Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 47 and we’re just going to look at 47 tonight. Initially I was going to look at 47 and 48 combined, but I’m just going to look at 47 tonight. Jesus, the Lord is giving Jeremiah prophecies to speak against the nations that are the enemies of Israel and have been the enemies of Israel and have tried to destroy Israel.
The things that we have see happening in our world, both in the Middle East and even in the United States, which happened today, where there are wicked, evil people whose whole intent is to promote death and wickedness. And they stand against not only all that God loves, but at their heart, they truly worship death and are seeking to follow Satan. In chapter 47, the Lord is speaking about prophecies dealing with the Philistines.
As we read this little chapter, it’s only seven verses long, but you will recognize some of the names that are in the news today.
The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza. 2 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, waters rise up out of the north,
and shall be an overflowing flood,
and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein;
the city, and them that dwell therein:
then the men shall cry,
and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses,
at the rushing of his chariots,
and at the rumbling of his wheels,
the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
4 because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines,
and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth:
for the Lord will spoil the Philistines,
the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza;
Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley:
how long wilt thou cut thyself?
6 O thou sword of the Lord,
how long will it be ere thou be quiet?
put up thyself into thy scabbard,
rest, and be still.
7 How can it be quiet,
seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon,
and against the sea shore?
there hath he appointed it.
Let’s just bow in prayer. Lord, I pray that you just speak to us and help us to understand the words that were being spoken about the Philistines.
And Lord, vengeance is yours against that which is so evil, and against men that willingly choose to rebel against all that you stand for and desire to kill that which you love. Lord, as we look at your word tonight, may we see how applicable it is to our world today. And when we cry on you that you would come out and take vengeance upon evil and uplift that which is righteous and good. Speak to us through your word this evening, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The Philistines, ever since Israel became a nation, and even before they were a nation, they were a people that loved that which was evil, hated that which was good, and desired to destroy Israel when it came into the land.
It’s interesting that the Philistines inhabited the same area that Hamas inhabits today. You saw the word Gaza in there. It’s the same Gaza.
It’s the same city of Gaza that’s in the Gaza Strip along the coast. Ashkelon was a Philistine city. Gath was a Philistine city.
Ashdod was a Philistine city. Those cities still exist today. Some of them are contained within the Gaza Strip and some of them are right alongside of it in the land of Israel.
But the attitude that the Philistines possess is the same attitude that the Hamas possesses today. It’s the same attitude that those that hate God possess today. Now I want you to know who the Philistines were and why Jeremiah is called by the Lord to not only prophesy against the Philistines, but he’s also prophesying against the Phoenicians.
And the Phoenicians were located up in Tyre and Sidon. They are really one people. The Philistines and the Phoenicians, when you look at them and you see them in scripture and history, they’re one people.
The Phoenicians went further north. The Philistines went to the south end of what was Israel. The Phoenicians settled up in what is today Lebanon.
And we see that they helped one another. Where did the Philistines come from? Philistines came from islands in the Mediterranean Seas where they first came. They were known as being men that would come from the sea to conquer lands.
And they came from the islands of Crete and other islands that were just south of Greece in Italy. That’s where the Philistines can be traced to, as well as the Phoenicians. They were known as wayfaring traders that went on the seas to trade.
But they settled in what is today southwestern Israel and the Gaza Strip. They first began to really attack Israel when God was bringing Israel together as a nation. Before Israel had a king, during the time of Eli, the Philistines were attacking.
During the time of the judges, the Philistines were attacking and trying to destroy Israel. When Saul became the first king, the Philistines were his number one enemy that was constantly attacking. When David became king, it was during the time of Saul that David first appears before the nation of Israel as a young teenager who is standing against Goliath, the champion of the Philistines.
And Goliath, the whole thing he did is Saul, the king of Israel who stood head and shoulders amongst the rest of the men of Israel, who the people thought was the strongest, smartest man that was of Israel, that’s why they wanted him to be king, cowered in his tent in fear, while Goliath stood out in the midst of the valley between the mountain where all of the Philistine troops were and the mountain where the Israeli troops were, mocking God, mocking Saul, and mocking Israel. David came out and said before all the people, is there not a cause? Why is this uncircumcised Philistine mocking our God? The Philistines mocked God with their whole lifestyle. They worshipped Dagon, a god of death, much like the Canaanites who worshipped Moloch.
