Leviticus 26:14 But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments…
Then woe unto us Friends! Yes people, God’s world has balance; everything has a counterpart; point-counterpoint. Nothing exists solely unto itself, but is interlocked with something else. Yesterday we dealt with the wonderful blessings the Lord has in store for us if we walk in obedience to His Will and Word. Today, we’ll deal with the other side of the scale; The Penalties for Disobedience. Yes my brethren, there are penalties for disobedience; some rather severe ones too, more intense, problematic and plentiful than the blessings. ‘And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I will also do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of the heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.’ (Lev.26:15-16) Oh Friends, what a nightmare that would be, for the terror is not of human terrorists, but of sickness, of disease. According to the scholars, consumption is a general term for a wasting disease that could include dysentery, cholera, typhoid and typhus fevers, malaria, T.B. and various types of cancer. Meanwhile, the burning ague etc. might be a reference to gonorrhoeal blindness. Wow! And people, He’s not finished, that’s only the beginning. ‘And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you, shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.’ (vs.17) I like the part about fleeing when nobody’s after you. We must really be terrified to be doing that. But seriously Friends, Israel never listened and all those things befell them at one time or another. Eli, the high priest in Samuel’s day was warned; ‘shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart…on Hophni and Phineas; in one day, they shall die, both of them.’ (1 Sam.2:33-34) Eli’s family lost the high priest position because of his sons disobedience. Judges 6: 3-6 describes this situation. ‘And so it was when Israel had sown, the Midianites and Amalekites came up against them. And they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth…and left no sustenance for Israel…and Israel was greatly impoverished.’ And would you believe they were bold faced enough to cry to the Lord, who basically said, ‘Sorry. I told you what to do, but you disobeyed me. Now you’re paying the price.’ Everything we’ve said so far Friends, both happened and was enlarged upon by some other man of God. Bruh David declared: ‘The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.’ (Ps.34:16-17) Meanwhile Solomon says: ‘The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.’ (Prov.28:1) And in Psalm 106, where Israel sins against God’s LOVE; Bruh David opines; ‘He gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them.’ (vs.41) Oh people, our God doesn’t make promises, good or bad, for want of something to do. They all serve some useful purpose. They are rules, guidelines and suggestions for us to live by, and are all placed in the Good Book so that we won’t have to go searching, or say we never knew. Just like every organization and every product has rules and guidelines to get the most out of them, all the tenets for godly living are found between the covers of the Bible. That’s the Lord’s Manifesto. Friends, our God must really, really LOVE us, to be putting up with our disobedience for so long. And we only going back to the Israelites, not right back to Adam and Eve. He is indeed Patience and LOVE personified. But even the Lord has His limits, especially when we completely disregard Him, hold Him up to ridicule, consider Him of no account, worship idols or graven images and try to take advantage of His good nature. Then His wrath… Just look around us Friends. It’s as plain as day; right before our very eyes. And it’s only the beginning, if our wilful disobedience continues. It’s not fear mongering either, just simple facts and logics. If you read the Bible and see what disasters befell those nations that got too big for their breeches, and compare our society today, then you’ll understand. All the diseases we’d supposedly conquered. Hn! With all our medical and technical wizardry and millions of dollars in research, cancer is more prevalent than ever, possibly because of the overwhelming amount of carcinogens we put in our food, air, water and numerous other products. Famine, hunger and poverty are rampant in a fertile world of plenty. Why is that? Oppression and strife rule. Everyday a new theatre opens; the latest being the poverty stricken dictatorship of Guinea, where the dictator, Lansana Conte died this week and a group of young military officers carried out a successful coup. Another problem spot in beleaguered Mother Africa. Friends, please realize that God’s dealings are just. He’s a God of justice and righteousness, thus He can only govern one way. As he said to the Israelites when they asked, through Ezekiel; ‘If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?’ (Eze.33:10-11) Friends, that’s exactly what the Lord is saying to us today. He gets no pleasure form the wicked dying. He wants us all to live. So let’s listen to Him for once and turn from our wicked ways nuh. You know it’s always for our benefit. Much LOVE!…our God…never makes idle promises…
