So we turn now to Jeremiah chapter 50.
Chapter 50 begins with the words, the word
that the Lord spake against Babylon and against
the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the
prophet.
The end of chapter 51 declares, And thou
shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink and shall
not rise from the evil that I will
bring upon her, and they shall be weary.
Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
In other words, this is the completion of
the words of Jeremiah.
Now, I only bring that up to show
you the idiocy of what is known as
higher criticism.
Because this is one of the passages of
scripture of whose authorship is questioned by these
men who call themselves the higher critics.
They challenge the authorship of Jeremiah of these
particular two chapters.
The reason, of course, for the challenge is
that Jeremiah gives some pretty interesting facts concerning
the destruction of Babylon and the fall of
Babylon.
And this is 65 years before the fall
of Babylon.
How could he know that that's the way
it was going to happen?
So surely Jeremiah could not have written it.
And though Jeremiah declares it at the beginning
of chapter 50 there by Jeremiah the prophet,
and he concludes it by saying, Thus far
are the words of Jeremiah.
These men who declare themselves to be Bible
scholars of great intellectual prowess, challenge the authorship
of Jeremiah of this particular passage.
Well, I have little or no respect, and
that's putting it in a very positive way,
for these men who claim to have such
great understanding and all of the Bible, who
take as their chief concern the challenging of
everything in the Bible.
It's a stupid waste of time.
Now, the problem is if you go to
seminary or most seminaries today to study the
Bible, when you study in Jeremiah, you will
spend more time in their stupid speculations of
why Jeremiah did not write these last two
chapters than you will the study of the
book of Jeremiah.
And that's what the study of Jeremiah amounts
to in so many seminaries today of how
that it really wasn't Jeremiah that wrote it.
And that is just, again, a waste of
time and a waste of money.
It's just, I get so upset with these
things that I just, and these fellows, I'd
like to just do what Jeremiah told Zariah
to do with the book, tie a rock
around it and throw it in the river
Euphrates and say, thus shall Babylon sink.
And I'd like to tie a millstone about
their necks and toss them in with a
book.
Of course, Jesus would be there cheering me
on, for he said concerning those that would
turn away the faith of a child, it
were better for them that a millstone be
hung around their neck and they tossed in
the sea of Galilee than to offend the
faith.
They're one of these little ones who believe
in me.
And these men who have destroyed the faith
of so many young students who have gone
to seminary to study the word of God,
only to find that their faith in God
has been destroyed through their seminary experience.
I would like to take each one of
those PhDs and follow the advice of the
Lord.
So the word that the Lord spake against
Babylon.
Now, these are not really the words of
Jeremiah.
These are the words that the Lord has
spoken, but Jeremiah was the instrument through which
God spoke the words.
We so often make the statement, well, Jeremiah
said, and that's probably a wrong way to
put it.
In the New Testament, we find that when
David was quoting the Psalms, so often, rather
than, I beg your pardon, Peter was quoting
the Psalms of David.
Peter would usually say, and the Holy Spirit
spake by the mouth of David saying, attributing
the true authorship to the Holy Spirit, recognizing
that David was only the instrument through which
the Spirit spoke.
So that Jeremiah was the instrument through which
the Spirit gave forth the word.
So the word of the Lord against Babylon
and against the land of the Chaldeans by
Jeremiah the prophet.
The Lord said to Jeremiah, declare ye among
the nations and publish and set up a
standard.
Publish and conceal it not.
Say, Babylon is taken.
Bel is confounded.
The Lord, the word means Lord, and is
the chief God of.
And Merodach, another God of the Babylonians, Marduk,
is broken in pieces.
Her idols are confounded.
Her images are broken in pieces.
For out of the north there cometh up
a nation against her, which shall make her
land desolate, and none shall dwell therein.
They shall remove, they shall depart both man
and beast.
Now, as Jeremiah prophesies the destruction of Babylon,
this is one of those interesting areas of
Scripture where there is a twofold fulfillment.
There is the actual destruction of Babylon as
is prophesied here in these passages of Scripture.
But then there is that looking forward into
the yet future.
In Revelation chapters 17 and 18, where the
Lord takes up again the destruction of Babylon,
but he is talking in Revelation 17 and
18 of spiritual Babylon, the false religious system
of the last days and the great commercial
system of the last days.
So in Revelation 17, the fall of the
religious Babylonian system in chapter 18, the fall
of the commercial system, which are titled Babylon
in a spiritual sense, which means confusion.
And so it is interesting that as you
read Jeremiah 50-51, where he tells of
the destruction and the fall of Babylon, that
some of these passages are parallel passages to
Revelation 17 and 18.
No doubt John in his writing, of course,
familiar with Jeremiah and the Lord speaking again
through John of the destruction of the religious
system of Babylon and the commercial Babylon uses
some of the same phrases that are used
here as God here predicts the judgment of
God that is coming upon this great nation,
the first world governing empire, and perhaps the
greatest of all world governing empires.
Now you remember when Nebuchadnezzar had his dream
and he saw the image, it had the
head of gold.
And he said, thou old Nebuchadnezzar are the
head of gold in that your kingdom is
superior to all kingdoms, but your kingdom is
going to be replaced by an inferior kingdom
in as much as silver is inferior to
gold.
And you saw the test of silver, your
kingdom will be replaced by an inferior kingdom.
And so the Babylonian kingdom, the greatest kingdom
in the history of the world, and yet
so thoroughly destroyed according to the prophecies of
Isaiah and Jeremiah that I dare say, none
of you have met a Babylonian.
And if you did, you wouldn't know it
because as a race of people, they do
not exist anymore.
As God's word said, they would be completely
wiped out.
They were, it said the city of Babylon
would be left to ruins.
It would be a place for jackals and,
and owls and so forth.
And if you go there today, you'll find
it's just a place of ruins, wild animals
dwelling among the ruins of a once great
city, perhaps one of the greatest cities in
the world, 12 miles square surrounded by walls
that were 300 feet wide, high and 80
feet thick and a city of beautiful gardens
and just glory, the glory of Babylon.
But God declares he's going to bring destruction
upon her.
Now in those days when God brings his
destruction against Babylon, God also declares that he
is going to bring again his people from
their captivity.
