Latest / Faith by annm2705 / 774. Bible Study: Jeremiah 13 (The Linen Belt that became Useless)
Transcript
- 0:00Jeremiah chapter 13. Dear Lord, please be with us as
- 0:05we read through this chapter and give us insight and wisdom and
- 0:10let us know what you want us to learn from this.
- 0:12We ask this in Jesus name. This is what the Lord said to
- 0:17me. This is Jeremiah speaking.
- 0:19Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not
- 0:24let it touch the water. So I bought a belt as the Lord
- 0:27directed and put it around my waist.
- 0:30Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time.
- 0:34Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist and go
- 0:39to parath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.
- 0:43So I went and hid it at Parathas Lord had told me.
- 0:48Many days later the Lord said to me, now go to Parath and get the
- 0:52belt. I told you to hide there.
- 0:54So I went to Parath and dug up the belt and took it from the
- 0:58place where I had hidden it. But it was now ruined and
- 1:02completely useless. Then the word of the Lord came
- 1:05to me. This is what the Lord says.
- 1:07In the same way, I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great
- 1:12pride of Jerusalem. These wicked people who refuse
- 1:17to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their
- 1:21hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will
- 1:27be like the belt, completely useless.
- 1:31For as the belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the
- 1:35people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me, declares
- 1:39the Lord to be my people for my renown and praise and honor, but
- 1:46they have not listened. So there's quite a bit there.
- 1:51Jeremiah is receiving things symbolically from the Lord.
- 1:57That's often, it seems, how the Lord speaks to people when he
- 2:01speaks in dreams and visions. And I know he does the same
- 2:05thing with Ezekiel as he has Ezekiel do certain things that
- 2:09are very symbolic of what he's, you know, saying to the people.
- 2:15And then again, he's doing this to Jeremiah and I'm, you know,
- 2:20I'm not sure the reason in doing this, not why not speaking
- 2:24directly. But I guess when you go through
- 2:27these processes, you remember the symbolism.
- 2:31You might forget, especially in the condition that Judah was in
- 2:37the tribe of Judah or the 2 tribes that were in Judah, they
- 2:41were not listening to God. So I guess he's approaching it
- 2:45this way, but it's just as something that we see in
- 2:48Scripture through prophets that God does.
- 2:51Sometimes he speaks directly and sometimes he speaks
- 2:53symbolically. And sometimes the symbolism is
- 2:58literal, but it's also symbolic. So it's, it's very interesting
- 3:03and it's, as you, the more that I read, I see these things
- 3:10anyway, he's and he did this over time with Jeremiah.
- 3:15First of all, he's talking to him.
- 3:16So Jeremiah hears from the Lord and the Lord tells him to buy a
- 3:20belt. So he does that and then he
- 3:23tells him, you know, don't mess it up basically, and you know,
- 3:27don't get it wet. And then after that he says to
- 3:32hide it by the riverbanks. So this is all of these
- 3:36processes like he went from telling him not to mess it up to
- 3:40then putting it in a place where it is going to get messed up.
- 3:44And these, again, are very symbolic if you think about them
- 3:48or meditate on them. And I think that's why some of
- 3:51these things are in the Bible too, is because we're supposed
- 3:54to meditate on the word of God. So we are supposed to think
- 3:58about these things, these details, not to just rush over
- 4:01them and ignore some of the detail because they are very
- 4:05profound details of what God is speaking to people.
- 4:10So it said in the study, Bible says why did the linen belt have
- 4:14to stay dry? So it wouldn't rot too quickly
- 4:20when it was dry, like the linen. When it was dry, the linen would
- 4:24have reminded the people of the linen garments worn by the
- 4:29priest. It symbolizes purity and
- 4:32holiness, a reminder of Israel's priestly calling and character.
- 4:37Later, it was buried among the rocks along the riverbank, where
- 4:41it would be soiled by mud and water, a picture of sin that
- 4:47caused Israel's rottenness. Why did God use an object lesson
- 4:56for a prophet? In the Old Testament, God often
- 5:01used symbols, symbolic actions, to teach important lessons.
- 5:08Symbols dramatized God's message in ways words would not.
- 5:13Linen, the material used to make the priest, used to make the
- 5:17priest garments, was worn close to the body and symbolized
- 5:22Israel's holiness and special relationship with God.
