NOVEMBER PRAYER LETTER

Greetings,

I missed last month's update and will try to bring you up to date for this month.

MINISTRY UPDATES:
-continued work at Zoar, Fox's Hollow churches;  nearing the end of bible study's with them in the book of Genesis, this has been a verse by verse study; 
--began in September the home bible study/prayer with people from Keyser on Sunday nights; this makes 6 services on Sundy, quite a load and definitely cherish your prayers for outreach and strength;
--finished up the work for Sermonindex with the conference in Atlanta on October 21-22;  prayer minsitry with this started a new daily email contacts with intercessors and prayer warriors;  I have called it 'Broken Before the Throne' prayer partners, currently 23 are signed up; 
--finished a major tasks in my devotional writings on my devotional blog; Psalm 119 is done with all 176 verses;  now I must go back through to edit, correct and complete those that are left unfinished;
--also working on one of the most horrifying things in the Bible on the 'JUDGMENT' of God and what we see happening today;  access to this is on my personal blog;this is a daily pursuit and is going to take some time to complete and finish;
--Sermonindex Conference, in Atlanta was packed; Friday night and Saturday night was filled; they had over 70 countries watch via internet with over 10,000 on line to view; those downloads are availabe on TRue God TV or Sermonindex website;  manned the prayer rooom with only a few; was blest to have Ann and Kay there to labor in prayer for the speakers, conference and other leadings of the Spirit;
--I joined OneCry last week; a prayer initative by Life ACtion for the spiritual awakening; set to launch on Feb., 2012;

FAMILY:
--kids are in school and filled with activities each evening;  fall is always stressful with these things;
hannah is in her first year of college; joshua finished up cross country season with excellent times but missed going to state by only 2 seconds;  starts wrestling season in two weeks;  elizabeth made it to state cross coutnry meet with Keyser girls and ran very well, huge accomplishment to make it to states; timothy is playing football on jv and varsity as a freshman;  both Joshua and Timothy preached their first sermons while I was away in Atlanta and did a good job;  jonathan had another concussion last month and is still recovering from this; all things are put in the Lord's hands as to how this will affect him;  jacob, philip and rebekah are staying true to their prayer times and devotinal readings before bed;
--we continue to seek the Lord for daily provisions and God is so faithful; 
--Satan would have my children, but I will contend with him over their souls in mighty prayers and tears;  God has promised me

PRAYER FOCUS:
--up next is the WV state convention;  I have much grief over this, much division and failure to seek the Lord properly for our future;  Satan will ruin this meeting unless humility takes place, praying for the Spirit to control and undo the damage already done by men;
--met with Bryant Wright on Oct. 23 and he gave me a few moments to talk about prayer in SBC; possibly meet with Frank Page Nov. 4 and discuss further prayer among SBC;  the SBC is my priority to see God use us and work through us;  but there is such a division about how to do that; humanism vs. spiritualism;
--continued prayer for Hampshire county on first and third Saturday of every month;  fewer particpating in this, but still burdened with its need;
--marriages have continued to come in for requests of separation and divorce;  lost souls continue to hang in the balance;  Oh, for God to work wondrously upon these two lists espeically;
--today in the news was the announcement that our world population has stretched to 7 billion;  over 5 billion are lost and perishing;  oh for a world wide revival that seeks andsaves that which is lost;

BOOKS:
--The Story of J O Fraser; Hudson Taylor's Spiritaul SEcrets; William Laws, The Power of the Spirit;
William Gurnall's, The Christian in Complete Armour; William Law, A SErious Call to a Devout and Holy Life; Wesley Duewels books, two of them; J. Oswald Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy with God;  should finish reading through the Bible in November for the second time this year; will finish word study, 'will' and 'I will' where God is speaking

ANSWERED PRAYERS:
--family provisions have been numerous; church outreach for souls and visitation is God given answered prayer;  prevailing prayer for situations at the conference and God's working;  numerious mercies daily provided by God in my life;  one marriage restored and healed, but 4 more have been added that are in trouble;

thank you again for taking the time to read this and pray for me.  It is always with the hope that even though we be in different places God works all things together for His glory in my life and your life. 

Until,
dan biser
rdbiser@live.com
http://danbiser.blogspot.com
http://dbiser.blogspot.com
http://www.brokenbeforethethrone.com

Letter to SBC name change task force

October 27, 2011

Greetings,

When the news was first posted about Bryant Wright assigning a task force to consider the SBC name change, I immediately wrote to offer this statement.  What I am about to state is the same that I have been repeating for almost 5 years to my beloved SBC convention and fellow brothers and sisters. 

On our watch as pastors, leaders, teachers and servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have lost this nation.  We have seen evil continue to  abound, the church become less and less and families be destroyed from the inside out.  We are mostly agreed that the only hope for a change in the church, as a whole and our nation is Revival.  Literally, revival is God’s Presence coming down and working a work within us that is Divine for His glory.  Revival only comes through prevailing prayer. 

We are currently, as a nation, under the judgment of God.  We have seen record drought, record flooding, record  tornadoes and an economy tittering on explosion.  All the while the church methods and means continue to point toward entertainment and humanistic efforts for numbers.  Sin continues to deepen in the pulpits and the pews and we are meeting and worrying about a name change. 

I have expressed my concern and desire to see a deep, substantial prayer call for all of the SBC.  Truly, good people, if revival comes down, what difference does the name make?  If God be in our midst who cares if ‘southern’ is there or not?  It won’t matter to the soul seeking truth.  As old Leonard Ravenhill said it, ‘Fire is the most attractive thing’.  The fire of the Holy Spirit will draw them and save them and emblaze them for His glory and kingdom.  The name is so far removed from priority that I cannot even comprehend this group existing except to say, I believe it to lead us to stay away from the main thing – His glory and lost souls.

I beseech you, to put away this agenda.  I ask of you to call for prayer in the seminaries, in the states, in the associations and among the churches to seek God for His mercy.  Let us gather around the most important thing during this judgment and humble ourselves with confession in His Presence.  For ‘who knows if He will return and leave a blessing behind Him’. 

Let us give ourselves to prayer and not minor issues of a name change.  Now I know some of you will say, ‘But we prayed before we began.’   I am not talking about prayer for God to bless , guide and lead the decisions of this group.  I am talking about confession, brokenness, and deep urgency for a convention that has lost its way, departed from the holiness of God and sought humanistic approaches over Divine means of true revival.  Prayer that agonizes over whole families lost, churches dead and dying  and pulpits that are so infected with ‘religious’ speaking instead of prayerful and powerful pulpits. 

Don’t provoke the Lord to anger any more than what we already have  in this generation.

Until,

Dan Biser

rdbiser@live.com

http://dbiser.blogspot.com

http://danbiser.blogspot.com

http://www.brokenbeforethethrone.com

THE ANSWER TO THE COMING JUDGMENT

THE ANSWER TO THE COMING JUDGMENT

Is there still time? Is there still hope? Is God able to withhold His hand of wrath and judgment on us as a nation, on His church?
Just as revival is an act of soveriegn design by God, so is judgment. We see when Israel was removed for their wickedness that Judah was given a warning of pending doom. They had a choice, return and serve with full obedience or follow suit of what happened to Israel. and after the reign of Manasseh, judgment was set. For Josiah learned of the great provoacation of Judah against the Lord when they foudn the book of the law. He humbled himself, and prayed. Yet, God spoke that judgment was set for Judah and that after Josiah was dead, judgment was coming. Yet, even before this, Hezekiah learned that all the things would be carried away to Babylon. Judgment is certain.

Our continual provoking of the Lord is the question and issue at hand. LEt us look at the instruction of Joel, I feel it to be our guide for where we are currently.

Joel 2: 12 - 17, "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: v. 13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord you rGod: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. v. 14 Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God? v. 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: v. 16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. v. 17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine inheritance to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?"

God's Response - Joel 2: 18 - 32

So what shall we say for the people and ourselves should do? Sit down, hunker down and wait for the coming judgment? Oh, I don't think so at all. I think the instructions are very clear for us in what we are do. We are to seek the Lord, we are to humble ourselves, we are to weep, we are to call the people for immediate response. Note that these are not actions and activity of our own devices, programs, means and methods. These are instruction from the Lord for a sinful people, on the verge of the wrath of God. Let us look at our response.

