King Ahaz Walked Not After the Lord

August 3, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 28; 2 Kings 16

King Ahaz was the twelfth King of Judah and the son and successor of Jotham, king of Judah, who came to the throne about 734 B.C.

The only notable event of his reign, so far as we know, was the invasion made by his northern neighbors, Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus.

Isa 7:1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

These two kings had made an alliance against the Assyrians and were trying to compel Ahaz to join the coalition.

When King Ahaz refused, they decided to war with Judah and defeat King Ahaz and then put a new king on the throne of Judah who would bring Judah’s armies to battle with them against the Assyrians.

God was not about to allow this to take place.

Ahaz did not venture to take the field but shut himself up in Jerusalem and strengthened its fortifications.

It was perhaps at this time of need that he sacrificed his son as a burnt offering to false gods.

2Ki 16:2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.
2Ki 16:3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.

We should clearly understand that God deals harshly with all those who sacrifice their children.

What did God teach them? Lev 20:2 Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
Lev 20:3 And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.

God will never approve of abortion!
God will never approve of the destruction of babies or small children.

It was at this time of his accession that Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Israel, had recently formed a league against Judah, and they proceeded to lay siege to Jerusalem, intending to place on the throne Ben-Tabeal, who was not a prince of the royal family of Judah, but probably a Syrian noble.

*****2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
2Ch 28:2 For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.

The reign of King Ahaz was disgraceful and full of devastating evil.

King Ahaz set loose a stream of wickedness that rushed Judah into total destruction under the hand of God’s judgment.

Those who choose to pursue the wrath of God do not know what they are seeking.

To look at King Ahaz, you would think that he ruled Israel rather than Judah.

King Ahaz did not have a righteous bone in his body.

King Ahaz led Judah to worship Baal rather than Jehovah, the true God.

Nothing good is written about King Ahaz.

He does what is evil in the sight of the LORD, Yahweh, Jehovah.

How wicked was King Ahaz?

*****2Ch 28:3 Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
2Ch 28:4 He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

We should remember that the nation of Israel was to drive out or destroy the nations that occupied the Promised Land because those nations did the things that King Ahaz was doing.

His idolatry is so general that he makes any place he considers suitable for it a place where he can sacrifice to the idols.

King Jotham was far from perfect, but it was his godless son who revolted against God.

Every child has their own responsibility in the choices he makes, and the parents of that child should not be held responsible.

We know that God punishes everyone for their own sins.

Deu 24:16 The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

As parents, we do have the responsibility to raise our children in a godly manner.

Pro_22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

What did God think of these things?

Jer 7:30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.
Jer 7:31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.
Jer 7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
Jer 7:33 And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.

What do we know of the human heart?

Mar 7:20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Mar 7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Jer_17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

Tit 1:15 Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
Tit 1:16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

There is only one way to change what is in our hearts: a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

King Ahaz could stop anywhere and worship his gods who traveled with him.

What did God do? God did exactly what He said He would do!

*****2Ch 28:5 Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
2Ch 28:6 For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.

Syria and Israel had formed an alliance and then attacked the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

This is known as the Syro-Ephraimite War.

These are the things that happen when you face the judgment of God.

We can say that the God of the Bible was not the God of Ahaz, but we should understand that God will never give up His rights to His land.

The world needs to understand this! God loves Jerusalem!

Why does God judge His people, Israel? Amo 3:1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
Amo 3:2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

God disciplined King Ahaz by giving him into the power of the King of Syria and the King of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

A large group of prisoners is taken by the King of Syria and the King of Ephraim, and the Northern Tribes slaughter even more of them.

King Ahaz wanted to be like the kings of the Northern Tribes, and he got a first-hand view of who they were.

They were the enemies of God’s people!

When we connect ourselves to wicked people, we will experience wickedness, and wickedness is ugly and can be very brutal!

King Pekah and the Northern Tribes were even more wicked than King Ahaz, but the Lord dwells in Jerusalem, so Judah has the greatest responsibility to remain with the Lord.

When things get out of hand, God will step in.

*****2Ch 28:8 And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.
2Ch 28:9 But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven.
2Ch 28:10 And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?
2Ch 28:11 Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.

We see that God will punish even those whom He calls His children if they forsake Him.

God will use severe methods if this is what it takes to get us back in line.

God used King Pekah of the Northern Tribes to inflict severe punishment on Judah, but Pekah went a little too far when he attempted to make his own brothers, Judah, his slaves.

We do not know much about this Oded, but we know that he stood bravely before King Pekah and his victorious army and issued a strong warning to them.

King Pekah of Israel was guilty of brutality; he was excessive in his cruelty.

They did not get the victory over Judah because of their military power.
They did not get the victory over Judah because they were better people; in fact, they were worse than Judah.
They did not get the victory over Judah because they were more favored by God.
They did not get the victory over Judah because they were more righteous, and the people of Judah were more wicked.

They got the victory over Judah because the LORD was executing justice upon Judah.

They had slaughtered the army of Judah in a rage that reached into Heaven, and God was not pleased.

They had shown no mercy! If not for God’s mercy, we would all be headed for Hell!

They were attempting to enslave these men and women, a serious violation of God’s commandments.

Lev 25:39 And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
Lev 25:40 But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
Lev 25:41 And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
Lev 25:42 For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.
Lev 25:43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

This was a call for King Pekah and his army to repent or face serious judgment themselves.

The Judean slaves must be freed immediately, for God was about to turn His wrath loose on the Northern Kingdom, and only if they released these people of Judah would He show mercy.

We should understand that our merciful, loving God, who is full of compassion, does not play when His wrath is being exposed to reality.

God means what He says, and God says what He means!

It was time for some of the men of Ephraim to come to their senses.

2Ch 28:12 Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war,
2Ch 28:13 And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already, ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.

We could say that even though there were wicked kings of Judah, only King Ahaz was as wicked as the Kings of the Northern Tribes.

King Pekah and his army relented, and these two hundred thousand would be slaves were released, and the plunder that was taken from Jerusalem was released.

These princes of Israel made sure that these captives were fed and clothed and then provided for those who were injured.

They made arrangements for their transportation as far as Jericho and provided a military escort to keep them safe.

It is not part of our lesson, but this is one of the times that the Edomites invaded Jerusalem while they were in a weakened state, and another reason the Edomites do not exist today.

The Philistines also took advantage of the weakness of Judah and took over a large part of Judah.

2Ch 28:19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.

It was at this time that King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to come help him, and one of the kings did come, but not to help.

*****2Ch 28:20 And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.
2Ch 28:21 For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not.

The nation of Judah was in shambles, and the army had been diminished; Judah was helpless to defend itself.

The nation of Judah was under constant attack from neighboring countries.

Judah was suffering because of King Ahaz, but we do not read of King Ahaz ever repenting.

God had humbled Judah because of their sin.

Just because Judah’s King was so wicked, it did not mean the people had to be like him, but many were.

We must never think that God does not have a remnant of true believers because He always does.

It is never easy for God’s true people!

This Assyrian king had no intention of helping King Ahaz, but just like the others, he took the time to get a part of the riches of Judah.

This king attacked Syria and conquered them, but he did not do this to help Judah.

King Ahaz was forced to pay the King of Assyria a large amount of riches, and it appears that it bankrupted Judah, and Ahaz had to rob the House of God and demand large sums from the princes of Judah.

Judah was a conquered nation militarily and economically, and all these things were brought upon Judah because King Ahaz wanted to be like the Kings of Ephraim.

No human savior would be able to help King Ahaz; he needed the God that he had rejected.

There is no savior other than the LORD!

King Ahaz had rejected the lessons of history and sought salvation in mortal men when only the Eternal Supernatural God could provide him any help.

Sounds like another nation that has been in the news so much since April.

*****2Ch 28:22 And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz.
2Ch 28:23 For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.
2Ch 28:24 And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.

When the false gods of the Edomites did not help him, Ahaz turned to the false gods of Syria.

False gods cannot help anyone. King Ahaz was at the mercy and the power of the Devil.

Psa 115:2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
Psa 115:3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Psa 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
Psa 115:5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
Psa 115:6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
Psa 115:7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
Psa 115:8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
Psa 115:9 O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

King Ahaz was not alone; this is a picture of all people, especially so-called religious people who do not allow themselves to be corrected in any way by the Living God.

They run on the road to destruction just because they reject the only true God and refuse to believe anything He says in His book called the Bible.

Everything that reminds this world of the Living God and our Creator is removed from their lives and their surroundings, and they continue to seek alternative ways of believing.

Everything is good to them, as long as it is not from the God of the Bible.

Sounds just like the USA today.
Sounds just like the evolutionists.
Sounds just like the atheists.

Ahaz was such a person! Ahaz was finished with God, but God was not finished with him!

The God of the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ!

The world thinks it is finished with Jesus, but it is not!

The world will soon meet Him as King Jesus!

The only good that came out of King Ahaz was King Hezekiah, his son.

King Ahaz lived in the way of the world we have today.

No one wants to hear what God has to say, and King Jesus will soon show up to put this world out of its misery.

Amen

Jonah the Committed Prophet

July 27, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Jonah The Committed Prophet

Book of Jonah Chapters 3-4

Jonah the Rebellious prophet became Jonah the committed prophet, but Jonah still had a lot of hatred in him.

Jonah gets a second chance to go where God wanted him to go and do what God wanted him to do.

We may think it strange, but Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevites because Jonah knew and understood the grace and mercy of the Lord, and he knew that many of them would probably be saved.

Jonah did not want any of them to get saved because Jonah hated the Ninevites, because they were such a cruel and wicked people, and had become a thorn in the flesh of Israel.

Jonah was a typical Jew who felt that the Jews were better than all other peoples.

The important word we should understand in this Book of Jonah is the word “repentance”.

Jonah had to repent of his own sin to understand the meaning of repentance, to preach a message of repentance to the people of Nineveh.

God often gives us a second chance and to some even a third chance or more, but we should also understand that He does not always do this because He can see into our heart.

Sometimes disobedience is of such a character that God cannot go on with such a servant.

1Ki 13:21 And he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee,
1Ki 13:22 But camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.
1Ki 13:23 And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back.
1Ki 13:24 And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase.
1Ki 13:25 And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.
1Ki 13:26 And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD: therefore the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him.

It is always better to be obedient to the Word of God.

*****Jon 3:1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
Jon 3:2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
Jon 3:3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.

Jonah gets the same command for the second time, and this time Jonah does not flee; he goes to Nineveh and preaches the sermon God told him to preach.

Every preacher is given a message he is to preach to those who gather with him!

Those who are not given a message from the Holy Spirit are not God-called, or they could have unrepentant sin in their lives.

God had accepted Jonah’s repentance and restored his ministry.

A great city would be a fortified city, and probably was a walled city, and probably had experienced war.

Most anything else would be a town, and that city in that area would be like a mother to those towns.

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which had begun to emerge as a regional power.

It was probably a saying that Jonah that he had been spat out of a fish’s mouth because he had rebelled against God.

We should understand that the Philistines worshipped a god named Dagon, and Dagon was known as the fish god. Half man and half fish.

The Ninevites would have also considered Dagon as a god.

To the Jews, Nineveh was the land of Nimrod.

Nineveh was up to 700 miles from Joppa, so it would take a while for Jonah to get there, much more than three days.

When Jonah entered the city, he began preaching the message God had given him.

Nineveh was such a great city that it would take three days to walk around the walls of that city, if you could walk 20 miles a day.

Certainly, Jonah could not walk and preach at that pace, so this statement is tied to that phrase “such a great city” to tell us just how large the city of Nineveh was.

*****Jon 3:4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Jon 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
Jon 3:6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Jonah had become a sign to the Ninevites: Luk 11:29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
Luk 11:30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.

The Ninevites had heard about this man Jonah, how he spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish.

Now we do not know if the false god Dagon influenced these Ninevites or not, but we do know that the Ninevites believed that only a true God could have saved any man from such a catastrophe.

The sign to the Church is that God can bring new life to those who are judged dead in sin.

This king and these people believed in the story of Jonah, and we have no right to not consider it to be true today.

If God said Jonah was swallowed by a fish that He had prepared to swallow Jonah, then it has to be true!

The effect of Jonah’s preaching was spontaneous, and the people put on sackcloth and proclaimed a fast.

From the poor to the rich, they believed in the message of Jonah, which reached into the king’s palace, and this king caused a fast to be proclaimed in all of Nineveh.

Jon 3:7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:
Jon 3:8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.

The whole city believed the God of the Jews could have the power to destroy them if He chose to do so, and we know He had that power; He is all-powerful.

This city believed this because they believed the story of Jonah being swallowed by a large fish.

Notice how God sends a warning with a chance to repent before He would bring judgment.

We are to pass this warning to those we witness to today.

*****Jon 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

All those people who sacrificed to idols and false gods had heard about the goodness of the God of the Jews, and they understood the message of Jonah and realized they had only one option to avoid perishing.

Notice they demanded no forgiveness.
They did not ask for mercy.
In their confession, there was no sacrifice.
They offered no promise to appease God.

Just as we know today, their fast and humility came by faith in the truth of God.

Our salvation is based on faith in the work that Jesus Christ has done for our salvation, and it is in this faith that God will receive us into His family and not by these other things.

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

This is the work that God has required!

This is the reason Jonah did not want to preach this message, because Jonah understood the grace and mercy of God.

*****Jon 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

God had seen the wickedness of Nineveh, and now God saw their repentance.

God heard them call out to Him.
God saw the change in them, their repentance.

What had they done? They had produced fruit worthy of repentance.

Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
Mat 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise children unto Abraham.

That fruit was that they had turned from their wicked ways.

They did not need to sacrifice some animal, for that would have been little proof.

They sacrificed a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

Psa 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
Psa 51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
Psa 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Not only had Jonah preached the message God gave him, but Jonah had learned a lesson he would take back to the Jews and to the Northern Tribes.

God does not need an animal sacrifice to forgive sin.

These Ninevites were not confused about Dagon because they had now met Yahweh, Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is what Jonah knew would happen, and Jonah did not want any of the Ninevites to come to know the true God of Creation.

Jonah had some understanding of the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jonah did not want it to happen.

*****Jon 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jon 4:2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

The Jews, they felt that the God of the Jews was just that. The God of the Jews and not God to any other people.

There are Christians today who feel that some people are just too wicked for God to save them.

There may be, but only God can know these things!

We are never to be hesitant to reach out to others, and if the Holy Spirit encourages us to reach out to certain individuals and we refuse, then we will be held accountable for the blood of that person if they never accept the truth of the Gospel.

God desires to have mercy upon every individual!
The Lord Jesus Christ paid the sin debt for every individual.

It is not up to us to judge if any person can accept the truth of God; this is God’s business, and God is in the saving business.

To be more like Jesus Christ, we must also be in the saving business!

God’s mercy can reach the lowest of the lowest, the highest of the highest, and all those in between.

