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EARye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. 2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. 4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD. 5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them. 6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. 7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions. 8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin. 9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. 10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment. 12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. 13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. (Hosea 5:1-15)
A nation of people must be prepared to suffer for the sins of those whom they place in authority over them. God directs His ire toward the religious leaders first, and then to the rulers of Israel. “Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.” (vv. 1)This is a chilling thought when we reflect upon the unrighteous men and women of vulgar and profane character who we have elected to Congress. The greater sin is in knowing, after a single term, of their proven characters, yet we send them back to continue to demean the moral character of the nation and undermine her Constitutional Pillars.
But more serious than those whom we elect to Congress, consider the source of the problem. It is MORAL! The fall in moral standards have no other beginning than in the House of the Lord and her maverick ministers of compromising and soft-spoken character. These men have swallowed every immorality being foisted upon a sleeping church and have even joined in giving dignity to sin and condemning the very biblical principles to which they have been called to defend and preach. Look at the Southern Baptists, once a strong and Bible-centered church, but now wavering on the most disgusting of sins and immorality. They follow now closely in the footsteps of the Episcopal, and some Lutheran, churches in the spiraling abyss to Hell. The desire to receive the world, and its unbecoming yoke of sin, into the church; instead of taking the Gospel with its redeeming graces into the world, has resulted in circumstances which are sure to bring a painful judgment against our land. God will not forever excuse the sins of a nation whose character and nature so closely resemble that of Sodom and Gomorrah which He destroyed with fire and brimstone from Heaven.
Israel has traveled far down the road to apostacy, and Judah trails not too far behind. Neither does America.
Why do you suppose God uses sexual sins such as whoredoms and adultery so often to describe the cause of the fall of these ancient people of His? First of all, it is verily true that sexual impurity truly did reign among them; and 2) those filthy sins best describe the nature of the spiritual infidelity expressed in the lives of both Israel and Judah.
Please do not get the idea that God exempts the people from His wrath since their leaders have been the ones responsible for leading them astray! He does not. The entire nation suffers for the sins of the leaders, but also for the acceptance of those sins by the people themselves. IN America, we cannot blame Caesar for our demise of morality since, in this country, the people themselves are Caesar and hold the reins to power even if they do not exercise that responsibility. There is a certain segment of our population that will vote for the Devil if he will only promise them a free cell phone. The price of the yoke being placed upon their necks is precisely that of the cell phone.
The time draws near when the Lord’s ear cannot be found to receive our prayers – either in old Israel, or the new. “They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.” That is almost a mute point for America since she no longer seeks the Lord’s guidance in her governance. But as her depravity builds under the Hammer of the Lord, she may perchance groggily awaken from her stupor to call upon a God whom she has too long rejected, and He will not answer. “11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.” (Amos 8:11-13)
WE have almost reached that point described in Amos at which Israel had arrived in losing sight of the Word of the Lord and not being able to find it. Spiritual eyes of Christians will become just as blind as those of the trout which are subjected to a smothering darkness over the span of their lives. Scales literally will grow over those eyes just as they are spiritually growing over the eyes of the modern church. We have created fake preachers, fake Bibles, fake missions, and fake prayers – even allowing the infidels of Allah to pray at our public gatherings and some churches. What gross evil!
We have sown the wind, but we shall now reap the whirlwind. “They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children.” I see a great similarity between those irreverent children of Israel and those of our day- disrespectful, irreverent, undisciplined, and profane! We do have many fine young people of character left in America, but these will be devoured and destroyed if the greater number of ungodly gain the permanent ascendance.
God, in justice and grace, leaves an open door for the return of His errant people – but only up to a certain point. When a society reaches a critical mass of evil, there will be no turning back until a hard judgment is dealt them, or terminal destruction as with Sodom and Gomorrah.
Nothing is new under the sun – the ways of God in dealing with sin has remained unchanged since Eden. The only change has been an ever-increasing blossoming of His purpose of redemption which was conceived in the Council of Heaven long before the worlds were created. If we today believe that God will not deal with the modern Church and America in the same way he dealt with Israel, Judah, or Sodom, we are in for a disappointing surprise if we live to see His hand of judgment descend.
I know some of you wonder why I constantly emphasize God’s wrath with our sins, and why I so strongly advocate the immorality of homosexual sins and abortion. The reason is because these latter sins are the larger ones which magnify our rebellion against God today. I write to warn and awaken our people to a certain judgment that awaits us unless we repent in ashes and sackcloth and return to the Lord our Maker, and obey His Commandments.
It is far more profitable to endure the chastisement of an angry Father in the loss of treasure and even limbs, than to go into Hell whole and in worldly wealth. If judgment is brought to bear on America and her churches, we will not have time to contemplate the murder of our innocents in their mother’s womb, or men dressing as women and committing unimaginable wickedness. No, we will be concerned in finding bread to eat, shelter from the elements, and escape from the devil’s advocates who will proliferate in our fair land.
These are hard sayings for Israel of old, and for us today: “10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment. 12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. 13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. (Hosea 5:10-15)
Elaboration is not necessary on these last verses since their meaning is clear. Heed them, Church! Heed them, America!