- 5:26Like linen, which rotted easily, Israel was prone to corruption.
- 5:32This was before and after picture of Israel.
- 5:35The nation went from enjoying a close relationship with God to
- 5:41being rotten with sin. God wanted the people to see
- 5:46that idolatry had corrupted them.
- 5:51So let's see. I think I'll read about the
- 5:55wineskins. So what did the wineskins
- 5:59represent? This is what we'll talk about
- 6:00next. Jeremiah quoted A prop, a
- 6:03popular proverb typically used to reference the expectation of
- 6:08God's continued prosperity for his people.
- 6:11To this context, however, Jeremiah used the familiar
- 6:15proverb as an analogy of God's pending judgment.
- 6:20The empty wineskin represented the people of the land, and God
- 6:25was going to fill them with drunkenness represented by the
- 6:30wine. The drunkenness alluded to their
- 6:33helplessness and confusion in the upcoming attacks.
- 6:37So here's what it says about the wineskins.
- 6:40Say to them, this is what the Lord the the God of Israel says.
- 6:44Every wineskin should be filled with wine.
- 6:48And if they say to you, don't we know that every wineskin should
- 6:51be filled with wine, then tell them, this is what the Lord
- 6:55says. I am going to fill with
- 6:58drunkenness all those who live in this land, including the
- 7:01kings who sit on David's throne, the priests, the prophets, and
- 7:09all those living in Jerusalem. I will smash them one against
- 7:12the other, parents and children alike, declares the Lord, and I
- 7:16will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from
- 7:20destroying them. So here's what it says.
- 7:26Hear and pay attention. Do not be arrogant, for the Lord
- 7:29has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God
- 7:32before He brings the darkness. Before your feet stumble on the
- 7:38darkening hills. You hope for light, but He will
- 7:42turn it to utter darkness and change it to deep gloom.
- 7:46If you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your
- 7:51pride. My eyes will weep bitterly,
- 7:54overflowing with tears, because the Lord's flock will be taken
- 7:58captive. Say to the King and to the Queen
- 8:02Mother, come down from your Thrones, for your glorious
- 8:07crowns will fall from your heads.
- 8:11The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no
- 8:15one to open them. All Judah will be carried into
- 8:18exile, carried completely away. Look up and see those who are
- 8:23coming from the north. Where is the flock that you that
- 8:26was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted?
- 8:30What will you say when the Lord says over you?
- 8:33Those who cultivated as you, as your special allies?
- 8:38Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor?
- 8:43And if you ask yourself, why has this happened to me, it is
- 8:47because of your many sins. So again, God is not when he
- 8:52does these things, everybody should know why, especially he
- 8:56gave it to Jeremiah. It's because of your sins.
- 8:59He, you know, if people would repent, but they don't repent
- 9:02and he keeps warning them. And I feel like we are also in
- 9:07that same time type of time right now where there is a, a, a
- 9:16pending judgment that's coming and from the Lord because there
- 9:20are things in Scripture that says, you know, when everybody's
- 9:23saying peace and security or peace and safety, and that's
- 9:27what we're hearing right now is all over the place.
- 9:30It says in Scripture that then comes sudden destruction.
- 9:35So and it does. And Jesus said that war will
- 9:41continue more. There will be wars and rumors of
- 9:45wars and all of this will continue until the end.
- 9:49So for us to think that there's going to be this time of peace,
- 9:54it doesn't sound like it from what prophecy says.
- 9:57So when we are seeing that there's this peace and we're
- 10:01seeing people talk about it, it's against what the Bible says
- 10:05is going to happen. And that means that there's
- 10:08something sudden that's going to happen, sudden things, sudden
- 10:11and unexpected that's going to happen when all people are
- 10:15saying peace and security and and it's, you know, God doesn't
- 10:21change. It seems like he does the the
- 10:24same reactions for the same reasons, and the number one
- 10:30reason is the number one command that we break, that people break
- 10:36in general is idolatry. Now I don't it seems very
- 10:42specific in in scripture that idolatry is the worship of a
- 10:47false gods worshipping another spiritual entity that is not
- 10:53God. And so it could be any religion
- 10:56that doesn't that you know, that does not worship the one true
- 11:04God. And and so I think this is this
- 11:08does fall on a lot of people around the world that are
- 11:12worshipping false gods at this time.
