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JEREMIAH
(620 B.C.)
11
Jeremiah is the one prophet who
tells us something about himself and what it was like to be
a prophet of God. When Jerusalem went into exile in Babylon.
Jeremiah tells us:
Jer 1:4 The Word of the
Lord came to me:
"Before I created you in the womb, I
selected you;
Before you were born, I consecrated
you;
I appointed you prophet concerning
the Nations."
Overwhelmed by this, poor
Jeremiah says the same thing that Moses said. He replies in
a sheepish voice:
Jer 1:6 Ah…..Lord God?
I don’t know how to speak,
For I am still a boy.
And the Lord’s booming voice then comes
back:
"Do not say, ‘I
am still a boy.’
But go wherever I send you
And speak whatever I command you.
I’m sure that Jeremiah feels little
relief until:
Have no fear
of them
For I am to deliver you
Declares the
Lord.
The Lord put
out His hand and touched
My mouth, and the Lord said to me:
Herewith I put My words into your
mouth.
See, I appoint
you this day
Over nations and kingdoms:
To uproot and pull down.
To destroy and overthrow,
To build and to plant…
Jer 1:17 So you, gird up
your loins,
Arise and speak to them
All that I command you.
Do not break down before them.
I make you today a fortified city…
They (the
people and leaders) will attack you,
But they shall not overcome you;
For I am with you to save you.
- declares
the Lord.
One can only imagine what the
"collaboration" of Melchizedek with the prophets was like.
But Jeremiah paints a very good picture of what it was like
to him. My mental picture is of a boy who hears his name and
says "who me?" With his index finger pointing to his chest,
and his head swiveling around, desperate to find anyone else
at all. If his friends had been around, perhaps hiding
behind a wall, they would have been howling with laughter.
Poor Jeremiah, suddenly he is over "nations and kingdoms"
when just yesterday all he had to do was the equivalent of
today’s mow the lawn. Surprisingly, to me, Moses’ reaction
was just the same – as a matter of fact "the Lord" had to
promise to let Aaron, his brother, speak for him to get him
to go along at all. Prophets are normal human beings like
everyone else, except that through their relationship with
God they are molded into a new form for a new task, the seed
of which has been planted within their own being, the as yet
unfolded flower of new possibility.
The Lord addresses Israel in picturesque language:
Jer 2:24 Consider what you
have done!
Like a lustful she-camel,
Restlessly running about,
Or like a wild ass used to the
desert,
Snuffing the wind in her eagerness,
Worse passion none can restrain,
None that seek her need grow weary –
In her season they’ll find her!
The lack of sexual restraint is a
frequent trait noted by the prophets, especially when
speaking against Israel, Ephraim, and the Northern Tribes.
Heightened pleasure potential and enhanced spiritual
receptivity are markers for the presence of Adamic genes,
which augment creativity, imagination, aesthetic
appreciation and pleasure responsiveness (UB 586, 942).
Jer 3:14
Turn back rebellious children (Israel) – declares the Lord.
Since I have espoused you, I will take you, one from a town
and two from
a clan, and bring you to Zion. And I will give you shepherds
after My
own heart, who will pasture you with knowledge and skill.
And when you
increase and are fertile in the land, in those days –
declares the Lord – men
shall no longer speak of the Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord, nor shall it
come to mind. They shall not mention it, miss it, or make
another. At that
time, they shall call Jerusalem "Throne of the Lord," and
all nations shall
assemble there…They shall no longer follow the willfulness
of their evil hearts. In those days, the House of Judah
shall go with the House of Israel; they should come together
from the land of the north to the land I gave
your fathers as a possession.
This passage refers to the end of
this age when Judah is reunited with Israel. The shepherds
(leaders) are replaced by good leaders and "the Lord" is in
Jerusalem and on his "Throne" symbolizing the sovereignty of
"the Lord," Planetary Sovereign, Melchizedek.
We are told that the new reunified Israel of Christians
and Jews, will not revert to the traditions of ancient
Judaism but instead will go forward with religion in the new
light in which they stand at ages end.
