19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the
good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the
sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Scripture says, “To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel
15:22) and to listen better than the fat of sacrificial rams.” It goes on to say that rebellion is as the
sin of witchcraft. In Exodus 22:18 it
say you shall not allow a witch to live.
Several years ago in Seattle, Washington the schools were forbidden to
celebrate Halloween; not because it is an abominable celebration (which it is) but
because it was unkind to witches and put them in a bad light. How far we have fallen in this country to
protect witches and atheists while prosecuting Christians and Jews. I’m not saying that we should kill all the
witches or atheists but it is apparent that God’s love and grace has been
twisted to allow the theft of our national heritage.
Since this nation has largely chosen to ignore the commandments
of God and to use abusive police and military practices to keep order rather
than obtaining it through our love for God and man, we have chosen the
sword. Matthew 26:52 says, “Those who
live by the sword will also die by the sword.”
This goes for the police and those who immorally use deadly force as
well as any who choose violence over love, grace, mercy and forgiveness. I even hear a lot of Christians who say, “I
have several guns in my house. Nobody is
taking anything from me!” At a time when
Jesus was being ILLEGALLY detained and ILLEGALLY prosecuted and ILLEGALLY
condemned by the religious establishment as well as the local government he
told Peter, “Put away your sword!” Then
He healed the man Peter had wounded.
21 How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was
full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
In many cases our courts and police have become exactly what
they used to abhor. The idea that the
end justifies the means is the new mantra rather than to keep the already
written laws and uphold them. The first
amendment of the Constitution allowed freedom of religion and worship unimpeded
by the government. It has been
‘redefined’ by the courts to mean that religion needs to stay out of
government. Whenever God says, “Woe!” it
should be marked and trembled over.
Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe
to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light
and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Israel had once been a nation of God’s
laws, love and justice. Once again those
who were led by greed and avarice (including the priesthood) began to pervert
and twist God’s laws. In very few years His
most stringent and powerful laws went from “Thus Saith the Lord” to “God suggests that we…” to “Oh! How quaint that people used to think that
way. I’m so glad we’ve evolved.” In Nevada where prostitution is legal they
call those women (and men) hospitality workers.
I guess that’s a different take on temple prostitutes.
22 Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed
with water.
Have you ever watched the purification of silver? It is heated in a furnace and then the dross,
the scum that floats on the surface and could not stand the heat is scraped off
and discarded. During this process a
tiny amount of silver is also lost but the purity of the refined metal is worth
a bit of loss. Purifying your life from
sin is also worth a bit of loss. When
God chastens, do not rebel.
Today, we don’t want to refine silver too much because in
our greed we reason that “who will know?”
When the silver tarnishes in moments and with any heat, they will know
and curse you. I once bought a beautiful
necklace. I purchased it in Mexico and
it was lovely. When I opened the box at
home it had turned brown. I was able to
polish it again but it turned your skin black.
If I melted it today I suppose most of it would float to the surface.
Wine is supposed to be made of crushed grapes, not grape
juice and water. Too much water and the sugar
content will not turn into alcohol. Not
enough alcohol content in the wine will not longer protect it from biological
processes. It will become moldy and
smell. Too much water and it will no
longer preserve. Like salt that has lost
its savor, it will be worthless. People
water down wine because again they reason, “Who will know.” During a wedding in Cana of Galilee our
Savior performed his first miracle and in doing so He set an example for us to
follow.
The couple were apparently those in the priesthood but not
well off. They had purchased the best
wine they could afford and well before the reception was ended they had run
out. Mary, who was worried about their
feelings, approached Jesus with her concerns.
He took the water of purification that was in the house and began to
pour wine out of it. When the governor
of the feast tasted it he called over the groom and proclaimed that the wine
offered at the end of the feast was much better than the wine at the beginning
(John 2:1-10). God does not cut corners
with your blessings. You ought not cut
corners with your obedience.
23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone
loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the
fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.
I have heard it said that the most efficient and positive
form of government is a benevolent dictatorship. Without the word benevolent you may well wind
up with a violent and abusive dictatorship.
I once read that a true king and prince is one who smiles brightest and
laughs loudest in a gathering where all are hungry. In other words, the true prince or king sets
an example either of gracious hospitality or keeping a positive outlook while
suffering. They do not bleed their people
so they can live high while the sheep suffer.
Some pastors fleece the flocks and others nurture the flock. It is true that sheep need to be sheared for
good health, but they don’t want to become lamb chops.
In an honest world bribes are not taken or offered and a
leader should not run after them (Exodus 23:8, Hebrews 13:5-6, Amos 5:12). True leaders are upholding the cause of the
fatherless and widows. They should be a
very real part of every government and Christian ministry. God lays this burden upon us all.
24 Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the
Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself
on my foes. 25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross
as with lye and remove all your alloy.
Notice that God says He will get relief from His
enemies. He goes on to say that He will
turn His hand against them. He is
talking about Jews here. He is not
saying that He has abandoned the Jews though.
He is instead working to bring spiritual healing to them, melting the
dross with lye and removing all the alloy.
Alloy is the extra metal whether lead or tin that is often added to
silver to make it easier to work and cheaper to produce. Silver is a type of the blood and one can
imagine that God does not want the blood to be diluted. I love that when He turns against His people
it is to bring repentance and holiness rather than destruction and defeat.
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and
your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of
righteousness, the faithful city.”
The first thing many do when they find themselves in
difficulty or struggles with their faith or with God is to stop attending
church. They complain bitterly about what
all the OTHER saints are doing or point fingers at someone other than
themselves. Perhaps I’m peculiar in that
way but I have always thought that if something is going wrong in my life and
things aren’t working out, it probably has something to do with me…not someone
else.
