Bible Insights | CafeLogos.org
As of this writing, the entire world is on a conveyor belt that is moving forward to the prophesied great tribulation. This event will be a time of trouble un-paralleled in human history. The Babylonian captivity can be viewed as a similitude of this event, as the Jews will face a repeat of their previous history; they will again experience an invasion of their land, this time by the antichrist (Daniel 11:41).
Israel, the Tribulation and the Church
While God did promise the Holy Land to Abraham’s seed, this promise was conditional. Their residency was contingent upon their obedience to the law. As history attests, they grossly violated God’s commandments and refused to repent, ignoring the warnings that God had given them through the mouths of His prophets. The result of their disobedience, was expulsion from their land and a seventy year captivity in Babylon.
Many of the sins that propelled them into the Babylonian captivity will also be operational in Israel prior to the great tribulation. These errors will also be found in the Christian church as well.
Christians are saved by grace, but our blessings are always contingent upon our obedience and there are always consequences when we sin. Do not be deceived; God is not mocked: for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7). Therefore I believe that it is expedient for us to understand the basic sins that propelled Israel into her time of trouble, so we can possibly be among those that the Lord considers to be worthy to escape the coming tribulation (Luke 21:36).
1. Idolatry as the result of Apostate Leadership
Jeremiah 2:8 - The priests did not say, “Where is the LORD?” And they that handle the law did not know Me, and the prophets transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
We are being shown here that Israel’s falling away from God began with her leadership. “The priests did not say where is the Lord?” The leadership had stopped seeking God and His direction. His word was no longer being sought for guidance, and “the prophets prophesied by Baal.”
Baal worship had been introduced to Israel many years previously by Jezebel. The Israelite Ahab had not followed God’s commandment to not marry foreign wives and married the Phoenician Jezebel. Apparently she was a practicing witch (II Kings 9:22). Baal was a demon god and the leadership of Jeremiah’s day had not been cleansed from this idolatry, but supported it. Therefore Israel’s prophets “prophesied by Baal,” which means the prophecies they were feeding to the people were being influenced by a demon spirit. Thus God’s people were being encouraged in this idolatry.
In the book of Revelation’s chapter 2, we see this same pattern repeating in the church at Pergamos. This was basically a good church that was tenaciously holding onto the faith in a satanic stronghold. But some of her members were holding “the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.” The leadership of this church was apparently lax in correcting this error.
Baalim had counseled Balac to cause the separated Israelites to violate God’s commandment to marry foreign wives. Balac wanted to destroy the Israelites, and Baalim knew that if the king could cause them to sin, then God would have to deal with them. To relate this to the church at Pergamos and the church today, the Christians there had begun to embrace foreign doctrine, which is the spiritual equivalent of marrying foreign wives, the initial sin that plunged ancient Israel into her idolatry. God’s commandments were being neglected and as a result they were practicing sexual immorality as were the pagans in their day. This spirit of compromise would continue, resulting in a full blown Jezebel spirit in the church at Thyatira. Unless the individuals in this church repented, the Lord promises them that they will endure great tribulation (Revelation 2:22). The Jezebel spirit is the same spirit that corrupted ancient Israel’s leadership and is referred to as the “spirit of whoredoms” (Hosea 4:14,5:4).
Many Christians today are under the influence of this spirit. Encouraged by a corrupt leadership, holiness is not an issue in their lives and repentance from sin is not being taught.
But if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings (Jeremiah 23:22).
Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned My holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them (Ezekiel 22:26).
And you shall know that I am the LORD: for you have not walked in My statutes, neither executed My judgments, but have done after the manners of the heathen that are round about you (Ezekiel 11:12).
There are many professed Christians today who emulate the practices of the heathen around them by living together without being legally married and committing the sin of fornication, a practice that God’s word forbids.
In the church today there are many leaders that are considered to be evangelical who are leading multitudes away from the authority of the scriptures by denying the need for repentance, the existence of hell and portraying a false unbiblical portrait of a God that never punishes or corrects His children.
Thus we can see that the apostasy of the leadership of ancient Israel is repeated in the contemporary Christian church. And unless they repent, like Israel, they will also endure a great tribulation.
The people of Israel had rejected God’s word, and began to form their own doctrines “cisterns.”
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).
To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it (Jeremiah 6:10).
The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? (Jeremiah 8:9).
When God’s word is rejected or neglected, the Holy Spirit will not function in man-inspired doctrines and the church is left on her own to perpetuate her sin. This will only lead to God ultimately having to necessitate her correction.