(I am seeking to answer the question put before me as to what am I actually asking leadership and those that are moved by what I wrote concerning 'Judgment'. What kind of plan or implementation am I seeking? The following is in answer to those questions:)

Now my desire was that in sharing what the Lord had revealed and spoking to me about our current judgment and past judgment, that there would be a ground swell of response to 'call upon the Lord'. And thus far, there has not been such a desire. The response of leadership, churches, denominations, pastors or individuals does not match the need at hand of God's wrath. Great is the wrath of the Lord against us.

The labor that I am working on presently is to document all the judgments in the Bible. And under each judgment to label the following: Who was judged? What was the sin that provoked God's judgment? What was the judgment of God? What was their response? and What was God's response? And in so marking these judgments we might see the parallel between their plight and ours. When I say 'ours', I am referring to the two bodies that I belong. I belong the Lord's New Testament church; and the United States. The failure of the church is directly proportioned to the nation. Simialarly, the children of Israle was judged because of the failure of the priests (documented from Shiloh to Jerusaleum) and the kings (leadership). Leadership of the nation, coupled, I believe, with pastors are the rise and fall of judgment. Evil leadership in government and wayward, weak pastors allow for SAtan to sift the people and lead them into wickedness which provokes the Lord.

I don't desire to have to answer historically or with reasoning that our nation since WW II has contiued on a spiral downward into wickedness. OUr laws, judges, and rulings have been anit-God for 60 years. If you don't agree with this, I will have to answer that on another time. Secondly, our pastors and church leadership has not risen to meet the need of a wicked nation. The foundational truths that God declares in Joel 2 has not been met. We see a weak kneed, yellow-bellied, cowardly approach, spineless pulpit that refuses to declare the whole counsel of God. Now again, I know in making such a statement that many are offended and upset. God always has His remnant. There are godly pastors and preachers in the midst. But surely we must see that out of the masses of pastors and leadership there is a fundamental weakness compared to generations gone by. I know that my statement is 'across the board'; and I am included in this just the same. But I must recognize and own up to the issue at hand, not sugar coat it nor refuse to recognize it. PErhpas this will lose some of your interest as well, for not agreeing to the whole of these two points.

But the facts are, numerically speaking, that pastors and leadership are void of some of these foundational truths that I beleive are necessary. I continually hear the testimonies and know of personal accounts of many pastors in pulpits that they have little or no prayer life. I ask how much they read and study the Bible daily. Their answer is sinful, '2 or 3 times a week maybe' is their reply. Those two truths alone reveal our disjointed and separate place from God's Presence, Voice and Knowledge of.

I believe with these two issues at the core of our problem, they must be addressed first by the Scripture in Joel. Let us now look at the response of what I am proposing:

1. Turn to Me with all your heart - Recognizing the problem at hand, the certain judgment hovering over us requires for to examine ourselves completely. 'All' is the key to this. almost 5000 times in Scripture is this word of 'all' used. 'All my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength' given and used for the Lord. We see the first sin among us, we have not given our all unto Him. How can we say we give all ? How can we say that 'we are spend and being spent' for Him? When we exercise so much time to entertainment, selfish wants, sloth, and other times consuming nonsense.

The evaluation here is simple to know where we are, here's the test. Sit down and document your time. We are all given 168 hours per week. How much time do you pray daily? How much time do you read your Bible? other spiritaul books? How much time are you in church? How mcuh time do you use for His service in witnessing, visitin and so on? REsults: when I have run this, for those honest, what we find is this:
First we dispel with living functions per week: for example, I will give everyone 7 hours of sleep per night (again, I know there are some who sleep less and some who sleep more) averaged - 49 hours a week in sleep; that leaves 119 hours a week;
Next, eating; we will give everyone 3 meals a day at 20 minutes per meal; that's an hour per day, 7 hours a week in eating; leaves 112 hours a week;
Bathroom, bathing, other functions of life of getting dressed what not - an hour to two per day, so we will say 10 hours per week; leaves 102 hours a week;
Let's say they go to school or work, 40 hours a week; leaves 62 hours a week;
What do you do with your personal 60 hours a week?
--15 mintues of prayer a day,(this is serious, focused prayer, not mouthing words and phrases on the run) so we round it up to 2 hours a week;
--15 minutes in Bible reading; 2 more hours a week;
--average church services 4 hours a week;
--visit, witness, I'll give you 4 more hours on this;
Do you see the time spent? In living life of eating, sleeping, working and daily activity out of 168 hours a week, the total is 106 hours.
spiritual activity for most, and this is very generous is 12 hours a week;
this leaves an individual 50 hours a week for whatever their heart desires;

And for most it is occupied with tv, computer, games, entertainments, self-induglent desires. So that whatever the 12 hours of spiritual labor has been done is a poor reflection to worldly, carnal appetites filling 50 hours a week. As the 7 years of famine ate up the 7 years of plenty, so 50 hours of self will eat up 12 hours of spiritual stregnth.

Remedy: More of those 50 hours must be used for spiritual activity.
For example, it is said that A W Tozer, would pray every morning from 5 - 8 Am on his face before the Lord. Of course, staying long if the Lord so desired. Many of his 40 hours of work for pastoring was used in digesting books, Bible and meditation which woudl increase his spiritual time with God and for God. The time spent with God coorelates to the power of God demonstrated in one's own life. So Tozer instead of spending 12 hours a week doing spiritual time; would spend 21 hours a week in prayer; another (estimating) 5 hours of church services, plus 20 more hours of study and meditation plus visits and witnessing of 5 hours; Total = 51 hours in God's presence and work; thus 4 x as much than the 'average' pastor today.

2.'with fasting, with weeping and with mourning'; the response to the current sitaution should match what we see and know in these verses. A brokeness, a weeping, a mourning among the people, among the leaders for the sins of the people and their own sinfulness. Where are the tears? Where is the brokeness?

Remedy: Only the Lord can give true tears with real compassion. surely we have all seen fake crying. Actors and actresses are paid to do it; but how much sorer to see preachers, leaders or others share with false tears. When we behold the tears wept in the Bible out of compassion, it is a most moving number of Scriptures.
--Jesus wept at the sight of Mary's tears over Lazarus;
--Jesus wept over the city that had rejected Him and was heading for judgment of destruction;
--Jeremiah wept and lamented over the destruction of Jerusalem and the removal of the people of Israel;
--Hannah wept over the 'sore provoking' of Pennaniah;
--Peter wept over his denial of Christ with 'great repentance and tears';
Accounts beyond the Scriptures during the days of revival always reveal tears of conviction and godly sorrow over their sins. Sometimes days and hours of crying and weeping over the knowledge of how gross their iniquity is against a holy God.
We must see a return to geniune tears and sorrow over sin, over neglect, over the wicked and their eternal plight. What does it take to break the hearts of people today to a godly sorrow? Let us pray for God to give what only He can do - a legitmate brokenness of His people for the condition we are in.

CONTINUED JUDGMENT

CONTINUED JUDGMENT

October 13, 2011
I think it to be noted, that church leaders and especially intercessors for our land should pay attention to what is going on day to day in our country. On Octoer 3, 2011, I began my work on "JUDGMENT' of all the instances in the Bible of: 1. Who was judged?; 2. Why they was judged? In other words, What was the sin they did to provoke the Lord to wrath and anger?'; 3. What was the judgment? 4. What was the response of or from the people?; 5. What was the response of God during or after the judgment?

From the beginning of this year through August there was natural disasters. The term 'record' disasters was what caught my attention. With such a word being used repeatedly, we need to see what God is doing and allowing to happen. We saw 'Record natural disasters':
-- in drought conditions across Texas and the southwest; drought conditions increased in southeast;
-- record outbreak of tornadoes and destruction; Joplin, Missouri was one of the most severe;
--record flooding across the northeast; while the south needed rain, rain was nonstop across New England; also flooding was across the Northern tier;
--although not a record, as far as size, an earthquake in the middle of Virginia woke everyone up to the unusal; a 6. 2 near Richomond;
Along with these natural disasters has continued an upheaval in the economy and the lucrative way of life the United STates has known. There is much uncertainty for the near future about where we are going.

All these things are reminders of our nations' continued state of rebellion against the Lord God Almighty. We see laws and judicial verdicts contrary to the Bible and the laws of God. There is an absence of humility and no sign of repentance among us.


