THE FRUITS OF DISOBEDIENCE : PART 7
Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Org
Last Updated : July 23, 2006
Lessons Recap And Learning From The Past, Chastisement Is
Tempered With Hope And Followed By Mercy, Promised Return,
God Pleads With Us To Repent, Our Sins Made White As Snow,
Past Feeling Due To Sin, Destruction Of Jerusalem By Titus
Forsaking God's Mercy, The Arab Invasion Of Israel, Battle
Of Armageddon, Who Is An Antichrist?, Ungodly Hypocritical
America, Who Will Escape God's Wrath?, Closing Remarks
Through this lengthy, and hopefully interesting, discussion,
we have now gained a better understanding of the depth of
the Israelites' apostasy, from the time that they were in
Egypt, up until the time of the three Babylonian invasions
during the 6th Century B.C. We have seen how the Lord was
repeatedly forced to deal with them, to such a degree that
literally thousands of Israelites were eventually carried
away as slaves into Assyria, Babylonia, Media, etc. We have
also gained some historical insights regarding the conquest
of the Promised Land, met a few of the leaders and kings who
ruled during that time period, and studied the events which
resulted in the kingdom of Israel being divided in half. We
have also come to understand the spiritual factors which led
to this apostasy, and have seen how we can apply the lessons
learned to our own lives today, as Christians who must fight
a similar battle of faith and perseverance in this ungodly
modern world. As we saw in part one, the Apostle Paul wrote:
"But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they
were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our
examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil
things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as
were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to
eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit
fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day
three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as
some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were
destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened
unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest
he fall." 1 Corinthians 10:5-12, KJV
While we have concentrated on the sins, disobediences and
failures of the children of Israel in this series, it is also
important that we remember that their periods of chastisement
were also followed by periods of Divine Mercy. In short, as I
explained earlier, just as we human parents may become upset
with our children, and may be forced to punish them in order
to help them to see the error of their ways, but will in the
end grant them forgiveness and shower them with love again,
so too, the Lord will eventually show His Mercy, and will end
the punishment. It is for this very reason that in warning
the Israelites of the coming chastisement by the Assyrians,
the Lord doesn't want them to lose hope altogether, or to
doubt His love for them; thus, Isaiah writes the following:
"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people
that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he
shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff
against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very
little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine
anger in their destruction. And the LORD of hosts shall stir
up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at
the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall
he lift it up after the manner of Egypt. And it shall come
to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away
from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and
the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing."
Isaiah 10:24-27, KJV
You may recall that in part one, I also shared the following
verses with you, which are likewise found in the prophecies
of Isaiah:
"For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great
mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I
have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer."
Isaiah 54:7-8, KJV
So, even though the Lord was going to chastise them severely
due to their waywardness, there is the promise of redemption;
and Isaiah tells them that after the Assyrian has done God's
Will as one of His "vessels of wrath", he too shall meet his
end. As I explain in other articles, this is precisely what
occurred too. The Assyrians were eventually overcome by their
sister empire to the south, the Babylonians. Many years later
the Lord would do the very same thing through Jeremiah. Like
his predecessor, Isaiah, Jeremiah would warn the backslidden
people of Judah of the coming Babylonian invasions; but the
Lord would have Jeremiah temper his words of chastisement
with hope and mercy as well, as we see by these verses:
"Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I
have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great
wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I
will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my
people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one
heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the
good of them, and of their children after them: And I will
make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn
away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in
their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I
will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant
them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my
whole soul. For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought
all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon
them all the good that I have promised them. And fields
shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate
without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the
Chaldeans. Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe
evidences, and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of
Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the
cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in
the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south:
for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD."
Jeremiah 32:37-44, KJV
There are other verses as well in Jeremiah's writings where
the Lord promises to show the Jews mercy, by allowing them
to return to the land of Israel, once the seventy years of
captivity have been fulfilled. The Prophet Ezekiel, who was
a contemporary of the Prophet Daniel, also wrote of God's
promise to return the children of Israel to their own land
once they had served out their punishment. Again, following
are some example verses for your personal consideration:
"Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather
you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries
where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land
of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take
away all the detestable things thereof and all the
abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one
heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will
take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them
an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and
keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my
people, and I will be their God." Ezekiel 11:17-20, KJV
"I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you
out from the people, and gather you out of the countries
wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in
you before the heathen. And ye shall know that I am the
LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into
the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it
to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, and
all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall
lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that
ye have committed." Ezekiel 20:41-43, KJV
"For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both
search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh
out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are
scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver
them out of all places where they have been scattered in the
cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the
people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring
them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of
Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the
country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the
high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall
they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they
feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and
I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. I will
seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was
driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and
will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the
fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment."
