A Short Sample of the Prophet’s Secret
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The Weeping Prophet
The sun showed bright and glaring on the top of Mount Pisgah making it too hot to touch the loose stones covering the area. Among those stones a lone man stood, looking out over his beloved homeland, Judah. It comprised the southern kingdom of Israel and was the home of the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin after ten tribes broke after the death of King Solomon. Ten tribes broke away and formed the Northern Kingdom taking the name of Samaria and made Jeroboam king. Their new king, Jeroboam, withdrew from the practice of worship at Solomon’s Temple and instituted worship of two golden calves representing the Egyptian goddess Hathor that he set up at the cities of Bethel and Dan. To add insult to injury, Jeroboam allowed non-Levites to become priests by purchasing the office. Thus, the once great nation of Israel became divided.
The man wept as he recalled the three-hundred-year-old history of his Jewish brothers and how they had ignored and often killed all of the God-ordained prophets. Prophets sent to them as harbingers of the coming wrath of the Lord destined to pour out on their nation as retribution for their sin. It was meager comfort to him that the southern kingdom had maintained the Temple and continued worshiping Jehovah, at least carrying out the rituals. However, through the years apostates had brought many false idols into the House of the Lord. The fall of Samaria to the king of Assyria should have been warning enough, but even with years of warning from the prophets sent to Judah, the Temple was in disrepair and the worship sacrifices had become a mere routine for appearance’s sake.
Jeremiah knew judgment was coming upon Judah and was coming soon. His warnings to his countrymen were warnings of imminent disasters and condemnations for their sins. His heartfelt pleading was without results and had been the target of disdain and abuse but he held firm and spoke the word that God had revealed to him. This weeping man was Jeremiah, priest, and prophet to the nation of Judah and he stood lamenting the coming fall of the land given to Father Abraham by Jehovah God.
“Lord is the matter decided. Is there no way by which this fate can pass by unfulfilled?” Silence greeted his spoken prayer. The silence was the answer. Jehova’s decision was final and would happen. The citizens of Judah faced foreign enslavement. Both kingdoms would serve seventy years of bondage by the hands of the nation of Babylon, one year for each Jubilee Year the Jews did not allow the land to lie fallow. The sin of worshiping false gods now required payment in full by their righteous God, Jehovah. Jeremiah had never wavered in his convictions and that was the impetus for his long journey from Jerusalem to conceal the worship articles of the Temple and keep them out of the hands of conquering heathen gentiles of Babylon.
“Lord, you know where I have hidden these sacred articles by your direction. When the time comes, according to your will, please send men of your choosing to find and return these consecrated to your chosen people.”
Jeremiah then looked to the pathway down the mountain and toward home. He was determined to continue warning the children of Abraham to turn their hearts back to their holy God. The sword would come as would captivity leaving the question, would his brothers and sisters return to the Lord and repent.
