The Prophet Jeremiah Part 34

All right, we're gonna pray, we're gonna get started, and I gotta watch my time carefully. We could probably go about 45, 50 minutes today.

But let's pray. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask through your only word that you would help us to understand what you have revealed there.

We come to you empty -handed, and apart from you we can do nothing, and apart from you we cannot rightly understand your word.

So we come seeking your knowledge, your revelation, so that we may have true fear of you and understand the judgment that we are under by God's law, but also to have an even greater understanding of the great compassion that you've had for us in sending us

Jesus Christ to bleed and die for our sins. We ask this all in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so you'll note here that this section of scripture,

I'm pretty sure is one that Joel Osteen has never preached through, nor will he ever preach through, because the note in the

ESV says judgment on Israel, okay? And so in the

Word of Faith parlance, you don't talk like this, because what you decree and declare is the thing that happens.

But you're gonna note, and that is that when we see a section like this in scripture, it is one that oftentimes, on our modern reading of this, we don't quite get what's going on, and it's really easy for us to go, man,

God is just doling out punishment for everybody. And when you say that, that's really actually the point.

If you were to think of it, is that God is going to settle accounts with everybody, with every nation.

And if you are impenitent, and you are wicked, and you refuse to repent, and you refuse to be forgiven, let's just put it this way.

God is a great accountant, and every account will be settled down to the penny.

And believe me when I tell you, that's not good news, but that's the point.

When we read this section, and you'll note that this is God speaking in wrath, speaking in judgment.

We don't like to hear God talk like this, because it makes us really nervous. And the reason it makes us nervous is because we know just how wicked and sinful we are, and just how much we do not deserve

God's mercy and kindness. The reality is, you can never deserve God's mercy and kindness, that's why you get it as a gift for the sake of Christ.

So as we listen to this, you'll note that if Jeremiah really wanted to, but God the

Holy Spirit would have had to have helped him here, this section of judgment, he could have listed out all of the nations, even the ones that were coming in the future.

He could have listed out the United States, the United Kingdom. He could have talked about those in the

EU. He could have brought Russia on this. He could have talked about China, and talked about Japan and Australia.

God could legitimately do this. So think of this, when God is speaking in judgment here, this is a sample, this is a small sampling of how

God is going to settle accounts with all nations. And this is sobering stuff, and it's intended to be.

Now if you remember, last week we noted that the feminist, the divine feminine worshiping idolatresses among the wives of Judah, they were really the ones who were behind the decision to head down to Egypt, and to seek safety and shelter in Egypt.

And while there, well, lo and behold, they were worshiping the false gods of Egypt.

And so they were putting their trust in the army of Pharaoh Necho. And right off the bat in this section of judgment, and Jeremiah, God's gonna single out

Egypt and Pharaoh Necho and guess what, it's just not gonna go well for them. And so let's just dive into this section, shall we?

The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations. About Egypt, concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the river

Euphrates at Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah.

Whoops. And you'll note this about Egypt. Their army, they needed it.

And if it had been defeated in Carchemish, near the

Euphrates, that means that they had set out on kind of an exploration, if you would, for the purpose of defeating

Nebuchadnezzar on Nebuchadnezzar's turf. And they lost the away game.

And as a result of that, that's going to leave Egypt completely open to Nebuchadnezzar coming in, literally just walking in, and taking control of Egypt.

They have no other defenses at this point. Their army is gone. And the desert isn't gonna protect them at this point.

So God here speaking, prepare buckler and shield, advance for battle. Harness the horses, mount, oh horsemen.

Take your stations with your helmets, polish your spears, put on your armor. Why have

I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned backward. Their warriors are beaten down and have fled in haste.

They look not back. Terror on every side, declares Yahweh. And so God in exercising his judgment against Egypt has done what he does quite often, is that he routes the army that he is intending to defeat and in such a way that every soldier's courage completely fails.

And it's like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and that really killer rabbit, right? Run away, run away, run away, right?