Ezekiel 34:11-16, KJV
So the lesson here is that no matter how bad we have been,
if we truly repent from our hearts, in His Divine Mercy, God
will not only forgive us for our sins, but He will restore
us to fellowship with Him. Isn't that what Jesus' Sacrifice
is all about? In the very first chapter of his book, the
Lord pleads with all of us through Isaiah when he writes:
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." Isaiah 1:18, KJV
Some eight hundred years later, the Apostle Peter would also
write in his second Epistle:
"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
repentance." 2 Peter 3:9, KJV
From the time that Isaiah and Peter wrote those words until
today, in His Mercy, God has continued to call His children
to repent of their sins. We may have to first experience the
fruits of our disobedience to Him, but like the story of the
Prodigal Son, the Father is always patiently waiting for us
to come to our senses and return to Him. As I fully explain
in "The Blood Atonement: In Jesus' Own Words", through the
atoning Blood of Jesus Christ, who died for the sins of the
world, we have all been offered the opportunity to have our
sins made as white as snow. The question is, do we really
want God's forgiveness? Are we even willing to recognize the
sins in our lives? Are we willing to confess our need for a
Savior? Or is our pride so great, that we prefer to live in
a state of delusion, thinking that we are okay with the Lord,
when we most certainly are not?
We all need to remember that just one small sin in our lives,
one seemingly-innocent disobedience, or one small complaint,
can lead to another, until Satan has totally destroyed our
effectiveness for the Lord, and separated us from our Father
in Heaven. It is kind of interesting the way sin works its
way into our lives. With each disobedience, we become bolder
and bolder, and more rebellious against the Lord, until we
finally no longer even feel the conviction of His Spirit in
our hearts. As the Apostle Paul wrote, we reach a point of
being "past feeling", as we see here:
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye
henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of
their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is
in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being
past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness,
to work all uncleanness with greediness."
Ephesians 4:17-19, KJV
Sadly, this is precisely what happened to the Israelites of
old, and it is what is continuing to happen throughout the
world today as well. Even though the Lord repeatedly showed
the Jews His Mercy, by allowing them to escape out of Egypt,
by defeating their enemies time and time again, and by even
allowing them to return to Israel a second time following
the Assyrian and the Babylonian invasions, yet they did not
learn their lesson for very long. By the time of the First
Century, their sins had once again led them to be victims of
the Roman occupation. As we all know, during that time, the
Jewish leadership filled their cup of iniquity, when they
rejected God's offer of Forgiveness and Salvation, and made
themselves responsible for the Crucifixion of the very Son
of God. Thus, as I point out in other articles, in the year
70 A.D., Jerusalem, and the rebuilt temple of Solomon, were
leveled to the ground by General Titus, (the son of Emperor
Vespasian), and his Roman legions; precisely as Jesus had
prophesied some forty years earlier in Matthew chapter
twenty-four, as we see here:
"And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his
disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the
temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these
things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here
one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down."
Matthew 24:1-2, KJV
According to some historical records, as many as one million
Israelites were slaughtered, as a result of three years of
Roman carnage. In light of those catastrophic events which
occurred during the First Century, the period of repentance
which had transpired five hundred years earlier following
Cyrus' decree to return to Jerusalem, which is described in
the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, seems so useless now, and
such a waste of time. But, as we have already seen, these
alternating periods of chastisement and repentance, seem to
be the pattern which the Jews have followed since the time
of their deliverance out of Egyptian bondage. Let me remind
you again of a verse I shared with you in part one, which
was written by the Prophet Isaiah. Please note that while it
is translated here as "favor", in sixteen other places in
the Old Testament, the Hebrew word "chanan" is translated as
"mercy":
"Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn
righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal
unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD."
Isaiah 26:10, KJV
You may also recall that in part one, I mentioned that during
his time of distress and personal tribulation, when he was in
the belly of the great fish, the Prophet Jonah also uttered
some words of wisdom, which reveal the utter foolishness of
forsaking God's mercy for a lie. Jonah wrote:
"They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy."
Jonah 2:8, KJV
Today, two thousand years later, the obstinacy of the Jews
continues unabated; and the vast majority of them are still
so blind, that they reject the Messiahship of Jesus Christ.