Where does that leave us?
In my study of the judgments, I see the land is directly affected because of the sin of the people. Through war and pestilence God eventually strikes the people for their continued disobedience and apathy. I fear we are heading for such a catastrophe that will make 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina combined look like a pebble in a stone quarry. We have not heard from the church in a way that would meet the need of confession and repentance. There is no voice of leadership to warn the people. The old testament had the prophets who pronounce pending judgment unless there was a turn in behavior and way of living back to God. The church today continues as if 'they can fix it' attitude. I assure you that there is no fixing this without the simple plan that God has given to us - confess, repent and obey.

What I see right now happening in headlines alone should move us to action.
Judgments:
1. listeria - has now claimed 29 lives; small and seemingly insignificant deaths, but a sign of continued judgment and raises us to loss of life;
2. continued earthquakes on west coast over 4.0 and another 3.0 in Virginia; and at any given moment could be the next major earthquake;
3. although rain has come to Texas, there is still a pressing need;
4. A continued bug increase of abnormal porportions. In the last year, 'stink' bugs in MId-Atlantic; bed bugs cropping up after dormant for decades; 'swarming' ants in the south;
5. Economy is only held by a thread;
6. Terrorism is inflitrating deeper and deeper into the bland society;
7. Traditional Family is almost obsolete and non-existence in churches, communities and gone as far as the majority of America; this effect alone will decimate the next generation in 20 years;
8. Almost a flow of evil across the land with such violent deaths by family members toward one another; And such horrible murders of evil on our streets and homes; urban and rural. this is defintely a sign of increased demonic work, becuase the church's holiness is so weak to counter the on-slaught of hell.
How long do we have? No man knows; God is so merciful, and has been so long-suffering with a weak, humanistic church. Yet, we must surely know there comes a cutting off period, in which God must respond for the sake of His Name and kingdom. Since August, there has been little of 'record' judgments upon the land. In other words, there is a lull period. We don't know what time it is. Therefore, we must assume that we are limited with what time we do have to respond. No response during this period of time will provoke the Lord to an answer. The urgency and dire circumstances that we are in is not protrayed to many in the churches. He will not allow for us to remain 'as is' with so much blood shed in abortion and such wicked ways across the landscape.

Our Response
II Chronicles 7:14, is about the most relevant for us that I know of. In verse 13, when God is sending judgments, then our response is supposed to be verse 14. Four things for us to respond and lead others to respond in to turn away the wrath, anger and judgment of God:
--Humble ourselves;
--Pray;
--Seek My face;
--Turn from wicked ways;

I don't think the order here in this verse is nearly important as simply doing them all. The response from most is that they do not need to bow their knees. We are such a proud, self-seeking, self-saitsfying culture in the church, I don't know if we even recognize our sin of pride. One thing I have learned through reading the Scriptures and reading and hearing of the accounts of revival is: When God comes down, men must go down. The fear of the Lord makes men, even righteous men tremble and bow down. Yet not this generation, they won't bow the knee for anyone, let alone God. LEt's check the knees at the door so of the church to see if there is any 'Calloused knees' seeking God's mercy.

A continued prayer movement is in place and working to enlarge. But the majority believe that 'prayer' is happening. But a rampant effect of prayerless churches, prayerless families and a prayerless nation is the majority. The only way to understand this sin of prayerlessness is to find out just where we are right now. How many hours does the church pray corporately weekly? How much does an individaul pray daily? If the honesty of this is given, it will be revealed of just how far we are from 'praying rightly'.

'Seek My face' is a desire to worship, to know God and to daily be before Him. Henry Blackaby and Richard Owen Roberts declare that 'this is the most ignorant generation of Christians'. Tozer wrote, 'The Pursuit of God' and perhaps there needs to be another call to such a state of seeking after God for every Christian and church serving under the banner of Christ.

'Turn from wicked ways' - simply put, the sin must stop; Confession of specific sins and repentance from them.. A voice from the church condemning and announcing that this is sin in the eyes of God. There is way too much political correctness in the pulpits and among leadership. No turning away from our present course is sure to receive the full wrath poured out on us, our nation, our families, and 'removing from the earth'.

Brethren, take note to the things at hand. God is speaking clearly and loudly.
What say you?

Until,
dan biser
rdbiser@live.com
http://dbiser.blogspot.com/
http://danbiser.blogspot.com/

JUDGMENT

JUDGMENT

Judgment - a divine sentence or clamity; a calamity sent by God.

Two choices are offered to a nation, a people (church), a family or an individual; one, 'to hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which He has commanded'; or 'to not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statues which He has commanded. The direct response of God is to the choice we make to do or not to do. If the choice is to do, then He has promised 'the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth'. But if the choice is to not do, then 'all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee'. This is found in Deuteronomy 28.

Can we afford not to choose His ways and obey? Yet, we see a nation and the church to be blatantly in disobedience against the ways and the Word of the Lord. The choices of the last few decades has allowed for the wrath of God to be unleashed on us. Within this year of 2011, we have seen record reports of destruction. And as much as they have tried to be explained away, they have been foretold to happen to any people that will not obey the word of the Lord.

Let us begin with what God has promised to do to any people or individual that disobeys His commands. We will look at the Scripture references in Deuteronomy 28 first.

Deuteronomy 28:1 - 14 are the verses of blessing for obedience.
--v. 1national promience; 'I will set thee on high above all nations'
--v. 2 all blessings;
--v. 3 cities and fields; God blesses all the land
--v. 4fruit; a continuance of life is found here in children, crops, and animals;
--v. 5 that which is gathered in the basket and that which kept in store;
--v. 6 coming in and going out, our daily travels are protected and blest;
--v. 7 enemies shall be put down and defeated; protection;
--v. 8 prosperity in everything the hand labors to do;
--v. 9 God's holiness upon the people; this keeps men from sin and iniquity;
--v. 10 fear of the other nations, because the Presence of the Lord is upon them;
--v. 11plenty and prosperity, much like v. 4;
--v. 12 rain, favor of God and His blessings; lend and not borrow;
--v. 13 above and not beneath; head and not the tail; leading, not being led;
--v. 14 kept on the straight and narrow, 'thou shalt not go aside'

Deuteronomy 28: 15 - 68 are the verses of curses for disobedience.

