King Josiah's Reign and Call to Repentance

In Jeremiah's day, King Josiah was a righteous king. He did many reforms, wanting the people to repent and tear down idolatry. He wanted to reform Israel back to the Torah, back to God's commandments. Josiah was a righteous king, but unfortunately, the people didn't get the memo; their hearts were not circumcised to what Josiah was trying to do. After a righteous king tries to get the people to repent, and they refuse, then come the prophets, and what the prophets ordain, God will do. That's what the book of Jeremiah is about.

Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet for a reason: he loved God, he loved the land, he loved the commandments, and he loved his people. This is his cry to the Jewish people, his cry to the Israelis of today, and a call to repentance. Jeremiah, the Jewish prophet, is saying the same thing today as he did back then with the ancestors before Nebuchadnezzar came to town. We must accept what this man says, not be offended by it, but repent and come to the Lord, because you will see the great attributes of the Most High in the book of Jeremiah. After Jeremiah and all the other prophets warned the people for 23 years to repent, his ministry was about 40 years, but about 23 years before Jerusalem was destroyed, he was warning them to repent and come back, and they said no. And you saw what happened.

We all know as Christians what happens at the end of the age: the time of Jacob's trouble, which Jeremiah wrote about in Jeremiah 30. The bottom line is, we will see these things happen with the biblical prophets. Daniel speaks of four kingdoms; Jeremiah speaks of Jeremiah 30, Isaiah 28 speaks of the covenant with death, which will be annulled, and the time of Jacob's trouble, but he will be saved out of it. Our Israeli friends believe it's redemption time, but it's the time of trouble, or about to be the time of Jacob's trouble, and then the Messiah will show up, not until then. We must repent and get back to Yeshua, calling on Him, because that's why bad things are happening in the promised land and with the enemies of the people: we are not in obedience. Obedience is the best way to put the enemies aside. Repentance. Please read what the Torah says: if we repent, enemies go away. If we disobey, He will bring the enemies against us. It's very simple and clear, what God told Moses about the promised land and the people in the land.

This is a very serious conversation, and the book of Jeremiah is a very serious book, as is the Torah, Isaiah, Yeshua, and John. It's all very serious. We need to get a little more serious about these things instead of thinking everything's going to be okay. Nothing is okay right now when you look at the Middle East; it's out of alignment, just like it was before Nebuchadnezzar came to town. We have to realize where we are. Everything repeats itself. History repeats itself. It rhymes, for sure. Jeremiah's book, while reading history, bleeds into the future, prophecy for the Day of the Lord. If God told the people that then, He would tell all of us that now. He does not change. Since we do the laws that He put in that land, whoever is in that land, if they don't obey, it's not going to be good. Throughout history, look at the scriptures for yourself. What Moses told the people in Deuteronomy 28-30, what we read with Jeremiah and all the great prophets did, not because they hated them, but because they loved God, they loved the land, they loved the commandments, and they loved the people. But the people have to get circumcised in the heart, Ezekiel 36. Times are getting nigh, and everyone wonders why they're not getting any victories. It's because of disobedience. We've watched this for years, and there are no victories against the enemies. It's not political; it's spiritual. It's a heart posture. Everyone can blame whoever they want for why Israel hasn't gotten victories, but it's their attitudes, their behavior, their heart posture towards the Torah, towards the commandments, towards the land. The land is desecrated. We have all these things going on that are not cool according to Moses. You can't have homosexual parties in Sodom and Gomorrah and think everything's going to be okay and you'll get the victory. You can't have abominations everywhere, mosques, Christmas trees, Easter eggs, come in every religion, and expect to have victories.

I listen to a lot of rabbis and sages, and I learn a lot from them. At the same time, I don't see the call to repentance from Israeli leadership, the government, or anyone. It's all about our power, our work of our hands, and doing it with our idol, America. I don't see anyone saying, "Let's repent, and we will get the victory." Look at what Jehoshaphat did; he repented and fasted, and God gave the victory. They didn't have to fight. Hezekiah, same thing. Once we get back to that heart posture, Israelis, including myself, once we get back to it and observe the commandments and repent, you will see the greatest victory by the Jewish Messiah, and He will clean up all these people. Whoever you think your enemy is, it's going to be Jews, Christians, Muslims, and everybody will get the sword if they are not Yeshua, Holy Spirit, and doing their best to follow God's ancient ways.

We are in the same position as the prophet Jeremiah, Isaiah, Haggai, Habakkuk, and all the great prophets. We are seeing the same things. You are a kingdom of priests and a holy nation if you believe in Yeshua, the commandments, and the Holy Spirit. We must do our part to help our Jewish and Israeli friends wake up and understand what time it is. Out of love, because of what's coming on this earth. We all see it. We see anti-Semitism higher than it's ever been. In the United States, there have never been poll numbers like this against the Jewish people. 60 to 65% are unfavorable to Israel. We must understand this. It's not anything but love to everybody, but we must love God as well. We see everyone taking sides, but we must love God, His commandments, and all people. We must tell all people, including the Jewish people and Israelis, to wake up because the same things will happen again due to rebellion and disobedience.

Let's look at the great prophet Jeremiah. We all know the overall story. Some of this will be redundant, but let's just read what he says. We'll go through about 15 chapters tonight, not spending a lot of time on them, but just reading what he says and what God told him to say. It should stir us all up for righteousness, justice, and holiness, to be set apart. And to do our part to wake up our Jewish and Israeli friends. Paul says in Romans 1, "To the Jew first and then to the Gentile." Don't take that wrong, Gentiles. It just means don't forget about the Jewish people. So many Christians don't want to put their neck out on the line to tell the Jewish people the truth because they want to be part of political Israel. For all of us who love God, Yeshua, His commandments, the people, and the land, we must do our part, just like these prophets did. That's not saying we're anything like them, but let's do our part and prophesy through them, letting them know that the Jewish prophets are against what's going down over there. That's what Jeremiah would say today.

Let's understand what's going down in the land. God told Jeremiah to tell the people that Nebuchadnezzar was going to come and judge the people and the entire Middle East. We'll read about 15 chapters, then have a summary, and then keep reading to understand Jeremiah's cry to his people and his call to repentance from the reign of Josiah.

King Josiah was a righteous king. In Jeremiah 46, we'll read where he was killed by Pharaoh Neco. This is a prophet's cry, Jeremiah's cry to his people today, the Jewish people, the Israelis, and a call to repentance: to turn to Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, and then you will be in the kingdom. This will be through the book of Jeremiah, Josiah's reign, from 627 to 609 BC. Daniel was taken captive in 606-605 BC, right after Jeremiah warned the people during Josiah's reign. Then came captivity, exile, and the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Ezekiel was in the second or third exile, Daniel in the first.

The main chapters we'll read tonight are Jeremiah 1-6, 7, 9, 11-12, and 14-19. This is a summary, an overall understanding of the call to repentance and what was going on in the promised land then, and what's going on today. All love, no condemnation, just what the prophet said. We need to repent. If we don't repent, bad things will keep coming.