Category: Prophets – Warnings for 21st century ‘christians’

stone carving of the prophet Jeremiah reading Bible - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel are major Prophets of the Old Testament
Jeremiah by Michelangelo

Old Testament Prophets WARNED Israel, Judah, and neighboring nations about what GOD has planned IF they did NOT REPENT (and they usually didn’t).

How does this speak to 21 c. ‘christians’ in these last days? Are you bold enough to WARN your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ of what Jesus Christ warns? Does the message of a Prophet apply even more to them and US, now? SHARE your scriptural warnings from the Prophets and WITNESS for our LORD, WHO IS and returning… soon.

  • The Sun and the Moon Stood Still – Why won’t we?

    The Sun and the Moon Stood Still – Why won’t we?

    The sun and moon stood still in their habitation:

    Habakkuk 3:11 KJV

    Sun and moon stood still before God

    What’s the picture?


    Habakkuk – a Prophet burdened for a people humbled

    1:2 עַד־אָנָה יְהוָה שִׁוַּעְתִּי וְלֹא תִשְׁמָע אֶזְעַק אֵלֶיךָ חָמָס וְלֹא תוֹשִׁיעַ׃


    The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.

    IF you have not already felt the full weight of a Prophet painting a picture for men without eyes to see

    a sun and a moon which had stood still, — then you have sensed a low and quiet place where the Lord has prepared an unseeing Common Era people by a BLINDING LIGHT in the darkness of these last days…


    O LORD, how long shall I cry,
    And You will not hear?
    Even cry out to You, “Violence!”
    And You will not save.

    Habakkuk 1:2 NKJV


    Sound familiar?

    (Even from your own arrogant lips?)


    Why do You show me iniquity,
    And cause me to see trouble?
    For plundering and violence are before me;
    There is strife, and contention arises.

    Therefore the law is powerless,
    And justice never goes forth.
    For the wicked surround the righteous;
    Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

    Habakkuk 1:2-3

    The LAW of which the Prophet speaks 
    -- the Commandments of the LORD
    -- NO LAW = No Justice!

    Do we blindly suppose that the righteous are US?
    AND therefore WE the named and claimed PEOPLE of God suffer by His Almighty Hand!
    COULD THAT BE JUST?

    WHY does this sound so familiar to a Common Era people who rarely read or hear the oracles of WARNING by the Prophets of God?

    And what does Habakkuk ask early-on in his plea to the LORD?

    Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
    And hold Your tongue
    when the wicked devours
    A person more righteous than he?
    14 Why do You make men like fish of the sea,
    Like creeping things that have no ruler over them?

    Habakkuk 13b-14 NKJV


    IS THIS any way to PLEA to the Lord our God of Whom WE are commanded to 'love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’ even confirmed by the Messiah and Lord Jesus? 

    More Writing on the wall

    Jesus writing in the sand with his finger
    (for those casting a first stone at Habakkuk) 

    Then the Lord answered me and said:

    “Write the vision
    And make it plain on tablets,
    That he may run who reads it.

    For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
    But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.

    Though it tarries, wait for it;
    Because it will surely come,
    It will not tarry.

    “Behold the proud,
    His soul is not upright in him;
    But the just shall live by his faith.

    Habakkuk 2:2-4 NKJV


    Again, what is the picture? 

    The SOUL of the proud is fallen.
    AND the soul of the Lord's faithful remains bowed down in the witness of our lives.

    Therefore, for the hope of the faithful know that the LORD pronounces many woes (and NOT blessings) on the proud who seem to be in charge of our mortal lives. And to name just a few:

    THEN the LORD closes his response to the Prophet with an authoritatively THUNDERING VOICE to humble worshipers bowed down in faithfulness:

    “But the Lord is in His holy temple.
    Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”

    Habakkuk 2:20

    What would happen IF Common Era worshipers would put down our devices and our coffees and entered into WORSHIP like this? 