In the vision Ezekiel was given of the temple (Ezekiel 40:44) God tells him that the people had set “their threshold, by My thresholds, and their post by My posts” (Ezekiel 43:8). The temple in Ezekiel’s vision did not only represent the promise of a new temple when they were returned to the Holy Land after the Babylonian captivity and after their second captivity (Zechariah14:1,2); it was also symbolic of God’s word which they had violated by putting their distorted version of it, their threshold and their post, on an equal basis with God’s word.
Whenever a church or an individual begins to emulate this practice, they have begun the slide into apostasy.
A characteristic of an apostate church, or one that is on the way, is a lack of fear of God. “My fear is not in you” (Jeremiah 2:19). God’s people had gotten to the point where pleasing their holy Creator was no longer an issue and His promise to them that they would reap the consequences of their sin, as exemplified in the word that God had delivered through Moses, had been forgotten (Deuteronomy 11:27,28).
The concept that God would punish or correct His people was non-existent in their man inspired doctrines, as it is also in today’s church. God says, In vain have I smitten your children; they have received no correction (Jeremiah 2:30).
O LORD, are not Your eyes upon the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return (Repent) (Jeremiah 5:3).
…no man repented him of his wickedness saying ‘What have I done?”…(Jeremiah 8:6).
They have belied the LORD, and said, ‘It is not He; neither shall evil come upon us; nether shall we see sword or famine’ (Jeremiah 5:12)
They still say to them that despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, ‘You shall have peace; and they say to everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, ‘no evil shall come upon you’ (Jeremiah 23:17).
The concept that God does not punish is taught in many churches today. I personally have shown scriptures that refute this teaching to one of them, who looked at God’s word which should be our final authority, and replied, “Oh no that’s not true.” Let us not lose sight of the fact that this attitude is the result of Jezebel spirit influenced leadership.
And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them…(Jeremiah 5:12).
Then the LORD said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke to them: they prophesy to you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their heart (Jeremiah 14:14).
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priest bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so: and what will you do in the end thereof? (Jeremiah 5:31).
This reminds me of the Apostle Paul’s description of the church in the latter days. –
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (II Timothy 4:3,4).
When God is forced to correct His people and she is found writhing in the devastating results of her own choices, what will she do? Hopefully repent so her restoration can commence.
I will pour their wickedness upon them (Jeremiah 14:16).
While those who claim that the punishments that God inflicted were only because they were in the Old Covenant and everything changed under the New Covenant, we need to understand that the New Testament also chronicles God’s necessitating correction when appropriate.
In Acts 5:1-11, the devious Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead at the Apostle Peter’s feet for lying to the Holy Spirit. We are also reminded in Hebrews 12:5-11, that God corrects His children. And in the book of Revelation we are shown that these terrible plagues that God is permitting to be poured out upon the earth are the result of man’s sins and their unwillingness to repent (Revelation 9:20,21).
In the midst of God’s warnings to ancient Israel, the prophet Jeremiah wants us to understand that the scenario he is describing is not constrained by the time he is living for –
The anger of the LORD shall not return, until He has executed, and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart: in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly (Jeremiah 23:20).
He is showing us that the spiritual condition of ancient Israel will be operational in the latter days.
So far we have seen that Israel’s downfall began when she drifted away from following the LORD and His word under apostate leadership that was under the influence of the Jezebel spirit. This diminished the people’s fear of God and eliminated any concept that God corrects or punishes.The compromised lifestyles of the people and their worship of other gods, the works of their own hands, was compounded by a lack of compassion resulting in abuse of the poor. This is the second major contributor to Israel’s captivity.
2 Abuse and neglect of the poor
There are more scriptures concerning God’s care for the poor than any other moral issue in the Bible.
For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command you, saying, you shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor, and to your needy, in your land (Deuteronomy 15:11).
This is a commandment that was being ignored by God’s people and was instrumental in catapulting them into disaster.
In Jeremiah 22: 13-15, the prophets describes people building luxurious houses and not paying the workers. In verses 15 and 16 , God refers them to their father, a reference to David. “Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?”
He judged the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well with him: was not this to know Me?”
Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy (Ezekiel 16:49).
The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yes, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully (Ezekiel 22:29).
In Psalm 72, David had written instructions to his son, Solomon, who was to reign in his place. In his outline of what a good government leader should do, which is also considered to be a Messianic Psalm as well, he says, “He shall judge Your people with righteousness, and your poor with judgment (Psalm 72:2).
