1 Thessalonians 5:2–3
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. (ESV)

God has three instruments of judgment that to the uninformed mind look to be natural or manmade disasters, but to the mind informed by the Word of God are seen to have the unseen hand controlling. They are The Sword – wars and criminal activity; Famine – aka Climate Change (which is always declared disastrous whatever the weather happens to be doing at the moment. Government and advocacy groups are the Goldilocks of our age.); and Pestilence or Disease.

Reading the Old Testament prophets and their almost continual warnings that continued rebellion by the kingdoms of Israel and Judah would result in national disaster cannot but be a warning to God’s people of today. Look, I know that there is no national counterpart to the place of those ancient kingdoms today. Israel and Judah were the forerunners of the Church not America the beautiful. As much as I would like to think of The United States as a Christian nation, it is not now, nor has it ever been such. America was founded as a secular state with many Christian citizens and its non-establishment clause in the 1st Amendment to the Constitution was put there to protect against denominationalism not Christianity. But . . .

But while it is true that no nation today can claim special status with God, it is also true, as the scripture makes clear, God holds the nations to account for how closely they hew to his directions given in scripture. So looking at America and its place in the world today, I am forced to say that the “natural” events that are prevailing are not all that natural. God sets up kings and kingdoms and takes them down, and what looks like civil unrest or the ignominy of America slinking out of Vietnam or Afghanistan are the “natural” result of God’s judgment upon the nation. The floods and droughts that plague us, the disease that is now causing so much fear and uncertainty, while natural events, are they really all that “natural” or are they reminders from God that we are but mortals whose lives are as brief as dew upon the morning grass?

We should look at the sword, both internally and externally, at pandemics and floods, as calls to examine ourselves, to check our behavior, to look beyond ourselves to those around us, and repent.

Jeremiah 24:10
And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.” (ESV)

If it’s any consolation, the ancients rejected the idea (fact, really) that God would use the natural world in unnatural ways to accomplish his purposes every bit as much as people do today.

This word from Jeremiah (I was going to say, “prophecy,” but that gives too much cover to those who are blind to the reach of God into our everyday existence) came during the final years of the Kingdom of Judah before Nebuchadnezzar sent his army in to burn its fortresses and palaces, and to tear down its walls and temple. God said, through Jeremiah, that he was going to use international conflict and local criminal enterprises, climate change and its consequent food shortages, and pandemic diseases to bring a nation that repeatedly rejected his right to rule to a catastrophic end.

Are we any different today? Are not Joe Biden and the Congress and Courts as set in their rejection of God’s sovereignty as was Zedekiah, the last king of Judah? Have not the American people, and the peoples of the world generally, chosen to worship their gods of gold and silver and stone rather than the Creator of heaven and earth? Is not wealth and fame more important than character and fidelity? Have they not embraced the LGBTQ perversion? How many violate the “No wed, no Bed” decree? Has not marriage become a renewable-term contract rather than a lifelong commitment? Do we not slaughter infants on the goddess’s abortion altar? Do we not teach our children in the public school system that there is no God and that man is the master of his destiny?

I could go on for pages detailing how we are no different than our ancient forefathers. Their rebellions are our own. The human heart and soul hates God unless it has been transformed by his Spirit, and every attempt to replace him with science so-called, or philosophy, or enlightened religion that has no place for a sovereign God, or the mindless pursuit of pleasure and entertainment, are but mankind whistling past the graveyard.

Just as our rebellions are the same as the fathers, so God’s judgments follow a similar pattern. Look at our world torn with wars, rumors of wars, and crime. Do you think that all the murders on our streets are just happenstances? Do you not believe the consistent rejection of Jesus Christ results in death here as well as in the hereafter? And yes, the climate is changing. It’s always changing, but can you not see God’s hand in the California fires, the gulf coast hurricanes, and the New York floods? I mention these three because California is the heart of the sex-is-god worship, New Orleans is dedicated to human decadence, and New York is, well, is New York. Need I mention Covid? It is sweeping millions of men and women around the world to their graves – many of them Christless graves from which there are no second chances to repent. If we would accept it, Covid is a call from God to turn to the One who has revealed himself in nature and in Jesus Christ.

I know some will read this as the rantings of a silly old man. And maybe I am! But silly and old, this I know: if there is a God, he has revealed himself in the natural world and in the supernatural revelation of himself in the prophets and in his Son, and if there is no God, then eat, drink, kill, and fornicate to your heart’s content because we are all just going to die and that’s it. But before you decide which course you are going to take, at least take a look at Jeremiah and maybe, just maybe, hear the voice of God calling you to faith, obedience, and life.

