Peace and the Iraqi War!
Text: Jer. 50:21-46 & Selected
Cross Creek Community Church
Pastor Dave Martin – March 23, 2003
Introduction – current events
Modern day Iraq is the cradle of civilization – Adam & Eve. Gen 2:10-14 speaks of the Garden of Eden and four rivers that flowed from it. Two rivers are not know with certainty but the other two flow through the heart of Iraq – the great Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers. We also should take note of the ancient tower of Babel was built here in which God came down and confused the people (the institution of various languages in Genesis 11). The foundation and outline of this ancient tower has even been found through archeological digs! In fact Saddam Hussein even claims to be the reincarnated Nebuchadnezzar! He has been building various structures in Baghdad using bricks with Nebuchadnezzar personal stamp upon them! Babylon was so magnificent at one time with its size, grandeur to the world situated behind secure huge walls some 14 miles long and 136 feet thick! The city boasted of hanging gardens was one of the Seven Wonders of the World!
Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 605 BC carrying off its wealth, desecrated God’s temple and took captives back to Babylon (Dan 1). This prophetic passage in Jeremiah 50-51 speaks of judgment day finally arriving for Babylon when God used Cyrus of the Medes/Persians to judge Babylon in 539 BC. Could God be using Pres. Bush today? Charles Ryrie states in the Ryrie Study Bible, “since inhabitants were left in the city in 539 BC, this prophecy may also have a fulfillment just before the second coming of Christ”. (Rev 17-18)
In reading this passage we see a parallel prophetic picture blending the near (539 BC) with the far (end times) in what is transpiring today in the Middle East, allowing this passage to be used for the time just before the return of Christ.
* Slide 4 of map showing the ancient Babylonian Empire and modern Iraq. (explain the map)
Remember this passage concerns the destruction by Cyrus and also a future time of destruction…
Here’s a few thoughts from Jeremiah 50:21-46:
Jeremiah 50:21-25 "Attack the land of Merathaim and those who live in Pekod. Pursue, kill and completely destroy them," declares the LORD. "Do everything I have commanded you. 22The noise of battle is in the land, the noise of great destruction! 23How broken and shattered is the hammer of the whole earth! How desolate is Babylon among the nations! 24I set a trap for you, O Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and captured because you opposed the LORD. 25The LORD has opened his arsenal
and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Sovereign LORD Almighty has work to do in the land of the Babylonians.
V21 - “Merathaim” – Double rebellion (1991 & present and/or Nebuchadnezzar/Cyrus time and present)
“Pekod” – to punish “pursue, kill, and completely destroy”
* Slide 6 picture – War with Iraq
V22 - “noise of battle & great destruction” – troops & weaponry
V23 - “hammer the whole earth” – Iraq exporting terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, evil transporter
“desolate among nations” – no one stands with Iraq – nations afraid of her
V25 - “opened arsenals…weapons of His wrath” – Smart/Cruise bombs, E-bombs, MOAB (Mother of all Bombs), modern weaponry
* Slide 8 picture - Presidential Palace attacked
Jeremiah 50:26-30 Come against her from afar. Break open her granaries; pile her up like heaps of grain. Completely destroy her and leave her no remnant. 27Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished. 28Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon declaring in Zion how the LORD our God has taken vengeance, vengeance for his temple. 29"Summon archers against Babylon, all those who draw the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her for her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 30Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets; all her soldiers will be silenced in that day," declares the LORD.
V26 - “come against her from afar” – God using USA & others from all over the earth
V27 - “kill her young bulls” – Iraq’s young strong soldiers slain like heaps of grain
V28 - “fugitives & refugees” – Flooding into neighbor countries especially in 1991 by the millions
V29 - “encamp…no one escapes” – blocked escape routes – presently our troops are attaching from the north, south and west, with the natural barrier of mountains & Iran on the East.
V30 - “men fall in streets” – 1991 carnage on the road to Baghdad – absolute carnage and destruction of thousands of Iraqi soldiers – no escaping when God judges
* Slide 10 picture – missiles, explosions
Jeremiah 50:31-35 "See, I am against you, O arrogant one," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty, "for your day has come, the time for you to be punished. 32The arrogant one will stumble and fall and no one will help her up; I will kindle a fire in her towns that will consume all who are around her." 33This is what the LORD Almighty says: "The people of Israel are oppressed, and the people of Judah as well. All their captors hold them fast, refusing to let them go. 34Yet their Redeemer is strong; the LORD Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause so that he may bring rest to their land, but unrest to those who live in Babylon. 35"A sword against the Babylonians!" declares the LORD-- "against those who live in Babylon and against her officials and wise men!
V31 - “O arrogant one” – proud, cocky Saddam Hussein – the one who tortures his own people (many stories could be recounted here) Saddam claims to be the reincarnated Nebuchadnezzar, in fact he named his two main divisions of the Republican Guard – Hammurabi 2000 BC, and Nebuchadnezzar 586 BC.
V32 - “fire in her towns” – in 1991 over 900 oil wells were torched, others wells were allowed to gush forth covering the ground and running into the Persian Gulf with tremendous pollution. Cities burning when attacked with bombs, we’ve been witnessing this on our televisions with 24-hour coverage.
V35 - “sword against, officials, wise men, people” – God will vindicate His own – in this land of a false religion calling itself Islam with their false prophets and idols
* Slide 12 picture – 4 pictures of Saddam & war
Jeremiah 50:36-40 A sword against her false prophets! They will become fools. A sword against her warriors! They will be filled with terror. 37A sword against her horses and chariots and all the foreigners in her ranks! They will become women. A sword against her treasures! They will be plundered. 38A drought on her waters! They will dry up. For it is a land of idols, idols that will go mad with terror. 39"So desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and there the owl will dwell. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation. 40As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighboring towns," declares the LORD,"so no one will live there; no man will dwell in it.