Then woe unto us Friends! Yes people, God’s world has balance; everything has a counterpart; point-counterpoint. Nothing exists solely unto itself, but is interlocked with something else. Yesterday we dealt with the wonderful blessings the Lord has in store for us if we walk in obedience to His Will and Word. Today, we’ll deal with the other side of the scale; The Penalties for Disobedience. Yes my brethren, there are penalties for disobedience; some rather severe ones too, more intense, problematic and plentiful than the blessings. ‘And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I will also do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of the heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.’ (Lev.26:15-16) Oh Friends, what a nightmare that would be, for the terror is not of human terrorists, but of sickness, of disease. According to the scholars, consumption is a general term for a wasting disease that could include dysentery, cholera, typhoid and typhus fevers, malaria, T.B. and various types of cancer. Meanwhile, the burning ague etc. might be a reference to gonorrhoeal blindness. Wow! And people, He’s not finished, that’s only the beginning. ‘And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you, shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.’ (vs.17) I like the part about fleeing when nobody’s after you. We must really be terrified to be doing that. But seriously Friends, Israel never listened and all those things befell them at one time or another. Eli, the high priest in Samuel’s day was warned; ‘shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart…on Hophni and Phineas; in one day, they shall die, both of them.’ (1 Sam.2:33-34) Eli’s family lost the high priest position because of his sons disobedience. Judges 6: 3-6 describes this situation. ‘And so it was when Israel had sown, the Midianites and Amalekites came up against them. And they encamped against them and destroyed the increase of the earth…and left no sustenance for Israel…and Israel was greatly impoverished.’ And would you believe they were bold faced enough to cry to the Lord, who basically said, ‘Sorry. I told you what to do, but you disobeyed me. Now you’re paying the price.’ Everything we’ve said so far Friends, both happened and was enlarged upon by some other man of God. Bruh David declared: ‘The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.’ (Ps.34:16-17) Meanwhile Solomon says: ‘The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.’ (Prov.28:1) And in Psalm 106, where Israel sins against God’s LOVE; Bruh David opines; ‘He gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them.’ (vs.41) Oh people, our God doesn’t make promises, good or bad, for want of something to do. They all serve some useful purpose. They are rules, guidelines and suggestions for us to live by, and are all placed in the Good Book so that we won’t have to go searching, or say we never knew. Just like every organization and every product has rules and guidelines to get the most out of them, all the tenets for godly living are found between the covers of the Bible. That’s the Lord’s Manifesto. Friends, our God must really, really LOVE us, to be putting up with our disobedience for so long. And we only going back to the Israelites, not right back to Adam and Eve. He is indeed Patience and LOVE personified. But even the Lord has His limits, especially when we completely disregard Him, hold Him up to ridicule, consider Him of no account, worship idols or graven images and try to take advantage of His good nature. Then His wrath… Just look around us Friends. It’s as plain as day; right before our very eyes. And it’s only the beginning, if our wilful disobedience continues. It’s not fear mongering either, just simple facts and logics. If you read the Bible and see what disasters befell those nations that got too big for their breeches, and compare our society today, then you’ll understand. All the diseases we’d supposedly conquered. Hn! With all our medical and technical wizardry and millions of dollars in research, cancer is more prevalent than ever, possibly because of the overwhelming amount of carcinogens we put in our food, air, water and numerous other products. Famine, hunger and poverty are rampant in a fertile world of plenty. Why is that? Oppression and strife rule. Everyday a new theatre opens; the latest being the poverty stricken dictatorship of Guinea, where the dictator, Lansana Conte died this week and a group of young military officers carried out a successful coup. Another problem spot in beleaguered Mother Africa. Friends, please realize that God’s dealings are just. He’s a God of justice and righteousness, thus He can only govern one way. As he said to the Israelites when they asked, through Ezekiel; ‘If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?’ (Eze.33:10-11) Friends, that’s exactly what the Lord is saying to us today. He gets no pleasure form the wicked dying. He wants us all to live. So let’s listen to Him for once and turn from our wicked ways nuh. You know it’s always for our benefit. Much LOVE!…our God…never makes idle promises…
SCRIP-BITS 