- 11:17So I will finish reading this chapter.
- 11:20Neither. Neither can you do good who are
- 11:24accustomed to doing evil. So it's this is something else.
- 11:30Can't. OK, I don't know if I read this
- 11:32or not. It's because of your sins that
- 11:35your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated.
- 11:39Can an Ethiopian Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard it
- 11:45spots? Neither can you do good.
- 11:48You are who are accustomed to doing evil.
- 11:53So again, this is just showing people that we don't have, when
- 11:59we are in evil, we don't really have the power to change
- 12:03ourselves on our own to, to really, truly make change.
- 12:10Quite honestly, it's the Holy Spirit that does this for us.
- 12:14We can go for a bit, but if you really truly want change in your
- 12:18life, if you truly, truly want to be in God's Kingdom, then we
- 12:24need to submit to God and be willing to be obedient and ask
- 12:29God for help through the Holy Spirit.
- 12:31Ask Jesus actually for help through the Holy Spirit, because
- 12:35Jesus is the one who sends the Holy Spirit to people anyway.
- 12:41And Jesus said you cannot be in the Kingdom of God unless you
- 12:44receive the Holy Spirit, unless you are born again.
- 12:47OK, let's go back. I will scatter you like chaff
- 12:51driven by desert wind. This is your lot, the portion I
- 12:56have decreed for you, says the Lord.
- 12:59And he gives another reason again, because you have
- 13:01forgotten me and trusted in false gods.
- 13:05So any, not every religion worships the same God.
- 13:10And there's a trend going today with religions that are trying
- 13:15to unify people, saying we all worship the same God.
- 13:19That's not true because many of the religions that say they
- 13:24worship one God, they deny Jesus.
- 13:27And if they deny Jesus, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life,
- 13:31and no one comes to the Father except through him.
- 13:36So anyone who is in a religion that doesn't recognize Jesus as
- 13:42the Son of God and recognize and believe that he died on the
- 13:49cross for all people, not for one religion, but for all
- 13:53people. And his sacrifice on the cross
- 13:56made it possible for us to be in God's Kingdom and to receive the
- 14:02inheritance of God's Kingdom as a brother and sister to Jesus.
- 14:08This is all what happened on the cross.
- 14:11Any religion that denies that or doesn't acknowledge that is a
- 14:16false religion. So if anyone believes in a
- 14:19religion that doesn't recognize Jesus, it's time to get out.
- 14:26It's time to seek. Ask the one true God, the
- 14:32Creator. Ask the Creator, because there's
- 14:34only one Creator, but ask Him to make you aware.
- 14:39If you are one of those people who don't believe in Jesus, ask
- 14:43Him to reveal the truth to you as the Father and and he will do
- 14:50that because he wants people to know the truth.
- 14:54He wants people to repent and he wants people to be in his
- 14:57Kingdom. So it says, I will put up, I
- 15:03will pull up your skirts over your face, that you that your
- 15:11shame may be seen, your adulteries and lustful neigs,
- 15:16your shameless prostitution. I have seen your detestable acts
- 15:21on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, Jerusalem.
- 15:26How long will you be unclean? So why would God say he would
- 15:31pull pull up your skirts over your face?
- 15:35This is a picture of public disgrace with His shame being a
- 15:38synonym for nakedness. Promiscuous women were public
- 15:43publicly humiliated by being stripped or having their
- 15:47clothing lifted up over their heads in different verses that
- 15:51acknowledges us throughout the Bible.
- 15:53Judah, unfaithful to the Lord and yearning for foreign gods
- 15:58would be disgraced like a prostitute.
- 16:03So on all of these things I was, you know, this God is patient
- 16:09and it seems like we just hear this like unrelenting anger from
- 16:15God and saying I'm not don't you know, don't pray for these
- 16:19people. Don't ask me to change my mind.
- 16:22It's made-up. And what we don't realize is
- 16:25we're reading a chapter in the Bible.
- 16:28But what we don't pay attention to perhaps, is that there was a
- 16:33lot of time that happened during the time of Jeremiah.