Sharp pointy teeth. Okay. So the Egyptian army, their soldiers were dismayed as they turned back, the warriors are beaten down, they fled in haste, they look not back.

Terror on every side, declares Yahweh. The swift cannot flee away, nor the warrior escape.

In the north by the river Euphrates, they have stumbled and they have fallen.

So who is this rising like the Nile? Like rivers whose waters surge.

Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. He said

I will rise, I will cover the earth. I will destroy cities and their inhabitants. Advance, O horses, enrage,

O chariots. Let the warriors go out. Let the men of Kush and Put who handle the shield, men of Lod skilled in handling the bow.

That day is the day of Yahweh, the Lord God of armies, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes.

The sword shall devour and shall be sated and drink its fill of their blood.

For Yahweh Elohim of hosts, of armies, holds a sacrifice in the north country by the river

Euphrates. Go up to Gilead, take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt. In vain you have used my medicines.

There is no healing for you. And so here, this kind of hints at the fact that they're just so steeped in idolatry that even the medicine of hearing the truth about who

Yahweh is hasn't helped them at all. The nations have heard of your shame.

The earth is full of your cry, for warrior has stumbled against warrior. They have both fallen together.

Well, that doesn't sound very positive, right? You can't put this as words of affirmation on your mirror and speak them to yourself in the morning, right?

The word of Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to strike the land of Egypt.

Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdal, proclaim in Memphis and Taffanis. Say, stand ready and be prepared for the sword shall devour around you.

So not only did the Egyptian army lose on Nebuchadnezzar's turf, now

Nebuchadnezzar's coming and he's not exactly in a good mood, okay?

So people are going to die and the terror of this is quite fascinating.

Again, this is God executing judgment. Why are your mighty ones face down?

They do not stand because Yahweh thrust them down. So you wanna get an example of Jesus, king of kings, lord of lords, right?

God is in charge of everything and you'll note God is in charge of the nations. And all the nations who act wickedly,

God is going to settle accounts here. And so Egypt has risen up and Egypt has been quite arrogant and God is the one humbling them.

Their mighty ones, their soldiers who Pharaoh Necho had trusted in, all their mighty ones are face down.

Why? Because God took their face and just went, right? And by the way, that's an official theological term.

Okay, yeah, it's in the original Aramaic, I'm sure. Yeah, so, and along with the term kaput, okay, yeah.

So their army is kaput. So he made many stumble and they fell.

They said to one another, arise, let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth because of the sword of the oppressor.

Call the name of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, noisy one who lets the hour go by.

As I live, declares the king whose name is Yahweh of armies, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea shall one come.

Prepare yourselves baggage for exile, oh inhabitants of Egypt. Bummer for you, you're going into exile too.

Same fate that happened to Judah is gonna happen to Egypt as well. For Memphis shall become a waste, a ruin without habitant.

Somebody had better let Elvis know this, right? Sorry, couldn't resist.

A beautiful heifer is Egypt, but a biting fly from the north has come upon her.

Even her hired soldiers in her midst are like fattened calves. Yes, they have turned and fled together.

They did not stand for the day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment.

She makes a sound like a serpent gliding away for her enemies march in force and come against her with axes like those who fell trees.

They shall cut down her forest, declares Yahweh, though it is impenetrable because they are more numerous than locusts.

They are without number. The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame. She shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.

Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel said, behold, I am bringing punishment upon Ammon of Thebes and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him.

I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and his officers.

Afterward, Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old, declares Yahweh. Now, important to note here,

God's intent is he's gonna execute judgment, but he's not gonna bring Egypt to a full end.

He's gonna bring it to the current administration, pretty much bring it down, punish them.

There's gonna be a lot of pain and suffering, but Egypt will continue to go on, and that's how

God worked. You can kind of think of it this way, if you go back and think about World War II. I think it's not out of line to say that God punished

Germany for their Nazism and for the murder of six million Jews, and God is the one who exacted judgment against them by causing them to be defeated by the

Allies, and Germany was not brought to a full end. Germany still exists to this day, and for a while, they remained a divided country, and eventually, they were reunited, but that was the cost of doing business when it comes to doing business with Mr.