Now, again, there is a twofold fulfillment.
The prophecy has both its near and yet
it's yet future fulfillment because when the religious
Babylon system is destroyed and the commercial Babylon
system destroyed and the Lord comes again, he
is going to gather together his people from
all over the world and they are going
to come and dwell there in Jerusalem.
And so there is a twofold fulfillment of
these prophecies that deal with Babylon and the
regathering of God's people.
And what took place in history is only
sort of a type of what will yet
take place in the future as there is
a twofold fulfillment to these prophecies.
So when Babylon is destroyed in those days
and at that time, saith the Lord, the
children of Israel shall come and the children
of Judah together.
Now Israel was the ten tribes of the
northern kingdom.
Judah was the two tribes of the southern
kingdom.
And the Lord said that when Babylon is
destroyed, they are going to come together.
There are those today who try to identify
the Anglo-Saxon race of people with the
tribes of Israel, and they have a phrase
which they call the ten lost tribes.
That is not really a scriptural phrase.
Actually, the Bible speaks of the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, but not lost
tribes.
They're not lost.
They never have been lost.
God's always known where they were, and it
would be wrong for God to talk of
them as lost tribes.
So he doesn't.
But they try to identify the Anglo-Saxons.
So the Danish people, they say, are the
tribe of Dan, settled in Denmark.
And of course, it's close to Denmark.
And so they say that the word ish
in Hebrew is man.
So Danish people are Dan's men.
And then, of course, they try to identify
Sweden and England and all as other tribes.
Of course, Joseph Smith had an interesting, yeah,
whatever he had.
Nephi and so forth, you know, came across
the Pacific in these reed rafts and settled
in South America.
And so the Indians and so forth are
the lost tribes.
And yet, at this time, they were brought
together, both Israel and Judah.
It is prophesied that they would come together,
going and weeping, they shall go and seek
the Lord their God.
So this marvelous restoration was promised, that though
they have been driven away from the land
and taken captive by Babylon, the day would
come when with weeping they would return to
seek the Lord.
And they shall ask the way to Zion.
Actually, most of them were born in Babylon,
had never seen Zion before.
So really had no way to get there.
So as they were journeying, they would be
asking people directions in how to get there.
They shall ask the way to Zion with
their faces thitherward or turn towards Zion, saying,
come and let us join ourselves to the
Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not
be forgotten.
The reason for their being exiled was they
had forgotten the covenant of God.
They had forsaken the covenant of God.
And turned and worshiped other gods.
But now the commitment to go back and
to worship God in this perpetual covenant.
My people, God declares, have been lost sheep,
still owning them as his people.
Even though they have failed, even though they've
been taken captive, God still recognizes as my
people have been lost sheep.
But their problem was, was their shepherds have
caused them to go astray.
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill and
they have forgotten their resting place.
So God places the blame upon the shepherds.
James said, be not many masters knowing that
you will receive a greater condemnation.
God has some very unkind things to say
about false prophets and false shepherds and people
who pretend or presume to speak in the
name of the Lord, but whose real motive
is only their own well-being and enrichment.
Who seek not the welfare of the flock
of God, but really seek their own welfare
above everything else.
And God has some very heavy indictments against
those kind of shepherds, shepherds causing them to
go astray, causing them to distrust the word
of God, causing them to distrust God himself.
All that found them have devoured them and
their adversaries said, we're not offending because they've
sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice,
even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.
Remove out of the midst of Babylon and
go forth out of the land of the
Chaldeans and be as the he goats before
the flocks for low.
I will rise and cause to come up
against Babylon and assembly of great nations from
the North country.
And they shall set themselves in array against
her from fence.
She shall be taken.
Their arrows shall be as a mighty expert
man.
None shall return in vain.
All of Chaldea shall be spoiled.
And that's the, and all that spoil her
shall be satisfied, sayeth the Lord, because they
were glad and they rejoiced in their destruction
of God's heritage because you've grown fat as
the heifer at grass and bellow as bulls.
Your mother shall be sore, confounded.
She, the barrier shall be ashamed.
Behold the hindermost of the nation shall be
a wilderness and a dry land in a
desert.
This nation that was once the glory of
the earth is going to become barren because
of the wrath of the Lord.
It shall not be inhabited, but it shall
be wholly desolate.
Everyone that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished
and hiss at all her plagues.
Put yourselves in array against Babylon roundabout all
ye that bend the bow and shoot at
her.
Spare not arrows for she has sinned against
the Lord.
Shout against her roundabout.
She has given her hand.
Her foundations are fallen.
Her walls are thrown down for it is
the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance upon her as she hath done.
Do it under her.
Now that's a phrase that also comes up
in a revelation 18, as God speaks of
the destruction of that commercial system of Babylon
as she has done.
Do double, he declares unto her.
And so here the destruction of Babylon is
predicted.
The walls are to be destroyed.
Walls again, as we made mention were 300
feet high and 80 feet thick.
Yet the prophet Jeremiah had the audacity to
say, they're going to tear down the walls.
They did cut off the sore from Babylon
and him that handles the sickle in the
time of harvest for fear of the oppressing
sword.
They shall turn everyone to his people and
they shall flee everyone, his own land.
Israel is a scattered sheep.
The lions have driven him away.
First, the king of Assyria has devoured him.
And last, this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has
broken his bones.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, behold, I will punish the
king of Babylon and his land as I
have punished the king of Assyria.
And I will bring Israel again to his
habitation and he shall feed on Carmel and
bashing and his soul shall be satisfied upon
Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
Now that's Israel.
That's the Northern Kingdom.
That is not Judah, the Southern Kingdom.
And in those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for and there shall be none.
And the sins of Judah, they shall not
be found for I will pardon them whom
I reserve.
That to me is a beautiful passage of
scripture.
In that day, you'll look for their sins,
but you can't find them, not because they
don't exist, but because God has pardoned them.
David said, Oh, how happy is the man
whose transgressions are forgiven?
Oh, how happy is the man whose sins
are covered?
How happy is the man to whom God
does not impute iniquity?
Paul, in quoting from the words of the
Holy Spirit through the mouth of David in
Romans chapter two, picks up that same refrain.