    Let thos whw with eyes to see Christ's writing in the sand see God's zeal for faithful worshipers.

    and now:

    This prayer sung by the prophet Habakkuk:

    O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
    O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
    In the midst of the years make it known;
    In wrath remember mercy.

    Habakkuk 3:2 NKJV

    And the earth was full of His praise.

    4 His brightness was like the light;
    He had rays flashing from His hand,
    And there His power was hidden...

    He looked and startled the nations.
    And the everlasting mountains were scattered,
    The perpetual hills bowed.

    from the prayer of Habakkuk


    GET THE IDEA?

    all bowed down before the Lord – in HIS Presence everything else stood still or was swept away by the hidden power of HIS GLORY!

    The sun and the moon stood still


    Now returning to the context of our opening picture and illustration: 
    red moon of an eclipse The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. Habakkuk 3:11

    You divided the earth with rivers.
    10 The mountains saw You and trembled;
    The overflowing of the water passed by.
    The deep uttered its voice,
    And lifted its hands on high.
    11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation;
    At the light of Your arrows they went,
    At the shining of Your glittering spear.

    12 You marched through the land in indignation;
    You trampled the nations in anger.
    13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
    For salvation with Your Anointed.
    You struck the head from the house of the wicked,
    By laying bare from foundation to neck.

    Selah

    When I heard, my body trembled;
    My lips quivered at the voice;
    Rottenness entered my bones;
    And I trembled in myself,
    That I might rest in the day of trouble.

    Habakkuk 3:16a NKJV

    Is THIS your reaction -- contemporary christian worshiper? 

    A Hymn of Faith

    NO hymns for OUR praise band! 
    NO Old Testament Prophets and their drama that could SILENCE the applause and bring the CROWD to its knees.

    Who remembers Jesus cursing the fig tree as the Lord entered Jerusalem?

    The unfamiliar picture and significant symbolism Jesus drew is the same as that of Habakkuk’s hymn of faith.

    We examined this great symbolism in an earlier series.


    Even if you choose not to read the prologue above you will find these references from Habakkuk below -with which we will conclude.

    AND consider our 2025 CE Lenten theme of contrition replanted in the hearts of 21st century worshipers:

    We stood there and did nothing

    • Habakkuk and other Prophets of the Lord have warned us to WORSHIP the Lord our God.
    • The Messiah JESUS — Son of the Living God — enters Jerusalem cursing a tree that bore no fruit (though thousands applaud Him).
    • Crowds of worshipers enter a Common Era gathering little noticing a cursed fig tree as they bring their coffees and distracting devices toward the gate of the grand stage.
    • LENT?
      • WE don’t do that anymore…

    O, faithless fig tree, dear dried up vine;

    do you believe that you alone have cried out to the Lord for mercy?

    Habakkuk 3:

    O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
    O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
    In the midst of the years make it known;
    In wrath remember mercy.

    for it was not the season for figs – 7 – July 9, 2017 TalkofJESUS.com

    Comment on Scripture + Share the Gospel

  • take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    Take up a song of mourning for what God is about to do to you;

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    The earth quakes and Empires crumble


    Take up a song of mourning for all the people shaken and crushed as the Lord makes the earth and sea to quake.
    NOTE 21st c. Gaziantep, Turkiye beyond the path of Paul’s 2nd missionary land journey from Antioch to Derbe with Silas.

    TODAY, we interrupt the earthquakes and witness of Paul’s second missionary journey in Philippi from ACTS of the Apostles to re-post a 4-part series from two years ago.


    Rejoice that I am no prophet

    (For the only prophesy I ever imagined may have been from God has not yet happened.)

    My song of mourning echoes God’s indictment spoken to falling nations of the Old Testament and the New Testament warning of Hebrews. For my own heart mourns ahead for what is to become of this land of so much promise.

    And allow me to add an unpalatable and unspeakable truth: Muhammed was no prophet of God, Joseph Smith was no prophet of Jesus Christ and no political leader I know even comes close to speaking the hallowed word of God.

