Jeremiah Chapter 27 "Nations, Bonds and Yokes." This Bible
Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org Jeremiah 27:1 "In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying." Never forget what "Jeremiah" means in the Hebrew tongue, "one that God launches forth". In the last chapter we saw that when Jeremiah spoke the words that God told him to say, the religious leaders wanted to kill him. When Jeremiah told the civil and religious leaders that they were going into captivity, their so-called spiritual leaders said it would not happen. The hatred grew to a point where it was nothing short of a mob action, until one elder with common sense called their attention to the fact that if they killed Jeremiah they would bring innocent blood upon their souls. When God gives prophesy in the form of history as we see here, it is a type of what shall happen later. Just as what we read here took place, so also will this take place again in our generation, and in most cases it has already started. God is showing us exactly how the king of Babylon came to power, so also will the king of Babylon of the book of Revelation, of the end times come to his power. Nobody is going anywhere, and there is a purpose for it. It is to show God's people what will happen to them if they will not read God's Word with understanding, but take the words of the false prophets. It will become obvious from verse three and twelve of this chapter that this verse is directed to king Zedekiah, and not Jehoiakim. The message came to Jeremiah, and thie time of the message is dated to the beginning of the reign Jehoiakim. It will be eleven years later that Jeremiah finally delivers that message to king Zedekiah. Jeremiah 27:2 "Thus saith the Lord to me; `Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck," This is the eighteenth prophecy of Jeremiah, and in biblical numerics the number eighteen means "bondage". So we see that the bonds and the yokes are to be used to go into bondage. Jeremiah is telling the king and the people, "you are going to go into bondage." The word "Nebuchadnezzar" means "the God of learning". We learned from the book of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar too the children of the captivity and put them in schools, and gave them nourishment to help them grow both physically and mentally. So we see that this bondage is to place them under a yoke and bonds of learning. In the end we saw that Daniel was promoted to second in the kingdom, and the other three from the fiery furnace were also promoted. In fact in the end, Nebuchadnezzar was converted to God, and even wrote Daniel 4. Babylon comes from the word "Babel", which means "confusion". The king of Babylon of Revelation, in our generation will come playing the role of the messiah, and he will come in prosperously, and peacefully. He will come in just opposite from what most people expect Satan, the Antichrist to be. Satan will be the "instead of Jesus", coming first to deceive the people that have no read, nor understand God's letter to them, His Word. Jeremiah 27:3 "And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrsus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;" Jeremiah is to send the messengers that came from these kings back to them with this message in hand. So we see that Jeremiah was a prophet to many nations, as well as to Judah. Remember that the Edomites were the offspring of Esau, they are the Russians of today. The Moabites and Ammonites are the offspring of Abraham's nephew Lot, through deception, while the people of Tyrus and Zidon are the Kenites, the people of merchandising, trade, banking and wherever the money is. All the messengers from these kings that come to Jerusalem to the court of king Zedekiah are to receive this message to carry back to their kings. So we see that the message given eleven years earlier by God is finally delivered to the kings, as they came to Zedekiah's court. The message to all these people is that they are all going into bondage to king Nebuchadnezzar. When Jesus taught as He talked to people, He used this same expression as to how we are to take up His yoke when things get tough. The yoke is used to protect the neck of the horse, while shifting the load from the weaker horse to the stronger. It balances the load to where each horse can do its share of work. Matthew 11:28 "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will hive you rest. Matthew 11:29 "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." When the load gets too heavy for you to withstand, Christ is waiting there to kick the stones out of your path, and lighten you load. He can't take that load unless you all Him to receive it. You have to put that yoke on for yourselves, and He is waiting there to help you. The yoke cushions the load, and makes it easier for you to carry. Christ will carry the load for you, if you have the faith. If you know and understand what is happening in this world today, you know that the coming of the Antichrist is very near. The new world order, that one world government is right at the door, and Christ is here to make that time of deception bearable for those that will turn to Him, and study as He has instructed us. We have a one world governmental system in place to control all problems, and shortly it will have its world leader that all will pay respect to. That new leader, or king will be the leader of Confusion, which is to say, "Babylon". The world has never been in a greater state of confusion then it is at this time, and we can safely say that every conflict we have today is a religious war. In Ireland, in Bosnia, all over Africa, in the Arab nations, in India, and so on. When the king of confusion comes, who is Satan the Antichrist, the entire world will be convinced that he is the answer, the Christ and promised Messiah. They will all run to him and all of the boundaries of nations will fall. We will be in a state where there is only one nation on the earth, and the nation will have but one religion, with Satan as its god. Jeremiah 27:4 "And command them to say unto their masters, `Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;" Jeremiah 