Oh, how happy is the man to whom
God does not impute iniquity.
Who is that happy man?
It is the man who is believing and
trusting in Jesus Christ.
It's glorious to realize that as I walk
in the light, as he is in the
light, as I believe and trust in him,
the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son is
continually cleansing me from all of my sin.
I have no sin.
Why?
Because God has pardoned me through Jesus Christ.
And there is that continual work of God's
love being wrought in me as there is
that continual cleansing from my sin.
So with Judah and Israel, God said they'll
search, but they can't find their sins because
I've pardoned them.
Now, the interesting thing, of course, is that
Satan is called the accuser of the brethren.
It is declared in the scripture that he
seeks to accuse them before God day and
night.
But he must have a wild time when
he's trying to accuse us before the Lord.
Because the Lord says, what sins?
I don't know of any sins, you know.
Yeah, but didn't you see them last week?
They really blew it, you know.
Didn't see a thing.
Oh, come on now, you know.
I've pardoned them.
Because of your belief and trust in Jesus
Christ.
Oh, we only realize the marvelous grace of
God towards us.
Now, it is wrong, absolutely wrong for us
to then presume against that grace or to
use the grace of God as a cloak
for our lasciviousness.
That is not what the scripture is referring
to at all.
Shall we sin freely that grace may abound?
God forbid!
How can we who are dead to sin
live any longer therein?
I am not to take advantage.
I really can't take advantage.
God won't let me take advantage of his
grace.
If I'm just going out and sinning with
the anticipation that God will forgive me, then
I've got this whole thing totally wrong and
I'm in serious trouble.
For whosoever is born of God does not
live in the practice of sin.
And the very fact that I can go
out and deliberately and willfully practice sin would
bring into question whether or not I am
truly born again.
The grace of God is not there for
me to presume upon and just to make
a covering so that I can sin with
impunity and just say, well, you know, God's
going to cover with his grace.
Never.
But it's good to know that as I'm
seeking the Lord and as I'm trying to
follow after him through the weakness of my
flesh, I may fail or I may fall.
That as I am loving and serving the
Lord, God doesn't impute iniquity against me.
He's not a Santa Claus in the sky
who's making out a list, checking it twice,
finding out who's naughty and nice.
He has no list on me.
He's thrown the record away.
Oh, how happy is the man to whom
God does not impute iniquity, that man who
is seeking to serve the Lord with his
whole heart, who has denied himself to take
up the cross to follow him.
I will pardon them whom I reserve.
Oh, I love that.
Go up against the land of Merathim, even
against it and against the inhabitants of Pichad.
Waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the
Lord, and do according to all that I
have commanded thee.
A sound of battle is in the land
and of great destruction.
How is the hammer of the whole earth?
And of course, Babylon was the hammer that
had bludgeoned the whole earth.
How is the hammer of the whole earth
cut asunder and broken?
How is Babylon become a desolation among the
nations?
For I have laid a snare for thee
and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and
thou was not aware.
Thou art found and you've been caught because
you have striven against the Lord.
Isaiah said, Woe unto the man who strives
with his maker.
How foolish it is for a person to
strive with God and yet how many people
are guilty of that falling.
But what a wonderful day when I quit
striving with God and I just surrender and
say, Oh God, I don't want to fight
you anymore.
I don't want to run from you anymore.
God, I'm on your side.
I surrender.
Now what's so bad or difficult or hard
about that?
And yet, look how hard people fight from
doing that.
Look how hard they resist God.
But when you're resisting God, you're really resisting
your own good.
Because God's plan and purpose for you is
the best that could ever happen to your
life.
And thus to strive with God, you're really
striving against your own welfare, your own good.
And that's sort of dumb.
But people do it.
And why?
I don't know.
Because it is always such a glorious day
when you quit striving with God and you
just surrender and say, Oh God, not going
to fight you anymore.
I just want to walk with you.
I just want to live in fellowship with
you.
I just want to love you and know
you more.
Oh, what a beautiful day.
You know, there's got to be something.
Well, I would say diabolical, but that's very
obvious with anyone who would fight with God.
But here is Babylon being destroyed because they
have striven against the Lord.
The Lord has opened his armory.
He has brought forth the weapons of his
indignation.
For this is the work of the Lord
God of hosts in the land of the
Chaldeans.
Watch out.
God has gotten out his armory now against
Babylon.
Come against her from the utmost border.
Open her storehouses, cast her up as heaps
and destroy her utterly.
Let nothing of her be left.
Slay all of her bullocks.
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe unto them, for their day is come,
the time of their visitation.
The voice of them that flee and escape
out of the land of Babylon to declare
in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our
God, the vengeance of his temple.
Call together the archers against Babylon.
All ye that bend the bow camp against
it round about.
Let none thereof escape.
Recompense her according to her work, according to
all that she has done.
Do unto her the same phrase sort of
repeated.
Do unto her as she has done.
She destroyed the temple of God in Jerusalem.
They took away all of the vessels from
the temple of God and carried them to
Babylon.
Well, not necessarily all, but many of them.
The cups and so forth that were used.
For she hath been proud against the Lord,
against the Holy One of Israel.
Now, in the time that Babylon was destroyed,
in the evening that Babylon was destroyed, Belshazzar,
who was a co-regent with his father,
was in the city of Babylon in a
great feast unto the Lord's, which lasted several
days.
And finally, during the midst of this drunken
party, he ordered that they bring the gold
and silver vessels that they had taken from
the temple of Jerusalem and pour their wine
into these gold and silver vessels that they
might drink their wine out of these vessels
that had been consecrated unto God in order
that they might exalt themselves against the God
of Israel.
And as they were drinking out of these
golden vessels and praising the gods of gold
and silver, suddenly there came the appearance of
a hand upon the wall and writing upon
the plaster.
And oh, Belshazzar began to shake.
And he called his wise men to tell
him what the words said.
None of them were able to do it
until Daniel was finally brought in, the old
man, probably in his nineties now.
And he gave this young king a real
lecture.
He said, you've praised the gods of gold
and silver, but the very God in whose
hand your breath is, you've not glorified.
You didn't learn the lesson of your father
Nebuchadnezzar, who was lifted up with pride.