Jeremiah 44:15–19
Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” And the women said, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?” (ESV)

Two signs held by young women in front of the Texas Capitol tell us the worship of the ancient gods and goddesses has never ceased. One reads, “Sex is beautiful. Reproduction is optional. Abortion is healthcare.” The other reads, “Fetuses are not babies. Abortion is not murder. Women are not incubators.” More on this after a little biblical exploration.

Take a look at the Jeremiah passage and let’s have a little historical context. Josiah was perhaps the best king to have ever ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah. He was only 8 when he came to the throne (640 BC), and he came in troublous times. Judah was a subordinate state of Assyria and had been since the erasure of the Northern Kingdom of Israel some 80 years earlier (720 BC). Trouble was brewing on the borders of the Assyrian Empire as the Babylonians were growing stronger and the Egyptians to the south were looking to expand their reach. (Josiah would die in battle against the Egyptians in 609 BC.)

Josiah’s subjects were dedicated worshipers of every god but the God of heaven. The people of Israel were always of two minds when it came to worship. The gods of the day were gods who scratched where they itched. God made us sexual creatures. His first command was to have sex and make babies. Sex is essential to our continuance on this earth, but when sex becomes the object instead of the means, it becomes an idol. It’s an attractive idol, and an idol that easily displaces the God who devised it for the pleasure it bestows. The queen of heaven was one such god. Her worship and the worship of her consorts were sex parties where anything goes. The land was filled with pleasure palaces and glens, and sacrifices were made, often the lives of infants and children, on their altars.

Josiah set about changing the mindset of sex for sex’s sake. He destroyed the pleasure palaces and salted the glens. He restored the temple in Jerusalem – the priests and the Levites were as into these gods as were the people – and with the prophets, called them to worship God with all their hearts, minds, AND bodies. For awhile it looked like real reform, a real return to the God of the Exodus, was taking place. Throughout the reign of Josiah, the worship of Baal, Astarte, Moloch, and all the other gods of Canaan, Assyria, and Egypt, plus whatever gods they picked up on their travels along the trade routes of that region, disappeared. Well, not disappeared really. They went into the closet only to come back full force as soon as Josiah died and Jehoiachim took the throne. He and those who came after worshiped the gods and goddesses of sex for sex’s sake full bore until Nebuchadnezzar tired of them and their intrigues and completely destroyed the nation in 586 BC.
Off the remnant of the land run to Egypt dragging Jeremiah along. And this is where our text comes in. Jeremiah gives the message that their sins brought this destruction upon them, and they respond by telling him he’s full of it and they are going to worship these gods and goddesses just as they and their fathers had done as far back as memory could take them. And they killed Jeremiah.

This brings us back to Austin, Texas. Texas just passed a law saying that as soon as a heartbeat is detected, that which is in a woman’s womb is not her body, but is another person. This is anathema to those who worship the goddess. Sex is for pleasure, they cry, producing the next generation is an afterthought. An infant developing in a woman’s womb is just a blob of tissue and an abortion is no different that cutting one’s hair or trimming one’s nails. But they are deluded! Indeed, we are told in 2nd Thessalonians that they are under the sway of Satan and that God has sent them a powerful delusion that they might believe his lie that there is no God, and that they might be reserved until the condemnation of Judgement Day. It pains me to say this, but these women and the men who support them are the enemies of God, and thus of God’s children. Any enemy of my Father is an enemy of mine!

What’s a Christian to do? Speak the truth in love. These women are deluded children of the devil and must be identified as such. Do not smile and pat their hands. Tell them they are just one step from hellfire and although the door to heaven is not yet closed, they are pushing against it. Can God forgive a woman who murders her child? Yes, as he has forgiven countless repentant murderers throughout the history of our race. He forgave David for murdering Uriah; he is willing to forgive any and all who confess and forsake their sins. But do not be deceived! Murder is not a woman’s right to choose. I don’t know how many children have been sacrificed on the altar of the goddess since seven God-hating men determined the murdering of children to be written in invisible ink in our Constitution. One would be too many, and millions weigh heavily against the future prosperity of our republic. Should God send his judgements of Famine, Plague, and Sword upon The United States of America as he sent them upon Israel and Judah, those whom he has redeemed can say naught but Amen.