    Source: Middle East Monitor:

    Gaziantep, Turkiye on March 02, 2023 [Adsız Günebakan/Anadolu Agency]


    SHAKEN! – a 4-part continued warning

    SHAKEN! part 1 – Jan. 22, 2021 – “God, you have rejected us – Psalm 60
    January 25, 2021 – ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? – Haggai 2:3
    January 27, 2021 – “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 4:7b CSB
    January 29, 2021 – but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” – Hebrews 12:26b

    A song of mourning through Ezekiel

    Picture a Prophet, faithful to the Lord God, lamenting the downfall of nations including his own. Ezekiel speaks a song of mourning for nation after nation and leader after leader.

    WHY have these listened to false prophets?

    What consequence for those who have turned against the LORD.

    The compelling scenes of Ezekiel’s encounters with the Lord God will seem familiar to those of you who have also discovered the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.

    Most of what God has to say should bring even a 21st century observer of these last days to mourn for the lost righteousness the LORD has intended. Once again the faithful must sing a song of mourning for so many cities and every nation.


    Mar. 16, 597 B.C. – Babylon, led by Nebuchadnezzar beseiged Jerusalem a second time and took captive King Jehoiachin and a group of 10,000, including Ezekiel.

    Source (paraphrased) John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – Ezekiel


    .. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”

    And as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have revolted against Me to this very day.

    Ezekiel 1:28b-2:3 NASB20


    “But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

    Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me;

    and behold, a scroll was in it.

    When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back,

    and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Excerpts from Ezekiel 2

    Ezekiel - When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Shall WE speak more woe to those who are perishing?

    Ezekiel 19:

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of Israel..

    ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard..

    ‘But it was uprooted in fury;
    It was thrown down to the ground;
    And the east wind dried up its fruit.
    [fn]Its strong stem [fn]was torn out
    So that it withered;
    The fire consumed it..

    ‘And fire has gone out from its stem;
    It has consumed its shoots and fruit,
    So that there is no strong stem in it,
    A scepter to rule.’”

    This is a song of mourning, and has become a song of mourning.


    Ezekiel 25:
    • Prophesy Against Ammon
    • Prophesy Against Moab
    • Prophesy Against Edom
    • Prophesy Against Philistia

    “So I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful reproofs; and they will know that I am Yahweh when I lay My vengeance on them.”’”


    Could there be a Prophecy Against US?

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of … - Ezekiel
    a song of mourning
    Prophesy Against Tyre
    Ezekiel 26
    
    

    Thus says Lord Yahweh to Tyre,

    “Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your downfall when the wounded groan, when the killing occurs in your midst?

    Lament over Tyre
    “O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’
    “Your borders are in the heart of the seas;
    Your builders have perfected your beauty.
    
    “Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise,
    Your sailors and your pilots,
    Your repairers of seams, your dealers in merchandise,
    And all your men of war who are in you,
    With all your assembly that is in your midst,
    Will fall into the heart of the seas
    On the day of your downfall.
    

    ‘Who is like Tyre,

    Like her who is silent in the midst of the sea?


    Ezekiel 28:

    “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

    “Because your heart is lofty
    And you have said, ‘I am a god;

    I sit enthroned in the seat of gods
    In the heart of the seas’;

    Yet you are a man and not God,

    Although you make your heart like the heart of God—

    debate stage Trump, political idol of the extreme right and Biden, political idol of the extreme left.

    “You had the seal of perfection,

    Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…

    “Your heart was lofty because of your beauty;

    You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.

    I cast you to the ground;

    I put you before kings,

    That they may see you…

    “All who know you among the peoples
    Are appalled at you;

    You have become terrified,

    And you will cease to be forever.”’”

    Ezekiel 28:19 Legacy Standard Bible

    Revelation

    The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

    Look, he is coming with the clouds,
    
    and every eye will see him,
    
    even those who pierced him.
    
