“And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey,” Jeremiah 21:8-9.

From the very first verse we may learn that there comes a time in the midst of a nation’s afflictions when even the king seeks unto God’s servant for help. Zedekiah was not a good man, Jer 52:2, 2 Kings 24:19. He had the dishonour of being the last king of Judah before the captivity and the destruction of the temple and city of Jerusalem.

His wickedness, we may say in the words of the well known idiom, was the ‘straw which broke the camel’s back’ and brought down God’s wrath upon the land and the people. The sins of the nation had been accumulating until finally, the actions of Zedekiah ended the days of God’s forbearance and patience and pleading with the nation through the words of Jeremiah and the former prophets, and wrath fell!

It should be noted that the king entertained a hope in the face of the increasing dangers that is akin to that of many ‘evangelicals’ today, verse 2.

The king was hoping that as God had worked ‘wondrous works’ in the past for His people, He would do the like again. Many Christians, as we face an increasing apostasy and rejection of all that God has said in His Word, entertain the hope that as God has wrought wonderfully in past revivals, He will do so again and turn things around for the church and for the nation.

This hope entails two errors.

1. There is a failure rightly to understand the evils that have been embraced by the ‘professing church’ and the nation today!

As the king was blind to his own sins and those of his kingdom and how those sins were seen by the Lord, so it is today with all too many Christians.

It is not a case of ‘backsliding’ that is taking place today. Yes, God will have mercy on such and will restore the repentant backslider. But today we have ‘apostasy’ from God - an utter abandoning and repudiation of God and His truth by the ‘professing church’ and the nation! There is a turning of the back upon God and an embracing of that which is abominable to Him.

All that God is ‘for’ the present generation is ‘against’ and all that God is ‘against’ there is a bold embracing of! Our streets are filled with parades and demonstrations where the ‘apostasy’ is lauded and rejoiced in.

Our Prime Minister leads the parade of rebellion against of the Holy Law of God! His open displays of immorality and deceitfulness equal that of the likes of any Zedekiah! At his elbow stand the clerics and religious leaders of today’s ungodly theology! The abandoning of the sanctity of marriage as ordained of God, the embracing of the evils of sodomy and the murder of the unborn are all inscribed in the legislative annals of our nation. We are in the GREAT APOSTASY!

Revival will never be granted to a people guilty of apostasy! It was not granted to God’s chosen people and it will not be granted to our nation.

2. There is an ignoring of the truth, revealed in Scripture, for informing the Church of Christ of the approach of the final apostasy within the earth that will result in the Saviour’s return in judgment upon the wickedness of men.

The character of the final apostasy is plainly set forth in passages such as 2 Timothy 3:1-9 and in foreshadowings such as this chapter before us. The character of that departure from God which brought about the captivity of Israel, some 140 years earlier, 2 Kings 17:6-23 and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and Judah, all picture for us events at the end of this age - the influx of strangers, v24.

Surely we see the same events taking place before us today!

Amongst many Christians there is either an ignoring of the prophetic Scriptures or an annulling of them by a system of ‘spiritualising’ the plain statements of God so as to remove from them the truth that the Lord would have us understand!

As a consequence, many of God’s people are utterly ‘adrift’, regarding where we are in the affairs of God. Believing that prophecy is not being fulfilled before our eyes, they entertain notions of renewal that are akin to the thinking of this man Zedekiah.

Please learn:—

I. IT IS THE DUTY OF GOD’S SERVANTS TO INFORM THOSE HOLDING SUCH VIEWS THAT THEY ARE WRONG.

“And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD . . . . He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence,” verses 8-9.

1. There was no hope of the Lord delivering the people from the consequences of their apostasy. Death, famine and pestilence are what lay ahead of them because of their sin!

2. The certainty of their destruction was seen in that the Lord would fight against them. Verses 4-5. Who can succeed in such a circumstances?

3. Any that remain alive after God’s judgments will be taken into captivity. Verses 6-7. There was to be no escape!

4. The reason for such a disaster is plainly stated. Verse 10.

In revival there is a shining of God’s face upon His people, Psalm 80:3, 7, 19. At the end of the chastening of  captivity there would be a changing of God’s face, Daniel 9:17. That was Daniel’s prayer when he realised that the 70 years of captivity were drawing to a close.

But here we see God setting His “face against this city for evil, and not for good,” verse 10. We must likewise see that God’s face is against our nation for its sins and that while we must pray for Him to remember His faithful people in the midst of this whole tragedy, we must not expect Him to intervene when His mind is set upon the judgment that is so deserved!

That His face is set against our nation and the nations of the world may be clearly seen in the unremitting pandemic raging around us. Vaccinations derived from the abortion of a child are not likely to save us from this disease.

God’s judgment cannot be vaccinated against!