Talk of JESUS . com

Tag: prophets

  • The Beginning of the End – A Burden of the Prophets – 2

    The Beginning of the End – A Burden of the Prophets – 2

    Previously - Part 1

    The Hope of a Savior King

    Jeremiah 23:

    5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

    יְהֹוָה צִדְקֵנוּ Yĕhovah tsidqenuw 

    Matthew 1:

    20 But as he considered these things, 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.

    21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

    23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).  24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

    The Messiah Prophets Predicted

    His Name IS Jesus, the Christ and Messiah. Only a remnant of faithful would come to the Messiah and recognize this King of righteousness. Many are called; few are chosen. He came to his own, yet they received him not.

    In the seventh and sixth century before Christ idolatry would replace worship of the Lord. The Temple would fall, though prophets warned the people of the error of their ways.

    Are we so much less idolatrous?

    Do more than a few, a mere remnant, even now remain faithful to God?

    In addition to holding out the hope of a Messiah to come, Jeremiah warns against evil leaders and false prophets:

    Jeremiah 23:

    Their course is evil,
    and their might is not right.

    11 “Both prophet and priest are ungodly;
    even in my house I have found their evil,
    declares the Lord.

    Lies of evil leaders and false Prophets

    • Do shepherds of these last days seem ungodly? Do false prophets since Christ yet stir hatred into the evil hearts of violent men?
    • Will any nation, shepherd, priest or prophet endure the wrath of the LORD when judged apart from the holy, sinless and risen Savior of lost sheep?

    Jeremiah 23:16

    Thus says the Lord of hosts:

    “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.

    17 They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord,

    ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”

    21 “I did not send the prophets,
    yet they ran;
    I did not speak to them,
    yet they prophesied.

    23 “Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? 24 Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’

    Power Prevails against False Prophets and Evil Shepherds

    Yes, men seeking power will claim gods or prophets of their own desires. Idolatry against the Living God!

    Men seeking power will always deny the Lord.

    Evil men will always lead others toward their own destruction, rejecting the Lord who forgives through Christ’s sacrifice. They do not bow down to to God’s own love for those He made in His own Image, but rather wallow in their own inevitable hopelessness. Vain hopes.

    God only will judge!

    He will lead. And to those called to His love, the Lord will redeem them in love with great grace through His own sacrifice.

    True Prophets such as Jeremiah and true kings such as David have spoken the word of the Lord.

    They have pointed to the truth of the Messiah, truth for those ‘with ears to hear‘ of His great love and mercy.

    To be continued…

    Next: Amos

  • The Beginning of the End – A Burden of the Prophets

    The Beginning of the End – A Burden of the Prophets

    Prophets – Predictions of Destruction, Redemption and the Messiah

    How many Prophets can you name?

    Why do some prophets have a book and others do not? Is every prophet of God? Why all the predictions of destruction? These are but a few of the unanswered questions about the prophets.

    Major prophets, minor prophets, false prophets, seers, and more… No wonder we seldom hear preaching from their harsh messages of doom.

    Yet more important than the messenger would be the message of the LORD.

    Burden of the Prophets

    What is the God trying to tell these people to whom the LORD sent prophets? What is the LORD telling us through the warnings of the prophets?

    Is He speaking to me? What messenger can we believe?

    What must I do now that we have heard the burden of the prophets?

    In this year’s Advent series we will explore an even more important prediction of the prophets: the burden of the end times and coming of the Messiah King.

    The Righteous Branch

    Jeremiah 23 

    “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people:

    “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.

    3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord.

    5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.

    And this is the name by which he will be called:

    ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

    The short answer 

    Returning to our initial memory test of Names:

    Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel… Let’s see: Ezekiel and then Elisha, but they don’t have books.  (Why not, we wondered?)

    Then there are a whole bunch with shorter books… Let’s see: Zechariah (or was he a priest?), Micah… Malachi (I remember it, the last one). We are hard-pressed to remember them all, let alone know or understand what they wrote and why they wrote it.