Many years ago I was a pastor in a Christian sect that has a long history of pacifism, yet I felt an overwhelming desire to go into the Army as a chaplain. How could I reconcile the pacifist beliefs of my denomination with the ministry to soldiers whose duty was to fight and kill as necessary in the nation’s service? Could I tell a soldier who was drawn to Christ that he must lay down his arms and study war no more? (As I had been instructed when God called me to himself when I was a young sailor.) As you can well imagine, I was torn. Was it to be the teachings of the church or the calling of God (as I believed then and yet still believe)?

I am a “Whole Bible” Christian. I know that David’s God is my Lord Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity. So I was reading the stories of Abraham rescuing Lot, and the conquest of Canaan, and the wars of David and feeling the tension between what I had been taught and what my bible related.

Let me throw a clarifying paragraph in here. My former denomination has many faithful followers of Christ on its pews. No human institution, and denominations and churches are human institutions run by men, has a grasp of the absolute truth of God. No preacher or professor is right on everything – and that includes me! So while I am convinced from scripture that what I had been taught to believe by my church was wrong, that does not mean they were wrong about the big things like what is contained within The Apostles Creed and the other historic creeds of the church. There are churches and denominations and there is The Church, the body of Christ, the redeemed of the Lord, the congregation of the born again to which some members of denominations (churches) belong. Churches that are faithful to the Core of the Christian Faith (The Kerygma) are part of Christ’s Church; those that are not, are not.

Now back to my story. I was pitched on the horns of a dilemma and knew not how to get off. In my troubled state I had a dream and my struggle was resolved. In this dream I was driving my Bronco down a city street and came upon a group of young men beating and robbing a man. I stopped, prayed, “Lord God, give me strength and courage!”, and leaped out to join the fight and rescue that man. When I awoke I knew that fighting to defend the right is right and I should become an Army Chaplain. Long story short, almost three years later I was reporting to Fort Hood, Texas and the First Cavalry Division as a Chaplain (1LT) and embarking on a ministry non-pareil.

We are living in interesting times. The war between good and evil that began in heaven and has been waged on this planet since Adam and Eve is getting hotter, whether in Afghanistan, or the US Supreme Court, or the wars and natural disasters that are occurring around the globe – evil surges and retreats throughout history and ours is one of those times when evil is advancing. I am agnostic whether this is the prelude to the final battle or not. Christians throughout the millennia have always believed, “This is it!” whenever evil seems to be gaining the upper hand. What we can know with certainty however is that the battle is at hand and there are no pacifistic bystanders – not now, not ever – everyone is fighting on Christ’s side or Satan’s. Every pastor, every elder is called to be a chaplain encouraging their soldiers to face the enemy and fight. Victory is certain; Christ has promised it to all who will stand and fight.
So be of good courage! The Lord will gain the victory with many or with few. All who believe an obey shall wear the crown of life. Fight!

Lamentations 2:1–5
How the Lord in his anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers.
He has cut down in fierce anger all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around.
He has bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.
The Lord has become like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel;
he has swallowed up all its palaces; he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. (ESV)

Jeremiah 50:17–20
“Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones. Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria. I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and in Bashan, and his desire shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead. In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant. (ESV)

Daniel 2:20–21
Daniel answered and said:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; (ESV)

Who is responsible for the debacle in Kabul? Who is it that has made America the laughingstock of the world and made her friends doubt her willingness to stay the course when the going gets rough?
It would be easy – too easy – to point the finger at Joe Biden and change the (D) after his name to (F). He, after all is the one who, following the lead of his predecessor, pulled the plug and walked away from America’s 20-year commitment to transforming Afghanistan from a backwater conglomeration of warring tribesmen into a semblance of a 21st Century nation-state. And it’s fair, I won’t say it’s not true, to say Mr. Biden has blown it and made America look like a feeble old woman instead of a confident warrior empire.

But I want to step back and look at the world through God-eyes, through the lens of scripture to see and know the truth. And here’s the deal: Joe Biden is the man responsible for the collapse of American power and influence in Central Asia, and perhaps the rest of the world. Joe is the man, but this man is but a tool in the hand of God as he works his will and way in the flow of human history. How do I know this to be true? The bible tells me so!

