“And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire,” Jeremiah 21:8-10.
“But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein. I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live,” Jeremiah 27:11-12.
“The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword: but thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD,” Jeremiah 34:1-5.
I. THE MESSAGE OF GOD TO HIS FAITHFUL PEOPLE IN A DAY OF APOSTASY IS ‘SURRENDER’!
“He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey,” Jeremiah 21:9.
I can recall, as if it were yesterday, Dr S B Cooke, in my first year in the Homiletics class in 1965, say of the message of God given to Jeremiah that, ‘to preach surrender in a day of apostasy is the most difficult message any man will ever be required to preach, especially here in Ulster!’
I know now that he was saying it to us with an understanding of just what was coming upon ‘Protestant Ulster’!
Proof
On July 28th, I read Jeremiah 24 where there is given to us the ‘parable’ of the ‘two baskets of figs’. One had ‘very good figs’ and the other had ‘very naughty (disagreeable, unpleasant) figs’.
The Lord was picturing by the ‘good figs’, those who surrendered to His just judgment for their sins and yielded to Nebuchadrezzar and went into captivity, Jeremiah 24:1.
“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart,” Jeremiah 24:4-7.
The unpleasant figs, however, represented those who rejected the justice of God in His punishing of their sins by Nebuchadrezzar and his army, and resisted him and perished as result.
“And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah (who replaced Jeconiah, who had surrendered) the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers,” Jeremiah 24:8-10.
True to His Word
The Lord kept His promise to those who admitted their sins and wrong-doing and submitted to God’s punishment at the hands of Nebuchadrezzar and went into Babylonian captivity.
The last chapter of Jeremiah records this fact.
“And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin (the other name of Jeconiah, referred to in Jeremiah 24:1) king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life,” Jeremiah 52:31-34.
Thus Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin as he was also called, was released from prison, dealt with kindly, was set upon a throne, had his prison garb replaced and did continually eat at the table of Evilmerodach king of Babylon for the rest of his life.
It paid him well to have yielded to the just judgment of God, acknowledging his sin and those of Judah his kingdom.
There is a day coming when it will be wise to act in the same spirit here in Northern Ireland!
1. All the marching under ‘Orange banners’ and the playing of the ‘Sash’ has not, and will not, change the religious course of this land.
Invariably those marches lead right into an ‘ecumenical church service’ to be addressed by an ‘ecumenical’ false prophet!
That will not bring victory and only a blinded fool would think it will.
In control
Corruption and treachery is in firm control of political life here. It has ‘strangled’ any life there once was in the Democratic Unionist Party. It is not totally in step with the morality of today, endorsing sodomy and its allied perversions, despite once campaigning against it. Those presently in membership of the party and its elected representatives indicate an embracing of such depravity.
The much vouched astonishment within its ranks regarding the wickedness of the now convicted paedophile former leader, Donaldson, has been mixed with a seeking of headlines in the aftermath of the court’s decision by some now ready to claim that they had known for a long time of his moral deviancy!
Was it in order not to jeopardise their ‘political’ status that they kept silent? It’s a far cry from the ‘Save Ulster from Sodomy campaign’ of the 1970s!
2. The moral decline has ‘progressed’ in step with the political sell-out! Increasingly even a blind-folded fool on a galloping horse can see the swiftly accelerating slide toward a ‘United Ireland’.
The ‘Gaelicisation’ of Northern Ireland advances fast and it is not just street signs! Even Free Presbyterians have been caught up in it, under the influence of Antrim Free Presbyterian Church minister, Paul Thompson.
Remember
It is to be remembered that in the day when Presbyterianism in Ireland began to embrace error and heresy, it also began to be enamoured with ‘Irish Republicanism’! The ‘United Irishmen’ of the late 18th century was a foreshadowing of what is taking place today!
The Church of Ireland’s Theobald Wolfe Tone, James Napper Tandy, along with Presbyterian radicals such as Henry Joy McCracken, Henry Munro and the Rev. James Porter, led the folly.
These men helped lead the Society of United Irishmen and instigate the infamous 1798 rebellion. One of the scenes of its insurrection was, not surprisingly, Antrim!!
3. There is no evidence whatever of any effective witness against the political trend of today. Sinn Fein never fails to promote their ambition for a ‘United Ireland’ at home and abroad. There is no shortage of sympathy and support for Sinn Féin’s objectives at Westminster. Here in Ulster, the most forthright in their opposition to present developments over the last 20+ years is the party led by Mr Jim Allister MP, the ‘Traditional Unionist Voice’. I believe the polling by the party would indicate that they will never achieve the degree of political support that they require to becoming the ruling Unionist party.
There is not the lively Protestantism in Ulster that gave rise in the ’60s and ’70s to the Protestant Unionist Party, which then evolved into the Democratic Unionist Party. Ecumenism has killed off that spirit within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the Church of Ireland and the Methodist denominations.
Inevitable?
Is a United Ireland inevitable? I believe that judgment for the betrayal of the Gospel is inevitable. As in Judah, things will not just continue on as before while God and His Word are rejected.
The one thing our forefathers feared was ‘Dublin Rule’. A United Ireland will bring that about! There is talk of great changes in the Roman Catholicism feared by our fathers.
Tell that to the victims of the paedophile priests and the parents of those victims!
Priest charged with 116 sex offences
That was the local BBC headline on 23rd July past! Not much change there.
‘The Troubles’
Throughout the years of IRA terrorism, the Dublin government was less than neighbourly when it came to combatting the Republic-based IRA units.
It is to be remembered that the first units of the ‘Provisional IRA’ were armed through the efforts of leading politicians in the Irish Republic.
We used to be taught, though the maxim appears to be long forgotten, that Rome in the minority is a lamb; in equality, she is a fox and in the majority, she is a tiger! Past history has demonstrated that to be true and so too will the future!
I have no doubt that the religious environment of a United Ireland would not be advantageous to a Bible-believing people. A recent newspaper article referred to how well Protestants seem to be doing now south of the border. Those tolerated in the south now are ecumenical ‘Protestants’, who, led by their ministers, neither feel nor say anything critical of the errors and heresies of Romanism.
‘Kowtowing’ to all things Romish is the order of the day for a quiet life in the Irish Republic!
Only the Lord could make a change in that atmosphere! I believe He will for those who yield to His revealed will in these evil days.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
7th August 2026
Part three to follow.