PROPHECY OF DOOM

“I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem!” (Jer. 15:4 NKJV).

Being a prophet of God does not always mean being the bearer of good news; sometimes it means proclaiming a message of doom to the disobedient. Jeremiah’s prophecy of doom spoke of the power of God, the punishment from God, and the provoking of God.

Power of God – “I will hand them over.” Today folks think they have created great power with their tools of science. However, their power is nothing compared to God’s power. Divine power is the greatest power. Man does not have the power to carry out his plans as he wishes. On the other hand, God can say and do whatever He wants, whenever He wants to do it. God predicted judgment upon Israel and then carried it out just as He had promised. In our age of focus upon man, we have forgotten that God is omnipotent.

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Punishment from God – “To all kingdoms of the earth.” This phrase is speaking about God’s predicted punishment of Israel. To “hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth” is a description of the punishment that God had predicted on Israel. Their punishment did indeed result in their being removed from their land and taken into captivity by other nations. Yet the thought here is that the punishment by God upon Israel was so great that it created a horror among other nations. They were terrorized by what God did to Israel.

Provoking of God – “Because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.” Although having a godly father in Hezekiah, Manasseh turned out to be a really bad king. He reigned for 55 years, longer than any king in Israel, but was one of the wickedest kings of all. He corrupted the religion of Israel and caused great bloodshed in Jerusalem and throughout the nation. This provoked God to bring great judgment upon Israel. Evil rulers are a curse to any nation. And history is replete with examples of the repercussions that evil rulers have left on their country.

(Adapted from Butler Daily Bible Reading)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“A God all mercy is a God unjust!”

Anonymous

Word Study

Distort

In 2 Peter 3:16 we read, “As also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction!” (NASB).

Distort is the Greek word strebloō (στρεβλόω = streb-lo'-o). It means to wrench, to torment, to torture, to twist or to distort. In classical Greek, strebloō means to hoist or to tighten with a screw. The verb was commonly applied to wrenching the joints and came to mean to torture or to torment.

In the Septuagint strebloō is used in a figurative sense to express God’s displeasure or punishment upon the froward or perverse. It is also used figuratively to mean to torture or torment. In the New Testament, strebloō is also used figuratively to describe the wresting or twisting of portions of Scripture by the “untaught and unstable.” These heretics distorted the Scriptures as torturously as the hated rack twisted and dislocated the joints and limbs of its victim.

Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

Old Testament Prophecy – Messiah would be confined and persecuted (Isa. 53:8)

New Testament Fulfillment – Matt. 26:47-75; 27:1-31

Did You Know…

In the Bible it states that Jesus is the King (Matt. 2:1-6; Luke 23:3).

Bible Quiz

According to Philippians 1, what happened because Paul was in chains?

**Answer to last week’s Bible Quiz: According to Deuteronomy 15, if an Israelite did not give to the needy among them what would happen? The Lord would find them guilty of sin (Deut. 15:9).

Names of the Lord Jesus Found in the Bible

“Holy One”

"Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption!” (Acts 2:26-27; c/f Psalm 16:10 NKJV).

1. Meaning – The Lord Jesus is perfect.

2. Insights – The Lord Jesus is without sin and evil. Because of this, He became the only perfect man to walk on earth. Therefore, He is the only One who could die to save us..

3. Related Titles – Holy Child (Acts 4:30); Lord Our Righteous Savior (Jer. 23:5-6); Sanctification/Holiness (1 Cor. 1:30)

Did You Know – Christian History

James Varick was January 10, 1750 near Newburgh, New York. He was the founder and first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Varick was born to a slave mother; his father was a free black man from Hackensack, New Jersey. For many years, he worked as a shoemaker to support himself and his family, because the church with which he was associated did not pay its preachers.

In 1766, Varick joined the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church, which had a predominately white congregation. Eventually Varick became a minister and was licensed to preach at John Street Church. Although he was not the main minister, his appointment to the pulpit as the Church’s first black preacher caused considerable racial tension and calls for racial segregation of the congregation. Eventually black parishioners were forced to sit in the galleries or the back row. Incensed at this change in church policy Varick and thirty other black members withdrew from the church in 1796.

In 1800, Varick and those who had seceded from the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church started their own place of worship. In 1806, Varick and three other men became the first three ordained black deacons in New York. In 1818 Varick helped found the African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Haven, Connecticut. He was also one of the vice-presidents of the New York African Bible Society

Varick was a strong opponent of slavery and openly supported its abolition. He often preached sermons on this subject and fought for equal rights for African Americans, the most notable being the “Sermon of Thanksgiving on the Occasion of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade,” on January 1, 1808. In 1821, Varick and other black New York City leaders petitioned the New York State Constitutional Convention to grant blacks the right to vote. Six years later Varick helped establish Freedom’s Journal, the first black newspaper in the United States.

In 1821 Varick led the movement to establish a new denomination which would be known as the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The next year Varick was elected the first bishop of the AME Zion church, and was re-elected for a second term at the second annual conference in 1824.

Varick died at his home on July 22, 1827. Originally buried in the Colored Union Cemetery (now Woodlawn), Varick’s remains now rest in the crypt of the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Harlem. Today, with well over a million members, the African Methodist Episcopal Church is the second largest denomination of African Methodists in the United States.

A Little Humor

My friend started a ministry, using a snippet from the Bible as the name. But he soon regretted his decision to order office supplies over the phone. When his stationery arrived, it bore the letterhead “That Nun Should Perish.”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“It is not about religion, it is about a relationship with God!”