I’m sorry to have to tell those of you who are fans of my fictitious character Charlie, but at the moment I have him and the Angel together with the Bible-study group all settled in at the Sunday Worship Service. They’re sitting in the church silently awaiting the guest preacher who begins his sermon by saying: Last week, after speaking about some of the immense atrocities committed by the former terrorist, Kamal Saleem, I ended my sermon by asking: “How do you think you would feel today if, after first pleading for the man’s salvation, you had begged God to kill him a long time ago? Before he was converted, Kamal clearly was an enemy of God. Would it have been proper and honoring to God for you and me to pray imprecatory prayers against that man who once hated Christ and His followers with such intense passion?” I concluded by saying: “Of course, it would!” As a matter of fact, I prayed an imprecatory prayer last Thursday evening just as I said I would to some folks I was visiting that afternoon. I’ll share it with you at the end of this message.

With the recent T V bombardment of those horrifying iconic images of the satanic evil unleashed upon our nation nine years ago yesterday fresh in our mind; how do you think you would feel if you learned that some time before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Osama bin Laden had become reborn as a new creature in the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? As far as I’m concerned after thinking about all the pain, suffering and misery that man has brought upon countless men, women and children; I would feel as though God had robbed me of justice. I’m being completely honest with you, but that’s how much hatred I have for that evil man. I remember telling a friend how happy I was when Saddam Husain had been captured, tried, convicted and seething with defiance to the end, was finally executed; my friend was shocked and wondered where my love was. I hope this message will answer his question.

As for the second question: “Would it have been honoring to God for you and me to have been praying imprecatory prayers against bin Laden, a man who formerly hated Jesus and His followers and all other so-called infidels? I must answer: “Of course, it would.” In fact, I believe we should ask God to shower down curses upon His enemy’s today just as He has in the past. Personally I don’t know any Christians who feel as strongly as I do about this issue, but I have reason to believe there are many.

I’m reminded of events which occurred towards the end of 7 B. C. The Lord our God was going to use a man to communicate a wakeup call to His chosen people who had turned completely away from Him. They worshiped pagan gods and took part in their practices. These ancient Jews struck up alliances with those people who were God’s enemies in order to protect themselves against their own. These were the deplorable circumstances a man named Jeremiah found himself living in. God had given this man a mega abundance of love for those wayward Jews, so much so, that he constantly pleaded with them to knock off their sinful lifestyle and return to the one true God. They repeatedly rejected Jeremiah’s loving message. The weeping Prophet as he was called broke down and wept for the disobedient Jews because he knew they were going to experience God’s awful judgment. Just thinking about the horrors awaiting those non-Christians God has placed in our lives that stubbornly refuse to accept His love for them ought to cause us to weep, too. Needless to say, his message wasn’t very popular anymore than my messages on the imprecatory prayers would be with most Americans including all too many Christians. Members of Jeremiah’s family thought he was out to lunch just as folks I know no doubt feel about me for preaching some of my messages. There were even some Jews who hated him and his messages with such a passion that they wanted to kill him. I sure hope no one ever feels that way about me. That’s enough from me for now. Let’s read Jeremiah’s account in his own words.

Jeremiah 18:1-18 (ESV) ¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
² “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”
³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel.
⁴ And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
⁵ Then the word of the LORD came to me:
⁶ “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the LORD. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
⁷ If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,
⁸ and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
⁹ And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,
¹⁰ and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.
¹¹ Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the LORD, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’
¹² “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our own plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
¹³ “Therefore thus says the LORD: Ask among the nations, Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing.
¹⁴ Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams?
¹⁵ But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway,
¹⁶ making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head.
¹⁷ Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity.”
¹⁸ Then they said, “Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.”

Can you imagine how this good man whom God had called into a prophetic ministry must have felt? His frustration, sorrow, loneliness and exhaustion grew to the point until finally Jeremiah’s righteous anger erupted against these enemies of God in a passionate prayer.