God can save anybody, anytime, in any place!

Jonah understood this, but Jonah was not pleased with it.

Jonah understood God’s goodness and was not pleased with it.

Jonah explained to God that this was why he fled to keep this from happening, and he knew this was a great sin, and Jonah said to Jehovah, “Just take my life from me”.

Jonah discussed his anger with the Lord.

*****Jon 4:3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.

Even while he was angry at God, this is proof that Jonah did not water down the truth of God, but preached the truth straight from the Word of God.

Jonah did not keep his anger stored up in his heart, and this is a great example for all of us.

We will never understand everything that God does!

We will never understand the death of a child or why so many die in some catastrophe.

We may never understand why God did not answer our prayer or answer it in a way that we did not want Him to answer it.

Jonah knew God was gracious and merciful.
Jonah knew God was slow to anger and abounding in love.
Jonah knew God was willing to turn away from executing His judgment if His conditions were met.

It is very important that we all understand the character of God, and it is our goal to be more like Him.

What Jonah went through during this time in his life is a great lesson for us all.

Anytime we get to see how God does things is a place we can learn from Him!

It is very possible that Jonah became an enemy to his own people after leading these Ninevites to the Lord.

All the Jews hated the Ninevites.

Jonah may not have been able to witness to the Jews anymore.

Life did not make sense to Jonah any longer.

And God said to Jonah: Jon 4:4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

What do we know about anger? Anger is very ugly if it is allowed to simmer in our heart for a long period of time.

Jonah traveled a short distance from Nineveh and made himself a booth to sit under while he was trying to get over his anger.

God does not speak a word of reproach to Jonah, but God will teach Jonah a great lesson.

*****Jon 4:6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

When we are talking to God, it is always best just to stop what we are doing and sit down with Him.

If the Almighty God wants to discuss what has just happened and He takes the time to sit down with one of His children, then it is a great honor to hear what He has to say.

God does want us to understand the things we do not understand, but we must understand that it is because of the great love that He does most things.

Remember how God had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah; now God has prepared a plant, a gourd, to come up and shade Jonah and allow Jonah some relief from the blistering sun.

Jonah was really happy with the shade this plant provided for him, but this relief would not last very long.

*****Jon 4:7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

If you fool with plants, then you know we can go to bed with our plants looking beautiful and wake up and find that insects during the night have tried to destroy our beautiful plants.

Then God prepared a vehement east wind, and it caused Jonah to be in misery.

That word vehement means a very hot east wind, a scorching, burning wind.

Jonah fainted from the heat, and he again wished for God to take his life.

All Jonah could think about was that gourd that had provided him with some relief the previous day.

Jonah became angry that the gourd had withered and died so soon.

Again, God told Jonah that it did him well to be angry at the gourd.

Then God said: “Here is the lesson for you to learn, Jonah”.

*****Jon 4:10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
Jon 4:11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?

Here it becomes clear why God has created such a fast-growing plant.

If it had been a slow-growing plant, Jonah should have cared for it and watered it, but Jonah did not have to make any effort for the growth of the plant.

Jonah had no personal relationship with it.

We should understand that God is our Creator and He has that special love for all His created beings, and this includes such cruel and wicked people as the Ninevites were at this time of Jonah.

God made the sun to rise over Nineveh as well as provide rain.

Mat 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Mat 5:45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Mat 5:46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
Mat 5:47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

God told Jonah that more than one hundred twenty thousand people were living in Nineveh that could not discern their right hand from their left hand; should He not offer them a chance to be saved from Hell?

This is a trait of God’s character that we cannot overlook: Mat 9:36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Mat 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Mat 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Should God not heal them? Mat 14:14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

Even the disciples did not understand these things.

Would Jonah understand God’s feelings for Jerusalem? Do we?

Luk 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

Even the animals were dear to God that were in Nineveh, so we must never think that God does not love His creation.

We do not get to read Jonah’s response, and the Book of Jonah comes to an abrupt end, so we know for sure that God always has the last words, and we need to grow in Christ to better understand the ways of God!

Amen

Jonah the Rebellious Prophet

July 20, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Jonah The Rebellious Prophet

Book of Jonah Chapters 1 and 2

One thing we should be very clear about in this Book of Jonah is that it was written as actual history and not some allegory, or fiction, or parable, and refers to real people in real places.

Ancient tradition in Israel considered Jonah and the Book of Jonah as historical facts, and we should too.

A lot is written about Jonah by Josephus and other church fathers, and they all accepted the Book of Jonah as a historical fact.

It would be best for us to accept the Book of Jonah along with the sixty-five other books of the Bible as the truth of God.

If God said Jonah was swallowed by a fish to be delivered to Nineveh, then I accept it as fact.

It does not actually say that this great fish delivered Jonah to Nineveh, and Assyria had no shore and no seaport.

Jonah was probably put to shore at Joppa, the place from which he had set out.

God wanted His message of “judgment” preached in Nineveh, and He chose Jonah to deliver that message.

God does not just choose people He knows might not like the ministry He chose them for.

God chooses His children who He knows can get the job done if their faith remains strong.

We have a duty to bear witness to the true Lord of all people, Jesus Christ.
God wanted Israel to know that God loved all people.
Jonah was to be a picture of repentance from disobedience of a true man of God, written to all God’s people.

Another thing to consider that is not mentioned is the fact that it would be the Assyrian Empire that God would use in His “judgment” of the Northern Tribes named Israel, and the capital of the Assyrian Empire was the city of Nineveh.

The Assyrians were known as some of the cruelest people in the ancient world.

The children of Israel could be just as callous and hardhearted.

Even though most of the Ninevites returned to pagan worship later, God always, always has a remnant that stays with Him forever.

I believe that when Israel was taken to Nineveh, not everyone would be their enemy.

God has a purpose and a use for everyone upon the face of this earth.

God will use everyone who turns to Him, but God will also use the wicked to further His plan of “redemption” while not causing their wickedness.

The truth of God is that He desires mercy more than judgment, and every person who lives will get an opportunity to meet the God of the Bible.

God’s patience with our sin and wickedness, our false worship and rejection of Him as the only Living God and True God, is hard to understand, but it is real!

We must understand that God’s “judgment” will be real when the Lord Jesus returns in glory.

There is nowhere to run to escape the “Judgment of God”!

*****Jon 1:1 Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Jon 1:2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

The Book of Jonah, the fifth book in the row of the twelve minor prophets, is a unique book.

It is another place where we are to learn about the ways of God.

Jonah, the prophet of God, tried to put his own importance above the importance of God’s message.

We must learn that if we belong to God, we cannot run away from the purpose He has for us without feeling His chastisement.

Jonah knew the power and the truth of God!

When the truth of God is preached to any people, some will believe and be saved.

Jonah hated the Ninevites, for they were cruel, war-mongering people, and Jonah did not want to see any of them turn to Jehovah for salvation.

Just like God always does, He will take something that started badly and turn it into good results.

Jonah was running away from his home and his country to avoid doing what God wanted him to do.

Jonah would suffer unimaginable things, but in the end, he would be glad to do what God wanted him to do.

Jonah was already a prophet of God in Judah and was obedient to the Word of God.

Amos and Hosea were also serving the Lord during the time of Jonah.

They were to warn Israel and Judah of the coming judgment unless they would repent of their evil ways.

God’s new commission to Jonah was clear and unmistakable.

Jonah was to go to the city of Nineveh to warn a pagan people of the coming judgment of God.

We will learn a lot about Jonah, but we must pay attention to the actions of our God and Jonah’s God, Jehovah.

Of course, we know Him as Jesus.

Nineveh was one of the great cities of ancient civilization.

For the Lord Jesus to mention Jonah, we know that these things are true.

It just makes sense for us to accept all the Word of God as the truth.

To the Jews, the Book of Jonah is important, and they read this great truth of God during the Day of Atonement.

To critics, it is just a fairytale, but we live by faith in the whole Word of God.

If the Lord Jesus said these things are true, then we should not question them.

Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Mat 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

Mat 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

What do we recognize as the sign of Jonah?

The sign of Jonah refers to the three days that Jonah spent in the belly of a great fish, which symbolizes Jesus’ death and resurrection after three days.

This truth is mentioned in the Gospels, where Jesus uses Jonah’s experience as a type of His own future crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

The miraculous survival of Jonah serves as a powerful reminder of God’s mercy and God’s call to repentance.

It is God who is in control of all the parts of nature He created. God loves all people.

And for those who think God just has His eyes on His own people, all the other people of this earth should know that God has His eyes upon all His creation and all people of every nation.

What did Jonah do? He tried to flee from God.

God knows what each of us are doing at any given time.

*****Jon 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

It is believed that Tarshish was a city of the Phoenicians in southern Spain.

This ship would have been an ocean-going ship and not a small fishing boat.

The Phoenicians were the dominant sea power at that time, and their ships traveled the world.

We should understand that we may not always like what God wants us to do.

We know He will never go against His own Word, so anything God asks us to do will be the right thing to do!

The people of Nineveh were evil and malicious, but as God had promised, the entire world must be warned of the coming judgment.

Nah 3:1 Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;
Nah 3:2 The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
Nah 3:3 The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:
Nah 3:4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

All sin is an abomination to the Lord, but God will sometimes point out a specific group of people who have become so wicked that He will issue a special call of judgment.

Archaeology has confirmed what God is teaching us in this Book of Jonah.

The Assyrians were wicked people!

In their judgment of people, lips were torn off, hands were cut off, people were flayed like you would a fish while they were alive, and there were great mounds of skulls everywhere.

Jonah made a tragic decision to deliberately disobey the Lord and run away.

We must clearly understand that God can save anybody, anywhere, at any time, and it is not up to us to decide who God will save or who God will reject.

Rom_14:13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

The Lord Jesus said: Mat_7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

The Lord God Jehovah could not allow His prophet to get away with these things, which means He understood the feelings of Jonah, but Jonah was not God, and Jonah could not select who God would save or not save.

God’s message is to all people!

Jonah was in open rebellion against the Lord and wanted to get as far away from Nineveh as he possibly could.

God loved the Ninevites, despite their wickedness, and wanted them to hear that there was hope for them if they would only repent of all that wickedness.

We can also see that when we disobey God, we can endanger others.

God did not want His prophet to destroy his ministry or his life.

God caused a great wind, so great that this mighty ship could be destroyed.

The mariners of the ship all called out to their false gods, and we know there was no help there.

Jonah was asleep below deck, and the captain told him to cry out to his God, who is Jehovah, the God of the Hebrew people.

The Lord God of the Bible is the only hope we have in this world!

*****Jon 1:7 And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.

Jonah may have thought for a while that he had successfully avoided going east to Ninevah by going west to Spain, but God was not through with Jonah.

Jonah knew why the ship was in such distress.

We should understand that God chastises those He loves, and sometimes a lot of chastisement is needed to bring us back to the right path.

While God was dealing with Jonah, He also took the time to demonstrate His power over the elements of this world.

This was the time of the year when the Mediterranean Sea would have been the calmest, and the crew, being polytheists, could only blame their distress on some false god.

They believed more in their false gods than many people believe in the true God, to our shame.

Ask a Muslim who believes in false gods or ask a Hindu about their faith.

God wants us to warn all people everywhere of His coming judgment, whether they believe it or not.

Jonah finally told them his God was the LORD, the God of Heaven, and that he was running away from Him.

It was obvious to the ship that it was Jonah’s fault that had caused this terrible storm.

They asked Jonah how they could save themselves from this storm, and Jonah told them to throw him overboard.

They did not want to do this at first but later decided that there was no other option and tossed Jonah out of the ship.

*****Jon 1:15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.

These professional sailors got introduced to the God who is our Creator.

They asked that God not hold them accountable since it was because of Jonah that the storm was so powerful.

They were now afraid for their own lives and had admiration for the God of the Hebrew people, and they offered some sacrifice when they could have just said thank you and praised Him.

A vow would mean that these sailors made some kind of promise to God.

Only Jonah knew what happened next and lived to talk about it, and the Holy Spirit caused it to be written in the Bible we have today.

*****Jon 1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

No one can outthink God! He knew exactly what was going to happen to Jonah, and He prepared a great fish to be ready to save Jonah from drowning.

If God can keep life in the womb before the birth of a child, why would He not be able to keep Jonah alive in the belly of a fish?

This great fish swallowed Jonah to protect him, and as my preacher says, Jonah became the first ever submariner.

Some say under these conditions, there was no way that Jonah could have known how many days he was inside this fish, but the Holy Spirit knows all things.

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

There was but one thing Jonah could do.

*****Jon 2:1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,
Jon 2:2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

This story of Jonah should confirm the fact that we can pray to God from anywhere but the grave, though we know that everyone in Hell is now a believer in the true God.

Wherever we find ourselves, we are never too far from God for Him to hear us.

Jonah had caused himself to be put into this precarious situation.

Jonah was in this situation because he had willfully disobeyed God, but God was still ready to hear from Jonah.

Had Jonah not prayed, he would have been lunch for this fish!

We must know that in our time of need, we should go to God, for He is always listening for our prayers.

Psa 120:1 In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.

We are never truly in a desperate situation when we know we can pray to the God of all power, even when we are in disobedience to the Word of God, if we are willing to repent.

It would take a miracle for Jonah to survive and complete the work that God had given him to do.

The Lord used this huge fish to keep Jonah alive while He also gave Jonah a sense of being in Hell.

Jonah was in pitch-black darkness, along with the unbearable smell of rotting fish, seaweed, and whatever else a fish would eat.
The Lord used this fish to give Jonah a sense of what Hell would be like for those who never heard God’s message of salvation.
God used this fish to deliver Jonah from death to demonstrate His great love and mercy. God will do almost anything to get His message to those who have never heard it.
The Lord used this great fish to swallow and then expel Jonah as a type of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, as Jesus said Himself.

Luk 11:29 And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet.
Luk 11:30 For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.

We should remember the Lord in everything we do, and He should never be the last thing that we remember in a time of need.

*****Jon 2:7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple.

Though Jonah was still inside this great fish, his heart began to change in his despair.

Jonah realized that the Lord had kept him alive inside this fish to give him time to repent.

Jonah could breathe while inside this animal, which causes many to believe this great fish was a whale, but we actually do not know for sure.

Jonah speaks with faith that the Lord could still save him if He chose to do so, and He did.

God intends that through situations such as the one Jonah was in, to show us His great mercy.

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Jonah did not know if he would truly be saved from his dilemma, but he did know that his relationship with his Heavenly Father had been mended.

Inside this fish, Jonah knew he could still reach into the throne room of God.

Jonah was not afraid to die!

*****Jon 2:10 And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

We do not know where Jonah was put out on dry land.

We do know that God has control of all His creation, and this fish was obedient to God.

We can ignore all those who suggest the first part of the Book of Jonah is allegorical.

Those are just people who have no respect for the Word of God nor the power of our Supernatural God.

