Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28
We have spent several lessons covering the beginnings of our nation and our blessings. And we have looked at the perversions in the past years that have eroded free will, marriage, family and nationalism. We have looked at the attitudes of God’s people in the Church and we have noted the contemporary scene of Christianity in light of Paul’s prophecy of II Tim.4:1-4, II Thess.2:1-2. Surely we cannot ignore the history of God’s people in the past and so we turn once again to God’s dealing with Israel. Israel too had strayed from God’s word.
As a client nation we should compare her no differently from ourselves in regards to disobedience except God has promised to restore Israel and no one else.
The five phases of national discipline come as a result of cumulative rebellion against God. These are not just random acts of sinning seen in a nation. This kind of divine discipline as seen in Lev.26 and Deut.28 stems from an on going obstinate mental attitude toward God.
There is a hardening in the hearts of mankind toward the Holiness of God, and though God is long-suffering and forbearing, his bowl of wrath can become full as it has in the past, and when it does the Bible says he will pour it out. Jesus Christ bore the penalty for these sins, but we must bear the consequences in this life time.
With each degenerative phase of apostasy God’s divine cycle of judgment is intensified seven times over with the opportunity to repent being offered four of the five times.
The Warning 26:14-15 It is disobedience that leads to every cycle of discipline.
Cycle 1 - Lev.26:14-17 ; Deut.28:21-22
If Israel did not obey God’s commandments He said he would appoint over them terror. The reference to God’s appointments includes national leaders who do not take the best interest of the people in view. Their agenda’s scare the people and lead the people toward anarchy.
In this first phase of national discipline we also see many types of physical illnesses, that is, loss of health, with both physical and mental health problems. Many times the mental illnesses Americans suffer create the physical illnesses we see today. Stress causes a lot of the physical and mental illnesses in our nation. We call this condition, psychosomatic.
Resident Bible truth in the souls of God’s people is the answer to most stress. Acquiring God’s viewpoint from sound Bible teaching and then maintaining that biblical viewpoint through faithfulness to your local church and your pastor’s timely expositions will help you tremendously in mastering the many details of everyday life. It will give to you a relaxed mental attitude toward life. But most believers are not patient enough to develop a biblical conscience toward God. If you could walk up and down the aisles of your soul, where you store your thoughts, how many of God’s answers would you find? How much trust do you actually have in God’s promises?
Your conscience is like a library and on its shelves are stocked your points of view on a wide variety of subjects. In this soul library are worldly viewpoints and spiritual viewpoints. There are a lot of gray areas where you do not know which way to turn and these gray areas lead to a lot of stress. Resident Bible doctrine turns the gray into black and white, yes and no, and then all you have to do is obey God’s viewpoints. A big problem in Christianity today is we do not know when to say yes and when to say no.
The Bible says let your yea be yea and let your no be no. James 1:8 says...” The double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” The carnal believer is unstable, I Cor.3:1 and he doesn’t know the difference, and the reversionist believer is unstable and he refuses to do what he knows is right, James 4:17 “Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” They are either ignorant or they are rebellious. I choose to not be either one. I chose to be stable. How do you choose?
Isa.33:6 “ And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is his treasure.” “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Prov.9:10.
Unstable believers, who are in emotional revolt of the soul today, get most of the attention in Christianity. They are often seen as the more spiritual of God’s children when in truth they are in denial of their need to grow up. Rather than be taught biblical orthodox truth, they would rather hide in their infantile emotions. This kind of unstable Christianity is leading our homes and our nation down the road to destruction.
Also in the first cycle of national discipline we see economic down turns, v 16. We also see failure to gain military victory due to a lack of determination to get the job done on the part of national leaders, v.17.
There is a fleeing when no one is there. Paranoia; the sense of being under siege or suspicion when one is not, is a mind gripping crippler. Phobias run rampant in a society when Bible doctrine has not stabilized the souls of the people, Isa.33:6; I Jn.4:18.
Cowards are readily convinced of their inability to defend themselves when danger is near.
Courage belongs to those who are committed to something they dearly love. Such men will fight to keep that to which they are committed and love, particularly freedom. According to Lev.26:7-8 brave men are wise enough to chase their enemies. They do not wait for those who threaten them to sneak into their boarders and harm their families.
But cowards only love themselves and will not lay down their lives for others as they are self-serving.
Cowards consent to the philosophy that it is better to be red than dead; that it is better to be a live chicken, than a dead duck. Cowards acknowledge that freedom is not worth fighting for. Many in our nation as did those in Israel’s past, have allowed themselves to become deluded into thinking no one would harm us, and that there is good in everyone even though the Bible is clear when it says in Jer.17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
In 1775 Patrick Henry said to the Virginia Provincial Convention “Give me liberty, or give me death”. He urged the convention to support arming the Virginia Militia so they could defend themselves against England.
Cowards will not defend freedom; only curse it when they can’t do whatever it is they want to do. Cowards will die a thousand deaths, but a brave man dies only once.
Have you ever wondered why a few tyrants in the world can control billions of people? I believe it is because there are so many cowards in the world who are not inspired to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. They do not have the holy boldness to stand up to tyrants. They are so afraid of dying that they have not learned nor been inspired to live.
Life as a slave to the whims and pleasures of a few tyrants and dictators, at least gives them a place in this world, but I can assure you, it is not God’s will that men should be slaves to other men, Lev.26:13.
Freedom Means You Must Make Your Own Way
Even Israel after being delivered from slavery and bondage out of Egypt pined for the good old days when the Pharaohs provided them food and shelter, Num.11:1-6.
In Israel’s journey in the desert, while making it on God’s provisions, they became dissatisfied, and they complained.
They had forgotten Pharaoh’s task masters who had beaten them and their children with whips and made life hard for them. For four hundred and thirty years the children of Israel were in Egypt with the last one hundred years in severe slavery, and now freed by God under Moses’ leadership they were free to make the best of their circumstances. However, they failed to trust the Lord who had brought them out of slavery. It is amazing at how the old sin nature can twist our memories of the past to make the past look better than the future, especially when we are afraid to trust God. We seem to forget the pain and recall the pleasure. The sin nature will trick the soul into remembering only the good times. This is another example of the bait and hook method. The old sin nature baits us to look back and imagine an easier life when in reality it was hard, and the hook is that we pine for yesterday because we are afraid to face our present troubles subsequently. Eventually confidence is replaced by indifference. Indifference to what made America great has been growing for over forty years.
True objective thinking sees every side of our lives, past, present, and future. When resident Bible truth [Bible doctrine in the heart] does not rule the soul it is practically impossible for the believer to be objective and think from a position of strength.
The Lord had lead Israel through the Red Sea on to dry ground, and he destroyed their enemies. Now they had the opportunity to trust God to bless them. All they had to do was obey God, but Num.11:4 said they turned to lusting and begging and soon sorrow filled their camps.