We are also told indirectly, that 'the nations had
followed the willfulness of their evil hearts' in times
past. This is consistent with the negative judgment of the
nations and their leadership expressed many time elsewhere
in scripture.
This passage definitely refers to the messianic end of
the age by virtue of : 'in that day', 'in that time', 'the
assembling of all nations in Jerusalem', and the
reunification of Judah and Israel.
And now Jeremiah speaks about the onslaught of
Jerusalem by Babylon in ancient times. The Lord says:
Jer 4:19 Oh the walls of my
heart:
My heart moans within me…
Disaster overtakes disaster…
"The Lord’s" heart breaks
watching his children’s chosen fate of destruction at
the hands of the Babylonians. With frustration the Lord
says:
Jer 4:22 The people are
stupid
They give Me no heed;
They are foolish children,
They are not intelligent
They are clever at doing wrong.
But unable to do right.
This is a perfect, if not tactful,
description of we "the people" now, as it was then. We
ignore our prophets and follow our foolish and deceitful
leaders into destruction-- over and over and over again!!!
Jer 5:23 Yet this people has
a wayward and defiant heart
They have turned aside and gone
their way…
Among My people are wicked men,
Who lurk, like fowlers lying in wait
They set up a trap to catch men…
So their houses are full of guile;
That is why they have grown so
wealthy.
They have become fat and sleek…
And they prosper.
Jer 5:30 An appalling,
horrible thing
Has happened in the land;
The prophets prophesy falsely,
And the priests rule accordingly;
And My people like it so.
This fits our country perfectly
today. Ends of ages are very similar. America is repeating
the history of ancient Israel. Human beings are very
predictable. We repeat the same mistakes over and over
again. We do not learn from our mistakes. We see no evil,
hear no evil, and speak no evil. As God says "My people are
stupid, foolish, and unintelligent." We never heed our true
prophets. We don’t love truth and so we can’t recognize it
when it is right in front of our face. The collapse of this
nation is heralded by its near total disrespect and
disregard for the truth. Jesus says, "I have come into this
world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the
truth hears and listens to My voice." We, like Pilate,
respond "Truth? What is truth?"
Also consider these quotes about truth.
Truth
Mk 4: 22 Nothing is hidden
that will not
UB 1682 be made manifest (Jesus)
UB 1713 You cannot compel men to love the truth
UB 43 All truth is both beautiful and good
UB ll25 All truth takes origin in God
UB 1745 There is no peace in the heart or
progress in the mind unless you fall
wholeheartedly in love with truth.
UB 2078 The sincere pursuit of truth, beauty, and
goodness leads to God.
UB 42 Happiness ensues form truth because it
can be acted out, it can be lived
UB 1459 Truth can never be man’s possession
Without the exercise of faith.
UB 1731 "fail not to discern the words of truth
that come not through the
traditional oracles of supposed
inspiration" (Jesus)
UB 1466 "the man was not hungry for truth. He was
not dissatisfied with
himself. He was not ready to ask for
help, and the eyes of his
mind were not open to receive light
for the soul…You cannot
reveal God to those who do not seek
for Him." (Jesus)
UB 1796 "You shall know the truth and the truth
will set you free." (Jesus)
UB 247 (The Urantia Book) is assigned to enlarge
truth.
UB 1008 The Urantia Book is the most recent
presentation of truth.
But truth, if too bright, can blind as
well as illuminate, therefore –
Emily Tell all the Truth
but tell it slant -
Dickinson Success in Circuit lies
#1129 Too bright for our
infirm delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As lightening to the children eased
With explanation kind
The truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind –
It is more certain than a law of
physics that –
Hosea 4:14 A people that is
without sense must stumble
.Jeremiah continues, the Lord says:
The People
Jer 6:10 To whom shall I
(Lord) speak,
Give warning that They may hear?
Their ears are blocked
And they cannot listen
The word of the Lord has become for
them
An object of scorn; they will have
none of it.