- 16:39He was a prophet all the way until the fall of Jerusalem.
- 16:45So he started with Josiah around in the 6:30 PC and then it came
- 16:52up to 586 from somewhere in 6:30 or 640 all the way up to 586 BC
- 17:04was the time frame that Jeremiah was prophesying about all of
- 17:09these things and warning the people.
- 17:11So Josiah and, and actually, you know, it wasn't because of
- 17:16Josiah, but it was just, it was everything that had happened.
- 17:22It turned out that King Manasseh is the one who started all of
- 17:27this with, with God and really got his anger up.
- 17:30So I wanted to look a little bit about the history of the kings
- 17:37and, and I think some of this will probably open your eyes
- 17:40when you look at what the kings were doing.
- 17:43So King Manasseh angered God by rebuilding idol altars,
- 17:48sacrificing his own children to false gods, and practicing
- 17:53sorcery and divination. He also defiled the temple with
- 17:58idols, rebuilt high places his father had torn down, and shed a
- 18:03great deal of innocent blood which provoked God to wrath.
- 18:08These actions went against God's commands and LED the people of
- 18:13Judah to commit greater evil than the nations that had driven
- 18:19out them before. So this is internal, that Israel
- 18:23has really bad stuff, that God is just, He's had enough of it.
- 18:28So idolatry. He erected altars to the gods
- 18:33Baal and Ashira, worshipped the stars, and even placed a carved
- 18:38image of Ashira inside the temple.
- 18:42So King Manasseh did quite a bit child sacrifice.
- 18:46He sacrificed his own sons in the fire, a practice associated
- 18:50with the work worship of Molech and explicitly forbidden by God.
- 18:55So he's got Bale, Ashira, Molech, he's doing all that.
- 19:00And then there's witchcraft and divination.
- 19:02He practiced sorcery, consulted with mediums and spiritist and
- 19:07engaged in fortune telling and necromancy.
- 19:10And necromancy is contacting the dead.
- 19:14So if anybody does that kind of thing, I mean, this time of
- 19:18year, we're in October right now.
- 19:20This is a time where people get into these things and these
- 19:25things are things that God hates and are actually summoning
- 19:28demons. And and that's why these, I
- 19:32think, I don't know whether they're fallen angels or they're
- 19:36demons or they're something other, but they are definitely
- 19:39spiritual. They want to be worshipped as a
- 19:44God. And I believe they present
- 19:46themselves as a God and they deceive people.
- 19:50So people think that it's God, but it's really not.
- 19:55And this has happened throughout time.
- 19:59So when anybody. It, it says in scripture, there
- 20:02was even a warning in scripture that if anyone comes to you with
- 20:06a gospel message other than what we've shared, let them be
- 20:10accursed because they are evil, They are from evil and evil does
- 20:17try to deceive people so that they believe other religions.
- 20:21And it's very manipulative and deceptive.
- 20:26And it we are in a world right now where it's become so common
- 20:32to see all the things just like of Halloween that it's just
- 20:37normal culture that we see all that stuff.
- 20:40Well, all that stuff really is rooted in this type of practice
- 20:47that God punished Israel for. So think about that when you're
- 20:54considering what your plans are for Halloween, because those
- 20:58practices are pretty similar to the things that God pronounced
- 21:05judgment on to the people of Israel for doing.
- 21:09You know that witchcraft, divination there's why is there
- 21:13a glorification of this violence?
- 21:15He and Manasseh, King Manasseh Violence, he shed very much
- 21:19innocent blood throughout his reign, spiritual corruption, He
- 21:24rebuilt the high places his father had destroyed, which were
- 21:28sites of Pagan worship and seducing the people to commit
- 21:32more evil than the surrounding nations.
- 21:35This is just like any other sin that is enticing to someone or
- 21:41attractive to someone. Once they do it, it becomes
- 21:45easier to do it again. It becomes more desirable.
- 21:49It's like you're, if you stay away from it, you don't have any
- 21:53problems with it. But just like any addiction,
- 21:57like if you go to that addiction and you you do that addiction,
- 22:03then it just gets more and more desirable.
- 22:05But that's the way evil works is that it's a very alluring,
- 22:13gradual thing. But what it does is it's it's
- 22:16seeking to destroy people. And so while it may feel very
- 22:20innocent at first, it doesn't turn, it doesn't stay innocent.
