THE FRUITS OF DISOBEDIENCE : PART 4
Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Org
Last Updated : July 23, 2006
Abraham's Seed Multiplied, Jacob's Controversial Blessing,
Joseph Manasseh And Ephraim, British Israelism And Abraham's
Legacy, Nation And Goyim, Forty Years In The Desert, Joshua
And Caleb, Conditional Blessing Of Canaan, God Can Break His
Promises, Christian Identity, Aryan Nations, Victory Through
Faith, Vision, Courage, Perseverance And Obedience, God Can
And Will Deliver His Children, Spiritual Warfare, Fainting
In Our Minds, Ethnic Cleansing, Disobedience Leads To Defeat
Having now explained these things to you, let's backtrack a
little in our lesson, as we still haven't discussed why Judah
was unable to achieve a victory that day over the people of
the plains. As we know from Biblical history, and as we have
already seen earlier in this series, once ancient Israel had
grown into a great nation in the land of Egypt, the Lord put
the pressure on them through slavery, in order to make them
long for deliverance; and He eventually drove them out of the
land of their former hosts. It was only in this way that they
would obey Him, and migrate to the land promised to Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. According to the Scriptures, two years after
their deliverance from Egypt, when Moses performed a census
of the people, we are told that excluding the Levites, the
women, the young children and the old men, there were over
six hundred and three thousand fighting men of twenty years
of age or older, as we see here:
"So were all those that were numbered of the children of
Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old
and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel;
Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand
and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. But the
Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered
among them." Numbers 1:45-47, KJV
From Abraham's small family, his descendants had indeed
multiplied as the stars of the heavens. Not only did it now
include the liberated nation of Israel, but it also included
the twelve Arab nations on Ishmael's side of the family, as
well as the children of Abraham's other sons by his second
wife, Keturah; none of whom went into captivity. As I noted
earlier, I also discuss this topic in such articles as "Job
And The Land Of Uz: A Biblical Mystery?". In fact, there is
a promise which was made to Jacob which has been a source of
debate for many years. In the thirty-fifth chapter of the
Book of Genesis, we discover the following verse:
"And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and
multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of
thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;"
Genesis 35:11, KJV
When Jacob was on his death bed in the land of Goshen in
Egypt, his son Joseph, now called Zaphnath-paa-neah, came to
him with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who were born
to Joseph of his Egyptian wife, Asenath, as we see here:
"And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paa-neah; and he
gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest
of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt...And
unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine
came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On
bare unto him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn
Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil,
and all my father's house. And the name of the second called
he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the
land of my affliction." Genesis 41:45, 50-52, KJV
It was at this time that Jacob shared the above promise with
Joseph, and proceeded to bless Joseph's two sons; however,
to Joseph's surprise, and although he protested, his father
gave the greater blessing to Joseph's younger son, Ephraim,
in the following words. I have added names in brackets for
the sake of clarification:
"And his father [Jacob] refused, and said, I know it, my
son, I know it: he [Manasseh] also shall become a people,
and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother
[Ephraim] shall be greater than he, and his seed shall
become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day,
saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as
Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before
Manasseh." Genesis 48:19-20, KJV
According to certain Christian teachers, the above reference
to "a nation" and "shall be great", is supposedly a prophecy
concerning the United States of America; while the reference
to "a company of nations" and "a multitude of nations", is
said to be speaking of the British Commonwealth. These two
doctrines have acquired the names of "British Israelism" and
"Abraham's Legacy", and there may be other names for them as
well. They appear to be particularly popular with those who
belong to so-called "white supremacist" groups. I have read
quite a bit of material concerning this interpretation; and
while it is quite awe-inspiring, currently, I am by no means
convinced that it is correct, due to my study of the final
chapters of the Book of Jeremiah. I believe that part of the
problem is due to a poor understanding of the word "nation".
When we hear the word "nation" today, we normally think of
different countries of the world; however, in Biblical
times, the word had a variety of meanings.
According to my Hebrew lexicon, the word "nation" is derived
from the Hebrew word "gowy" or "goy", the plural of which is
"goyim". It is variably translated into English as nation,
heathen, Gentiles, or people. This is why, in part, the Jews
refer to we Gentiles as "goyim". For a fuller understanding
of this word, please refer to the controversial series "The
International Jew And The Protocols Of Zion". As you will
see shortly, while Canaan was one land, it was inhabited by
seven different "great nations", or ethnic groups, according
to the words of Moses. Earlier in this study, I explained
the exact land area which was promised to the descendants of
Abraham; therefore, I am more inclined to believe that the
promises made to Jacob, and the blessings he gave to Ephraim
and Manasseh, were fulfilled within the same confines of
that land area. A further explanation of the errors found in
the "Abraham's Legacy" and "British Israelism doctrines will
be discussed in a separate upcoming article on this topic.
