Jer 7:16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. (KJV)
We do not have to look very far to see parallels between the United Kingdom today and Judah in the time of Jeremiah. And when we see enough of them, we could be tempted to think the Lord must be telling us what he told Jeremiah in the scripture above.
But before you come right out and say, ‘The Lord has told me to stop praying for the United Kingdom,’ let us see what happens when we look a little more closely and, most importantly, seek the Lord in his word.
FOOLISH CHILDREN
First of all, what about the similarities between ancient Judah and Britain today? Can we see things which displeased the Lord in Judah which would incur his wrath on the UK? We take it as read that God deals with nations today just as he did then, according to the standards expressed in his holy law. Only the ceremonial and sacrificial law given to Israel has been abrogated by the ministry of the Lord Jesus. The general equity of God’s moral and civil law remains in force under the New Covenant just as much as the law of gravity.
Firstly, Jeremiah characterises the people of Judah by their lack of understanding:
Jer 4:22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
Since the end of the Second World War successive governments both in the UK and elsewhere in the developed world have legislated in opposition to the laws of God. We tried to set out the extent of our rebellion in ‘Britain in Sin’. To date there is no sign of repentance. Indeed, the latest stunt is for Her Majesty’s Government to suggest allowing people legally to change their gender at will. Her Majesty’s ministers have no understanding. They run after every fashionable fad. Our politicians stoke up wars abroad. They care nothing about ordinary people. They might call an enquiry after the Grenfell Tower fire, but they don’t really know how to do good.
PREFERRING THE FALSE WORD OVER THE TRUE
Secondly, he says Judah refused God’s word:
Jer 13:10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.
Her Majesty the Queen was given the Holy Bible at her coronation on 2nd June 1953. She was told it is ‘the most valuable thing this world affords’. It remains for her ‘the royal law’. So why do her ministers refuse to look into it for their legislation? Why is it that street evangelists are routinely arrested for quoting from it?
Why is God’s word such an embarrassment to those in power when it says God made us male and female and a man shall be one flesh with a woman in holy matrimony? Or when it says: ‘Thou shalt not covet’ or even ‘Thou shalt not murder’.
Thirdly, the prophet says the people trusted the lying words of false prophets:
Jer 7:8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.
Most of the prophetic voices were saying there was nothing wrong in the nation of Judah. This may sound odd, but when I speak about ‘the prophets’ in this context today I am not referring to Christians with a real or imagined prophetic gift. I am speaking of the media. Journalists are supposed to be a prophetic voice. The job of the ‘Fourth Estate’ is to hold those in power to account. Their yardstick should be the word of God. However, today’s media commentators will talk about anything and everything but only ever from a secular perspective. Atheism is their world-view and their plumb-line. They ridicule the Christian point of view. And they get away with it because of the next similarity between Judah and the UK.
CHILD SACRIFICE
Fourthly, Judah had poor priests and pastors, the latter meaning leaders:
Jer 2:8 The priest said not, Where is the Lord? And they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
Again we read about the prophets and where they are coming from. They are worshiping a fertility god. The homosexual and abortion lobbies are Ba-al’s direct descendants. Jeremiah complains in chapters nineteen and thirty-two about child sacrifice. Great Britain has its own version of that. It’s called ‘abortion’. Only Northern Ireland holds out against that abomination, but still shares in the sin of the United Kingdom of which it is part.
I believe the Lord is also outraged at the warmongers, those who work against peace in the world because it makes no money, at the injustice in the family courts and at the continuing advance of the LGBT agenda everywhere from the classroom to the National Trust.
PEOPLE LOVE THE FALSE TEACHERS
Fifthly, the people esteemed false teachers:
Jer 5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?
When media commentators and politicians spread lies, the people lap it up. Opinion polls show a greater acceptance year by year of the immorality promoted and encouraged by the media and the political elite. This is not just happening in Europe but across the pond in the USA. In Pew Research Center polling in 2001, Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a margin of 57% to 35%. Today, support for same-sex marriage is at its highest point since they began polling on the issue. Based on polling in 2017, the margin has swung around and more. Now, 62% of Americans support same-sex marriage, while only 32% oppose it.
In the churches, the same trend is occurring. Pew Research report: ‘Two-thirds of Catholics now support same-sex marriage, as do a similar share of white mainline Protestants (68%).
