Part 2: See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
The LORD begins with a continuation of the previous post, today speaking of His raising us to “root out” those who, from within, from their positions of power, subvert and undermine our sure foundation and better ideas. We also, in part 1, saw the means of doing this was by what Jeremiah saw as “a rod of an almond tree,” the “rod” meaning leadership and the “almond tree” representing its newly spring forth (form outside corrupted leadership).
The Hebrew word in the title, Jeremiah 1:10, rendered “root out” is nathach, meaning to tear away, and “pull down” is from nathats, meaning to tear down. They appear again together, in Jeremiah 18:7, as the LORD is describing this nation as a potter’s house and His leaders as those working at the wheel. It is by their hand the product they’ve produced is marred. He then describes Himself as the ultimate judge, the Chief Potter, and asserts His right to tear down what is defective and remake it with His hand. He goes on to define those leading His people, working at the wheel (the written word of God passed forward to us), as those whose ways and ideas have degenerated into corruption and outright evil, and are therefore producing a corrupted and dangerous product.
Friends, Jeremiah 18 is describing a nation within a nation and a kingdom within a kingdom, as it is this day when men’s hearts have failed them (their reasoning minds are reduced to emotional and panicked reaction). The one is the ruling class, the elites of the popular culture, and their pawns, the cannon fodder they’ve mustered, after intentionally deadening their rational minds into blindly chasing the promised rewards that will never materialize. These are those who put themselves above justice, and under their newly created standard, the condemned are those who disagree or dare threaten their control of the ignorant. The first nation and kingdom are the spiritually wicked in high places, who by deception and corruption now rule all the traditional institutions. (I mean all, either as originators of corrupt thinking or by surrender to its new standard, all are complicit in the confusion that undermines good government and sound doctrine.)
Luke 12
10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
12 But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake [as does the corrupt nation to its less powerful victims].
13 And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what you shall answer:
15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist [which is why they now censor us].
16 And you shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
17 And you shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
18 But there shall not a hair of your head perish.
19 In your patience possess you your souls.
20 And when you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
21 Then let them which are in Judaea [Judah, among the corrupt leaders, because it is against them vengeance comes, to deliver all who’ve suffered under their power] flee to the mountains [the places rising outside Judah]; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there-into.
22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled [see Jeremiah and Ezekiel below].
23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people [as it has been and now is, because they know their time is short].
24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles [those who don’t know God, or call Him their God], until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity [aporia, only appearing here, meaning church, state, and God’s people, seeing no way out]; the sea and the waves roaring [telling of the proud, those who trust in their own ideas, with open mouths {echeo} misleading the sun, moon, and stars];
26 Men’s hearts failing them [apopsucho, only appearing here, meaning to breathe out – life, as in their properly functioning and rational mind making right decisions, leaving and replaced with panicked emotion] for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven [to power to rightly divided truth from fiction] shall be shaken.
27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud [were understanding has been held, since it was removed from the earth] with power and great glory [giving an understanding that can only come from God].
28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draws nigh.
29 And he spoke to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
30 When they now shoot forth [new rods, branched, new leaders outside the corruption], you see and know of your own selves that summer [the end of winter’s sleep] is now nigh at hand.
31 So likewise you, when you see these things come to pass, know you that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand [which will again take its place as a nation and kingdom, under God, raised by Him from confusion and build upon the ruin of the old].
32 Truly I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
33 [The old] Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness [keep your mind alert and thinking rationally], and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth [unaware because of the prevalent ignorance it calls wisdom].
36 Watch you therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
37 And in the day time [when light {understanding} prevailed] he was teaching in the temple; and at night [when darkness {ignorance} prevails He is outside] he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives [from where, outside the church, where Zechariah 14:4 tells He stands, as in verse 37 above, where we will stand, when he “goes forth,” shoots forth as a new branch, when He comes to battle the corrupt nation.].
38 And all the people came early in the morning [once the light had come again] to him in the temple, for to hear him.
Zechariah 14
1 Behold, the day of the LORD comes, and your spoil shall be divided in the midst of you.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal [unto sanctification]: yea, you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah [of the strength of Jehovah] king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with you [see the prior post].
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark [these messages are heard but not yet fully understood]:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light [into the darkness of ignorance and confusion the LORD comes with understanding].
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
9 And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.
10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem [all the high places, and their fruit, shall be brought down by the peace that flows from His right hand]: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s gate [the entryway taught by the right hand of the LORD] unto the place of the first gate [the place where the light is first seen], unto the corner gate [and turning to Him {the LORD} they shall enter], and from the tower of Hananeel [those who God has favored] unto the king’s winepresses.