    And all the tribes of the earth
    
    will mourn over him.
    
    So it is to be. Amen.

    Could a song of mourning be for US?

    For all the nations have drunk[fn]

the wine of her sexual immorality,

which brings wrath.

The kings of the earth

have committed sexual immorality with her,

and the merchants of the earth

have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess. - Revelation 18:3 CSB

    The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

    Revelation 18:9

    Rejoice over her, heaven,

    and you saints, apostles, and prophets,

    because God has pronounced on her the judgment she passed on you!

    Revelation 18:20 CSB

    Washington DC mall
    White House and lightning

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    Woe, woe, the great city,

    dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet,

    adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls;

    for in a single hour

    such fabulous wealth was destroyed!

  • REPENTANCE! Rated ‘R’ – but Not for Revival

    REPENTANCE! Rated ‘R’ – but Not for Revival

    I will ransom them from the power of the grave;

    I will redeem them from death:

    O death, I will be thy plagues;

    O grave, I will be thy destruction:

    repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

    Hosea 13:14 KJV

    a Gathering of the Dead with NO Hope of Revival

    When the Prophets spoke a convicting word of repentance to the professed chosen of the LORD, WHY didn’t THEY repent?

    Could it be that THEY refused to hear ANY word of conviction – an accountably of the GOD’s indictment of SIN?

    (And like THEM, who among us is not GUILTY of hiding OUR sins from the Lord as we would like to think on occasion after occasion?)

    Are those ancient LEADERS and PEOPLE of Judah, Israel and the nations JUST LIKE US?


    Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out - Acts 3: Peter preaching repentance
    Repentance!

    Repentance oft’ served bitterly in the King James

    (Of course most shepherds of Christ's 21st c. churches resist a call of evangelism by reading the KJV. Most will not preach any convicting word of God given to fallen people through His PROPHETS from ANY translation of the Holy Bible.) 
    
    After all, who comes to church to REPENT?

    The Prophets use severe terms that a pastor hardly dare preach

    the ‘R’ rated word of the LORD

    NOT ever to be spoken to a sweetened Sunday flock of young christians, gracefully posing alongside a remnant of the faithful, as sinless sheep.

    AND IF you are not repentant about your continued sins against Him don’t think that your preferred personal designation of ‘King Jesus’ will save you from the grave.


    We certainly wouldn’t want our Jesus-lovers sent home sorrowful [נֹחַם] over our sin.

    Yet this is exactly the other meaning of the repentance of which the Prophet speaks in saying that the LORD will hide YOUR sorrow from His eyes.

    Hosea and other ‘minor’ prophets will often rail on bitterly in a specific call of repentance.

    The LORD reminds Israel through Hosea’s words and obedient unexpected actions of their former disobedience to obey their promises to Him.


    The LORD’s word by the mouth of His Prophets may not only be bitter and offensive, but rated ‘R’ in the church gathering of culturally inclusive Sunday audience.

    So would you with ears to hear prefer to hear the LORD in easier English than the King James? 
    (Any translation of Scripture can be convicting to a heart open to receive the word of the Lord.)

    It is your ruin, O Israel,

    That you are against Me, against your help…

    I gave you a king in My anger
    And took him away in My wrath.

    Hosea 13:9.11 LSB

    The LORD laments over Israel when He sorrowfully gave them Saul as a king —

    and then David, a man after God’s own heart

    — and Solomon who built the Temple

    — and his sons who as kings of Israel and Judah lost favor, because these kings and their subjects most often refused to repent.

    Returning to Hosea's calling and also the King James:

    Hosea 1:

    The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

    The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea.

    And the LORD said to Hosea,

    Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

    • Would you like to go tell your President or king THAT?
    • Dare you call your congregation and country ‘children of whoredoms?’ [v.2]
    • Will you warn them “.. ye are not my people, and I will not be your God?” [v.9]

    AND from there, the LORD gets even more graphic in HIS imagery of nakedness of the sin of his CHOSEN PEOPLE who bear witness to HIS NAME (supposedly).


