idolatry (II Kings 17:7-20), while the south was hanging on when Jeremiah and King Josiah (the last godly king of Judah) appeared on the scene. Josiah was about 21 years old when Jeremiah, also about 20 oe 21, was called to be God’s spokesman to Judah (read about his stirring call in the first chapter of the book bearing his name).

Josiah lived another 18 years until his untimely death in 609 BC. During his reign he did his best to renew Judah’s covenant relationship with the Lord but Judah’s response was more superficial than sincere. While the young prophet Jeremiah was very much in sympathy with Josiah’s attempts at reform, he knew that Judah was “faking” it more than being obedient to the Lord. But the picture changed drastically after the death of Josiah because his successors were downright evil and the people no longer had to put on an appearance of fidelity to the Lord. Jeremiah really took off the gloves and warned Judah that judgment was imminent if they didn’t repent but to no avail. He became very unpopular and his life was in danger. He never stopped pleading with the Lord to do something about his recalcitrant people, but then came the somber announcement to Jeremiah that Judah had exhausted His patience and that they would be given over to captivity as was their sister from the north as mentioned above. Jeremiah was told not to pray for his people anymore (see 7:16, 14:11 and chapter 15 especially verse 1).

The Lord’s words to Jeremiah are riveting and they crushed Jeremiah’s spirit so that God needed to reestablish him (Chapter 15:10-21 as well as 9:1,2). Later when the Babylonian army (the conquerors of the Assyrians in 605 BC) laid siege to Jerusalem, Jeremiah the true patriot, had the painful task of advising the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, to surrender to the Babylonians because Judah was far beyond saving as had happened under the godly king Hezekiah about 110 years or so earlier (see Isaiah 36-37. Zedekiah, of course, did not listen and his whole family was slaughtered or sent into captivity even as a sorrowful Jeremiah witnessed the brutalization of his people in 586 BC.

We may draw a parallel between the fate of unrepentant Israel and Judah and our own beloved country. This nation was birthed to be a nation under God and all its laws had originally been based on Biblical principles. But in the last 50 years we have witnessed a precipitous decline in our nation’s morals and a fundamental shift away from her Judeo-Christian roots. David Wilkerson since the 1970’s and in the book, “David Wilkerson: A Final Warning to America, Conversations Compiled and Edited by Nicky Cruz,” (Dove Christian Books, Melbourne, FL, 1990), warned about the inevitable downfall of the United States. His words fell largely on deaf ears and his “predictions” about the imminent fall of New York City did not make sense until the 9/11 disaster almost 10 years ago. But his basic assertion that our nation will come under judgment that will lead to our downfall makes more sense with each passing disaster including 9/11, Katrina, the current apocalyptic happening in the Gulf of Mexico as well as our mounting runaway debt to mention just a few things. What I have observed is that there has been an escalating series of judgments that were meant to warn our nation (e.g. the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the wars in the middle east; but God is especially warning the church to repent and be prepared for hard times and even persecution. We need to be prepared. In short this means that we need to “cultivate the voice of the Lord in our hearts and mind, practice holiness, simplify our lives, spend less, tithe, give more to missions and in short live a “repentant life style.” I wonder if it’s later than you think.