God had humbled His servant, and His servant was now ready to serve Him.

Jonah revived his ministry from this beach where he was deposited.

He would now obey God and go to Nineveh to proclaim the Word of God to a doomed people.

This is the same job we have today!

It was Jonah’s three-day experience when he was given a new life and a new beginning.

So, it is with us!

Through the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we too can receive a new life, a new beginning, a brand-new start, a second chance, and spend an eternity with the One who loves us the most.

Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. By Grace Through Faith.

We must never think that God is not working in this world to bring to full glory His plan of salvation, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen

Restoration

June 29, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Restoration

Book of Hosea, Chapters 1 through 3

Hosea was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Hosea was the only prophet who lived in the area of the Northern Tribes whose writings were preserved by the Holy Spirit and became part of the Bible we have today.

All the other prophets who prophesied against the Northern Tribes lived in the area of the Southern Tribes.

The Book of Amos was also of the Northern Kingdom, but Amos lived in the Southern Kingdom, along with Isaiah and Micah, who also prophesied against the Northern Kingdom.

The Book of Hosea gives us a picture of just how far God will go in trying to save His chosen people.

Our direct knowledge of Hosea comes entirely from the book which bears his name.

He is mentioned nowhere else in the Old Testament.

It is believed that Hosea prophesied for about 70 years.

The words of Hosea were written mostly to the Northern Tribes, but the fact remains that he was writing to all God’s people, including Judah, and to us who are alive today, because this is a work of the Holy Spirit.

The clearest lesson we can get from the Book of Hosea is that God loves His people and His greatest request is for His people to repent and return to Him.

God told Hosea to choose Gomer as his wife with the intention of showing us what it means to be unfaithful, as both Israel and Judah were in that day.

Once Hosea married Gomer, she would become involved in the sins of infidelity and unfaithfulness.

Israel and Judah had betrayed God and been disloyal and adulterous in their relationship with God.

They had committed act after act of Spiritual Adultery.

Many of God’s people are doing the same today. God must be first in our lives!

Hosea gives us a clear picture of God’s demanding call to us is for us to remain faithful.

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

We sometimes forget that God requires us to be obedient to Him and the Lord Jesus is the greatest example of obedience to our Heavenly Father, but we can learn from Hosea also.

Hosea would write from the heart because he would understand how God felt about unfaithfulness because of Gomer’s relationship with him.

Of course, we know that the Holy Spirit would still guide and approve what was written.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

Following the Lord will require us to make some sacrifices, and we are never guaranteed a pain-free life, as many of us have already experienced.

We must be clear as we serve the Lord: Jesus Christ is the only Savior of God’s people and the only One who redeems His people from death!

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

This message is clear and unchangeable!

We should be able to picture our Savior through the relationship of Hosea to his wife, Gomer.

The Book of Hosea stands as one of the most straightforward and passionate declarations of God’s great love for us.

We will also see that even as great as His love is for us, there is a coming judgment on those who refuse to repent and return to Him.

Spiritual Adultery is a serious matter, and much of the Church is involved in Spiritual Adultery today and needs to repent.

*Hos 1:1 The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The Book of Hosea is the first of the books that are called the Books of the Minor Prophets.

We need to understand that the message of these books is just as important as all the other books of the Bible.

They are minor in that they are short books as compared to the books of the other prophets, such as Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel.

They would not be part of the canon of the Bible if they were not important enough for us to study God’s message that they have for us.

Remember, it is the Holy Spirit who has chosen what we need to know of the message of God.

2Pe 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

There are no unimportant words in the Bible, but many so-called modern versions leave out so many of them and change many others.

The prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, and Nahum prophesied in the time of the Assyrian world empire.

The name Hosea means “savior”, “deliverer”.

God wants to deliver His people from the power of sin, and this is still His will even now in the Church Age, which is soon coming to its end.

Mat 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

The prophets of God were not very popular among the people because they would usually appear when something was not right with God’s people, and many of them were murdered to keep them forever quiet, but the Holy Spirit made sure we of today get to know their message, which came straight from the lips of our Heavenly Father.

The first thing we notice is that the LORD Himself called out to Hosea. This would be Jehovah in the Old Testament, but the Lord Jesus in the New Testament.

We will also notice that God’s people as a whole are not open to hearing the voice of God, and not much has changed today, certainly not in the time of Jesus.

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.

People then and people of today just do not want anyone to point out their sin to them.

To be real, everyone knows that they are sinners. People know they do not do everything righteously.

Everyone knows right from wrong except for the very young, but even they are not innocent of sin.

Idolatry had become the national religion of the Northern tribes of Israel, and idolatry was making its way into the Southern Tribes, and idolatry has made its way into the America we love today.

Their king, Jeroboam I, had established a new religion that he had created himself. His son Jeroboam II now ruled the Northern Tribes, and he was no different from his father.

He did this to keep the Northern Tribes from going to the Temple on feast days to worship.

Now, don’t get me wrong, but these people knew the truth, and they should have rebelled against this false worship, but they just obeyed their new king because they hated the King of Judah.

During the reign of King Solomon, many of the lower classes were not treated fairly.

Some others just worshipped the false gods of the surrounding nations, but either way, they turned away from Jehovah and the truth of God.

Rom_1:23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

God used His Prophet Hosea to be an example of wicked Israel in a way we may not understand, but we should be able to see it clearly.

We should understand that it is often the case that God calls a preacher or a missionary who is sent to specific places where they labor long hours, but do not see much fruit because God made a promise to all people.

2Pe_3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Mrk_13:10 And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

God asked Hosea to do something that many of us would certainly not want to do.

Hosea would experience a whole lot of what we call drama today in his marriage to a harlot.

The Northern Tribes of Israel would never be at rest but would face one crisis after another.

The Northern Tribes of Israel did not have one decent king.

They all were after power and riches.

It is getting the same in America today and in much of the world.

When God’s way of righteousness is rejected, and His Holy commandments are ignored, this world will suffer in turmoil that could have been avoided.

*Hos 1:2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

The wife of Hosea would be an adulteress, and God told Hosea to marry her and be faithful to her.

No matter what we do in this life, God is always faithful to His Word!

In reality, Hosea did not know Gomer would be an adulteress when he married her until God told him, but God did not cause Gomer to sin.

God will never lead us into temptation.

These marriages happen often, and divorce is rampant in America today, even in the Church.

People struggle with faithfulness!

Being faithful to God, Hosea obeyed and married a woman named Gomer.

The message God was sending to the Northern Tribes was a message of unfaithfulness.

Hosea would completely understand unfaithfulness to God by his own marriage to Gomer.

Hosea did not get to know Gomer through normal ways, as we would think, but Hosea purchased his wife.

Hos 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
Hos 3:2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

We will understand as we go through this lesson that Gomer will be a picture of unfaithfulness representing Israel, and Hosea will be a picture of God’s faithfulness and God’s unlimited “Grace”.

Rom_5:20 Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

For the Prophet Hosea to prophesy in the right manner, he needed to understand and feel how God feels about unfaithfulness.

Hosea would write with a greater understanding of how God feels about His spiritually adulterous children.

Through the tragedy of his own marriage, Hosea will come to feel how unfaithfulness affects the heart of God.

Unfaithfulness will destroy love in most people, but Jehovah God has a love that we do not really understand until we get to know Him as our Savior.

Now, we do not really know if Gomer was immoral before her marriage to Hosea, but for her to be an example of Israel, then she would have to begin her marriage to Hosea with faithfulness, but with a faithfulness that did not last very long.

Israel began with the faithfulness of Abraham.

Gomer’s children had names given to them that had special meaning.

It seems that the first son of Gomer would be Jezreel.

Hos 1:4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
Hos 1:5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

You know if God broke the bow of Israel, then He allowed them to be defeated. The bow was their greatest weapon against the enemy.

The first daughter was named Loruhamah.

Hos 1:6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
Hos 1:7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

Then another son named Loammi.

Hos 1:9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

It appears that maybe these children may not have been fathered by Hosea because our verse says, “children of whoredoms”.

It could also mean that all of these children would follow in the ways of their mother and were fathered by Hosea, which would make more sense.

Hos 2:4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

We should not doubt that Gomer was an adulterous woman!

Adultery is also a picture of people turning away from God and giving themselves to false gods.

When the parents do not follow the Word of God, how can the children know what God expects?

We are to be godly examples to our children and train them in the way that they should go in life, God’s way.

If we look at the people of the entire world belonging to God because He is the Creator, then we see a world that is given over to the worship of false gods today

*Hos 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

We should understand that it was not just unfaithfulness in a few of these people; it was unfaithfulness, but that all the land of Israel had surrendered itself to adultery and unfaithfulness, ignoring the Word of God and the God who loved them.

It is estimated that there are around 20 million Jews in the world today.

Remember that Hitler slaughtered over 6 million.

God promised His people would be very numerous, and the pure fact is that God will keep His promise to Abraham.

Gen 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Some say this would include the Muslim, and it could, because the seed of Israel would be from the line of Sarah, which would be Isaac and not Hagar, who is the mother of Ishmael, which includes the Muslim.

Muslims are not part of the Church unless they accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, and not just as some prophet.

To be a son of the Living God is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior!

God promised there would be only one ruler, and that ruler would be the Son of David.

On the Day of Jezreel, in all of Israel, there will be a reunion of all the tribes of Israel.

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

God promised that they would be restored to the land given to Abraham. Now, this does not include the Muslims because this land was passed on to Isaac and from Isaac to Jacob, who is Israel.

Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Gen 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

What do we know? God has never broken a promise, and He never will!

The Valley of Jezreel is located in the eastern extension of the plain of Esdraelon. (Jos_17:16; Jdg_6:33; Hos_1:5)

Jdg 6:33 Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.

This place has been called the battlefield of Palestine. It has been a chosen place for encampment for every enemy of Israel and in every battle carried on in this country.

This is the same place of another prophecy that has not taken place as of yet.

Rev 14:20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.

This is the same place where most of the armies of the world will gather against Israel, and the Lord Jesus will slaughter them there.

God will show us how He acts to get us back on the right path.

God will use chastisement to purify His people, but then God will love them back into the family.

In Hosea, we read that God denied His people, but through the work of Jesus Christ, God will redeem them.

They just do not realize it yet.

*Hos 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

We know that adultery runs rampant in our societies of today.

Many couples do not even get married because marriage requires commitment, and these unions are full of fornication.

Look how many babies could be saved if fornication were not the lifestyle of the USA and the world.

It is the same as it was in the Book of Judges: Jdg 21:25 In those days “every man did that which was right in his own eyes”.

This includes the women of today.

Many a marriage has ended because of adultery, and this is the message God gives to Israel and that God gives to the Church.

Even if Gomer would not stay faithful to Hosea, she should have been faithful to her children, but we find that this is not the case.

This is another case of Israel not even training its children to follow God.

God is teaching us that if you travel the road with painful barriers on the left and the right, you can only go one way or select a path with painful injuries.

We should ask ourselves, why do so many try to break through those painful barriers, just to go against a loving God?

Those painful barriers represent the Holy Spirit trying to keep us on the right path to victory.

People today do not even think about their health when they get on that road to sin.

Listen to Job: Job 19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

God will not put anything in our path to stop us from reaching Him, but He will put obstacles in our path to try to get us to change directions and return to Him.

The message of God is still repentance.

*Hos 2:7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
Hos 2:8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Hos 2:9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
Hos 2:10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

Israel was chasing hard after false gods, but they could not find one that could help them.

Gomer was guilty of lust and adultery, and it was the same for Israel.

Gomer became enslaved by her desire for sexual pleasure, unable to break free from her passion.

This is what being enslaved to the Devil means. The Devil chains us to our sins and does not allow us to break free.

2Ti_2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

We talk about how we should not waste the things God gives to us, but Israel would melt down gold and silver and make idols to worship.

How smart is that, by the way? That made those idols valuable to a thief who is the Devil.

It is a sad day when we forget that it is our Creator who has provided our needs all our days, and we begin to worship some false god who cannot give us anything but death.

It is even worse when we give credit to idols for the things we have.

When we seek the world seeking some benefit that appears to be good and supposed riches and prosperity that the world hoards for itself, instead of God, who is in control, we will find that there is no advantage to be gained in the world.

We find that in war or in bad times, the Church is filled with prayerful people, but as soon as these things are over, those same people return to doing what they were doing before.

They should ask themselves, would God answer their prayers, and why would He? No, God will not listen to them lest they repent and return to Him.

Job 35:12 There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.
Job 35:13 Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.

Only because God had placed obstacles in her path to keep her from finding her lovers did Gomer decide to go back to her husband, Hosea.

This will be the path of Israel!

When Israel is face-to-face with the results of her rebellion and sees no way out, will she ever return to the Lord?

We should be amazed at the “GRACE” of God and His “FORGIVENESS” of our sins.

No false god in this world can provide for our needs because they are only figments of the imagination.

We will never gain satisfaction from false gods or from this world!

Israel will one day realize that they were much better when they followed the LORD than when they followed the world.

This will be a while because they will be going through the Seven-Year Tribulation Period.

When we become spiritually blind to the truth of God, we become blind to the benefits of serving Him.

Psa_68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

This world and its politicians make promise after promise, and when they are elected and run again for the same office, they make the same old promises that they cannot fulfill.

Why do we tolerate such people and not vote them out?

God keeps every promise He has ever made.

God provided for Israel while they were in captivity, but they gave their offerings to idols of this world.

What did Israel lose?

They lost God’s care and His provision.
They were publicly exposed and shamed before the eyes of the world.
They could not escape God’s judgment.

There is no place for the sinner to hide from God’s judgment!

God began by taking His provision away from them.

These are the same lessons Gomer learned. Her bad reputation took her lovers away from her.

We cannot pretend we love the LORD and then go against His Word.

*Hos 2:13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

The days of Baalim were the days consecrated to Baal, and on which the worship of Jehovah was transferred to that idol.

In the days of Ahab, Baal worship was elevated to the status of a “state religion” while service to Jehovah was set aside.

1Ki 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
1Ki 16:32 And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
1Ki 16:33 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

2Ki 11:18 And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the LORD.

The name Baalim, Baals in plural, means the various forms of Baal-idolatry or any modification of Baal-worship.

Some say Baal is the god of the elites of society, and in many places, we find this to be true.

They worship what their riches have bought them.

Baal is also mentioned in the Quran.

To be clear, when you give anything that God has given to you to some idol, some Baal, you have committed a terrible sin.

God provides our needs; they are intended for our use in life or in a ministry of the Church.

Gomer celebrated her marriage with Hosea, but she was deceptive and insincere, a wife of whoredoms.

She turned her love away from Hosea and gave that love to other men.

Israel and many others have turned their love away from the LORD and given that love to a god that does not exist, for they have rejected the Son of God, their one true God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, we meet the God of the second chance.

