Judgment – Light from the Word

Uncleanness Works Destruction

(Micah 2:10)

Physical uncleanness, sometimes, is the picture of the soul in turmoil. It can indicate depression, sadness, grief and so on. It shows spiritual and emotional problems within. It happens because the person does not want to face reality. In that mode, he becomes blind and insensitive to his surroundings. I don’t care, sort of attitude. In the hardness of his heart, he goes on. That is also a picture of a guilty person, wanted to escape the guilt by making it easy on himself. However, what does the Bible mean by “uncleanness that works destruction”? In the battle of Jericho, the Lord instructed the people to keep themselves from the “accursed and devoted things.” That constituted idolatry. Idolatry is the excessive devotion to or reverence for some person or thing (Webster dictionary). It is a sin that brings destruction to a nation, for forsaking the true God, as it was the case of the nation of Israel. Idolatry is a sin that leads the nation astray to immorality, to confusion and to alienation from the true God. The Lord describes Israel’s spiritual condition by saying, From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness or health in but wounds and bruises and fresh and bleeding stripes; they have not been pressed out and closed up or bound up or softened with oil; your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land- strangers devour it in your very presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by aliens (Isaiah 1:6-7). This seemly is the spiritual condition of the United States of America. Blessed, as it has been, has long time embraced the position of idolatry and gone far away from the Lord’s blessings. Lately, America has speedily experienced spiritual decline of all times, as it waits for the Lord’s judgment to fall upon her.

Considered as the “Mystery Babylon,” America has taken her position of power in the world as it has influenced many countries to follow her ungodly life-style, destroying some that stood in her way. Powerful and proud, she stood tall above all to see; but the time is rapidly approaching for her fate to be known. Her uncleanness is beyond the norm one can understand and accept. Her glamourous life-style is nothing but filthy, rotten rags under all that jazz. Lights, painted eyes, fancy dresses, in Jezebel’s styles, Hollywood crowd, deeply in sin, is under God’s judgment for all that they represent. Judgment from God has already started. Do you see the multitudes invading this country? That’s just the beginning of America’s ordeal. Her uncleanness has reached heavens, God’s longsuffering has ended for this nation. As it were in the days of old when God brought judgment against the nation of Israel, so it will be for America, for God has heard the crying of the innocent children being carried to their slaughter, as He heard the blood of Abel crying for vengeance against his brother. We see, but we do not perceive, we hear, but we do not believe the graveness of the sins of this nation. God’s people are asleep in the pews of the churches, while their children are brainwashed through the teachings of public schools, they trusted their children to. It is all happening right before their eyes, but their spiritual condition keeps them from perceiving. Their babies are taken from their womb for their own freedom and killed for businesses purposes as babies’ body’s parts for the make of makeup. Do you know what kind of meat Macdonald fast food is offering you? Do you think for a minute that God has fallen asleep, not to consider this immoral uncleanness, against them? He who formed the eyes and the ears, will not see and hear? He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah if His judgment will not fall to this nation and the world, for following America’s unclean life-style. How can His church escape His judgment, if it continues inert to the sins of this nation? God’s patience is not to be confused with His holiness. The severity of His coming judgment upon this nation should be the reason for His church to be on her knees.

Micah 2:10 says, “Arise and depart, for this is not the rest, because of uncleanness that works destruction, even a sharp and grievous destruction.” We are living in an unclean society. Television, and other media are like a magnet, like gravity, pulling down those who follow them to the pit of infidelity, while they watch the satanic worshippers from Hollywood perform immorality to please their god-the devil. Entwined with them, they become one with them, and before they know it, idolatry in the form of pornography, takes control of their sexual desires, leaving them powerless. As a result, divorce abounds and families are destroyed. God continues calling all out of it before destruction strikes, as He always does and has done in the past “Arise, and depart, for this is not the rest, because of uncleanness that works destruction…” Depart, depart. Go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Go out of the midst of her [Babylon]; cleanse yourselves and be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord (Is. 52:11). What the world is experiencing today is described in Isaiah 64:6: “For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like filthy rags or polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction].” Thus says the Lord: Flee out of the midst of Babylon! Let every man save his life! Let not destruction come upon you through her sin and guilt. For it is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He will render to her a recompense (Jer. 51:6).

