The Obelisks of Jeremiah

Last Saturday night as I sat with a group of people at the top of a dune by the shore of Lake Michigan, watching a beautiful sunset and the bright orange glow that later spread across the horizon of the lake, I pondered how it is possible for anyone to witness the same without wanting to worship the Designer and Creator. Yes, I know that there was a time when I did not have a personal relationship with the Lord, and my small brain could not even begin to grasp the possibility of God. But know I see Him in everything, and the beauty and order and complexity of it all screams out to me in the sunset; "I am! I know you! I love you! I have a plan for your life! Your life is designed and has purpose, just like the sunset!"

-

Someone had remarked earlier that evening that the great author Hemmingway described the town he came from as having wide lawns but narrow minds, but now that town was known as having narrow lawns but wide minds. I didn't say anything, but it occurred to me that Hemmingway put a loaded shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, and what became a really wide mind didn't bring him any closer to the One who designed us in His creative image. Talk also turned to the famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who also came from that same town. An uncle of mine knew someone who had a relative that commissioned Wright to design a house for them, but never went through with the project because Wright wanted everything done exactly as he designed it, and was not flexible to make any changes. My uncle recently visited a place that displayed plans of everything designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and on one of those plans was the name of that particular person. The plans and the buildings are a testament to the genius of a person who was instrumental in introducing a new style of architecture, and who was noted for incorporating the character of the site and the use of local materials into his designs. I am in awe of the genius of men like Frank Lloyd Wright, but his abilities came from, and are a reflection of the Master Architect.

-

God has a plan for the Hebrew people and their nation, but with few exceptions the people always decide to follow designs of their own making. Many from each generation would follow after false gods and were not obedient to the instructions that God gave them through Moses and the prophets. And the nation never strove to possess anthing close to the extent of land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants. The greatest extent came during the time of Solomon. But after he died the nation became split into a northern kingdom, called Israel, and a southern kingdom, called Judea. Eventually the northern kindgom was conquered and the people were deported. The prophet Jeremiah lived just prior to the conquering many years later of the southern kinddom of Judea by the Babylonians, and into the immediate time after. When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and either kiled or deported everyone considered high or middle class, they left the poor in the land to take possession of what was left. The Babylonian king appointged a puppet governor over the people, and he let Jeremiah remain in Judea.

-

There remained in the land armed groups of Jewish rebels who hid out in the countryside. The leader of one of those groups killed the puppet governor, and then all of the commanders of the rebel forces as well as their followers came to Jeremiah, saying; "Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us, that the Lord your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do . . . May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not act in accordance to the whole message with which the Lord your God will send you to us . . . Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, in order that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the Lord our God." (Jeremiah 42: 2-6)

-

What a great speech they gave to Jeremiah, and through him to God. Over and over God had used Jeremiah to warn the Jewish inhabitants before the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem that the Babylonians were God's chosen instrument to punish them, but if they would surrender, the city of Jerusalem and their own lives would be spared. Instead, the ruling powers listened to the voice of the false prophets who advised alliances, and had Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned.Now the remnant were saying that they would listen to the word of the Lord as given by Jeremiah, and would do everything that the Lord told them. God honored that, and replied; "If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up, and not tear you down, and will plant you and not uproot you, for I shall relent concerning the calamity that I have inflicted on you. Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand. I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own soil." (Jeremiah 42: 10-12)

-

But the true desire of the people was not to trust in the Lord. They had their own plan, and that was to escape to the safety of Egypt. The people replied to Jeremiah; "As for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you! but rather we will certainly carry out every word that proceeded from our mouths, by burning sacrifies to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings and our princes did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem". (Jer. 44: 16-18) God told them that if they indeed fled to Egypt; "Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon . . . He will also come and strike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for capitivity to capitivity, and those for the sword for the sword . . . he will burn the temples of the gods of Egypt . . . He will also shatter the obelisks of Heliopolis, which is in the land of Egypt." (Jeremiah 43: 10-13)

-

The word "Heliopolis" means "house of the sun". The obelisks were coated with a combination of 1 part silver and 4 parts gold, and these mammoth 69'6" tall structures were aligned with the sun so that their effect would be truly inspiring. The Jewish remnant would leave the land, even after a promise by God that He would deliver them from both oppression and famine. They would flee to Egypt and adopt the Egyptian gods, and trust in them. But Nebuchadnezzar did come and built his headquarters at Heliopolis, the fate of those Jews was as God promised, and the obelisks were knocked down. A funny thing happened to three of those obelisks thousands of years later. One ended up in Paris, one ended up in London, and one ended up in New York City Central Park. The silver and the gold had long since disappeared, but I believe those large stone needles are where they are today as a visible sign and reminder to the Jewish population living those countries.

-

There are 13.3 million Jewish people living in the world today. The Jewish population of Israel, which only became a country again after almost 2 thousand years, is 4.9 million. In the United States and Canada there are about 7 million Jews, 1.8 million of them living in New York City. The country with the next largest Jewish population is France, with over 600,000, and then comes the UK with 275.000. There is a time coming, and I believe it is sooner rather than later, that God will be clearly calling His chosen people to go back to the land of Israel. But many will be reluctant to leave what they see as the comforts and safety of their own countries. Those obelisks are a sign that they should not trust in the governments of France, Britain, or even the United States to care for and protect them. And they are certainly not to follow after false gods, even if signs in the heavens lead the rest to the world to clamor after the queen of heaven. Just as it has always been, they are called to trust only in the Lord their maker, the Master Designer, who will protect them in the midst of the fiery furnace that is to come.