*Hos 2:14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
Hos 2:15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Hos 2:16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.
Hos 2:17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

People say Grace is a New Testament thing, but we can see God’s Grace all through the Old Testament.

Hosea decided to renew his romance with his adulterous wife.

He would give her assurance that their marriage was safe, speak tenderly to her, and take her to places away from the temptation of her former worldly life.

This was a place where they could be alone and focus on each other and rekindle their original love for one another.

God would also do this for Israel.

Isa 65:8 Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them all.
Isa 65:9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
Isa 65:10 And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.

God says, “My servants will dwell there”. This would be the land of Israel.
God says, “My chosen ones shall inherit it”. This would be God’s people after the Tribulation. Israel and the Church.

The heir of Judah will be the Messiah, and that remnant will be unified with Him.

This is the seed that grows into a great nation, and the world will be at peace.

It is believed that the name “Ishi” should be “my husband” and no longer be referred to as Baali, which means “my lord”.

We could say that this passage is spoken by the Messiah Himself, our Lord Jesus.

Isa 52:6 Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
Isa 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

We know this is the Lord speaking because we know that after the Great Tribulation, our Lord will remake this world as it was in the Garden of Eden when He said His creation was “very good”.

Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

This is the same earth that our Lord Jesus will make again, a New Earth.

*Hos 2:18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
Hos 2:19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
Hos 2:20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

All those who want to know about the animals that God created on day five and day six, they were all at peace with mankind.

Adam and Eve and all the animals ate from the grassland and the fruit trees. No animal ate another animal. No insect caused harm to another insect. No fish ate another fish. No dinosaur ate meat.

What is the truth of God?

All those who have committed Spiritual adultery and rejected the Lord can still have a wonderful future if they return to the Lord.

It is still called repentance today!

No one could say these things if they did not know the future!

God seeks a personal relationship, and He will have it with those who repent and join Him in sincerity and truth.

There would be no divorce, only an eternal union that could never be broken.

This relationship would be built on love and mercy, and no one has as much love and mercy as the LORD.
This relationship would be built on faithfulness, and no one is as faithful as the LORD.
This relationship would be built upon knowing and acknowledging the LORD.

*Hos 2:22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
Hos 2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

Jezreel (‘whom God soweth’) is a title symbolically applied to Israel.

Once Israel returns to the LORD, many things will happen.

We should remember this is also the time that the Earth will be destroyed by fire.

The LORD will restore the earth:

1) The LORD will meet the needs of the heavens.
2) The heavens will meet the needs of the earth.
3) The earth will meet the needs of the harvest, including grains, vineyards, and olive oil.
4) This great harvest will meet the needs of Jezreel as it is applied to Israel at this time and all those who are alive during the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ.

*Hos 3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
Hos 3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

There should not be even one Israelite who can deny the truth of verse four.

God has a purpose for this time period.

Certainly, God has sent missionaries to Israel to tell them the truth of Jesus Christ, but in reality, God has not sent them a prophet since the time of John the Baptist and then His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

What did Jesus tell them? Mat_17:11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

We know even at this time David the King had been dead and buried for many years, so God is not talking about David, and not a resurrected David.

God is speaking of the Messiah, the Son of God, the One called the Son of David.

Mat_1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

This will be the second coming of Jesus Christ.

The example given to us from the Book of Hosea should teach us about the enduring love God has for His people.

Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Amen

The Logic in God’s Judgment

June 8, 2026June 15, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

The Logic of God’s Judgment

Book of Amos Chapters 1 through 4

As we take a look into the Book of Amos, we should realize that the Ten Tribes called Israel had moved away from God from the very first day of separating from Judah.

As we study this book of prophecy, we will see that God has given this nation a last chance to repent and return to the truth of Jehovah and worship as God had given them in the Books of Moses.

None of the kings of this divided nation called Israel had any interest in the truth of God nor the worship of the LORD Jehovah.

We know the Lord is patient with His people, but there is an end to that patience, and after patience runs out, it is replaced with judgment.
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God always has to overcome His compassion for His people to bring judgment, but He will.

It is these lessons we read about in the Old Testament that we can learn how God will react to these same types of things today.

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

1Co 10:6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

We can visibly see how patient God is with the world we live in today, but the Old Testament proves that God’s patience will end, and judgment will come.

God will not allow wickedness and sin to continue indefinitely!

The Book of Amos is a book of judgment!

For one hundred and eighty years, the Northern Kingdom had rebelled against the LORD.

Amos preached a message that focused on the coming judgment of God.

Amos was just a lowly shepherd from Judah who prophesied mostly in Israel, showing us that God can use anyone willing to serve Him.

*Amo 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

In the Scriptures, earthquakes are mentioned as tokens of God’s power, but also as a means of fine-tuning the timeline of the Scriptures.

Job 9:6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.

Earthquakes are also tokens of God’s presence.

Psa 68:8 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel.

Earthquakes that we are more familiar with are those that are from God’s anger.

Psa 18:7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

God’s fierce anger is still in the future.

Isa 13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

Isa 29:6 Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

*Amo 1:2 And he said, The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

Amos was chosen because, in his preaching, he could roar, and his message was that God would soon roar out of Zion.

In fact, Amos begins where the Book of Joel ends.

Joe 3:16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

Zion was the same as the city of David to Amos.

1Ki 8:1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.

Amos first begins to prophecy judgment on all those nations that have had any dealings with Israel.

The LORD speaks from Zion, which He had assigned to be the central place of worship of the Jews and also the central place of government, as formed by King David.

Israel was to have a theocratic government. A government that followed the Word of God.

God speaks to all His people, and He includes strangers.

Zion is the dwelling place of the LORD, spiritually and soon will be physically for one thousand years!

A roaring of the lion can be heard from five to eight miles, but God’s roar will be heard from any location upon this earth if He so chooses.

A lion’s roar is aimed as a threat to his enemies, and the roar of God in judgment will be directed at His enemies, the enemies of the Church and the enemies of Israel.

Jer 25:30 Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
Jer 25:31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.
Jer 25:32 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
Jer 25:33 And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

This is another reason why the Lord Jesus is known as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He will roar in judgment sooner than we think.

*Amo 2:6 Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;
Amo 2:7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:
Amo 2:8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god.

What was wrong with Israel in the day of Amos and still so today?

This sent waves of shock through the crowd that Amos was preaching to, for in their mind they would say to you, “There is no way God’s judgment would fall on them”.

They are so wrong because they know the key to God’s Grace is obedience to His Word. Why would God not judge those who refuse to obey Him?

To the world today that misunderstands God’s nature. Yes, God is Love, and because of this, He is long-suffering.

His long-suffering means He is waiting for the world to repent and turn from its wicked ways, but it never will, so eventually God’s justice must prevail on those who live wickedly, or He would not be the God of truth.

Israel was feeling really good about everything when Amos was preaching about judgment on all those other nations, but their attitude changed when Amos began with God’s judgment upon Israel.

The Judgment of God is coming to this world, and the only way to miss it is to repent and turn back to our Creator. Our God is also our Creator!

God has warned this entire world.

Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

God’s justice must prevail!

These verses describe to us the crimes of Israel.

1) We see a perversion of justice. The judges took bribes and condemned the righteous.
Keep in mind, Judas took silver to condemn our righteous Savior.

For the very smallest of bribes, they rejected the cause of poverty in their own nation.

Eze 13:19 And will ye pollute me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should not die, and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people that hear your lies?

They continuously broke the Laws of God.

2) They desired that the poor be removed from the earth.

This sounds like today, when our politicians remind us that if not for the poor and the elders there would be plenty of money to waste on other things, while they intentionally try to move the middle class into that poor category.

Those who are poor are also those who are depressed, even though depression can attack anyone, no matter their status.

It is many of those who are poor who are almost forced to do crooked and evil things in an attempt to survive.

We cannot defend this, but we can acknowledge it.

The world continuously ignores the dignity of human life if you are not a part of their crowd.

3) For a man and his father to go into the same maid could be said to be incest, which was forbidden and could be seen as organized prostitution, but it is certainly fornication.

Eze 36:20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
Eze 36:21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

4) Those who were well off would take the outer clothes of those who had fallen on hard times, as a pledge. These would be the clothes they wore during the day and covered themselves with at night.

Those who stole those clothes would think nothing of wearing them to the House of God.

They engaged in hypocritical worship by worshipping at every altar in any place of worship, even those places where idols were worshipped.

Israel’s worship of Jehovah had become corrupt.

Before we pray and worship at any altar, we had better be sure we are in a true House of God!

5) Israel rejected the Lord as the source of their blessings since the Lord removed them from the Iron Furnace of Egypt.

*Amo 2:9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
Amo 2:10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite.
Amo 2:11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD.
Amo 2:12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.

As we read the Old Testament, we read over and over how God had blessed this nation and had forgiven their many sins.

It was the Almighty God who had destroyed the Amorites and allowed Israel to take over their cities and their homes.

They were certainly wicked people, but Israel was falling into the same trap of judgment.

It was the Almighty Living God who had saved Israel from Egypt, where they had been slaves for nearly four hundred years.

It was the Almighty God who had sent to them His prophets from their own nation, and they had murdered many of them.

6) Even the Nazarites who had committed themselves to live righteously and devote themselves to the Lord were forced to drink wine against their vows.

I absolutely cannot see how those of a certain religion can serve wine at communion, knowing God said not to drink wine at all.

We have to make a vow to live righteously to be saved!

Those who interfere with God’s children will truly suffer the wrath of God.

Mat_18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
Mrk_9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.
Luk_17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Israel at this time was no different than the nations and peoples God had removed from Canaan Land!

Have you noticed how the Church is following in these same steps?

If you are in a godly church today, it is a must to resist any change that goes against the Word of God! All the Word of God!

Jer_6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

We cannot be so foolish as not to walk in the truth of God.

What is a hypocrite? A hypocrite is a person who pretends and is deceitful.

Claiming to believe in the LORD is not enough to become acceptable to God.

A true believer will do their best to follow the LORD!

A true believer will do their best to be obedient to all the Word of God.

A true believer will do their best to live righteously in this world.

A true believer will be looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Tit 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

A hypocrite is deceitful.

What did the Lord Jesus say we needed to watch out for in the end times?

Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

We cannot allow false so-called Christians to destroy our churches!

1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

*Amo 2:13 Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
Amo 2:14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself:

In response to any rebellious attitude and opposition of people in answer to His concerns, God has no choice but to react in “Judgment”.

Sin is a heavy burden that will take us into the pits of Hell, when God is so willing to forgive if we will repent and return to Him.

Why would anyone want to go to Hell to spend an eternity there?

The Northern Tribes of Israel were guilty of extreme wickedness, and God judged them by sending them into captivity into a nation that worshipped idols and rejected Jehovah.

God is saying that His cart is so heavily loaded with sin that anything He rolls over will be crushed into non-existence.

God will have removed His compassion.
God will have removed His mercy.
God will have removed His grace.
God will have removed His love, and this leaves only His “judgment”!

God had stated that He hated Esau and the Edomites no longer exist as a people.

God is telling sinners that He hates sin, and the Lord Jesus will say, “I never knew you,” or to Him, you did not exist.

Mat_7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Are those Ten Tribes of Israel still lost?

The “lost tribes” were not entirely lost — many integrated into local populations, and some groups, like the Samaritans, preserved their identity.

The one thing we know for sure is that there are Jews scattered all over the world, and many of them have gone back home to Israel.

We can say that there are no lost Tribes of Israel because God knows where they all are.

What did God do?

God shows them instances of judgments He had sent at various times to correct His people.

*Amo 4:6 And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Amo 4:7 And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
Amo 4:8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Amo 4:9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Amo 4:10 I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

This is not some form of toothache, but it is famine.

Their teeth would be clean because they had nothing to eat.

The Laws of Moses, which they were so proud of, stated: Deu 28:48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he hath destroyed thee.
Deu 28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;

In all the years since God had taken Israel out of Egypt and formed the nation that they are today, they have never truly repented of rejecting God and His Word.

God disciplines because He loves us, not because He hates us!

The stubbornness of Israel’s rejection caused God to be harsher with His people.

All God has ever asked from any of us is to repent and turn back to Him.

The LORD sent famine and hunger, and this famine struck every city so that each city would not have the resources to feed its people.

Next, God sent drought, and God sent this drought three months before harvest time, so there would be very little to harvest.

They had three months to repent and save their crops, but they were too stubborn to give in.

They would hear about rain in another city, but by the time they got there, the water would be used up.

When they did have enough water for meager crops to grow, God sent the blight and the palmerworm.

Blasting was the damage caused by the scorching East wind.

Eze 17:10 Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? shall it not utterly wither, when the east wind toucheth it? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew.

Mildew would also ruin some crops. Mildew is caused by fungi from dampness and is the opposite of conditions caused by drought.

The locust swarms and disease would take anything that was left of their crops.

They faced economic devastation, but they still would not repent.

War, drought, and famine always end in disease, sickness, and plagues among the people.

These would be the same type of plagues that God used on Egypt, but they still would not repent.

So, God sent war.

The young men, the pride of most nations, were slain with the sword of their enemies. This is what war does. War removes many of the next generation and affects a nation for years.

God took away their ability to defend themselves.

The stink of unburied carcasses lay everywhere, and even more disease came to Israel.

*Amo 4:11 I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.
Amo 4:12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
Amo 4:13 For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

God reminds them that their sin was counted just as hideous and wicked as the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they would have perished if God had not plucked them out of the fire.

Their homes were burned, their cities were burned, and everything they had left was burned, and they have been to if God had not plucked them from the fire.

There was only one thing left to do, and it was for God to come to this earth and take care of this rebellion Himself.

We should all ask ourselves, “Are we ready to meet the God of the Bible?”

God’s judgment is certainly coming to this world.

Judgment is inescapable for those who refuse to repent and return to the Creator.

God will not send an angel.
God will not send the death angel.

God will come Himself, and if He comes in His glory, no one will be able to stand before Him.

There is only one way out to safety, and it is by repentance and returning to the God who made us.

Act 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
Act 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Act 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

We can meet God in the clouds, or we will meet God in “judgment,” and we do not have much time left to decide!

Amen

Amaziah-The King Who Stopped Short of the Goal

June 1, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Amaziah-The King Who Stopped Short of the Goal

Book of 2 Chronicles Chapter 25

I think the greatest thing we can learn from the Old Testament is “what not to do”.

No matter how powerful we become upon this earth, we are very, very small compared to God!

Over and over, we read how people went against the Word of God, and God had to take away His hand of blessing.

You see God does not cause our problems; He just removes His hand of blessing that would have stopped most of our problems.

God wants us to allow Him to dictate how we live our lives to gain the greatest blessings while we are alive and even greater blessings when we join Him in Heaven.

God wants to deal with us as any good Father would.

We are foolish people when we do not realize that God wants to bless us and not take away our blessings.

