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Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Feb. 28, 1998
Update	: May 28, 2025
Parts	: 12

Synopsis:



Continuing our discussion from part three, as the Prophet Jeremiah writes, the Lord was hoping that this divorce from the northern kingdom would wake up the southern kingdom of Judah, and bring the Jews to their senses. However, sadly, this was not the case, and Judah sinned against the Lord just as much. Thus, God symbolically gave her a writing of divorcement as well. As I amply explain in other articles, her great punishment came in the form of three Babylonian invasions, the last one of which resulted in the complete destruction of Solomon's temple, and much destruction to Jerusalem itself. Furthermore, this led to the enslavement of many thousands of Jews in Babylon, exactly as had been prophesied by Jeremiah. As I mentioned in part three, this tragic event occurred in the year 587 BC, or approximately one hundred and fifty years after the northern kingdom of Samaria had been carried away.

The Scriptures inform us that God went as far as He possibly could with both Israel and Judah. He did NOT just suddenly abandon them at their first sign of spiritual infidelity. In His mercy, He patiently waited, and He gave them both ample time -- many years in fact -- to repent of their apostasy. He pleaded with them to return to Him as His faithful bride and wife. This fact is clearly made evident by verses such as the following:

"Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee."


"Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:"


"If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove."


"Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart."


"Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation."


"Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"


"For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."


"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."


It should be clear to you then that while the Lord is very patient, at the same time, He considers the rebellion of His bride to be a very serious matter. When the Prophet Samuel rebuked King Saul and informed him that God had rejected him in the fifteenth chapter of the first Book of Samuel, the Prophet in fact compared Saul's stubborn, rebellious heart to witchcraft and idolatry, as we see by the following two verses:

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king."


On yet another occasion, while prophesying against Nineveh, which was the ancient capital of Assyria -- the ruins of which are today located near the city of Mosul in northern Iraq -- the Prophet Nahum described the city as being the "mistress of witchcrafts", as we see by the following verse:

"Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts."


While the previous three verses are related to other events in the Bible, they are nevertheless important because they help us to better understand the Lord's attitude concerning the unfaithfulness of His disbelieving, rebellious wife. As far as the Lord is concerned, due to her rebellion against Him, she is guilty of performing witchcraft, and He will not let it go unpunished.

So what we see is that once ancient Israel rejected the Lord as her true King and Husband and went astray in building her temples to the false gods, she not only lost the Spirit, she also lost the Lord's blessings, and His protection as well. Following are some additional verses which reveal the depth of the apostasy of both the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom of Judah. If you take the time to study the Scriptures, you will find more examples of what I have listed below:

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him."


"And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.‭ According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee."


"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. Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?"


"And in the time of his distress did he [King Ahaz] trespass yet more against the LORD: this ‭is that‭ king Ahaz.‭ 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.‭ 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.‭ ‭‭And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers."


"Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,‭ And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and ‭yet‭ thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do ‭that‭ only ‭which was‭ right in mine eyes;‭ But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:‭ Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, ‭and‭ him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone."


"For ‭so‭ it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,‭ And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.‭ And the children of Israel did secretly ‭those‭ things that ‭were‭ not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.‭ And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:‭ And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as ‭did‭ the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:‭ For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.‭ Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, ‭and by‭ all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments ‭and‭ my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.‭ Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.‭ And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that ‭were‭ round about them, ‭concerning‭ whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.‭ And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, ‭even‭ two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.‭ And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger."


"‭‭Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, ‭even‭ all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:‭ Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched."


The tragedy of this situation is that God foresaw this evil and rebellion by the Israelites many centuries before it had even happened. However, honestly speaking, if we carefully examine all of the previous Scriptures, what we see is that Jacob's descendants were really backslidden in their hearts since the time that they were in Egypt. Unlike the virgin bride who was supposed to remain without spot and blameless, they in fact succumbed to the pleasures -- and to the false gods -- of Egypt. Not only that, but even after Joseph died, when they were forced to endure four hundred years of harsh slavery, some of the Israelites STILL wanted to return to Egypt after having been liberated under Moses' leadership. As we saw earlier, it wasn't long before they constructed the golden calf.

It is amazing how many times Moses admonished them for many years after that, to remain faithful to the Lord. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, is literally filled with warning after warning, where Moses very directly told the Israelites exactly what would happen to them, if they were to forsake the Lord, and return to worshipping the false gods. Consider the following group of verses where this is made so clear:

"And God spake all these words, saying,‭ I ‭am‭ the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.‭ ‭‭Thou shalt have no other gods before me.‭ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness ‭of any thing‭ that ‭is‭ in heaven above, or that ‭is‭ in the earth beneath, or that ‭is‭ in the water under the earth:‭ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God ‭am‭ a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth ‭generation‭ of them that hate me;‭ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."


"And in all ‭things‭ that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth."