And because of his pride was driven from
the kingdom until he knew that it was
God who ruled over the earth.
And though you knew of his experiences, yet
you've exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven.
And therefore has this writing come and its
interpretation is now weighed in the balances and
found wanting.
And this night your kingdom will be divided
between the Medes and the Persians, the solemn
declaration of God, which was fulfilled that night.
And Jeremiah's prophecies fulfilled because they were proud
against the Lord, the Holy one of Israel.
Therefore, shall her young men fall in the
streets and all of her men of war
shall be cut off in that day, saith
the Lord.
Behold, I'm against thee, O thou most proud,
saith the Lord God of hosts, for thy
day is come and the time that I
will visit thee and the most proud shall
stumble and fall and none shall raise him
up.
And I will kindle a fire in his
cities and it shall devour all around about
him.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the children
of Israel and the children of Judah were
oppressed together and all that took them captives
held them fast.
They refused to let them go, but their
Redeemer is strong.
The Lord of hosts is his name and
he shall thoroughly plead their cause that he
may give rest to the land and disquiet
the inhabitants of Babylon.
A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the
Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon and
upon her princes and upon her wise men,
a sword is upon the liars and they
shall dote and a sword is upon her
mighty men and they shall be dismayed.
A sword is upon their horses and upon
their chariots, upon all the mingled people that
are in the midst of her and they
shall become as women.
A sword is upon her treasures and they
shall be robbed.
A drought is upon her waters and they
shall be dried up.
And of course, the interesting thing is that
as Cyrus was conquering the city of Babylon,
his method of conquest was to divert the
river Euphrates into canals around the city of
Babylon and in thus diverting the river Euphrates,
the soldiers were able to come through on
the riverbed under the walls of the city
and then on up into the city and
destroyed it.
But here even the drought is upon her
waters and they shall be dried up for
it is the land of graven images and
they are mad upon their idols.
Therefore, the wild beasts of the deserts with
the wild beasts of the coast shall dwell
there and the owls shall dwell therein and
it shall no more be inhabited forever, neither
shall it be dwelt in from generation to
generation.
Now, the interesting thing is that last year,
the Iraqi government allocated $80 million to a
team of Japanese engineers to draw up the
plans for the rebuilding of the city of
Babylon, intending to make it one of the
most glorious cities of the world, intending to
use all of the revenue from the vast
oil reserves in Iraq to build this tremendous,
glorious monument, you know, for the whole world
to see.
Of course, that was before Iraq got involved
with the war with Iran and lost a
great portion of her oil revenue and is
still bogged down in this conflict with Iran
and, of course, is in financial difficulty as
a result of the whole thing.
And so there's been a postponement on the
rebuilding of the city of Babylon, and I
would like to suggest to you that it
will never be rebuilt.
As the Lord declares here, it shall not
be dwelt in from generation to generation.
As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the
neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord, so shall
no man abide there, neither shall any son
of man dwell therein.
Behold, a people shall come from the north,
a great nation, and many kings shall be
raised up from the coast of the earth,
and they shall hold the bow and the
lance.
They are cruel, they'll not show mercy, their
voice will roar like the sea, and they
shall ride upon horses, every one put in
array like a man to the battle against
the daughter of Babylon.
The king of Babylon hath heard the report
of them, and his hands waxed feeble, anguish
took hold of him and pangs as of
a woman in travail.
Behold, he shall come up like a lion
from the swelling of Jordan under the habitation
of the strong, but I will make them
suddenly run away from her, and who is
a chosen man that I may appoint over
her?
For who is like me, and who will
appoint me the time, and who is that
shepherd that will stand before me?
Therefore, hear the counsel of the Lord that
he hath taken against Babylon and his purposes
that he has purposed against the land of
the Chaldeans.
Surely the least of the flock shall draw
them out, surely he shall make their habitation
desolate with him.
At the noise of the taking of Babylon,
the earth is moved, and the cry is
heard among the nations.
The prophecy is continued through chapter 51.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise
up against Babylon and against them that dwell
in the midst of them that rise up
against me a destroying wind, and I will
send unto Babylon the fanners, and they shall
fan her and shall empty her land.
For in the day of trouble they shall
be against her roundabout, against him that let
the archer bend his bow, against him that
lifted himself up in his brigadine, and spare
ye not her young men, destroy ye utterly
all of her hosts.
Thus the slain shall fall in the land
of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust
through in her streets.
For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah
of his God of the Lord of hosts,
though their land was filled with sin against
the Holy One of Israel.
Flee out of the midst of Babylon and
deliver every man his soul.
Be not cut off in her iniquity, for
this is the time of the Lord's vengeance.
He will render unto her a recompense.
Hear the warning to flee out of her,
out of the midst of Babylon.
In Revelation chapter 18, as God is speaking
of the destruction that is going to come
against this commercial Babylon, he again says for
his people to flee out from her.
Come ye out from among her, saith the
Lord, as he warns his people to come
out from that godless commercialism which is to
be destroyed.
Babylon hath been a golden cup in the
Lord's hands that made the earth drunken.
The nations have drunken of her wine, therefore
the nations are mad.
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed.
Howl for her.
We read of course again in Revelation how
that the merchants will stand afar off as
they see burning and will howl and wail
because of the loss of this great commercial
system.
Take balm for her pain if she may
be healed.
We would have healed Babylon, but she is
not healed.
Forsake her and let us go everyone into
his own country for her judgment reaches unto
heaven and is lifted up even to the
skies.
The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness.
Come and let us declare in Zion the
work of the Lord our God.
Make bright the arrows, gather the shields the
Lord hath raised up in the midst of
the kings of the Medes for his device
is against Babylon.
Now Jeremiah by the word of the Holy
Spirit names the Medes as the conquering nation
and Cyrus who was the king of the
Medes and the Persians came with this array
of nations and destroyed Babylon.
At the time that Jeremiah made the prophecy
the Medes were still in a provincial state
and no threat to Babylon at all.
He was really going out on the limb
and if you were speaking in a natural
sense naturally Jeremiah didn't write it.
He was writing it from God and there's
no fence at all.
