The Voice Heard in the Cloud

Continuing: Jeremiah 26:8 Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, “You shall surely die.
9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant?'” And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king’s house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate [the repaired way into] of the LORD’s house.
11 Then spoke the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, “This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.”
12 Then spoke Jeremiah [the voice of the Risen LORD] unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, “The LORD [Jehovah] sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.
13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he has pronounced against you.
14 As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seems good and meet unto you.
15 But know you for certain, that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD has sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.”

In previous posts we’ve looked at what is coming understanding when it comes those attacking and attempting to destroy God’s people will themselves be destroyed in it. We’ve looked at Elijah in 1 Kings 19 and the wind, earthquake and the fire coming, as they are most certainly come quickly. We have looked at the book of Esther and its example of those trying to annihilate God’s people having the destruction they planed turned upon their own necks.

The point for today is that when we see these things we should know they are coming in the sequence we have been told.

Psalms 55
1 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that does good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that does good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God has scattered the bones of him that encamps against you: you have put them to shame, because God has despised them.
6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Ezekiel 36
1 Also, you son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:
2 Thus says the LORD God; Because the enemy has said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession:
3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus says the LORD God; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:
4 Therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD God; Thus says the LORD God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;
5 Therefore thus says the LORD God; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea [Esau – who sold his birthright and hated his brother Israel], which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.
6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus says the LORD God; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because you have borne the shame of the heathen:
7 Therefore thus says the LORD God; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame.
8 But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and you shall be tilled and sown:
10 And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:
11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
12 Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of men.
13 Thus says the LORD God; Because they say unto you, You land devour up men, and have bereaved your nations:
14 Therefore you shall devour men no more, neither bereave your nations any more, says the LORD God.
15 Neither will I cause men to hear in you the shame of the heathen any more, neither shall you bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shall you cause your nations to fall any more, says the LORD God.
16 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.
18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:
19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.
20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.
22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus says the LORD God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the heathen, whither you went.
23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, says the LORD God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.
28 And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29 I will also save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
31 Then shall you remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
32 Not for your sakes do I this, says the LORD God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
33 Thus says the LORD God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be built.
34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.
35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.
36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.
37 Thus says the LORD God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Romans 2
1 Therefore you art inexcusable, O man, whosoever you art that judges: for wherein you judges another, you condemns yourself; for you that judges does the same things.
2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
3 And think you this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and does the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God?
4 Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But after your hardness and unrepentant heart treasure up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
10 But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15 Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
17 Behold, you art called a Jew, and rests in the law, and make your boast of God,
18 And knows his will, and approves the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
19 And art confident that you thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which have the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
21 You therefore which teaches another, teaches you not thyself? you that preach a man should not steal, dost you steal?
22 You that say a man should not commit adultery, dost you commit adultery? you that abhors idols, dost you commit sacrilege?
23 You that makes your boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonor you God?
24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
25 For circumcision verily profits, if you keep the law: but if you be a breaker of the law, your circumcision is made un-circumcision.
26 Therefore if the un-circumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his un-circumcision be counted for circumcision?
27 And shall not un-circumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Romans 3
1 What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you art judged.
5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak as a man)
6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?
8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.
9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulcher [grave]; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that what things so-ever the law says, it says to them who are under the law [all who have rejected God’s grace/correction]: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and un-circumcision through [our] faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Hosea 13
1 When Ephraim [God’s people in these latter days] spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal [worshipping the idols/ways of the world], he died.
2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves [idol].
3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the WHIRLWIND out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney [dissipating into nothing/naught].
4 Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no Savior beside me.
5 I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought [when you were without My counsel].
6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.
7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
9 O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help.
10 I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom you said, Give me a king and princes?
11 I gave you a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction: repentance shall be hid from my eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an EAST WIND SHALL COME, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
16 Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

Hosea 14
1O Israel, return unto the LORD your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity.
2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
3 Asshur [the contentious] shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in you [the LORD] the fatherless find mercy.
4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for my anger is turned away from him.
5 I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From Me is your fruit found.
9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.