God's Fisherman - Satan's Hunters - Book Series Part 4 - "Chapter 2 & 3"

The day is coming and drawing so near. The prophet's words are being fulfilled; the times and seasons are at hand for the glorious arrival of the Son of Man. There lightning flashes the East and the West; the Earth will endure the Lord's test. Be saved by his name while he can be found; seek his face before the trumpet sounds. The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. Before that day, keep your lamp burning. The day of the Lord is full of dread — in that day, who can stand?

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We now turn to Chapter Two, which covers the prophecy of the fishermen and the hunters. The covenants were presented first because that is the very reason Jeremiah wrote this prophecy. There would have been no reason for the prophet to record it — no reason for God to commission it — if the Everlasting covenants were not valid. The prophecy was written because of the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the New Covenant. As we move through this chapter, we will see how it aligns with those Everlasting covenants.

One of the most unspoken, often neglected, yet imperative prophecies of our generation is Jeremiah's prophecy of the fishermen and the hunters. This encouraging but sobering prophecy directly and cohesively correlates to God's Everlasting covenants — and that correlation is the primary reason the Prophet Jeremiah proclaimed it. As we begin to explore this prophecy, it is worthy to note that God has appointed a specific time in which he will completely fulfill his Everlasting covenants and prompt Abraham's, Isaac's, Jacob's, and David's descendants to return to the promised land from all the nations where they have been scattered due to their sin against him. Amazingly, the prophecy of the fishermen and the hunters bestows great wisdom and knowledge of God's appointed time for this event, and of exactly how it will be fulfilled.

As we journey forward, we will understand how God's Everlasting covenants and the prophecy of the fishermen and the hunters are two of the major cornerstones that culminate into the time of Jacob's trouble, the Messiah's Second Coming, and his Millennial Reign. We will begin by reviewing God's call to Jeremiah to become a prophet. Afterwards, we will examine in summary the history of the children of Israel and the tragic and atrocious circumstances that led to Jeremiah's prophetic calling, which will provide great insight into the prophecy of the fishermen and the hunters. Upon conclusion, we will prove that this prophecy is an End of the Age prophecy. From this point forward, the term "the children of Israel" or "the Jewish people" will refer to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.

God divinely sanctified and ordained Jeremiah to be a prophet — not only to Israel, but to all nations and kingdoms. Jeremiah's ministry began in approximately 627 BC, when he was around twenty years old, and he ministered under the last five kings of the southern Kingdom of Judah.

Jeremiah 1:4–5 and 9–10 records: "Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, Jeremiah; before you were born I sanctified you and I ordained you a prophet to the nations' — not just to Israel, but to the nations." The passage continues: "Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: 'Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.'"

Before Jeremiah's ministry, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed by the Assyrian Empire due to its continuous disobedience to God. Although the southern Kingdom of Judah had vividly witnessed the massive destruction of its sister kingdom to the north, the people chose to remain stiff-necked and continue to rebel against God's laws and commandments — the Torah. Slow to anger, and in his ultimate love, grace, patience, mercy, and forgiveness, God instructed Jeremiah to call the southern Kingdom of Judah to repentance. Rebelliously, the children of Israel persisted in their flagrant disobedience toward God, mocking Jeremiah's warnings as they plunged deeper into their idolatrous lives and their wicked ways. Once God's patience ended, judgment was set and his punishment was forthcoming.

Jeremiah 1:14–16 says: "Then the Lord said to me, 'Out of the north calamity shall break forth on all the inhabitants of the land. For behold, I am calling all the families of the kingdoms of the north,' says the Lord. 'They shall come and each one set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah. I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, because they have forsaken me, burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands'" — which, it must be said, is precisely what the world is doing right now, both Jew and Gentile.

Jeremiah 25:8–9 continues: "Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says the Lord, 'and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and I will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and a perpetual desolation.'"

This is the weight of what the Prophet Jeremiah actually says. Everyone claims to love the Prophet Jeremiah until they read him carefully. We must read him. We must understand him. We must receive what the prophet is saying, because he was commissioned as a prophet to the nations — including the nations of the future. Notice that God calls Nebuchadnezzar "my servant." He raises up an evil king and brings him against his own disobedient people. This is reminiscent of Ezekiel 38, where God says he will put a hook in the jaws of Gog and bring him down — much like the Antichrist in the last days. God controls all things, including wicked rulers. He will bring an evil king against his people when they disobey. Modern-day Christianity and America must heed this warning, because God did not spare Israel from destruction — not once, but twice. He will not grant any other nation, including America, a pass for what has been done. The accounts are open.

The Babylonian Empire at the height of Nebuchadnezzar's reign extended across a vast region. Jeremiah prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar, along with his empire, would violently march from the north into Jerusalem and destroy it, and that captives from the southern Kingdom of Judah and its surrounding cities would be taken to Babylon. As both the Holy Bible and world history record, Jeremiah's prophecy was fulfilled in 586 BC.

Jeremiah 25:11–12 states: "And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it shall come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity," says the Lord, "and I will make it a perpetual desolation."

Jeremiah had prophesied that the children of Israel's captivity in Babylon would last seventy years, and that once fulfilled, God would judge the Babylonian Empire by allowing it to be conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire. The Prophet Daniel records this pivotal prophetic transition in Daniel 5:25–28 and 30–31.

The inscription written on the wall read: "MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." The interpretation: MENE — God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. TEKEL — you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. PERES — your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. That very night, Belshazzar the king of Babylon was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

Now that we have examined God's divine prophetic calling of Jeremiah, the destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the seventy-year exile and captivity in Babylon, and the fall of the Babylonian Empire, we turn to the prophecy of the fishermen and the hunters in Jeremiah 16. Here Jeremiah prophesies that the Lord will restore and redeem the children of Israel to the promised land — from the land of the north and from all the lands where he has driven them.

Jeremiah 16:14–15 records: "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that it shall no more be said, 'The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,' but, 'The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where he has driven them.' For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers."

At first glance, this prophecy might appear to have been fulfilled after the seventy years of Babylonian captivity, when God did indeed restore the children of Israel to the promised land. However, as Jeremiah continues, he vividly describes the dramatic and specific details of exactly how the children of Israel will return. He tells you not only that it will happen, but precisely how God will accomplish it.

Continuing in verse 16: "Behold, I will send for many fishermen," says the Lord, "and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks."

This is sobering. Jeremiah declares that God will send fishermen to fish the children of Israel back to the promised land, and afterward he will send hunters to hunt them from the land of the north and from all the lands where he has driven them. This prophecy ultimately certifies the restoration of the children of Israel to the land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and their descendants through the Everlasting covenants — the promised land of Israel.

The critical question now becomes: after the Babylonian captivity, did the fishermen fish and the hunters hunt the children of Israel back to the promised land in fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy? To discover the answer to this imperative question, we must continue our journey by understanding the role of the Prophet Daniel.