--v. 15 curses shall come and overtake the soul, the family, the nation;
--v. 16 cursed shall be the city and the field; the land destroyed by God's cursing;
--v. 17 cursed shall be the gathering and that which is stored;
--v. 18 cursed shall be the fruit of your body, fruit of the land, the increase of thy cows, flocks and sheep; all production from man and beasts will be cut off and cursed; God is able to give, and He is able to remove; able to make many and add to, as well, as take away and make little;
--v. 19 cursed coming in and going out; The direction is cursed.
--v. 20 the Lord shall send cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that you do, for the destruction and perish quickly from off the land; God sets Himself against you to consume you.
--v. 21 the Lord shall send pestilence to consume you from off the land;
--v. 22 the Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, with fever, and with an inflammation, with extreme burning, with sword, with blasting, with mildew to make you to perish; Death is coming through sword (war) and/or disease.
--v. 23 curse the weather that heaven is brass and the earth is iron; nothing shall grow and no rain;
--v. 24 curse of the air; 'the Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust' instead of rain, a dust bowl, the air filled with dust and dirt. 'From heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed' - this is a complicated section for me; the end result is easily understood, God is going to destroy them. The exact way in which He does this is unclear. 'Come down from heaven to destroy thee' is it dust? meaning no rain and that will destroy them. or is it something else coming down from heaven to destroy them? like the hail and fire of Egypt? the fire and brimstone of Sodom and Gomorrah? Needless to say, something comes down to destroy from God's wrath on them. Oh, what dreadful plight!
--v. 25 cursed to be defeated by thy enemies; 'the Lord shall cause it'; smitten by your enemies and come in one way and driven out 7 differnt ways fleeing before the enemy; carried away into all kingdoms, captivity;
--v. 26 cursed to be food for the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and no one to scare the animals away from devouring; this means they will fall in battle, left to decompose on the open ground, forsaking by God and forsaking by men;
--v. 27 cursed in the flesh of our bodies; 'the Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed' The affliction of our flesh. Not only outward cursing and inward cursing but now cursing upon our bodies without healing.
--v. 28 cursed in the mind and heart;  'the Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart';  REasoning, our perceptions are skewed and heart overloaded and fails.  God removes our ability to think, to experience rightly.  How deep does this go when God takes away our ability to function rightly.  God gives, and God can take away.  Remember Nebuchadnezzar who learned Who gives and Who takes away.
--v. 29 cursed in the ability to see;  Not of sight with the eyes, but perception.  This is a continuation from the last verse.  'thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, adn thou shalt not propser in thy ways:  and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.'   God removes all help and hope.  ONly oppressed, no rescue, no deliverance, and God sets us in the darkness to grope for some kind of help or hope.  It is the mirror picture of hell. 
--v. 30 cursed shall be thine possessions;  a wife, a house, and a vineyard shall all be taken away from thee;  The soul that sinneth shall lose everything precious to them.  Look at the depth of this; a wife married, joined together and then removed.  Emotional attachment of fleshly companionship removed.  A house built, and then removed from enjoying.  Emotional attachment of ownership and stability removed.  A vineyard labored over and worked for, but never to enjoy.  emotional attachment of vanity with no satisfcation of completion in any sense of the natural living.  This only drives men mad.
--v. 31cursed shall be thy livestock;  'ox, ass, and sheep'  all taken away by the enemy.  Again, the worst of it, none shall deliver.  Note, that these last several verses are the same thing Job lost, yet he knew that His Redeemer liveth.  Men that faith in God alone, can lose the things of this world and survive.  But evil men who live off of things of this world, when they lose them cannot survive. 
--v. 32 curse upon thine children; 'Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long'  You will have to watch them be taken away and there will be nothing you can do about it.  Sent into captivity, knowing that once they leave you, you will never see them again.  And no matter how much your eyes will long to see them, it will not happen.  Why?  Because you sought to sin against the Lord.
--v. 33 curse upon thy productivity; 'The fruit of thy land, and all thy labors, shall a nation eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway'  Everything that you labored for shall another people eat and enjoy.  The sweat of your brow and energy put forth will be for others.  You will enjoy none of it.
--v. 34 madness - 'So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see'  The sheer presence of having to watch all this right in front of you and not be able to do one thing about it, will drive men crazy.  They will not be able to endure such a systematic destruction of everything that they lived for and loved. MADNESS!!
--v. 35 curse upon thy physical body; 'the Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head'  We see such afflcitions now, upon the bodies of so many young and old.  Notice that the Lord smites them.  In the knees and legs being a sore bothc without healing.  And it will run the entire length of your body.
--v. 36 curse upon king and you; you shall be removed, you and your king removed to a land that you do not know, and there you will serve false gods and idols.  'the Lord shall bring thee' reminds us again of the Lord's hand against such a people that set themselves against Him.
--v. 37curse upon you and your land; 'thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword' to all the other nations;  Even the heathen nations will know your destruction came for a reson.
--v. 38 curse upon the land; 'carry much seed out, bring in very little' The locust shall devour it. 
--v. 39 curse upon the vine; planted, tended to but the worm will devour it; no fulfillment of anything that they set themselves to do;
--v. 40 curse upon the olive tree;  plenty of trees there, but the tress shall be destroyed;
--v. 41 curse upon children; As in all these other things, you will have children, but they shall be removed from you and sent into captivity, never to know their plight in life.  Can any parent stand such a thought? 
--v. 42 curse upon vegetation; The locusts shall consume the land.
--v. 43 curse upon stature; The stranger shall be above to rule and the owners of the land shall bow in service.  All natural order of things shall be undone because of judgment upon your sin.
--v. 44 curse upon money and stature; You shall borrow and not lend, they are the head and you are the tail.  they will lead and direct our financial affairs.  China is doing this now with the US economy.
--v. 45 curse given to finish you off and the cause; 'All these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, til thou be destroyed';  why?  Because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice fo the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee'
--v. 45 Why the curse that came continued; Becuase thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things'  Increased with goods, and in need of nothing, not even in need of God.
--v. 46 curse shall be upon the present (you) and the next generation (thy seed); the reason is given for the curse to happen in this manner, a sign and for a wonder to those that shall see it and know it;
--v. 47 curse is upon you for this reason - 'Because thou servedst not the Lord with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart';
--v. 48 curse in captivity and destruction; 'thou shalt serve thine enemies, which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunge3r, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things;'  The Lord shall send them.  'And God shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until He has destroyed you.' 
--v. 49 curse by enemies; 'the Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far'  the Lord shall bring them for your destrucion.
--v. 50 curse by enemies; they shall have a fierce countenance; and have no mercy for the young or the old, all shall die. 
--v. 51 curse of the enemy upon you; they shall eat the your cattle, fruit of the land, until you are destroyed;  taking everything and leaving you nothing to your own destruction;
--v. 52 curse upon safety of cities;  The enemy shall come in an 'beseige thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down.'  The enemy will beseige thee ' in all thy land'. 
--v. 53 curse of cannibalism; The enemy shall press thee so hard in beseiging thee that all food will be gone.  You will be so desperate that you will eat your sons and daughters.  OH what a plight is found here!
--v. 54 curse of good natured men turning evil;  'the man that is tender among you, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave'  What sets a man against those that he is to love?  God removes compassion and tenderness from them.  Is this not everywhere today among us? 
--v. 55 curse of selfishness;  This one that has turned against his loved ones will keep the food of their sons and duaghters and will not share it.  He will eat his sons and daughters and not share any of it witht those that he is supposed to love and provide for.  OH, God turn from Thy fierceness, it is more than I can stand to read and contemplate of that which is coming. 
--v. 56 curse of good natured women turning evil; 'The tender and delicate woman among you. . . her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,' she was good natured, but God shall allow for that to be removed and for spirit to be evil, mean, sinful, selfish.
--v. 57 curse continues upon the woman; 'And toward her young one. . .and toward her children which she shall bear'  Against the newborn and the young children, she shall be evil towards.  It continues, 'she shall eat them for want of all things'.  So great will be the calamity from being beseiged that these unthinkable things will happen.
--v. 58 warning - 'If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful Name, THE LORD THY GOD'  


WHO DOES JUDGMENT COME UPON?

We know that judgment comes upon those that have disobeyed the Lord. The section here of 'Who' is to recognize whether it is intended for a nation, for the church, for a town, for a family or for the individual. As we go through these passages I will reference the 'who' that is being referred to.
Examples throughout Scripture teach us why, who and how God pours out His wrath. We would do well to learn from these examples. This initial draft of "Judgments" is not a complete reference but merely to reveal the truths of these things. It is the greatest of hope that we would learn the lessons of history so that we will not repeat the same trespasses and reap the same results.

We begin in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3:1-31, we see the first sin and the judgment that was rendered for the choice of disobedience. God says, 'Don't' and men say, 'I will'. God answers man's choices with punishment to correct their self-rule. Wisdom is upon the man that learns from those of the past and learns not to offend a holy God. The simple ones, the fool defies God and thinks that they will not have to pay a price.
The Sin: Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knolwedge of good and evil. Then she turned and gave unto Adam and he did eat. Thus, sin entered into the world upon God's creation that was perfect, pure and undefiled. The 3 aspects of this sin is the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. Satan made her look at the tree and made her question what God had stated; God said, 'Thou shalt not eat of the tree'; Satan said, 'Hath God said?' And upon doing that we see the actions done that led to the sin. She looked on it and lusted after it, for 'it looked good.' She wanted wisdom, 'desired to make one wise'. And she chose self over God and ate of it. And then one more step of sin, she had Adam eat of it. Sinners rarely ever want to sin alone, they must always seek to have someone else fall with them.
The Judgment: Upon their sin of disobedience and the eating of the fruit that opened their eyes, the Lord put an end to their days. They were created by Him, but their physical bodies would cease to be at their determined year. 'The wages of sin is death'. Sin is the cancer that racks the body that makes us die. This judgment of death goes far worse than just them. Sin's judgment always has further consequencesthan the here and now. This would now be passed on to their children. David said, 'I was born in sin'. 'No flesh shall enter into the kingdom of God because of their sin contaminating their flesh. Other judgments upon these three: the serpent was put on his belly; the woman would have to travil in birth pains and delivery; and the man would have to work by the sweat of his brow to till and reap the land. They were cast out of the garden and barred from re-entry. And the worse part, they begun the work of sin that has plagued, condemned and destroyed billions upon billions of lives into hell. Better to have no children, than to have children and let them be children of hell.
The Response - They would simply have to face and endure the punishment meted out to them. The sin was done, there was no chance for a correction. Sin had come into the world and now remains.

