3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.
Now this can’t refer to Israel because after the Lord’s earthly ministry they were not enlarged, they were scattered, defeated. Instead this must refer to the gospel going to the four corners of the earth. Jesus' resurrection was the firstfruits, that was when we rejoiced as at the harvest. Jesus’ death on the cross was what shattered our yoke, the bar across our shoulders, the rod of the oppressor. This refers to the move of the gospel during the church age.
5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.
Jesus is the Savior, He is also the king. He is the life giving one who redeemed us from sin. He is also the one who reigns on David’s throne. During this age we have seen a lot of wars, a lot of battles, a lot of blood. This is the carnage due to incompetent rulers who sinned and fell short of the glory of God. All of them are destined for burning. But garments rolled in blood reminds me of the “Red coats”. That was a turning point in war. No country would dress their soldiers in red coats today. America defeated the British by hiding behind trees and rocks, by using stealth, by what was considered at the time as terrorism. We targeted the officers, a practice at the time considered barbaric. Today officers don’t want to stand out from the rest of the fighting men in the field. The American Revolution was a turning point in revealing Jesus Christ as King. The US was dedicated at the start to be a light shining on the hill, a place of refuge for the downtrodden, a country established with the ideal of “justice for all”. At one point in history the whole world marvelled that the US was wonderful, they saw this as a great government, they saw that our God was the mighty God. Once we became a world power we had an impact on peace over the whole earth. As much as you might want to focus on the sins and shortcomings of the country, the truth is that the US had a very positive impact on peace for the whole world, at least for a few decades.
8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel.
And then the Lord sent us a message that this kingdom would fall. 9/11 was a message to repent, it was a message that our hedge of protection had been removed and that the enemy was inside our camp.
9 All the people will know it— Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—who say with pride and arrogance of heart, 10 “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”
The entire world saw 9/11, everyone knew it. They saw that the mighty nation was no longer invulnerable. God saw it too. He saw the proud and arrogant proclamations that we would “rebuild, bigger and better”. We weren’t humbled like the Galileans that the Lord came to, no we were proud and arrogant. This message didn’t cause us to turn back to the Lord, to repent for kicking God out of our country. Prayer and scriptures have been kicked out of school, public displays of the ten commandments have been torn down, any expression of God or Jesus publicly is almost certainly to be mocking. God was our hedge of protection, get rid of Him and we are now wide open to attack.
11 But the Lord has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on. 12 Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. 13 But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the Lord Almighty.
Since 9/11 the foes have not decreased, they have doubled. We have fought several wars in the middle east that have cost us over a trillion dollars. We are in the midst of a trade war with China. We have had a mortgage crisis which has also cost us close to a trillion dollars all told. There has been a realization that this is God’s judgement, there have been national days of prayer. But this is only with the Christians, not with the nation as a whole.
14 So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day; 15 the elders and dignitaries are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail. 16 Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray. 17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks folly. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.
It has become abundantly clear that the people who guide this people mislead them. Trump admitted as much on a taped interview with Woodward. Pelosi railed against the President for not wearing a mask and then was caught in her hypocrisy on camera. Kamala Harris railed against the disrespect to minorities and Blacks and then disrespected her own father saying of course she smokes weed she is from Jamaica. Her own father had to publicly rebuke her for this. She told Biden she believed the women who were accusing him of sexual misconduct and then is happy to forget all about it to run with him for president. Biden’s son got rich because his father was the Vice President. The prophets who teach lies are the media. Fake news and biased news is blatantly obvious. Turn on CNN and you will hear how the latest thing that happened proves how terrible Trump is, change the station to Fox and they will be saying the exact same event proves how great Trump is. It isn’t just them, on social media every mouth speaks folly. Many of us are suffering through all this as the worst punishment, we could not imagine a world, or leaders like this. Yet this has not satisfied the Lord’s anger.
18 Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.
Is he talking about the protests, riots and looting? Is he talking about the record setting fires in the West? Is he talking about climate change? People got tired of using the term “apocalyptic” and “end of the world” to describe what they were seeing, now the phrase is “a year like no other”.
