When a people are no longer worthy of God’s blessing

“How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!” (2Sam. 1:27).

“For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood.” (Isa. 9:5).

“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 

And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. 

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them.…

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 

And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 

And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Gen. 6:5-7,11-13).

Anarchy, chaos, violence, cruelty, self-indulgence, selfishness, self-exaltation, giant intellect for committing the greatest evil and calculating the most grievous of tortures. These are the words that describe the end of the pre-flood race of Adam made in God’s image.

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 

They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” (Luke 17:26-30).

Jesus prophesied of a repeat of the antediluvian giants of evil.

Americans have a Bill of Rights. It contains special liberties guaranteed to every citizen. Those freedoms have exalted America in the world. It has made us a powerful nation with a powerful draw to the people every other nation, especially from the Jesuit created, despotic countries. But, freedom is a privilege that God gives to those who obey Him. Obedience to God leads to self-sacrificing love for Him and His family. His privileges go to a nation that has His Law written in their hearts, to a people who have suffered for His name, and have surrendered to His condemnation and grace. Thus, they receive His gift of a new heart and of His Spirit newly quickening their dead spirit. They receive the “Spirit of His Son”, crying, “Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6). They receive the Word made flesh, Jesus in Spirit, through His holy Writ. The principles of righteousness are imparted and infused into their characters. They rise to walk in newness of life. They represent Him in all that they think and say and do. They glorify God through their Lord Jesus Christ, individually, and especially in a group.

“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” (Prov. 14:34).

But, few among Protestant America have really had this experience, and the remnant of Protestant America is growing very small. Therefore, but few today are worthy of the privileges promised to the sons of God. Protestant America is definitely repeating the history of ancient Israel.

We, as a nation, have betrayed our God of the Reformation. We have left His righteous Law and religion and Holy Scriptures, and have followed after the ways of the heathen, especially Catholic Europe. God is no respecter of persons or of nations. If His people fail to uphold His righteousness in the earth, then He takes away their privilege of self-government. That is what He did in the past, and it is what He is doing today to Protestant America.

His warnings to the northern kingdom of Israel:

“Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: 

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 

What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 

And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: 

And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 

For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.” (Isa. 5:1-7).

“And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 

Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 

Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 

And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 

But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.” (Isa. 6:9-13).

“The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 

And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.” (Isa. 7:17-19).

His warning to the southern kingdom of Judah:

“The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew Me not: the pastors also transgressed against Me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. 

Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead. 

For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. 

Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 

Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. 

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.…

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts….

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me? 

For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord GOD.” (Jer. 2:8-11,19,21,22).

“The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. 

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto Me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 

And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 3:6-10).

“For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against Me, saith the LORD…. 

Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. 

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 

And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.” (Jer. 5:11,15-17).

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Dan. 9:24).

Both northern and southern kingdoms of Israel were severely punished, and eventually cut off. Yet, for centuries the Lord Jesus remonstrated with each kingdom. With mercy He anew set the old boundaries again and again. But, to no avail.

“What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? 

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. 

Behold, all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. 

But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, 

And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour’s wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman, 

And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment; 

He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man, 

Hath walked in My statutes, and hath kept My judgments, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord GOD.” (Eze. 18:2-9).

“If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood, and that doeth the like to any one of these things, 

And that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbour’s wife, 

Hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination, 

Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? He shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.” (Eze. 18:1-13).

“But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all My statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. 

All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live. 

Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” (Eze. 18:21-23).

We, Protestant Americans, were a righteous nation during our difficult colonial days. We grew up on the King James Bible. An abundance of idiomatic expressions from that Version are, to this day, still used in our conversations: Job’s “skin of my teeth”; the prodigal son home again, “safe and sound”; Balaam falling “flat on his face” before the angel with drawn sword; Jesus in the garden praying “a stone’s throw” distance from His disciples; etc. Although so many millions of atheists hate to acknowledge it today, these phrases are a witness against them of a holier time in American history.

The Lord rewarded the Protestant colonialists with peace and protection. Have we recognized that divine act of love? Or have we done like atheistic Israel in the past? The reward of peace and protection has continued down to our generation not due to our cleverness and technology, but because of the faithfulness of our forefathers to the living God.

“For the LORD’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. 

He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. 

As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 

So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 

He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; 

Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.” (Deut. 32:9-14).

But, the whole tone turns after the 14th verse of Deuteronomy 32.

“But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation….” (Deut. 32:15).

“When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.” (Eze. 18:24).

That curse that was pronounced upon Israel is about to be pronounced upon America.

 “But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. 

They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they Him to anger. 

They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. 

Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. 

And when the LORD saw it, He abhorred them, because of the provoking of His sons, and of His daughters. 

And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. 

They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 

For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 

I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend Mine arrows upon them. 

They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. 

The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. 

I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men.” (Deut. 32:15-26).

When a nation no longer orders its operations aright then it can no longer responsibly receive God’s gifts. Whenever a people that He has graciously brought to Himself and raised it up to be a blessing and to glorify Him in the world, and then their later generations find pleasure only in the gifts of God without being a blessing, then that nation no longer deserves the privileges and gifts of God. The priveleges come and go with the responsibilities. This doesn’t make them slaves to His every whim, because all that He asks to bring Him glory is to love each other and to respect and take care of each other.