Notice the first thing God does after destroying entire
groups of people is to correct those responsible for judgment and
righteousness. Our judges today have
abandoned God and make their decisions based on man’s wisdom or peer pressure. Some may decide according to greed. The first thing God does to fix a nation is
to approach judges and then counselors.
In America today we have an entire group of judges who abandon their
responsibility to the truth by letting uneducated, racist or angry juries make
the uninformed decisions.
Lawyers have become purveyors of passion rather than
expounders of truth. They know that if
they touch a nerve with the jury it matters very little what truth is. God said, “You will know the truth and the
truth will MAKE you free (John 8:32).” Prosecuting
attorneys regularly trample the truth in order to win a conviction. In God’s court, HE is the prosecutor and we
are the defendants. Jesus is our defense
attorney and though we are guilty, He need only raise His nail scarred hands
and say, “Father, I have paid their debt.” God’s grace IS sufficient.
27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her
who repent, by righteousness.
The difficulty in finding deliverance and forgiveness is not
weakness on God’s part but pride on ours.
Scripture says that God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). He resists the proud and often allows their
total destruction while lending a much appreciated hand to those whose sins are
just as bad as anyone else’s but their heart is quick to say, “Lord, I
repent.” David was one of those who
often fell short of the Word of God. He
had someone killed when he discovered he had gotten that man’s wife
pregnant. He married many wives and
concubines; perhaps not as many as his son Solomon did, but more than others
did. He was a murderer, adulterer,
terrible father and worse husband.
In spite of all this David is considered a man after God’s
own heart. The reason for his close walk
with God is that David was always quick to repent and ask God’s
forgiveness. David was a mighty warrior
and beloved king. This didn’t keep
several men from hating him, including his own son Absalom. He conquered the impregnable Jebus
(Jerusalem). It became the city of David
and is called that to this day. Jesus
will one day sit on the throne of David when all God’s enemies are under his
foot.
David loved God and as it says in Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon
that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”
David walked in that because as verse 18 says, “Our righteousness is of
God.” It doesn’t matter nearly as much
that we have sinned as that God has forgiven us. If we live our lives in humility and are
quick to repent, God will always restore our righteousness. It is not bound in our failures but in our
submission and repentance. The world may
not honor this idea but then the world cannot give us eternal life.
28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those
who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
There is a verse that says, “And whosoever shall fall on
this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him
to powder (Matthew 21:42). Rebels and
sinners will be broken by the stone of God which is Jesus Christ our Lord. They will either willingly fall upon the
stone and allow themselves to be broken, or the stone will fall on them and
grind them into dust. On the other hand,
those who forsake (leave) the Lord shall be consumed. The Greek word for consumed is kala and means to be utterly
destroyed. There is hope for the rebels
and sinners. They may be saved; but
those who abandon their walk with God and fail to repent will be consumed. As it says in Hebrews 12:27-29, “And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the
removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that
those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Wherefore we receiving a
kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29 For our God is a consuming fire.” Our God is a consuming fire. Abandon Him and abandon hope.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you
desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. 30 For you
shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water.
The gardens here are the groves where idolatrous practices
were performed to false gods by Israel.
We have our groves today and God expects us to forsake those groves of
sinful passions and pleasures except where done by His permission in the bond
of marriage. The oaks and terebinth
trees were carved into phallic symbols and filthy sexual practices were
performed before them. Their purposes
were to encourage the ‘gods’ to make their crops grow better and produce more
abundantly.
The LORD had promised to make Israel wealthy and fruitful if
they would obey Him without following after false gods. One of the main reasons they were to utterly
destroy these foreign nations as they took over the land was to stop the pagan
religious practices. By failing in this
matter they became polluted by their abominable practices. The homosexual communities and those who
still practice false religions are fond of saying that their practices have
been going on for many thousands of years.
This is true. God has sought
their destruction or redemption for many thousands of years.
God chose Israel to correct mankind’s lack of
direction. After being established as a
pillar of honor in a world of dishonor they were supposed to teach this
lifestyle to the world at large. They
largely failed in this responsibility.
Instead of being a light on a lampstand or a city set upon a hill, they
became what God abhors and followed after all the sins of the nations around
them. For this failure and disobedience
God was forced to chasten them.
31 And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a
spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.
Are you strong?
Consider those men and women who believe our lifestyle is a lie and that
there is no God. Many of them are
powerful and used to using authority.
What about the Hitlers and Stalin’s of the world? Both of them murdered millions. Hitler chose to decimate the Jews and Stalin
had almost as much hatred of them as any other leader. The attacks against Jews in Russia has been
systematic and consistent.
My point is this; whether you are talking about wayward Jews
or those who hate the Jewish people, God’s wrath is quite powerful and
consistent. Tinder is a dry and fine
wood that is used to start fires. Tinder can flame up at the lightest
spark. Oaks are supposed to be filled
with sap and life. A grass fire raging
around an oak tree would normally singe the bark and then burn out leaving the
tree alive and well. God says the oaks
have become as tinder, lifeless and dry; the life giving Spirit of God has
departed and left them open to any slightest spark.
The very actions of the wayward saint become the spark that
will devour his life and cause it to burst into flame. Both the wayward and his works have become a
flame of useless fire and without God’s grace there is no one to help them or
stop this terrible destruction. The very
words of Jesus who became our propitiation for sin will come from the mouths of
those who have turned aside, “My God, my God; why have you forsaken me?”
In Gods words we hear the still small voice saying, “Because
my child, you did not repent of your evil deeds.”
God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5).
Repent quickly.