The very next chapter brings us to the next sin we need to look at.
The Sin: In Genesis 4, Adam and Eve have had two sons, Cain and Abel. In verse 3 - 5, these two boys bring their offering unto the Lord. Abel's offering was accepted and Cain's offering 'He did not respect'. Some argue that it was because Abel's was the animal sacrifice and Cain's was produce. The Scripture does not say that. It says that Abel's offering was counted righteous before the Lord; while Cain's was counted unrighteous. It was not 'what' he brought', but intent of not bringing the best. Upon this rejection by God of Cain's offering, we see an immediate downward spiral into greater sin. In verse 5, 'he became angry, and his countenance fell'. Then in verse 8, his anger continued and rose to wrath and he killed Abel.
The Judgment - Upon God calling Cain out about what he did, God requires an answer. 'the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.' In verse 11 the curse is issued, 'And now art thou cursed from the earth. . .(v. 12) When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.'
The Response - We see again there was nothing that Cain could do to reverse the sentence passed against him. He went out from the rest of the family. He was branded in his forehead and we know that God cannot lie; therefore, the ground barely produced for him, men reviled him and stayed clear of the marked man. And what does Cain do? He goes into another land that again we see the by product that he continues his sins in having children. And Cain's line of children can be traced fo those in Genesis, chapter 4: 16 - 24. And they were evil just like him. And when the flood came only the line of Adam through SEth was preserved. The line of Cain was removed from off the earth.
Oh, many times do we see this in the Scriptures when God removes an entire lineage from off the earth. It is one of the most horrible judgments passed upon the wicked. We see it in the kings of Israel, king Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin; the line of king Baasha and the line of king Ahab, all were removed from off the face of the earth.

Genesis 6
The Sin: In Genesis 6:5, 'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continaully.' One of the most horrifying verses in the Bible. None righteous, in all the earth, but Noah. Their thoughts, day in and day out were 'continually evil'. What is the difference between then and now? We are, no doubt, not far from this.
The Judgment: "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth" Again, as we just saw with the lineage of Cain and the other wicked men of the other, what does God do to them? He removes them from the face of the earth. 'I will destroy' is a study found throughout all the Bible. God will destroy and condemn and afflict the evil; but God will bless, provide and protect the righteous. In verse 11 -12, 'The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and , behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.' In verse 13, He repeats, 'I will destroy them with the earth.' Now in verse5, He is going to remove man; but in verse 13, He will remove mand and destroy the earth. In verse 17, He will destroy the earth and man and beast by flood.
The Response: Noah built and preached for 120 years to give sinful man the chance to repent and serve the Lord. Yet, we know that the only ones that entered the ark was NOah, his wife, his 3 sons and their wives. And of those 8 souls, only Noah, it is said, 'was found righteous in the eyes of the Lord.' OH, brethren, your very life is important to the rest of your family. Your umbrella can deliver and protect your loved ones. WE see this repeated throughout Scripture. Let your response be to fear the Lord, to walk humbly before your God and live holy in His Presence. The people that knew and heard Noah, continued in their sin for over a 100 years. They gave no heed to turn, or live rightly. Therefore, they were destroyed from off the earth. And in that day, many shall say, "Lord, Lord'; but He shall say, 'I never knew you, depart from Me.' Choose you this day Who or who you will serve.

Genesis 11
Who - 'they' Constantly through verse 2 -3, shows they of the earth; maybe able to pinpoint them of the east gathered themselves together.
Sin - v. 6 'They begin to do: and now nothing which they have imaged to do' none of it was for God's glory. It was the devices of their own evil hearts.
Judgment - God confounded their language in verse 7 and 8 and 'the Lord scattered them upon all the face of the earth'.

Genesis 18 - 19
Who - the men of Sodom and Gomorrah; Lot, his wife and two children; 18:20, 'Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great'.
Sin - 18:20, 'becuase their sin is very grievous'; 19:5, 6, 'the men of Sodom compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. . .'Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. ' We see all were guilty of this sin. They came to attack, to hurt, to undo these angels of God. Such perversion was found in all the cities.

I Samuel 2
Who - the sons of Eli; Hophni and Phineas; 'Now the son of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.' 2:11;
The Sin - we see in chapter 2, the sons of Eli contiual practiced evil in their duties of the sacrifices, fornication and threatening the people who brought the offerings;  And sometimes it is the unspoken sin, that we miss.  Let us not miss that Eli did speak to them of their ways, that they needed to correct and repent of their sins.  Yet, in chapter 3:13, God condemns Eli because, as the priest, and the father to the boys, 'he did not restrain them from their sins."  Their disobedience to God, to their father and refusal to obey was their sin.
Response - God sent a man of God who warns Eli of what is going to happen in verses 27 - 36;  his sons were going to die, he had allowed for the house to be polluted by his own neglect and actions.  And because of their refusal to

Jeremiah 1
Who - the children of Judah and the city of Jerusalem;
The sin - they were disobedient as we gather from other passages of the Old Testament;
Response - 1:3, 'unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month."
1:13, 'I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north'; an introduction of what is coming for their judgment;
1:14, "Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." Note, the word 'all the inhabitants'.  None shall be left untouched by the northern army when it comes. 
1:15, the armies of the north shall 'set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and agaiinst all the walls thereof, round about, and against all the cities of Judah."  We see the word 'all' again used for the walls of Jerusalem and for the cities of Judah.  Not one to be left untouched, because of His fierce wrath at their disobedience.  The inclusivenness of all is horrifying - all your family, all your friends, all your neighbors to be effected should put us on guard.  How very near we are to such an edict from God. 
1:16, God continues with His pronouncement against them and lists their sins against Him; 'And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands."  1. 'All their wickedness'  they had continued to forsake that which is good to practice evil; 2.  'have forsaken Me', we cannot trust in the arms of flesh, but serve and know the Lord and His ways; 3.  worshipped other gods, the creation of their own hands; Breaking of the commandment number one and number two of the 10 commandments;  Therefore 'I will utter My judgements agains them'  God had set Himself to make them atone for their sin and He will do the same to us unless we repent and forsake our sins.

Jermiah 2
Who - The Lord is no longer just speaking of Judah and Jerusalem, but unto all Israel; 2:2, 'cry in the ears of all Jerusalem'; but in 2:3, 'Israel was holiness'; 2:4, "Oh house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel';  He is speaking unto all His people that remain. 
2:5
Jeremiah 43
We see in the previous chapter, where the remnant of Judah came to Jeremiah to ask counsel of the Lord. Normally a good thing is that. Jeremiah waited for 10 day, and then told the people specifically not to go down into Egypt. This chapter of verse 1 -13 tells us their response and reaction to the Word of the Lord.
Who - the remnant of Judah left after the destruction of Jerusaleum by the Babylonians;
The question that they asked was, 'Do we stay in the land or go into Egypt?'
Response - They reject the Word of the Lord and accuse Jeremiah of lying to them. So we see that their response to the Word of the Lord, now leads to their sin of disobedience and will lead to their judgment. This is the plight of man right now. We have the Word of God for our instruction and direction in choosing and living. The choice that man makes determines sin or holiness; and blessing or cursing. What choice have you made?
The Sin - In verse 4 and 7 we read of their choice. "And all the people obeyed not the voice of the Lord, to dwell in the land of Judah'. verse 7, 'They obeyed not the voice of the Lord'.
The Judgment - IN verse 11 the sentence is passed. The king of Babyolon will 'smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.' In verse 12, captivity is the judgment and the destruction of the false gods found in Egypt. The judgment is directly related to the sin and response of Egypt and we will see for the remnant of Judah.

