Talk of JESUS .com

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 Voice of a Shepherd in the Wilderness

    A Flawed Shepherd

    We’re flawed – very flawed; you know what I mean?

    A Shepherd is sorta an outsider, you know. The people in town wear fine clothes, woven from the well-washed wool of our flocks, yet they turn away from us repulsed by the scent of our lowly work as shepherds.

    Hills near Bethlehem in 2016 palestinian region of Israel

    Mostly we live in the wilderness just beyond Bethlehem, grazing our sheep, sleeping in solitude under the dark dome of silent star-lit nights. At night I look up to the Lord in the heavens, remembering the words of my youth.

    Traditions from our fathers recall a shepherd-king, David, of generations long gone. The old City of David just up the mountain from Bethlehem became home to a couple of thousand people. Our little town of Bethlehem now swells to nearly a thousand due to Rome’s order for our families to return for a census. Jerusalem has grown to maybe 40,000, plus Roman centurions.

    Time of the First Temple – 957-586 BC

    Solomon, son of David, built the first Temple in Jerusalem with riches from other lands. Enemies destroyed the Temple and plundered our lands, because our kings refused to listen to the Lord. Isaiah and the Prophets repeatedly warned our kings not to turn against God. They promised us hope in a Messiah, a King who would lead Israel in righteousness: but first Babylon would parade our captive leaders into foreign cities to live.

    Bethlehem road, 2016 palestinian Israel

    Second Temple rebuilt – 538-170 BC

    They allowed some of our fathers to return and rebuild Jerusalem, just a short journey north beyond these hills.

    Alexander ruled over us and the entire world nearby while our fathers adopted the language and some of the culture of our Greek captors. Egypt ruled us once more after Alexander’s death, until an Alexandrian general of Syria conquered us again.

    Herod rebuilds the Temple and Jerusalem under Rome – 38 BC

    Our grandfathers told us stories of the revolt of the priests and Herod the Great recapturing Galilee with considerable help from Rome. Rome’s powerful peace rules over us now, enforced by legions encamped across our countryside; but shepherds have little to say in these matters of power.

    Life of a Shepherd

    Our days of drudgery drag on into senseless seasons of defeat and despair. Dreams discouraged — hopes of all the years abandoned in desperate darkness for distractions of days lost in silent surrender. When we were young, times of promise never escaped our self-confidence. Now scores of years reveal a flawed flesh and failing desires.

    What hope have we beyond darkness in times of sorrow? For our remorse reminds of a past built on foundationless self-made dreams and hopes of self-earned glory.

    I did not need God!

    Who can keep the Lord’s Law or live up to men’s visions? We blame our flawed upbringing on generations of our fathers who failed in advantage over other men. I was a self-made, flawed man, with a little of a flawed plan.

    Who needs the help of another? Yet what stiff-necked soul does not cry out to God in our failure?

    I cannot face a God who knows my sin nor can I face a punishment of a God who stands in holiness against our transgressions. What savior for me — what savior for me?

    A Shepherd Recalls Scripture from Isaiah

    In solemn silence my distraught heart, heavy with hopeless, strains for gentle words of comfort whispering deeply into my soul. Lord, help me – forgive me – I can’t quite remember…

    [ctt title=”Isaiah 7:14 לָכֵן יִתֵּן אֲדֹנָי הוּא לָכֶם אֹות הִנֵּה הָעַלְמָה הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת בֵּן וְקָרָאת שְׁמֹו עִמָּנוּ אֵֽל׃” tweet=”A Messiah, born to a virgin” coverup=”eEdCg”]

    [ctt title=”Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14″ tweet=”” coverup=”jLQN1″]

    Immanuel, God with us; how I could never bear the thought of standing near Almighty God. Who can stand before, “God with us?” I once believed I was better than most, but now I fall before Him.

    The Messiah will be born to a virgin, pure in heart and flesh and He will not disappoint.

    I could never be like Him. Yet a voice soft as the caress of a gentle breeze describes a Savior I could hear, the only compassionate one who perfectly understands a lowly shepherd like me.

    He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,

    Or make it heard in the street;

    A bruised reed he will not break,

    And a faintly burning wick he will not quench;

    He will faithfully bring forth justice.

    Isaiah 42:2-3

    Conviction and the Cry of a Repentant Heart

    Now that my days of self-deceit have passed, indeed I am a bruised reed. My heart burns faintly with what life remains in these flawed bones and failing flesh. I cry out to the Lord.

    O God, are you gentle as a baby born humbly to a poor virgin? Lord, would you have mercy on a lowly man who lives near the beasts of your barns? What would you say to a flawed one like me?

    But this is the one to whom I will look:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit
    and trembles at my word.- Isaiah 66:2b

    To be continued Christmas day… 

     

  • and new things I now declare – 4

    Isaiah 48:

    3 “The former things I declared of old;
        they went out from my mouth, and I announced them;
        then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
    4 Because I know that you are obstinate,
        and your neck is an iron sinew
        and your forehead brass,
    5 I declared them to you from of old,
        before they came to pass I announced them to you…

    The Lord Declared

    I told you this a long time ago and to your ancestors many times.

    How do you like that? The Lord calls His chosen people, Israel or Jacob as they are called, obstinate.

    “You stiff-necked people!” the Messiah would call Temple officials generations after Isaiah. “You with ears to hear,” declare the prophets. What an indictment of a holy people supposedly separated to the Lord and redeemed again and again!

     6 “You have heard; now see all this;
        and will you not declare it?