‘Support for same-sex marriage among black Protestants and white evangelical Protestants remains lower than it is among other religious groups. However, the share of white evangelical Protestants who support same-sex marriage has grown from 27% in 2016 to 35% today’. That increase occurred in just a year.
BACKSLIDING CHILDREN
Sixthly, just like us, Judah had fallen, or backslidden, from a place of great faith:
Jer 3:21b for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God. 22a Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.
In gathering for prayer on Friday 8th September 2017 in London, a mainly Pentecostal gathering learnt they were meeting on the precise 77th anniversary of the Day of Prayer for the Battle of Britain. But there was a difference between 1940 and 2017. During the Second World War prayer was called for and led by the King himself. The Battle of Britain prayer was not the only time during the war the nation as a whole prayed to ‘God, our help in ages past’ and saw prayer answered in miraculous fashion. In the end, great prayers of thanksgiving were made on Victory in Europe Day, and later when the war ended in Japan. But did the prayerful, humble attitude last? We read in Judges:
Jdg 2:10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. 11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: 12a And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers,
The generation which were gathered were those contemporary with Israel’s leader, Joshua. The next generation backslid from the Lord and served the pagan fertility gods. Israel went from serving the Lord to serving Ba-alim in perhaps twenty or thirty years. But it took just six years for Britain to slide from praising God for deliverance in 1945 to exalting mankind and his achievements in the Festival of Britain in 1951. And in that very year, Parliament passed the Fraudulent Mediums Act and legalised necromancy.
SELFISH AND COVETOUS
Seventhly, Judah had become selfish and covetous:
Jer 6:13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness: and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
They trusted in materialism and were shameless and impenitent. I am all for ambition, hard work and growth, but not for wealth gathered by vanity or by oppression. Nor may we place our trust in riches instead of God. That goes for any individual, family, church or nation. With God at the centre, everything is in proportion. Without God, anything goes. Who could fail to be shocked by the stated ambition of the small female victim of the Manchester Arena bombing? It was ‘to be famous’.
Today in the United Kingdom, duty has become subservient to rights. Individualism has trumped civic duty. People now have to be paid to care. Gambling, where one man profits at another’s loss, is legalised in our land. There is even a national lottery, taking money from the poor and giving it to pet middle-class projects. There are noble examples of heroism and self-sacrifice, but they are notable for their rarity. Thank God he has put something of his generosity in human beings. Nevertheless, covetousness can so easily quench things of the spirit. And with covetousness comes the cutting of corners of honesty. Deceit and fraud abound, becoming a TV show in ‘Fake Britain.’
‘PRAY NOT THOU FOR THIS PEOPLE’
Jeremiah sums up the sins of Judah in chapter seven of his prophecy:
Jer 7:9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? 11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
His catalogue of Judah’s sinful mockery of the Lord is reflected comprehensively in Britain today. It comes just a few verses before the Lord tells Jeremiah, as we opened:
Jer 7:16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
And again in chapter eleven, which is chronologically before chapter seven:
Jer 11:13 For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal. 14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.
PRAY NOT FOR THEIR GOOD
And for the third time in chapter fourteen, the time of which is just after:
Jer 14:11 Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. 12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
So we can quite easily find similarities between Judah in the time of Jeremiah and the United Kingdom today. They are indeed overwhelming. We are just as sinful and rebellious as them. Our religious observance is, in the main, as shallow as theirs.
And let us also bear in mind that the same arguments can extend to the US and Canada and the whole of the developed world. We are all rushing headlong to the abyss.
So would it be logical to proceed from the proposition that the sins of the UK are as bad as those of Judah, which we appear to have substantiated, to the conclusion that we, the Lord’s people, should do what Jeremiah was told and stop praying for the nation of which we are part?
CRUCIAL DIFFERENCES
Before we answer that question, seeking the mind of God in his word, let us look at some crucial differences between Judah then and the United Kingdom today.
Judah’s rejection of the Lord in favour of paganism came at a time of Babylonian ascendancy. In truth, there was always some ascendant empire in the Middle East at the time. One hundred years earlier, Assyria conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. Now Babylon was on the rise. They had defeated Assyria and sacked Nineveh in 612BC, as prophesied by Nahum.