- 22:25It turns to something greater. So then let's, let's get back to
- 22:30the King's. So King Josiah, he was like the
- 22:34Last King of the series of kings.
- 22:37That was a he was the last good one.
- 22:40Well, he was the king during the when Jeremiah started
- 22:45prophesying and he was actually good.
- 22:47Here's what he did. He found the book of the law in
- 22:51the temple and it was a very pivotal moment.
- 22:55It's talked about in Second Kings chapter 22.
- 22:59During a temple renovation project in the 18th year of his
- 23:02reign, the high priest Kaya discovered the scroll, which is
- 23:07traditionally believed to have been a form of the Book of
- 23:10Deuteronomy. The King's reaction to hearing
- 23:14the law read was one of deep dismay, leading him to launch a
- 23:18sweeping religious reformation throughout Judah.
- 23:24So when he discovered how far from what God said they needed
- 23:32to do, then he he responded positively.
- 23:36It says his reform. In response, Josiah called the
- 23:40people together at the temple. He had the book read to them and
- 23:45renewed the covenant with God, committing to follow His
- 23:49commands with His whole heart. So God wants us to trust Him and
- 23:55He wants us to obey Him. The obedience part is kind of
- 23:59hard for a lot of people, but when you surrender to God and
- 24:04ask God to help you with that obedience part, He does send the
- 24:08Holy Spirit to help us with that part.
- 24:12But anyway, Josiah, he, he had to change.
- 24:15So you would think Israel would be good.
- 24:18And while he was reigning as king, King Josiah of Judah
- 24:22instituted a sweeping religious reform after discovering a
- 24:26scroll of the Law, which involved centralizing worship in
- 24:30Jerusalem, purging the land of idolatry, and rebuilding the
- 24:35Temple. Josiah is known for his deep
- 24:38religious commitment, which led to nationwide observance of a
- 24:43restored Passover and a national covenant with God.
- 24:48Though he was killed in a in the battle at Megiddo while
- 24:51performed while confronting Pharaoh Nico.
- 24:56So the next one that came after Josiah was Jehoiahaz, but he
- 25:03wasn't the same because every single king after the next, I
- 25:08think there were five of them, 12344 more, they were all evil.
- 25:15So here's what they did. So again, this is pointing out
- 25:18because I'm pointing this out because God was patient and he
- 25:24went through all these like 5 kings from Josiah got killed and
- 25:29then there's all of these that come after him and and they just
- 25:34do not do anything good. So here we'll hear about what
- 25:37they do. So during his brief 3 month
- 25:41reign as king of Judah, Jehoaz reversed his father's Josiah
- 25:47religious reforms and promoted idolatry.
- 25:51He was overthrown by the Egyptian Pharaoh Nikko, who took
- 25:55him captive to Egypt and installed his brother Ilaya
- 26:00King, renamed Jehoiah King Kim as a vassal king.
- 26:08A heavy tribute was also imposed on Judah.
- 26:12So the other thing that we should know and remember about
- 26:17God is what Daniel says in chapter 2.
- 26:21He he says in verse 20, praise be to the name of God forever
- 26:26and ever. Wisdom and power are his.
- 26:30He changes times and seasons. He deposes kings and raises up
- 26:37others. He gives wisdom to the wise and
- 26:41knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden
- 26:45things. He knows what lies in darkness
- 26:49and the light dwells with him. So this is Daniel knew this
- 26:55about God and he puts kings in place and he takes them away.
- 27:01So this this next king that followed because he reversed his
- 27:07father's reforms, he only had three months and God took him
- 27:11out and then it's just it's one thing after another.
- 27:17So the next one that came after Jehovah, as was Jehovah Kim, and
- 27:27during his reign of as king of Judah, he reversed his father
- 27:32Josiah's reform, embraced idolatry, and ruled
- 27:36oppressively. After three years as a
- 27:39Babylonian vassal, he rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar,
- 27:44leading to a Babylonian siege in the King's violent death during
- 27:49his removal to Babylon. So it wasn't very successful for
- 27:54him. God let the enemies come.
