Do You Not See These Things? - Part 3

The following message is presented by John Elliott, a minister in the United Church of God.

This is part three of a series that I've been conducting entitled, Do You Not See These Things? It is important for you and me as we enter the end times to understand the two views, the two mindsets, and the two identities that people have. One is an identity with the God of this age, with the secular world that has a form of religion but denies its God, and the second is the family of God, the sons and daughters of Almighty God, those who had their eyes open and their ears unlocked so that we can know God and not only know Him, but through His Spirit, through His Son's sacrifice, through the covenant that God has offered us through baptism, to have a family relationship with that God. It's very important for us to identify with one of those two groups and not both, not to be sort of a mind on the fence, as it were, double-minded, the Bible would call it, but to truly identify with one or the other. As we begin part three, we look at a special tribe of Israel as the tribe of Joseph. Joseph, of course, had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, but Joseph received the birthright, and in the Bible, the one who received the birthright got a greater share. We can call them blessings, we could call it an allocation, and so it was this birthright was prophetic. Now, some will confuse the birthright as being a blessing for performance, but what we're going to look at is a prophecy. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 16. In the middle of the verse, it said, let the blessing come. The word blessing is in italics. It's not actually blessing. It's something that the translators added here, but let this come on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. His glory is like a firstborn bull and his horns like the horns of a wild ox. So a bull and a wild ox. Together with them he shall push the peoples to the ends of the earth. We see here a prophecy about what's going to happen to future generations of the tribes of Joseph once they had violated God's commandments and once they were cast out of the land. This would be their future. They are ten thousands of Ephraim and they are the thousands of Manasseh. God knew that Israel would rebel against him. Israel would then be cast out of his sight. Let's pick that up in 2 Kings 17. 2 Kings 17. Just in case we think that Ephraim, Manasseh, the northern ten tribes were somehow blessed by God and given a different promised land. Let's notice what God Himself says in 2 Kings 17 beginning in verse 18. 18 through 23. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah alone in that promised land that was given them. The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of the plunders. The plunders were the leaders, the heads, three different heads of the Assyrian Empire. Tiglath, Pileser, Sargon I and Sargon II.

And He delivered them into the hands of the plunders, continuing, until He had cast them from His sight. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which He did. They did not depart from them until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants, the prophets. And so Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day. So let's not confuse this with some blessing for right living, but rather, God casting them out of His sight. The ten tribes departed from God, and God had them depart from their lands and from His sights. And they never do return to God during this present evil age, as the Bible calls it. So let's ask the question, do you see these things? Today, in the fulfillment of these prophecies as to what would happen to the ten tribes, and in particular, Ephraim and Manasseh, do we see the fulfillment? If so, what would you like to do about them? What would you like to do about what is happening today to Ephraim, to Manasseh, to the British Commonwealth of Nations, to the United States, to the other ten tribes scattered about northern Europe and in various colonies around the world? Would you like to help Jesus Christ pull them all out of a collapse and a ruin that ultimately humanity is spiraling towards a certain death, as it knows because of the weaponry, because of the environment, because of the trend of climate to ultimately extinguish life from this earth? Would you like to help create a model civilization that represents the God family, that would showcase happy families, fulfilled lives, godly living on the earth? Would you like to help a failed covenant, failed because of the sin of the nation of Israel, succeed? A covenant with God that actually succeeds and puts the twelve tribes where God has always wanted them as an example to the world, a shining example for all nations to see that example, come to them, be taught by them, and persevere in godliness. If so, that is part of the covenant that you and I are part of, and we need to see where the rest of the the lineage of Israel is headed versus where we are headed and what our purpose is in being called as first fruits.

Today, let's follow the Israelites journey. Let's see where they went, what they've been up to in the meantime. In 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 11, 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 11, we see the Israelites being taken into captivity by Assyria. And in verse 11, the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria and put them in Hala. Now, Assyria was roughly in the area of where Iran is today. And it says he took them to Assyria and he put them in three places, divided them up. It was typical for a conqueror to take people out of their lands, out of everything they knew, and put them other places, and then resettle other peoples so that they wouldn't bounce back, they wouldn't fight them, they didn't know the strongholds, they didn't know the resources. And so he put them in Hala and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes. The cities of the Medes. And again, the Medes were over there in what you might call Iran, a little further east of Assyria, which is more in the Iraqi area there, but Babylon was pushing in and growing. And so they were pushed up a little higher. Now, today when you look at that, you think, well, that's not very far, but let's go just a little bit further. Because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed his covenant. If we look here at this slide, we see an area that comprises where Israel would be going. It started down here in Israel. You can see a small area along the coast at the bottom of the slide. And they were pushed up over into this area under Assyria. You had the Medes up here, but look at this red dot up here. Look at this red dot.