Jer 6:13 From the smallest to the greatest,
They are greedy for gain;
They act falsely.
They offer healing offhand
For the wounds of My people,
Saying, "All is well, All is well,"
When nothing is well…
They do not feel shame,
And they cannot be made to blush…
Jer 6:17 And I raised up watchmen for you.
"Hearken to the sound of the horn!"
But they say, "We will not."
Above, Jeremiah warns Israel in
the days before the Babylonians in 600 B.C. They would not
listen. They could not see. They believed what they wanted
to believe. They did not love truth. Can we learn from the
past?
The watchmen are the prophets
gazing out ahead over the changing landscape of events. One
can see from these passages that human nature at its worst
has not changed one iota since Jeremiah’s time.
Jer 8:5 They cling to deceit,
They refuse to return…
They do not speak honestly…
They all persist in their wayward course…
My people pay no heed…
Assuredly, for naught has the pen labored,
For naught the scribes!
The wise shall be put to shame…
They reject the word of the Lord,
So their wisdom amounts to nothing.
Worldly Wisdom
And so, the leaders lead the
people, as the blind lead the blind. And we love to have it
so! Notice very carefully, the "wise" reject the Lord (God)
and therefore their wisdom amounts to nothing. If you answer
the most important question about life wrong, everything
else you think, do, or know, is colored by this gross
misperception of reality. Modern science is far, far more
compatible with the idea of an intelligent creative source
than it is with the idea of an infinitesimally small, random
accident appearing from out of nothing. The physical
constants, such as the mass of the electron, are so finely
tuned, that if just one of them were changed, by an
extremely small amount, then the prerequisite conditions for
life would be eliminated! The probability of these constants
being so finely tuned by a random accident is so
infinitesimally small that it is indistinguishable from
zero. And yet this is just what most of our scientists
actually believe. They readily accept that a universe can
just pop out of nothing for no reason, but to believe that
Jesus gave sight to the blind is intolerable. Let us be very
clear, the assumptions of most of our scientists,
philosophers and other "intelligentsia" are not supported by
logical analysis but rather are articles of faith, lacking
any plausible rationale whatsoever. History will look
back at our so-called "modern intellectuals" with a
wide-eyed stare of disbelief; that so many, for so long,
could have been so wrong, about so much. Fortunately, the
laws of modern physics speak for themselves. They tell us
that every part of our Universe is connected to every other
part by instantaneous connections. The reason for this is
that what we see and measure is a lower dimensional reality
embedded in a higher dimensional reality. The seemingly
disparate and separate universe phenomena are really unified
and coherent at higher reality levels. Modern physics is now
contemplating a universe of ten physical dimensions rather
than the three dimensions that are apparent. The equations
for our modern laws greatly simplify when represented in
this ten dimensional form, which may prove to be the form of
a new physics for the 21st century. Time will tell. The
Urantia Book also tells us that the physical universe is
based on the number ten. In truth, no one understands what
simple words such as space, time, energy, and mass are.
These words are symbolic representations describing a
reality that transcends all mental constructs about said
reality. The greatest error in philosophy is the confusion
of our symbols about reality, with reality itself. For
example, everyone has heard about the "wave – particle
duality" of quantum physics. Hundreds of books have been
written about this subject of how small particles can
sometimes behave like waves, and vice-a-versa, waves can
behave like particles. This confuses us to no end, until we
realize that reality is telling us that there are no such
things as either particles or waves and that the actual
reality is something altogether different and beyond our
ideas about that reality. The source of all reality is the
transcendent God and therefore, reality is "made out of"
something wholly transcendent to mere mortal ideas about it.
And so, reality, like a banana peel, slips ever faster from
our hands as we try ever harder to squeeze and define it
into our artificial mental constructs. The duality is not in
nature, rather is it unavoidably introduced by our analytic
models of nature. Reality is whole. The process of
analysis must break the wholeness in order to study it.