- 27:56And those were also things that were in the warnings of
- 27:59Deuteronomy that the enemies would, you know, if if you are
- 28:05not faithful to God and you keep being rebellious to him, he will
- 28:10let you get turned over to the enemies, spiritual enemies,
- 28:15because the Babylonians are being, they're being ruled by an
- 28:24and a spiritual force. I mean, it does say that there's
- 28:28Mystery Babylon in the Book of Revelation.
- 28:31So Babylon really never goes away.
- 28:33I believe it's something spiritual that remains with the
- 28:37land, or at least as a presence on earth.
- 28:43So then after Jehovah Kim, then there's Jehovah Chin.
- 28:49So all these three are very similar in name.
- 28:51During his short reign as king of Judah, Jehoiah Chin
- 28:56surrendered to the Babylonian army, was taken into exile in
- 29:01Babylon, and was later released to live with relative comfort at
- 29:05the royal place. He ruled for just three months
- 29:10before the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar, captured
- 29:13Jerusalem in 597 BC and deported him along with his family and
- 29:18other members of the court. While in captivity, he was shown
- 29:21preferential treatment, receiving daily rations from the
- 29:25king and ultimately being released after Nebuchadnezzar's
- 29:30death, so his reign was briefed. Jehoiachin became king at age 18
- 29:37after his father Jehoiakim was killed, but he only ruled for
- 29:42about 3 months. After being deposed, he
- 29:46surrendered to the Babylonians and then he was exiled to
- 29:49Babylon and he was replaced by his uncle.
- 29:52The Babylonians installed his uncle Matanaya, renamed Zedekiah
- 30:01as the new king of Judah. So what did he do during his
- 30:07reign, reign? Zedekiah, the Last King of
- 30:10Judah, broke his oath of loyalty to Babylon, rebelling against
- 30:16the Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar, despite warnings from the
- 30:20prophet Jeremiah. So Jeremiah, I don't know if we
- 30:24got to that point yet, but Jeremiah to tell the people that
- 30:28they should listen to the Babylonians.
- 30:32They should, you know, basically not resist the Babylonians.
- 30:38And so he was not listening to Jeremiah, who was getting the
- 30:43word from God. I know it would probably be a
- 30:45little hard to believe, but maybe they should have paid
- 30:49attention to how Jeremiah lived life maybe, or knowing that he
- 30:56prophesied this would happen and that it did happen.
- 30:59So maybe believing that, OK, maybe Jeremiah did hear this
- 31:03from God. And so instead, he doesn't
- 31:08consult God and he decides to rebel against the Babylonian
- 31:13king. So, influenced by hideous
- 31:17advisors in the surrounding political climate, Zedekiah
- 31:20conspired with Egypt and engaged in idolatry, which ultimately
- 31:26led to a Babylonian siege of Jerusalem.
- 31:29The city fell and Zedekiah Zedekiah was captured, forced to
- 31:34watch his sons be executed, blinded, and taken to Babylon to
- 31:41live out his days in captivity. So he ignored prophetic
- 31:47warnings. The prophet Jeremiah
- 31:49consistently warned Zedekiah that his rebellion was a mistake
- 31:53and that submission to Babylon was God's will.
- 31:56Zedekiah, however, did not listen, instead choosing to heed
- 31:59the counsel of his own advisers. So again, this is we need to
- 32:04know. This is something we all should
- 32:06learn is to hear the word of God, to be able to communicate
- 32:12with God and to to seek God. God will let you know how he can
- 32:18communicate with you and God will also there are ways that he
- 32:24will let things know, let you know that it is actually him.
- 32:29But that's something that's very personal and that takes a whole
- 32:32nother study. I'm not going to get into all of
- 32:34that, but this just shows how Zedekiah was influenced by
- 32:40others around him but wasn't getting the information from
- 32:44God, wasn't consulting God, and therefore it was a consequence
- 32:50to him. So he was captured while trying
- 32:52to flee the city. He was taken to Babylon after
- 32:55witnessing the execution of his sons being blinded and stripped
- 32:58A kingship. He reigned with the destruction
- 33:01of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity.
- 33:06So anyway, there's talking about prophets.
- 33:12Jeremiah, he warned all these people.