If we look at the history of Abraham’s posterity as recorded by the prophets, we see that it was the rare time that they took the worship of Abraham’s God seriously. Through most of their history they were professing devotees of God while the worshipped the gods of their neighbors and lived lives indistinguishable from the lives of – well to be honest – indistinguishable from the lives lived by Americans today.
God’s prophets kept warning them that their manner of living put them beyond the reach of God’s mercy and grace. They would make jabs at doing it right, but the bright lights of Vegas kept pulling them back to the depravity of their neighbors. Like them, they killed their unwanted children as expressions of personal freedom. Like them, they neighed after their neighbors’ wives like stallions in the paddock. (The expression of their desires are a little to graphic in scripture to be repeated here.) And they did it all while claiming to love God and to worship him. They would go to their happy-clappy “worship” services, offer their sacrifices (which they ate after giving the priests their portion), and hit the hay with their neighbors’ wives and husbands.

So, God, as Sovereign over all, first sent the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to strip the land bare, to slaughter these children of Abraham – man, woman, and child – and to send those left alive into exile as war refugees and slaves.
And that brings us to the question: Who was responsible for the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC? We can say it was Assyria for the North and Babylon for the South and we wouldn’t be wrong. Jeremiah said God would hold Assyria and Babylon responsible for the slaughter and devastation – and he did. Assyria fell to the Babylonian Empire and Babylon was consumed by the Medes and the Persians never to be seen or heard of again (except as eschatological analogy in the Revelation). But to stop there is to stop too soon. Assyria and Babylon were but tools in the hand of God to accomplish his purpose and to do his will.

Let me insert a cautionary here before I continue on. Babylon, in 586 BC was the most powerful nation in its area of influence. It had no rivals who could stand before it. Fifty years later, Babylon was no more. In 539 BC Cyrus attacked, and in 538 BC Babylon collapsed overnight. (See Daniel 5) Let us take fair warning. If and when God determines our nation as depraved and defiant as were those ancient kingdoms, we may fall into insignificance just as easily as did they.

So, back to Afghanistan and the American clown-show there. Who is responsible? First of all, I blame George Bush for not reading history before he decided it would be a good idea to overthrow the Afghan government and pour our soldiers into the Graveyard of Empires. Seriously, George? The Soviets had given up just 12 years earlier. Then his generals and military advisors, from Rumsfeld, to McChrystal, to Petraeus, to Allen, to Milley, and the thousands of other false prophets who keep saying we could win if we just tried a little harder. There’s enough blame to go around. Obama did poorly and Trump equally bad. But poor ol’ Joe gets to be the one who administers the coup de grace to American pride and American power in the region. But none of these men, regardless their competence or incompetence, bear ultimate responsibility for this disaster.
This is God’s doing! God is the one who sets up kings and takes them down. He, it is, who shapes the course of human history over years and decades and centuries and millennia. God has a purpose – we can see it in its broadest strokes in the bible – in his dealings with humanity. He is drawing us to a conclusion little different from the fall of Jerusalem and the collapse of Babylon. See Daniel 2! There is a coming kingdom that will grind to dust all earthly powers and empires. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord, and he will reign forever and ever, amen.

So, what should you and I be doing? Throwing bricks at Biden? Maybe, but more importantly we should be searching the scripture and looking closely at everything that is happening in the world around us as we look for the tracings of God’s hand in human events.

1 Peter 2:13–17
[13] Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, [14] or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. [15] For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. [16] Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. [17] Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (ESV)

Romans 2:17–24
[17] But if you call yourself a [Christian] and rely on the law and boast in God [18] and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; [19] and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, [20] an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—[21] you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? [22] You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? [23] You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. [24] For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (ESV)

This Romans passage is written to point out to the most committed devotees to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the devout Jews – that they were in as much need of the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ as were the Not-Jews they despised. I changed one word, the word “Jew” to “Christian” to illustrate that God’s modern-day devotees can be as equally blind to their need of grace as do the perverts and criminals we disdain.

I found myself under spiritual conviction this morning. The wife and I have been planning an end-of-summer shindig in our backyard for our church family on Labor Day Sunday. The grass is green, the weather is beautiful, and the burgers and dogs and baked beans and potato salad – and the church fellowship – were going to be fantastic! Then our governor, a man I consider without understanding or discernment, in other words, a secular man who puts politics above all else, imposed another masking mandate on the state.

My first instinct was to tell him to take a long walk off a short pier. How dare he MAKE free citizens bend to his diktat! Then the Peter passage appeared in my morning bible reading: be subject to (even stupid, brain-dead) governors! And these two bible passages melded in my mind.