Jeremiah 44
After they go into Egypt, in direct disobedience to the Word of the Lord, God speaks about Judah. The land that they went into for safety shall be destroyed and they will be left to the wrath of Babylon.
Who - IN verse 1, 'all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt'.
Judgment - In verse 2, God declares all His destruction upon the land and cities of Judah and the evil poured out on Jerusalem; 'a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein' Why? Becuase of the Sin found in verse 3, 'Because of their wickedness. . .they committed to provoke me to anger' in worshipping false gods. The sin of idolatry.
Response - God sent His prophets to turn them from their wicked ways by foretelling them what would happen if they did not cease from sin and learn to do good. The peoples response is found in verse 5, 'They hearkened not'. They would not turn and stop sinning with idols.
Verse by verse now we go through the rest of this chapter with J, S, or R:
Judgement v. 6 - "My fury and mine anger was poured forth, against Judah and Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day"
Judgment v. 7 - "Cut off from you man and woman; child and suckling, leave none to remain'; we see death is the end result of this judgment. All will be cut off. We cannot afford to get to this point. OH, brethren, learn from the past, where we are heading.
Response v. 7 - "wherefore commit ye this great evil against your souls" They chose sin and disobedience against God. Men choose their course of blessing or cursing.
Sin v. 8 - 'Ye provoke me to wrath with the works of you rhands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt'; Guilty of idolatry and for being Egypt where they were commanded not to be. Beward when God finds you in the place you are not to be, doing what you are not supposed to be doing - sin. 'Be sure your sin will find you out'.
Judgment v. 8 - "To cut yourself off, and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all nations'; Destruction and cursed for their inqiutiy. WE see this happening even now among the nations of the world that we are a reproach, cursed and cutting ourselves off from existence.
Response v. 9 - Wickedness is mentioned in this verse 5 times. Every facet of society practiced wickedness. God is asking them if they remembered this or not. Do we not know the same truth for our society. Wickedness is found in every choice, in every corner of our nation. We have saturated the land with sin.
Response v. 10 - "They are not humbled, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in My statutes" God commanded for them to be humble, to fear Him and walk rightly. They did none of them. Where is our fear of the Lord? where is our humbling? where is our walking rightly? Are we not a mirror reflection of this wicked people? Oh, to pray for humility, fear of the Lord to be restored unto the church. To see Christians walking with these traits and having a life that reflects Christ. Herein is our work of prayer.
Judgment v. 11 - "I will set my face against you for evil to cut off all" What hope is there for anyone if God sets His face for destruction, for evil against a people? And if God says He is going to cut off all, there is the need for immediate response of God's people. You cannot continue in the same old way. God has spoken and it will come to pass.
Sin v. 12 - the remnant of Judah that set their faces to go into Egypt; after Jeremiah told them the word of the Lord was for them not to go in.
Judgment v. 12 - This is the worst part of all this: 'they shall be consume, and fall . .and shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die. . .by the sword and by the famine' There is no way possible after reading this verse or knowing the will of God toward them, that there was any hope for them. This is one of the certain verses of judgment that we read in all of Scripture. These people were finished. What shall we do if we get to this place before God? And God says, 'You shall die'. Let us not be so foolish to follow after their example and forsake the Lord God.
Who v. 12 - the remnant of Judah, the least even unto the greatest;
Response v. 12 - They shall be an execreation, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach' They was finished but their testimony would be shared with all those that read this, and that knew of what they had done to offend God. We strive as Christians to be a blessing for the Lord. Because of their sin, the Lord made them to be a curse. Choose you this day whether you will be a blessing or a curse.
Judgment v. 13 - 'I will punish them. . .by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence' over 15 times this phrase of sword, famine and pestilence is used in Jeremiah. OH, the sorrow of a people that have forsaken the Lord and brough this punishment upon their ownselves.
Judgment v. 14 - none of the remnant shall escape or remain'; Oh, how the plight of their disobedience leads to utter destruction; The thought alone is enough for us that 'none' shall escape.
Response v. 15 - 19, the people immediately responde to Jeremiah and renounce the Word of the Lord. They make their statement that they will serve their idols in Egypt. They will continue to live in defiance against the Lord God. They will not listen to the prophet. You really have to stand in amazement at such blatant disobedience. This is like asking for God to smite you. We would think they should repent and turn back to God for mercy and help. But no they choose their own course. God hardened their hearts for He knew they would reject Him. WE see this with other instances of people and times. IN the end times when the judgments are falling and killing men, they stood and defied God and it says the same phrase for here, 'they would not repent.' Why? For God would bring them forth to destruction.
Who v. 20 - 'unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer' Do you see how many times 'all is used here? It seems as if all of them were answering in rebellion against the Lord and Jeremiah. 'Many shall say in that day, Lord' 'Many are on the broad and wide path that leads to destruction.
v. 21 - The sin of burning incense was long before these wicked people did it in Egypt. 'You, your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land' Generational sin is mentioned here. The fathers teach the children and the corruption is wide spread across the whole of society, leadership and common folk.
God's Response v. 22 - 'The Lord could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and becuase of the abominations which ye have committed' God is longsuffering, God is merciful, God is gracious, God is patient; but such sins of His people had gone to the limit. oH, how close are we in our present state to such a place as this? How awful that God say, 'I will no longer bear with your sins but. . . .'
Judgment v. 22 - . . .your land is a desolation and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant' God removed them and cursed them. Brought to the place of near extinction. Remember again, 605,000 men came out of Egypt; how many was carried into Babylong? How many in Egypt? less than 100,000 between the two. What happened to the rest of the people? God destroyed them.
Sin v. 23 - 'Becuase you burned incense' to false idols; 'Because you sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, nor walked in His law, nor in His statutes, nor in His tesitimonies' They rejected the Word of God, they rejected God Himself. And what do we see in the church? They don't read their Bibles, and they don't know their Bibles. They have rejected the 'law' and the 'statutes'. This leads to a rejection of God, for the word reveals Who God is to us. And if we are not serving God, then we are worshipping religion, traditions and men of our own making. This is our sin - the rejection of God.
Who v. 24 - 'unto all the people, and to all the women' the women were the insticators of this sinfulness unto idols; but the people were the ones responsible for allowing it to continue. If the people remain in silence, then they give a stamp of approval on the sin. It is the same all around us today: the church that remains silent on sin, for fear of offending the people are guilty; the parents that remain silent ove the sins of their children are guilty; the individual who knows of the sin but says nothing, has blood on their hands.
Sin v. 25 - 'burned incese to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her' - idols; time, energy, money and attention is given to that which is made by men; our idols are the same - tv, computer, games, entertainment, money, family, friends, etc.
Response of the people v. 25 - 'We will perform our vows' they spoke and said it, yet without an unction of conviction or awareness of wrongness unto the Lord. They actually thought they was right in defying the Lord. O how foolish!
God's Response v. 26 - 'I have sworn by My great Name, that My Name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in Egypt' All these peole worshipping false idols will not be able to say, 'our gods and our God'. God removes Himself from their mouth of profession.
v. 27 - 'I will watch over them for evil and not for good, all in Egypt shall be consumed by sword and famine, until there be an end of them' God will sit and watch for anything and everything to cause this people who have forsaken Him, great punishment and judgment. Think of this, when God sets Himself to watch over for evil and not for good.


Jeremiah 45
Only 5 verses in this short chapter. Yet, we see God speaking through Jeremiah to Baruch to announce His will.
Who - an individual is being given a promise about the judgment that is coming; verse 1, 'unto Baruch'; He felt that God was judging him. In verse 3, 'Thou didst say, Woe is me not! for the Lord hath added grief unto my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and i find no rest.'
The Sin - there is no reference to the sin of the people or in reference to Baruch. But coupled with the other prophecies and words of JEremiah, we know it to be for their disobedience and unwillingness to repent and turn back to God with their whole heart. This can be substantiated by many other Scriptures already referred to. slightly referring to verse 5 is Baruch trying to gain notriety, fame, or perhaps approval from the people. God quickly renounces this to him.
The Judgment - In verse 4, God says, 'Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land' Judgment for them to beremoved from the land. God says, 'I will bring evil upon all flesh'; this is the bodies to be attacked and assualted. And when God says 'all' that means 'all'. Every person was in danger. WE know the other warning that went out against them of famine (starvatin) and death by the sword.
The Response - a warning to Baruch to shun his desire for fame and advancement. 'Cling to that which is good; abhor evil.' Turn away from these people that you are seeking their applause and favor or you shall be destroyed as they will be. But if you obey, God will spare your life and give it unto you for perserverance.