- 33:15And there's something that many people today, unless you study
- 33:21Bible prophecy, you're probably not seeing all the things that
- 33:25are happening that have been happening since 2020 that are
- 33:30very much aligned with Bible prophet prophecy.
- 33:34And they are actually showing us how Bible prophecy is unfolding.
- 33:40It hasn't reached its culmination.
- 33:43But another aspect of it is that there are people who are warning
- 33:48other people to repent to get right with God.
- 33:53Charlie Kirk was one of those. And, and there's other people
- 33:58also who are doing this and in, you know, when I spoke about God
- 34:05speaking to people, this is something personal that happened
- 34:09to me too, is that I started having dreams.
- 34:13The when I finally, I guess did the outward symbol of something
- 34:20inwardly that I had decided to do when I surrendered to God and
- 34:25I was baptized. The night of my baptism, I
- 34:28started having dreams and they've kind of like, I haven't
- 34:33had one in maybe a month or so, which is a little bit, maybe a
- 34:37couple months, which is a little unusual.
- 34:39But I don't ever know really when they're going to occur
- 34:44except that they tend to be during like feast days and
- 34:48things I've noticed. But when they first started
- 34:51happening, I didn't recognize the symbolism in them.
- 34:55But now I have in hindsight, I started writing down all these
- 34:59dreams that I had and I've had over 80 dreams since my baptism
- 35:04in 2021. And that's when I was also, I
- 35:08started seeking God in 2017. And this the dreams didn't
- 35:14happen until it until after my baptism.
- 35:20And I have had this very sense of this heavy sense of urgency
- 35:27as to telling people that get right with God, get close to
- 35:32God, you know, do you know, make that your priority.
- 35:36Everything else doesn't matter, but make God your priority.
- 35:40I've had this because I've felt like we are getting close to the
- 35:49return of Jesus and because of dreams that I had.
- 35:53And only when that time passes will I know if the dreams were
- 35:57just dreams or if they were actually a reason for them that
- 36:04I guess there had to be a reason for them if, if they were from
- 36:07God. And and what they did to me was
- 36:12first of all, they made me believe in God because some
- 36:16things were revealed in my dreams that I hadn't really
- 36:20studied in the Bible. But then I found them in the
- 36:24Bible and now they're really engraved in my mind because I,
- 36:30you know, I, I was specifically looking for that and I didn't
- 36:35know some details that were, that came about dreams.
- 36:40There were scripture verses that would come.
- 36:42They would be like encouraging verses that would come.
- 36:46And there was, you know, ace particular scripture verse that
- 36:50was repeated multiple times in multiple dreams.
- 36:54Some of the dreams I had actually expanded on prior
- 36:59dreams or I was aware in my dream of the that I had.
- 37:04So there's, these were unlike any normal dreams because I
- 37:10hadn't I, I would dream occasionally and they were just
- 37:13strange dreams, but they were never significant.
- 37:18These dreams that I had had the name of Jesus in them, most of
- 37:24them, and they were very biblically significant.
- 37:29It's just so hard to really share this with anybody and have
- 37:33anybody believe it. And they always give these
- 37:37natural reasons why this would happen.
- 37:40But anybody who's had this happen to themselves, they will
- 37:45know that there's a difference between normal dreams and a
- 37:50dream from God. And some of my dreams actually
- 37:55came to be in real life, or I would see a my dream in my real
- 38:00life later, or something would happen that I was shown in my
- 38:05dream later. So, and the reason that I talk
- 38:09about this is because throughout the Bible, it tells us this in
- 38:15Daniel when these kids were taken into, when I say kids,
- 38:21young men, when they were taken into captivity, God gave them.
- 38:26This is in Daniel one verse 17. To these four young men, God
- 38:30gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and
- 38:34learning. And Daniel could understand
- 38:37visions and dreams of all kinds. So God's communicated to people
- 38:41through dreams. He communicated with Joseph, the
- 38:46son of Isaac or the son of Jacob in in dreams.
- 38:53And he communicated with Joseph, the husband to marry in dreams
- 39:01so that they would avoid the area where the, you know, Herod
- 39:05was going to try to kill the children.
- 39:07And so Joseph, you know, was directed through a dream and and
- 39:15then the prophet Joel in chapter 2 verse 28 says, and afterward I
- 39:21will pour out my spirit on all people.