    In fact, most books or the minor prophets are short and their message of the LORD directed to specific lands of their day. Yet I caution that the message of the LORD remains applicable in these last days.

    Timeline of the Prophets

    Here's a quick look at the 12 minor and 4 major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and (oops, I forgot briefly) Ezekiel.
    time line of mayor and minor prophets of Israel and Judah

    We find references to Elijah, Elisha and many others in several books of the Bible, largely the historical books of Kings and Chronicles. The Old and New Testaments also list those who are false, guiding God’s faithful to discernment of the agendas of evil lying men of every age.

    A brief overview of Jeremiah 23

    Jeremiah lived in the 7th century B.C. He is called the weeping prophet for good reason. Lamentations looks back to the destruction of Israel (the northern kingdom).

    Jeremiah and Zephaniah both prophesy the beginning of the end for Judah as well. King Josiah, who was the last king to do good in the sight of the Lord, would die (as do all earthly kings). A succession of evil kings would bring about the end of Judah as well. The Assyrian empire fell, but the ten banished tribes would not return to the land the Lord had promised.

    The imagery of the shepherds and the sheep is common to leaders and their followers. 

    “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” 

    Kings, religious leaders, even military or political leaders of families or tribes. Shepherds. We could apply it to a governor or bishop, a president or leader of false religion.

    “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.

    Pretty harsh condemnation of powerless leadership leading their followers like sheep to the slaughter. Has so much changed in these last days?

    I will repay, says the Lord, the God of Israel.

    To be continued…

    Next: Jeremiah’s Hope

  • for it was not the season for figs – 2

    for it was not the season for figs – 2

    … and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

    In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.” – Zechariah 3:9b-10 [circa 519 B.C.]

    Looking Back to the Prophets

    From Moses to the late Prophets at the time of Zechariah and Haggai, the LORD spoke to the faithful of Jacob. (Call them: Israel, Judah, Judea, Galilee, even Samaria at the time of Jesus.) 

    They were divided after David, captured after Solomon, conquered by foreign lands and driven into distant empires. Even after rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple, Israel would never be the same.

    Prophets spoke judgment of evil nations, cities and leaders.

    Prophesy during the times of the first dispersion accomplished the Lord’s purpose. Jerusalem and the Temple were rebuilt, then rebuilt again by Herod and Rome. Between the time of these two Temples, no word from above – generations of silence. 

    Surely those hearing of the miracles of the great Prophet approaching Jerusalem for the Passover festival had high expectations of this greatest Prophet, Jesus.

    He is the Messiah of God!

    The crowds cover the road with palms and shout:

    “Son of David,”  

    as the King of the Jews (Jesus) rode victoriously up to the gates of Jerusalem.

    ‘Hosanna!’ ‘Blessed be the Lord.’ ‘Savior!’

    And what had the prophet Zechariah written?

    “and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day..

    .. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”

    The Sacrifice of the Lamb of God accomplished the removal of sin; yes, in a single day: Good Friday.

    What did Jerusalem expect?

    The Judeans, Galileans, Samaritans, even Jews on faithful pilgrimage to the Passover festival from other lands followed Jesus with different high expectations from nearly forgotten writings of  Zechariah and others.

    Zechariah 9:

    The oracle of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach (Syria) and Damascus is its resting place.

    [Of course, Rome would control all of these Mediterranean lands 500 years later, not just Judah, Galilee and Samaria.]

    The Coming King of Zion

    9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
        Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
    Behold, your king is coming to you;
        righteous and having salvation is he,
    humble and mounted on a donkey,
        on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
    10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
        and the war horse from Jerusalem;
    and the battle bow shall be cut off,
        and he shall speak peace to the nations;
    his rule shall be from sea to sea,
        and from the River A Powerful Professed King

    The crowds, some who had followed Jesus for three years, knew the Son of Man riding victoriously into Jerusalem on a donkey had all power to defeat Rome in a day!

    But it was not the Lord’s will to save Jerusalem in a day, but sinners.

    “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

    Luke 5:32

    For it was not the season for figs and those who will not repent remain cursed and will wither to be burned.

    To be continued…