11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem [the peace He is teaching]; Their flesh [works] shall consume [maqaq – melt] away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes [what they say they’ve seen] shall consume [maqaq – melt] away in their holes, and their tongue [their corrupt words, ideas {stoicheion – elements}] shall consume [maqaq – melt] away in their mouth.
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.
14 And Judah [the elect remnant – the saints who have come with the LORD] also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen [Gentiles] round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance [the things they thought were valuable but are actually the burdens and plagues]
15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague [the defeat of all those who carry {teach and preach} these burdens].
16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
18 And if the family of Egypt [the houses of oppression] go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen [Gentiles] that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles [who come not out of these houses of oppression – to the harvest].
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt [the oppressors who put heavy burdens on God’s people], and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses [this shall be the shade in the day, that replaces the plague of the burdens upon the horses], Holiness Unto The LORD; and the pots [filled with these living waters that have flowed from Him] in the LORD’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto [pure, to be delivered in the form it was received from] the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite [those who hate their brother, because upon him is the righteousness that pleases the LORD] in the house of the LORD of hosts.
Jeremiah 18
1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words.
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? says the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of Israel.
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up [nathash], and to pull down [nathats], and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return you now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
13 Therefore thus says the LORD; Ask you now among the heathen, who has heard such things: the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon [the purity in high places] which comes from the rock of the field [that comes through Christ in the world, in the wilderness]? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place [this word of God that comes from outside the corrupted leaders] be forsaken [nathash – shall you tear it away from My people to whom I send it]?
15 Because my people has forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy [sending them My air to move them, My Spirit bringing My thoughts and ideas, giving understanding]; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18 Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah [Jehovah rising in Him, and raising His people]; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
20 Shall evil be recompensed [returned] for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn away your wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.
23 Yet, LORD, you know all their counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight, but let them be overthrown before you; deal thus with them in the time of your anger.
Ezekiel uses the word nathash, in Ezekiel 19:12, as the LORD is speaking to the princes (rulers) of His people about them being taken into captivity and confusion, in the chains of ignorance. He speaks of their mother (teaching that gave them knowledge, wisdom, and understanding) nourishing them, until the nations took them in their pit (and they learned the ways that bound them in chains). He tells of their mother, their teachers, being planted by the waters (the word of God) and full of branches by many waters (speaking of the words and ideas of those who don’t know God). He says she had a strong rod for a scepter to rule among the many branches, until she was “plucked up” and dried up by the east wind (meaning she was torn ways from the word of God, and therefore when His Spirit moved she melted away). He says the rod to rule withered, and they were burned with fire, and now (she) their teachers and leaders are in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land (a land without the waters that once nourished her).
Ezekiel 19
1 Moreover take you up a lamentation for the princes of Israel,
2 And say, What is your mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions, she nourished her whelps among young lions.
3 And she brought up one of her whelps: it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men.
4 The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt.
5 Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion.
6 And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey, and devoured men.
7 And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, by the noise of his roaring.
8 Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him: he was taken in their pit.
9 And they put him in ward in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon: they brought him into holds, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel.
10 Your mother is like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters.
11 And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bare rule, and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.
12 But she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them.
13 And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground.
14 And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which has devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong rod to be a scepter to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.
Zechariah 3
6 And the angel of the LORD protested [reiterated] unto Joshua, saying,
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts; If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my charge, then you shall also judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you places to walk among these that stand by.
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you, and your fellows that sit before you: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the Branch.
9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, says the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day, says the LORD of hosts, shall you call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree [the mother who nourishes, where the branch shoots forth, as the scepter to lead {teach and rule with right judgment}].
Zechariah 4
1 And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And said unto me, What see you? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my LORD?
5 Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Know you not what these be? And I said, No, my LORD.
6 Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel [born out of Babylon, by coming away from confusion], saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
7 Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
8 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me unto you.
10 For who has despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven [with the church]; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Jeremiah 5
1 Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man, if there be any that executes judgment, that seeks the truth; and I will pardon it.
2 And though they say, The LORD lives; surely they swear falsely.
3 O LORD, are not your eyes upon the truth? you have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.
4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goes out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
7 How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.
8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
10 Go you up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD’s.
Isaiah 2
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Psalms 2
1 Why do the heathen [those ignorant of God] rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.
5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
6 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD has said unto me, You are my Son; this day have I begotten you.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