There's a paper called Hala, the River Gozan, and the City of the Medes. It was published back in 1960s by a man named Velikovsky. And in reading this paper, it says, in the Annals of Sargon II, he claims to have repelled the distant Medes on the edge of the Bikni Mountains.

Some scholars maintain that the homeland of the Medes, before their occupation and pushing down into this area of modern-day Iran, was actually up here. Was actually up there. A place in West Turkestan, where that red dot is, and a little bit later. What that whole area is there is the Great Open Plain of Europe. It's a vast open territory. If we now go to the next slide, we're going to look at a place called Samara, or Samaria, on the Volga. You can see here the Eurasian Steppes, how they were that open plain area there. In the paper, it says, on the middle flow of the Volga River, a city with the name Samara, like Samaria, where the ten tribes just left from, and where they had defended it against Sargon for three years during a siege. This has existed since gray antiquity. A people called the Ghazars, who dwelt in Samara, dominated the southern and eastern Russia. They passed the Caucasus Mountains to participate in the wars of the Romans and the Persians. They dominated the Ukraine. The ruling class of the Khazars had Hebrew as its language, and the Hebrew faith was the official religion of the realm of the Khazars. From the book of the United States and Britain in Prophecy, it says, in the fifth or fourth century BC, the predominant inhabitants of even western Siberia were a fair-haired people of Eurasian origin. The people in this area were also called Scythians, and nearby a related group was called the Sumerians. Scythians and Sumerians. The United States and British Commonwealth says, considerable evidence connects the Celts of Europe, or the Celts of Europe, with the Sumerians, who fled from the Near East to Asia Minor at the time the armies of Babylon were conquering the Assyrian Empire. One thing about these people, the people that spoke this Hebrew, the people that were in that area, they weren't very docile. In fact, they were a warrior people. The Syrians used the Sumerians as mercenaries in their army at times. Sennacherib spies reported that Sumerian nomads had invaded the Uratu Empire and defeated their forces. In fact, the Scythians took over the whole territory of the old Uratu Kingdom, the kingdom of Uratu. They took it over. The Scythians and Sumerians frequently crossed the Caucasus Mountains, which were here considered to be impenetrable, unpassable, but not to them. They went over and back like they weren't even there. They raided and they conquered. They even played a leading role in the destruction of the Assyrian Empire. They sacked Nineveh, the capital city, in the year 612.

They fought a battle with Rome in 62 BC and won in the district where they were.

Various tribal groups, including the Heruli, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, they overran Rome several times and with finality caused the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 AD. We're talking about some people here who had left God and yet were very strong in their fighting.

Both the Celts and the Scythians exhibited exceptional skill in river navigation and water navigation. They could move through the various rivers throughout that region and they formed a vast network of trade and they mingled with trade all the way through Europe and up into England.

They migrated by the way of the Danube River into Europe and they became known as the Celts or the Celts, the Celtic culture. Between 200 BC and 580 BC, these tribes sometimes fought each other. Sometimes they fought others.

But various conditions changed in that this Eurasian step began to go dry and it could no longer support the horses that the Sumerians and the Scythians used. The animals couldn't couldn't be grazed there anymore and with the various pressure by the Roman Empire and other nations, they moved along to the west and the northwest. I'd like to turn to Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 12. When we think of the time ahead when the tribes of Israel will be returning, the remnant of the tribe, the small remnant, let's notice where they come from. Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 12 returning at the beginning of the millennium. It says, surely these shall come from afar, look those from the north and the west. So we look down here in the bottom, we see where Israel is, Jerusalem. In fact, here's a map. You can see here, north and west of Jerusalem is British Isles off to the United States up northern Europe and this is where they're returning from. So we can tell here that the Celts, the Scythians, the Anglo-Saxons, as they began to be called, were sometimes allies, sometimes enemies under various clan names during a time of when Europe was made up of a bunch of feudal states and alliances.