To continue, as I mention in other articles, because of their
sins of rebellion and unbelief, the Lord caused the liberated
children of Israel to wander in the wilderness, that is, in
the desert areas of the Sinai Peninsula, for a total of forty
years, until the discontent older generation had died off.
According to the word of the Lord, the only two people from
that generation who survived the ordeal of the desert, were
Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jehunneh, as we
see by these verses:
"And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How
long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur
against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of
Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As
truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine
ears, so will I do to you: Your carcases shall fall in this
wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to
your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which
have murmured against me, Doubtless ye shall not come into
the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell
therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son
of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a
prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land
which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcases, they
shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall
wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your
whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.
After the number of the days in which ye searched the land,
even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your
iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of
promise. I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all
this evil congregation, that are gathered together against
me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there
they shall die. And the men, which Moses sent to search the
land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur
against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, Even
those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land,
died by the plague before the LORD. But Joshua the son of
Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men
that went to search the land, lived still."
Numbers 14:26-38, KJV
As the previous Scriptures state, all of the six hundred
thousand men of war died of old age or other causes without
having ever reached the Promised Land. This is why the Lord
told Joshua to perform a second circumcision following the
forty-year ordeal, as we see here:
"And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the
people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the
men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they
came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were
circumcised: but all the people that were born in the
wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them
they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked
forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were
men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because
they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD
sware that he would not shew them the land, which the LORD
sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that
floweth with milk and honey." Joshua 5:4-6, KJV
As I explained in part one, God's blessings of protection and
provision are conditional. They can be given, or they can be
taken away, according to our belief in, and our obedience to,
the Word of the Lord. Some people erroneously teach that God
cannot break His promises once He has made them, and that for
Him to do so would make Him a liar; however, this is not true
whatsoever. The previous verses are a clear example that God
can indeed break His Word if He so desires, if it suits His
Divine Purposes. Who are we humans to tell Him that He can't?
Please take note of that phrase "ye shall know my breach of
promise". In other words, the Lord was saying "You failed to
keep my word; you failed to have the faith to enter the land
of promise; therefore, I am withdrawing my promised blessing
from you". Of course, we know that the Lord later restored
the blessing following the forty-year chastisement; but the
point is, God did break His promise to them, and He gave it
to their children instead. Technically-speaking, you can say
that He still kept His promise, but He did not keep it with
those to whom He had originally made it, because they all
died in the wilderness; so it was a "breach of promise".
That God should choose to operate in this fashion should not
really surprise us in the least. Allow me to ask you a simple
question: As responsible parents, don't we also do the same
thing with our own children? If we promise them a particular
thing, and then they do something which displeases us, is it
not within our right and power as parents to take back our
word, and to withhold, either temporarily, or perhaps even
permanently, that which we had promised them? Why then, do
some people insist that God, the Creator of the Universe,
cannot do the very same thing? Who are we to set limits on
what God can or cannot do? Who are we to say that God can't
break His promises, for whatever His reasons? Would this not
be placing ourselves above God, by dictating what He can and
cannot do? Be it far from us to do such a thing!
One of the conditions which the Lord set before the children
of Israel in regards to their inheriting the land of Canaan,
was the following one spoken by Moses in the seventh chapter
of the Book of Deuteronomy:
"When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land
whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many
nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and
the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and
the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and
mightier than thou; And when the LORD thy God shall deliver
them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy
them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy
unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy
daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter
shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy
son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so
will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and
destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them; ye
shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and
cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with
fire." Deuteronomy 7:1-5, KJV
Before getting to my main point, please notice, as I stated
earlier, that in the previous verses, Moses referred to the
ethnic groups which lived within the confines of Canaan, as
"seven nations greater and mightier than thou". This clearly
proves that our modern understanding of the word "nation"
cannot always be applied to the ancient Biblical texts; and
this is one of the main flaws with the "British Israelism"
and "Abraham's Legacy" doctrines, which I mentioned earlier.
So again, I remain convinced that God's promise to Jacob
concerning a great nation, and a company of nations, was
fulfilled through Ephraim and Manasseh, within the physical
confines of the land of Israel, and has nothing whatsoever
to do with the United States of America, or the British
Commonwealth, as some Christian extremist groups, such as
Christian Identity, Aryan Nations, etc., claim. They are
deceived in my view, and are in fact corrupting the meaning
of the Scriptures, in order to achieve a political agenda,
through a campaign of hate and discrimination against anyone
who is not of the white race.
