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This message was preached at the monthly meeting of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony in the Bible Presbyterian Church hall, Kilburn, London on 25th May 2012.

Upon reading it I was struck at how some of the statements in particular correlate very much with events in today’s Gaza over the last three months.

The text of the message has just been published in the SGAT magazine, ‘Watching and Waiting’, January — March 2024 and we have received kind permission to reprint that article here on ‘The Burning Bush’.

I trust this proves helpful and informative.

Ivan Foster

God’s Purpose for Gaza

(Jeremiah 47)

By Ivan Foster

(This is a summary of a message preached at a meeting of the Sovereign Grace Advent Testimony on 25th May, 2012).

I have enjoyed studying this subject in God’s Word and am confident that I have benefitted from the study.  God has a purpose even for such a small entity as Gaza and it is the privilege of Christians to know the purpose of God.  God has revealed in very minute detail what He is going to do in the future regarding obscure nations, even nations about which we may not know much.  I believe that it is vital for us to give attention to anything that God has revealed; our neglect of whatever God has said in His Word will lead to ignorance, which inevitably will be to our cost. (more…)

If we can find men like Mahath, Joel and Kish etc!

“Hezekiah began to reign when he was five and twenty years old, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place,” 2 Chronicles 29:1-5.

I read this chapter on the morning of December 24th. As I read it I thought that the way Hezekiah started his reign provides us with a wonderful example of how we should start 2024!

Of course, what King Hezekiah desired would never have been accomplished were it not for the faithful labours of the Levites who are named by the Lord in the verses 12-14. Surely the listing of their names and those of their fathers is a wonderful example of how God honours those who serve Him and the fathers responsible for the instilling of a spirit of concern for the testimony of God and the purity of His House in their sons!

I. THE LEVITES WHO TOOK ON THE TASK OF CLEANSING THE HOUSE OF THE LORD ACTED IN RESPONSE TO THE CALL OF THE KING. 

“He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the east street, And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place,” 2 Chronicles 29:3-5.

The state of God’s house and the conducting of the services within it are of great concern to our King, even the Lord Jesus Christ. We surely recall how it was He started and concluded His three year earthly ministry. (more…)