Jeremiah 22–31 (NIV) and How It Relates to the U.S. Today

In the 6^th century BCE (before the common era, or BC, before Christ), the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar was successfully harrying the Mediterranean world and the Levant (Palestine today). 

A way of life in jeopardy

As foretold in shadowy simile in the book of Joel, they were as unstoppable as a locust plague and just as destructive. Northern Israel had already gone into Assyrian captivity (721 BCE), even as several prophets of Yahweh had clearly predicted, so they could not be called upon as allies in resistance. The Judahite king Jehoiakim was warned by Jeremiah that if Judah didn’t end their sinful ways and idolatry, they would be next.

Kings have always had advisors, and in the ancient world, some of those advisors were prophets, seers, and sorcerers. They would rattle arrows and throw them on the ground, read tea leaves, convey their dreams, read a sheep’s liver, or look for signs in nature. The prophets of Yahweh were not allowed the usual methods of divination. God communicated to them through dreams, visions, or by speaking to them directly in words. The problem with the prophets of Yahweh is that they seldom got to convey what the king wanted to hear, and whether it was good or bad, they usually had to combat the opposition of the orthodox priests and the prophets of Baal, or perhaps even those claiming to be prophets of Yahweh but who were expressing the opposite of God’s genuine message. Their version of fake news.

King Jehoiakim was not interested in prophecies. He was arrogant and bull-headed. Nevertheless, in his reign Jeremiah had some spectacular predictions about Israel/Judah’s future. One was that a righteous king would arise from the line of David who would restore righteousness and justice. This king would have a divine name. He would be called Yahweh our Righteousness. Let that sink in. A human born of David’s human lineage who would share God’s divine name and have the mystical Messianic title of the righteous Branch. Wow. The true prophets must have rejoiced to hear that and hoped they would live to see it. (Jeremiah 23:5, 6)

But they knew they would not live to see it, because Jeremiah also told them clearly that although Judah would go into captivity, God would bring them back after 70 years (25:11; 29:10). I’m sure many believers in prophecy speculated that the return would be under the new godly king. Why 70 years? My speculation is because the generation whose idolatrous actions brought God’s judgment onto Israel and Judah would be gone. A new generation would arise that would be cleansed of much of the old sinful ways. The excitement of national renewal would cause their hearts to cleave to the old Mosaic monotheistic religion. 

This was God’s tactic when the tribes of Israel were wandering in the desert of Sinai. After rejecting the word of God through Moses and striking out on their own, God told them they would not enter into the promised land until the last person of that generation had died (Numbers 13, 14). It took 40 years for that to be accomplished.

The third really important prophecy that Jeremiah had to convey to the people was that they would be just fine without their temple, the temple furniture and tools, and the Ark of the Covenant. He predicted the ark would disappear and not be found or rebuilt (Jer. 3). I'm sure the contemporaneous response to that was "Whaaat??" God had a new and better covenant in mind, one that would be totally different from the one he made with His people in the wilderness (Jer. 31:27–34). Most humans don't respond well to new and different, updated, progressive. God’s law, meaning those actions and goals that please God because they are innately righteous, will be written in the hearts of the people rather than on slabs of stone.

Jerusalem is sacked

That was all well and good, but King Jehoiakim had to deal with a divided people in his time of crisis, as well as divided advisors and divided prophets. There were plenty of prophets claiming that Jerusalem wouldn’t fall. Guess what? After 11 years of reign, Jerusalem was easily invaded by Babylon. Jehoiakim was taken away in bonds along with other leaders, craftsmen, and artisans. Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the temple furniture and tools. His son, Jehoiachin was put on the throne. He lasted 3 months before Neb was back. Jehoiachin surrendered without resistance, resulting in captivity, but it was an orderly, non-destructive event. The queens, artisans, craftsmen, priests, aristocrats, scribes, and future leaders like Daniel went in this caravan. The Babylonians took even more artifacts associated with temple worship.

Jeremiah wrote them a letter telling them to marry, build houses, plant gardens. Don’t worry. Be happy. Your kids and grandkids will return. God would restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents (Jer. 29).