Contrary to the above commandment found in Deuteronomy, we
know that instead of having the faith and the conviction to
obey the Lord, by utterly destroying their enemies in the
land of Canaan, which in reality was a clear-cut example of
ethnic cleansing by the way, the Israelites compromised with
them, by allowing some of them to remain alive. It is at
this point in our lesson that we return to the story of the
tribe of Judah and their fight against the valley people. In
my view, the problem wasn't that the Lord was unable to give
them the victory that day; it was that they simply did not
have the faith, vision and courage to persevere and obey
until the battle was won, as they had been instructed to do
by the Lord, through Joshua, in the very first chapter of
the book named after him. Consider the following verses:
"Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt
thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto
their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very
courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all
the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not
from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest
prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall
not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to
all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy
way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have
not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be
not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God
is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Joshua 1:6-9, KJV
Obviously, the Lord knew what lay ahead for the children of
Israel. He knew that victory would not come easy for them.
He realized that they would face many temptations, and have
many hard battles to fight; thus He had Joshua encourage
them that day. Not only did Joshua exhort them to remain
faithful and true to God's Word, as had been delivered to
them by Moses, but he also encouraged them to be strong in
battle as well. While the children of Israel fought many
battles in the flesh against their enemies, what we need to
remember, is that the main battle was really in the spirit;
because they had to constantly demonstrate faith and belief
in God's promises to them; even though in the coming years,
they would be fighting against a total of seven nations of
people, who Moses had clearly told them were greater than
themselves. So not only were the Israelites fighting wars
against physical enemies, they were fighting spiritual wars
as well. They were fighting against their own doubts and
fears; and they were fighting against the demonic forces
which controlled the peoples and lands they were told to
conquer.
While there were indeed giants in the land of Canaan, as the
spies had reported back to their commander-in-chief, Moses,
the Lord was more than able to give the Israelites victory
over them, by delivering all of the Canaanite nations into
their hands; if they were only willing to display the same
level of faith, obedience and valour as King David and his
mighty men of war, who would later defeat the Philistine
giant, Goliath, and his brethren. As the Lord had clearly
promised them earlier through Moses:
"And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the
sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river:
for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your
hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee."
Exodus 23:31, KJV
In the New Testament, we find another kind of deliverance,
which the Lord wrought for those men who were faithful to
boldly share the Gospel of Salvation. For example, we are
told that when the Apostle Paul and his companions faced
persecution and the threat of death in Asia, they trusted
utterly in the Lord to deliver them from the same; and He
did, as we see here:
"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our
trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out
of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even
of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that
we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth
the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth
deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;"
2 Corinthians 1:8-10, KJV
So whether we are talking about the Israelites of old, or
the children of God today who preach the Gospel in foreign
lands, the Lord is more than able to deliver His children
from any circumstance and give them victory; and He will; if
we will simply place our faith and trust utterly in Him. A
few more verses on this topic of deliverance through faith
in, and obedience to the Lord, are the following:
"The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear
him, and delivereth them." Psalms 34:7, KJV
"But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is
their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall
help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the
wicked, and save them, because they trust in him."
Psalms 37:39-40, KJV
"Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most
High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Psalms 50:14-15, KJV
"And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not
prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to
deliver thee." Jeremiah 1:19, KJV
"And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall:
and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not
prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to
deliver thee, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 15:20, KJV
"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
Hebrews 11:6, KJV
"For with God nothing shall be impossible." Luke 1:37, KJV
Psalm 91 in its entirety is another good example of God's
wonderful promise to deliver His children from their trouble.
Returning to the Israelites and their initial survey of the
land of Canaan, perhaps part of their problem was that they
were trusting too much in themselves, and in the physical
size, strength and experience of their own army; which by
the outward appearance, may indeed have seemed like no match
against the giant inhabitants of the land of Canaan, which
were numbered as the grasshoppers. God was purposely placing
them in a situation where they were going to have to utterly
depend on Him, and not in the strength of their own army. As
King David would later write:
"Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear
him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his
right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but
we will remember the name of the LORD our God."
Psalms 20:6-7, KJV
So as I stated earlier, their battle was really a double one.
Not only were the Israelites going to have to fight against a
powerful physical army, but first they were going to have to
conquer the doubts and fears in their own hearts, and truly
become warriors of the spirit; because that is where the real
battle begins; in our minds. Consider the following verses:
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the
flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but
mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"
2 Corinthians 10:3-5, KJV
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life,
whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good
profession before many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:12, KJV
"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the
affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen
him to be a soldier." 2 Timothy 2:3-4, KJV
"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith:" 2 Timothy 4:7, KJV
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the
power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye
may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places." Ephesians 6:10-12, KJV
"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper
than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
heart." Hebrews 4:12, KJV
As I point out in some of my other articles which deal with
the spiritual nature of our warfare, once we lose faith,
faint in our minds, and surrender in the spirit, physical
defeat may soon follow as well. If we lose the vision for
why we are fighting, we will eventually give up, lose the
battle, and perish. As we are told in the Book of Proverbs:
"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that
keepeth the law, happy is he." Proverbs 29:18, KJV
God had given the Israelites the Heavenly Vision through
Moses, Joshua, Caleb and others. He had given them His Law,
as well as His promise that all of Canaan would eventually
be theirs; but perhaps they were beginning to lose faith, as
well as the vision. Concerning fainting in our minds, Paul
had this to say to the persecuted Christians of the First
Century:
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For
consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin."