Jeremiah 46
Who - the judgment of Egypt is foretold in this chapter;
Judgment - v. 25 - 'I will punish' the people, their gods and their kings and 'all them'; v. 26 'I will deliver them into the hand of their enemies'; v. 28, 'I will make a full end of all nations whither I have driven thee'
Response - v. 24 'Egypt shall be confounded'; God shall restore Jacob, v. 27 and 28, 'Fear not, neither be dismayed' Find hope and trust in the Lord Who is able to do such things even in the midst of such horrible circumstances and situations; "Look unto the Lord' Who is mighty to save

Jeremiah 47
Who - the judgment of Philistines;

Jeremiah 48
Who - the judgment of Moab;

Ezekiel 22
Who - the house of Israel; as a whole house, the tribes of Israel with Judah;
In verse 18, God begins to announce what Israel has become and what He is going to do to them. They have become dross. They have lost their precious state of gold or silver. they are 'brass, and tin, and iron, and lead.'
Judgment - in verse 18, 'in the midst of the furnance' of affliction to purge, to consume the dross; In verse 20, 'into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.' God gathers them together, in verse 19. There He will pour out His anger and 'fury' against them. As in the fire that melts the precious metals, He will melt them and destroy them and forsake them. And standing off on the sides of the hill to watch the wrath of God poured out upon a people, His people shoudl compel to cry out for mercy, to cry out for help, to cry out for salvation/redemption.
In verse 21, He continues with this desturction; 'gather you', then ' blows upon you in the fire of My wrath' and 'you shall be melted'. He is going to consume them in one fell swoop.
In verse 22, 'you shall be melted', and 'My fury upon you'. Know the sorrow of such an action when God comes against His Own people for their destruction. Who can deliver them if God be against us?
Sin - A listing of sins follows, beginning in:
-- verse 24, 'Thou art the land that is not cleansed';
--verse 25, 'conspirace of her prophets; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things, they have made her many widows in the midst thereof'; stealing, dishonoring, death, lies, vanity and greed;
--verse 26, 'Her priest ahve violated my law, have profaned mine holy things: no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them'; The corruption of the priests, the people and the place. Is it not so among us? the leadership, the church, the body, and the witness before a heathen world. Do you see the ruin of ways, souls, traditions and all of contained in this one phrae, 'I am profaned among them'. The Lord God Almighty is profaned in the midst of His Own people.
--verse 27, 'Her princes are like ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.' death, greed, pride of position over the flocks, and all for filthy lucre and power in position;
--verse 28, 'prophets untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divine lies' Those which should declare truth, build the walls of correction and good and evil, daub it with lies, falsehoods and are evil themselves.
--verse 29, 'The people have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy, oppressed the stranger wrongfully.' They steal, afflict, rob, assualt and hurt those that should not be touched. Surely God will judge such evil actions agains the innocent.
God's Response - in verse 20, "I sought for a man to make up the hedge, to stand in the gap; but I found none.' God looks for someone to be humble, pray and seek His face for the sake of turning His wrath away. He found it in Samuel; He found it in Moses; He found it in David; let HIm find it in us. You and I be that man, that person, that will stand and plea for these evil, wicked men to be given grace and mercy and not wrath and destruction.
Judgment - And because He could not find a man, He poured out His indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of His wrath'. This is what happens unless God finds a man.

Ezekeil 24
IN verses 1 - 5, God declaring the judgment of Jerusalem through a parable.
Sin - in verse 6, 'bloody city' - the sin of murder, death; 'Whose scum is therein, and whoe scum is not gone out of it!' The iniquity still remains. The wrath of God is extended upon the sin that still remains. There is no remedy accept in the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all iniquity.
in verse 7, 'her blood is in the midst of her' We have seen in other portions of Scripture that the blood that is not atoned for brings condemnation. The blood contains the breath of life in it and God makes people accountable for innocent blood shed in our midst. In verse 8, God says, "I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that is should not be covered.' God is setting the blood out in the open and the avenging Angel goes forth to smite all those condemned where the blood is found. HE sets it out in the open that destruction defintely finds the guilty city, people and nation.
Judgment - IN verse 9 -11, God kindles the fire that shall consume. 'Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned.' God increases the pile of sinfulness to consume it all by fire. Destruction is certain when God says, "I will even make the pile for fire great.'
Sin - in verse 12, two sins are mentioned that has led to the judgment - 'lies and her great scum still in her'; she is defiled within and without. And how severe is lying? 'A liar shall not enter into the kingdom of God.
God's Response - in verse 13, 'thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee'. This is a contamination of filthiness that led to worse defilement through lewdness. And becuase the sin was not purged but remained God's wrath came agianst it. He refuses to allow it to be removed in order that He might pour out His fury against them. this is a horrible verse to consider that God may not allow for cleansing in order to judge the wicked and guilty. This lays on all that forsake the call to repent and humble themselves. IN verse 14, 'I will' is mentioned 4 times in what God is going to do - 'I will do it'; 'I will not go back'; 'I will not spare'; 'I will not repent'; 'According to thy wyas, according to hy doings, shall they judge thee'. In other words, your going to get what's coming to you. Foolish is the man that says to God, 'Give me what's mine.' Wrath is poured out on such souls. How can any man stand before the Lord without His mercy and grace. And here He removed mercy and grace and refuses to repent of any of His actions of judgment and wrath. 'In wrath remember mercy' and here there is no mercy just wrath. OH, what an awful plight for the wicked!

Ezekiel 43
Sin v. 7 - 'the children of Israel no more defile, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoredom, nor by the carcasses of their kings in their high places' God has come into the midst of the temple and declares His will. He declares the continual sins of the children of Israel whic h led to their judgment.
v. 8 'they have even defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed' They sought for their own way of worship and practice. And in doing this they removed God from first place. They brought defilement on His great Name. And oh, the church today with its change in worship, change in theology or lack of it, change in Who God is to them personally has brought defilement upon His Holy Name. This is the church's sin today. This is individaul's Christians sin today. When the world says the church is too hypocritical, what they are saying is that they do not see Christ in us. Too much open sin, too many confessions of wretched sin, just like the world. There is supposed to be a distincition, where is it? Divorce - just as high in the church as out of it; abortion - it will be revealed in eternity of those who murdered and sat as if nothing had happened in the pews of the church, covering up their sin of adultery or fornication; anger/hate - just as consumingin the church as in the world; pornography/lusts - destroying and defiling as many in the church as in the world; money - love for it and stealing in tithes just as guilty as lost sinners; wasting money, talents and time on self just like the wicked. WE ARE GUILTY!
Judgment - v. 8 'I have consumed them in mine anger' God's anger, and wrath has destroyed the sinner becuase of their sin. He consumed the sin? NO, He consumed the sinners in their sin.
Response - v. 9 'LEt them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me' Cleanse the land, cleanse you families, cleanse from all defiling things in the land. Put it away and never take it again. REsponse is for all to be a part of this; may it start with the individuals, but grow to all the people. v. 10 'that they may be ashamed of their iniqutites' v. 11 'And if they be ashamed' The 'if' is the crux of it all. They/we should be ashamed, but are we. So long as pride remains within us and the body of Christ, there will never be any humility or ashamedness.
God's Response - v. 9 'I will dwell in the midst of them for ever' God promises, 'I will'. Once they put away the sin, God returns. Repentance is absoluetly necessary for us to have a restoration with God. God will fulfill all that He has said, but He is waiting for us to do what we are supposed to do.

Daniel 1
Who v. 1 - the king of Judah, Jehoiakim; and the people of Judah were judged;
Judgment v. 2 - 'the Lord gave jehoiakin into his hand, with part of the vessles of the house of God: which he carried away' This was the beginning of the end. Josiah was dead, the land was corrupted and God had already foretold that after Josaih, Babylon would carry away the people and remove them from the promised land. A continual provoking of the Lord will always be met with by God punishment.
Note: we see that the treasures of the house of God and the people were carried away for jdugment. Yet, we begin this great book of Daniel that shows God is with Daniel and his 3 friends as they serve the Lord faithfully in captivity. This should teach us that no matter, free or slave, in our land or removed from it, we should serve the Lord. God was with them in the captivity.

Daniel 4
Who - 'Thou, O king Nebuchadnezzar'
Sin v. 30 - 'the king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?' You see in this verse the sin of his heart, pride. 'I built', 'my power', and 'my majesty' is all condmening of love of self and denial of God Who gives us the ability, the power and the opportunity. God gives and God can take away.
Judgment v. 31 - 33 - 'The kingdom is departed from thee.. . . they shall drive thee from men. . .thy dwelling shall be with the beasts. . . eat grass as oxen' Twelve months earlier, Daniel had told him what would happen if he did not humble himself before the Lord. HE boasted, he gloried in his own accomplishments and paid the price for it.
Response v. 34, 37 - 'lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, I blessed the most High, and I praise and honored Him. . .I, Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the King of heaven' He had been brought down, and by God's mercy was allowed to rise back up. Not all men are so blest to be allowed another opportunity. Some are 'removed from the earth'. Humbles yourselves now, before you have to go through such an affliction to learn this lesson of pride and self exaltation. God is to be feared, honored and obeyed by all men. How wicked the heart that does not learn nor know this truth.