27:5 "I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me." God is declaring His majesty on earth, and His power in the universe. I made it all and I can give it to whom ever I please. That is why when you do things God's way, you are going to be blessed. God will give you exactly what you can take care of, and what you can't the Kenites of the world will take from you. The determining factor of how much is to much is the point where you lose what you have by not using common sense. You just can't handle it, and it slips right through your fingers. What God is saying here then, is that He is giving the power now over to the king of Babylon. Jeremiah 27:6 "And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him." Don't forget that the king of Babylon is God's servant, sent to do the work of the Lord, exactly as it is written in His Word. This means that Nebuchaddnezzar is serving God's purpose by correcting God's people, because they are to stupid to take care of themselves by studying His Word, and understanding what is going on. God will use whom ever He will to bring His people back in line. That is also how it will be in this end generation when the king of Babylon of the Book of Revelation stands among us. Jeremiah 27:7 "And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son," until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him." "All nations", friend, this is the "New World Order" and we also see going on today, and it shall be in power until the "very time" ["exact time", in the Hebrew] comes to pass. The Book of Daniel gives us a better report of the outlining of nations under the one world order, then does Jeremiah. It describes how the captivity will come to pass, and what we should be looking for in the news, and events taking place. It guides us as to what we shall see coming to pass in our generation. It will be a replay of what Jeremiah observed and wrote about taking place in his day. Remember what God said in the Book of Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun, what was shall be again". Jeremiah 27:8 "And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand." God is making a promise here to all those nations that will not place themselves under the king of Babylon. Anytime you are not familiar with prophecy to know what events God is bringing forth next, and you stand in the way of those events, God will remove you. God is telling you here what he is going to do with you, He will consume you by whatever means He sees fit. Today there are many nuts that think they can prevent the One Word System from coming into being, but God has said that it will come to pass. That system will start as a political system, which will receive a wound to the head, and from it turn into a one world religious system that is acceptable by all men and women on the face of the earth, except God's elect. Revelation 13 tells of that two headed beast, with its seven heads and ten horns of power. Revelation 13:2 "And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority." Satan is the dragon that shall give this beast its power and authority to function. Revelation 13:3 "And I saw one of the heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." The first head of the beast was a political wound, and when the political form of the beast is wounded to death, it ceases to function as a governmental authority. Revelation 13:4 "And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" Satan the Antichrist will restore this dead political system into a religious order, and in return the people of the earth will worship the system, and of course they will worship the dragon that brought it to pass. Friend, this is going to come to pass and if you are in the way God will get you out of the way. God told Jeremiah that Nebuchadnezzar was His servant, and would rule the world, and that made it absolute. He also said there would be a one world system in our day, and that is also final. Just as those who would fight God in Jeremiah's day would be killed by the sword, famine or pestilence, and those that resist in the final generation will also be taken out of the way. Whether it be by intern camps, the killing of individuals like the Waco massacre, or any other form of destruction, the final generation will go into the camp of Satan the Antichrist, and only God's elect will know what is truly happening to the world. Why? Because they have taken the time to study God's Word to know and understand the plan of God, and the events that God has given us through His prophets. Friend, it is going to happen just as it is written. However if you have the yoke of Christ on, it doesn't matter what happens, for He will protect His own, just as He protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the fiery furnace as recorded in Daniel 3. Satan is not coming to destroy people physically, but he is coming to convert people to his way of thinking. What we will see is a giant revival spreading around the world, as all mankind is brought over to his way of thinking. Ephesians 6:10-20 tells us that the battle is completely spiritual, and the weapons used are with words and ideas that deceive people. Satan will come with peace and prosperity, and the famine is not for food, but for the true word of God as recorded in Amos 8:11. The death that comes is a spiritual death, and the point that this verse is making, is that you do not get in God's way when He is carrying out His plan. Jeremiah 27:9 "Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, `Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon" Those false prophets and dreamers taught that Babylon and king Nebuchadnezzar would not come and conquer Jerusalem, but that God would protect Jerusalem from all outside forces. Yet God stated directly that Nebuchadnezzar would come and the entire world would serve Babylon. Today you have these same diviners that like to create their own security blanket, that goes against God's holy Word. They like to teach that they will not be here when the Antichrist comes, but that they will fly away. That is not biblical, my friend, the world rapture