    IS THAT how we witness JESUS when we whisper to Him gracefully on Sunday?

    “‘King Jesus,’ WE love what you have done for US,”

    Christ gets little mention.. no honor.. no priority in six and a half days of our weekly life?

    When do YOU ever Talk of JESUS outside of the walls of a ‘worship’ service?

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    Repent & Turn back to your Savior

    Here’s the idea of Repentance when you have an argument with God:

    Job 6: “my complaint is just.’ BUT finally the LORD answers Job in a whirlwind (think tornadic pillar of fire!)

    Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

    Job 42:6

    And Job was a righteous man!


    But to the unrighteous kings, princes and people God warns Israel and commands his last Prophet of Israel, Hosea:

    Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

    Hebrew – נָחַם

    KJV Translation Count — Total: 108x
    The KJV translates Strong’s H5162 in the following manner: comfort (57x), repent (41x), comforter (9x), ease (1x).
    Outline of Biblical Usage [?]
    to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org


    Repent – Greek – μετανοέω

    Do you recognize the comfort of having your guilt removed by God when you repent of sin?

    Of course YOU are not alone. For your witness of Christ our Savior ought to be that WE are included with THEM in that all have sinned [Romans 3]. JESUS paid the full price the justice of God requires (even for repentant sinners like you and me).

    Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:5 KJV – THIS to the 1st c. CHURCH at Ephesus
    Shepherds of 21st c. churches also resist the New Testament repentance of preaching Jesus' Revelation of THE END to sheepish christian congregations more entertained than revived.
    
    YES, JESUS is KING of Kings and Lord of lords! Is your worship of the KING appropriate to His call to obedience? 

    Lexicon :: Strong’s G3340 – metanoeō

    Outline of Biblical Usage [?]
    to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent

    to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

    “Repentance (metanoia, ‘change of mind’) involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness.” (F. F. Bruce. The Acts of the Apostles [Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.)

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Repent ye G3340 therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

    Acts of the Apostles 3:19 KJV

    This is how Peter and the Apostles preached.

    Yet Peter replied also inviting their response.

    Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

    Acts 4:4 KJV


    Revival?

    I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.
    O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

    Hosea 13:14 ESV

    Aren’t followers of Jesus — Ἰησοῦς His NAME means: “Jehovah is salvation” — ransomed from the cost of sin and the power of Sheol by the price He paid on the Cross?

    Since JESUS IS GOD, aren’t His followers redeemed by Him from Death?

    Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
    whoever is discerning, let him know them;
    for the ways of the LORD are right,
    and the upright walk in them,
    but transgressors stumble in them.

    Hosea 14:9 ESV – the Prophet’s closing cautions to the wise in the Lord.

    The root of revival is ‘to live!’ – חָיָה

    Yet Hosea warns that transgressors will stumble into Sheol and Death.

    AND David sings out in Psalm 37: He Will Not Forsake His Saints

    v.38 But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
    the future of the wicked shall be cut off.


    Shall the transgressor of Christ’s grace receive carte blanche revival from the grave without witness of the saving Cross of JESUS?

    In fact, what did the King of kings and Lord of lords have to say about such revival?


    Gospel Truth (and the Way and the Life)

    “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord.. And then will I declare to them,

    ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

    Matthew 7:21-23 excerpt ESV

    The word for lawlessness Jesus uses is: ἀνομία – anomia – its definition:

    contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness


    When a man thought a family obligation should delay his discipleship to the Lord Jesus he received an unexpected answer from the Son of Man who could actually revive the dead:

    And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

    Matthew 8:22 ESV

    NO, I do not believe that we will have REVIVAL in the Church (people, and not the building of certain Shepherds) WITHOUT first witnessing the fruit of REPENTANCE by the crowds from which Jesus fled.

    What do YOU think, my fellow follower of Christ Jesus?

    Repentance OR Revival?


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