Jeremiah 27:1

 Jeremiah 27:1 says, In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,  Verse two adds, Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,  During the reign of Jehoiakim, the word of God came to Jeremiah and told him to make bonds and a yoke and put it on his neck.  This might have many people questioning whether they actually had heard God correctly or not.  Verse three states, And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;  At some point in time, Jeremiah was to send these yokes and bonds with a message to the kings that Judah evidently had an alliance with.  Verse four adds, And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;  Those sent were to be made aware that the message came from God and not just from Jeremiah himself.  When we share God's word today, we need to make sure that people realize that what we say is God's word and not just our own opinion.  Verse five continues, I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.  God also made it clear who He was.  He was the God that created everything, and therefore the only God that their is.  Verse six declares,  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.  God said that He had given all these kings over to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.  Their alliance was not going to save them, and neither was God, because they, His people, had turned away from Him.  Verse seven adds,  And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.  God told them that they would serve Nebuchadnezzar and his son, so the servitude would not be a short one.  Verse eight continues, And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.  God said that those who would not serve Nebuchadnezzar would fall under the sword and pestilence.  Their priests and prophets may have been telling them otherwise, but God said that resistance would be futile.  There are people today who claim in the name of some god, if not the God, that everything is going to be okay, no matter what, but God has already given His word that if we do not accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord that we are doomed forever.  Verse nine declares, Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:  God told them to not listen to all those who told them that they would not serve the king of Babylon.  Verse ten adds, For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.  God said that these other diviners, dreamers, enchanters and sorcerers were wrong.  It doesn't matter how many people may tell us something that is against the word of God, they will always be wrong.  Verse eleven says, 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.  God said that those that willing served Nebuchadnezzar would be allowed to remain in their land.  The only way to remain in the land was to listen to God.  The only way we can find security in the world today is to listen to the word of God and obey His commands.