God knew from the beginning what was going
to happen, but when you start making specifics
and prophecies then you know if it is
really God speaking it's got to be 100
% accurate.
If the Babylonians have been destroyed by some
other nation other than the Medes or the
Persians or the Medo-Persian empires then you'd
say well you know that that isn't really
God's word.
God really didn't say it because that would
be an error and if God said it
it couldn't be in error, but because God
has said it it happened because it can't
be in error if it is indeed God's
word and that is why prophecy becomes one
of the strongest apologetics.
If one word of prophecy failed then it
would mean that it wasn't really God's word.
Now up until this point thousands of prophecies
have already been completely fully literally fulfilled.
In fact 87% of the prophetic utterances
in the Bible have already come to pass
just as they were written.
The 13% that remain are prophecies that
will be fulfilled just before or during or
right after the coming again of Jesus Christ.
They are the only ones that are left.
So God's batting 100% up till now.
Chances are he'll continue at this pace.
It really wouldn't stand to reason to to
think that God's word would start failing now
when it has been so totally accurate up
until now.
There came a moment in history when the
Jewish priest thought that God's word had failed
and they put on sackcloth, ashes on their
heads and they went wailing and mourning through
Jerusalem because they thought God's word had failed.
That was the day that the Roman government
took away from Israel the power of capital
punishment because Jacob in prophesying over Judah way
back in Genesis declared that the scepter will
not depart from Judah until Shiloh or the
Messiah comes.
And when they were deprived of the power
of capital punishment by the Roman government they
accepted that as the scepter they no longer
had the power to rule.
The scepter has departed from Judah and the
Messiah is not here and they went weeping
and wailing through Jerusalem because God's word had
failed.
The eternal word of God has failed.
What they didn't know is that that very
time there was a little boy growing up
in Nazareth about 12 years old who was
God's appointed Messiah.
God did not fail to keep his word.
The Messiah was already there among them.
They just did not recognize him.
But that is the only place where it
was thought that God's word failed to come
to pass.
Marvelous that God could speak with such accuracy
and has spoken with such accuracy of so
many things even here naming the Medes as
the conquering nation.
And of course God declares it's because of
the vengeance of the Lord for what they
did to his temple.
Set up the standard upon the walls of
Babylon, make the watch strong, set up the
watchmen, prepare the ambushes for the Lord hath
both devised and done that which he spake
against the inhabitants of Babylon.
O thou that dwellest upon many waters, built
of course there upon the river Euphrates with
canals and all throughout the city, beautiful, beautiful
city, abundant in treasures, thine end is come
and the measure of thy covetousness.
The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself
saying, surely I will fill thee with men
as with caterpillars and they shall lift up
a shout against thee.
He hath made the earth by his power
now declaring the greatness of God.
He has made the earth by his power.
He has established the world by his wisdom.
He has stretched out the heaven by his
understanding.
I love it when in the Psalms or
when in Isaiah or here in Jeremiah, they
begin to declare the glory of the God
of Israel, the creator.
Francis Schaeffer said that the time has come
when we really should not just refer to
God anymore because there are so many different
gods that people worship today, but we should
more or less define the God that we
are talking about.
So rather than just saying, well God, we
should say probably the eternal God, the creator
of the heaven and the earth.
Then you know the one we're talking about.
He's the one that we worship.
He's the one that we serve.
There are many gods in this world.
People have submitted and yielded their lives to
so many different philosophies, ideas, concepts, which are
their gods.
And we hear the universalists declaring, well, all
roads lead to God.
You know, it doesn't really matter if you're
a Buddhist or a Mohammed or all roads
lead to God.
Sure to some God, but they don't lead
to the eternal God who created the heaven
and the earth.
There's only one road that leads to him.
And that road is by way of the
cross of Jesus Christ.
And that cross declares to you, there's only
one road to him.
Jesus said, father, if it is possible, let
this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, thy will be done.
If what is possible, if salvation for man
is possible, if the way to God is
possible through any other means or methods or
devices or schemes, then let's skip the cross.
But the cross is an offense to the
person of the world today because the cross
stands there as a singular testimony that there
is only one way by which the man,
a man can come unto the eternal God,
the creator of the heaven and the earth.
That's it.
There is no other way.
Had there been another way, God surely would
have taken the alternative plan.
But there was no alternative plan.
Only one way by which sinful man can
approach the eternal God who created the heavens
and the earth.
So Jeremiah begins to speak of his greatness.
He's made the earth by his power.
He's established the world by his wisdom.
He's stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
When he utters his voice, there is a
multitude of waters in the heavens.
He causes the vapors to ascend from the
ends of the earth.
He makes the lightnings with rain and brings
forth the wind out of his treasuries.
Every man is brutish in comparison to God's
knowledge.
You know, we man, as Shakespeare said, man,
poor man, so ignorant in that which he
knows best.
But it's amazing how wise people pretend that
they are.
But yet the wisdom of man, the scripture
says, is foolishness with God.
And who is man to contend with God?
You know, there are people who try to
argue with God.
People try to argue with the word of
God.
How foolish.
Where every man's knowledge and wisdom, the greatest
of man's wisdom and knowledge, is brutish in
comparison to God.
Every founder, that is that man who works
with metals and makes molten images, is confounded.
For his molten image is a lie, a
falsehood.
There's no breath in them.
It's stupid to say that little idol is
God.
It can't even breathe.
And you're just, you're filled with confusion if
you call that a God.
If you bow down to that, if you
worship that, if you kneel before it and
show any kind of worship towards it, that's
confusion.
Every founder is confounded by the works of
his own hands.
Because these little molten images, there's no breath
in them.
They are empty.
They are the work of errors.
And in the time of their visitation, they
shall perish.
The portion of Jacob is not like them.
That is the God of Jacob, the Lord
of hosts.
For he is the former of all things.
God has created all things.
And Israel is the rod of his inheritance.
The Lord or Jehovah of hosts is his
name.
Thou art my battle axe and weapons of
war.
For with thee will I break in pieces
the nations, and with thee will I destroy
kingdoms.
And with thee will I break in pieces
the horse and the rider, and with thee
will I break in pieces the chariot and
his rider.