The Saxons, which was the final name of the Scythians, with the aid of the Angles and the Jutes, also invaded Britain. Soon other tribal clans from ancient Israel began to settle the areas that would assume the national status over the next 500 years. In sixth century England, immigrant Anglo-Saxon warrior king dynasties began to flourish. They would come in, invade, and conquer parts of that area. And so they established a claim of lordship for their particular clan. And what was interesting is their lordship was always tied back through sort of a divine lineage, as it were, through kin. And they claimed that kin to go back to their mystical god, a god king named Woden. That's where we get the name Wednesday today. It's Woden's Day. This is one of the things that came to us from those dark and middle ages when the Israelites, who had lost their god and were finding their own way, were worshiping other gods. They had quite a few other gods, like Thunor, the god of thunder, Fridge, the goddess of love, and Tu, the goddess of war. And these were warring people, and they came and they devoured. One of the entities were called the Vikings. Now, the Vikings, who were many different people, well, they might have been many different tribes, heralding from places like Denmark. You can see up here the Vikings came out of Denmark and off to England, down to Paris, all the way down here into Sicily. They came out of Norway, off to Iceland, Greenland, America. The Vikings, out of Sweden, Finland, came all the way down to Constantinople, even as far as Sicily. And they were raiders. They were pure, bloodthirsty raiders. Here's a quote from Edda of Samund, in a collection of the sayings of Odin, or Woden, the Viking god, like Zeus. Wake early if you want another man's life or another man's land. No land for the lazy. Get up and go take lives and go take lands. And they made the easy prey of where the money was, and the money was in the Catholic Church. And they would go and sail, and they would find these abbeys that were full of expensive goods and money, and they would just attack and slaughter, raid, and then leave. More and more, they would go to places like London and burn the London Bridge, and sack and raid. And they just loved it. They were raiders. They were what would later be called reavers. And they were ruthless, and they were scary. And eventually, many of them began to settle in England and Ireland, and formed part of that cohesive structure of what we would call the British Empire.

The British Empire came along, and it was what you would call a miraculous phenomenon. Now, God's hand in making sure these prophecies were fulfilled is present all along the way. It wasn't just, oh, it's amazing how this happened. No, you look at the prophecies, and then you see how God performed miracles to make them take place in the movement of peoples, the winning of battles, things that should have never taken place, including the British Empire. A miraculous phenomenon, a tiny little group of people on an island that were divided up. There weren't very many. They didn't have much skills at all, and yet they became rulers of an empire five times the size of the Roman Empire, with five times the population that the Roman Empire had.

How is that possible? It was poor. It was destitute. It had few citizens, few natural resources, and they were lousy sailors, by the way. They didn't know how to sail. So it was Spain, ahead of them, that was ruthlessly conquering and sailing and had the armada. They pillaged. They raided.

They went and found gold and booty and hauled it back by the ship load to Spain. The English couldn't hardly sail out of their ports. It was Holland whose skilled sailors managed the trade of the Silk Road through India, and they were excellent with finances. It was Portugal that slaved and raided and colonized and ruled the seas with France that Spain didn't have. The Pope had given all the west and all the conquest to Spain, but they gave all the rest, heading east, to Portugal. England tried, but it failed at everything until Captain Morgan. Captain Morgan. You know, we see this and we think, oh, that's, no, that is actually the beginning of the British Empire right there.

Captain Morgan, with the crown's blessing and its inability to do much of anything, started England into pirating, and he robbed ships, the Spanish ships. Since the English couldn't find gold, they couldn't colonize, they couldn't do any trade, and they were going broke, Captain Morgan offered to go and raid the pirate, sorry, raid the Spanish ships as a pirate as they returned home with their booty from South and Central America.

He was good at it. He started bringing home a lot of gold, a lot of pieces of eight, and the British Empire and the crown liked that. So they began to then encourage privateering, as it was called. So England then began to be a nation of pirates, to go out and loot and to pillage. They robbed ships, they raided settlements, they founded slave sugar plantation. Captain Morgan did, showed them how, down in Jamaica, became a very wealthy man.

He was promoted to lieutenant governor, and he became a very wealthy person in Britain. And so the rush was on. Privateering was the new way. In a book by Neil Ferguson, a very popular British historian, and called, entitled Empire, How Britain Made the Modern World. He shows that British Empire's growth was powered by consumerism, their desire for sugar and tea and coffee, and fine fabrics, and commerce.