They had gone on to defeat an Assyrian / Egyptian alliance at Carchemish in 605BC, as Jeremiah records in Jer 46:2. Weak, listless Judah would be no match for self-confident Babylon. Jeremiah joined up the spiritual and political dots as the Lord showed him that if Judah was to be left with anything, they should accept Babylonian lordship:
Jer 27:8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
LEAVING AN EMPIRE
In stark contrast, the United Kingdom is right now in the process of leaving an empire, the European superstate. In the videos I made in European capitals last year, I argued the EU is self-consciously a revived Roman Empire. It is following in a line of Antichrist empires stretching back to Babel. That line includes ancient Babylon.
I know of Christians who are still arguing the UK should stay in the EU because any sort of unity is good, free travel aids the propagation of the Gospel, the EU needs British realism, and so on. I do not accept those arguments. But my point is, I hear no-one prophesying we should stay in the EU because it is God’s judgment upon us, rather like Nebuchadnezzar was his instrument against Judah. Neither do I hear anyone saying EU expansion is inevitable and we shall be swallowed up anyway. In other words, the political context of Britain today is completely different from that of Judah in 600 BC.
THREAT OF ISLAM
The only possible empire which could take over the UK is Islam. And far from being inevitable and imminent, as was the Babylonian threat against Judah, the threat of Islam is thirty years distant on current demographic projections. Nor is Islam an external threat. Its adherents are an enemy within across Western Europe. Much could happen, including resistance and bloodshed, before Islam takes the United Kingdom politically.
And Jeremiah had a positive message, of sorts. The Lord told him firstly to pray no longer for this people, secondly to urge their repentance and thirdly to accept Babylonian lordship. Jeremiah could see a geo- political judgment coming. It was specific. In contrast, we are living in the UK in a combination of rebellion and internal judgment.
If we carry on, our society will follow every pagan civilisation that has gone before into the rubbish-dump of history. The United Kingdom needs to repent and the church to preach the law and the Gospel, for sure. But the only possible take-over is by Islam, and the threat is neither inevitable nor external nor immediate.
SOWING THE WIND, REAPING THE WHIRLWIND
I am not saying Britain has nothing politically to worry about. There is plenty, and plenty of prophetic work to do calling our leaders to account and the nation to repent.
In twenty years’ time things could be getting very serious indeed. We have sown the wind of rebellion and the whirlwind of judgment is winding up.
Without repentance we shall be even more ripe for judgment and Muslims will be an even greater proportion of our population. Just look back twenty years, or even ten, and see what we were arguing about then.
Civil partnerships and the Gender Recognition Act were both passed in 2004, just thirteen years ago. Nine years later came full ‘gay marriage’.
The spirit of Antichrist has been advancing remorselessly for over sixty years and shows no sign of retreat.
Things are bad and the UK is in peril. I acknowledge that fully. I am just saying we do not have the equivalent of the Babylonian empire at the gate.
NEW COVENANT DIMENSION
Nor, while drawing lessons from historical parallels, should we neglect the New Covenant dimension and the power of a miracle-working God. Jeremiah could only prophesy Jesus Christ:
Jer 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
We know his reality in our lives. We know the power of his blood and the fulness of his ministry of redemption. Moreover, we know he is indeed ascended into glory and reigns on high. We know he will return, but that even now Jesus has all authority to reign in the affairs of men, and demands, as Jeremiah wrote, judgment and justice in the earth.
As ambassadors of Christ, we know we can speak and pray with heaven’s full authority. Every call for repentance, every prophetic act, every evangelistic outreach, every prayer, is heard on high and makes a spiritual impact. And we know that when we pray, and when we do the simple things, we can rely on the Lord of life to do the miraculous. So it isn’t over until it’s over. It isn’t even over when it’s over. The necessary pre-condition for a miracle, after all, is that all else seems lost.
Equally, the UK can be argued to be far more accountable to God today than were Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. Sodom had no Bible, no preacher and no church. We have the truth all around us, the rich heritage of scripture and almost two thousand years of faith in these Islands. Our nation as a whole is truly without excuse.
THE WITNESS OF SCRIPTURE
But what of the witness of scripture? The Lord specifically told Jeremiah not to pray for the people of Judah. We acknowledge that. Now then, what does the rest of scripture tell us about praying for our land and its people and leaders in our time? Well, firstly, Jeremiah himself told the Judean captives taken away by Nebuchadnezzar to pray specifically for the land in which they found themselves.
