AND THE LORD GAVE
Daniel 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.
Did you know that nations, and not just individuals are judged by God? Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. (See also Matthew 25:31-32.) And did you realize that nations, like individuals, are exalted by the righteousness of Christ? Prov. 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
Nations provide the present segment of mankind which the gospel confronts!
The church is commanded by King Jesus to preach the gospel to all nations. Matt. 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: And he instructs them that the end of the world will pertain to that very activity, and not to some religiously held ‘signs’! Matt. 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Our Lord even set forth to the religious leaders in Israel the remainder of the world’s population, to whom the gospel would be given, as “a nation!” Matt. 21:43 Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. The Apostle Paul quotes Isaiah in the Roman Epistle as stating this also. Romans 10:19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
And we know that the church is called by the Holy Spirit “an holy nation!” 1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: The believer is said then, by the new birth, to be translated from Satan’s kingdom into Christ’s! Col. 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: Philippians 3:20 tells us, For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Therefore it is a truly amazing thing that the Prophet Daniel has it revealed to him the raising up, by God, of the exact four Gentile nations, or kingdoms, that shall immediately precede the coming in of the Lord Jesus Christ and his everlasting kingdom! For the words of our title are not insignificant! Daniel was made to know that it was by God’s direct hand that Daniel’s own king and nation were given into the hand of Babylon in the scheme of God’s predetermined Providence!
And Daniel also reveals to us, by the Holy Spirit, exactly when the presence of the Son of God would be received into these nations! Amazing! Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
Daniel 7:9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Jehoiakim’s sin necessitated Nebuchadnezzar’s rise!
If it had not been for the third year of Jehjoiakim’s evil reign, there would have been no need of Nebuchadnezzar’s first year of conquest! 2Kings 23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign;… 37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 24:1 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant… For one nation’s evil requires the next nation to arise to bring it down. And because the second nation does not bring down the evil nation for the glory of God, it now begins to fill up it’s iniquity for the same fate! (Read Jeremiah 25:14,33.)
Isaiah 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. (Nebuchadnezzar’s sword was but God’s rebuking anger against Judah!) 6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. (God, who looks on the heart, knows that Nebuchadezzar isn’t attacking Judah for God’s glory! He means never to stop until he has conquered the world!)
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. (When Nebuchadnezzar finishes with Judah’s God-sent punishment, God shall raise up the Medes and Persians to punish him!) 13 For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
God told Abram that his people would of necessity have to go into four hundred years of Egyptian bondage, But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. (Gen. 15:16). The nation of the Amorites had to have their alloted time to fill up their sinfulness before God. But once this was done, God sent Israel out of Egypt to destroy them!
And just what was the sin of Judah under the reign of Jehoiakim? Three times we read in God’s message to Jeremiah for them, that it was because ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. (Jer. 25:3,4,7). And then, very clearly stated are the Lord’s words in verses eight and nine of this same chapter concerning this issue. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, 9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. It can’t be any more clearly stated than that!
There are six words listed at the end of verse six of Jeremiah 25 that America doesn’t understand! They are, that if you are obedient to my words, “I will do you no hurt.” Yep! That’s exactly what the Lord God said to the people of Judah! Listen to Joshua 24:20, when the Lord, by Joshua, earlier warned them about this same thing. If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. America, with it’s good old Santa Claus Jesus, thinks the party shall never end, because, “We are America!” That didn’t work too well for Judah in Jeremiah’s day, nor for Israel in Christ’s! And He being the same, unchangeable Holy God still requires the same thing from us!
2 Thess. 2:10 …because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Wow! Did you see who it was that sent the “strong delusion” in order that they should believe a lie? It was God! And the strong delusion is the image of the beast that now blankets the minds of America’s citizens! The image from our fallen, beast-like imaginations presents ourselves to us as our own God! Psalm 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.
The very least esteemed thing in America is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which he sets forth, not an offer, but a divine mandate, whereby he commandeth all men every where to repent: (Acts 17:30). American’s flock by the hundreds of thousands to stadiums of entertainment, hungry for a fleshly thrill. But there is zero desire to hear the word from their Sovereign concerning the well being of their eternal soul!
The proof of America’s downfall is not first seen in any outward calamities! That which is the very root of ALL evil is the love of money! It will actually cause a soul to become “seduced from the faith!” 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred (were seduced) from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
THIS is part of the strong delusion that God has punished us with! We actually believe that gaining money is godly! And THIS shows that we, as a nation are destitute of the truth of the gospel! 1 Timothy 6:5 Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. (That is, “wealth!”)
Do you know what God says is hard to do? – for a rich man to enter into heaven! Matt. 19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Do you know who God says is blessed? – those poor in their spirits! And why are they blessed? – because they are the ones to gain heaven! Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Even while American’s sit in religious buildings on their appointed gathering days in their fine clothing, they are naked of the grace- given garment of righteousness. Even when we boast of “god’s blessings,” speaking of our financial accumulation, we are poor and without ability to purchase God’s eyesalve to anoint our eyes to see our pitiful plight!
Revelation 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. 17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: 18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
We should not keep saying, “God bless America,” but, “America, make yourself bless-able!”
Pastor Gene Breed