Jeremiah 18:19-23 (ESV) ¹⁹ Hear me, O LORD, and listen to the voice of my adversaries.
²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
²¹ Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
²² May a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet.
²³ Yet you, O LORD, know all their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.

“This hideous prophecy proved true just twenty years later in the siege of Jerusalem in 587 B. C.  The highest curse of the covenant, foretold by Moses, fell on a nation of covenant breakers: (A)

Lamentations 2:20 (ESV) ²⁰ Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? Lamentations 4:10 (ESV) ¹⁰ The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. The highest curse of the covenant, foretold by Moses, fell on a nation of covenant breakers.”

Deuteronomy 28:53 (ESV) ⁵³ And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.

Leviticus 26:29 (ESV) ²⁹ You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. (A)

Shortly after the second printing in 1985 of an excellent book entitled Paradise Restored, authored by David Chilton was published, I purchased a copy and kept it in my library. Little did I know at the time that God would use this man to jog my memory and take another look at it 25 years later. I also highly recommend Chilton’s very insightful work. For instance, while I was researching material for this series of sermons on the imprecatory prayers I came across the following: Chilton asks: “What should the church do about the modern form of human sacrifice, the daily abomination known as abortion? If our central response is social or political action, we are, in principal, atheists; we are confessing our faith in human action as the ultimate determiner of history. True, we should work for the criminalization of abortion; the murders should receive capital punishment.” (B)

Exodus 21:22-25 (ESV) ²² “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. ²³ But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

“We must also work to save the lives of the innocent and defenseless. But our fundamental actions should be governmental and liturgical. Church officers should pronounce judgments upon abortionists–naming outstanding Pro-Death advocates, judges, doctors, and publishers. If the church faithfully calls upon God to judge murderers and persecutors, what will happen? The answer is given in the whole Book of Revelation: God’s angles will cast fire upon the earth, and the wicked will be consumed. But we must remember that the coals of God’s vengeance must come from the altar. God’s fiery wrath issues from His throne, where we meet Him in public worship. A “resistance movement” that is not centered in worship will come under the judgment of God. In principal, it is like Nadab and Abihu’s offering of strange fire.” (C)

Leviticus 10:1-2 (ESV) ¹ Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. ² And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.

Chilton jogged my memory about another excellent book I purchased a while ago entitled PSALMS by William S. Plumer about whom he said: “Plumer wrote of the power of the churches imprecatory prayers: “Of the thirty  Roman Emperors, governors of provinces and others high in office, who distinguished themselves by their zeal and bitterness in persecuting the early Christians, one became speedily deranged after some atrocious cruelty, one was slain by his own son, one became blind, the eyes of one stared out of his head, one was drowned, one was strangled, one died in a miserable captivity, one fell dead in a manner that will not bear recital, one died of so loathsome a disease, that several of his physicians were put to death because they could not abide [stand] the stench that filled his room, two committed suicide, a third attempted it, but had to call for help to finish the work, five were assassinated by their own people or servants, five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases, and eight were killed in battle or after being taken prisoners. Among those was Julian the apostate. In the days of his prosperity he is said to have pointed his dagger to heaven defying the Son of God, whom he commonly called the Galilean. But when he was wounded in battle, he saw that it was over with him, and he gathered up his clotted blood, and threw it into the air exclaiming, ‘Thou hast conquered, O thou Galilean.’” (B)

Picking up where Plumer left off, Chilton adds: “Of course, the Church’s worship is not primarily negative but positive: we are to offer up petitions more and more, and that our age will see increasing triumphs for the conversion of the world. We must ask God to cause all nations to flow into His Temple, praying that His Mountain will grow and fill the earth and that our age will see increasing triumphs for the gospel in every area of life. There is no reason not to expect victory; if we are faithful to God’s Word, there is every reason to assume that the powers of darkness will be shattered by our advance. The gates of hell must and shall fall before the aggressive, militant Church (Matt. 16:18).”