Sugar required slaves to man the plantations. These were controlled by Spain, mostly. The spices and tea and textiles came from India and Asia, and those were controlled by Holland and Portugal. The British were latecomers, and they were envious. And they invaded with gunboats as pirates. They raided the ships of Spain and Portugal and Holland and France. The English craved the tea and the sugar and the coffee and the tobacco, but all of it had to be imported. Then other countries caught on, and they wanted those things. And so the world began to follow Captain Morgan, and the globalization that was taking place at that time was done with gunboats.

It was piracy and warfare on the seas. British fought three wars with the Dutch to try to get stuff from them. They weren't successful. They had war with Spain. They had war with France. They went nearly bankrupt until they learned from the Dutch how to create a stock market whereby the royalty of England could have funds from civilians who bought stock with money and then got interest on that.

And suddenly they could afford to build a fleet and they could afford to do a lot of things that they hadn't been able to do before. So they had a stock exchange. They then began what is called the Triangle Trade.

Three and a half million Africans were brought from the west coast of Africa to the Caribbean and British ships and some onto the United States to man the plantations of tea and sugar and coffee and tobacco and up into the United States. And so ships could sail out of England with some passengers going down the coast. Those on the left side or the port side could see land on the way. So they paid extra port outward and then coming back starboard home their ticket said posh on them. P-O-S-H. Port, outbound, starboard, homebound. And so they made some money going south where they picked up slaves eventually in Africa, sailed the slaves or the Caribbean, put on the sugar, put on some of the tea and coffee up in Virginia and sailed back with the loot to be sold in England. And so it went around and around. Now there's a lot said about the religion and how religion and the Bible was brought by the peoples of Jacob and the other countries, the Israelites.

Roman churches, aristocrats, were its priesthood. If you think about the Roman Catholic Church as a business, it has always been a very profitable business. And the ones who reap the profits are the aristocrats who get to be at the head. And those aristocrats get to move into your country. If a cathedral gets built, then they are the ones who have power over that government, decide who gets to be crowned and who doesn't, gets to direct a lot of policy. But they also get the money and they also get land. Very, very rich. Western European countries were aristocrats where the power and the wealth and the money were. Political authority remained in the hands with those who had the religion, while those merchants who just had money had no authority. And so there was this constant push back and forth. And the local aristocrats wanted in. Let us be priests. Let us participate. Let us also cash in on this religion. And for a very short time, that was allowed at the Council of Trent, but then it was reversed a few years later. And subjugated local aristocrats who were told, who ruled, they hated Rome for not having shared this priesthood.

And so there was a growing divide between Catholicism and those who were in protest. And they were looking for some way, some reason, some catalyst to break with the Roman Catholic Church. And they had to find a reason to have the same religion without a pope. If they could get rid of the pope, then they could have the religion themselves and their own cathedrals. And they could be the aristocrats getting in the money and controlling the population. And so they found this basically in law and grace. The law was made by the pope, and he dictated everything. If you could dethrone the pope and say, wait a minute, there's no pope, let's use the Bible, no pope in the Bible, and grace, you see, instead of confessional and being absolved by the pope and his priests, we can do this ourselves. A 30 years war erupted in a book entitled The 30 Years War by C.S. Wedgwood goes through the details of that war. It says, the fortune of the Catholic Church became interwoven with the big dynasty of the time, which was the Habsburg dynasty. This is the greatest power in Europe and spread across Europe. It was a dynasty that was formed through intermarriages, you know, keep the aristocracy high and intermarry so that throughout the countries the various clans and the ruling clans all had an allegiance to the king. They were formed across the country as independent sort of structures and states, but supported the church. The head of the family in 1611 was the king of Spain. He had the backing of the right-wing Jesuits, you know, this powerful group with the Inquisition and everybody was sort of in lockdown. But up in the northern part you had people who were in protest and you had these breakaway countries in northern Germany and Scandinavia and England and even in France. You had those that wanted to be autonomous and break away and so there was a war that was fought and it was fought between the aristocrats, not the common people. The common people weren't really involved other than to have their food taken and their animals taken. Various armed groups would come through and fight each other over 30 years.

