9-15-2019 Weekly Messages

Meditation of the week: Psalms 79: 1-13

Text: Jeremiah 1: 13-19

Title: Jeremiah Lamentation vs. Korea Lamentation

         God, who spoke to the kingdom of Judah through Jeremiah, is the same God that we believe. He is God who gave away the message of judgment to the kingdom of Judah, that had left God and served foreign gods, and who gave them a rash judgment, is giving the same message to all nations, including America. and The Republic of Korea where we were born is no exception.

        God, who gave a warning message through the prophet Isaiah, finally gave a final  warning message that is final through the prophet Jeremiah. Before He gave the Word, God showed him a pot that cuts off. The surface also faced north:

“ Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

15For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

16And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.“(Jer. 1:14-16)

 “God went on to say what kind of crimes they committed against Him:

“ Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.

12Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.

13For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.…
As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,

27Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. “ (Jer 2: 11-13, 26-27).

          God had spoken to them through prophet Jeremiah in many different forms for a long time, but they did not listen to the end, but rather listened to false prophets and tried to kill Jeremiah. But at last the plague came upon them according to the word of the Lord:

” Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.

18And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon.

19And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.

20And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:

21To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.” 2 Chronicles 36: 17-21

          God let Jeremiah sing the song of  lamentations, that is sad songs, of the judgments they had received because of the judgments that came upon them:

” How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!….. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

5Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the LORD hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

6And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

….. For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

17Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the LORD hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him: Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them.“(Lamentation 1: 1, 4,5,6,16,17)

            The prophet Jeremiah continued to cry as he sang all the lamentations in the following chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5. His tears are also tears that will shed on the last day of judgment for all the children of God who are awake and pray today for all the nations of the earth, including Korea.

        We must be able to hear God’s warning to our homeland, Korea. When God was long under Japanese rule, Pyongyang’s Great Revival, which occurred through tremendous repentance, came to be called Jerusalem in Korea. However, failing to overcome the test of Satan, most Korean churches fell into idolatry called  worshipping ghosts of dead Japanese. God, who used Judah to judge idolatry by using Babylon in the north, used the communist regime and China in the north to destroy Korea with a devastating war. But upon realizing the tremendous sins, the President of Korea at that time offered the deadly repentance prayers with the servants of God, and God heard their prayer of repentance, and God  sent General MacArthur to end from the disaster.

        After that, God blessed South Korea spiritually and materially. But the churches of God have forgotten the warning of God’s old days, and His servants have fallen, and all of God’s children and people who follow them have fallen together. It led to unfamiliar yet immense idolatry, which abandoned the Lord Jesus Christ, the source of life, and united with all other gods.

        The God who devastated the kingdom of Judah by preparing a boiling pot in the north to pour out the boiling pot to judge the kingdom of Judah in ancient times has prepared nuclear weapons in the northern Korea. In addition, the nation has already disappeared by letting the gangs following ideology of  the communist authority in North Korea encamp on all levels of the Government, even including the South Korean president. Nevertheless, the churches of God are leading the nation to idolatry, in unity with material worship and with WCC and WEA.

          The greatest tragedy is the fact that some people are trying to restore the country while they are patriotic, but they do not realize that this is situation brought by God . In this crisis, the Patriotic movement is asking for the help of the United States in all its efforts to bring down the regime communist, but it is a situation in which the churches of God have crossed a river that cannot be return from idolatry. After a great deal of judgment by the ancient Babylonian kingdom against Judah, he restored them through Cyrus of Persia at the time of their repentance, but the pain they suffered was as unremarkable as it written in the Lament of Jeremiah.

          That’s right! Even though the time may seem to be too late, we must do earnest the prayer of intercession so that the churches of our country, Korea, may realize it. Although we cannot escape God’s judgment through the communist regime for a while, we must pray for God’s mercy even in the midst of judgment. God will judge the Kim Jung-un regime that has been used as ax judging Korea, and the Korean government belong to him.

Our nation will need to pray for the restoration of the nation after passing through the judgment again spiritually as well as physically.  

Amen! Hallelujah!