Hosea
Chapter 1
Who v. 2 the Lord speaking to Hosea about the children of Israel;
Sin v. 2 - 'they have departed from the Lord'; 'a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms. . .and the land has commited great whoredom'
Judgment v. 4 - 'call his name Jezreel' - mean to scatter; the Lord is going to scatter; God has power to draw together and to scatter abroad. "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu' - Jehu slew Ahabs family in Jezreel at God's command and prophecy of the prophets, like Elijah. But Jehu was no godly man, nor did he fear the Lord as he should have. His shed innocent blood in Jezreel and all blood must be answered for. the blood of the innocent is found on the hands of people. We read here where Manasseh shed innocent blood in the streets of Jerusalem and generations later they were judged for that blood. Oh, how great is the evil of our land. How great is the vengeance of our Lord against us for the sin of abortion. And the last judgment of this verse is 'will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel' - the sins of Jeroboam and the Baal worship was enough. God would remove them and they would no longer be in existence. All the line of 'the kingdom of Israel' that we read after the division with REhoboam and Jeroboam was , 'and they did evil in the sight of the Lord'. And so God brought the ASsyrians and from this point of Hosea writing, God removed them in 70 years.

Micah
Chapter 6
Sin v. 12 - 'The rich men are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.'  this shows the contamination of all society.  The rich have influence and from the top to the bottom they are corrupted. 
v. 16 - 'For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels;'  Omri and Ahab was given the title of, 'they did more evil than any before them'.  A father and son of Satan's great delight.  They did every evil to offend God and take the people away from the Lord.  What worse title could be spoken of for any man!  And their sins continued long after they were dead.  Here, decades later, they are still affected and afflicted by the influence and power of evil.  Oh, how sin has its long lasting effects upon the next generation. 
God's Response
v. 13 - 'therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.'  The affliction and punishment is certain for any people that turns away from God.  And this severity is that they would loathe it to the place of  being, 'sick in smiting thee'. 
Judgment
v. 14 - 'Thou shalt eat, but not be satisifed'  No substance shall bring satisfaction. No contentment of fullness.  'thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver' - Unfulling place of labor;  to take hold and then lose it.  The emptiness of vanity. 
v. 15 - 'Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint hee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.'  The purpose of planting and laboring is to reap the prodcut of it.  All this will be taken away.  All this will be removed from their future.  Having sown and planted, but never see the fruition of it.  One of two things happens to bring this to pass; 1. they are cut off due to war;  they are killed and removed from the earth; or 2. they plant, but the enemy comes in and takes possession of their labors.  Either way, God sends the judgment of unfufilled purposes. 

Chapter 7
Sin v. 2 - 'the good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.' There are 4 acts of evil mentioned here. Each shows the depravity of sin in man at its worst. How bad is it when good men perish out of the earth? Meaning that none stand up in their place. When they are gone, goodness is gone; and if goodness be gone, then only evil remains. Men do not practice being upright. They run to do evil and sin for goodness is gone. The sin of murder and the sin of waiting and plotting against one another.
v. 3 - 'that they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire; so they wrap it up' Not just evil with one hand slightly, but two hands earnestly. See the intensity of their actions toward evil. See the rulers practicing evil as well - the prince and the judge. Both waiting for a bribe to cover up their evil and pervert judgment.
v. 4 - 'the best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh;' There is cutting by the people in this description; they shred the issue of goodness and decency. They practice evil and eventually all evil comes to judgment.It is cutting; it is pain.
Judgment - 'thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity' It comes to all. And it will come. Too many beleive they will escape, they will not have to face it. But it will come. Hear those 3 words and know its truth, 'thy visitation cometh'.

Habakkuk
Chapter 1
God's Response 1:5," I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. v. 6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not their's."  God, we know, from other references had foretold that Babylon would come and take away all out of the temple and out of JErulasem for their sins and rebellion.  Israel had already been carried away by the Assyrians, and now Judah was to fall 100 years after Israel.  God will judge, God will condemn, God will remove people from their land and from the earth. 
1:9, "they shall come all for violence'  this was no light thing of an incovenience.  This was war, death, punishment, removal.  You cannot offend a most Holy, high God and not answer for it. 

Chapter 2
The Sin - 2:5, "because he transgresseth by wine, he is a porud man, neither keepth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell. . .' 2:8, "becuase thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shal lpsoil thee; becasue of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.'

Malachi
Chapter 3
God's REsponse v. 5 "I will come near to you to judgment" again the 'I will's', if God said it, HE will do it. He is coming to judge. He is judging and He will judge. "I will be a swift witness against' God declares what is right and wrong. HE never simply judges a people. HE sent the Word for a testimony against them.
Sin v. 5 I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his righte, and fear not me' A culmination of so many things that was wrong in the midst of the people. Clearly repeated is the Scriptures that declare witchcraft evil; the sin of adultery continuously practiced; those that lie; those that refuse to be kind and help those who cannot help themselves; and those that don't fear the Lord. Oh, what a motley crew of people that will be in hell for their refusal to repent and desire to sin against the Lord.
Response of the people v. 7, ' Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips' ashamedness, confounded and silent; they have no answer for the things happening or unfolding.
God's Response v. 7 'For there is no answer of God' Worse than the silence of men is the silence of God. How awful the thought of God removing Himself and not speaking to those that need to hear.
Sin v. 9 'abhor judgment, adn pervert all equity' there is no right way found among them;
v. 10 'they build up Zion with blood and Jerusaleum with inqiutiy' The ways of the wicked pracitce murder and sin.
v. 11 all the religious leadership of jude, priest, teachers and prophets labor for money; It is not for the glory of God, but for the love of money and they corrupt judgment.
Judgment v. 12 'Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the house of the temple destroyed' God is going to destroy the city.






CONCLUSION
Why posts all this? Why take time to write all this out? It is simply to show that our course of choices and living is found sinful in the eyes of the Lord. And that God, Who changes not, poured out judgment on His people, can and will pour out judgment on His church, nation, family, city/town or individual that refuses to give heed to the Word of the Lord. It is not calamity, death, sickness and troubles are poured out on us because God wants to do it; it is not because God is amused at our afflictions; it not by accident or scientific explanation that these things are happening and will continue to happen. ONe reason, and one reason only is God's hand outstretched against us - 'becasue we have forgotten the Lord our God'. We have replaced God with false gods of money, materialism, with family, friends, possessions, our own interests and desires. We have allowed for a generation to be raised up without a knowledge of Who God is and what are His ways. We have forsaken the teaching and preaching of His Word with His power from our pulpits. We have forsaken the labor of prayer as He taught us and instructed us. We have loved this present world more than loving Him and serving His kingdom. WE HAVE SINNED AGAINST THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY IN ALL OUR WAYS!
And having a knowledged of these things. And in hopes that some soul will read this and see the Sin and Judgments of God and that His HOly Spirit will provoke a right response of confession and repenatnace for a nation, for His bride, for our families, our cities and our very own lives. And that instead of His hand outstretched in anger and wrath, His hand and arm would be outstretched to bring His glory upon us. That men women and children would be literally possessed with conviction of sin, sorrow of heart and anguish of spirit crying out for mercy. And He, Who is merciful, would bestow forgiveness, restoration and glory unto His Holy, Hallowed Name. WE would see and know the very fruits of revival. WE would see whole town, churches, families saved and born again . And that which we have heard of , read of, and only prayed for would become a reality in our generation. That God would be glorified and that His wrath would turn away. Mankind, nations, whole contenients would fear the Lord and walk in oneness with Him.
That which You have done, in mercy in days gone by, O Lord; Do it again! do it again in the power of Your redemptive hand! In wrath remember mercy! See the wrath You poured out upon Your Own Son, Jesus. It was for the saving of sinners for Your great Name that He died and stands now for those that will come. O God, of heaven and earth, do not consume us in Your wrath and judgments; but come and fill the land with Your glory and Presence. For the honor and glory and praise of Your Name sake, do it again! In Jesus Name, Amen

Posted: 10/3/11
Edited: 10/4, 10/5, 10/6, 10/7, 10/10, 10/11, 10/13, 10/17, 10/18, 10/24, 10/25, 10/26, 10/27; 11/2; 11/3; 11/5;