V36 - False religion Islam and their false prophets with their “world attention” – God calls them fools!
V37 - “foreigners in her ranks” – melting pot for evil men – the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Iran, Hamus, Palestinian groups, all the various vile Islamic terrorist groups and from this region in general. “her treasures” - oil.
V38 - “land of idols” - God will fill them madness and with terror!
V39-40 – reference to the final judgment in Rev 17-18 of Babylon. – I believe we are witnessing the precusor to Iraq’s final fate.
Jeremiah 50:41-46 "Look! An army is coming from the north; a great nation and many kings are being stirred up from the ends of the earth. 42They are armed with bows and spears; they are cruel and without mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride on their horses; they come like men in battle formation to attack you, O Daughter of Babylon. 43The king of Babylon has heard reports about them, and his hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped him, pain like that of a woman in labor. 44Like a lion coming up from Jordan’s thickets to a rich pastureland, I will chase Babylon from its land in an instant. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? Who is like me and who can challenge me? And what shepherd can stand against me?" 45Therefore, hear what the LORD has planned against Babylon, what he has purposed against the land of the Babylonians: The young of the flock will be dragged away; he will completely destroy their pasture because of them. 46At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will tremble; its cry will resound among the nations.
V41 - “great nation and many kings” – The USA and her coalition of countries with their fight in the UN.
V42 - “armed, without mercy, riding, formation” – mechanized weaponry that know no boundaries, the weapons kills whatever coordinates is programmed into their memory. Sound as a roaring sea!
* Slide 13 picture – two pictures with v41 & 42
V44 - “chosen one appointed” – George W. Bush, a born again Christian!
* Slide 14 picture – President George W. Bush – Billy Graham led him to the Lord! Is he the one appointed?
V46 - “earth tremble, nations” – LIVE Television around the globe, instant communications – satellite phones
* Slide 15 picture – global protest marchers & PEACE picture
* Slide 16 picture – three pictures: world trade/war/American, Jewish flag & fire
Can you sense the “worlds” attitude changing toward the Christian and the Jew?
We are witnessing the Lord getting the world ready!
As the return of Christ approaches…
1. REALIZE there will be wars and terror.
Luke 21:9-10 When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away." 10Then he said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Luke 21:25-26 "There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.
* These passages in Luke is describing the time of the tribulation – though I believe we will experience “birth pains” prior to the rapture of the church.
* Throughout human history there has always been war. Throughout the Bible we see many battles and wars.
* “Roaring and the tossing of the sea” – the unrest of the masses of people, peace marches we’re seeing are orchestrated by many very left wing groups. Restlessness of the peoples of the earth – God is setting the stage!
* “Nations in anguish and perplexity” – confusion, unrest, stressed out, no answers to the complex problems, no way out of the dilemma they’re facing, short on solutions – into this worldwide chaos will step the Antichrist who comes up out of the European Union the revived Roman Empire Daniel speaks about.
* There will be war upon this earth until Jesus comes again! In Rev 19:11 He judges & makes war to end all wars in the battle of Armageddon and sets up the millennial reign with 1000 years of peace!
A former president of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and historians from England, Egypt, Germany, and India have come up with some startling information: Since 3600 B.C. the world has known only 292 years of peace (that’s 5,603 years of history)! During this period there have been 14,351 wars, large and small, in which 3.64 billion people have been killed. The value of the property destroyed would pay for a golden belt around the world 97.2 miles wide and 33 feet thick.
2. REST in God’s Sovereign control.
Proverbs 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
Proverbs 21:30-31 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. 31The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.
Proverbs 16:4 The LORD works out everything for his own ends--even the wicked for a day of disaster.
* “Kings heart” is in God’s hand – Bush, Putin, Saddam’s, Blaire, etc.
* God is all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere present. Rest in this truth – He is in control.
* All powers of authority are placed there and controlled by the Lord – He is Sovereignly in control.
Nothing man can devise, no secret planning can escape His knowing.
* The Lord is working all things out, setting the stage for the return of His Son Jesus Christ! It will happen!
3. RETURN to the Lord and find Peace!
Hosea 6:1 "Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
Isaiah 26:3-4 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. 4Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.
2 Thes. 3:16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.
Jeremiah 15:19 Therefore this is what the LORD says: "If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.
Acts 17:30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
Jesus said - John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Zech. 1:3 Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ’Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ’and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.
How do I return?
* SALVATION - To have peace with God we must be born again - Rom 5:1
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
You will never enjoy the peace of God until you have peace with God.
Philip. 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
* COMMITMENT - To walk in obedience to His Word, telling others – Acts 20:32
Acts 20:32 "Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
* EXPECTATION – To stay faithful in your walk, waiting for Jesus’ return – 1Jn 3:3
1 John 3:3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
* Slide 21 picture – JESUS and scene of outer space
We CANNOT have “peace of God” without “peace with God!”
Luke 21:28 When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
ARE YOU READY TO MEET THE LORD?
* If the events you are seeing frightens you and you can’t seem to find peace - come to Christ.
* The Prince of Peace Jesus died to save you from your sins – do you know Him?
* Would you this morning come and give your heart to Him – making peace with God?
* Then allow the peace of God flood your souls in these perilous times as we wait for His Son!
Let’s Pray
The PowerPoint that goes along with this message can be found at www.crosscreekcc.org