I have been greatly disturbed by the bad governance God has given us. (Yes, I believe the bible teaches that even bad government is under the direction of heaven’s Sovereign.) Mr. Biden’s bumbling about with Afghanistan is but the latest iteration in a long list of governmental malfeasance. Whether it is the ongoing insurrection in Portland, OR, or the murder and mayhem in our major cities, or the non-scientific edicts of government bureaucrats, it is hard to support officials whose policies are unsupportable. I see the bummeries (my new word for “homeless encampments) with their consequent filth and accompanying crime rimming our streets and hear the judges and mayors telling us there is nothing we can do about them, and I find myself becoming an insurrectionist unwilling to submit to their authority.

Then the bible tells me I’m as bad as the rioters and the bums and the mayors and the judges and the governors and the president. Ouch! When these officials step outside the bounds of their authority and step into the place Christ has claimed as his and his alone, I have a duty to disobey. Tell me I cannot assemble to worship (A Zoom church is no church at all), or that I must embrace a satanic understanding of human sexuality or gender, or that I must offer incense on Caesar’s altar, and I must disobey. But when these misguided (evil and corrupt might be better adjectives but I’m trying to be kind) men and women tell me to wear the veil in a grocery, or not host a backyard party for brothers and sisters who are not related to me by blood, or pay my taxes that go to fund their ill-conceived schemes, or not run stop signs even when there are no other cars around, then, for God’s sake, I must obey. I obey, not because they are right or good or smart. I obey because God has told me to obey as long as they are within the bounds of their God-given authority.

So no garden party to mark the end of summer. I’m sad but obedient.

Jerusalem in 586-584 BC looked like Afghanistan today (20 August 2021). Then the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar had captured the capital, Jerusalem, for the third time in 20 years. This time they were just tired of Judean resistance and sent their combat engineers in to destroy the city. They tore down the walls, destroyed every defensive position, burnt the palaces and the temple and ripped them down stone by stone. The best and the brightest had been taken to Babylon in 605 BC (Daniel and his three companions were in that group) to take their place in the Babylonian bureaucracy (Nebuchadnezzar had an empire to run, and empires require bureaucrats who know the territory.) and a new king had been placed on the throne.

Several kings later and it was King Zedekiah’s turn to experience Babylonian justice. The prophet Jeremiah (A thankless job to say the least!) had been warning the people and the political leadership for 30 years that their rebellion against the God of heaven would end in catastrophe. They beat him, starved him, ignored him, and would have killed him many times over had not God prevented it.

Zedekiah received one last warning from Jeremiah: Do not resist Nebuchadnezzar. Submit to his authority and you will live and even keep your throne. Resist and you will pay an unbearable price. Z’s response was that he appreciated the counsel but he didn’t think he could go along with it. Obeying the God he had rejected his entire life just wasn’t in the cards. Well, you know the story, the city fell, Z and his entourage sneaked out the back gate and did a runner hoping to get to Egypt. He didn’t get far. He and his family and officials were captured, taken north to N’s headquarters, tried, convicted, and sentenced to the horror of watching his sons executed, and then having his eyes plucked out so that for the rest of his life the last thing he would remember seeing was the blood of his sons flowing in the courtyard.

Here’s a challenging aside if you’re interested. N’s wholehearted declaration of God’s sovereignty is recorded in Daniel. Daniel, that faithful man of God, was his Prime Minister. It was as a God-fearer that N came against Jerusalem and destroyed it! N was God’s servant executing God’s judgment against the apostasy of Judah. People will often say when you or I as Christians declare and work God’s judgments against evil men and women, “I thought you were a Christian! How can you go to war? How can you kill other people? How can you speak so forcefully against another’s lifestyle or practice? God isn’t like that!” O yes he is. God may be slow to anger, but when he says, “Enough!”, it is enough and his judgments, most often at the hands of other men – good or bad – will come. The meek and lowly Jesus of the New Testament is the LORD of the Old. God has not changed. He hated the rebellion of Judah then and he hates the rebellion of the nations today. His justice may seem delayed, but it is not. For every nation, for every person, there is a cup of iniquity that once filled must be emptied. And that wrath, for the wrath of God is what it is, must either be spent on the rebel or on the rebel’s substitute at Calvary.