is not in the Bible, and Ezekiel 13:20 tells us that God doesn't like it when false prophets and teachers hunt the souls of His people to teach them to fly away. Ezekiel 13:20 "Wherefore thus saith the Lord God; `Behold, I am against your pillows, where with ye there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from you arms, and will let the souls go, even the souls that ye hunt to make them fly." The pillows are the false teachings like the rapture doctrine, that the false shepherds today peddle to their people, so that they don't have to teach the full Word of God with understanding. However Christ makes it quite clear in Matthew 24, and Mark 13 that before He return the false messiah will walk on this earth. Christ even goes beyond that in Mark 13:20 "And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days." God's elect are those that know the truth. So any time anyone tells you that you will fly away, he is as those false prophets of Jeremiah's day. Look out for them. God's plan is for His elect is to be in the field and remain through the time of Antichrist to be used by the Spirit of God when they are delivered up to tell why they refuse to bow to the false Christ. Mark 13:11 "But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought before hand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit." This is the time that the true tounges of the Holy Spirit will be spoken. Jeremiah 27:10 "For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish." There are very few people that know the migrations of the ten tribes that were removed from their land, and were scattered through the Caucasus Mountains to settle around the world. This is not talking about the tribe of Judah, but the people of the House of Israel. They don't know who they are because they have never been taught. They know they are called Caucasians, but they don't know why. How can they understand any prophecy from the Word of God, and how it applies to them, when they don't know who they are? Jeremiah 27:11 "But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.' ' " To till the soil and stay there in, is a reminder to what Christ said in Luke 21:23; "But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days: for there shall be great distress in the land." When Christ comes back at the seventh trumpet, He is looking for a virgin bride, and woe to them that have been taken by the wrong groom. Christ expects you to keep your mind and work on the soil, and what is going on around you, and not to run off with another groom, Satan, who is coming first. It is written that you and I living in this final generation will see Satan the Antichrist on this earth posing as the True Christ, and we are expected by our Heavenly Father to know absolutely that it is not Christ. We take the yoke of Christ when we study His Word with understanding, and apply it to our life. When the disciples asked Christ what it would be like just before He would return, Jesus gave them a listing of seven things that would happen before He would return. Those seven things or events are the same seven seals that are listed in the book of Revelation, and also the seven trumpets will sound each of their happenings. Jesus made is so clear that any lay person can read them and understand. The are listed in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, and they deal with natural things. Jesus started His explanation in verse five, "Take heed lest any man deceive you." So what will the Antichrist look like when He arrives on earth? Lets go to Revelation 13:11; "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Satan will look like Jesus the lamb slain, but he spoke like the dragon, because Satan was the dragon. Revelation 13:12 "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly would was healed." When Satan arrives as the Antichrist, that old political system that has fallen will be patched up and given the power to rule. However it will be a religious system when it is healed, and the one given the glory and worshipped with be the Antichrist , the one that revives the old system. The point I am making is that Jeremiah outlined in detail exactly what would happen to any person or nation that would not submit to the plan of God, they would be destroyed by it. We are to know His plan and be observers, and understand what is taking place, Why? because it show us the power and control that God has over all matters and events. God gave us the record of what we are seeing today, and He expects us to be wise enough to understand them when we see them. Jeremiah 27:12 "I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live." God is telling you that you have to do it His way in order to live. Sure there will be some heat that the Elect will take in this final days, but your soul will live when you are in His will. God is telling you that He is big enough to take care of His own. Jeremiah 27:13 "Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?" The question is; "When you know it is my plan, why do you want to die?" You know that the only way to survive is to be in the plan of God, so why are do you not submit? Jeremiah 27:14 "Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, `Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:' for they prophesy a lie unto you." Jeremiah is pleading with the people not to listen to those false prophets that are saying that they do not need to know God's Word. Their prophecies are all lies, yet the people would rather listen to lies then be prepared with the truth. Friend, there is nothing new in this world, to listen to the people of Jeremiah's day is just like what is coming from most Church houses today. The people are just fine listening to whatever trash is coming from the direction of the pulpit, as long as they don't have to study, and be accountable for what is in the Word. They will believe any fairy tale, even the one about flying out of here. Though that fairy tale didn't exist in Jeremiah's day, because it started with Margaret McDonald, a mentally ill person in 1830. Jeremiah faced other fairy tales of prophesy that were just as much a lie. When