Hitler and the murderous intent that he had and executed. God did humble them.

God executed judgment on them, and still, Germany exists to this day. They have not been wiped off the face of the

Earth. Same concept here. God is settling accounts and still permitting

Egypt to go on, and you'll note that in our day and age, does anyone fear the Egyptian Empire?

No, no, not at all, right? Egypt pretty much is a third world nation to this day.

I mean, maybe second world -ish in some places where there's tourism, right? But it's nothing like it used to be.

So God continues, fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and here's where it gets fun. So in the midst of God saying, okay,

Egypt, well, I'm gonna judge you, man, you are, and explaining all the different ways in which he's gonna judge

Egypt, then he gives assurance to those who trust in him. Fear not,

O Jacob, my servant, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from far away and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid.

Let's see here, I will save you from far away, from the land of their captivity, okay?

Now, I think this sounds proleptic. And here's, you know what I'm saying? Almost like there's this kind of Hebrew wordplay, a little bit of a double entendre, because surely

God is saying, and you cannot take this away from the text, is that he has intentions to return the captives who have gone to Babylon and to bring them back into Israel.

But I can legitimately say that when they got back, it would be improper to say that when they came back from captivity, that none made them afraid.

They were in terror on every side. They were living on a razor's edge. So this little aspect of it makes it sound like this kind of has like a double meaning.

Yeah, the coming back of the captives from Babylon is really, if you were to type in shadow, of all who trust in Yahweh and the salvation that is provided through Jesus Christ.

God will call them from all the nations and bring them into the new earth, and none will make them afraid.

I think there's an eschatological overtone to this word of comfort spoken here.

So it has an immediate fulfillment when the captives return, but it's not fully realized as a fulfillment because when you read

Nehemiah, you read Ezra, you read the book of Haggai and Zechariah, things were not exactly without fear at the time when they returned.

So the without fear thing sounds a lot like what's coming when Jesus returns. Fear not,

O Jacob, my servant declares Yahweh, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which

I have driven you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

Sounds a lot like something from my sermon today, right? Yeah, so you'll note the suffering we go through,

God punishes, God chastises, God scourges his children. In fact,

I made reference, I used the word that's actually used in the book of Hebrews, and we'll take a look at it here.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint -hearted.

So note the example of Christ of all of the people who were hostile to him, and did you notice all the fights that Jesus got into, verbal matches, right?

Read the Gospel of John, it's like verbal match, verbal spar after verbal spar, and then his holy week, time in Jerusalem, the

Jews are constantly sending people to try to trip Jesus up, and so the writer of Hebrews, the divinely inspired author, has us to consider, meditate on all the hostility that Christ faced, and use that to anchor your heart and your soul so that you don't grow weary and faint -hearted in doing the good things that Christ has called you to.

So note then, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted the point of shedding your blood. Nope, not even close, right?

And that's a good point. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the

Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he, mastigoi, scourges every son whom he receives.

Scourges, mastigoi is a scourging. Let me show that to you. So let me open up my

Greek here. Mastigoi, mastigo -o, the verb form of it, to beat with a whip or a lash, to whip, to scourge, or flog.

Now, you're gonna note, a flogging does not sound like fun. No, I'm just gonna go with that'll leave a mark, right?

And so you'll note that the God that we worship, the God who loves us and cares for us, the

God who sent his son to bleed and die for our sins, now that we are his children, he disciplines us.

And the discipline is described in quite graphically difficult to conceive terms.

We are chastised, that's light. We are flogged, we are scourged by God.

God scourges every son whom he receives. And you sit there and go, you know what, pretty much that's how life goes, isn't it, right?

Nothing easy about this. Anyone had like a really easy life? Anyone? Good, it's not just me, right?

