For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.
Jeremiah 4 first speaks to Israel and Jerusalem and then turns to the desolations of the last days. It stands in Jeremiah 2 to 4, where union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery. The voice declaring from Dan and publishing affliction from Mount Ephraim is part of an alarm of war, of trumpet, and of destruction upon destruction, warning of coming destruction.
That destruction comes because God's people are foolish, do not know Him, and are wise to do evil. It comes when people are no longer worthy of God's favor, bringing awful confusion and trouble upon the earth. The whole land is laid waste, tents are suddenly destroyed, and all the cities are broken down at the presence of Jehovah and before His fierce anger. The destruction of ancient Jerusalem is only a faint shadow of this coming destruction.
Zion and Jerusalem in the prophecy mean the church in all ages, so its language is applied to the church in the last days. The prophecy was written for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the ages are come. It applies manifestly to the time just before the second coming of Christ and the judgment of the wicked, when the large cities of the world have become Sodom-like cesspools of corruption, prostitution, murder, and disease, when men gasp for breath before murderers and assemble in troops at harlots' houses, and when widespread wickedness calls for the personal visitation of Jehovah for destruction at the end of time.
It warns of the period before the day of the Lord when all the nations of the earth shall be prepared for the battle of Armageddon. Military preparation fulfills the prophecy and, carried to the ultimate, means the destruction of earthly kingdoms, because a nation counted well prepared stirs boasting and aggressiveness in its people and drives other nations to prepare in the same way. After Christ's coming the land will be desolate and without people during the thousand years. The earth is then rejected until God creates new heavens and a new earth.
Jeremiah 4 first speaks to Israel and Jerusalem and then turns to the desolations of the last days. It stands in Jeremiah 2 to 4, where union of God's church with the world is fornication and adultery. The voice declaring from Dan and publishing affliction from Mount Ephraim is part of an alarm of war, of trumpet, and of destruction upon destruction, warning of coming destruction.
That destruction comes because God's people are foolish, do not know Him, and are wise to do evil. It comes when people are no longer worthy of God's favor, bringing awful confusion and trouble upon the earth. The whole land is laid waste, tents are suddenly destroyed, and all the cities are broken down at the presence of Jehovah and before His fierce anger. The destruction of ancient Jerusalem is only a faint shadow of this coming destruction.
Zion and Jerusalem in the prophecy mean the church in all ages, so its language is applied to the church in the last days. The prophecy was written for the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the ages are come. It applies manifestly to the time just before the second coming of Christ and the judgment of the wicked, when the large cities of the world have become Sodom-like cesspools of corruption, prostitution, murder, and disease, when men gasp for breath before murderers and assemble in troops at harlots' houses, and when widespread wickedness calls for the personal visitation of Jehovah for destruction at the end of time.
It warns of the period before the day of the Lord when all the nations of the earth shall be prepared for the battle of Armageddon. Military preparation fulfills the prophecy and, carried to the ultimate, means the destruction of earthly kingdoms, because a nation counted well prepared stirs boasting and aggressiveness in its people and drives other nations to prepare in the same way. After Christ's coming the land will be desolate and without people during the thousand years. The earth is then rejected until God creates new heavens and a new earth.