Continuing: Why would The LORD begin today by directing me to prophesy against the establishment religious church and fallen national government? First and foremost because it has corrupted into something nothing like what it was created to be, as if iron rusted to the point of having no strength. These establishments are now focused on superficial and ritualistic process rather than teaching and acting with the knowledge of the LORD. We have seen in recent posts this is what the LORD desires more than sacrifice and burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6). He also tells us it is because of this lack of knowledge His people are destroyed (Hosea 4:6). We know He has declared this is a time when no man will teach another saying, “Know the LORD,” because all shall know Me from the least to the greatest” (Jeremiah 31:34).
Therefor, hear the word of the LORD:
Jeremiah 19
1 Thus says the LORD, Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests;
2 And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,
3 And say, Hear you the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever hears, his ears shall tingle.
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:
6 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
7 And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
8 And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straightness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10 Then shall you break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with you,
11 And shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
12 Thus will I do unto this place, says the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
14 Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house; and said to all the people,
15 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
The valley of Hinnom is the valley outside of Jerusalem where the sons of Hinnom sacrifices their children in the fire of their idols (Moloch). Hinnom is the same as Gehenna and another name translated hell. It became a trash pit where fires burned continually and where there were also worms that lived in/on the garbage. This last aspect is the origin of the LORD’s description of the place of eternal self-inflicted torment, where the worm dies not and the fire in not quenched (Isaiah 66:24 & Mark 9:44, 46 & 48). It is telling of never ending strife and the lack of peace it produces; the first a product of the corrupted leadership, the second comes with the knowledge of the LORD.
Tophet is a place in Gehenna (hell) where drums and other musical instruments were played so the cries of the children being murdered couldn’t be heard. The word means something used to disguise what is actually happening; such as we see in our modern public discourse lacking any meaning, reduced to endless strife and entertainment meant to agitate, distract and amuse.
Jeremiah 19:6 tells of this day when these names will no longer be used and telling of the new name that will show the truth of what is actually occurring. The new name of hell is the ” The valley of slaughter” and it can’t be covered up any longer. We are told this will be when the LORD makes void the counsel of those misleading us into this place of slaughter, and of it ending in their (the wicked men sitting in the seat of God as if they are gods) ways returning upon them.
Those who study along know from recent discussions the name Lebanon means white, and brick (for their white color), and is used of the country because of the snow that could be seen on its mountaintops. This is an analogy of both man’s created worship (alters of brick – Isaiah 65:3), and of those in the high places of the earth being brought down (as the snow melts and comes down the mountain).
Lebanon is addressed in Zechariah 11 where the same word translated “slaughter” in Jeremiah 19:6 is used twice (Verse 4 & 7). The Hebrew word is haregah, and is only used five times, three in Jeremiah and twice in Zechariah, always rendered “slaughter.” Haregah is derived from the word hereg, also used only five times, and is translated slaughter and once as slain. It is the word used in Esther 9:5 to tell of the slaughter of those secretly scheming to destroy God’s people and are themselves destroyed by their own devices.
Zechariah 11
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars.
2 Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O you oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
4 Thus says the LORD my God; Feed the flock of the slaughter;
5 Whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty: and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD; for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, says the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.
7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9 Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dies, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.
10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 And I said unto them, If you think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was priced at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 And the LORD said unto me, Take unto you yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd.
16 For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that stands still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.
17 Woe to the idol shepherd that leaves the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.
Jeremiah 19 begins by telling Jeremiah (Jehovah raising) to take a potter’s vessel, along with the leaders and priest, and take them into the hell they have created. He is latter in this place of never ending self-inflicted torment instructed to break the vessel, because it has become worthless. Thus says the LORD, “Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.” These are buried in hell in the place where they cover up the cries of those being sacrificed by broadcasting deceptions and distraction.
Zechariah 11:12 & 13 then speaks of casting the thirty pieces of silver to the potter in the LORD’s house. This is the price of betrayal, as it was with Judas and that he tried to return (to the same priests and elders mentioned in the pattern of Jeremiah 19:1). The last verse in Zechariah 11 tells of these men in the house, where Jehovah is LORD and these men now sit in His seat, and because of their betrayal The LORD has removed their strength and blinds their eye. The ending is telling of the total ineffectiveness of these governments and of the now utter darkness that covers the world.
Two of the other times hereg is used are in Isaiah. The first is in Isaiah 27:7 as the LORD tells of His destroying leviathan, the great dragon in the sea. We know from our studies these are symbols of what is hidden in the counsel that flows from men (the self-proclaimed experts of our day), as water wherein is hidden these great sea animals, and in both cases it is death that lurks therein. The part of the chapter including verse 7 are the LORD asking if these corrupted leaders being destroyed by their own devices are able to destroy Him as he is destroying them. It tells of their debating with it but finding themselves without any power to do anything to stop it (their self-destruction and His self-rising). This is also an evidence of their blindness.
Isaiah 27
1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day sing you unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
6 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 Has he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
8 In measure, when it shoots forth, you will debate with it: he stays his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up [their creations will not remain or rise again].
10 Yet the defensed city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.
12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt [those who have trusted in ways foreign from God] , and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
The second place in Isaiah that hereg is used is in chapter 30 verse 25 where it is very specific to tell of this time being in the same context as Lebanon. There we read of the waters that shall flow on every mountain and hill, the high place in the earth, in the day when their high towers fall. The tower mentioned is from the Hebrew word migdal, as in the tower of Babble (Genesis 11:4). These towers represent what men create trying to get to heaven (utopia), and because of it their language is confounded (as in the destruction of all meaningful (truthful) discourse by the inventions of men trying to rise by any means). Reversing this destruction (restoring truthful discourse) is heaven come to earth in the form of God’s Holy Spirit in man, as we read yesterday from Acts 2.
Isaiah 30
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun [these as church and national governments meant to shine and reflect God’s way of governing on the earth as His light], and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the breach of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
Acts 2
16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
19 And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke:
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the LORD come:
21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be saved.
22 You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know:
23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:
24 Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be held of it.
25 For David speaks concerning him, I foresaw the LORD always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
27 Because you will not leave my soul in hell, neither will you suffer Your Holy One to see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life; you shall make me full of joy with your countenance.
29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.
30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
31 He seeing this before spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
32 This Jesus has God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this, which you now see and hear.
34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he says himself, The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit you on my right hand,
35 Until I make your foes your footstool.
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made the same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both LORD and Christ.
Revelation 22
1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the LORD God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the LORD God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things.
9 Then said he unto me, See you do it not: for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
10 And he said unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.
11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.
16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
18 For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
20 He which testifies these things says, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, LORD Jesus.
21 The grace of our LORD Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