- 39:24Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your old men will
- 39:28dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
- 39:32And then in Acts chapter 2, verse 17, in the last days, God
- 39:36says I will pour out my spirit on all people.
- 39:40Your sons and daughters will prophecy, your young men will
- 39:45see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
- 39:49Now I because of my dreams that I had, I've had about 80 of
- 39:55them, I started seeking to see if other people were having
- 40:00dreams too. I was like, am I the only one
- 40:02that's having these dreams? And if there are other people
- 40:04dreaming, are they dreaming similar things?
- 40:06And there are some that are dreaming similar things.
- 40:10And if you haven't? Are are not aware of this, just
- 40:17maybe search, you know, like biblical dreams or something on
- 40:21YouTube and you'll see there are there are a couple accounts that
- 40:25I found and they have like multiple episodes or multiple
- 40:32videos daily typically. And I don't even know for how
- 40:37long they've been doing this. I don't even know the total
- 40:39count of videos. But these are all different
- 40:42types of people from all different places all over the
- 40:45world who are having dreams. And there is a commonality in
- 40:51these dreams where a lot of them are saying that it's time to get
- 40:56right with God. It's time him to repent and that
- 40:59they are saying Jesus is coming soon and a lot of people have
- 41:03said that before. And there was a big mass of I
- 41:07guess false prophet or I don't even know if you want to call
- 41:11him a false prophet. But he was someone who said
- 41:15Jesus came to him in in a vision or a dream and told him, you
- 41:19know that this year that September 23rd was going to be
- 41:23the rapture. Well, he didn't, I mean, he may
- 41:28have been a man of God, but and he seemed like it in many ways,
- 41:34but the question is, you know it, it says that a great
- 41:38deception is going to come upon the earth and it may, it could
- 41:43even deceive the elect if it's possible.
- 41:48So not knowing, I mean, for us to be in the word of God is so
- 41:54important because it says that Satan can appear as an Angel of
- 42:00light. So Satan could probably even
- 42:03appear as Jesus. So we all, any one of us who
- 42:07does have dreams should really be humble and consider that do
- 42:13we know that this is really from God.
- 42:16Now the one thing that does align with the Bible and always
- 42:21it would be true throughout history no matter what time is
- 42:25God saying turn to him, repent, change your mind, turn away from
- 42:31sin, reject sin and turn to Him and be willing for your life to
- 42:39change to become holy and believe in Jesus if you don't
- 42:44already or seek information about him.
- 42:47Ultimately we have to believe in Jesus or we will not be in God's
- 42:50Kingdom because Jesus made it possible for us.
- 42:54If we don't believe in his death and resurrection that paid the
- 43:00price for our sins. Then there's it says in Hebrews,
- 43:06in the book of Hebrews, that there is no forgiveness unless
- 43:12except for the shedding of blood or without the shedding of
- 43:15blood, there is no forgiveness. So unless blood was shed, there
- 43:21would be no forgiveness. And Jesus is what is who did
- 43:27that for us. And it's just so important for
- 43:31people to understand this. And so anyway, what I'm saying
- 43:36is that all these dreams, people are saying the same thing.
- 43:39They're saying get right with God and seek God and, and just
- 43:46get prepared. Jesus said we must have the Holy
- 43:49Spirit to enter into the Kingdom of God.
- 43:51So everyone needs to be prepared.
- 43:53And even if the end is not for another 50 years, it doesn't.
- 44:00You know what does I mean? It's only good if we change
- 44:05right now and we become more holy because Jesus also, when he
- 44:10does return, he brings with Him rewards for all who have done
- 44:16for everything. He's rewards all people for what
- 44:20they have done. So it's never too late to get
- 44:25right with him and it's never too early to get right with him.
- 44:28Actually, it it could be too late, it could be too late when
- 44:32he returns and it could be too late if we die and we don't get
- 44:37right with him before we die. So the time is now and it's just
- 44:42we might be prepared a little bit early than we need to be,
- 44:46but that's a good thing if we want to be in the Kingdom of
- 44:49God. The time is right now to make
- 44:54that decision, express that to God, ask Jesus for the Holy
- 44:59Spirit, and that's all you need to do to prepare.