With thee also will I break in pieces
man and woman, and with thee will I
break in pieces old and young, and with
thee will I break in pieces the young
man and the maid.
And I will also break in pieces with
thee the shepherd and his flock, and with
thee will I break in pieces the husbandman
and his yoke, or the farmer with his
yoke of oxen.
And with thee will I break in pieces
the captains and rulers.
And I will render unto Babylon and to
all of the inhabitants of Chaldea all of
their evil that they have done in Zion
in your sight, saith the Lord.
For behold, I am against thee, O destroying
mountain, saith the Lord, which destroyed all the
earth, and I will stretch out my hand
upon thee and roll thee down from the
rocks and make thee a burnt mountain.
And they shall not take of thee a
stone for a corner, nor a stone for
foundations, but thou shalt be desolate forever, saith
the Lord.
Set ye up a standard in the land,
blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the
nations against her, call together against her the
kingdoms of Ararat, Minai, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a captain against her, and cause the
horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.
Prepare against her the nations with the kings
of the Medes."
Again declaring the Medes actually to be the
nation by which the others come.
The captains thereof and the rulers thereof in
all of the land of his dominion.
And the land shall tremble in sorrow.
For every purpose of the Lord shall be
performed against Babylon to make the land of
Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to
fight.
They have remained in their fortresses.
Their might has failed.
They became as women.
They've burned their dwelling places.
Their bars are broken.
One post or messenger will run to meet
another.
And one messenger to meet another to show
the king of posts.
Of course, we get our word postman, the
guy who's carrying the notices.
So run to meet another.
One messenger to meet another to show the
king of Babylon that his city is taken
at one end.
Now, actually, it's an interesting, this is a
fascinating prophecy because though Belshazzar was in the
city of Babylon, his father was in charge
of the Babylonian troops that were out in
the fields and was not in the city
of Babylon.
Of course, when Babylon fell, they had to
carry the news to him that the city
was destroyed.
And of course, it totally demoralized him and
his troops, and the Medo-Persian conquest was
then complete.
But here it tells of how the news
would be carried to the king.
By, of course, these messengers, one running to
meet the other and carrying the posts and
the message.
And that the passages are stopped.
The reeds, they have burned with fire.
The men of war are frightened.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the
God of Israel, the daughter of Babylon is
like a threshing floor.
It's time to thresher.
Yet a little while in the time of
her harvest shall come.
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon has devoured me,
hath crushed me.
He has made me an empty vessel.
He has swallowed me up like a dragon.
He's filled his belly with our delicates.
He has cast me out.
The violence done to me and to my
flesh will be upon Babylon.
So the inhabitant of Zion say, the people
who have been destroyed in Israel and my
blood upon the inhabitants of the Chaldea shall
Jerusalem say, therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold,
I will plead thy cause and take vengeance
for thee.
And I will dry up her sea and
make her springs dry.
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place
for dragons, an astonishment, a hissing without an
inhabitant.
And they shall roar together like lions.
They shall yell as lions welts.
And in their heat will I make their
feasts.
And I will make them drunken that they
may rejoice and sleep a perpetual sleep and
not wake, saith the Lord.
And it is interesting that it was in
the midst of this drunken party that Belshazzar
was slain and went into that perpetual sleep.
I will bring them down like lambs to
the slaughter, like rams with the he goats.
How is Shishak, another name for Babylon, taken?
And how is the praise of the whole
earth surprise?
How is Babylon become an astonishment among the
nations?
The sea has come up upon Babylon.
She is covered with a multitude of the
waves thereof.
Her cities are a desolation, a dry land,
a wilderness, a land where no man dwells.
Neither doth any son of man pass by.
And I will punish Bell, the God of
the Babylonians, and I will bring forth out
of his mouth that which he has swallowed
up in the nation shall not flow together
any more unto him.
Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
My people, go ye out of the midst
of her and deliver ye every man his
soul from the fierce anger of the Lord.
Again, Revelation 18.4. Come ye out from
among them, saith the Lord.
Lest your heart faint and ye fear for
the rumor that shall be heard in the
land.
A rumor shall both come in one year
and after that in another year shall come
a rumor and violence in the land, ruler
against ruler.
Therefore, behold, the days come that I will
do judgment upon the grave and images of
Babylon.
Her whole land shall be confounded and her
slain shall fall in the midst of her.
Then the heaven and the earth and all
that is therein shall sing for Babylon, for
the spoiler shall come unto her from the
north, saith the Lord.
As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel
to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the
slain of all the earth.
Ye that have escaped the sword, go away.
Stand not still.
Remember the Lord afar off and let Jerusalem
come into your mind.
We are confounded because we have heard reproach.
Shame has covered our faces for strangers are
coming to the sanctuary of the Lord's house.
That was, of course, something that was totally
forbidden, that God's house was a holy place.
And there were those places where the Jews,
of course, they had the outer courts where
the Gentiles could come, but then no Gentile
could pass into the inner court.
Only the Jews were allowed into that area.
But then into the area of the holy
place, only the priest could come.
And then, of course, into the holy of
holies, only the high priest could come.
And that only on one day of the
year.
But now the temple, the holy place, the
place that they had kept from defilement, the
strangers, the Babylonians had come right into the
holy of holies and stripped it of its
gold and tore it down, broke it in
pieces and all, and destroyed it.
And here they profaned that holy place.
And so the cry against it for the
strangers are coming to the sanctuary of the
Lord's house, the holy places.
Wherefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will do judgment upon her graven
images and through all of her land the
wounded shall groan.
Though Babylon should mount up to heaven and
though she should fortify the height of her
strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto
her, saith the Lord.
A sound of a cry comes from Babylon
and great destruction of the land of the
Chaldeans because the Lord has spoiled Babylon and
destroyed out of her the great voice.
When her waves do roar like the great
waves, the noise of their voices uttered because
the spoilers come upon her, even upon Babylon
and her mighty men are taken.
Every one of their bows is broken for
the Lord God of recompenses shall surely requit.
And I will make drunk her princes and
her wise men, her captains, and they were
all drunk, read the account in Daniel, and
her rulers and her mighty men and they
shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,
saith the king whose name is Jehovah of
hosts.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the broad walls
of Babylon, 80 feet thick, shall be utterly
broken.
