I enjoy a good disaster movie about as well as the next guy. Independence Day, Matrix, Tidal Wave Movies, Freezing Planet Movies, Earth in the path of Meteor Movies, Virus killing off the planet Movies, Sharks with Huge Jaws Movies, even Piranha Taking Over The Central Texas Waters and Killing Swimmers Movies. Have you got a favorite? I'm sure there have been thousands of them. Remember the Blob. Was that Steve McQueens debut?

With all this disaster around us, do you think we are kind of inoculated against disaster? Maybe it's a good thing that Israel didn't have television in those days. It might have made it worse, if such were possible. Maybe Jeremiah was their Television. Think about that for a moment.

Tele is the endpoint of something. In a television set, you see the end of the signal at the end point or terminus. Telegraph is the same thing. Telephone same thing. And in a television you are hearing and seeing the end point with your eyes, your vision. Do you see how Jeremiah is ancient television? And he is playing a non-stop disaster movie, called Israel Dies or/and Goes Into Captivity. It's a true story, about to happen, Prophecy.

There are current prophecies making the rounds right now. Some of them revolve around the ancient Mayan's and their calender and the year 2012, focusing on Dec. 21. It's been interesting enough to even gain my interest as I've read some about it. I mean, who can turn away from a good round of date setting?

But the end is not Jeremiahs only focus in this passage. There is a pass through, a portal for many to move through and move on. Life after the tragedy is assured. I think that most prophecy leads to a future for someone, somewhere. There have been a couple of places where it seems God was prepared to finish off the human race, right down the last breathing soul. The ark of Noah came close, right? Sodom and Gomorrah seemed like a complete doom for those inhabitants.

Yet, there was always a people who came through. Here in vss. 14, 15 we see the pattern repeated.

¹⁴ "However, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when men will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' ¹⁵ but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.

The question comes to mind, what does it take to be in that group?

Faith, Knowledge, Perseverance, Anger, Patience, Fear? What will be the characteristics of the group that comes through and lives on, eventually to return or at least have offspring that return to the land and reap the rewards that God has planned for them in the future.

Where should our focus be in times of disaster? Dates, charts, enemies, rumors, problems, people, self? I don't think any of those things will see us through. I think there is only one focus. You can probably guess what that is, right? Well, it's Television again. As verse 10 describes the reason for their demise, that they have forsaken the Lord, we would do best to unforsake the Lord. Turning our thoughts back to the source of all vision and the source of all beginnings and endings, God Himself.

There is nothing easier to talk about than God. There is nothing harder to talk about than God. In all that talk though, only when we see and thrill in God's vision for our future do we reap the blessings of friendship with the Universe God. Change the channel is my suggestion. Not to the preachers, nor the healers, nor the politicians, nor the gardeners, nor the builders channels, but to the Hope Channel. The Hope in the God of vs 16 who says, "As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers"

This is the story that's on my television, a story of restoration. There are ends to come, but restoration trumps and succeeds all.

Jeremiah 16

Day of Disaster

 ¹ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ² "You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place." ³ For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: ⁴ "They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth."

 ⁵ For this is what the LORD says: "Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people," declares the LORD. ⁶ "Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut himself or shave his head for them. ⁷ No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.

 ⁸ "And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. ⁹ For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.

 ¹⁰ "When you tell these people all this and they ask you, 'Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?' ¹¹ then say to them, 'It is because your fathers forsook me,' declares the LORD, 'and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. ¹² But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me. ¹³ So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'

 ¹⁴ "However, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when men will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' ¹⁵ but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.

 ¹⁶ "But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the LORD, "and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. ¹⁷ My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols."

 ¹⁹ O LORD, my strength and my fortress,
       my refuge in time of distress,
       to you the nations will come
       from the ends of the earth and say,
       "Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods,
       worthless idols that did them no good.

 ²⁰ Do men make their own gods?
       Yes, but they are not gods!"

 ²¹ "Therefore I will teach them—
       this time I will teach them
       my power and might.
       Then they will know
       that my name is the LORD.