52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. ² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence.

And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ⁴ And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. ⁵ So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶ On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. ⁷ Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled and went out from the city by night by the way of a gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. ⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. ⁹ Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. ¹¹ He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death

— Jeremiah 52:1-11, English Standard Version

It is always worth remembering that God’s mercy is far, FAR beyond human comprehension – but, when the day comes that He withdraws His hand, the suffering and misery that results, is also far beyond human comprehension.

We are in those days now, where He has very plainly withdrawn His hand from those nations that only honour Him with their mouths, and not their hearts – or, in the case of much of the collective West, do not even yield to Him that much.

Also, here is one for the scholars among you – one of my contacts in Russia shared this with me, it is a very interesting video. You can watch it with closed-captions, the translation is very good. It consists of an interview with an occultist – a self-proclaimed servant of Satan – who argues that all of Christianity serves the Father of Lies.

He is wrong about that, of course – and if you are alert and knowledgeable, you will rapidly pick up on several lies and half-truths he tells in the course of this interview. For instance, when he talks about how often the Bible itself has been changed, it is not at all difficult to point to the manuscript evidence we have as Christians – which is vast – and note that the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments as we have it today, has been accurately and correctly preserved through centuries and millennia.

Nonetheless, I find his points about the Great Schism of 1054, and the fall of the Catholic Church, to be very interesting indeed.

I do not doubt his proclaimed allegiance to the one he claims he serves – if someone tells you he serves the Prince of Darkness, it is usually best to take him at face value. But he is wrong about the form of reward he will get for his service – for the Prince of Lies, always… well, lies.

The God of Truth, by contrast – the Living Word who became flesh, Jesus who became the Christ, the visible image of the invisible God – does not lie. His Kingdom will be ours, if only we listen to Him.