Wed.’s Devo - The Anti-Christ and the End

Read: Jeremiah 23:21-25:38; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17; Psalm 84:1-12; Proverbs 25:15 Jeremiah rebuked the false prophets of his day. They claimed that God had given them their words, but He hadn’t. They were deceitful, inventive and everything they said was false. They told their dreams that they made up and did prophetic signs like smashing rocks to show that that was what was going to happen to their enemies when in reality, that was what was going to happen to them. God said that from then on, anyone who claimed that God told them something when He hadn’t, would be punished. Josiah’s son was Jehoiakim. He died trying to escape. His son Jehoiachin became king but 3 months and 10 days later, he was exiled to Babylon. After he left, God gave Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs. They were placed in front of God’s Temple. One basket was filled with fresh, ripe figs, while the other was filled with rotten figst. The good figs represented the exiles He sent from Judah to Babylonian. They were the ones God would watch over and bring back. The bad figs represented the people left in Judah under the last king, Zedekiah. They would become an object of horror and a symbol of evil to every nation on earth. Everywhere God scattered them, they will be disgraced, mocked, taunted and cursed. God had sent word after word to them to return. Jeremiah had been telling them for 23 years to repent, but they kept partying and acting like everything was going to remain the same. It was all over now and they would be in captivity for 70 years. Then God would punish the king of Babylon and his people and bring destruction on them for what they had done to Israel and her people. God gave Jeremiah a cup filled with his anger and he was sent to all the nations to have the king of that nation drink from it. He went to Jerusalem, towns in Judah, Egypt, the land of Uz, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, Dedan, Tema, Buz, Arabia, Zimri, Elam, Media and finally Babylon. All drank from the cup of the Lord’s anger. These were all the kingdoms of the earth. Once they drank from it, God pronounced their destruction. This is a picture of the end of the earth. Even in Paul’s time, they were looking for the end of the world. Paul explained that it was not time for the anti-Christ to appear. First there will be a great rebellion against God in the world. Then the anti-Christ will appear. There is one who is holding him back and when that person steps out of the way, he will be revealed. I wonder if that person isn’t the Church, the Bride. Once she is taken up, he will be revealed. But, when Christ comes back, the anti-Christ will be destroyed. The anti-Christ will come with counterfeit power and signs and miracles. He will use evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort us and strengthen us in every good thing we do and say.