Previously in our INTRODUCTION
I recommended reading GENESIS 1-3 for overall context.
Disaster because of Disobedience
In our first post from the TalkofJESUS.com SERIES in June 2018 of the Common Era we looked at WARNINGS from Scriptures of three of the major Prophets of God. Jeremiah 6:16 Isaiah 41:1 Ezekiel 12:2
- Jeremiah
(Judean Prophet from about 600 years Before Christ)
Thus says Yahweh,
“Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.’
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Jeremiah 6:16
- Isaiah – yᵊšaʿyâ – יְשַׁעְיָה
(Judean Prophet from about 700 years Before Christ)
- Ezekiel
(Ezekiel was part of the group of Israelites taken into Babylonian captivity in 597 BC)
Next, we will also look back to another major Prophet of the LORD.
This is what the Lord says:
But first let’s look back even further, but not quite to Eden.
Listen to the LORD and Moses discussing the covenant fathers of the faith while the Hebrews followed Moses part way from Egypt.
The God of Moses has Forgotten us
וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה לֶךְ־רֵ֕ד כִּ֚י שִׁחֵ֣ת עַמְּךָ֔ אֲשֶׁ֥ר הֶעֱלֵ֖יתָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃
Exodus 32:7 WLC שְׁמֹות
The LORD spoke to Moshe,
Exodus 32:7 Hebrew Names Version
“Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Mitzrayim, have corrupted themselves!
Exodus 32:
Moses is on Mount Sinai in the Presence of the LORD — the LORD who has appeared to the Hebrews with great signs as He saved and led them from slavery in Egypt.
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said,
‘These are your gods, Yisra’el, which brought you up out of the land of Mitzrayim.’”
The LORD said to Moshe, “I have seen these people, and, behold, they are a stiff-necked people. Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
Moses’ Plea to God our Father
NKJV
“LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak, and say,
‘He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’?
Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.
“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them,
‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven…
Exodus 32:11b-13a NKJV
The TEN WORDS
And Moses turned and went down from the mountain,
and the two tablets of the Testimony were in his hand.
Above all, what had THE LORD commanded His chosen people in these TEN COMMANDMENTS?
- have no other gods before Me
- You shall create no idol to worship
Neverless, THE LORD had relented concerning the disaster He said He would bring on His people after Moses had reminded Him of His covenent to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Lord has warned man, made in His Image, over the generations and millennia.
Prophets of the Lord have both pointed us backward toward our disobedience and forward to its consequences.
Daniel and the Writing on the wall
Daniel, whose name means “God is my Judge,” was kidnaped from his noble family in Judah and deported to Babylon in 605 B.C.; then Medo-Persian besiegers conquered Babylon..
There he spent the remainder of a long life (85 years or more). - source.
Now hear the prayer and confession of Daniel.
Daniel 9:
Ah, Lord—the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands— 5 we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from Your commands and ordinances. 6 We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.
7 Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but this day public shame belongs to us…
11 All Israel has broken Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him… 13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not appeased the Lord our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to Your truth.
14 So the Lord kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all He has done. But we have not obeyed Him.
Some indictment!
Those who have claimed the Lord and righteousness have disobeyed the Lord God.
Therefore God will judge our sin.
Does the Lord our God not have this right – to judge sin and execute justice or show mercy?
Grace of a Cross and Judgment of all Righteousness
Yet some in these last days claim that disaster will not come upon us. Others insist that the Lord will not return. (After all, it’s been a long time.)
And just like the Hebrews, we do not know what had happened to Moses.
Many claim that Christ will tolerate false teaching and false prophets — that the Lord would not punish those who put their trust in the idols of our own desires.
Yet if Jesus IS, if He IS the true and only Son of the Living God; how can the Lord not faithfully return in fulfillment of all Scripture?
How can Jesus not return once more,
when He IS risen and ascended and
He has prophesied a glorious eternal new Kingdom?
The Final Defeat of Satan
Luke 9:
18 While He was praying in private and His disciples were with Him, He asked them,
“Who do the crowds say that I am?” … 20 “But you,” He asked them,
“who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered,
“God’s Messiah!”
21 But He strictly warned and instructed them to tell this to no one, 22 saying,
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.”
He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning…
Luke 10:18
Then He said to them again,
“I’m going away; you will look for Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.” …
25 “Who are You?” they questioned.
“Precisely what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them…
33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered Him…
34 Jesus responded, “I assure you: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin…
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came from God and I am here…
58 Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.”
He IS !
He IS before those who prophesied, before David and Moses and Abraham.
Jesus IS before Eden and before Adam, created in His Very Image!
And as the Lord has promised, He will return.
Sin and death will reign no more.
All flesh — living and dead — will be judged and all souls will bow before Him; either giving account for our sins OR proclaiming His own Sacrifice for those He loves.
Jesus IS Lord.
He has saved us from sin and death to dwell in His love forever and ever.
As these last days draw to a close, we will examine predictions of His certain return, God willing.
NEXT:
Why start with Eden?
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