And it’s interesting if you look at a book, the two Babylonians, you will see and you can trace all of these pagan cultures and gods had their roots back in the Tower of Babel and they all worshipped man, not God, and worshipped death, not life, and really offered human sacrifice and did all kinds of despicable things. That was the Philistines. God said, I’m going to judge the Philistines.
Their day is coming. They think they are so strong. They think they are so powerful.
But it’s interesting as you look at the words that Jeremiah is given by the Lord, he said that there’s going to come a flood from the north that will overflow the land of the Philistines and it will cause a great disaster to come upon them. There will be fear, so much fear in the hearts of the men that they literally will not defend their own children but will flee in fear as the armies of Nebuchadnezzar come from the north, their horses’ hooves, their chariots’ wheels, their soldiers’ swords, and the Philistines will be terrified. I want you to understand, this is a precursor of the judgment of God where he does not forget.
The Amalekites were another people that was constantly a thorn in the side of Israel. During the time of Saul, the Amalekites, he was told to kill the Amalekites and he was told to kill them all because they, much like the Philistines, worshipped death, hated God, and desired to destroy Israel. Saul didn’t kill all the Amalekites.
He didn’t do what God told him to do. He allowed their king to live. And it’s interesting, under Samuel when he found out the king eventually was punished with death for his crimes, the Amalekite king, but you go a few hundred years further down the road in the history of Israel and you’ll find a man by the name of Haman, and guess what his descendancy was? He was an Amalekite.
And he hated Israel and he wanted them all dead, just like the Amalekites did that God said, kill them all and judge them. The Lord’s sword is going to come out against the Philistines, is what Jeremiah says, and there’s no putting it back in the sheath once it comes out. So, judgment will come.
Today in our country, we have people that worship death and mock that which is righteous and good, and they should be trembling like the Philistine man. But the sad thing is they are so proud, they’re so arrogant, and when we get into Sunday’s lesson about the Amalekites, you’ll see where arrogance leads you. Today, as I shared, as our House of Representatives, as the Speaker of the House, Speaker Johnson, was calling for the House members to pray for Charlie Kirk and to just be quiet. The whole house was silent for just a moment and then all of a sudden all the Democrats started getting up and yelling and hollering and would not be quiet.
It’s interesting, you look at people that love death. Our nation has killed 60 million babies. And people, if you preach about Moloch and how that Israel was following the Canaanite gods and worshipping Moloch and placing their children in the arms of Moloch and putting them to death, people are disgusted and say, oh, Israel is so terrible. Oh, in America, we killed 60 million babies. In America, where we’re supposed to have free speech, when a person who is making a difference for truth and righteousness stands up and speaks, someone kills him.
But the Lord looks, and the Lord knows, and vengeance will come. Our hope isn’t in the ability of man to deal with the unrighteousness and the wickedness of this world, but our hope is in the fact that we have a God who will deal with the wickedness of this world. Part of the problem is pastors like myself need to begin to preach about the accountability of man to a holy and righteous God.
Our hope isn’t in the ability of man to deal with the unrighteousness and the wickedness of this world, but our hope is in the fact that we have a God who will deal with the wickedness of this world.
And He’s a God that doesn’t just wink at evil, but He’s a God that one day will judge evil. Can you imagine that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, and they shall see Him for who He really is. And they shall look upon Him who is righteous and holy, He who is full of compassion, but also just and pure.
And they will have to stand with Him, understand before Him, and bow before Him, confessing who He is, and knowing in their own hearts their own wickedness, and that they could have turned from being controlled and giving their lives to this wickedness, and embraced the love of Jesus, and experienced all that He stands for, but they willfully chose to go a different route. The young people of our nation really stand at a crossroads today, and our little church doesn’t have much influence over them. We have a handful of people here tonight.
Sunday afternoons it’s about the same, and Sunday mornings, most churches, it wouldn’t even be a good Sunday school class for those that are here. And some of us would say, what difference can we make? But the thing is, the difference we can make is we pray to a holy and righteous God who is in control. And we can ask Him to guard the hearts of the young men and young women that Charlie Kirk had been influencing with how he was standing and promoting righteousness instead of evil.
He was promoting truth instead of lies. And we can ask God, do not allow them to begin to follow someone who pretends to have those things, but presents that which is a lie couched in truth, which is nothing but a lie. That they would turn to the Bible, and they’d turn to Jesus, and they’d understand what Christianity really is, and why Jesus really came to earth.