Jeremiah had some choice words for the phony prophets who were supporting corrupt officials and bad decisions and causing confusion among the people of Jerusalem. They often didn’t know who to believe. Here are some snippets from chapter 23, NIV (New International Version):

Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
   all my bones tremble. [v. 9]
The prophets follow an evil course
   and use their power unjustly. [v. 10]
Among the prophets of Samaria
   I saw this repulsive thing:
They prophesied by Baal
   and led my people astray.
And among the prophets of Jerusalem
   I have seen something horrible:
   They commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of
            evildoers,
   so that no one turns from his
            wickedness. [v. 13, 14]
I did not send these prophets,
   yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them,
   yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council,
   they would have proclaimed my
            words to my people
and would have turned them from
            their evil ways.

Corrupt leaders, corrupt information lead to disaster

So, the city desperately needed leaders with wisdom and character, especially after Jechoniah and thousands of others were removed, but too many leaders were corrupt and self-interested. Jeremiah claimed that the city was full of adulterers and murderers. Genuine prophets were persecuted, even threatened with death. Jeremiah was almost the victim of such a crowd, but he was rescued by just enough people of good conscience.

The priests were mixing the Mosaic religious rites with pagan Baal worship, which assented to child sacrifice, false prophecies, divination, self-mutilation, and other practices forbidden in the Law of Moses.

And finally, the city was awash in disinformation. The last king of Judah, Zedekiah, was no fan of the traditional prophets of Yahweh. He only wanted advisors who told him what he wanted to hear.

No matter how sincere you are in picking whom you listen to, if you pick the wrong party, the result is chaos and destruction. Surrounding yourself with obsequious yes men won't make for an effective leader.

If you listen to the same information stream for years upon years, you get to where you can’t tolerate hearing that your source is all wrong, that their motives are corrupt, and that the exact opposite is true. You have allowed your very identity to be affixed to the ideology of that stream. It can change who you are to switch, so it’s quite a challenge, but if the fountain is poisoned and you drink it thinking it’s the only pure water in town, you die the same death as the poisoner.

Zedekiah ignored the cabal of prophets who knew that doom was coming. He was asked to turn away from idols and surrender the city peacefully, but he refused and, contrary to all common sense, he tried to instigate a multi-state rebellion. In response, Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to the city for two years until the people were starving and mothers were eating their own infants. Zedekiah and other officers tried to sneak out of the city by night, but they were caught. The Babylonians executed Zedekiah’s own sons, the crown princes of the Davidic line, before his eyes. Then they put out Zedekiah’s eyes and took him to Babylon.

They burned the city and the Temple of Solomon, after removing the last temple artifacts to set them in a foreign temple before a foreign god. Only a small remnant of youngsters would be alive to see the return and the rebuilding of the Second Temple. The city lay in rubble when the first group of Levites from Judah and Benjamin returned with money and the precious temple tools and furniture. God was fulfilling another of Jeremiah’s prophecies: I will bring my people back here and will call for the Temple items when I’m ready.

Our own modern Zedekiah

Those that follow my blog and my writings about Donald Trump and today’s trump prophets can anticipate the connection that I’m about to make. Having read the news reports and group letters of the experts that I trust, my common sense told me the full extent of what a disaster trump would be for America. But I would NEVER pass my political passions off as revelations from God. When esteemed “prophet” Kim Clement began prophesying that trump would be a trumpet and would restore righteousness and justice to the U.S., I didn’t become too alarmed because it was still early, and I was only somewhat plugged in. I wasn’t obsessing over Clement, trump, or the Elijah List in 2014. 

As Clement’s predictions proliferated, and others piled on with the same unrealistic descriptions of God’s chosen anointed Cyrus and what he would accomplish, contrary to all that was clearly and publicly known of Donald Trump, and as he began to climb closer and closer to being the GOP candidate, I woke up and turned on all the lights.

I’ll concede this: Prognosticators Mark Taylor, Kim Clement, Kat Kerr and man others nailed the fact that Trump would win the presidency, it would be a surprise, which it was because Hillary was leading in the polls, and Trump would be a wrecking ball. But the outlandish, almost messianic praise they had for that vulgar, egotistical, unhinged, and dangerously psychotic man was so damaging to this country, the army of prophets clamoring on his behalf might as well have all been paid Russian agents.