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Time to Keep Silent, For the Days Are Evil

(Micah 7; Amos 5:13)

What constitutes evil days, if they weren’t for mankind? When God created the world, He created a beautiful world for man to enjoy and take care of it. There was no presence of evil anywhere, all were in harmony with the Creator. The animals weren’t violent toward one another and they did not eat one another. Peace was the harmony that kept them together, heard in a bird song. Music filled the air of that garden- the garden of Eden with happiness and innocence. It was the world God created. I can’t tell how long did the world of yesterday enjoyed perfection in every side, neither can I tell you how long it was before our parents messed it up by doubting God’s word and falling into temptation. That must have been one dark day in the lives of Adam and Eve, which changed the destiny of the world and theirs too. The door was then opened for evil to permeate the garden and take control of the lives of men and animals. They no longer behaved peacefully toward one another. The sweet fragrance of love and peace vanished and the world started to experience evil, hate, jealousy instead. As a matter of fact, the first-born son of Eve, committed the first homicide. From there, it went from bad to worse, until God destroyed the yesterday’s world by means of water in the days of Noah. Those were truly evil days!

The psalmist cried to God, Help, Lord! For principled and godly people are here no more; faithfulness and the faithful vanish from among the sons of men. To his neighbor each one speaks words without use or worth of truth; with flattering lips and double heart they speak (Psa. 12:1-2); and Isaiah prophesized, The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; and merciful and devout men are taken away, with no one considering that the uncompromisingly upright and godly person is taken away from the calamity and evil to come (Isaiah 57:1); Micah echoes by saying, the godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; each hunts his brother with a net; both their hands are put forth and are upon what is evil to do it diligently; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters his evil desire. Thus, they twist between them; the best of them is like a brier; the most upright or the straightest is like a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even of [God’s] judgment and your punishment, has come; now shall be their perplexity and confusion. Trust not in a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Keep the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom…But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me (Micah 7:2-5,7). Therefore, he who is prudent will keep silence in such a time, for it is an evil time (Amos 5:13).

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You Have Seen Many Things

The spiritual blindness of the soul has embraced the world, creating turmoil and chaos; when right is wrong and wrong is right, we know that confusion has taken its toll on people, for the lies of today’s life style has touched them all. The obviously, seemingly so, is not so for many, for choosing not to see that which stands right before their eyes, refusing to accept the truth. As in the days of Israel, when the nation behaved contrary to God’s commandments, they saw, but they did not perceive the true meaning of what they had seen. In YAHSHUA’S day on the earth, He dealt with his disciples for acting blind to what they had seen and heard. The disciples, representing the nation of Israel, continued blind, missing on many things that was expressed by our Lord YAHSHUA. They had seen many things, but perceived none. In several occasions, He called their attention to their spiritual blindness. When they saw YAHSHUA walking on water, they failed to recognize Him and were taken by fear. They failed to consider or understand [the teaching and meaning of the miracle of] the loaves; in fact, their hearts had grown callous (Mark 6:50,56). On another occasion, YAHSHUA clearly told them about His coming death, calling their attention by saying, Listen! We are going to Jerusalem, and all things that are written about the Son of Man through and by the prophets will be fulfilled. For He will be handed over to the Gentiles and will be made sport of and scoffed and jeered at and insulted and spit upon; they will flog Him and kill Him; and on the third day He will rise again. But they understood nothing of these things; His words were a mystery and hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what He was telling them (Luke 18:31-34). Peter, in his spiritual blindness, took YAHSHUA aside to speak to Him privately and began to reprove and charge Him sharply, saying, God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You! (Matt. 16:22). YAHSHUA knowing that Peter’s words had come from Satan himself, rebuked him by saying, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in my way; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men (vs.24).