People believe that God does so many things to them, when actually it’s the Devil who has more freedom when God removes His hand of blessing and protection.

We get a bird’s eye view of these things in the Books of the Kings and the Chroniclers, and in the divided nation, we see how leaders rebel against a loving God, and it did not go well for them.

None of us like discipline, but for all of us, a little discipline is necessary.

Throughout the Old Testament, God dispensed His theocratic kingdom through mediators, the prophets.

God appointed human leaders through whom He revealed His will and made Himself known. He still does this today.

The final ultimate form of God’s theocratic kingdom will be the Millennial Kingdom governed by Jesus Christ.

There is no more important subject in the Old Testament than the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Old Testament looks forward to all the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and it gives us true history so we can better understand.

We must understand that God deals with Israel to bring her to a place of Spiritual blessing in which she will be the agent for God to bless the nations of the world.

We now know that this will not take place until after the Rapture of the Church and the Seven Years of Tribulation, which the Church will miss.

The Mosaic Covenant was conditional and a demonstration of God’s Holiness.

All those who would enter into fellowship with our Holy God would have to meet His Holy Standard.

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The Prophets of the Old Testament teach us how God will achieve this with Israel.

We know the Messiah will rule this earth from Jerusalem, but the Messiah first came as a suffering Messiah through whom God offers forgiveness of sins.

This forgiveness is for the whole world, but each individual must acknowledge it.

1Jn_2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The one thing we see in all the Bible is the continuation of sin in the human race, and there is only one race in all the Scriptures.

Red, yellow, black, and white, we are all sinners in His sight, but we are all forgiven if we trust what God has done for us.

Rom_3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

We know the Messiah to be a descendant of King David.

2Sa 7:12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
2Sa 7:13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
2Sa 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
2Sa 7:15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
2Sa 7:16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

This is the purpose of God to gain as many as will accept Him into His Heavenly Kingdom.

The Old Testament gives us the history of Israel in the way God moved these people to fulfill His purpose for them.

Our lesson continues to show us how the divided nation of Israel and the kings in the line of David continued to fail God in His purpose, but the plan of God continued to move forward, as it still does today.

How many of us stop short of the goals God has set for us because we have slipped backwards from time to time?

I know I have. I am a work in progress.

I also know that God does not ever change. This is why we need to study the Old Testament to learn from the mistakes made then.

*2Ch 25:1 Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
2Ch 25:2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.

After our salvation, God the Father gives us opportunities to earn rewards that will be in Heaven when we get there.

When an opportunity arises, we must grab it, or else we will lose that opportunity.

God gave opportunities to the Kings of Judah to become great kings, but most of them let pride and discipline be their downfall.

Pro_16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

In fact, God provides opportunities to every national leader because it is God who put them in place.

We know we just do not see great leaders anymore.
The leaders of today are poisoned by the wickedness of this world.
What did God say on the day of Noah?

Mat 24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

God says the world keeps going as it always has, disregarding the sin that is in this world.

We here in America have great hope for the one who sits in the chair of the president today, but we do not know as of yet.
All we know is that he was the best choice to change the direction our nation was following, and he still is.

Opportunities are lost by God’s people because we just do not know how to discipline ourselves in the Word of God.

When we as Christians meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds, He will probably remind us of all those lost opportunities.

In the Books of the Kings and Chronicles, we see the lost opportunities of the leaders of Judah and Israel.

Judah had nineteen kings and one queen, and most of them were wicked rulers.

We must completely understand that God is not going to allow us to live like a bunch of pagans.

Amaziah was the son of Joash, also written Jehoash, and was the ninth King of Judah.

Joash was the son of Ahaziah, King of Judah, and the only one of his children who escaped from the wicked Queen Athaliah when she killed her own grandchildren.

At the age of seven, Joash became King of Judah, and for twenty-three years, he did right in the eyes of God because he was led by Jehoiada, the High Priest of Israel.

When Jehoiada died, Joash fell into the hands of bad advisors, and he revived the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth.

When he was rebuked by Zechariah, the son of the High Priest, he had Zechariah stoned to death in the Temple.

He had allowed the people to build worship centers on former pagan sites, and God was not pleased.

He failed to remove the High places where the worship of false gods took place.

False worship began to intermingle with the worship of Jehovah, and God was not pleased.

These same things still happen today, and some inside the Church.

People just never change from their wicked ways because they cannot without God in their lives.

Ecc_1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Not too much later, he was assassinated by two of his own servants.

Even though Amaziah was known as a mostly good king, we find that Amaziah was much like his father, King Joash, and never truly committed himself to the Lord.

From time to time, Amaziah would worship idols instead of the Lord.

We have a lot of our leaders who claim to be Christian, but the fact remains that any leader who only gives the Lord part of his heart is not really a leader at all and certainly does not belong to God.

God is an all-or-nothing God.

Amaziah did not close the “high places,” which were places where false worship took place.

Amaziah did not serve God with a perfect heart.

Once Amaziah returned from his captivity in Israel, he was not much good to the people of Judah, and a conspiracy was made, and he too was assassinated.

We cannot just be guided by the Preacher; we must be guided by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

Amaziah began his reign by punishing the murderers of his father but not their children in obedience to the Word of God, but this was about all he did in obedience to the Word of God

Amaziah was not going to be the new King David.

He actually helped to bring idol worship into Judah.

Amaziah numbered his army and became a foolish king.

*2Ch 25:5 Moreover, Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield.
2Ch 25:6 He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver.
2Ch 25:7 But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim.
2Ch 25:8 But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down.
2Ch 25:9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this.

Amaziah found that he had three hundred thousand men who were able to go to war.

Notice that a man had to be at least twenty years old to serve in the army and physically able.

Then Amaziah committed a no-no.

He hired a hundred thousand mercenary soldiers of Israel.

If we are God’s people, then we must trust that God will provide for our victories in life.

If Amaziah had gone to war with the help of this mercenary army and won, then he could have bragged about how great he was instead of how great God is.

The man of God stepped in to warn him.

It is important to God that we turn away from evil associations with the enemies of God.

Our job is to witness to them the truth of God, but we are not to become a part of the lost crowd.

It was Edom who had refused to allow the nation of Israel to travel through their land in the exodus from Egypt.

It was Edom who had helped round up escaping Jews to give to Nebuchadnezzar.

We should remember Edom was established by Esau, the brother of Jacob.

We would think that one side of the family of brothers would help the other side in their time of need, but not Edom. Edom is Esau

What did God say? Rom_9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Mal 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
Mal 1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Eventually, Edom and Moab were taken over by the Nabateans.

King David had conquered the Edomites, and so would King Amaziah without the help of that mercenary army.

This would not have happened had he kept that army with him.

It is God who has the power to help, but He also has the power to take down, as many who have faced Israel have found out.

Amaziah gave this army a hundred talents of silver, which he had promised, and sent them away, but they were not satisfied with that.

King Amaziah had to choose between losing the hundred talents and losing the war with the Edomites. He chose to win.

As the servants of God, we cannot allow ourselves to be pushed into disobedience because of others, especially by those who do not know the Lord as their Savior.

Satan smiles every time this happens.

We must be led by the LORD and not by the circumstances we face in this world.

*2Ch 25:10 Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger.

One man wrote that this army was disgraced by this rejection and disappointed with the spoil they hoped to gain and sent home empty.

It is believed that a hundred talents were probably given to the officers who raised this army, and the soldiers themselves got nothing. This is the way greed works.

You cannot trust an angry army of a hundred thousand men!

They returned to Israel with great anger.

*2Ch 25:11 And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand.
2Ch 25:12 And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces.
2Ch 25:13 But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Bethhoron, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil

What did this man of God say? It may be okay to hire others who have the same hope in God and have an interest in Heaven, but God will never allow us to associate with those whom He has given over to the Devil.

We cannot expect godliness from those who are ungodly.

Amaziah was now convinced that he was stronger without the army of Israel than he was with them.

The Valley of Salt ֶwas a significant geographical and military location in the ancient Near East, mentioned in several Old Testament passages.

It is generally identified with the southern end of the Dead Sea, in the arid and salt-impregnated plain between Judah and Edom.

It is believed to be part of the Arabah, a broad plain at the Dead Sea’s southern end, bordered by salt mountains, salt marshes, and brackish water.

Twenty thousand men of Edom died in this war with Judah.

Ten thousand of them were just murdered, but we should understand what God said.

This place is now called Petra. Selah and Petra are the same.

2Ki 14:7 He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.

The name Joktheel means subjugated of God.

Today, many liberals would scream bloody murder at such a thing, but God does not ever forget the cruelty of His enemies.

Eze 25:12 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
Eze 25:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.
Eze 25:14 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.

Oba 1:10 For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

Edom or Esau is a picture of sin, the old nature of the flesh.

Edom had always behaved as a merciless enemy of God’s people and was judged for it.

We cannot feel sorry for God’s judgment of sin!

When armies were victorious in those days, they would take plunder, which could include men, women, children, cattle, and any other wealth of the defeated army.

Since there were no prisons, the defeated army was often killed to keep them from seeking revenge.

We could feel sorrow for any people if we had the opportunity to lead them to the Lord, and we did not even try.

Col 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

While Amaziah was occupied with Edom, those soldiers from Israel showed just how foolish it was for Amaziah to associate with them.

We next see that Amaziah becomes a foolish king.

*2Ch 25:14 Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them.

We might ask ourselves, “Why would Amaziah do such a thing”?

The only answer is that he was not completely sold out to Jehovah!

Of all the sins we commit, false worship is the worst besides rejecting the Lord Jesus, which has no forgiveness!

Exo_34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

What Amaziah should have destroyed, he began to worship.

He bowed down to these false gods on more than one occasion, and he became a fool.

If false gods cannot save us, why would we consider them gods?

America is full of people today who worship material things and figures of the imagination.

No one has ever seen God, so no one can make an idol that is in His likeness.

It’s the same for Jesus Christ. We do not know what Jesus looked like except to know He took on the resemblance of the Jews.

Jesus was likely a first-century Jewish man with olive-brown skin, short black hair, a beard, and a modest, stocky build, standing around 5 feet 5 inches tall.

Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

We should not have objects of worship for either one, for they are no more than idols.

What had God said?

Deu 7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
Deu 7:6 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Even a picture of said Jesus Christ can become an idol if we see it as a thing to worship.

Another King of Judah had failed God’s people.

Amaziah had potential, but he became a failure.

Amaziah became boastful and arrogant because of his military victory, which he would not have had if he had not listened to the man of God.

This arrogance would cost Judah a great deal more!

We should realize that if the Kings of Judah had all lived by the Word of God, then God would never have allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem, and the Middle East would be far different from what it is today.

It is the same for the Church today. If the Church is obedient to the Word of God, it will thrive because God’s plan works while our plans fail.

The truth is, at this moment, the Church is failing because it has allowed the world to get inside the Church, and man’s laws have overcome God’s laws.

Just because a judge can decide the fate of certain people, only God can decide the true fate of all people.

Amaziah challenged the king of the Northern Kingdom, King Joash.

*2Ch 25:18 And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle.
2Ch 25:19 Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?
2Ch 25:20 But Amaziah would not hear; for it came of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom.

We get a close-up view of what pride can do to us if we fall into its trap.

God may have allowed Amaziah to be victorious if he had not begun his worship of false idols.

Truth be known, it was probably Joash, King of Israel, who had sent that army back into the land of Judah.

We can see that the areas and the cities that are mentioned were once part of Israel, and Samaria was the chief city in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes of Israel.

God was on the side of Amaziah until he turned his back on God and began to worship idols.

One of our greatest problems we as humans has been that we think we are far more important than we really are

Many of us walk around thinking we are some great things, but we are nothing without the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without the love of God, we are nothing!

It is Okay to take a little pride in our accomplishments and our achievements, but we must never think we did those things under our own power.

We must never look upon others as being of less value than we are!

Self-pride and self-righteousness are enemies to our relationship with our Righteous and Holy God.

Psa 10:2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Psa 10:3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
Psa 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

When we go to others to solve our problems and not to God, we are just asking for failure.

When we say goodbye to God, He will say goodbye to us.

He will never force us to follow Him or His Words!

2Ch 25:22 And Judah was put to the worse before Israel, and they fled every man to his tent.
2Ch 25:23 And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Bethshemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

The arrogance of Amaziah cost his nation dearly; even the House of God was plundered.

He was captured and was a prisoner to Israel until the death of Joash.
The wall of Jerusalem was broken down for about six hundred feet.
The treasures of the Temple were stolen.
The treasures of the king’s house were taken.
Many royal hostages were taken back to Samaria.

It should be very clear that God will judge us for our sins against Him and His Word.

*2Ch 25:24 And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obededom, and the treasures of the king’s house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.
2Ch 25:27 Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish after him, and slew him there.

It should be easy to see that the Bible is always right. Pride does go before our destruction.

When we say goodbye to God, we begin walking on dangerous ground.

Our biggest problem from the beginning of time is that we just think too highly of ourselves.

Joash was even more wicked than Amaziah.

We see that wicked people can see through the motives of other wicked people much better than we can.

Almost all wicked people are driven by the same motives!

We would be wrong if we cannot see that God is using Joash to punish Amaziah.

Amaziah would enter his own home as a prisoner and see it plundered by Joash.

A section of the wall of Jerusalem is destroyed, and Joash goes too far when he plunders the House of God.

Joash takes hostages from the house of Amaziah to make sure Amaziah does not plan to retaliate.

Joash’s advantage was a surprise attack, but more importantly, God’s help. Other than God punishing Amaziah, Israel was no stronger than Judah.

God had already given Israel over to destruction.

After Amaziah’s exile, he ruled in Judah for fifteen more years, but he was never the same, and he accomplished nothing else during his reign.

He never returned to the Lord, and in a conspiracy, he fled Jerusalem and was assassinated, but he was still buried with his fathers in the city of Judah.

Amaziah had the potential to be a great king, but once he left the Lord and filled his heart with apostasy and self-pride, he was just a figurehead sitting upon the throne of Judah and never accomplished anything for God’s people.

We just must not squander the opportunities God gives us to fulfill the purpose He has for us.

If we just follow the Word that God has given us we live a good life here on earth and a much better life in Heaven.

1) Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2) Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

3) Mal 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not

These are mine right now but what are yours.

Amen

Jesus Christ Is Alive

May 25, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Jesus Is Alive

Book of Luke Chapter 24

People sometimes ask, what is the greatest discovery that has ever been made throughout the history of our world?

Immediately, they think about material things or certain medicines.

That answer should be simple. The greatest discovery that has ever been made in this world is the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ!

His tomb is still empty today because it was a borrowed tomb; the Lord Jesus only needed it for three days.

Much of this world does not know this, and most of the world does not believe this is true to their loss.

We should be very clear: if the Lord Jesus Christ had not risen from the dead, there would be no such thing as Christianity.

Christianity would be just another religion serving a false god.