He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor (verse 4).
For he shall deliver the needy when he cries; the poor also, and him that has no helper (verse 12)
He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy (verse 13).
We are shown in I Peter 4:8, that charity, (love) covers a multitude of sins. In other words if compassion is shown to those who need it, the sins that would require God’s judgment (or for Christians loss of rewards at the judgment seat of Christ) would be overlooked.
It is quite possible that if the Jews had exhibited compassion on the poor, their punishment may not have been so severe, as God promises protection for those who take care of the poor. -
Blessed is he that considers the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: You will make all his bed in his sickness (Psalm 41:1-3).
As God’s word shows us, caring for the poor is a major issue, therefore it should be a major issue in our hearts. However, the Jews were not mindful of the poor as God had commanded, and we are shown the reason why, which brings us to number 3.
3. Covetousness
But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness…(Jeremiah 22:17).
…it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity (Ezekiel 7:19).
It has been my experience that many Christians today have a dangerous resentment toward the poor the root of which I believe is covetousness.
When I was explaining to a Christian friend how the scriptures support an individual’s and the government’s responsibility to take care of the poor, she replied with a vehement, “I work!” She failed to recognize that there are many who cannot work, or can’t keep up with today’s escalating costs, especially rent.
I met a young woman who told me that she was working so many jobs just to keep a roof over her head that she had a stroke. That qualified her for government subsidized housing and thank God it was there for her.
The scriptures show us that we are to work. –
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat (II Thessalonians 3:10).
And the purpose of the work is to meet the needs of others. –
Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing
which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs (Ephesians 4:28).
A spirit of greed or covetousness will not submit to the authority of God’s word on this subject, and this places Christians that are in this category on the same precarious footing as those ancient Jews who were facing the Babylonian captivity.
According to the example we are given in God’s word, the tithe was for the priest and the poor (Nehemiah 18:21,24, 14;28,29). Everything else, building maintenance, etc., was to come from offerings. So we can conclude that funding for the poor should be a priority.
The Apostle Paul tells us that covetousness is idolatry, (Colossians 3:5), a warning that the church today that has been influenced by prosperity preachers needs to take seriously.
God warned Israel of the consequences of their covetousness. –
Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even to the priest every one deals falsely (Jeremiah 8:10).
Unfaithful spouses and loss of property were two of the judgments God permitted because of greed.
Keeping in mind that ancient Israel did not follow God’s word as the pattern for her preservation, those who also do not allow themselves to be guided by God’s word will not escape the consequences of disobedience.
Failure to value God’s word as a guide, also results in the fourth category – moral failure.
4. Moral failure
I have seen also in the prophet of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them to Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah (Jeremiah 23:14).
A lax, apostate Jezebel influenced leadership will accept sin that God has labeled abomination in His word, fail to uphold God’s standards for marriage, and ‘strengthen the hands’- refuse to correct those who are violating those standards by not preaching repentance.
Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you know not;
And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’ (Jeremiah 7:9,10).
Sounds like grace abuse, doesn’t it? I met two pastors in one year, on separate occasions, who quit their churches because they were teaching what the Bible actually says instead of a watered down version of it. They were told by their congregations to stop. The people wanted to live their lives anyway they wanted to without God’s restraints during the week. The pastors refused to compromise. One became an evangelist and the other opened a Christian book store.
Whenever a professed believer refuses to crucify the desires of his flesh, pick up his cross and follow Jesus on a daily basis, he is duplicating the spiritual condition of ancient Israel who also refused to be guided by God’s word for their welfare.
I have actually heard a pastor say to me, “We don’t have to obey God anymore, that’s Old Covenant.” Another I heard declared, “Christians have no moral code.”
The spirit of Jezebel is alive and well and influencing the leadership of much of the contemporary Christian church.
Years ago I was visiting a church in Californian, whose leadership team had just returned from a conference. They were exuberantly bubbling about the fact that several of them had the same vision of dark clouds. They interpreted this to mean that there would be showers of blessings.
Dark clouds in scripture represent judgment (Joel 2:2, Zephaniah 1:15). Bright clouds are indicative of blessings (Zechariah 10:1).
The dark storm clouds of the tribulation are currently looming above our heads, bulging with impending disaster. The church that has refused to see herself reflected in the mirror of God’s word contained in His warnings to Israel, has joined hands with the Israel of today that God has described as “Sodom” and “Egypt” (Revelation 11:8). Together they will live the future foretold in God’s word that is reserved for all those who have refused to repent and change their ways.