Now where was I? Ah, yes, Z is blinded and taken in chains to Babylon. Jerusalem is in ruins and various factions are in contention over who will be in charge of what remains. N has put a Jewish official, Gedaliah, in charge at the temporary capital, Mizpah. The Babylonians caught and released Jeremiah. They tell him he can either go to Babylon with them where they’ll make sure he is well-cared for, maybe even move into Daniel’s palace, or he is free to go be Gedaliah’s spiritual advisor. He chose the later.

G was a good man – naïve but good. He settled into Mizpah and went to work trying to bring some sort of government to the region. And here is where the story gets interesting! As you can well imagine after the collapse of the government, the surrounding nations start looking for opportunities to extend their territories or at least their influence into the fallen land. Ammon was one such nation and Ishmael, one of the minor princes of Judah was their man to make their move. (I mean, seriously, do you think the Taliban moved back into Afghanistan without the support and assistance of Iran and Pakistan? They may not be Iranian or Pakistani puppets, but they are instruments of influence for those two nations, and they have been funded, trained, and equipped by them.) So Ishmael is commissioned to assassinate Gedaliah. You with me so far?

One of the other warlords, and there are plenty, General Johanan by name, comes to G at Mizpah to let him know that Ishmael is working for the Ammonites and is being sent to kill him. Why not, says Johanan, let me take my men and kill Ishamael before he gets to you. No way!, says G, no Jew would ally himself with Ammon and attack Babylon by killing me. You are lying on Ishmael because you’re just jealous of him.
Well, Ishmael kills Gedaliah and a bunch of other people and a little civil war among this remnant of Judah breaks out. Johanan hunts down Ishmael and his men and, although Ishmael gets away, ends the Ammonite adventure. But . . . now Johanan and some of his allies are in charge and they don’t know what to do. They’re afraid the Babylonians are going to exact reprisals for the death of G and the Babylonians who were there in Mizpah. So they do what any reasonable person would do – they ask Jeremiah to inquire of God for direction: should we stay or should we take refuge in Egypt? These must be good guys! They want to know God’s will! Right?
Jeremiah inquires of the LORD, and the LORD replies. “I know you’re scared. You’re afraid the Babylonians will come down on you for Ishmael’s rebellion. They won’t. Stay right where you are. Pick up where Gedaliah left off. Protect the people and care for the land. You are in the middle of a 70-year exile that began with the first invasion. Hang in there. I’m putting all things in order. Don’t go to Egypt. If you do, you will die there of plague, famine, and sword.”

Jeremiah delivers the message, but instead of Johanan lifting his hands in praise for God’s assurances, he says to Jeremiah, “You lie like a rug! God didn’t tell you that! You and that assistant of yours have made this up. We’re going to Egypt. And you’re coming with us just in case we need to inquire of the LORD again.”

It is amazing, although we shouldn’t be amazed, how people want to hear a word from the LORD but only so long as that word agrees with what they’ve already determined in their hearts to do. Johanan was one of those sorta godly men who can really talk the talk but only walk where their desires lead. Egypt was at war with Babylon and so Egypt was the wise man’s refuge. Little did he know, or I should say, he knew what the prophet said but didn’t believe him, that Nebuchadnezzar was soon to set his throne up in the heart of Egypt and bring that dynasty to an end.

Johanan looked like such a good and wise man when he was warning Gedaliah of Ishmael’s duplicity. But his refusal to listen to the word of God through the prophet revealed him to be a religious opportunist. He was in it for himself. He was measured in God’s scales and found wanting.

Let me summarize and get out. God sent Babylon to punish Judah for worshipping the gods of their neighbors. To the one to whom much is given, much is required. God has given revelations of himself and his will to all nations, and by the standards of those general revelations they will be judged. But to Israel and Judah, and to us, he his given us special revelation of himself and his will through the scripture and through his Son, and by those standards we will be judged. He will, not may, but will, punish America and the American church for our rejection of his word and will. I can’t say when or how, but I can say will.

In the story of Johanan we see a man who looked good but inwardly was as corrupt and wicked as those whose rule brought about the destruction of their city. The history of the Church is strewn with the wrecked lives of seemingly godly men who inwardly were just dead men’s bones. Don’t let that discourage or dismay you. God said that’s how it is and how it will be until The Return of the King.

And the story of Jeremiah is the call to be faithful in every circumstance, regardless the pressure to compromise or say what the people want to hear. Be faithful until death and the crown of life awaits!