you listen to any tale to be substituted for God's Word you are betting your soul on that story. This is why you should check out what is being taught before you accept it in your mind. Jeremiah 27:15 "For I have not sent them,' saith the Lord, `Yet they prophesy in My name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye and the prophets that prophesy unto you." God is saying that if you listen to those lies of the false prophets, you will perish. Jeremiah 27:16 "Also I spake to the priests and to all this People, saying, "Thus saith the Lord;" `Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, `Behold, the vessels of the Lord's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon:' for they prophesy a lie unto you." God does have a sense of humor, and He is showing us how silly some of those false prophets and false teachers are. Jeremiah 27:17 "Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?" Jeremiah 27:18 "But if they be prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.' " After twenty three years of Jeremiahs prophesying to the people, God finally said to him, go ahead and let those false prophets prophesy, let them prove themselves wrong. If they don't think that the king of Babylon is coming, let them say whatever they want, and in the end they will understand my Word. In the end I will straighten out all matters. This is also a type of how the king of Babylon of Revelation is going to come into being. There are many prophets, ministers and teachers that also say, "Don't worry, you are not going to be here." That is the same thing that these false prophets of Jeremiah's day were doing, and just like them, most of the people believed them. This is a pattern given to us, as to how things will be in our day. Their prophecies are from their own mouth, and not from God's Word. Jeremiah 27:19 "For thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city," When Jerusalem fell after the three sieges, the Babylonians took the most valuable items first. The pillars and sea is in reference to the larger and heavier things, while the bases and residue are the items of lesser importance. In the end all items will be removed to Babylon because God had ordered it. So God is telling Jeremiah that everything is going to be taken, and let these false prophets prophesy that they won't. Jeremiah 27:20 Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;" In the first siege, during the captivity of Jeconiah much of the gold and valuables were taken, and much of the heavy items were left. Jeremiah 27:21 "Yea, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;" Now God is telling Jeremiah that many of the vessels, the less expensive ones were left in the house of the Lord, and the property of the king was left in Jerusalem. God is now going to tell Jeremiah what is going to happen to those items. Jeremiah 27:22 "They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the Lord; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.' " God has made the captivity a sure thing, Jerusalem, the people and all the positions shall go into captivity into Babylon. God wasn't worried about this seventy year time of correction, but He was looking toward the eternity and not the short span of some ones life. God's plan is to bring about salvation for all those that chose Him. Our God is patient and longsuffering, and it is His desire or will that all people will come to repentance. II Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." God is patient in waiting on all men to repent and turn to Him, however most will not because they would rather listen to false prophets and the traditions of men. So here they threatened to kill Jeremiah in the last several chapters, as Jeremiah is giving them his eighteenth prophecy. The number eighteen is the "bondage" in Biblical numerics, and God is telling them that He is placing seventy years of bondage on them for their own good. We will see later that it was for their own good that this bondage came. Nebuchadnezzar took very good care of them that went into captivity, and the king educated them and fed them well. Nebuchadnezzar even educated the children of the Israelites well and gave some of them high positions of authority in the government, as we read in the Book of Daniel. Remember that Nebuchadnezzar was serving God, and he was a type of what we can expect from the Nebuchadnezzar of the book of Revelation. Daniel made it quite clear in Daniel 8:24 that this king of fierce countenances and understand dark sentences would come in peacefully. "And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall the mighty and the holy People." Daniel 8:25 "and through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand." Satan, the king of Babylon of the Book of Revelation is coming as Jesus, the false Christ. To be accepted by the holy people, he must play the role of Messiah, and bring in the peace and prosperity that they expect the Messiah to bring with Him, or he will deceive no one. What is the purpose of the Messiah? He is a savior and brings peace, so that is what the king of Babylon, this son of perdition of our generation will bring with him very shortly. The illusions that most Christians expect of the Antichrist is that he will be dreaded because of his physical destruction, and they will over look the fact that the final battle is not with guns and destruction of property, but will be fought in the minds of men and women, boys and girls with words and ideas contrary to the Word of God. That is why the Kenites and those given to Satan are out to establish traditions and doctrine that is not in the Word of God. Mankind, whether in Jeremiah's day, or our day will listen to those doctrines and believe the false prophets, rather then study God's Word for the truth. Satan will come trying to fulfill the role that Jesus will be in, and God is giving to us an example here of what the preachers will be saying just before His coming at the seventh trumpet. God is saying that it shall happen exactly as I have said it will be, no matter what the false prophets say.
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