Brutal reprisement was seen everywhere. One side was killing off anybody who was defecting, um, from this book it says, on the road from Dresden to Prague, a traveler counted 140 gallows and wheels where people were hanged and others had broken limb after limb on the wheels. That's what it was like. Just walk, just take that journey. You passed 140 people being tightened on these big wheels and gradually pulled apart or hung and their corpses rotting or people screaming.

This is religion. I'd like to read on page 256. I'm sorry, page 526.

The concluding statement of this 30 years war. From the Vatican, innocent the tenth, solemnly condemned the peace at the end of the 30 years war. He said it is no void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty, and meaning and effect for all time.

After 30 years of fighting, the extreme Catholics and the extreme Protestants were left still unsatisfied. The war solved no problem. Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its causes, devious in its course, futile in its result. It is the outstanding example in European history of meaningless conflict. It was the last religious war that was fought, and they shifted then into European national wars.

In 1841, the British navy was employed to abolish the slave trade. At the same time, it established Hong Kong as a base for expanding opium operations, which were crucial to the finance of British rule in India. British rule in India was one of those phenomenons where India was so disorganized that the British, with a very small number of people, came in and organized them into a British colony. This vast country of people suddenly provided Britain with a free-standing army wherever it needed around the world, and it would show up free of charge. It would show up in Africa. It would show up in Europe. It would show up in Asia whenever they needed it. Whenever you go to a British colony today, you see groups of East Indian people, and they were part and parcel of the advance of the British Empire. The British Empire did bring some things that people say, well, this is a wonderful type of form of government or law and various things. Well, I'd like to show you even a better one.

It's right here. The best form of law, the best form of being treated, the best form of court and rulings, and the best form of life is all right here in the Bible. We don't have to sort of use pieces and parts and say how good mankind has been when God has it all right in his Bible. A British statesman with first-hand participation in British naval warfare noted what the Empire brought to society, and he listed some of the positives that it brought. And afterward, this great statesman said this, it is the mind turns from the wonderful cloud land of aspiration to the ugly scaffolding of attempt and achievement. The inevitable gap between the conquest and dominion becomes filled with the figures of the greedy traitor, the inopportune missionary, the ambitious soldier, the lying speculator who disquiet the minds of the conquered and excite the sordid appetites of the conquerors. It hardly seems possible for us to believe that any fair prospect is approached by sofou a path. And so stated Sir Winston Churchill. When he looked back at what he had participated in the Crimean War and looked back at history of the British Empire. And similarly, America's for a foray across its countryside. It defied civil laws, standards. It set up great institutions that sought power over things like lighting, home lighting, which was oil from Wales.

And the killing of Wales to support the oil lighting industry. And then the competitions that came when somebody figured out they could take oil out of the ground. And if they cracked that oil in just the right ways, they could get oil out of it that would burn and replace the whale oil since the whales were becoming extinct. And people are now having to sail into the Pacific Ocean to try to find remaining whales. And whales did not like that. You can read Moby Dick, the account of how some whales would attack. And so petroleum oil then became the fuel for lights in the cities of North America and Europe. And a byproduct of that petroleum oil was some stinky, thin, explosive stuff that was poured out on the ground to get rid of. And it tended to catch fire if you weren't careful. And somebody once then commissioned someone to try to find something to do with that. That thing we call gasoline. And the result was somebody constructed a internal combustion engine that would run off that stuff and use some of it up. And right about then, in contention with that, somebody named Tesla and another man named Edison thought to replace that oil lamp with a light bulb. If they could just get electricity to make a light bulb, you wouldn't have to have oil. We could bypass the oil. And throughout all this fighting in Westinghouse and DC and AC currents and the railroads and and then the factories, you had individuals whose rights were being abused, people underpaid, working conditions that were often lethal, corporations ruled, lawmakers favored, the corrupt. Everyone seemed to lie and cheat to get more than their fair share. The British and Americans and the colonies inherited something that was unbelievable as far as natural resources. Resources that had been saved and protected. No one else could ever quite go in and invade them and conquer them before, due to things like the Little Ice Age or various other things. But suddenly those were opened up. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 13. Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse 13. Again, to fulfill the prophecy that God had made, he saved some of the very incredible and best parts of this earth for those rebellious descendants of Jacob. Deuteronomy 33 and we'll begin in verse 15. With the best things of the ancient mountain with the best things of the ancient mountains. This is of Joseph in verse 13. Verse 15. With the best of the ancient mountains, with the precious things of the everlasting hills, with the precious things of the earth and its fullness and the favor of him who dwelt in the bush, let the blessing again in parentheses come on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers. God reserved these things and yes, by his hand they began and ultimately fulfilled these prophecies. The British Empire under a single queen grew 10 times. Queen Victoria.

