"Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. So you shall say to them, 'This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.’” --- Jeremiah 7:27, 28
"For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.” --- Ezekiel 3:5-7
How would you like to be told by an employer that your job requires a lot of effort and the best you can give, but you are going to totally fail! That is what happened to men such as Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others a long time ago.
And what was the “job” these persons were supposed to do? They were to call the people of their time to repent of all sin and turn to Almighty God for mercy and forgiveness. That in itself was no easy task – but to make matters worse – they were told in advance that their message would not bring about the desired results. After people have been living in their sin for an extended period of time, they do not want to be reminded of the need to quit their rebellion and they often will turn on the messenger as would a dog infected with rabies!
And what does all that, if anything, have to do with U. S. citizens living in the opening decade of the 21st Century? Didn’t you know, it has everything to do with us – in fact, every bit as much as back in the 6th Century B.C. when God was attempting to bring a nation of people back to Himself – His “employees” were told in advance, however, that the mission would be a failure! In fact, Jeremiah was told 3 times not to pray for the people -- that God would not hear him, nor the people when they cried out in their panic! You don't believe it could happen? How about taking a little side trip into chapters 7, 11 and 14 of the book of Jeremiah and look for those statements!
We in the United States have had full access to God’s total revelation from the beginning in the 18th Century. Therefore we cannot plead ignorance when it comes to our widespread rebellion against His moral and spiritual standards. As a small spot of rottenness begins on a fruit or vegetable and is not removed, it is simply a matter of time before the whole fruit or vegetable becomes completely rotten and good for nothing but to be tossed into the garbage can!
Our national “rotten” condition is due to such things as:
- the increased tolerance within the ranks of those professing to be Christian in faith of many things which are contrary to God’s clear revelation – unbelief is spreading like a plague – that unbelief can simply be refusal to accept certain past actions and works of God as reported or a defiance in practicing a way of life which is explicitly condemned by God
- widespread idolatry in a great variety of forms of expression
- pandemic sexual immorality
- the trashing of the day of worship – less than half our population can make it to worship each week
- massive corruption of our young through many avenues of negative influence
- the greatest abomination of all – destruction of thousands of unborn children every week of the year!
God is calling persons to rise up, boldly bear witness to His truth, issue a clarion call to repent of sin (both individually and collectively) and commit to a life of obedience to His Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior and Lord!
Will you be one of them? A long time ago a man heard God ask, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Instantly Isaiah said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Are you willing to make a similar response? Remember, we are living in a setting that is identical to the ancient kingdom of Judah in terms of ethical, moral and spiritual conditions. So the response in all likelihood will be as you read above at the very beginning!
Remember too that Noah probably holds the record for keeping at it for the longest time with absolutely no success in the proclamation of his warning message beyond his immediate family of wife, 3 sons and their wives! He preached for 120 years while he and his sons prepared the ark. At the end of that time there came the moment when we are informed that “God shut him in.” That means that God had shut everyone else out and all they had to look forward to now was a devastating judgment and no hope of survival!
There will be a large number who will still insist that all of what has been discussed previously doesn’t have anything at all to do with us – this is a Christian nation and so, as the president has said many times over the years, God bless America!
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: they 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 heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” --- Luke 17:26-30
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