“It is a mark of our unbelief that we put our trust in men and princes rather than in the Spirit of God. Which is more powerful-human depravity or God’s sovereignty? Can God convert the world” Of course! More than that, He has promised that He will convert the world! He has told us that “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). How much do the waters cover the sea? Is there any part of the sea that is not covered by water? That is just the point: someday, people everywhere will know the Lord. All nations will serve Him. The salvation of the world was the reason why Jesus came as He Himself told Nicodemus:

John 3:16-17 (ESV) ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

“That the world might be saved!” Here is one of the most often quoted passages of all the Bible, and so often we miss the point. Jesus Christ came to save the world-not just a sinner here and there. He wants us to disciple the nations not just a few individuals. The Lord Jesus will not be satisfied in the success of His mission until the whole earth is singing His praises. On the basis of God’s infallible promises, the Church must work and pray for the expansion of the Kingdom, with the expectation that God will fill His Church with “a great multitude, which no man can count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Rev. 7:9) We must stop acting as if we are forever destined to be a subculture. We are destined for dominion; we should straighten up and start acting like it.” (C)

Now allow me to close by sharing the imprecatory prayer I prayed last Thursday evening, just as I had told some Christian folks I visited that afternoon I would.

MY IMPRECATORY PRAYER

Father, a man who claims to be a follower of your Son is headed in the wrong direction. Unless you restrain him, he will do something which will bring enormous harm to your Church and many of my fellow human beings. I honestly don’t know if the man is one of your adopted children because I can’t, nor will I attempt to judge his heart. But I have judged his words in light of your inerrant Word and they are clearly disgraceful.

Almighty God, I plead with you to powerfully incline this man to change his direction, which is what I hope You will do. However, if he refuses to listen to you, then I ask you to deal with him as perfect love and infinite wisdom has planned before you spoke the world into existence. I’m pleading with you to grant my request in the name of your Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

MY PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING FOR GOD HONORING MY REQUEST

O Lord, my God, on this morning after the 9^th anniversary of 9/11, I offer thanks to you for having heard and honoring my request. As your Holy Bible continues to be confiscated from your children in certain nations of the world and then shredded or burned, let the whole world know that similar actions on the part of Your children of a book which other human beings erroneously consider to be sacred and precious, are not those ordered by our Commander-in-Chief, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. It’s in His name that I offer you my sincere appreciation. Amen!

NOTE

As I explained to some of you folks after today’s worship service; David and Jeremiah prayed their divinely inspired prayers of imprecation using their own words which best represented the desire of their heart to the folks who heard them spoken. Jesus and the Apostle Paul used their equally inspired words which were best suited for their audiences. Although my prayer was uninspired, I prayed it in a manner which I firmly believe will convey this spiritual truth to the folks living in our time.

As I have been stressing in this series of messages the fact is that God hates sin! His holiness requires Him to punish sinners and execute justice. His incomprehensible love for sinners such as you and me was exemplified on the Cross of His only begotten Son, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There are countless promises available to sinners if they will accept God’s love for them! And there is absolutely nothing in the entire world from preventing any human being capable of understanding the Words tender hearted Jesus spoke to a grieving woman a little more than two thousand years ago: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives in me shall never die,” John 11:25 (ESV). Unless he or she defiantly refuses to part with their self-induced hardened heart up until the moment of death, as Saddam Husain did!!!!

END NOTES

(A) Psalms of Promise, Celebrating the Majesty and Faithfulness of God, Second Edition, © 1988, 1994 by E. Calvin Beisner. Published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co, P. O. Box 817, Phillipsburg, New Jersey 08865-0817, p.166. I’m indebted to Beisner for much of material concerning Jeremiah and apostate Judah. His chapter concerning the Curses on Covenant Breakers is an extremely valuable resource and well worth the price of the book.

(B)  Paradise Restored, by David Chilton, © 1985 by Reconstruction Press, P. O. 7999 Tyler, Texas 75711, p. 216.

(C)  PSALMS, A Critical and Expository Commentary with Doctrinal and Practical Remarks, by William S Plumer, D. D., LL.D. First published 1868. First Banner of Truth Trust edition 1975 reprinted 1990.

(D) Paradise Restored, p.217-218.