The empty tomb and our risen Savior have to become a personal discovery for each individual on this earth.

If my God cannot do the impossible, then He cannot be my God!

If my God is not alive, then I am no more than a fool and bound for Hell with no means of salvation.

The Passover is past. The Lord Jesus was buried just before six PM on the day of the Passover.

The first day following Passover was to be a holy convocation treated as a special Sabbath, and it did not matter what day of the week it was; it could well have been on a Friday.

Lev 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’S passover.
Lev 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
Lev 23:7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

It was on Tuesday when the Lord Jesus had these words.

Mat 26:2 Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.

Two days after Tuesday would be Thursday. The words of Jesus are more reliable than calendars; this Passover was on a Thursday.

The day after the preparation day, which was Passover, would be the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which was treated as a Sabbath, a High Day. Then, in this particular year, the true Sabbath would follow that day, meaning that when Sunday came, Jesus would have been in the ground for three days and three nights.

The Lord Jesus had been in the grave three days and three nights just as He had said.

At least this is where my Bible study leads me.

Mat_12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so, shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jhn_19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

Luk 23:54 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on.
Luk 23:55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
Luk 23:56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

*Luk 24:1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
Luk 24:2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
Luk 24:3 And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.

It was the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that would bring the history of this world and eternity to their fulfillment according to God’s plan.

God plans that every living soul be provided with the opportunity for atonement.

The day of atonement was the only day of the year in which the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, but not without blood, which he offered for himself.

On this day, he wore none of his colorful clothes to enter behind the Veil but wore white linen clothes.

On this Passover, the Lord Jesus offered His own blood for the atonement.

When the High Priest fulfilled his purpose, he left those clothes in the Holy of Holies just as the Lord Jesus left His white linen clothes behind, and He is not only our Mediator, but He is our true High Priest.

Rom 5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

The meaning of the word is at-one-ment, and it means the state of being at one or being reconciled to God.
Until you are washed in the blood of Jesus, you cannot be reconciled to God!
Atonement is reconciliation. It signifies the truth of the Gospel which flows from the death of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ died in our place! The Lord Jesus Christ took our punishment, which we were rightly due for the sins we committed against our Heavenly Father, our Creator.

Our guilt was imputed to Him, and this is why He came at the First Coming.

2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

This was God’s plan, and it was executed by His only begotten Son.

The Old Covenant is over, and the New Covenant has begun.

These women were not aware of these things, yet all they knew was that the body of the Lord Jesus Christ had not been properly cared for, and it had been three days.

At four days, the body of Jesus would be corrupted.

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had rushed to get the body of Christ into a grave on the day of Passover.

The Lord Jesus had been dead three days, just as He had said.

Mat_12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The Lord Jesus Christ arose on the first day of the week, which is Sunday on the Jewish calendar.

We now look at Monday as the first day of the week and Sunday as our Sabbath.

Act 20:7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

This Sunday would have had its beginning at six o’clock the previous day, and these ladies came to the Tomb of Christ early that next morning.

Because His resurrection had occurred just as He had said, another order of things had occurred.

It was love that brought these ladies to the tomb of Jesus, and it is love and truth that should bring us all to the cross of Jesus.

Death reigns no more in our earthly flesh if you are reconciled to God.

The curse of Adam has ended for you.

The rules of death have been broken by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because His tomb was empty, but that was not all.

1) The Scriptures were opened: Luk 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

2) Eyes were opened: Luk 24:31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

3) The mind is opened: Luk 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

4) Heaven was opened: Luk 24:51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

That stone was not rolled away to let the Lord out of that grave. He was already out before the angels rolled away that stone.

That stone was rolled away to allow these women who loved Him so much to go inside and look at an empty tomb.

This was the first victory of God’s amazing grace.

Now, mercy and grace are the rules God will use toward all mankind.

These ladies were perplexed about what they had seen.

*Luk 24:4 And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:

One of the best proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the testimony of these ladies.

They witnessed the body of the Lord Jesus being placed into that tomb, and they now see that the tomb is empty.

They knew He was dead, and they knew where He had been laid, and the door had been sealed.

It was the penalty of death to remove this seal unauthorized.

None of those who came to the tomb of Christ had believed Him when He said He would be three days in it and then He would arise from that death until it took place.

As they arrive, they see the stone rolled away, and no one man could do such a thing, and they knew that they could not do it themselves.

Mar 16:3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
Mar 16:4 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.
It was the angels who rolled away the stone.

Mat 28:2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

An angel of the Lord cannot lie; they are only messengers.

The body of Jesus Christ was not in the tomb.

These angels had taken on the form of humans.

They looked like men, but their clothing was not of this world but shining garments.

One angel was on each end of the slab where the Lord Jesus had lain, which gives us the vision that the mercy seat was no longer in the Holy of Holies.

Jesus is first called Lord Jesus in this passage after His resurrection, for He is now our risen Savior.

What was the message of the angels?

*Luk 24:5 And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
Luk 24:6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
Luk 24:7 Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Luk 24:8 And they remembered his words,

They were not so much afraid of those angels as they were about the missing body of Christ.

The truth is, God the Father has fully accepted the work of His Son for our atonement, and life has returned to Him.

Joh 10:17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
Joh 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

The Lord Jesus becomes the Living God because death cannot hold our Savior!

Not many living will stay in a dead man’s tomb for very long.
.
These angels also reminded these women of what the Lord Jesus had said before His death.

We had better be clear in our hearts, we do not honor a dead Savior, we honor the Living God!

Because they now remembered the words that Jesus had spoken, they had conviction and boldness to witness to others this truth.

The Lord Jesus had declared that the grave could not hold Him.

Heb 7:8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth.

Rom 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

It is the power of His resurrection that removes any doubt that the Lord Jesus is the true Messiah, God in the Flesh.

None of those who had followed the Lord Jesus had truly accepted that He would arise from His death.

They had not accepted that He would die until it happened.

It is an eye-opening event when we realize that we were wrong about God!

God is who He says He is!

God does as He says He will do!

*Luk 24:9 And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.
Luk 24:10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles.
Luk 24:11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.

What is the greatest lesson we can learn from this passage?

We need to pay attention to what the Lord Jesus Christ says!

The Lord Jesus always speaks the truth!

Not finding the Body of Jesus puzzled these women when it should have brought faith.

Many will say that an empty tomb is not proof of a resurrection.

Full belief required the appearance of Jesus Christ.

Faith would know that He is alive!

We should understand that the Holy Spirit did it this way so the Church would know that the grave was empty and it was the actual body of Jesus and not some ghost.

Many commentators will say that those two angels are Moses and Elijah, but the Bible does not lead us in this direction.

The angels quickly told these ladies that if they wanted to see the Risen Savior, they had come to the wrong place.

We know our Savior cannot be bound by any tomb, and you will never find Him there again.

The angels told these ladies to remind the eleven Apostles that He would meet them in Galilee.

The angels also said, “Do you not remember what Jesus said?”

Luk 18:31 Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished.
Luk 18:32 For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:
Luk 18:33 And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

The body of Jesus Christ had not been removed; Jesus had walked out of that grave, going straight through the rock because it was the angels who rolled that heavy stone away.

The enemies of Jesus were still rejoicing, but this rejoicing was about to end.

It took a while for these women to believe that the Lord had risen from that grave, and the Apostles did not believe these women.

The greatest sin in all the Bible is to not believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The Apostles had no excuse for rejecting the truth of the resurrection, for the Lord had told them He would arise on many occasions.

They did go to Galilee, but they were quitting. They felt they had no one to serve after the death of Jesus.

This is where they would witness the truth of the Lord Jesus.

There is a lack of clear direction. They are no longer full of the Lord Jesus, and activities they previously abandoned for Him have a chance to creep back in.

It is never a good time to quit on Jesus!

Mar 16:14 Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

Joh 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Peter was still suffering because he had denied Christ.

*Luk 24:12 Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass.

Many say that those linen clothes lay in that grave just as they were wrapped, meaning that the body of Jesus had passed through those wrappings, leaving them in place.

Jesus had folded the napkin that was over His face and laid it in another place, and we all know the meaning of this. “I will be back.”

As I said earlier, the High Priests would always leave those white linen clothes in the Holy of Holies, so that the empty tomb had become the Holy of Holies, and that place in the Temple was no longer important. The Veil had been torn into two pieces.

Peter came to the tomb of Jesus.

Peter saw what manner His clothes were laid.

Peter departed, wondering within himself what had actually happened.

What we now know is that it is dangerous not to understand the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We cannot spiritualize the Word of God because it will lead to unbelief and serious problems.

All we need to do is be open to the evidence that the Holy Spirit gives us in the Gospels.

1) The tomb is empty.
2) Jesus has risen just as He said.
3) The Holy Spirit will convince us of the truth if we listen to Him.

Joh 8:23 And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.
Joh 8:24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

The risen Messiah was not some spirit, He was not some vision, not some phantom, not a hallucination or the figment of man’s imagination, He was the risen Savior.

One day, not so far into the future, we will have a glorified body just like the Lord has.

*Luk 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luk 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
Luk 24:46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
Luk 24:47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Luk 24:48 And ye are witnesses of these things.
Luk 24:49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

The road to Emmaus is another great picture of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but our lesson goes to the teaching of the Lord Jesus to the Apostles after they knew that the resurrected Christ is the same Christ who had died for their sin and ours.

Now that these Apostles know that Jesus is a risen Savior, they can better understand the lessons He had taught them.

All prophecies up to the point of the Cross had been fulfilled just as they were written.

Jesus makes a point to teach these men that every word of God would be fulfilled just as written.

We can depend on the Word of God and a proper translation of the Word of God, such as the KJV.

Many translations are nothing but trash and should be done away with.

1) The death of Christ and the Resurrection had to take place just as they happened. Some of the brutalizing of our Savior was unnecessary, but foretold.

None of these things should have been a surprise to these men, and certainly not to the Scribes and Pharisees who were supposedly Bible scholars.

The Lord Jesus had preached these things Himself.

2) It was necessary that the death of Christ and His resurrection take place. His death was imperative, or we would still be bound with our sin, unforgiven.

His resurrection also had to take place, showing us the power of God and our own future resurrection of our bodies.

The Lord Jesus gave us His own division of the Bible of that day.

The Law
The Prophets
The Psalms

Basically, the entire Old Testament.

3) The Lord Jesus opened their eyes so they could understand:

1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

4) These prophecies had to be fulfilled.

Christ had to suffer a terrible death and then rise from that death.

Repentance and forgiveness must be preached.

The Holy Spirit and the Power of Heavenly Father must be sent.

Every believer was to be equipped for witnessing the truth of God.

The source of the Holy Spirit and His Power can come from God the Father only.

Jesus Christ was to send the promises of God the Father.
It was God the Father who made the promises.
We are to wait upon the Lord Jesus Christ to return while praying for the promises of God.

God the Father is the source of all power.

Act 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

His work finished, the Lord went home to be by His Father’s side.

*Luk 24:50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.

Luke closes his Gospel with the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He had remained on earth for forty days since His resurrection.

The Lord Jesus came to this world on a mission to save the people of this world, and He provided a means of salvation and reconciliation with God to every individual who has lived since that time.

His ascension closes His earthly ministry, but it opens His Heavenly ministry, His mission of intercession for the world.

He now bears witness through the lives of those who believe Him.

He is now the propitiation for our sins.

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

God’s Son returned to the right hand of God the Father.

His ascension proves that Heaven is a real place!

Php 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Php 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

His ascension assures us that we have a very special Helper in Heaven who really loves and cares for us.

Amen

Passover to Betrayal and Denial

May 11, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Passover to Betrayal and Denial

Book of Luke Chapter 22

It was time for the Jewish Passover, and this Passover is tied to the death of Jesus Christ.

The annual Passover celebrated by the Jews is both memorial and symbolic:

1) As a memorial in memory of that first Passover night in Egypt.
2) Symbolic because its ultimate fulfillment was at Mount Calvary.

Joh 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

1Co 5:7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1Co 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

On the tenth day of Abib (Nisan), a day set aside for the Passover Feast, each family was to select a lamb, without blemish, a male of the first year, and keep it isolated and under close observation until the fourteenth day.

If this lamb were injured or became sick within those four days, it would have been blemished and could not be used as the Passover Lamb, and they would have to select another one.

The Lord Jesus also spent four days in view of those of religion before He was crucified.

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey, with multitudes crying Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,

This was a fulfillment of prophecy: Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

The Lord Jesus then went in and cleansed the Temple.

Mat 21:12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
Mat 21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

The Lord Jesus was under critical scrutiny for four days.

Four different groups challenged him in one day:

1) The chief priests and the elders of the Jews.

2) The Pharisees with the Herodians.

3) The Sadducees.

4) The Pharisees again who brought their lawyer.

With every test, the Lord Jesus proved to be the Messiah by the Word of God.

He had no blemishes, and He had no sin!

We know that day began at six PM and ended at six PM the following day.

The Lord Jesus and the disciples began their feast in the evening of the Passover, while most others celebrated their feast after daylight on the same day, which was the day the Lord Jesus was crucified and died between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00 PM, in accordance with prophecy.

Luk 23:44 And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.

Luk 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Luk 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

Exo 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

Exo 12:7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
Exo 12:8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat

The Lord Jesus Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper on the evening He was crucified.

The Lord Jesus commanded that His followers continue to observe this last meal until His return.

Mat 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

This began the New Covenant in contrast to the Old Covenant.

To enact this New Covenant, His death was necessary because it was His death that provided the forgiveness of our sins.

1Co 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
1Co 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
1Co 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
1Co 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.

So, what is the meaning of the Lord’s Supper?

1) It is a memorial to the death of Jesus Christ for our sins. He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.”

A) The bread symbolized the body of Jesus Christ.

1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
1Pe 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

B) The grape juice symbolized His blood for the forgiveness of sin.

Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

The Lord’s Supper looked forward to the cross.

He finished His work of salvation when He came the first time.

His resurrection looks forward to His return.

Mat 26:29 But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

The Lord’s Supper is also a communion of believers with each other!

1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
1Co 10:17 For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.

Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ will also follow Him and eat and drink the same symbolic elements, focusing on our common faith in the work the Lord Jesus Christ did to provide our salvation.

*Luk 22:14 And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.
Luk 22:15 And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:
Luk 22:16 For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
Luk 22:17 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
Luk 22:18 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
Luk 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Luk 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

When all prophecy is fulfilled, we will sit down again for the Lord’s Supper, the difference being, He will be there with us.

This will be the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

It is possible that the Passover Feast has no significance as a meal of remembrance for the Jews as they have rejected the Messiah as the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture.

Even the Church is cautioned: 1Co 11:27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
1Co 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1Co 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

The Lord’s Supper is never to be thought of as a means of salvation.

After this meal the Lord Jesus and the eleven disciples now went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray.