The United States emerged after World War II as the world's greatest superpower, the most powerful nation on earth. But who gets praise for the greatness of God that is responsible for the blessings that these peoples have enjoyed throughout all of northern Europe and all the waters filled with fish and the land filled with game and the fruitful fields and the unbelievable lands that are so productive. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 12 provides a warning. Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 12. Beginning in verse 11, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God. Verse 12. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied. Verse 14. When your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.

See, these people didn't deserve any of it. They were slaves in Egypt. They shouldn't have ever even been a people or even had a promised land or even been the children of God by their own right.

But when this happens, they turn their back on God. So when we have this as background and we look at what's coming in the future, what is prophesied in the future, what God says is going to happen to them, it certainly won't seem like God is blessing them because of some pseudo-righteousness while steeped in sin and God denial and throwing everything out that is godly and cursing God to his face and taking his name in vain.

In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 5, and this isn't just speaking to someone else, it's speaking to me. Should I buy into that mindset? Should I want to support? Should I want to sort of be dual in my thinking and say, oh well, this is my society. Then we need to remember what these words are because that's always a temptation. For this you know that no fornicator who is the greatest promoter of fornication in all of its forms on the earth today. No unclean person, no covetous man, who covets more and uses more of the earth's resources, uses them up and wastes them than anyone else on earth. Who is an idolater, puts everything in front of God. Who has any inheritance in the kingdom of God and Christ? They don't. See, if we go that way, there's no inheritance in the kingdom of God and Christ. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Who are the sons of disobedience? God has already identified them. The wrath of God is coming on the descendants of Jacob, because they are the only ones that had a covenant with God and they are the disobedient.

Verse 7, therefore do not be partakers with them. In Romans chapter 13, verses 11 through 14, Romans 13 will begin in verse 11.

And do this knowing the time, that now is high time to awake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night, the darkness, the darkness of this age, is at hand.

Therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness and the head of this dark age, Satan the devil. Let us put on the armor of light and let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. That's where humanity has always been. That's been the legacy ever since the Israelites were still in their land and all the way through until now. In Isaiah chapter 48, Isaiah 48 will begin in verse 1. Here this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth from the well springs of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel. You ever hear things like, God bless America, God save the queen. God is sometimes used sort of as an afterthought, after how great we are and how great our thoughts are and our new laws and our choosing of what is right and wrong.

But notice, they make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness. Where to be of love and truth and right? Just as Jesus Christ is love and He was and is truth, and He is our righteousness. Dropping down out of verse 18, O that you had heeded my commandments, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Verse 22, there is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked. We want peace. We are to have peace, an element of God's Holy Spirit in you. Love, joy, peace, that harmony. But there's no peace for the wicked. We think about that. We think here about the assumptions sometimes that these are model nations in some way, exemplary conduct, showered with God's blessings.

Yet that's only a thin veneer that even Winston Churchill saw through.

It's much like those stones that comprise the temple of Jesus' day. It seems so strong and so right on the surface. Let's go back there in Matthew 24 in verse 1, just before the prophecy of the end time, the end of this age, as he leads into that discussion, Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple. They wanted to show him. We're connected with this. This is the temple of the Jews. This is the temple of God. This is the temple of God and his holy place, and the festivals of God and the Sabbath of God. To them, that was what they were part of. Their culture was their cornerstone, and the temple complex was built by a half Jew, but the other half was Herod the Great.

He was a Roman king of that region. This modern marvel that they were looking at was rock solid, and it seemed like it would last forever. It had an altar to the true God. Even Jesus referred to it as my father's house. So what's the problem here? But if you look deeper, it was a show place of Judaism. Judaism was not the law of God. Judaism was self-choosing what is right and what is wrong. It was also a facility whose leadership was in part directed by the Roman Empire, by the descendant of the Babylonian kingdom. And he was appointing the high priest who could buy that office. It was a den of sinfulness. It was rife with politics. And so Jesus said to them, verse 2, do you not see all these things? Don't you see it all? Assuredly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. Sometimes we can be enamored with Babylon the Great and all of its tentacles. You know, this Babylon that became Rome that really the world has fashioned itself after. And we can say, wow, this is great. And yet, it says in the Bible, Babylon the Great has fallen, has fallen in Revelation 18. It's not one stone is going to be left upon another. What was the reaction of the disciples when they said that? Ooh, probably kind of like ours at times. We want to save our countries. So spread the alarm about things that threaten it. You know, blow the whistle on conspiracies.