It is for this reason, that as I explain in such articles as
"Oh Israel, Why Will Ye Die?" and "The Great Tribulation And
The Rapture", I believe that the Lord may soon harshly judge
them once again. It seems that history is repeating itself.
Just as the Angel of the Lord prophesied so long ago, as a
result of her sins against God, Israel's enemies continue to
be thorns in her side; and one day soon, in God's appointed
time, they are going to attack her again. Only then will her
pride finally be broken; and a remnant of her people will
finally accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
While nations such as Egypt and Jordan have signed peace
treaties with Israel, when the final showdown comes between
the Arabs and the Jews, I suspect that these two countries
will choose to side with their Muslim brethren. If I am
correct in my understanding of Endtime prophecy, this final
confrontation will be the prophesied Battle of Armageddon,
which will occur in the plain of Megiddo, which is located
in northern Israel. For more information regarding this
topic, please refer to such articles as "From Armageddon To
The New Earth". In the Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse, we
read the following:
"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and
out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the
spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the
kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to
the battle of that great day of God Almighty...And he
gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew
tongue Armageddon." Revelation 16:13-14, 16, KJV
In all fairness, as I have already pointed out, we need to
realize that the sins of rebellion and unbelief are by no
means limited to the modern Jews alone. While God has chosen
to use them as His example in the Scriptures, (which is why
I write about them so much), precisely as Paul explained in
the verse I shared earlier, they are not the only antichrists
in the world today. There are many ungodly individuals within
the Gentile world as well. In fact, the Gentile antichrists
way outnumber the Jewish antichrists, due to the simple fact
that there only about fourteen million Jews in the world, as
opposed to some six billion Gentiles. The truth of the matter
is that any person who knowingly rejects Jesus Christ as his
Lord and Savior, is in fact an antichrist, regardless of his
ethnicity. As the Apostle John plainly tells us:
"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?
He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son."
1 John 2:22, KJV
"And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is
come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of
antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and
even now already is it in the world." 1 John 4:3, KJV
"For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess
not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a
deceiver and an antichrist." 2 John 1:7, KJV
So, many people the world over, and not just the Jews, have
hardened their hearts to the Voice of God, and have totally
blocked Him out of their lives; even in such places as the
so-called "Christian" United States of America. It is very
heart-breaking to realize that this country, which claims to
be the most Christian nation upon Earth, is in reality one
of the most violent, oppressive, blood-thirsty, vengeful,
selfish, materialistic, wasteful, sexually-immoral nations
upon the face of the Earth. The United States has waged more
wars, economically oppressed more people, killed more babies,
exported more sexual filth, and polluted the environment more
than any other nation in modern history. While America claims
to be blessed and favored by God, she has nullified many of
His Laws, and turned her heart, eyes and ears away from Him,
as she becomes drunker and drunker on her own foolish pride
and vanity. As Jesus said of the ungodly Jewish leadership
of His own day:
"This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and
honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from
me." Matthew 15:8, KJV
A primary example of this occurred just two days ago when the
Episcopal Church USA, in total defiance of its mother church,
the worldwide Anglican Church Communion, consecrated its first
openly-gay bishop, the Reverend Gene Robinson, in the state of
New Hampshire. How can God possibly turn away His anger and
judgments, when even His own children defy Him, and mock His
Word? Tell me; if the Israelites of old did not escape God's
Wrath, who is anyone else today to think that they will escape
it either? Furthermore, if God's own children barely survive
His loving chastisements, as Peter questions, where does that
leave the rest of the unbelieving world, or even backslidden,
compromising, worldly Christendom?:
"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house
of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be
of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the
righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the
sinner appear?" 1 Peter 4:17-18, KJV
So the overall lesson of this series is this: We must each
endeavor to do our best to stay close to the Lord, to remain
obedient to His Word, and to walk in humility and lowliness
of heart before Him. We must not permit the evil fruits of
disobedience to fill our lives, as they filled the lives of
the Israelites of old. If we do these things, if we choose
to obey Him out of a pure heart, then we can look forward to
receiving His Divine Blessings, such as His Protection, as
well as His Provision. On the other hand, if we fail to do
these things, and walk contrary to Him, then consider this:
"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice
for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and
fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He
that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or
three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the
Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done
despite unto the Spirit of grace?...It is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God...For our God is a
consuming fire." Hebrews 10:26-29, 31, 12:29, KJV
God will soon begin His "house-cleaning". How many of us
will be left standing by the time He has finished the job?
With these profound thoughts, I will bring this series to
its conclusion. I trust that it has been instructive, and a
blessing in your life.