Summary: No one thought Jerusalem would be defeated – that was what the world thought! Religious society was so evil. We look at corruption in our western world, from governments to people. The world will worsen and judgement is coming very quickly. Australia and the United States.

THE BOOK OF LAMENTATIONS – PART 34 – THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENED AND CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE - CHAPTER 4:12-13

In our last message we looked at a whole lot of misery for the survivors of the Babylonian holocaust. That was one of the saddest messages we could give. However contained in it would be strong warnings about the evil of disobedience and rejecting God. This new message changes direction. It becomes more reflective as Jeremiah states his case.

PART [12]. UNTOUCHABLE – OR WERE THEY MISTAKEN?

{{Lamentations 4:12 “THE KINGS OF THE EARTH did not believe, NOR DID ANY OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE WORLD, that the adversary and the enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.”}}

Urban myths abound. The ancient people are not stupid as modern humanists believe. The humanists think they are the pinnacle of creation, the repository of all intelligence and knowledge. The people of Jeremiah’s era, from far away lands knew the stories of the LORD’S protection of His heritage and that it was nearly impossible to defeat Judah and Jerusalem. Ever since King David back some 500 years, no one had ever trashed Jerusalem. Therefore, it was not likely to happen because it had not happened!

But it did! These people of the ancient world did not factor into the equation that God is holy and will not forever tolerate sin. His own people had corrupted themselves abominably and became worshippers of heathen idols more than the heathens themselves. God had to rebuke the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim/Samaria or Israel, in this way – {{Hosea 4:16-17 “Since Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer, can the LORD now pasture them like a lamb in a large field? EPHRAIM IS JOINED TO IDOLS. Let him alone.”}}

They were stuck like superglue to their idols, but the Southern Kingdom was even worse. This is a longer passage but it is God’s condemnation written in Jeremiah matching two sisters, Israel and Judah. In it just look and see how treacherous Judah was:-

Jeremiah 3:6-10 “Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there, and I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me’, but she did not return, and her TREACHEROUS sister Judah saw it. I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her TREACHEROUS sister Judah did not fear, but she went and was a harlot also, and it came about because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. Yet in spite of all this, her TREACHEROUS sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the LORD.”}}

This honourable and righteous King Josiah, the next best king following David, was king almost at the end of Judah’s tenure. His righteousness contrasted with the wickedness of his subjects. Josiah must have been grieved at the state of the nation following all the godly reforms he established. The people were so sinful they rejected all claims by the LORD, just like our world today rejects the Lord God and will meet a similar fate as did the Judeans. Josiah was a remarkable man, remaining faithful in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.

There is a point in those verses that is very meaningful to me as it touches on the longsuffering and patience of God. It is these words here – {{I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me’, but she did not return,”}}. Israel set up the golden calves with Jeroboam and practised idolatry and that went on for maybe 300 years. Not one king in the Northern Kingdom was a godly man. Jehu was more decent than all the other wicked kings.

In all that time God waited in the hope that Israel/Samaria would return once it had realised its wickedness, but it never happened. (In God’s omniscience, He very well knew the end from the beginning). Decade after decade there was no change, and in the end God had had enough. I think that was a lovely thought of the perseverance of God because some of God’s children go off the rails, and the Lord is patient, desiring that the wayward one will return in repentance. The Holy Spirit assists in that mightily.

We can all be beset by sin and lose our way, but with the pleading of the Lord and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, only the reprobate would not return.

It says that Judah polluted the land with idolatry and committed spiritual adultery. In fact it was getting worse with the worship of the Queen of Heaven and the sacrificing of the children to the bull god Moloch. Jeremiah details a lot of these grossly wicked practices. I can see a downward trend – rapidly – in our western nations today. In fact homosexuality is now everywhere and encouraged. I am sickened by it in my nation. It is “in your face” all the time. We are as Sodom and the great Tribulation awaits our vile nations.

I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the USA as much as I can. In spite of the more decent trend of appointed leaders under Donald Trump, there is a festering deep evil under the surface in all manner of wickedness. It reminds me a bit of godly Josiah and the horrible evil of Judah in spite of Josiah’s reforms. I find it disheartening that the great Southern Baptist Convention is falling apart with a departure from its values. Still there are a number of SB churches who are holding the fort.

I wrote a message in the past called Who I want to meetin heaven”./ I know of all the Old Testament characters, wonderful men and women of God, there are really two I truly want to be with and get to know (if such a thing could happen). They are Jeremiah and Josiah.

In our Lamentation’s verse it was believed by the world’s kings that no one could enter Jerusalem to overcome it. In fact this was the song – {{Psalm 100:4-5 “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name for the LORD is good. His loving-kindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations.”}} It would stay that way because the LORD is faithful, but God is never faithful to perpetual sin.

This is the cry to the LORD in the distress caused by Judah’s enemies. It was the enemy, not Jerusalem, that had its gates shattered. The nations did not think it possible that it would be Jerusalem itself whose gates would be shattered and burned. Here is the Psalm – {{Psalm 107:13-16 “Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble. He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their bands apart. Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving-kindness and for His wonders to the sons of men for He has shattered gates of bronze and cut bars of iron asunder.”}}

PART [13]. THE RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP WAS CORRUPT AND PRACTISED WICKEDNESS CONTINUALLY

{{Lamentations 4:13 ”(It was) because of THE SINS OF HER PROPHETS, and the INIQUITIES OF HER PRIESTS, who have shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.”}} The priests were so evil and a bit later we look at what Ezekiel condemned them for.