You know, get the right leaders in. Root for the Savior leaders. Boo the weak ones.

Worry. What was Jesus' reaction? Let's go and see Jesus' reaction in Matthew 9 and verse 35. He's the one we are to follow. Here's Jesus' reaction to this whole environment that he was in. Matthew 9, 35. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus was about a different kingdom. He came modeling and speaking of a coming government that he was part of. You and I are called to preach the gospel of the kingdom in all the world. We're called to be lights, examples, ambassadors of that kingdom.

We are called to help Jesus replace this world society with a kingdom of God, kingdom of love and truth and right. In 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15, we are warned to not participate, not be fond of, not love the society. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15, do not love the world, the cosmos, the society, or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, it's not of the Father, but it is of the world. This has been used as a weapon for people to go out and savagely destroy and kill. A whole percentage of the population of Europe and European countries died, some starved to death, as fighting over Protestantism versus Catholicism and the aristocracy and who would have the power and the money went on. But he who does the will of God abides forever.

You and I are especially blessed with miraculous eyes that can see. Jesus said, do you see all these things? We can see all these things. Notice in Luke chapter 10 verse 21. Luke chapter 10.

We'll start here in verse 21 through 24.

Jesus said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him. Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear and have not heard it. So let's open our eyes, and let's see, and let's recall some things about Western civilization. What is the foundation of the British Commonwealth countries, of the United States, of Israel? Whose calendar do we use? Not God's calendar. We use the Roman calendar. What are the names of the weekdays? False gods, the day of the sun, Sunday, day of the moon, moon day, Woden, Wednesday, Thor, Thursday, Saturn, this day.

Beginning and end of the day, Roman, Babylonian, midnight in the dark, holidays, Roman, Babylonian, Saturnalia, Ishtar, Halloween. Seems like we can always get rid of God, but we don't get rid of Satan. Government, Roman, the Capitol, the Senate, the laws, Greek, Roman, sports, Roman Colosseums, Hippodromes, theaters, religion, Roman church, Babylonian church, and various breakaways in protest. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1, we see there's a pretense towards religion. Sometimes we're not careful. We'll give that credence and say, oh, good effort, good try. You know, that's close enough, good enough. At least you're going to church. You know? 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1. But know this in the last days, perilous, the margin here says, times of stress will come because men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness. Now, this is important. If you have eyes to see, do you see there is a form of godliness that sort of floats through this whole system that goes back all the way to Babylon, but denying its power. Adam Clarke says of this word, a form. It's like an appearance of godliness. He says the original Greek word signifies a sketch, like you sort of drew out something. It's not the real thing, but it's kind of a sketch. He says they have a religion in their creed but none in their hearts, and perhaps to their sketch they add a decent round of religious observances. From such turn away regarding that statement, he says, not only do not imitate them but have no kind of fellowship with them. They are a dangerous people but are seldom suspected because their appearance looks good.

Were these model nations to the world that God was blessing for their faithfulness?

We have managed to achieve world-class promoters' status of breaking every commandment and every principle in the Bible. Go find one. We promote the breaking of it. In Isaiah 3 and verse 18, there's a response from God that is coming for that. Isaiah 3 and verse 18, In that day the Lord will take away the finery, the jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents, the pendants, the bracelets, the veils, the headdresses, the leg ornaments, the headbands, the perfume boxes, the charms, and the rings, the nose jewels, the festal apparel, the mantles, the outer garments, the purses, the mirrors, the fine linen, the turbans, and the robes.

And so it shall be, instead of a sweet smell, there will be a stench, instead of a sash, a rope, instead of well-set hair, baldness, instead of a rich robe, a girdling of sackcloth, and branding, instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword, and you're mighty in the war. Let's read what God says is about to happen to them. This is important for us to understand. What the Bible calls the time of Jacob's trouble certainly won't seem like God's blessings are upon Jacob at this time. In Jeremiah chapter 30, we'll begin in verse 4. Jeremiah chapter 30, in verse 4. Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. For thus says the Lord, we have heard the voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now and see whether a man is ever in labor with a child. So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in labor, and all faces turn pale? Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it. And it shall be a time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved after it.