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The Lion Has Roared

(Amos 3:8)

When we see a lion roaming around, we come to the realization that he is, without a doubt, the king of the beasts, for his powerful appearance and uncompromisingly strength. None will escape his attack in the strength that he displays to bring its victim down. It is heartbreaking to watch the killing taking place, though. Fear of him is spread all around at the sound of his roaring heard five miles away. In a frightening moment at the dark of the night, one experiences the hair standing up in a chill of death. But that roaring is only expressing his right to the prey he is killing. The success he utters is not for sharing of the meal, but to warn all to stay away. Who cannot help but to feel the vibration of fear all over the spine at his roaring? Running a short distance at 50 mph, no one can escape his pursuit. Majestic and intimidating, the lion stands tall and non-afraid. Although, many of their care givers lost their lives at their claws and mouth, the lion has shown undisputable love toward their owners even when apart from them many years through their affection demonstrated to them. It is hard to believe how he can be so loving and at the same time so ferocious!

YAHSHUA , the “Lion of Judah” came from the tribe of Judah, the most privileged tribe of all the twelve tribes, because it was through this tribe that God chose to send His Son to the world. Therefore, it is through this tribe that the world has been blessed according to the blessing God promised Abraham at the ranges of Mount Moriah after testing him. Judah’s name means praise or thanksgiving. Although, Judah was not an ideal moral man, God’s sovereign purpose was accomplished through his descendants. In Genesis 49:8-10 Jacob, before he died, prophesized to all his sons, and of Judah he said, Judah, you are the one whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you; Judah, a lion’s cub! With the prey, my son, you have gone high up. He stooped down, he crouched like a lion, and like a lioness who dares provoke and rouse him? The scepter or leadership shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff between his feet, until Shiloh comes to Whom it belongs, and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. Jacob’s words echoed through the years and will continue to the day when YAHSHUA, the Lion from the tribe of Judah will come to reign and through Him the prophecy will be completely fulfilled. His voice is compared to the roar of a lion, powerful in times of His judgment. Amos 1:2 says, Jehovah roars out of Zion and He utters His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the head of Carmel withers. We see in the prophetic words of the Prophet Amos confirming and warning the people of the seriousness of God’s judgment. The lion hath roared; who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken; who can but prophesy? (Amos 3:8). Even nature in its frailty recognizes the voice of God! There is much to ponder at the sound of the Lord’s roaring. As nature trembles at the sound of His voice, men must realize the tone of judgment in God’s voice and mend his ways.

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Two by Two

(Genesis 6-7)

The beautiful relationship between God and man before sin entered into the Garden of Eden, was perfect and pure, for He had made man in His likeness -the only creation to have been created in the likeness of God Himself. He and not the animals could have a relationship with God in the level of understanding and through reasoning he could communicate with God. But Satan had to interfere by planting sin in the hearts of Eve and Adam. The Bible says when men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took wives of all they desired and chose…. There were giants on the earth in those days- and also afterward- when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them…. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and the that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually… So the Lord said, I will destroy. Blot out and wipe away mankind from the face of the ground, whom I have created. Not only men, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air- for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them (Gen. 6: 1-7).

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In the Year King Uzziah Died

The Prophet Isaiah registers a beautiful experience he had with God after King Uzziah died. King Uzziah was a very successful king in the early years of his career as king. The secret laid on the fact that he sought the Lord. It was his desire to seek God (2 Chron. 26: 5). God blessed him and he became very successful in all he did. He was a distinguished and successful politician. He went against the Philistines and broke down the walls of Gath, of Jabneh, and of Ashdod, and built cities near Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines, and God helped him against the Philistines and the Arabs who dwelt in Gur-ball and the Meunim. That Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread abroad even to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong (II Chron. 26: 6-8).

But King Uzziah’s successes turned him into a prideful king. The Bible says, but when [King Uzziah] was strong, he became proud to his destruction; he trespassed against the Lord his God, for he went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense (vs. 16). Burning incense by other than the sons of Aaron was a terrible breach of the Levitical Law. He well knew about it, but for whatever reason, he was driven to commit this evil against the word of the Lord. His pride arouse when the priest Azariah confronted him. He was enraged; and while he was enraged with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord. King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper, he dwelt in a separate house, for he was excluded from the Lord’s house (II chron. 16:18-21).