The Lord Jesus often prayed at Gethsemane, and Judas the betrayer knew this.

*Luk 22:47 And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.
Luk 22:48 But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?

We should understand that the religious leaders of Israel had joined the forces of darkness against the Messiah.

This will be repeated when the Lord Jesus Christ returns!

Judas had been one of the twelve, but he had now sunk so low as to desert the Lord.

How could he have done such a thing?

Luk_22:3 Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.

Judas is separated from the crowd, but his crime is much greater than that of the crowd.

There was the kiss of love and the kiss of reverence, but this day Judas had the kiss of a traitor.

Mar 14:44 And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely.

The kiss of Judas on this day was to put the Lord Jesus in the hands of His enemies.

Only a criminal has this kind of love!

The other eleven had love to defend the Lord, but the Lord did not need them to defend Him.

In fact, it is the Lord who does what is needed to protect these eleven true disciples.

We must also keep in mind that these Jewish leaders could have captured the Lord Jesus many times, but they were afraid of the people.

They chose the cover of darkness and broke the law themselves to capture Him.

*Luk 22:49 When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?
Luk 22:50 And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.
Luk 22:51 And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.

We know that only the eleven remaining disciples were with the Lord at this time.

We know it was Peter who took the sword that he had, and it was Malchus who was the servant of the High Priest.

Peter attempted to take off the head of Malchus, but Malchus reacted quickly enough that only his ear was removed, and the Lord Jesus immediately healed him.

Many of these men were the Temple guards, but the rest were chief priests and elders of Israel.

The Lord Jesus was no robber trying to escape!

The Lord Jesus was the Lamb of God, ready to be sacrificed.

All those things of abuse that were used on Him were unnecessary.

Even the kiss of Judas was unnecessary because Jesus had stepped forward to protect those who were with Him.

Jesus told His disciples to stand back and just allow this thing to happen to protect them, and that prophecy would be fulfilled.

The use of violence was to be left to those who brought swords and clubs, and not those who followed the Lord.

The Lord Jesus was never a danger to society, but He was a danger to their positions with Rome.

To them, Jesus was no more than a thief trying to rob them of their position over the people.

The Lord Jesus was not ready to establish His earthly Kingdom at that time.

They still did not understand that our Lord Jesus was bringing eternal salvation to all those who believed in Him and the work of the Cross.

*Luk 22:52 Then Jesus said unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves?
Luk 22:53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.

The greatest sin of these people, which is the only sin that cannot be forgiven, was that they were blind to the Son of God!

They just were not going to accept the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, no matter how many miracles He did.

The Lord Jesus never once acted as if He were a thief come to steal something from this world.

The Lord Jesus never preached a sermon that allowed them to live as they wished; He always preached the Word of God clearly.

Only if they changed their evil and wicked ways could they be received by the God that they said they worshipped.

They had to repent and obey the Word of God, which was the message that they received from Moses.

They knew the truth of the flood.

The Lord Jesus had to teach the truth for anyone to be saved.

God will never accept an unrighteous person.

If we want to meet the Almighty Living God, then it will only be without sin.

We must believe who God really is!

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

The Word of God tells us who He is, and we must have enough faith to believe it.

Those who arrested the Lord Jesus on this day could only think of their position with Rome and not their position with the God whom they said they followed.

They were sold out to this material world that will soon come to its terrible end.

They had joined forces with the powers of darkness.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

What did the Devil know?

Col 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

When the Light of Jesus reappears, the darkness of this world will disappear.

Peter became afraid for his life, and it caused him to sin.

*Luk 22:54 Then took they him, and led him, and brought him into the high priest’s house. And Peter followed afar off.
Luk 22:55 And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them.

Peter followed Jesus “afar off”.

This phrase means:

1) Not walking close to Him.
2) Not standing with Him.
3) Not being identified with Him.
4) Not focusing his life on Him.

If this could happen to Peter, it could happen to any of us.

Peter became afraid for his own life, and his commitment was weak.

Peter sat down with the crowd.

The truth is God has not given us the Spirit of Fear, so if we are afraid, it came from the Devil.

2Ti 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2Ti 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,

What is apostasy?

Apostasy describes the defection of Christians, or so-called Christians, who now accompany the Antichrist.

It is written that just before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, there will be much apostasy by many in the Church.

What we see in Peter is what we will see in the Church just before the rapture of the Church.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

The Antichrist will show himself to be a superhuman and deceive many.

*Luk 22:56 But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire, and earnestly looked upon him, and said, This man was also with him.
Luk 22:57 And he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not.
Luk 22:58 And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not.
Luk 22:59 And about the space of one hour after another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow also was with him: for he is a Galilaean.
Luk 22:60 And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately, while he yet spake, the cock crew.

We must never pretend that we do not know the Lord Jesus Christ.

We do not need to hang out with non-believers.

We certainly must never deny the Lord Jesus Christ.

Persecution is going to increase among Christians, and it is already terrible in many places today.

Jesus said: Mrk_8:35 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.

Matthew and Mark tell us that Peter began to curse and swear.

As Peter warms himself among the enemies of Jesus, he becomes like them.

Pro 4:14 Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
Pro 4:15 Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

Peter was from Galilee and he could not deny this.

Then the rooster crowed.

*Luk 22:61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Luk 22:62 And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.

Then Peter remembered the Lord’s Words.

Then the Lord turned his head so He could see Peter and Peter could see the Lord.

The Lord Jesus had already warned Peter: Luk 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

In all this, the Lord Jesus, knowing exactly what would happen to Peter, the Lord never forgot him.

Even while the Lord Jesus was being beaten and abused, He still prayed for Peter.

He loved and cared for Peter, and He still wanted his loyalty and service.

Peter left this wicked crowd just as fast as he could.

He was a broken man, full of anguish and pain for having failed the Lord Jesus, and he wept bitterly.

Peter repented of his sin.

1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Amen

The Beginning of the End

May 4, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

The Beginning of the End

Book of Luke Chapter 21

This is one of the chapters in the New Testament that is known as the Olivet Discourse.

The Lord Jesus will teach us:

1) The destruction of the Temple.
2) His return.
3) The end of the world.

The Book of Matthew, Chapters twenty-four and twenty-five, along with the Book of Mark Chapter 13, should also be studied to get a complete picture of what the Lord Jesus is teaching here.

The Lord Jesus begins with the destruction of the Temple.

We should understand that this Temple was intended to be a House of Prayer.

Mat_21:13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Mrk_11:17 And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.
Luk_19:46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

The Temple had been made into a house of commerce and was no longer the house of God, but a house of men.

Only for faith did it have any value, such as that poor widow who had given all she had in faith.

The disciples of the Lord were still blind to the corruption in the House of God at this time.

Much of the Church is blind to the corruption in many houses of God today, which are more entertainment centers than they are Houses of Prayer.

What is wrong with the Houses of God today? Repentance is no longer required, and the Bible is not preached, or it has been changed to reveal a false gospel.

*Luk 21:5 And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said,
Luk 21:6 As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

The Lord Jesus begins to reveal to them what will happen to this Temple that they are so proud of, and some of them may have still been alive to see it happen.

The Lord Jesus describes to them the destruction of Jerusalem and the total destruction of the Temple that took place in 70 AD.

The siege of Jerusalem began in April 70 AD, led by the Roman general Titus, as part of the First Jewish Revolt against Roman rule (66-73 AD).

The city was already weakened by internal strife among various Jewish factions, including the Zealots, which hindered their ability to mount a unified defense against the Roman forces.

After months of intense fighting, the Romans breached the city walls and captured Jerusalem. The climax of the siege occurred in the summer of 70 AD when the Romans set fire to the Second Temple.

Estimates suggest that over a million Jews died during the conflict, with many more enslaved or displaced.

The Romans systematically destroyed much of the city, leaving only a few structures, including parts of the Western Wall, which remains a site of pilgrimage today.

The fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple fundamentally altered Jewish religious life and still does today.

The destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 AD was a significant event that reshaped Jewish history, culture, and religion, with effects that are still felt today.

It is said that Titus did not want the Temple to be destroyed, but he lost control of his armies and Temple was set on fire to melt all the gold that could be captured.

Josephus the historian wrote that, except for Herod’s three great towers and part of the western wall, the whole circuit of the city was so thoroughly levelled and dug up that no one visiting it would believe that it had ever been inhabited.

This is why the Muslim say today that Israel never existed.

The disciples then wanted to know when these things would take place.

*Luk 21:7 And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
Luk 21:8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.

The Book of Mark tells us that Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked this question.

They also asked if there would be a sign before it happened.

The Jews did love their Temple. We know that King Herod had spent forty-six years making the Temple one of the great wonders of the world.

The government of the Jews had no respect for Jehovah God.

The disciples had already begun to see that the Lord Jesus was not going to sit as King of the Jews at this time, and this thing told of the Lord made this more real to them.

The Lord Jesus told them that this destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was not one of the signs of the end times.

The Apostles of Jesus Christ would face some terrible times as they taught the first words of Christianity and the beginning of the Church.

In other words, there will come a time of the destruction of Jerusalem and a new rebuilt Temple, which would take place during the time of the Gentiles.

Mat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

We get the idea that it would certainly be centuries before the return of Jesus Christ, first to get His Church and Second to reclaim Jerusalem and all the earth.

2Pe 3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

What is the greatest sign mentioned by the Lord Jesus Christ?

The sign of deception!

Mat 24:23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
Mat 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Mat 24:25 Behold, I have told you before.

The Lord Jesus is dealing with the end of the Temple and the end of the world, the destruction of the Temple and the destruction of the world.

It is sin that causes the judgment of God upon this entire world and not just the sin of the Jews!

Deception is the state of being misled.

As Christians, we recognize that the Church Age will end with the judgment at the return of Jesus Christ.

Because God is Holy, He must judge all that is unholy; otherwise, He would no longer be Holy Himself.

God is judging in this present age as every true Christian has been justified, but this future judgment goes much further than this.

At some point in the past, God judged Lucifer and the fallen angels.

God judged the people of the earth when He sent the flood.

God judged the people at the Tower of Babel, and the different languages began.

God judged the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and then later He judged the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

None of these things were the final judgment.

Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Believers will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ.

Rom 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

Unbelievers will stand before the White Throne Judgment!

Rev 20:11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

At the end of the ages, God will judge Satan and his demons together with the beasts and the false prophet.

Yes, judgment is coming to all God’s created people!

A great deception is already in place today in the Church and in the world.

We believe that after the Rapture of the Church and the Church meets the Lord Jesus in the air, it is at this time or near this time that a covenant of peace will be signed with Israel, and the Temple will be rebuilt, and the priestly duties, along with animal sacrifices, will begin again.

This begins the time of Jacob’s trouble, when Israel has relative peace until they find out that the Antichrist, who is the great deceiver, has no intention of peace, the sacrifices will stop, and the Temple will again be destroyed in what we know of as the Great Tribulation.

Dan 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Mat_24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

This is the time of Israel, and God has removed the Church just as he promised before this takes place.

Some things should not bother us too much, for the Church will not see this wrath of God as He has promised.
As long as the Church is upon this earth, we are to stay busy spreading the Gospel.

The Lord Jesus says that we will live in a time of unrest, and we are today, and it may get worse before we go home to Heaven.

We have seen this unrest since the Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of the Church Age.

*Luk 21:9 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
Luk 21:10 Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:

What have we seen?

1) We have seen nations fight each other and kingdoms take up arms against each other.
2) We have seen that the earth has been moved by great earthquakes and natural disasters.
3) Heaven has also spoken; terrible things have happened that make great impressions, and great signs in the heavens have already been seen.

The Lord Jesus said that these things are going to happen, but they are not necessarily signs that the end is imminent.

The Lord Jesus Christ was preparing His Apostles for His death and departure and preparing them to carry on without Him.

We already know that these eleven men and the Apostle Paul faced some terrible times in which they were all martyred, but the Apostle John.

The most important thing we can gain from this message of Jesus Christ is that we must not grow weary in waiting for His return.

He was telling us all that we will see and experience so much trouble in our world that our faith might falter, and we must guard against this happening.

Many walk this earth today after their own lusts, not even caring if Christ will return, in fact stating, where is He, where is His promise.

One of the key signs of the return of Jesus Christ is what we see today: 1Jn 2:18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
1Jn 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
1Jn 2:20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

Many of the doubters come from the Church itself.

We see a falling away from the Church today, but this speaks of those who belong to Satan who have become leaders in many churches and now deny Jesus Christ.

We should know that God is never caught off guard. He is still on the throne and still in charge of His creation.

We should not get caught off guard ourselves. We can expect these things from a corrupt world, so we must not get discouraged.

Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
Joh 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Joh 14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

We will face challenges that will try to draw us away from God, our Savior.

We must concentrate our trust on New Heaven and the New Earth and not in this world.

We must remember that the Lord Jesus was not preaching a sermon here; He was answering the questions from His Apostles.

Joh 16:31 Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
Joh 16:32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

We should also understand that the turmoil we see in our world is not part of the plan of God; He just knows that these things will happen.

It is because of the lust, the greed, and the wickedness in this evil world, which never goes away.

Jas 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Jas 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Jas 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

We must not get caught off guard by these things we see every day!

We see how violent our world has become, so we believe that the end is near, and it may be, but it may not be.

We are to remain busy with the work of the Lord!

Jer 51:45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.
Jer 51:46 And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

There will most certainly be natural disasters, which may increase and have.

We do live in a cursed world!

*Luk 21:11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

We can say that since the time of the flood, there have been great earthquakes.

We seem to forget sometimes that when the Lord Jesus first created this earth, all the land was in one great continent.

During and after the flood, this big continent broke apart, and volcanoes and earthquakes began as the tectonic plates began to shift and are still shifting.

Gen_7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Gen_10:25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan.

What do we know about earthquakes?

Just on March 30th.

Map data from National Geographic
5.1 magnitude Celebes Sea
3.9 magnitude Road Town, British Virgin Islands
4.9 magnitude, Lakatoro, Malampa, Vanuatu
4.2 magnitude, The Valley, Anguilla
4.1 magnitude, Road Town, British Virgin Islands
4.6 magnitude, Fiji
Another 5.0 magnitude, The Valley, Anguilla
Another 3.9 magnitude, The Valley, Anguilla
Another 3.6 magnitude, Road Town, British Virgin Islands
Another 3.7 magnitude, The Valley, Anguilla

There have been 195 earthquakes in the past 24 hours
1,278 earthquakes in the past 7 days
5,452 earthquakes in the past 30 days
50,842 earthquakes in the past 365 days

Earthquakes are one of the most feared disasters among people.

The historian Josephus made a record of the earthquake that fulfilled the prophecy of the Lord Jesus upon the cross.

Josephus also thought the world was coming to an end on the day Jesus died.

He wrote: There broke out a prodigious storm in the night, with utmost violence, and very strong winds, with the largest shower of rain and continuous lightnings, terrible thundering, and amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth, that was in an earthquake.