So you'll note here that that same theme then is in Jeremiah, I will discipline you in just measure and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

Oy, all right. Like I said, could you imagine somebody preaching from this text at Lakewood?

I mean, they would flee the building as fast as if an earthquake struck there.

Imagine Lakewood preaching from a text. Yeah, you do have a point.

My son, he said, imagine at Lakewood, Joel Osteen actually preaching from a biblical text.

Yeah, the roof would collapse if he did that. So there's just no way that's happening. Chapter 47, the word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the

Philistines before Pharaoh struck down Gaza. Thus says Yahweh, behold, waters are rising out of the north and shall become an overflowing torrent.

They shall overflow the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it.

Men shall cry out and every inhabitant of the land shall wail at the noise of the stamping of the hooves of his stallions, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of their wheels.

The fathers look not back to their children, so feeble are their hands because the day that is coming to destroy all the

Philistines to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains for Yahweh is destroying the

Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Kaphtor. Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon has perished.

Oh, remnant of their valley, how long would you gash yourselves? Ah, sword of Yahweh, how long till you are quiet?

Put yourself into your scabbard, rest and be still. How can it be quiet when Yahweh has given it a charge?

Against Ashkelon and against the seashore, he has appointed it. Again, sobering words when

God's talking this way. Concerning Moab, thus says

Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel, woe to Nebo, for it has laid waste.

Kiriathim is put to shame, it is taken. The fortress is put to shame and broken down.

The renown of Moab is no more. In Heshbon they plan disaster against her.

Come, let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, oh madmen, shall be brought to silence.

The sword shall pursue you. A voice, a cry, from Haran Naim, desolation and great destruction.

Moab is destroyed. Her little ones have made a cry. For at the ascent of Luth, they go up weeping.

For at the descent of Haran Naim, they have heard the distressed cry of destruction.

Flee, save yourselves. You will be like a juniper in the desert. For because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you shall be taken.

And Shemash shall go into exile with his priests and his officials. The destroyer shall come upon every city and no city shall escape.

The valley shall perish. The plain shall be destroyed as Yahweh has spoken.

Now in this particular case, there's interesting language here. Because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures.

Has anything changed today? No, all right? Your works and your treasures will not save you.

And then he describes the means by which they're gonna be destroyed, as being destroyed by the destroyer.

The destroyer shall come. Kind of invokes the 10th plague in Egypt. The destroyer.

When he comes, he sees the blood and when he sees the blood on the door, he'll pass over and go to the next house, right? It kind of uses that same type of language.

And who is Shemash, right? Shemash, you gotta say it that way. Shemash is the false god of Moab, right?

And God is saying, Shemash is gonna go into exile. His priests and officials are going with him.

Oh, bummer for Shemash. Then again, he doesn't exist, so he can't exactly defend himself. Give wings to Moab, for she would fly away.

Her city shall become a desolation with no inhabitant in them. Cursed is he who does the work of Yahweh with slackness.

Cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed. Well, don't let the pacifists read that one, right?

Right? Yeah, yeah, God is not keen on conscientious objectors.

In the time to fight comes, God expects you to fight. And that's, if you put into the vocation of defending your family, your country, your kindred, you know, then that's what you're called to do and do that well, not with slackness.

Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs.

He has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. So his taste remains in him and his scent is not changed.

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I shall send to him pourers who will pour him and empty his vessels, break his jars in pieces.

Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

How do you say we are heroes and mighty men of war? Who says that about themselves, by the way, really?

Okay, the destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up. The choices of his young men have gone down to slaughter, declares the king whose name is

Yahweh of armies. The calamity of Moab is near at hand and his affliction hastens swiftly.

Grieve for him, all you who are around him and all who know his name. Say how the mighty scepter is broken, the glorious staff.

So you'll note the scepter is a symbol of the rule of a king, the rule of a kingdom and God's broken the scepter of Moab.

Come down from your glory, sit on the parched ground, O inhabitant of Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you.

