The Sword and the Captivity - Part 4

When the sword came upon Egypt by the hand of the king of Babylon, the cities in Egypt were laid waste (see Ezekiel 30, 31, & 32). The children of Israel and the children of Judah then lived in captivity for many years, but God promised that He would punish the king of Babylon, his city, and his land (Jeremiah 50 & 51) in vengeance for His temple. God also promised that He would also bring back all of Israel to His habitation and the ruins of His city would be rebuilt (Ezekiel 36, 37,39, & Isaiah 60). It is now time for those of us who know our God and understand who He is and how to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength to rise up and be strong and help each other in the rebuilding of God's city and house, just like Nehemiah and Ezra did.

"The fact is, even if you remain silent now, someone else will help and rescue the Jews, but you and your relatives will die. And who knows, you may have gained your royal position for a time like this." (Est 4:14 GW)

Then Darius the king made a decree, and they searched in the house of the scrolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And there was found in Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a scroll. And in it was a record written thus: In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king placed a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: let the house be built, the place where they offered sacrifices and let the foundations of it be strongly laid. Its height shall be sixty cubits; its breadth sixty cubits; with three layers of rolling stones, and a layer of new timber. And let the expenses be given out of the king's house. And also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, that Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem, and brought to Babylon, be given back and go to the temple in Jerusalem, to their place. And put them in the house of God. (Ezr 6:1-5 LITV)

This Ezra went up from Babylon. And he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all he asked, according to the hand of Jehovah his God on him. And of the sons of Israel went up some of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the gatekeepers, and the temple-slaves to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king. For on the first of the first month, he laid the foundation in order to go up from Babylon, and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of God on him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of Jehovah, and to do it, and to teach statutes and judgments in Israel. And this is the copy of the letter which the king, Artaxerxes, gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commands of Jehovah, and of His statutes to Israel: Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a scribe of the Law of the God of Heaven, perfect peace, and now: From me was made a decree that any one of the people of Israel, and their priests and Levites in my kingdom who volunteers to go up to Jerusalem, may go with you; since you have been sent by the king, and by his seven counselors to ask about Judah and Jerusalem, according to the Law of your God in your hand; and to carry the silver and gold which the king and his counselors have freely offered to the God of Israel, whose house is in Jerusalem: even all the silver and gold which you can find in all the province of Babylon, with the free offering of the people, and of the priests, freely offering for the house of their God in Jerusalem. Therefore of this you shall diligently buy with this silver: bulls, rams, lambs, with their food offerings, and their drink offerings, and offer them on the altar of the house of your God in Jerusalem. And whatever shall seem good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do that after the will of your God. Also the vessels which are given to you for the service of the house of your God, deliver before the God of Jerusalem. And the rest of the needs of the house of your God which falls to you to give, give it out of the king's treasure house. (Ezr 7:6-20 LITV)

Then I said to them, You see the evil that we are in, how Jerusalem is wasted, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer be a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good on me, and also the king's words that he had spoken to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they made their hands strong for good. (Neh 2:17-18 LITV)

We must consecrate a fast from doing our pleasures and our ways and return to the ways and heart of the King (review The Division of the Kingdom).

Call out with the throat! Do not spare. Lift up your voice like the ram's horn! And declare to My people their rebellion, and their sins to the house of Jacob. Yet they seek Me day by day, and desire knowledge of My ways. As a nation that has done right, and not forsaking the judgment of their God, they ask Me about judgments of righteousness; they desire to draw near to God. They say, Why have we fasted, and You did not see? We have afflicted our soul, and You did not acknowledge. Behold, on the day of your fast you find pleasure; and you drive all your laborers hard. Look! You fast for strife, and for debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. Do not fast as today, to sound your voice in the high place. Is this like the fast I will choose, a day for a man to afflict his soul? To bow his head down like a bulrush, and he spreads sackcloth and ashes? Will you call to this as a fast and a day of delight to Jehovah? Is this not the fast I have chosen: to open bands of wickedness, to undo thongs of the yoke, and to send out the oppressed ones free; even that you pull off every yoke? Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, that you should bring the wandering poor home? When will you see the naked and cover him, and you will not hide yourself from your flesh? Then your light shall break as the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Jehovah shall gather you. Then you shall call, and Jehovah will answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If you put the yoke away from among you, the sending out of the finger, and the speaking of iniquity; and if you let out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall be as the noonday. And Jehovah shall always guide you, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. And those who come of you shall build the old ruins; you shall rear the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to live in. If you turn your foot away because of the sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy days, and call the sabbath a delight, to the holiness of Jehovah, glorified; and shall glorify Him, to the holiness of not doing your own ways, from finding your own pleasure or speaking your word; then you shall delight yourself in Jehovah. And I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and make you eat with the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken. (Isa 58:1-14 LITV)

Now do not stiffen your necks like your fathers. Give a hand to Jehovah and come to His holy place that He has sanctified forever; and serve Jehovah your God. And the fierceness of His anger will turn away from you. For when you return to Jehovah, your brothers and your sons will have mercies before their captors, even to return to this land. For Jehovah your God is gracious and merciful, and He will not turn His face away from you, if you turn back to Him. (2Ch 30:8-9 LITV)

With the rebirth of the nation of Israel, God has already started the process of bringing His people back to His land. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., but in our recent history, it has been re-established again. Jews, who are not Christians, are still waiting for a Messiah, or new King of Israel. They are in constant battle with the Palestinians and Muslims over the city. They are waiting to build a Jewish temple on the Temple Mound. Christians used to persecute the Jews, but in our recent history, they have been working together in their love for Israel and God. God has purposed to bring all of His children together to unite them as one nation and one Kingdom under the reign of one King of Israel, the son of David - Jesus!