What difference can we make? The difference we can make is if we pray to a holy and righteous God who is in control. We can ask Him to guard the hearts of the young men and young women that Charlie Kirk had been influencing with how he was standing and promoting righteousness instead of evil.
And one of the amazing things is I heard people today, I saw this little clip, and it was Megan Kelly and Glenn Beck who just found out Charlie had died, and they were both openly weeping. But may their tears be for more than the fact that we just lost someone who was standing for truth and making an impact. But may their tears be for the beginning of the death of America unless we turn around and turn to Christ.
Megan Kelly and Glenn Beck who just found out Charlie had died, and they were both openly weeping. May their tears be for more than the fact that we just lost someone who was standing for truth and making an impact. But may their tears be for the beginning of the death of America unless we turn around and turn to Christ.
The Philistines had opportunities. The Philistines saw the power of God, because what else could it possibly be that would allow David, a teenager, to come against their great soldier, and the one that stood over nine feet tall and had a sword that weighed over thirty pounds, to have that man brought down by that teenager. Because God was with David, and God is greater than Satan who is motivating Goliath.
May we understand that we have a God who is greater than all the wickedness and evil in our world, and that one day those people that stand and mock and cheer because someone who was trying to uphold righteousness was murdered, may they realize one day they will have to stand and give an account for that, unless they give their heart to Jesus and confess of his sin and bring it before the Lord and give their heart over to him, that they too can stand for righteousness instead of evil. America is at a great crossroads. Christians in America are at the center of it.
Which way will America go? Which way will the people of America go? How will the young people respond? And may they give their hearts to Jesus, and may they understand that God stands with his people, and vengeance will come upon his enemies. If you can stop and imagine what was happening when Jeremiah was bringing this message, and he’s talking to the Israelites who are going into captivity. Not only that, remember, some of them had not believed God and had gone down into Egypt, and he told them, don’t go there because the very things that you fear that are going to happen with Nebuchadnezzar, if you remained in Judah, Nebuchadnezzar would not harm you, but if you go to Egypt, you’re going to die, and yet they would not listen to God.
And they know the history of their country. They know the history of the Philistines. The Philistines at this time were still a small group of people, and still a thorn in the side of Israel, but God says judgment’s coming.
Today you don’t find Philistines in the land of Israel, you find Hamas. But you know the amazing thing, as I mentioned at the beginning of the message tonight, there’s a correlation between Hamas and the Philistines. Although the people who are members of Hamas, and who are members of what are referred to as the Palestinians, are really for the most part Arabs, who come from Jordan, and Egypt, and Syria, and had moved into what is referred to as Palestine by the world, but we know it as Israel.
When the Jews came back to Israel, they started coming back because of the jobs that were there, and they started coming back before Israel became a nation, and when the Arabs became ready to attack, they said to all of the Arabs who were living there, leave, because we’re going to come and we’re going to annihilate Israel in a matter of days, and whosoever there will be killed, so leave. The Jews begged them not to leave. They said, don’t leave your homes, don’t leave your jobs, stay here.
They’d move there for jobs, because the Jews brought them work. Those that left today are referred to as the Palestinians, and they’re not welcome in any of the Arab countries that told them to leave. Why? Because they know the heart of this people, this heart of this people is death.
The heart of this people is they hate God. The heart of this people is they hate that which God loves, and they teach their children from a very young age that it’s a good thing to kill a Jew, and that there’s no good Jew except the dead Jew, and that is this people, and Hamas was a group of people that worshiped death, and they didn’t care who died or how they died, as long as their agenda would go forth, and they used their own families, their own neighbors as shields to take the bullets of their enemy, and the bombs of their enemy, so they could protect them, just like Palestinians, running and leaving their sons as they flee from the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, but God will judge, and God will judge those in our nation and those in the world who mock him as well. May we understand that we serve the God who’s in control, and may we make a difference in promoting and bringing people out of this darkness, this real darkness, into the marvelous light of Jesus Christ.
That’s just closing prayer. Lord, I pray that you would just help us to understand this. Help us to understand the power of your spirit to transform hearts and lives, and help us to be those who would offer the truth of your word, and the power of your spirit for people to trust in the blood of your Son, that they would become followers of you and those who walk in the light and not in the darkness.
Lord, help us to be used by you, and though we be small in number, Lord, may we make a difference in the lives of many. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.