This was the case with ancient Israel. Sacred history is plain for any honest soul to see that God took away every right even the right of national sovereignty. He took away every privilege and gift, even the gift of life. He removed their right to defend, their right to fight. The dispossessing of blessings was not an instant, out of the blue, event. Jehovah gave the people many warnings and appeals through men who endangered their lives to give those messages. Many prophets lost their lives. But, they were glad to pour out their heart that if it might turn their beloved nation back to their Creator and Redeeming King.

It took centuries and generations before the Lord brought His punishment against them. He removed their privileges slowly, always with many warnings of more privileges to go away. But, those warnings were very descriptive of the punishment that still lingered. And they were not empty threats. They always eventually arrived. In the case of Isaiah’s day, the ruthless Assyrians came down and took away the child sacrificing, wicked northern kingdom of Israel. A century later, after Jeremiah’s long ministry of condemnation and warning, the Babylonians came against the Jews for all the wickedness they copied from their northern brethren and their neighboring cousin nations. He calls it His strange act because it was long in coming and because punishment and desolation are not commonly His action, neither is it ever His pleasure.

“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death [flagrant transgression of every holy statute], and with hell are we at agreement [spiritualism and necromancy]; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Corner Stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. 

Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 

And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. 

From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 

For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. 

For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act. 

Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. 

Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.” (Isa. 28:15-23).

After Moses, almost a thousand years of grace passed before they had learned of Jehovah’s readiness to police His holy land.

“Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD. 

If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; 

Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 

And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 

And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 

And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 

And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 

For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish My covenant with you. 

And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. 

And I will set My tabernacle among you: and My soul shall not abhor you. 

And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people. 

I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.” (Lev. 26:2-13).

A beautiful picture painted of the children of Israel and of colonial America! But, would they, would we, hold the beginning of our confidence in Jesus steadfast to the end? Is Protestant America keeping faith today? No. We have broken our covenant with Him. Therefore, the curses from the past abide on our heads.

“But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments; 

And if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant: 

I also will 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 heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 

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. 

And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 

And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 

And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 

And if ye walk contrary unto Me, and will not hearken unto Me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 

I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 

And if ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary unto Me; 

Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 

And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 

And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. 

And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me; 

Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 

And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. 

And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 

And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours. 

And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 

And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 

Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 

As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it. 

And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. 

And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 

And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 

And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 

If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me; 

And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 

Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 

The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised My judgments, and because their soul abhorred My statutes.” (Lev. 26:14-43).

It is not without a massive storm of punishment from our old enemy from the Dark Ages, who proved itself the enemy of Jesus. We have returned to the enemy of God, thus making ourselves God’s enemy. What will God do with His sworn enemy? He will let that enemy on the banks of the Tiber River take over the country that He gave us for the Protestant faithfulness of the 16th century. We have for a long time warranted punishment such as Judah and Israel received from the Lord’s hand. Protestant America is the descendant of the mighty and holy people of the Bible, “remnant of her seed” (Rev. 12:17).

“And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 

And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. … 

 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” (Rev. 12:1-3,5,6).

“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 

 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 

And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:14-16).

But, before Jesus would come, Protestant America’s hold on God would be severely tempted during the 150 year first woe. A few years after 1844, the ground zero for faith Bible truth would be attacked, the seal of God would be given to Protestants or the mark of the Beast, while fifth trumpet would blow. And then the Jesuit locusts would continue its blitz of corruption against every facet of life for Protestantism’s full and final departure during the sixth trumpet, second woe. The sign of the mark would be the fifth trumpet’s torment, and the sixth trumpet’s fire and smoke and brimstone, the wrath of God.

“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.…

These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. 

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. 

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” (Rev. 11:3,6-8).

Because of our infidelity with our God, we are dead of faith and dead of righteousness. Unbelief, atheism, has left us tortured in mind, body, and soul, even in the churches. Every kind of over-the-counter or under-the-counter substance has been tried to remedy our loss of God’s Spirit, “the Spirit of His Son, whereby we cry Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6).

We are no longer blessed of God.  We are no longer authorized to fight our enemy because God has is raised up our enemy for correction.

“For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.” (Hab. 1:6,7).

“Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.” (Hab. 1:12).

But only those who will not fight will not die.

“He that abideth in this city [instead of surrendering to the Babylonian army] shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.” (Jer. 21:9).

“Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.” (Jer. 38:2).

“For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.” (Jer. 37:10).

Such a message to the stiff necked  people of Judah was anathema.

“Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.” (Jer. 38:4).

“Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you. 

Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.” (Jer. 38:5,6).

So, all the men died who fought Nebuchadnezzar’s mighty army, and the rest were taken captive, and enslaved. But, difficulty of the Lord’s correction was providentially tailored to each Jewish heart’s surrender to His punishment. Some ended up in the court of Nebuchadnezzar.

How will we choose? Life being preyed upon, or death? Remember the words of Jesus:

“Though ye had smitten the whole army of the [Vatican/Jesuit shadow government] that [fights] against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this [United States of America old world order] with fire.” (Jer. 37:10).

“And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 

And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.” (Lev. 26:25,26).