Her high gates shall be burned with fire
and the people shall labor in vain and
the folk in the fire and they shall
be weary.
The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Saraiah,
the son of Neriah, the son of Messiah,
means he must have been the brother of
Baruch, when he went with Zedekiah the king
of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year
of his reign.
And this Saraiah was a quiet prince.
So Jeremiah wrote it in a book, all
of the evil that would come upon Babylon,
even all of the words that are written
against Babylon.
And Jeremiah said to Saraiah, when you've come
to Babylon and you will see, read all
of these words, then shalt thou say, O
Lord, thou has spoken against this place to
cut it off, that none shall remain in
it, neither some man nor beast, but that
it shall be desolate forever.
And it shall be when you have made
an end of reading this book, that you
shall bind a stone to it and cast
it into the middle of the Euphrates and
thou shalt say, thus shall Babylon sink and
shall not rise from the evil that I
will bring upon her.
And they shall be weary thus far, or
thus ends the words of Jeremiah.
So this binding a stone to the road,
Jeremiah wrote the thing down, said, now Saraiah,
you take it to Babylon.
And when you get there, read it all
of the destruction that God has proclaimed against
this place.
Now Nebuchadnezzar had shown great favor to Jeremiah
because Jeremiah had prophesied that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer
Judah.
And he encouraged the people of Judah to
surrender and not to try to fight because
God had purpose to deliver them into the
hands of Nebuchadnezzar.
Now, because of this, Jeremiah was accused of
treason.
He was accused of weakening the morale of
the soldiers and was placed in prison.
But Nebuchadnezzar had heard of the prophecies of
Jeremiah and thus he had special treatment for
Jeremiah.
When you conquer them, treat Jeremiah well, give
him a, you know, is tell him if
he wants to come to Babylon, we'll set
him up there.
Or if he wants to stay, let him
do whatever he wants and, you know, give
him, uh, enough to live on.
And so Nebuchadnezzar treated Jeremiah very well, but
Jeremiah is true to God.
And though he now is prophesying this horrible
destruction that is coming against Babylon, you know,
thinking, wow, you know, Nebuchadnezzar get angry with
me for this one, you know, uh, yet,
you know, he's honest before God and goes
ahead and sends this guy to read this
prophecy in Babylon.
He's not a mercenary.
He's not going to be bought.
He's going to be faithful to the word
of God that God has given to him.
And oh, how important this is for us
to be faithful to the word of God.
And though it may hurt, speak it forth.
One of the weaknesses of our age is
this kind of a polyandric attitude that we
have, you know, well, don't want to offend
anybody, you know, so, uh, just try and
mellow things out and don't make people feel
bad.
And, uh, yet, uh, that isn't being honest,
you know, to say, well, don't worry, things
are going to work out.
You know, our government is the greatest government
in the world, and we're surely going to
solve our problems and great days are right
around the corner.
This new economic program is going to work
and we're going to have prosperity.
We're going to move ahead.
We're going to stop inflation.
We're going to stop crime.
We're going to have a glorious utopia that
you'll be able to live in this blessed
America, you know, well, sounds good, but it's
not true.
Evil days are going to wax worse and
worse.
And, and we got to speak God's truth,
even though it hurts, even though it cuts,
we've got to speak the truth.
So Jeremiah sent Sariah to Babylon with this
scroll, read it, then tie a rock to
it and throw it in the river Euphrates.
And as it sinks, say, that's the way
Babylon's going to sink.
Now, again, in comparing this with revelation and
the prophecy of God in revelation against this
commercial Babylon, the angel in revelation chapter 18,
again, took and tied this thing to a
millstone and cast it into the sea.
And again, cried of the destruction.
Verse 21, a mighty angel took up a
stone like a great millstone and cast it
into the sea saying thus with violence.
So that great city Babylon be thrown down
and shall be found no more at all.
Now, if you'll read revelation 17, 18, you'll
find tremendous parallels between that and Jeremiah 50,
51, as a Jeremiah speaks to the destruction
of the kingdom of Babylon at that time.
And it is a type of the destruction
of the religious and spiritual commercial Babylon that
is to be destroyed in the yet future.
Now in the chapter 52 is just a
page out of their history, and it is
just sort of a review of the final
days under Zedekiah, the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and
the carrying away into captivity.
It is also found in Jeremiah chapter 39,
and historically it is found in Second Kings
chapter 25.
So he's just sort of giving now, and
this is probably written not by Jeremiah.
It doesn't say that it was Jeremiah, but
just a page out of the history.
Zedekiah was 21 years old when he began
to reign and he reigned for 11 years
in Jerusalem, and it gives his mother's name
and so forth.
He did that which was evil in the
eyes of the Lord, according to all that
Jehoiakim had done.
For through the anger of the Lord, it
came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah till
all till he had cast them out of
the presence that Zedekiah rebelled against the King
of Babylon.
So it came to pass in the ninth
year of his reign, in the tenth month,
the tenth day of the month, so close
to the end of the ninth year of
his reign in Jerusalem, that Nebuchadnezzar, the King
of Babylon, came and all of his army
against Jerusalem.
They pitched against it and built forts round
about it, so the city was besieged unto
the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
So fourteen months, and in the fourth month,
eighteenth month, so in a year and a
half, the ninth day of the month, the
famine was so bad in the city, there
was no bread for the people of the
land.
Actually, the method by which Babylon usually conquered
was very cruel.
That is, they would cut off all of
the supplies to the city and they would
just starve the people out.
They would wait until they were too weak
to fight or to defend.
So it was really a sort of a
horrible way.
You're in the city, there's no way you
can get food, and so you just sort
of cannibalize, eat the stuff that is there
until it is gone, and then you starve,
and finally, in your weakened conditions, they move
their machines up, break down the walls, and
come in and slaughter people.
Nebuchadnezzar, of course, endeavored this type of a
siege against Tyre, the port city.
He was besieging Tyre for thirteen years before
it fell, but being a seaport, they were
able to bring things in by the sea
for a long time, but it took him
thirteen years to conquer Tyre because of their
ability to replenish their supplies.
