People Get Ready

Our Lord Jesus Christ reveals to us in the Book of Revelation worse tragedies happening on the earth in the end times than happened in the days of Jeremiah. He reveals to us an antichrist who aims to eliminate all who will not bow to his authority. There will be famine, disease, good people (Christians) being martyred, earthquakes, celestial disturbances including a darkened sun, a blood-red moon, falling stars, hail and fire mixed with blood, a third of the earth’s trees and grass burned up, fresh water poisoned, and a massive battle in which many people die. Hailstones weighing 100 pounds each will fall from the sky. When Jesus returns, those whose names are not in written in His Book of Life will be cast into a lake of fire and brimstone along with the devil and the antichrist.

What are we doing with these revelations? Are we living circumspectly of them? Are we preparing people for them as the prophet Jeremiah did in his day?

What did the Lord instruct Jeremiah do with the revelations that He gave him? He instructed Jeremiah to share them with as many people as possible. There were no TV’s, no internet and no printing presses in Jeremiah’s day, so he speaks to them much like Jesus did when he was on earth, that is, in public places. Nowadays, many people receive their news via TV stations and the internet platforms. So, these venues have become our public square.

The Lord led Jeremiah to face the political and religious leaders who were against him. He led them to a location where crimes took place. That was bold! Only God could have caused them to follow him and to listen to him.

“Thus says the Lord: go and get a potter’s earthen flask and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you.” Jeremiah 19:1-2

Jeremiah brought them to the Potsherd Gate. This gate was also known as the Dung Gate. As they exited the gate, they saw shards of broken pottery.

“And say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.’” Jeremiah 19:3

He recounts and reveals. He recounts what they did and reveals what the Lord will do.

“Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind).” Jeremiah 19:4-5

Jeremiah orated an ominous object lesson to them. They had filled the land with innocent blood. By “innocent blood” he referred to the sacrifices of infants. They burned their children in fire to Baal. Infanticide is inspired by Satan otherwise why would they do it? They convinced fathers and mothers to kill their babies. In the place they promoted death, they will perish.

“Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.” Jeremiah 19:6

Tophet is a reference to the drums that they would play to drown out the cries of the babies as they burned them to death in the fires. The Valley of Slaughter is where their enemies, the Babylonians, set up camp before attacking and destroying the city.

“And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.” Jeremiah 19:7

The Lord was going to defeat their best plans for survival. He promised them swords, birds and beasts. Only God’s strong love for a nation could compel someone to speak such strong words against the sins that were destroying them. His call to forsake crimes and to turn to the Lord was a great service to God and to his country.

“I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” Jeremiah 19:8-9

The holy city would soon be horror city. A hair-raising sight! Enemies would encircle them. A blockade would cut off their food supply! Soon, they would experience the gnawing pangs of starvation. They would eat their own children to ease the agony of deprivation.

“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.” Jeremiah 19:10-11

As they treated babies as trash to be destroyed so they would be destroyed. As they broke the hearts of many, their hearts would be broken.

“Thus I will do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’” Jeremiah 19:12-13

The Lord’s Word to those elders and priests in Tophet is relevant for us today. As they burned others they would be burned. This burning is echoed in the ovens of the concentration camps of Germany during the 1940’s. But before we wave a finger at the Jews or the Germans, let us consider that another race is being slaughtered right under our noses during the 21st Century. The preborn race! About 3,700 per day or 1.37 million per year in the USA! About 115,000 per day or 42 million per year globally.

“Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people...” Jeremiah 19:14

Jeremiah now stands in the court, which was common to all people, where the most might hear.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’” Jeremiah 19:15

They stiffened their necks means that they determined to completely reject God’s revelations to them. Deny them! Live as though God’s Word was misinformation.

During New Testament times, the Apostle Peter warned people that God spared not angels who sinned. He sent them to hell. God spared not the ancient world. He sent them the flood. God spared not Sodom and Gomorrah. He sent them the fire. (2 Peter 2:4-6, 9-10) In 2 Peter 3:9, he wrote, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

When Jesus says in Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I come quickly!” The meaning in the original language is to come in a moment of time. As 1 Corinthians 15:52 says, “In the blink of an eye.” It will be too late to repent in that moment. Jesus told His disciples in Luke 17:24, “As the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.” It will be too late on that day to repent and be forgiven.

Once, I witnessed a court scene where the man on trial had managed to escape justice for many years. His victims hoped the judge would stop the man from abusing them. They were relieved when the judge's gavel fell and he ruled in their favor. They felt vindicated. Though their abuser refused to acknowledge his sin, a court of law had examined the evidence against him, listened to the testimonies of eye-witnesses, and declared him guilty.

One day, God will lower the gavel on the earth’s culture of death. Christ will usher in a new heaven and new earth wherein dwells righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13) People get ready!

The Lord says in Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he who keeps the Law.” In John 16:8, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit convicts the world of world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. He does so people have an opportunity to hear the truth and be saved. May the Lord Jesus by His Spirit grant us boldness to share His revelations so that he or she who has ears to hear might hear and be saved.