The real limit is in the very nature of how a human, finite,
mind must function. The source of the world around us is the
absolute, transcendent, and infinite God and since the
source of something determines the nature of that thing,
all reality is transcendent and "miraculous," wholly
beyond the finite grasp of man. Modern physics tells us that
when finite mind contacts infinite reality, paradox results.
In fact, paradox is a marker for the contact between the
infinite and the finite. Paradox tells us that there is
something more in addition to what our analytic symbols can
represent. The whole is always greater than the part.
Humility always results from the understanding of our true
insignificance amidst the infinite. And yet, we are deemed
worthy by God to inherit an infinite kingdom.
Now, returning to the main text of
Jeremiah. The Lord says:
The People
Jer 9:1 Oh, to leave my
people
To go away from them –
For they are all adulterers,
A band of rogues.
They bend their tongues like bows;
They are valorous in the land
For treachery, not for honesty
They advance from evil to evil
And they do not heed Me
declares the
Lord…
Jer 9:14 One man cheats
another
They will not speak the truth…
Lo, I shall smelt and assay them – …
And I will make the towns of Judah
A desolation without inhabitants.
Jer 9:11 What man is so wise
That he understands this?
To whom has the Lord spoken.
So that he can explain it:
Why is the land in ruins
Laid waste like a wilderness
With none passing through.
God is speaking here through
Melchizedek in "collaboration" with the prophet Jeremiah.
Most importantly, the prophet misconstrues God as the agent
of "punishment." The "punishment" however is actually the
necessary result of man’s own poor choices and behaviors,
which disregard the laws of God. If someone walks off a
physical cliff, they will fall on the rocks below. If one
walks off a spiritual cliff of rebellion against God’s Will,
one will also fall and hit the rocks below. Night follows
day. Reaction follows action. Result follows cause. This
is why the prediction for crisis in our world and in our
country is so easy and so certain. The spiritual laws of God
are being intentionally and unintentionally violated on an
immense scale. Consequence must follow cause. It is not
God’s will that we suffer. It is His will that we choose to
become His sons and daughters, inheritors of His kingdom,
His junior partners in His magnificent plan for an infinite
and ever expanding future. But without freedom to choose
wrongly, there is also no possibility for goodness and love,
and without the possibility of love, God would venture no
universe. And so, the choices of life and death are placed
before us and we individually and collectively choose what
we will. The biggest problem today is our leadership, our
morally bereft political and financial controllers who steer
us toward sure disaster. But God will not allow the few to
ruin it for the many. There are many, many good people
throughout the world that are doing their best for their
families and their fellows. However, none of our decent
human beings are in positions of true power. The ones with
real power are the ones willing to "step on" other people to
get where they are. They have "paid their dues" and "sold
their souls." Our very worst element of humanity is in
control of the destiny of the entire planet. What is
required is a leadership transplant. And this is precisely
what will be accomplished by Melchizedek’s arrival. The meek
will inherit the earth and the arrogant will disinherit it.
Consider:
The Leaders
Ezek 39:10 Thus said the Lord God.
Behold I am against the shepherds
(leaders)
And I will require my flock at their
hand
And cause them to cease from feeding
the flock…
Ezek 34:5 And they were scattered (the sheep, people)
Because there is no shepherd…
Therefore I will save my flock
They shall no more be a prey
Ezek 34:2 Woe to the shepherds of Israel (past and
present)
That do feed themselves!
Should not the shepherds
Feed the flock?
Isaiah 9:16 They who lead this people
Cause them to err,
And they who are lead by them
Are swallowed up.
1Enoch 38:4 From that period those who
possess the earth shall
cease to be powerful and exalted…
1Enoch 38:5 Yet the mighty kings of that
Period shall not be destroyed;
But will be delivered into the
Hands of the righteous and holy
(elect)
1Enoch 46:4 He (messiah) shall hurl kings
From their thrones and their
dominions…
The countenance of the mighty
Shall He cast down, filling them
With confusion.
1Enoch 46:7 In those days shall the kings
Of the earth and the mighty men,
Who have gained the world by
Their achievements, become humble
In countenance…
1Enoch 46:8 |
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