Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

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Jeremiah 21

Jerusalem’s Doom Is Sealed

Jeremiah 21:¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

Jeremiah 21:² “Please inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar (Heb. Nebuchadrezzar) king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”

Jeremiah 21:³ Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah,

• Zedekiah was installed as Nebuchadnezzar’s puppet king, ruling but giving Nebuchadnezzar payments – “homage”. He would be the last of the four puppet kings, all sons of the deceased king Josiah.
• Zedekiah ruled 597 BC -586 BC
• See Timeline: 501 BC – 770 BC

Jeremiah 21:⁴ ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans (Or Babylonians), and so elsewhere in the book who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city.

Jeremiah 21:⁵ I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath.

Jeremiah 21:⁶ I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence.

Jeremiah 21:⁷ And afterward,” says the Lord, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’

Jeremiah 21:⁸ “Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

• God told them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar and remain in captivity for 70 years. Their city and temple would be spared and then they could return. However; each installed son refused to do so ultimately ending in the destruction of the people, the city, and the temple.

Jeremiah 21:⁹ He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects (Lit. falls away to) to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him.

Jeremiah 21:¹⁰ For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the Lord. “It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.” ’

Message to the House of David

Jeremiah 21:¹¹ “And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord,

Jeremiah 21:¹² O house of David! Thus says the Lord:

“Execute (Dispense justice) judgment in the morning;
And deliver him who is plundered
Out of the hand of the oppressor,
Lest My fury go forth like fire
And burn so that no one can quench it,
Because of the evil of your doings.

Jeremiah 21:¹³ “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant (dweller) of the valley,
And rock of the plain,” says the Lord,
“Who say, ‘Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter our dwellings?’

Jeremiah 21:¹⁴ But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings (deeds),” says the Lord;
“I will kindle a fire in its forest,
And it shall devour all things around it.” ’ ”

• I keep hearing the words from the book of Esther:

• Esther 4:13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.
• The words of God to the United States: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the USA more than the Ukrainians.”

• Personal Application:
  Judah did not escape because of its evil.
  Will the USA because of her evils?
  
  
  • June 25, 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court declared school-sponsored prayers unconstitutional in the landmark case Engel v. Vitale. Students were not allowed to pray even silently.
  
  
  • Fall 2009. In 1969, Governor Ronald Reagan of California made what he later admitted was one of the biggest mistakes of his political life. Seeking to eliminate the strife and deception often associated with the legal regime of fault-based divorce, Reagan signed the nation’s first no-fault divorce bill. Griswold v. Connecticut, went all the way up to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1965 that birth control is legal for married women. (The blessing given woman, instead of becoming the blessing it was meant to be, instead turned into “free sex”)
  • January 1973 Supreme Court legalized abortion across the nation. Instead of birth control pills, now abortion becomes birth control. A baby is no longer “human”.
    
  • the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984), in which the best quality pornographic films became part of mainstream culture. It exploded with the emergence of the Internet in the 1990s. The arguments being that “seeing” does not affect actions “doing”. This, in spite of the fact that millions are spent for half-time advertising during the Super Bowl. Does seeing affect actions?
    
    • Ask Eve who “saw” that the fruit of the tree was good. Genesis 3:⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
      
    • The filmmakers of “ET: The Extra-Terrestrial” initially wanted to use M&M’s as the candy that Elliot uses to lure ET but they were turned down by Mars, Inc. They subsequently went with Reese’s Pieces (owned by Hershey’s) which, through tie-in promotions, saw a huge surge in popularity and sales.
      
  • Not punishment but rehabilitation. Society is at fault. Although rehabilitation was widely criticized in the United States in the 1970s, it gained greater acceptance once research in the 1980s and ’90s demonstrated that a carefully implemented rehabilitation program could reduce recidivism. Critics nonetheless objected to rehabilitation and sentencing programs that gave significant discretion to the prison administrator, who could decide to release or further detain an offender depending on his assessment of the offender’s progress (which could itself be vaguely defined).
    
  • The 1960s brought tie-dye, sit-ins and fears of large-scale drug use. Hippies smoked marijuana, kids in ghettos pushed heroin, and Timothy Leary, a Harvard professor, urged the world to try LSD. Since then, drugs have taken the nation by storm becoming more and more dangerous and leaving the users compromised.
    The only LSD believers need is the Lord’s Salvation and Deliverance.
    
  • There is no denying that the overall number of single mothers has drastically increased over the past several decades. There are now three times more single mother-led families in the United States than there were in 1960.
    
  • Results: without fathers, sons turn to peers for acceptance, and gangs become the new norm. Drugs flourish. The tents of the homeless pop-up like boils of the plague over the landscape while the tattoos of graffitti mar the face of a once beautiful city who has become a drug addicted harlot. Riots are called demonstrations burning down businesses causing more desolation. The bodies of aborted babies are sold on the market, some born alive and used for experimentation.
    
  • Kipnappings and Sex Trafficking. Drugs, Criminals released. Lawlessness. Gangs. Corporate Corruption. Ruination. Borderless. Globalization. The Elite. Forest Fires, Tornadoes, Floods, Hurricanes, Wars, Terrorism, Genderless, Poverty, hopeless, godless.
    

• The measuring cup of iniquity is teeming and overflowing. When it hits the measuring line of “2” then the consequences are “decided and done.”
  
• Jerusalem’s Doom Is Sealed