This next lesson in the every-Thursday COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY is being written as Christmas quickly approaches.
Practically all of the world is trying to put their cares behind them and join hearts in joyful celebration of the fact that Christ has come to save us; which is wonderful and as it should be.
Emmanuel – God with us!
May it always be true!
A NATION WITH CHANGING WAYS
Salvation is definitely something to celebrate; but these words in our study today are different in nature. They speak of peoples and nations who are not living in the blessings of salvation that come from following God’s laws.
In an obedient nation, when we depart from obedience, but repent; God offers us grace and we stay in that constant state of peace that comes from such grace. This is America past. We once lived in this state; but today it is slowly dissolving away from us. Things are changing faster than we can keep up with the changes.
SAD TIMES DURING A JOYFUL SEASON
This passage speaks of people who have forgotten how to repent, who are not living in a state of grace by obedience, and it notes this is a national state of many un-repented sins of disobedience. It speaks of a constant national disobedience that causes great national suffering.
The news here, to the ungodly nations living in a state of disobedience, is nothing to celebrate.
Today’s scripture passage is taken from the end of the 28th Chapter of Deuteronomy. I’m going to reprint these important words here from the NIV version of the bible.
Please read them slowly and carefully and let the heaviness of each sentence sink into your mind.
SCRIPTURES THAT REQUIRE URGENT PRAYER
I say that not to make you sad or anxious; but to help you to know how to pray.
The Church MUST be praying constantly about these words that follow. These are the words we need to seek God’s guidance for and we must hold them up in our most urgent prayers during the next few months and possibly years of our lives.
DEUTERONOMY 28:47-68 – CURSES FOR DISOBEDIENCE
(Deuteronomy 28:47-68): Because you did not serve The LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you.
He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you do not understand, a fierce looking nation with no respect for the old or pity for the young.
They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down.
They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you. Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict upon you during the siege you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you.
Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother, or the wife that he loves, or his surviving children and he will not give to them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all that he has left because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict upon you during the siege of all your cities.
The most gentle and sensitive woman among you – so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son and daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.
If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name – The LORD your God, the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.
He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The LORD will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of The Law, until you are destroyed.
You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number because you did not obey The LORD your God.
Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number; so it will please him to ruin and destroy you.
You will be uprooted from the land that you are entering to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods – gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot.
There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, weary eyes with longing and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day; never sure of your life. In the morning you will say “if only it were evening!” and in the evening ”if only it were morning!” because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
The LORD will send you back in ships to Egypt, on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.
FOR ISRAEL AND WHAT CAME FROM ISRAEL
Have you ever heard more frightening words than these?
Could you read those words without cringing with fear?
Did it not make you sad and anxious to hear them?
Yes; they were originally written for Israel; but the Church of the present age grew out of Israel. They could also be for us.
There was a time when I would have read this passage and said; “Well, that part is only about Israel and it does not apply to us at all.”
I no longer feel that way.
YOU WILL SERVE THE ENEMIES THE LORD SENDS AGAINST YOU
There is so much in the above passage that is just on the verge of becoming a norm in our own society. Other countries can relate to these things even more than some of us in America. Much evil prevails all over the globe, and much suffering is happening everywhere.
We are controlled by our enemies all around us.
The enemy isn’t in one country, but it is global. They have infiltrated our lands and now they come and go freely. Our walls have been broken and there is no longer any protection against them.
IN HUNGER, THIRST AND DIRE POVERTY
Just as stated in the scripture passages, our people are becoming hungry and they fear for ways to stay warm and dry in the days to come because gas and fuel and housing costs are skyrocketing.
Many are suffering poverty because they have had to make a choice between their religious beliefs and their jobs. How has America come to this state? It is because our leaders and many of our people are disobedient to God.
No one can afford to pay for all of the groceries they have normally bought without hesitating for their households in the past. Now everyone must be careful of their quickly shrinking budgets. People are beginning to hoard, and some are stingy and slight others because of it.
AN EAGLE SWOOPING DOWN
Our nation hasn’t progressed to the state of being so hungry that we turn to cannibalism to survive; but how much longer will that take at the rate we are going?
Who will suffer the atrocities of these words for the disobedient in the days to come?
I shutter to think of it all.
My mind keeps remembering the passage from Jonathan Cahn’s book called The Harbinger II, which speaks of the enemy swooping down like an eagle. He compared that passage to the happenings of 9-11. That time has long passed. The results of the acts of being a disobedient nation have already begun to be fulfilled.
OUR ONLY HOPE
The true Church today is an outgrowth of what God began with Israel. We still live under the same laws and we will still suffer the same consequences for disobedience.
Yes! Jesus has saved us. Our eternal life is secure; make no doubt about that. In the meantime though; there are earthly circumstances to deal with and this is what we might have to look forward to; unless……people repent and decide to become obedient and true to God and His laws again.
That is our only hope until eternal life begins.
ASK GOD TO CHANGE THE HEARTS OF OUR LAND
So; as you gather around your table this season and as you say your Christmas prayers lift up America and ask God to change her heart. Plead with him to change the hearts and minds of our leaders or to replace them with leaders who are godly. Pray for the future of our children and grandchildren and ask God to help us all to learn and pass on the blessings that come from obedience.
Obedience to God is the ONE THING that could change the world, save our country and bring a future to our children and grandchildren.
Make a vow in your hearts in 2022 to become the most obedient to God nation on earth and let’s break the curses of disobedience and prepare for the blessings that come from obedience.
Let’s do our best to make America one nation under God again in 2022.