He added: These things were a manifest indication that some destruction was coming upon men, when the system of the world was put into this disorder, and anyone would guess that these wonders foretold some grand calamities that were coming.

The Lord Jesus speaks of “great earthquakes” more powerful than what we see daily.

Food is one of the necessities we cannot do without. Jesus said there would be a great famine before Jerusalem falls again.

Rev 6:5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
Rev 6:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The Bible says that those who are slain with the sword are better off than they that die from hunger.

There will be great diseases, and we know disease shows no partiality.

No one can buy their way out of an epidemic of disease.

There will be fearful sights and great signs in the heavens.

We know that the earth can be darkened by the dust of volcanoes, windstorms, and even smoke from huge fires.

Whatever darkens the sun will also affect the moon.

Meteorites fall from the sky, and we have been seeing very large meteorites pass through our solar system lately.

Large enough to destroy our planet.

The earth is primed for all these things to take place, but if we believe that the “Rapture” is the next event on God’s calendar to take place, then there is one more thing that will take place.

*Luk 21:12 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.
Luk 21:13 And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Luk 21:14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
Luk 21:15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

This is the sign that concerns the Christian that will happen before God removes His Church.

Right now, there is a Christian murdered every two hours just for following the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is only going to get worse.

For them, following the Lord Jesus Christ has cost them everything!

They are tortured and murdered just for saying “I believe in Jesus Christ”.

This is the reality for Christians who live in the Islamic World.

More than 388 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.

We had better understand that we will face persecution for claiming our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We stand for godliness; the world is not godly, nor does the world seek to become godly.

The Muslims claim to serve the God of Abraham, yet they reject the Lord Jesus Christ, so this is an outright lie; they serve the Devil.

All those who live for the world do not think they should have to change; therefore, the message of Jesus Christ is that they will die in their sin.

Repentance is not even taught in many so-called houses of God today because few people left are willing to change their lives.

When this persecution happens, we must be settled in our hearts that we will remain with Christ, and the Holy Spirit will use our own mouths to speak the words of Jesus Christ.

Without a test of our faithfulness, we will never have a testimony!

What will our persecution look like?

Luk 21:16 And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
Luk 21:17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
Luk 21:18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

*Luk 21:20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

Many believe that the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 AD was the fulfillment of this prophecy.

1.1 million Jews were slaughtered.

97,000 were taken captive and removed from Jerusalem.

Not one Jew was left alive in Jerusalem.

Not one Christian died because they fled Jerusalem before the siege of Jerusalem took place.

Many Jews have used this as an excuse to hate Christians ever since, but our main job is to obey the Word of God and not this world.

The Romans not only destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem, but they also ransacked the entire area around Jerusalem, so that it looked as if no one had ever lived there.

Was this even what the Lord Jesus described?

After the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews predicted by Jesus in the previous verses, there would come a long period when Jerusalem would be dominated by Gentiles.

But miraculously, in 1948, Israel again became a nation, and in 1967 Jerusalem was captured again by the Jews and is now again one of the mightiest nations on this earth.

As long as the Muslim rule on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem is still trampled by the Gentiles, there remains prophecy to be fulfilled.

As Christians, we believe that this one week is the seven years of tribulation that have not taken place yet and will not until the Rapture of the Church has taken place.

The truth is that no one knows exactly when these things will happen, and the Lord Jesus says to watch and pray.

To watch means to keep up with what is going on in Israel and Jerusalem at all times.

*Luk 21:21 Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
Luk 21:22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
Luk 21:23 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.
Luk 21:24 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, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

No doubt these things took place in the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Some who Jesus was teaching were alive to see these things happen.

Some of the Apostles and the Christians fled to a place called Pella in the district of Decapolis.

In reality, we are still to be prepared for the coming judgment of the end times because we know they have not taken place yet.

As Christians, we may be actual witnesses to the beginning of these things of the end times.

*Luk 21:25 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; the sea and the waves roaring;
Luk 21:26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luk 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

We should understand that Jesus describes things that did not happen in the years around 70 AD, so the Lord Jesus is describing a future event.

Revelation Chapters 6, 8-9, 15-18 give us a much clearer picture of what the Lord Jesus is teaching here.

Our universe will be in complete turmoil.

What Size Asteroid Would it take to destroy Earth?

It is believed that no single asteroid can completely and utterly destroy the Earth as a planet. However, an asteroid approximately 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) in diameter or larger could trigger a global catastrophe that renders the planet largely uninhabitable for humans and many other species.

In the last few years, there have been asteroids or comets that have entered our solar system larger than this.

Gravity is another power in the heavens, and gravity in some way must fail before the stars of heaven can fall.

The power above all power is in God, the Holy Trinity, who only can cause such things to fail.

It is at the end of these things that the Lord Jesus will return to this earth.

The Church will already be in Heaven or will be returning with the Lord Jesus, so those who are gathered would be those who were saved during the Great Tribulation, and they would be mostly Jews, who still have God’s covenant.

Rom 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Rom 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Rom 11:28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.

This is the remnant that is mentioned throughout the Bible.

Isa 10:21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

This is a lot to take in, but when we see any of these things begin to take place, then we need to look up, lift our heads high, because we are soon going home.

Remembering that deception is the main culprit affecting the Church, we should be holding our heads up high now and not be deceived.

The Church will be out of here soon.

Amen

Parables and Blessings

April 13, 2026 / Bobby Mayfield / Leave a comment

Parables and Blessings

Book of Luke Chapter 18

Besides the Holy Spirit, prayer is our greatest weapon in this world against the evilness and wickedness of our world.

*Luk 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

Prayer is the meeting of our soul with the mind of God.

1Sa 1:15 And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.

Prayer is beseeching the Lord.

Exo 32:11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

Prayer is crying out to Heaven.

2Ch 32:19 And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.
2Ch 32:20 And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven.

Prayers are seeking and making supplication.

Job 8:5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;

Prayer is drawing near to God.

Psa 73:28 But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Prayer is the bowing of the knees.

Eph 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
Eph 3:16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Eph 3:18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
Eph 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

We must persevere in prayer because it is our duty!

We must put forth the effort to talk with God even when it seems He is not listening because He is always listening!

*Luk 18:2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
Luk 18:3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.
Luk 18:4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Luk 18:5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

What is persevering prayer? To persevere means to be constant in our purpose for praying.

When we look around, we see that we are in similar days of Noah and Lot where God brought destruction.

God has already promised a future destruction, and we are very near to it now.

Psa_2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

Isa_9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

Isa_13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

Zep_1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

There is power in persistence.

Continuous prayer is the only thing that gives us the strength to persevere.

Continuous prayer shows that we are confident in our God.

We are to pray and continue to pray until the Lord Jesus Christ returns to take us home.

In this parable, we see an unjust judge who disregards the laws, hates God, and hates those who come before him.

Yet he feels like he has the power to do as he wishes.

This is the way of our world today.

Everyone wants to reach in and grab a piece of power to do the things they desire.

We live in the day of the unjust judge, and it is very noticeable.

There was this widow who had been wronged and was seeking help from the judicial system, but this judge had no feelings for the truth, and he hated to be bothered with such trivial matters.

Every judge in our nation needs to understand there is a Higher Judge who has His eyes on them, and they, too, will be judged the same way that they judge others.

It is a fact that on that day of the widow, that most every widow, especially those who had no children, lived in helplessness and defenselessness.

Luk 7:12 Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her.
Luk 7:13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.

Many times, this judge just ignored her and her problems.

We know this is not the way of the Lord Jesus, who is a most compassionate God.

This judge began to realize that if he did not do anything to help this widow, she was going to continue to come before him.

Finally, this self-centered judge did the right thing just to free himself from her ceaseless pleading.

The Lord Jesus is saying that if a corrupt judge on this earth will attend to the pleas of this poor widow whom he cared not for, how much more will God be moved by those He loves.

It is a fact that God is biased in favor of innocent victims of persecution.

We may never have to plead with God, but we must also understand that God will not answer every prayer at the time we think it is needed.

God knows what we need and when we need it.

God does not get mad at us if we ask for the same thing over and over again until we receive it or God says no.

*Luk 18:6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

We must not think that this judge is a type of God; he is not. He is just an unjust judge who does not care about the suffering of any people.

The Lord Jesus wants us to continue in prayer of faith until we get an answer.

It is not that God is just too busy; it is just that God knows what we need and when we need it.

God knows our needs, and He promised to meet our needs.

God will avenge His own elect!

God’s elect are those who follow His Son, Jesus!

As God’s elect, we know that only God can meet our needs!

We also know that only God is the Judge of all His creation.

Luk 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

God is patient with all of us, but we know He is so full of mercy and grace that He will always meet our needs.

We must also realize that just as Jesus suffered, we will also suffer, and this will make us stronger witnesses and servants.

1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

These things will make us stronger, and God wants us to learn from all our trials.

God will also avenge His elect without hesitation.

*Luk 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Our God is the only true Judge in this cosmos.

That word elect means God’s favorites, God’s preferred, God’s believers, the disciples of Jesus Christ.

God will preserve all Christians from all their adversaries and save them from the seven years of Tribulation that is soon to come to this world.

Remember, this is God’s choice, and He did not have to make this choice.

Only God can do the choosing of those who will not be a part of His wrath.

Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

If an unjust judge grants the petition of a defenseless person he cares nothing for, how much more shall our just Judge, our merciful God hear the cries and avenge the cause of those He loves.

We may have to cry out day and night before God will answer but He will answer.

He never said we would not suffer; in fact, He said we would.

Keep in mind the Jews suffered many years before God sent Moses to Pharaoh.

We should know that once God chooses to avenge His elect, He will come speedily.

*Luk 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

We must understand that persevering prayer is tied to our faith! He may not come soon but it will be suddenly.

Our adversaries will not know what hit them until it is over.

Jesus then adds, when He comes, will He find faith on this earth?

The Lord wants us to continue to pray even though it has been so long that we are losing heart, even though the answer is delayed, and we see evil increasing daily.

God is still hearing our prayers, but we must persevere until He comes.

We could ask how many will keep the faith until He comes?

We must guard against losing our faith!

God will always remain faithful to do as He says, but will we?

We swore an oath to be saved based on faith, and that faith must remain with us.

God does not have to think about whether He will return or not.

He knows He is coming and He knows when He is returning, and it will not take Him long to get here when He does come.

The Church may pass through a period of oppression in this world, but we must cling to our faith.

We should begin now by praying more earnestly.

If Jesus Christ seems to be delaying His return, then He has His reasons, and it has nothing to do with the Church.

The vengeance of the Lord will be a terrible time upon this earth, and the Lord will have to put aside His compassion to do those things, but He will do what He says He will for His Church.

Whenever deliverance comes, it will be sudden!

Then the Lord speaks with another parable.

*Luk 18:9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

The fact is that self-righteous people do not need to pray at all!

These people will never lose heart because they never had it to begin with.

They do not need faith to be confident in this world.

They feel that all they need dwells within them in their bodies and minds.

Pro 30:12 There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.

We are in the generation of the return of Christ, but we are also in the generation of self-righteousness.

The Lord continues.

*Luk 18:10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

When we think we stand head and shoulders above all others, we are no better off than King Saul.

This Pharisee was a religionist.

This publican was a sinner.

Both these men went to the House of God to pray, which the Lord Jesus said was a house of prayer.

There is no better place to pray than in the House of God!

They both wanted to please God.
They were both seeking God to feel His presence in their lives.

Deu 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

This Pharisee represents the religious world in its most respected form.

This publican represents people who have no honor to maintain. He knows he is a sinner and is looking for the mercy of God.

The Pharisee prayed only with himself, only to himself.

He glorified himself before God and just told God how great a man of God he was.

This was not true prayer, and it did not reach into Heaven.

Joh 9:31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

Prayer is a means of worship, but this Pharisee only worshipped himself.

In fact, he actually thanked God for making him who he was.

God does not make us self-righteous, and God does not cause us to be sinners, and God does not tempt us in any way.

This Pharisee said he had not fallen into sin, which means he made himself to be equal with the Lord Jesus Christ, who truly had no sin.

He fasted twice a week, and he tithed. Both of these are good things and are pleasing to God, but these things do not make up for self-righteousness.

The publican.

*Luk 18:13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

This man was ashamed and embarrassed by his sin, and others would not get near him because of his sin.

Remember Publicans were tax collectors for Rome, and the Jews hated them.

This publican stood far off, much like a leper.

He felt cut off by God and mankind. The Jews had a special hatred for publicans and considered them traitors to the nation of Israel.

I feel somewhat like this for all Democrats and many Republicans.

He would not even lift his eyes toward Heaven, but he did lift his heart toward Heaven.

He knew he did not deserve God’s forgiveness!

He beat on his chest because he was angry with himself for his sin.

He pleaded with God to forgive Him. He pleaded for God’s mercy.

We can only appeal to God’s “Grace” when we do not deserve it.

There is no other way to be received by God than to acknowledge our sin before God and plead for God’s forgiveness.

Mercy is not getting what we deserve, which is eternal death.

Grace comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is receiving what we do not deserve, eternal salvation.

We should understand that as long as we are in these bodies of flesh, we will never be righteous; we are only “counted righteous” by our Holy God because we are covered by the Blood of Jesus.

2Th_1:5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer:

Who then was justified?

*Luk 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

We can see that the words of Jesus do not line up with what the world says.

In fact, the words of Jesus do not line up with what many churches teach today.

It is the one who acknowledges that he is a sinner who has been justified by his faith.

Rom 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Rom 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

*Luk 18:15 And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.
Luk 18:16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
Luk 18:17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

We must be humble when we approach the Lord for forgiveness of our sins.

The first characteristic that fits the Kingdom of God is that of a child.

When we doubt that the Lord Jesus can save little children, we are acting like a Pharisee.

When we think the Church is spending too much money on our youth, we act like Pharisees.

When we do not look at our youth as being the future of the Church, we are acting like a Pharisee.

When we do not look at our youth as being the future of our nation, we act foolish because we need to train them to be the future of our nation.

God cares about every stage of the process of our growth, starting from childhood.

God loves the little children as much as He loves any of us!

Most children are obedient to their parents, and they can learn right from wrong at an early age.

Most children are far more forgiving than most adults.

When we get to Heaven, we will find that we are all children, God’s children!

There is no way to get into Heaven except by receiving God’s Kingdom like a child!

Mat 18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Amen

LESSONS IN GOD'S WORD

Taking time to read the Bible

The Bible

King Ahaz Walked Not After the Lord

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Jonah the Committed Prophet

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Jonah the Rebellious Prophet

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Restoration

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The Logic in God’s Judgment

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Amaziah-The King Who Stopped Short of the Goal

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Jesus Christ Is Alive

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Passover to Betrayal and Denial

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The Beginning of the End

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Parables and Blessings

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