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Purposes of the Tribulation

The purposes for the great tribulation are clearly stated in the book of Daniel chapter nine: to finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place (vv. 24). Summarizing all, it is to make an end of wickedness and wicked ones. When YAHSHUA came in the period of the sixty-ninth weeks of the seventy weeks of years given to the Jewish nation, He took upon Himself the penalty of our sin and iniquity, He suffered the pain of the tribulation and of hell, so to deliver those who would accept Him. Those who believe in Him go through the process of regeneration, and sanctification and ultimately glorification through the new birth. As He told Nicodemus, “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you that unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God; unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of flesh is flesh; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. God so greatly loved the world that He gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life; for God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; but he who does not believe in Him is judged already, because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God; The [basis of the] judgment lies in this: The Light has come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the Light, for their works were evil” (John 3:16-19).

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Mount Zion vs. Mount Sinai

(Exodus 19:1-20; Hebrews 12: 18-29)

“For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, that is ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and a raging storm, and to the blast of a trumpet and a voice whose words make the listeners beg that nothing more be said to them” (Hebrews 12:18-19); “but rather, you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living YAHWEH, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless multitudes of angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the first born whose names have been written in heaven, to YAHWEH, who is the judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, to YAHSHUA, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things that the blood of Abel” (Vs.22-24).

The difference between the experience at Mount Zion and Mount Sinai is worth noting for us to realize the wonderful grace of God toward us. When God came down to Mount Sinai to meet the people of Israel, He came expressing vehemently His holiness through fire, in a dense and black cloud that enveloped the mountain. At that time, He declared His covenant with the people and gave them the Ten Commandments. At that time, Israel had a glimpse of the extent of the holiness of God; and not being able to bear it, they begged Moses to speak to them, instead.

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When I See the Blood

(Exodus 12:12-13)

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. The blood shall be for a token or sign to you upon the houses where you are, when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt (Ex. 12:12-13).

The Lord God constituted Passover for Israel at the time when they left Egypt, as a memorial of their deliverance from bondage to Egypt and as a future signal pointing to YAHSHUA the Son of God, Who was to come as the perfect Lamb of God to be sacrificed for the sins of mankind. Before then, Jacob’s sons were not yet an established nation. They were residents in Egypt for many years, as in 430 years. God promised Abraham that after that frame of time, his descendants would leave for the Promised Land as He had promised him. When the new Pharaoh arose to power, who did not know Joseph, neither the background history why he and his brothers landed in Egypt, things changed for all of them. They no longer enjoyed the freedom they used to have, but were subjected to hard labor mercilessly. Theirs is a story of contrast: blessings and hardships, but God had a plan for the offspring of Abraham. Because Abraham believed God’s word, he was promised blessings upon him and his posterity. Choosing Moses with the help of his brother, Aaron to lead his people out of Egypt, God performed great miracles before Pharaoh through them to show Pharaoh that He was and is the only true God, above all the Egyptians’ gods. Pharaoh’s heart became hard with every judgment God sent to them, until the slaughter of all the males in the land of Egypt, for which Jacob’s sons’ families were sealed with the blood of the sacrificial lamb they had killed that day.

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As Were The Days of Noah, The Days of Lot…

(Matt. 24:37-46; Luke 17: 26-30)

And [just] as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the time of the Son of Man; people ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, right up to the day when Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So also as it was in the days of Lot. [People] ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heave and destroyed [them] all. That is the way it will be on the day that the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17: 26-30).

What does the days of Noah and the days of Lot exactly mean? Those days were defined by their increasing wickedness and God’s judgment that came upon them. The accounts of Noah’s days are described in Genesis chapter six. It reads, When men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took wives of all they desired and chose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not forever dwell and strive with man for he also is flesh; but his days shall yet be 120 years. There were giants on the earth in those days – and also afterward- when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually, and the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart. So the Lord said I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the ground- not only man, [But] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air- for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them (vs. 1-7).

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