He has destroyed your strongholds. Stand by the way and watch. O inhabitant of Ereur, ask him who flees and her who escapes.

Say, what has happened? Moab is put to shame for it is broken.

Wail and cry. Tell it beside the Arnon that Moab is laid waste.

Judgment has come upon the Tableland, upon Holon and Jahzah and Mephahath, that's a tough word,

Mephahath and Dibon and Nebo and Beth Diblathayim and Kiriathaim and Beth Gamal and Beth Maon and Kiriath and Basra and all the cities of the land of Moab.

Now you've heard the name Basra before, right? That one comes up in the news coming out of Israel, right? Basra, all right?

So you know that Basra was originally a Moabite settlement and today's

Philistines, the people who are Palestinian are gonna have mixed blood probably coming from the

Moabites, but they don't count their heritage as that anymore. I don't think anyone really identifies themselves today really truly as Moabite.

And all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near, the horn of Moab is cut off. His arm is broken, declares

Yahweh. There's that picture again, horn. You'll note it's used in the book of Revelation regarding kingdoms.

If you were to think of it like a ram has horns, right? It's a sign of pride and of power.

And so when God uses horn imagery to describe a kingdom, it'll describe it in a way when it's being destroyed as the horn itself being cut off.

The mighty being humbled, that's the strong being made weak. They have nothing with which to wage war with anymore.

His arm is broken, declares Yahweh. Make him drunk because he magnified himself against Yahweh.

Yikes, okay? And this type of imagery, you can see this theme throughout different portions of scripture where God talks about drinking to the dregs, the cup of his wrath.

So when God is talking about drunkenness in the context of judgment, it's talking about a person being forced to drink from the cup of the wine fury of God.

That's kind of the idea. So make him drunk, he magnified himself against Yahweh.

That is not a smart thing to do. So that Moab shall wallow in his vomit and he too shall be held in derision.

Again, you'll note, if you will not repent, if you will not trust in God, if you want to have it your way, you can have it your way, but this is what you're asking for.

When God settles accounts, every penny will be settled and you're not going to like how he settles the accounts.

You exalt yourself against God, you say you know better than him. You start to pick up some of the themes then of hell itself.

Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves? And whenever you spoke of him, you wagged your head?

Leave the cities, dwell in the rock, O inhabitants of Moab. Be like the dove that nests in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.

We've heard of the pride of Moab, he's very proud. Of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.

Jesus said something about the one who exalts himself being humbled, right? God takes note.

I know his insolence, declares Yahweh. His boasts are false, his deeds are false.

Therefore, I wail for Moab, I cry out for all of Moab, for the men of Kirharazeth, I mourn.

More than for Jazzer, I weep for you, O vine of Sibma. Your branches passed over the sea, reached to the sea of Jazzer.

On your summer fruits and your grapes, the destroyer has fallen. Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab.

I have made the wine cease from the wine presses. No one treads them with shouts of joy.

The shouting is not the shout of joy. From the outcry at Heshbon, even to El -Lealah, as far as Jahaz, they utter their voice from Zoar to Hor Ad -Naim and Egloth and Shalishia, for the waters of Nimrim have become the desolate, and I will bring to an end, in Moab, declares

Yahweh, him who offers sacrifices in the high place and makes offering to his

God. Therefore, my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir Haraseth.

Therefore, the riches they gained, they have perished. For every head is shaved, every beard is cut off.

On all the hands are the gashes, and around the waist is sackcloth.

On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares, there is nothing but lamentation, for I have broken

Moab like a vessel for which no one cares, declares Yahweh. How it is broken, how they wail, how

Moab has turned his back in shame, so Moab has become a derision and a horror to all that are around him.

For thus says Yahweh, behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against Moab.

The city shall be taken, the thresholds seized. The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day like the heart of a woman in her birth pains.

Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people because he magnified himself against Yahweh.

Note here, like a heart of a woman in her birth pains. Christ describes his coming judgment and the distress at the end of the world as birth pains.

