The edifice of our religion and the institutions of our nation are being tested to determine their integrity. As it has been through all of history, nothing that is not under the authority of the Lord will succeed. No era of human history is immune from such an inquiry, including ours.

The integrity of leadership within the Church and in the institutions of our culture is being examined by the Lord. Without supporting integrity, a spiritual collapse will occur bringing with it the dismantling of what is supporting our deception.

There is a repeated theme when this collapse begins. Those in positions of leadership will at some point abandon the truth and do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. It has happened throughout the record of Scripture, and it’s happening now.

Zedekiah was a king who continued along a path of evil without repentance. “He refused to humble himself when the prophet Jeremiah spoke to him directly from the Lord” (II Chronicles 36:13).

Zedekiah’s rebellion against the Lord began to affect the nation he ruled, “Likewise, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful. They followed all the pagan practices of the surrounding nations, desecrating the Temple of the Lord that had been consecrated in Jerusalem” (vs. 14).

The Lord did not give up on Zedekiah or the nation. The Lord “repeatedly sent prophets to warn them” (vs. 15). Zedekiah and his leaders scoffed at the message of the prophets “until the Lord’s anger could no longer be restrained, and nothing could be done” (vs. 16).

At that point, the Lord sent the army of the Babylonians as a consequence of their unrepented sin. The people were destroyed, the Temple was demolished, and its treasures were stolen. In the end the Babylonians “destroyed everything of value” (vs. 20). The remnants who survived were taken as captives to serve their captors.

After all the destruction and loss of life occurred, the Lord stirred the heart of Cyrus of Persia to fulfill a prophetic word spoken through Jeremiah to rebuild the destroyed Temple.

The Lord is currently stirring new leadership to rebuild what we have allowed to fall into disarray in the Church and our nation. Look only at his obedience to the Lord, not to where our Cyrus came from or how offending he may appear. This messenger was sent from the Lord and he is coming with a mission to restore and rebuild what our journey into sin has destroyed.