He shall be saved out of it. In Mark chapter 10, in verse 17, let's begin to wrap this up. Notice here, now, as Jesus was going out on the road, this is Mark 10 verse 17, one came running and knelt before him and asked him, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?

And Jesus said, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one that is God. So God is good.

You know the commandments. You want eternal life? Here they are. Do not commit adultery.

Why aren't the nations of Israel promoting that? Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and your mother, who in marriage bore you. Verse 19 shows us what God is commanding for those who will be part of his kingdom, who will have eternal life. In the Western world, in the last 60 years, the courts have issued landmark decisions that violate all of God's laws. Man is defying the God who created man.

The courts have ruled against praying to God about reading the Bible that God gave us.

They sanctioned the killing of infants, some in the womb, some even outside the womb. They erased the biblical definition of marriage. They require the acceptance of sexual perversion of all types. And now they've gone even to nullify gender. In verse 6 here of Mark chapter 10, Jesus said in verse 5, because of the hardness of your heart, he wrote you this precept from the beginning of the creation God made them, male and female. Mankind has decided there is no such thing.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man put us under. While God is banned, the airways are flooded with godless themes of sin, of lust, of murder, of sorcery, witchcraft, demons, Halloween. And today this word of God is now labeled hate speech. So in conclusion, what is foretold about the twelve tribes as they distance themselves further and further from God? All of them. All twelve.

It's vital for us to understand and to be associated with God and the kingdom of God, and be acting in a way that we can be part of God's kingdom.

In Jeremiah chapter 30 and verse 4, Jeremiah chapter 30 and verse 4, For behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity my people Israel and Judah. So they will be in captivity, and he will bring them back from captivity. And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave their fathers, and they shall possess it. Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah, for thus says the Lord, we have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and of not peace.

And so this is coming, as we previously read. But God afterward is going to bring them back.

Isaiah, who is a contemporary with Jeremiah, he wrote in chapter 6, beginning in verse 8, Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 8. He was a new scribe in the palace, young at this point in his life.

And he writes here, I also heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And then I said, here I am, send me. And he said, go and tell this people, verse 9, keep on hearing, but do not understand, keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy. Shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed.

Then I said, Lord, how long? And he said, until the cities are laid waste without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, and the land is utterly desolate. Prophetsies and seedling trees have things in common. They're about the future. They're about something that's going to take place down the road. And in time, the ramifications of them come forward, either positive or negative. Isaiah warned of the consequences. In verse 12, the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

Yet God has not abandoned Israel. Not totally. They abandoned Him, but He has not abandoned them. Notice verse 13. Like Jesus said, we were about to suffer complete annihilation at His return. Verse 13, but yet a tenth will be in it. A tenth. And in another place, it says, one from a city, two from a family.

And these will return and be for consuming as a terebinth tree or as an oak, whose stump remains when it's cut down, so the holy seed shall be its stump. So there will be a remnant of each of the 10 nations, plus the other two. These tribes will come back, kind of like one of those trees you cut down and you hope it's gone, but nope, it starts sending out branches again.

Let's conclude with Jeremiah chapter 23 verses 1 through 8.

Jeremiah 23, 1 through 8. You know, the goal here is something good, is to get through the correction, is to get through Satan trying to kill off humanity and spoil the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. That's not going to happen. And we get to assist with the reconstruction and the rehabilitation of the land of Israel with those remnants who will return. Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse 1. 1. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. There are false teachers. There are false religions. There are false leaders.

And he says, woe to those. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock.

You have driven them away and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord. But I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase.

And I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, and they shall be, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord. Who do you think those shepherds are? Who are going to teach? Who are they going to see, actually, in person, when they hear a voice behind them and see their teachers? Do you want to participate in that? Do you want to be there? Do you want to do something really meaningful? You're not going to fix what's out there today.

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. Now this is his name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness.

Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that they shall no longer sate, as the Lord lives who brought up the children from the land of Egypt. But as the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land. You, brethren, have been called to prepare to assist the Lord our righteousness in a second exodus to bring home the children of Israel.

Let's be using our lives to be busily preparing to reign with Christ at his coming as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.