Jeremiah 6:8-15 Be instructed, Jerusalem [Judah, the Jewish people], or your God will depart from you and will devastate the Land.
Zephaniah 1:1-18
Lord says: Glean like a vine the remnant of Israel, one last time, like the vine dresser – pass your hand over the branches. Isaiah 5:5-7
To whom shall I speak and give warning? Who will hear me? Their ears are blocked, they are incapable of listening. They treat the Lord’s Word as a reproach, it has no appeal for them. Ezekiel 22:26-31
But I am full of the anger of the Lord, I cannot hold it back. Isaiah 63:1-6 I must pour it out onto all the people of the Land. Their houses will be given to others.
For all the leaders and people only consider themselves, their prophets and Rabbis are all frauds, every one of them. They fail to address the real problems of their people. They say: “All is well”. All well? Nothing is right and just. They ought to be ashamed because of their sinful practices, yet they have no sense of shame, therefore they will fall with a great crash and be brought low on the Day of My reckoning. Jeremiah 8:8, Ezekiel 33:25-26, Isaiah 6:11-13
Jeremiah 6:16-30 The Lord says: you should enquire about the Way that leads to righteousness. But they said: “We refuse”. Then I appointed watchmen – listen for the call they told them. But they said: “We refuse”. Therefore hear you nations and take note of the plight of these people. I am about to bring ruin upon them, for all their sinful ways and ignoring My instructions. Your sacrifices are not acceptable and your offerings do not please Me. Isaiah 22:14, Zephaniah 1:4-6, Matthew 24:41-42
Therefore the Lord says: I will set obstacles before this people, which will bring them to the ground, father, sons, friends and neighbours will all perish together. Jeremiah 12:14-17 A great host appears, like men arrayed for battle, against you; Zion.
News of their coming has reached us and our hands hang limp, agony grips us, pangs as of a woman in labour. Do not go outside, for the foe will smite you there, as terror is spread around the world. Mourn and wail as the despoiler comes upon us in an instant. Isaiah 10:17, Isaiah 29:5-6, Zechariah 1:14-18 & 3:8, Revelation 6:12-17
It is appointed to assay My people, testing their conduct, but they are all rebels, mischief makers and corrupt to a man. The bellows blow, the fire is ready. All types of metal in vain the refiner refines, but the impurities cannot be removed. Call them reject silver, for God has rejected them. Matthew 21:43 Ref: REB.
All of this prophecy in Jeremiah is telling us about the coming judgement/punishment by fire– the Lord’s Day of vengeance and wrath. This terrifying event will affect all the world, but especially the Middle East and all this prophecy applies specifically to Judah, the current inhabitants of part of the holy Land. Jeremiah 12:14, Ezekiel 30:1-5, Ezekiel 21:1-17
‘a great host appears, like men ready for battle’ This description, along with Joel 2:1-11, is a simile for what will happen. These verses say how the Lord will act on His great Day of vengeance and wrath: Isaiah 63:1-6, Rev 6:12-17 A coronal mass ejection flash will ‘come in an instant’, seen in eight minutes, Isaiah 30:26, but the main mass of superheated hydrogen will take about 24 hours to travel to earth and ‘news of its coming will reach us’. ‘Do not go outside’, is obvious – get into shelter and stay there until it passes, Isaiah 26:20-21, ‘as terror is spread around the world,’ for at least 24hrs. Psalms 18:7-15, Isaiah 2:12-21, Zeph. 1:14-18, 2 Peter 3:7&10
Their houses will be given to others’. Psalms 69:33-36 To the Christian peoples, as Isaiah 62:1-5 tells us.