It's a common theme. You'll note Old and New Testament, they come together in these themes.

Moab shall be destroyed and no longer be a people because he magnified himself against Yahweh. Terror, pit, and snare are before you,

O inhabitant of Moab, declares Yahweh. He who flees from the terror shall fall into the pit.

He who climbs out of the pit shall be caught in the snare, for I will bring these things upon Moab the year of their punishment, declares

Yahweh. In the shadow of Heshbon, fugitives stop without strength, for fire came out from Heshbon, flame from the house of Sion.

It has destroyed the forehead of Moab, the crown of the sons of Tumult.

Woe to you, O Moab, the people of Shamash are undone, for your sons have been taken captive and your daughters into captivity, yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares

Yahweh, thus far as the judgment of Moab. No one's writing these verses on like a card or anything like that, you know, it's not happening.

Yeah, get well soon. I'm sorry that you're being judged by God. May you get well soon, okay.

Wow, this is fun stuff, right? Yeah. Are we up to 34 classes in Jerebiah, 34?

We've been at it for a while, you know. Although I will say we're getting close. Hang on, so I have a visual aid here to help us, how's that?

So we are in chapter 48 now, we're gonna start 49. So we got 49, 50, 51, and 52, right?

So we're almost out of Jeremiah. But when we're done with Jeremiah, we are going to go into Lamentations.

No one preaches on Lamentations anymore. It's only five chapters, it'll go like this.

We can get through it in 12 weeks. Yeah, we can get through it quickly. And then when we get through Lamentations, we just have to, we have to do

Daniel. We gotta do Daniel. And then, I'm.

Christmas comes so early. That's what you come to the divine service for, right?

We gotta do Daniel. But, and then we just absolutely have to do like Ezra and Nehemiah, you know.

And I was thinking kind of, so kind of in that order. Lamentations, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and then we'll do a whole study on the minor prophets.

Okay? A lot of people have never read the minor prophets. And if you tell them that there's a book in the

Bible called Zephaniah, they'll say, what? What's a Zephaniah? You know? Yeah.

And so, I would note that I actually tend to agree with Pastor Will Whedon on this.

That much of Jesus' theology is so clearly laid out in the minor prophets that it really behooves us to spend a little bit of time in there.

But you gotta note here, I'm not running quickly to get back into Jeremiah, because this is a tough section.

Really, really tough section. But what is invoked in all of this, and let me find this, because it was not my intent to go this direction, but might go down this way.

Hang on a second here. Do, do, do, do, do, do.

Rejoicing in heaven, marriage supper with the Lamb. No, no, no, no, no.

All right, hang on a second here. I sometimes have to rely on that good Bible search engine called

Goggle. Okay? What? Bible battle of Armageddon.

Okay. All right. You'll note these themes are kind of relayed also in the battle of Armageddon.

Daniel 2, Revelation 16. Here we go, Revelation 16. Seven bowls of God's wrath.

Boy, I'm really picking great verses today, aren't I? Yeah, that's right.

Revelation 16. Okay. I heard a voice from the temple telling the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.

So the first angel went, poured out his bowl on the earth. Harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

Second angel poured out his bowl into the sea. It became like the blood of a corpse. And every living thing died that was in the sea.

The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

And I heard an angel in charge of the water say, just are you a holy one who is and who was, for you brought these judgments, for they have shed the blood of the saints, the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.

It is what they deserve. You'll note the themes here in Revelation 16 are identical with the same thing that we're seeing in the section that we've been reading in Jeremiah.

When God gives an account, he really gives an account. And here, where the

Moabites and Pharaoh Necho and others in the Philistines, they despised and exalted themselves against Yahweh.

Here, what is shown is that God is acting now in wrath because the world has shed the blood of his saints, has shed the blood of the prophets.

And because of this, you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve. And believe me, none of us wants to get what we deserve.

That's what the cross is about. So then I heard the altar saying, yes, Lord, the almighty, true, and just are your judgments.