A famous line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet is this, “There’s something rotten in the State of Denmark.” When a nation is in moral decline, the rottenness becomes evident, but too many people dismiss that situation. They acquiesce or are happy to accept it, not to make waves, or live and let live.

There is so much rottenness in Western society but it seems too few are willing to stand against it. My own nation is corrupt through and through, and the majority of citizens are content with that. The moral backbone has been broken. The Government hates Israel, Jews and Christians, but supports Palestinians and Hamas. Wickedness flourishes because people love it and elect their government to promote it. The United States has been given one last chance with Trump and his cabinet that is one of the most decent for many years. If the nation does not repent and turn in conviction to God, this breathing space is finished and judgement will fall.

It is no surprise that the tentacles of evil reach out to fasten on to Christians and churches and biblical beliefs to destroy all decency and the bible’s testimony. This is the case now as churches are facing persecution and regulation against our core beliefs. My nation has been deliberately flooded with Moslems, many of them Palestinians and Hamas supporters, so the existing neo-communist Government can obtain their vote. The bible has been suppressed in schools and Government buildings. Gay/Lesbian rights are promoted and protected against any Christians speaking against them. The separation of Church and State no longer applies in Australia or Britain. We are fast tracking Satanism in rock music, literature, movies, education, Government departments and regulations.

What can Christians and people with some semblance of decency do about these things? The first thing I am told is that we must pray against all this. I don’t want to be negative here and certainly do not put down the power of prayer, but if you bear with me then I would say this. Our current age is unlike any other in the past 2000 years because the Rapture and seven years later, The Second Coming, are just so close. Those who study signs of the times and biblical prophecy know this to be the case.

We also know that there are signs given for the Second Coming, such as those in Matthew 24 and from a number of Old testament Prophets. There are a huge number of signs for it.

In regard to the coming Rapture, we also have signs relating to the end of the Church Age such as these – {{2 Timothy 3:1-5 “Realise this, that IN THE LAST DAYS difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (and) holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these.”}}

The bible is clear that the world is now in a downward free fall into wickedness. That is not going to stop but evil increases so that by the time of the Second Coming, the Lord spoke about being in the days of Noah. Matthew 24:37-39. What were those days like?

{{Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that EVERY INTENT OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART WAS ONLY EVIL CONTINUALLY.” Genesis 6:11-12 “Now THE EARTH WAS CORRUPT in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence, and God looked on the earth, and behold, IT WAS CORRUPT, FOR ALL FLESH HAD CORRUPTED THEIR WAY upon the earth.”}}

This world will not improve itself but will decline rapidly. Christians will be hated more and more; Jews and Israel will be persecuted and rejected; people will not be able to solve the dilemma they have caused. It is for that reason that I don’t think we should pray for revival because it won’t come to the western world. We should be praying for, and supporting persecuted Christians, and the gospel in third world countries where God is doing great things – check out Iran. We should also pray for fellow Christians because the pressure of wickedness means we need to ask God to support His followers to a greater extent.

HOWEVER – This is a command of God and must not be neglected – {{1 Timothy 2:1-2 “First of all, then, I URGE THAT ENTREATIES AND PRAYERS, PETITIONS AND THANKSGIVINGS, BE MADE ON BEHALF OF ALL MEN; FOR KINGS AND ALL WHO ARE IN AUTHORITY, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”}}

Our Jeremiah verse condemns prophets and priests. They represented the religious leadership in Judah but they were corrupt and full of iniquity. Jeremiah knew them well for he was both priest and prophet. All three major prophets outline the corruption that was endemic among prophets and priests and there are many references. I will take some of them -

{{Isaiah 9:14-15 “so the LORD cuts off head and tail from Israel, both palm branch and bulrush in a single day. The head is the elder and honourable man, and the prophet who teaches falsehood is the tail.”}} This is prophetic of Judah’s downfall that was to come in about 200 years.

{{Isaiah 28:7 “These also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink. THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET REEL WITH STRONG DRINK. They are confused by wine. They stagger from strong drink. They reel while having visions. They totter when rendering judgment.”}}

{{Jeremiah 2:8 “THE PRIESTS DID NOT SAY, ‘WHERE IS THE LORD?’ and those who handle the law did not know Me. The rulers also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and walked after things that did not profit.”}}

{{Jeremiah 4:9 “It shall come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “that the heart of the king and the heart of the princes will fail, AND THE PRIESTS WILL BE APPALLED, AND THE PROPHETS WILL BE ASTOUNDED.”}}

{{Jeremiah 5:13 “THE PROPHETS ARE AS WIND, and the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.”}}

{{Ezekiel 13:2 “Son of man, PROPHESY AGAINST THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy from their own inspiration, ‘Listen to the word of the LORD!”}}

{{Ezekiel 22:25-26 “THERE IS A CONSPIRACY OF HER PROPHETS in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her. HER PRIESTS HAVE DONE VIOLENCE TO MY LAW AND HAVE PROFANED MY HOLY THINGS; THEY HAVE MADE NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE HOLY AND THE PROFANE, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.”}}

I would suggest to you that you do a search of these three Major Prophets for priest and prophet, and note each reference in the instruction. Our current religious leadership is corrupting itself which is very sad. I can not cover all that today. Ezekiel has much to say about the corrupt priests.

These prophets and priests had shed innocent blood in Jerusalem, lots of it. Now they are devastated in the streets and outside the walls. They deserve it, but they have carried along thousands of people whom they have corrupted. What a terrible state these modern false prophets – the Word of Faith thieves – will be in when they face judgement.