 Suddenly Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia are our new favored allies. We turned our back on the Western allies that we had covenants with. Our government was awash in corruption and nepotism. Transparency was kicked to the curb. The new GOP ideology was authoritarianism, voter suppression, taking over the government by force, to hades with norms and the rule of law. The U.S. government lost untold years of experienced, qualified, dedicated employees who were replaced by vapid neophytes who were pals with Trump and would do his bidding.

It’s still terrifying every day. After the January 6 insurrection mob attacked the capitol and several police were injured, GOP Congressman who feared for their lives that day are denying that it was what it was. It’s on video! But some claim that it was a bunch of tourists, or that it was Antifa, or that it was a false flag initiated by the FBI. When the life partner and mother of a dead capitol cop came to DC to lobby Republicans to vote for a fair investigation of what happened that day, they were dismissed and disrespected. When one cop who was badly injured on the 6^th offered to shake hands with a denier, he was rebuffed. But when the mother of an insurrectionist who was shot got in front of a mic, Ashley Babbit was declared a martyr.

When Trump makes an absolutely provable false, psychotic, or even dangerous pronouncement, everyone gets on board. Fox, OANN, QAnon, Newsmax, every GOP congressperson and party leader, every Republican law officer, every trump appointee left in today’s administration—all repeat the lie over and over and over, as if they are hypnotized. 

One of the worst things Trump has done was expressed by Chris Hayes yesterday on All In: “he has broken our consensus of what is truth.” Lying, creating a new narrative, erasing genuine history, is the sport of the day, and it doesn’t even matter if you could get caught at it.

Jeremiah had a public confrontation with one of the leading false prophets of his day. During the reign of King Zedekiah, Jeremiah and Hananiah had a face-off at the Temple in the presence of the priests and the people (Jer 28). Claiming to speak God’s very words, Hananiah predicted that within two years, God would break the yoke of Babylon and return the people and all the Temple artifacts to Jerusalem. Jeremiah responded,

From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the LORD only if his prediction comes true.

Jeremiah had a prediction, too—that Hananiah was a liar and would die before the year was up. Jeremiah’s prediction came true.

In my next post, I’m going to share the revelations I’ve had during the trump years. I’m no prophet—I haven’t been taken to the throne room of God, I haven’t ridden on a heavenly chariot driven by angels, I don’t get long locutions from the Father, I don’t have the gift of healing, and I can’t find your lost puppy (sad to say). But I have had a few extraordinary dreams and revelations over the years. I don’t add to them. I carefully parse in my writings what the revelation is and what is my interpretation. One of the dreams I had in April 2017 was that America was going to wash her hands of Donald Trump. It would be over. For good. No going back. I also was shown that Trump would go to prison and that someone named Michael would have a lot to do with it.

But the clown show that was the Trump circus of prophets declared over and over that trump would win a second term. When that didn’t happen, only one apologized. The rest kept repeating that it wasn’t over yet. Trump would be back. These predictions were clearly tied to the repeated, unconstitutional, and unlawful attempts to overturn the election. It has gotten so neurotic that now the GOP is praising Vladimir Putin and vilifying their own legitimate president. Suddenly democracy is overrated.

What, me worry?

One may say, well if these guys are all so foolish and wrong, why worry about them? The reason is simple: Evangelical leaders have convinced over half of Evangelical church-goers that the election was illegitimate and that trump needs to be properly restored because he is God’s anointed man who is the only one to restore righteousness and justice to our evil, corrupt U.S. government. Disinformation works. These so-called prophets together represent millions of naïve, trusting Christian voters.

So far, our democracy has held because of certain brave, strategically placed people who would not bow the knee to Baal. A righteous election official here, a state department official willing to testify there, an intelligent state level Secretary of State, honest vote counters, etc. But many of these people have been fired, forced to resign, or have literally been driven out of their place by death threats against them and their families. If sufficient accountability for all of this isn’t enacted, their replacements will be criminals.

There will be a reckoning. God will let the devil have his day. He may have to subvert a generation of blind, selfish evildoers to make way for a generation that will take a stronger stand against wrong doing (like in WW II), but in the end we will all face judgment day, and we will all find out in eternity who was right and who was in the wrong. On that day, I really really want to be right.