"I ‭am‭ the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.‭ Thou shalt have none other gods before me.‭ ‭‭Thou shalt not make thee ‭any‭ graven image, ‭or‭ any likeness ‭of any thing‭ that ‭is‭ in heaven above, or that ‭is‭ in the earth beneath, or that ‭is‭ in the waters beneath the earth:‭ Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God ‭am‭ a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth ‭generation‭ of them that hate me,‭ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."


"Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.‭ Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which ‭are‭ round about you;‭ ‭‭(For the LORD thy God ‭is‭ a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth."


"And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.‭ As the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God."


"Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;‭ And ‭then‭ the LORD'S wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and ‭lest‭ ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you . . . Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;‭ A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day:‭ And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known."


"If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,‭ And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;‭ Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.‭ Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.‭ And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn ‭you‭ away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.‭ If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which ‭is‭ as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;‭ Namely‭, of the gods of the people which ‭are‭ round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the ‭one‭ end of the earth even unto the ‭other‭ end of the earth;‭ Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:‭ But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.‭ And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.‭ And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.‭ If thou shalt hear ‭say‭ in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,‭ Certain‭ men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;‭ Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, ‭if it be‭ truth, ‭and‭ the thing certain, ‭that‭ such abomination is wrought among you;‭ Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that ‭is‭ therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.‭ And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again."


"If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,‭ And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;‭ And it be told thee, and thou hast heard ‭of it‭, and enquired diligently, and, behold, ‭it be‭ true, ‭and‭ the thing certain, ‭that‭ such abomination is wrought in Israel:‭ Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, ‭even‭ that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die."


"But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die."


"And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, ‭to‭ the right hand, or ‭to‭ the left, to go after other gods to serve them."


"‭‭Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what ‭meaneth‭ the heat of this great anger?‭ Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:‭ For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and ‭whom‭ he had not given unto them:‭ And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:‭ And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as ‭it is‭ this day."


"‭‭But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;‭ I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, ‭and that‭ ye shall not prolong ‭your‭ days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.‭ I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, ‭that‭ I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:‭ That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, ‭and‭ that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he ‭is‭ thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."


Despite all of the warnings which the Lord issued through Moses during the last forty years of his life, as we have already seen, it was to no avail. The descendants of Jacob still forsook their first love, rebelled against the Lord, and followed after the false gods of the nations around them. In fact, prior to his death, God revealed to Moses that this is exactly what they would do. Not only that, but just before Joshua's death as well some years later, the Lord likewise revealed to Joshua what the Israelites would do once he was gone from the scene. Consider the following verses as evidence of these facts:

"‭‭And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go ‭to be‭ among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.‭ Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God ‭is‭ not among us?‭ And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods."


"Therefore it shall come to pass, ‭that‭ as all good things are come upon you, which the LORD your God promised you; so shall the LORD bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.‭ When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you."


Ironically, when Joshua told them this, the Israelites were all in denial. "Oh no! We will never do that! We swear this day that we will remain faithful to serve the Lord! We will not worship the false gods of the nations around us!" This is made evident by the following group of verses:

"‭‭And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.‭ And Joshua said unto the people, Ye ‭are‭ witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, ‭We are‭ witnesses.‭ Now therefore put away, ‭said he‭, the strange gods which ‭are‭ among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.‭ And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.‭ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.‭ And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God, and took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak, that ‭was‭ by the sanctuary of the LORD.‭ And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto us; for it hath heard all the words of the LORD which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God."


Sadly, as we learned in part three of this series, barely had Joshua, Caleb and the other tribal elders died, and the period of the Judges begun, when the rebellious Israelites began their slide into on-again off-again apostasy. As we have already seen, it ultimately resulted in the Assyrian invasion of the northern kingdom of Israel, as well as the Babylonian invasions of Judah to the south years later. The Lord's bride had indeed besmirched herself, become a harlot, and had gone a whoring after other gods. She was no longer without spot and blameless. She was no longer worthy to be called His bride, and thus He divorced her.

Thus far, I have presented a preponderance of verses to show the difference between God's submissive spiritual bride, and the nation of Israel which for a long time now has committed spiritual whoredoms, and become a harlot in the Lord's sight. This she has done by rejecting her true Husband -- the Lord Jesus Christ -- and loved other gods; or in the case of some modern Jews, don't believe in God at all. Early on in this series, I told you that I would not only reveal to you who I believe Babylon the Great is, but I would also explain to you exactly why God views her as a harlot, and what she did to become a whore in His sight. Thus far, we have addressed two of these three points. Now it is time to focus in on the big question: Who is Babylon the Great, and what are the signs so that we can recognize her as such?

In the beginning of his prophesying against Jerusalem and the kings of Judah, the Prophet Isaiah wrote the following. Please notice how the Lord, through Isaiah, makes a sharp contrast in the first eight words of the verse. He is in fact juxtaposing faithfulness with harlotry:

"How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers."


What is particularly interesting about this verse -- aside from the sharp contrast that it presents -- is the fact that while previous verses I have shared with you describe the harlotry of Israel and Judah in general, the previous verse clearly defines Jerusalem herself as a harlot. As far as I know, this is in fact the first verse in the Scriptures which does this.

Please go to part five for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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