    [ctt title=” From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.” tweet=”for a Savior of Jacob and the nations is born – the Messiah Jesus” coverup=”Rf04b”]

    7 They are created now, not long ago;
        before today you have never heard of them,
        lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’
    8 You have never heard, you have never known,
        from of old your ear has not been opened.

    The Lord’s Call to Israel

    [ctt title=”Isaiah 48:12 שְׁמַע אֵלַי יַֽעֲקֹב וְיִשְׂרָאֵל מְקֹרָאִי אֲנִי־הוּא אֲנִי רִאשֹׁון אַף אֲנִי אַחֲרֹֽון׃” tweet=”Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel.. The Messiah I AM is Christ Jesus.” coverup=”j14zE”]

    14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen!
    Who among them has declared these things?

     The Lord’s Call to the Nations

    Isaiah 49:

    Listen to me, O coastlands,
        and give attention, you peoples from afar.
    The Lord called me from the womb,
        from the body of my mother he named my name.

    Matthew 1:20b-23

    … behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

    She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

    All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

    Isaiah 52:

    8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
        together they sing for joy;
    for eye to eye they see
        the return of the Lord to Zion.
    9 Break forth together into singing,
        you waste places of Jerusalem,
    for the Lord has comforted his people;
        he has redeemed Jerusalem.
    10 The Lord has bared his holy arm
        before the eyes of all the nations,
    and all the ends of the earth shall see
        the salvation of our God.

    The Sin-Bearing Servant

    Isaiah 52: NKJV

    13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;
    He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
    14 Just as many were astonished at you,
    So His visage was marred more than any man,
    And His form more than the sons of men;
    15 So shall He sprinkle many nations.

    Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
    For what had not been told them they shall see,
    And what they had not heard they shall consider.

    An Advent Declared for these last days..

    New things we now declare; for the completion of these last days approaches with haste. The prophets and watchmen of the past have spoken what was and is and is to come. The LORD has revealed the hope of redemption for all who believe and the just punishment of souls tormented in the dust.

    Revelation 22:12-13 ESV

    [ctt title=”“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”” tweet=”An Advent Declared for these last days.. http://ctt.ec/o6OBb+” coverup=”o6OBb”]

    Have you prepared your heart for Christmas? Would you like to celebrate the gift of our humble Lord born a sinless Son of Man, to a virgin – our redeemer sacrificed on a cross? In the advent of His return at the end of these last days, do you bow before the Almighty, rejoicing in the light of His coming on the clouds?

    “You have heard; now see all this;
    and will you not declare it?

    Isaiah 48:6a ESV

  • and new things I now declare – 3

    Advent 3

    third-week-of-advent-2015-t7lt0r-clipartFor those unfamiliar with Liturgical seasons like Advent, its most significant impact may be a calendar of study of appropriate scheduled scriptures. During Advent we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, the Messiah who would have been well familiar with seasons celebrated in scripture and we celebrate the continuity of the Light of Christmas by lighting a new candle of an Advent wreath each week and the new light is added to others lit previously.

    If you missed the first two candles of our 2016 Advent season, just follow our scriptural journey through Isaiah and the Gospels by beginning on the links below. Today we add the Prophecy of Daniel to the warnings of John the Baptist.

    and new things I now declare – 1

    and new things I now declare – 2

    Advent 3 – Prepare the way of the Lord

    Isaiah 46:

    12 “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,
        you who are far from righteousness:
    13 I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off,
        and my salvation will not delay;
    I will put salvation in Zion,
        for Israel my glory.”

    Who will save you? What man can save us?

    Is it not the Lord who saves and is is not the Lord whose power reaches out into time and touches the hearts of man?

    Only the Lord can overrule the defiant hearts of a people who refuse glory to the King of all creation.

    A Voice in the Wilderness Cries Out

    John the Baptist's Warning about the impending judgment
    John the Baptist’s Warning about the impending judgment

    In a first century preaching John, known as the Baptizer, warns a complacent chosen people subjugated under Herod and Rome of the coming of the Lord: the Messiah, Jesus!

    Using the voice of the LORD of the 5th century B.C. through the Prophet Daniel, John preaches:

    Daniel 4:

    13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. 14 He proclaimed aloud and said thus:

    ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. 15 But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven.

    Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 16 Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’

    Repentance becomes the Advent of Redemption

    From Daniel’s interpretation of the symbolic dream of Nebuchadnezzar we learn of the most powerful man on earth coming into a time of humiliation and of an earthly king’s recognition of the Most High. Like many of us, Nebuchadnezzar had times when he demanded the attention of his followers – bow down to the idol of gold – then humble men came before him with exceeding power of an almighty God.

    John the Baptist preached of the power of the LORD over the might of leaders of nations – authority above the corrupt and misleading rulers of religion. Repent! Purify your bodies of sin and prepare the way for the Redeemer who will certainly come.

    Behold, I send my messenger before your face

    Mark 1:

    As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
    “Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
    who will prepare your way,

    the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
    ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight,’”

    John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

    Ἰωάννης

    muerte-san-juan-caravaggio_021John’s name means, “Jehovah is a gracious giver” and John the Baptist was son of Zacharias, a priest of the Temple and born to Elisabeth in their old age. John is the forerunner of Christ and preached the gospel of the coming of the good news of redemption for the souls of men.

    Repent! and purify your hearts; prepare for the Lord by changing your ways. Herod Antipas ordered the Temple guard to cast John into prison and afterwards beheaded him.

    We prepare the way of the Lord looking upon the innocence of a babe, an innocence maintained through every action and each word from the Messiah Jesus until upon the cross he proclaimed of the work of redemption: “It is finished.”

    Advent 3: and new things I now declare

    To be continued…