Hebrews 12:1-4, KJV
Perhaps the children of Israel were also becoming weary of
battle; not only in a physical sense, but in their minds as
well. Perhaps they were even beginning to wonder if all of
the violence and killing was worth it all. I mean, if you
stop and think about it, the task which the Lord gave them
to do was not an easy one, much less a pretty one. Let me
remind you again, that the Lord told them to kill everyone,
both men, women and children, without mercy. As I stated
earlier, what the Lord commanded them to do, was in reality
a form of ethnic cleansing. Ironically, what the Israelis
are attempting to do today with the controversial barrier
wall, and other measures, basically amounts to the same
thing; and there are some radical Jews who do in fact want
every single Palestinian removed from the State of Israel.
There are statements made by certain Israeli politicians
which verifiy this very point. But concerning the ethnic
cleansing of the Promised Land thousands of years ago,
consider the following verses:
"And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee;
thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt
make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them...And
thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God
shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them:
neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a
snare unto thee...But the LORD thy God shall deliver them
unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction,
until they be destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings
into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from
under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before
thee, until thou have destroyed them."
Deuteronomy 7:2, 16, 23-24, KJV
We honestly don't know what might have been going through
their minds, but it does seem that they were starting to
lose the vision, and growing battle weary. Consider these
facts. Moses had already died; Joshua had already died; and
Caleb was already an old man, as were the other elders of
the people. In short, the fiery leaders of their original
liberation movement from Egypt were slowly dying off, and
were no longer there to inspire and lead them on; and the
miracles of Egypt and the Red Sea were now decades behind
them. As you will see in the next part of this series, these
factors contributed directly to their lack of willingness to
fully obey the Lord's command. Thus, not only did they fail
to destroy all of their enemies as they had been ordered to
do by the Lord, but they compromised by placing them under
bondage instead, and made them pay a tribute. Consider the
following verses. The chapter begins with some wonderful
victories being wrought by the Lord; but then the last half
of the chapter is full of compromise and defeat:
"And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the
inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the
inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of
iron...And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the
Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem; but the Jebusites dwell
with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this
day...And the spies saw a man come forth out of the city,
and they said unto him, Shew us, we pray thee, the entrance
into the city, and we will shew thee mercy. And when he
shewed them the entrance into the city, they smote the city
with the edge of the sword; but they let go the man and all
his family. And the man went into the land of the Hittites,
and built a city, and called the name thereof Luz: which is
the name thereof unto this day. Neither did Manasseh drive
out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach
and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor
the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants
of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in
that land. And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that
they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly
drive them out. Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites
that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among
them. Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of
Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites
dwelt among them, and became tributaries. Neither did Asher
drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of
Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of
Aphik, nor of Rehob: But the Asherites dwelt among the
Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not
drive them out. Neither did Naphtali drive out the
inhabitants of Bethshemesh, nor the inhabitants of
Bethanath; but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the
inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of
Bethshemesh and of Bethanath became tributaries unto them.
And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the
mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the
valley: But the Amorites would dwell in mount Heres in
Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of
Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributaries."
Judges 1:19, 21, 24-35, KJV
What a sad, sad story; and what a poor example of obedience
to the Word of the Lord. It is evident that the Israelites
were obviously losing their will to fight, and had begun to
compromise with their enemies. This was not what the Lord
had instructed them to do whatsoever. They were supposed to
utterly destroy them, and not spare their lives and place
them under tribute. Let me repeat again: God's blessings
depend upon our faith and obedience to His Word. The minute
the children of Israel began to disobey the Lord, they also
began to lose their battles against their enemies. In short,
their lack of faith and disobedience to the Lord, along with
their compromises, was a sure recipe for their defeat.
As we continue this series in part five, we'll be discussing
such issues as the deepening apostasy of the Israelites; the
destruction of faith by our disobedience; the Lord's ability
to save; the strong delusion of the Endtime; being separated
from God through sin; how God will sometimes turn away from
our prayers; God's vessels of wrath; kings Saul, David and
Solomon; nation of Israel divided; the apostasy of the Jewish
kings; the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions; seventy years
of Babylonian captivity; the rebuilding of the Temple; inter-
racial marriages in Israel; Ezra's intercessory prayer; a
list of the heathen nations which influenced the Israelites;
Canaan's curse; the migration of the Hamites; the possible
origin of the negroid race and the mystery of the Shulamite.
Once again, I trust that you will join me.
[ Click Me ] Go To Part Five . . .