And the Word of Jehovah was to me, saying, And you, son of man, take one stick to yourself and write on it, For Judah, and for his companions, the sons of Israel. And take another stick and write on it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions. And draw them one to one for yourself, into one stick. And they shall become one in your hand. And when the sons of your people shall speak to you, saying, Will you not declare to us what these mean to you? Say to them, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions. And I will put them with him, with the stick of Judah, and I will make them one stick, and they shall be one in My hand. And the sticks shall be in your hand, the ones on which you write before their eyes. And say to them, So says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations, there where they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and will bring them into their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one King shall be for a king to all of them. And they shall not be two nations still. And they will not be split into two kingdoms any more. And they will not still be defiled with their idols, even with their filthy idols, nor with all of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places where they have sinned in them, and I will cleanse them. So they shall be for a people to Me and I will be for God to them. And My Servant, David, shall be King over them. And there shall be one Shepherd to all of them. And they shall walk in My judgments and keep My statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell on the land that I have given to my servant, to Jacob, there where your fathers dwelt in it. And they shall dwell on it, they and their sons, and the sons of their sons, forever. And My Servant David shall be a ruler to them forever. And I will cut a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant it shall be with them, And I will place them and multiply them, and I will put My sanctuary in their midst forever. And My tabernacle shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And when My sanctuary shall be in their midst forever, the nations shall know that I, Jehovah, sanctify Israel. (Eze 37:15-28 LITV)

The Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David, the son of Abraham:
(Mat 1:1 LITV)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isa 9:6-7 KJV)

The Sword and the Captivity - Part 3

We have been terribly wrong, misled and blind! Instead of trusting in King Jesus to give us what we need and to deliver us, a part of the faithful Church has gone back into the old ways of her flesh, back into Egypt to become a daughter of Egypt. The king of Babylon, though, is coming to take over Egypt and the sword is coming upon their land. Now is the time for our eyes to be opened and to start heeding this warning. The same punishment and captivity that came upon Jerusalem is coming upon those of the Church who have joined themselves with the daughter of Babylon. We need to escape from our prison house and return by the Spirit on God's Highway to the land of Israel and to the Heavenly Jerusalem in Zion (review Baptized in His Name, Given Power and Protection).

O daughter dwelling in Egypt, get ready to go into captivity. For Noph shall be a waste, and set afire, without inhabitant. (Jer 46:19 LITV)

The daughter of Egypt is put to shame; she is delivered into the hand of the people of the north. The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and them that trust in him; and I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD. (Jer 46:24-26 JPS)

For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, so that none of the remnant of Judah which has gone into the land of Egypt, to reside there, will be a refugee, or a survivor, or turn back to the land of Judah to which they are lifting up their soul to return back to live there, for none shall return, except the escapees. (Jer 44:13-14 LITV)

Ho, O Zion! Escape, you who live with the daughter of Babylon. (Zec 2:7 LITV)

For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her. (Jer 51:33 JPS)

Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out from the waters of Judah, who swear by Jehovah's name and profess by the God of Israel, not in truth or in righteousness. For they are called of the holy city, and rest themselves on the God of Israel; Jehovah of Hosts is His name. I have declared the former things from then; and they went out of My mouth; and I made them hear; suddenly I acted, and they came about. Because I knew that you are hard, and your neck is a sinew of iron, and your brow bronze. And I declared to you from then; before it came I made you hear, lest you should say, My idol did them; and my image and my casted image commanded them. You heard; see it all; and will you not declare? I made you hear new things from now, even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now, and not from then; even before today, but you did not hear them; lest you should say, See, I knew them. Yea, you did not hear; yea, you did not know; yea, from then your ear was not opened; for I know that betraying you will betray and revolt from the womb; it was called to you. For My name's sake I will put off My anger; and for My praise I will hold back for you, so as not to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. For My sake, for My sake, I will act; for how is it defiled? And I will not give My glory to another. Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel My called: I am He; I am the First; surely I am the Last. My hand surely founded earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; I called to them, they stood up together. All of you gather and hear: Who among them has declared these things? Jehovah has loved him. He will do His pleasure on Babylon; yea, His arm shall be on the Chaldeans. I, I have spoken; yea, I have called him, I brought him, and he causes his way to prosper. Come near to Me; hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From its being, I was there; and now the Lord Jehovah, and His Spirit, has sent Me. So says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am Jehovah your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had listened to My commands! Then your peace would have been like the river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. And your seed would have been like the sand, and your offspring of your bowels like its grain; his name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from My presence. Go out of Babylon; flee from the Chaldeans. Tell this with the voice of rejoicing; let this be heard, let it go out to the end of the earth; say, Jehovah has redeemed His servant Jacob. And they did not thirst; He led them in the deserts; He made waters flow out of rock for them. And He cut open the rock and the water gushed out. There is no peace, says Jehovah, to the wicked. (Isa 48:1-22 LITV)

In that day, declares the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted; and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore. And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem. Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor? Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies. (Mic 4:6-10 ESV)

In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim. But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them. And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals. And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt. (Isa 11:11-16 ESV)

"Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own. They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves. Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour. They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand. At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!" Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. (Hab 1:5-12 ESV)