At this point he Jews were on the run from the Babylonians.  The people and their leaders have arrived at a place near Bethlehem where they are preparing to enter Egypt where they believe they will be safe from the Babylonians who would be after them for having killed Gedeliah whom Nebuchadnezzer had placed over them.  They have brought with them Jeremiah and Baruch.  We pick up the narrative with chapter 42.

As people are prone to do when death is near, the people, led by Johanan, have come to Jeremiah, asking him to speak with God concerning what they should do.  Recall that they were on their way to Egypt (41:17).  Without consulting the Lord they have decided to go there.  Now they are asking Him to show them “… the way we should walk and the thing we should do.”  They have vowed to Jeremiah that, no matter what God tells them to do “… we will obey the voice of the Lord our God” (5-7).

Beginning in verse 9 Jeremiah tells them exactly what God wants them to do, which they have vowed to do.  God tells them that if they will remain in Judea where they are He will bless them and protect them.  God goes on to say that if they rebel against Him and enter the land of Egypt, that they will die from the sword, from famine and from pestilence (disease).  None of them, He warned, would escape His wrath.  He would treat them as He had treated the people of Jerusalem.  They would become human excrement (manure); they would become a curse and a reproach; they would never see the Promised Land again.  God then reminds them of their vow to do whatever He told them to do.  Jeremiah has delivered God’s instructions–plain, to the point and final.

In chapter 43 we find Johanan and all of the people saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely; the Lord our God has not told you to tell us not to enter Egypt.”  Having broken their vow to God, Johanan and company packed up everyone, including Jeremiah and Baruch, and headed for Egypt.  Then God spoke to Jeremiah, telling him that the King of Babylon would invade Egypt and overtake it, that he would smite the land of Egypt and kill or enslave all who live there, including the Jews.

Then the Lord spoke directly to the Jews through Jeremiah.  He reminded them that they had seen all that He had done to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah which, since that time, had lain in desolation and without inhabitant.  He berated them for burning incense to other gods.  He reminded them that He had sent His prophets who warned them not to do that which He hated.  But the people had not listened to them and had refused to obey them.  And now this remnant of Jews were, like their fellow Israelites, were refusing to obey Him.  By rejecting His Word they had rejected His lordship over their lives, even as they called Him “our Lord.”  As Jesus said in Luke 10:16, to reject His word shows that one despises both Jesus Himself and His Father.  As a result of the Jews’ refusal to believe and obey His Words spoken through Jeremiah, God vowed to destroy them.  There is a message here for those who call Him their Lord.  UNLESS HE IS ONE’S LORD, HE WILL NEVER BE ONE’S SAVIOR.  I trust everyone is hearing that message.

Today, God’s true chosen and anointed apostles, though minutely few in number, are speaking His Truth to the world’s masses through the airwaves as well as in print.  Our message is as urgent as was the message of the prophets and the apostles to the Israelites of their respective days.  Anciently “holy men of God” spoke as they were moved by God’s Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21) and preserved for us His Words by which He instructs His true saints today (1 Cor. 10:11).  Through His Holy Bible God’s “voice” is being heard throughout the earth and in every nation.  Christ declared that His Word traversing the earth would be one of the final signs that would mark His soon return.  He prophesied this Truth in Matthew 24:14: “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.”  This is being done at this moment.  One sign remains that, when it is seen throughout the world, will tell God’s people that the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord will soon follow, and that “… the desolation (of the earth) is near.”  That sign is recorded in Luke 21:20.  It tells of a time when Jerusalem will be surrounded by armies.  Note it: WORLD WAR III AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH AND ITS SINNING PEOPLE WILL BEGIN IN JERUSALEM.

For 6,000 years God has been speaking to His most prized creation, calling them to turn from their evil ways, embrace Him and walk in His holiness.  Only a minutely few have chosen to hear and obey Him.  Time after time He has warned mankind with all manner of “voices” as this website has emphasized repeatedly.   Time after time man, including churchman, has gone his own way.  The world has never been as evil as it is today as man separates himself further and further away from his Creator.  And still He speaks, calling out to man with ever-increasing volume, pouring out His wrath in ever-increasing power.

As I began writing a year or so ago, I believe God will give His people one more chance to turn from their evil ways, embrace His Word and turn their lives around.  I believe we are seeing this happening as the merchants of evil–religious, social, political and media liberals–are being exposed for who and what they are–Satan’s spiritual weapons of mass destruction.  I believe that by this November, and certainly by November 2024, America will have two distinct and polar opposite ways to go. We are seeing the same political, moral and social upheaval taking place in the other Israelite nations (Britain and the Jews of the Promised Land) at this time.  GOD IS MAKING PLAIN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIS WAY AND THE WAYS OF SIN-SATURATED MAN IN THE NATION OF ISRAEL.  Are the people hearing Him, seeing His work and recognizing it for what it is–His call to repent and believe the Gospel (Mk. 1:15)?

                                                      GOD IS SPEAKING.  IS ANYONE LISTENING?