5. Racism
Along with God’s instructions for His people to care for the poor, He also counseled them to take care of the Gentiles among them, the “aliens” or “strangers” as they are referred to in God’s word.
And if a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not vex him.
But the stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. - Leviticus 19:33,34
God tells them that they are to treat the Gentiles as one of them. God’s commandments in this area were blatantly violated, and contributed to Israel’s captivity in Babylon where they were themselves once again strangers in a strange land as they were when they were slaves in Egypt. Modern Israel has also violated God’s word in this area which is apparent in their treatment of the Palestinians, many of whom are Christians.
Many people do not know that prior to Israel’s becoming a nation in 1948, the Arabs had lived there for 1300 years. Only 3% of the population was Jewish. Then in 1880, Baron Edmund deRothschild, who was the grandson of Myer Rothschild, (the banker noted for his involvement with the illuminati, a secret society that seeks a one world government,) began buying up land in Palestine where he started many businesses. He began importing Jews from Europe to run them and so many came that they were running out of housing. When the Arabs refused to sell, the Jews formed terrorist groups to drive them out along with the British who were in control. Then another Rothschild was approached to help provide a homeland for the Jews which he was instrumental in accomplishing. It would be in the family’s best interest as they had so many investments there. (Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 19, Issue 2)
The Palestinians could not forgive the Jews for driving them out of their homes and businesses, and the Jews apparently cannot repent, which is the source of the conflicts in Israel today. If the Jews had obeyed God’s commandment to treat the Gentiles in their land as one of them, then they would not be in the turmoil and danger they are in at the present time.
In the book of Revelation, the modern nation of Israel is labeled by God as “Sodom” and “Egypt.” As a secular nation, they have neglected God’s word regarding sexual sins represented by Sodom and the idolatry represented by Egypt. God’s reference in calling His people Egypt is also showing us that He sees them as Gentiles, a reflection on their own bigotry toward the Gentile Palestinians.
Many professed Christians today, especially in the Southern States of America, harbor racist attitudes towards the blacks and other races.
The Apostle Peter says, in Acts 10:28 … You know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come to one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
The Jews in the Apostles’ day also had trouble accepting the fact that God favored the Gentiles on an equal basis with God’s “chosen people.” They had overlooked the fact that when God called Abraham, the Lord promised him that he would be the father of all the families of the earth, not just the twelve tribes (Genesis 22:18).
This unifying of Jew and Gentile would be accomplished through the everlasting covenant that was brought in through the Messiah Jesus, as it is prophesied that the Messiah would bring the Gentiles to God (Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 60:3).
It was God’s intention to eliminate all racial barriers and bring all the Gentiles, white, black and every variation, together as one under one shepherd, the Messiah Jesus.
Those Christians who have concluded that God has made some sort of error in creating folks of different colors and races, will have to tell the Lord so when they confront Him at the last judgment, which would be a daunting experience. It’s better to recognize where we have erred in this regard and repent now.
In God’s kingdom, racism does not exist. Those who harbor any form of racism would have to be purged of this iniquity, and again that is what the tribulation’s turbulent rebukes have been orchestrated to accomplish.
6. Involvement in the Occult
God has specifically forbidden His people to have anything to do with occult practices (Leviticus 19:26-28,31,20:6, Deuteronomy 18:9-14,Isaiah 8:19, Malachi 3:5).
Because ancient Israel was under the influence of apostate leadership, there was no correction. God’s word had been abandoned as the standard for their behavior and the practices of the nations around them were being incorporated into their society. Likewise today there are many Christians who are also involving themselves with things that God’s word has condemned.
I have a neighbor who wears a pentagram. She also claims to be a baptized Christian and an owner of several Bibles along with her collection of crystals. Like ancient Israel, this professed believer is preferring the demonic powers of the occult to a relationship with the Living God. As a result her life has been besought with one problem after another including, failed relationships, poverty and jail time.
While she continues on in her own personal tribulation, like ancient Israel, she refuses to see the correlation between her rebellion against God and the consequences of her sins.
Therefore You have forsaken Your people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers (Isaiah 2:6).
Soothsayers were fortunetellers. Today there are some Christians who are using Tarot cards and actually promoting the use of them in the church. Again, this is part of the Jezebel spirit’s attempt to compromise the church and bring her under God’s judgment, a judgment that the unrepentant will not escape.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds (Revelation 2:22).
Copyright 2024 by H.D. Shively