As we get in a few weeks into
Ezekiel, though, you're going to find an extremely
fascinating prophecy that deals with the destruction of
Tyre, and again, showing how that the Word
of God is so exciting and marvelous whenever
it deals in the realms of prophecy because
it is so accurate.
So, after eighteen months, in the ninth day
of the month, the famine was sore so
that there was no bread, and the city
was broken up.
All of the men of war fled.
They went out of the city at night
by way of the gate that is between
the two walls, which was by the king's
garden.
Now, the Chaldeans were by the city, and
they went by way of the plain, but
the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the
king, and he overtook Zedekiah down near Jericho,
and his army was scattered from him.
And then they took the king and carried
him unto Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who
was at Riblah in the land of Hamath,
and he gave judgment upon him.
And the king of Babylon slew the sons
of Zedekiah before his eyes.
He had to watch his own sons being
slain, and also the princes of Judah.
And then he put out the eyes of
Zedekiah, the king of Babylon, and the king
of Babylon bound him in chains and carried
him to Babylon and put him in prison
till the day of his death.
Now, Zedekiah was told by Jeremiah, surrender, you
know, give up and turn yourself over.
The king, the Nebuchadnezzar will treat you well,
and kept encouraging him to do that.
Zedekiah refused to do so.
He said, if you try to resist, you're
going to be destroyed.
And Zedekiah would not listen to the word
of God, and thus his horrible doom bound,
carried to Babylon, his eyes gouged out, and
died there in the prison in Babylon.
Now, in the fifth month, the tenth day
of the month, which was the 19th year
of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came Nebuchadnezzar,
the captain of the guard, which served the
king of Babylon, to Jerusalem.
And he burned the house of the Lord
and the king's palace and all of the
houses of Jerusalem and all of the houses
of the great men.
He burned them with fire.
And all of the army of the Chaldeans
that were with the captain of the guard,
he broke down all the walls of Jerusalem
round about.
And Nebuchadnezzar then, the captain of the guard,
carried away the captives, certain of the poor,
the people, the residue of the people that
remained in the city and those that fell
away, that fell to the king of Babylon,
those that surrendered, and the rest of the
multitude.
But Nebuchadnezzar then, the captain of the guard,
left certain of the poor of the land
for vinedressers and for the farmers.
Also the pillars of brass.
Now, these great pillars of brass that were
in the house of the Lord, they were
there in the temple of Solomon.
And the bases and that brass bowl that
the priests used to bathe in.
The Chaldeans broke it up and carried the
brass of them to Babylon.
Also the caldrons and the shovels, the snuffers,
the bowls, the spoons, and all of the
vessels of brass were with a minister they
took away.
Earlier they had carried away the gold and
silver vessels and now they're taking away all
of the brass from the temple unto Babylon.
The two pillars and this bowl, this sea,
the twelve brass bowls that were molded and
were under this brass sea where the priests
bathed, all of them were broken up and
of course the weight of them was, you
know, without measure.
Now concerning these pillars that were there, the
height of the pillars was 27 feet.
They were 18 feet in circumference, so about
six feet across, 27 feet high, but they
were hollow.
But the brass was four inches thick.
So you can imagine the weight of these
pillars that were there in the temple that
were broken up and carried away.
I beg your pardon, rather than four inches,
four fingers thick, so about that thick.
And of course they had these filigreed works
on them with the ornamentation, the pomegranates and
all.
And it goes on to describe these pomegranates,
96 of them on each side and all
of the pomegranates in network were a hundred
round about.
And the captain of the guard took Zeriah
the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest
and the keepers of the door.
He took also out of the city a
eunuch which had charge of the men of
war and seven men of them that were
near the King's person, which were found in
the city and the principal scribe of the
host who mustered the people of the land,
60 men of the people.
And they were found in the midst of
the city.
They brought them to Nebuchadnezzar there at Riblah
and the King of Babylon smote them, put
them to death in Riblah.
And thus Judah was carried away captive out
of his own land.
This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away
captive in the seventh year.
That is of his reign, 3000 Jews, 3023
among those was Daniel.
In the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar, he carried
away from captive another 832 persons.
And then in the final carrying away the
23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, they carried away of
the Jews 745.
All of the persons that were carried away
4,600, really not very many compared to
the total population for most of them were
destroyed or fled.
It came to pass in this 37th year
of the captivity of Jehoiachin, the King of
Judah in the 12th month, the 25th day
of the month, that evil Merodach.
A Merodach is a title given to their
Kings.
The King of Babylon in his first year
of his reign lifted up the head of
Jehoiachin, King of Judah, and brought him forth
out of prison.
He spake kindly unto him, set his throne
above the throne of the Kings that were
with him in Babylon, and he ate at
the King's table.
So Jehoiachin the King ended his days more
pleasantly than did Zedekiah.
So we come to the end of Jeremiah.
We move now into lamentations.
The idea is that of weeping near, well
the place that they call Calvary or Golgotha
is also called Jeremiah's grotto.
It is thought that it is in one
of these caves that comprise, if you're looking
at the the cliff there and you're looking
for the skull, the skull is formed by
these caves or the appearance of the skull
is formed by these caves which would be
the sockets of the eyes of a skull.
But they're actually caves.
And one of them is called Jeremiah's grotto.
And it is thought that that is where
Jeremiah sat as he looked from that position
back over the city of Jerusalem.
And wept over its failure to serve God
and over its impending doom.
And Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet.
And of course we get into these lamentations,
the weeping of Jeremiah over the people and
over the destruction that is to come upon
them as we move into this book of
lamentations.
And so this is the area that we'll
cover next Sunday night, the book of lamentations.
That's your assignment to read.
Then we get into that fascinating book of
Ezekiel.
He is quite a prophet and did a
lot of weird things.
And some think that he saw flying saucers.
And we'll be talking about Ezekiel's flying saucers
and about flying saucers today in light of
Ezekiel's revelations.
And now may the Lord be with you
and bless you.
And may the word of God dwell in
your hearts richly through faith and being rooted
and grounded.
May you come into a broader comprehension of
the fullness of God's love for your life.
May the Lord give you a beautiful week.
May he watch over you and may he
keep you with his arms of protection and
love.
In Jesus name.