I have not written, and have rarely spoken, about the events that have been taking place in our nation since the election in November. I have seen prophetic utterances abound, and commentary and opinions are freely shared on multiple social platforms. As for me, I have a directive from God and a determination in myself to only share what He gives me. My opinion in and of itself amounts to nothing. But I trust that what I am about to write is not of myself. I believe that it is the Spirit of God in me that is now compelling me to speak up.

I have been overall a strong supporter of President Trump. I have believed that his actions in the last four years have been exactly what we've needed in our country, notwithstanding his often over-the-top rhetoric. I supported him in the most recent election, and I believed that his re-election would be of great benefit to our country. Among other things, his support for the unborn, as well as for the nation of Israel, have been stellar. I have been part of a prayer group that have prayed for him and for his administration since it's inception, and we had special prayer for the election months ahead of November.

I, like many others, watched with anticipation on election night as President Trump won Florida and Ohio, and was well ahead in other swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia. Things were looking good. Then something began to happen as many of the mail-in ballots came in. Over the next few days, things began to turn against the president. I suspected something underhanded was going on, and I still suspect this. 

By Friday after the election, I could see "the handwriting on the wall." I knew that within a short time, the media was about to proclaim Joe Biden as the next president. This was distressing to me. That afternoon, I retired to my office to pray. After pouring out my heart to Him, I just told Him that I need a word. I wasn't looking for some kind of prophetic utterance, I just needed to hear from my Lord. I honestly was surprised when I heard two words in my spirit. "Jeremiah" then "twenty-four." I had no idea what was in Jeremiah 24, but I turned to that chapter. What I saw boggled my mind.

The setting of Jeremiah 24 is during the a time of great distress in Judah (which was the southern Jewish kingdom that was left after the northern kingdom of Israel had been ransacked by Assyria some time before). Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had invaded Judah, deposed the rightful king (Jeconiah), and installed his own puppet king (Zedekiah). Nebuchadnezzar had also taken many leading Jews in Judah into captivity, and had deported them to Babylon. In this chapter, God shows Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs in the temple of the Lord. One basket contains very good figs and the other contained rotten figs. Astonishingly, the Lord tells Jeremiah that the good figs are symbolic of those who had been taken captive to Babylon. He gives Jeremiah these words for them:

For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; and I will build them up and not overthrow them, and I will plant them and not uproot them. I will also give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me wholeheartedly. (Jeremiah 24:5,6)

Later on, Jeremiah would pen a letter to these same captives that was inspired by God:

This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may give birth to sons and daughters; and grow in numbers there and do not decrease. Seek the prosperity of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord in its behalf; for in its prosperity will be your prosperity.’  (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

So who were the rotten figs symbolic of? God told Jeremiah that the rotten figs were symbols of Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials as well as the remnant of Jerusalem who remained in the land or who had fled to Egypt. God told Jeremiah that he would abandon King Zedekiah, who had since rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, and those who were standing with him. 

The upshot of all this is that God was telling Jeremiah that He had determined judgment on His people. He would not be with them in their fight against the heathen king. Those who had been taken captive were to get used to their new environment in Babylon, raise their families, and essentially go about their business. He even told them that they were to seek the prosperity of Babylon and to pray to the Lord on it's behalf. On the other hand, God said that He was against those who were resisting the heathen king. Elsewhere, He would tell them not to listen to false prophets who were saying that deliverance was just around the corner...that God's people would be spared. 

When I read this in my office I was thunderstruck. The parallels to today's situation, though not perfect, were clear enough to me. As God had decreed judgment upon the Judah then, so He has decreed judgment on America today. Certainly, this is something to be expected. Though I love this country dearly, yet she has turned from God so much in recent decades that she is almost unrecognizable from what she once was. Among other things, the cries of 60 million babies aborted since 1973, have ascended up to heaven. Now, God has in His sovereign will deposed one "king" and set up another one. Though men have voted, yet, in the end, it was God who made the decision. God would be even more explicit in declaring His right to do so when He told Daniel, one of those captives in Babylon, "It is He (God) who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding." (Daniel 2:21)

God's message to the Babylonian captives is the same message He gives to us today in the church of Jesus Christ in America. Take care of your families. go about the business of living, even in the drastically different environment that you might find yourselves in. Seek the welfare of the nation that you live in. In the letter recorded in Jeremiah 29, He goes on to say to the captives that He will bring them back to the land in His own time (which, in their case, would be seventy years):

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11, 12)

Did you know this was the context of this much-beloved verse? The Lord would give them a hope and a future when they sought Him with their whole heart...and when they quit be anxious about the political situation around them!

I am speaking today to the church of Jesus Christ. Remember, the vision of the good figs and the bad figs was in the temple...that is, the church of Jeremiah's day. Are we today in the church going to be up in arms about the prospect of a President Biden? Are we going to fret and worry, protest and even riot? God forbid! If God could be with the Jewish captives in Babylon, He can certainly be...He will most certainly be...with us as we seek Him with our whole heart. Do not rail against what God has determined. I am to love my neighbors as myself, even the ones (especially the ones?) who have a Biden sign in their front yards. I am to be salt and light to this wicked generation. We are not to fight with carnal weapons using carnal tactics (see 2 Corinthians 10:4), but are to be devoted to prayer (Col. 4:2), rejoicing always with a gentle and meek spirit, while being anxious about nothing (Phil. 4:4-6). 

Is persecution coming? Most probably. Will God be with us during times of persecution? Most definitely! Will the church of Jesus Christ come through this stronger and more purified than ever before? I believe that she assuredly will, if she fights with the right weapons and trusts in the one true and living God!