He was told by God to send a letter of encouragement to the Judean diaspora. In it he urged them to be busy, to build families, homes and businesses, and above all:
Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Interestingly he gave a reason: ‘For in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.’ This assumes firstly that living in peace is a good thing and that secondly if the land in which we dwell is at peace we shall be better able to plant, to build, to bring up a family, to increase and to preach the Gospel.
NEW TESTAMENT CALL TO PRAYER
The Apostle Paul surely had that scripture in mind when he wrote this to Timothy:
1Tim 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
The apostle singled out kings and rulers as targets for prayer. He, too, gave the same reason as Jeremiah. We pray for those in authority so we can lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. And Paul added the Gospel imperative.
THE PROPHETS
It would be a brave man indeed who would say the Apostle Paul’s specific command has been abrogated in the face of the UK’s national wickedness and with it our gracious Lord’s desire to see men saved. I cannot see anything in scripture which would absolve us from the apostle’s clear command. It is not conditional on good behaviour from the nation in question in the slightest. There is no point where the Apostle says that when a nation’s sin becomes so great that Christ’s people stop praying. I have the feeling he would be astonished if the question were even asked.
Anyone who sees himself in prophetic mode must adhere to the word of God. Whatever he says must line up with scripture. The Lord will never contradict his word. If you think you are hearing something contrary to the word of God in holy scripture, you are wrong. If you are bold enough to articulate it, you are a false prophet. It simply is not enough to say, ‘Well, God told Jeremiah not to pray for his people, therefore he must be telling me not to pray for mine. After all, look at them!’ It doesn’t work like that. What indeed would be the point of calling for no more prayer for the UK?
When we look at the prophets of the Bible, we find they are constantly calling for national repentance in every possible circumstance. If you are calling for repentance, that must come from a heart which desires to see it. And that is a heart of prayer. So in a sense, when God told Jeremiah not to pray for the people, he was asking the impossible. No wonder Jeremiah’s tears earned him the title of the ‘Weeping Prophet’ if he was carrying a burden like that.
CAN WE PRAY BUT NOT ‘FOR GOOD’?
Finally, is there a lower grade of prayer for the nation in which, remembering Jer 14:11, we pray firmly for repentance in the nation but stop short of praying ‘for their good’? We must accept that even if we pray for national prosperity we know that only comes by obedience to God’s word. So we are better off praying for repentance knowing that of itself is a good.
But what about peace and security? Instead of praying for MI5 and the police to be blessed with good breaks, and praying for Mr Davies in his talks with M Barnier, should we pray for bombers to let off their devices with maximum casualties and for a crushing Brexit bill? One may be able to justify praying for a wake-up call for an individual. After all, did not the prodigal son have to starve in the pig pen before he came to his senses and repented? However, such an approach when praying for our nation seems to me to contradict Jer 29:7 and 1Tim 2:1-4, as well as words such as these:
Prov 24:17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: 18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.
Romans 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Nor is just keeping quiet and leaving security and political events ‘in the Lord’s hands’ an option. That might sound high-minded and really spiritual, but remember there is no half-way house in heaven. If you are not doing good, you are doing bad. If you are not praying for good, you are praying for evil:
Mark 3:4 And he saith unto them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
NEVER CEASE PRAYING
So let us never cease praying for our leaders, in whichever nation we find ourselves. Pray for God to have mercy, to spare the judgment we are bringing so ably on ourselves and for the nation’s repentance. In fact, whilst writing this, I was convicted to pray for the leaders of the European Union. After all, they are, at this present time and until Brexit arrives, ‘in authority’ over the United Kingdom, whether we like it or not.
Finally, I have been in many prayer meetings where we prayed to God for him to do something, and indeed, we can always agree with the psalmist:
Psa 119:126 It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.
But equally, I believe the Lord is looking for those with the prayer of Isaiah, ‘Lord, send me,’ and for the prayer of Jehoshaphat: ‘Lord show us what we can do.’ When our gracious Lord receives prayers like those, he will, I think, pour out his heart. It is of the grace of God that he involves us in what he does. And if Wesley was right that God does nothing except in answer to prayer, then we have a responsibility to pray into what must be on his heart and let faith spur us to works. Then, when we see his victory, we can look to our Father, give him all the glory and say to ourselves, ‘Hey, we were part of that’.
Hab 3:2 O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
Keep praying for this people!
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