This is the martyrs crying out from the altar of God. The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire.

They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues.

And they did not repent, and they didn't give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.

People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and their sores.

But they did not repent of their deeds. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river

Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east.

And I saw it coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.

They are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the king and to the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God, the almighty.

Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments on, so that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed.

And they assembled them at a place in Hebrew that is called Harmageddon. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done.

And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there has never been since man was on the earth.

So great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts. The cities of the nations fell.

The God, and God remembered Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.

Note, same themes, right? You can take these, just read them side by side, and you can see the consistency of God the

Holy Spirit when he writes his authors right in these ways. Every island fled away, no mountains were to be found.

The great hailstones above about 100 pounds each fell from heaven on people, and they cursed

God for the plague of hail because the plague was so severe. Yeah, it's just, it's bleak.

It's absolutely bleak. Now I hope you guys have a great weekend. May the

Lord bless you and keep you. But yeah, you get the idea.

You could see the absolute consistency of God. And this is what

Christ has saved us from, God's wrath. It's his blood that makes us have peace with God, reconciles us to God and to each other, all right?

All right, Karen Goodwin, why do you reckon that the Lord has so much to say about Moab? You know, so when you ask a question like this,

Karen, I have to take note of something here. I'm not allowed to read God's mind.

In the very question, you are asking me to speculate, okay? And since I really am loathe to do that because my speculations are not all that profound,

I would note this, that when you read the Old Testament, there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of bad blood between Moab and Israel.

It was the king of the Moabites who had hired Balaam to curse Israel when they were coming out of the wilderness.

And let's just say that Moab didn't get a really good start either because the name itself is one of the ickiest names ever, okay?

If you remember, Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels showed up in Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot had said, come to my house, don't stay in the city square.

And so they did, and the men of the city, they came and wanted to gang -rape the angels, such as the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And so they were struck blind and they were not able to find the door of the house and the angels told

Lot and his daughters and his wife to flee. And they begged mercy and asked that they could make it to a particular place and that the destruction wouldn't go past there.

And so the angel granted that, but gave them stern warning, do not look back. Lot's wife did, she was double -minded.

She goes, oh no, there goes Macy's, there goes Nordstrom's, what am I gonna, you know? And then she immediately was turned into a pillar of salt, right?

And so when they get to where they're going, everybody in Sodom and Gomorrah is dead.

Mom is gone and the daughters of Lot, they despair.

Thinking that somehow they're the only people left on planet Earth and so they come up with this really icky plan.

They get their father drunk and then get pregnant by him.

And one of the sons born to these daughters, the daughter named him

Moab, which means from the father. It is just yuck, right?

It is just way, way bad. So you'll note then that from their start, they're off to a bad start.

And then they're constantly, constantly a problem to Israel.

And so I think it's appropriate that God, when he finally decides he's gonna make an end to them, he has

Jeremiah spend a lot of ink describing the coming judgment because there's a lot of accounts that have to be settled, a lot.

And again, I note that based upon these themes of God's wrath and judgment that we see from Revelation from Jeremiah, Jeremiah, under the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit, could have included the United States, could have included all of the current countries of the world.

This is just a sampling of the accounting that God makes. And you'll note, God leaves no sin unpunished.

And that's what makes Christ's death on the cross so amazing is that all of our sins are accounted for by what he did.

So that not one of our sins, not even one, do we have to give an accounting before God because you don't want to do that kind of accounting with God.

You just really don't. It is going, it's awful and terrible. And there's nothing, there is nothing blessed about it because at that point, the whole point of it is curse.

So yes, this is what God has saved us from. This is what we have been, this is what it means to be reconciled to God.

This is what we get to avoid. All right. So there's my, there's our happy class.

It's sunny outside. Hope you guys get out and get some serotonin and maybe get over the depression that you're experiencing right now as I plunged you into these wrath passages.

And I assure you, there'll be more wrath next week. So come back and it gives you something to really look forward to.