Chapter Overview
We Had Pride in Our Power!
. . . But We Lost It!
Now More Intense Punishment
Punishment Is Correction
Seven fold More Plagues
Slavery Once Again
The birthright, once we received it, was stupendous, awesome
- unequaled among nations or empires! But what have our peoples done
with that awesome blessing?
They were still ISRAELITES, even though they themselves
knew it not! They were still rebellious, "stiffnecked," stubborn!
Once the British peoples and the Americans - the
"lost" Israelites now supposing they are Gentiles - found themselves basking
in the pleasant sunshine of such wealth and power, they were less willing
than their ancient forefathers to yield to their GOD and HIS WAYS.
They felt no need of Him, now! It seems few ever turn to God until
they find themselves in desperate need or trouble.
But after God had withheld the birthright 2520
years, and then, when our peoples deserved nothing from God, He suddenly
bestowed on us national blessings unparalleled in history - the unconditional
promise to Abraham was kept! No longer is God obligated by His promise
to continue our undeserving peoples in world prestige, wealth and greatness.
Once we had been given such unrivaled position, it was up to us whether
we should keep it.
So now back to Leviticus 26. We had previously
covered verses 1 through 18. God said that IF, for all these previous
punishments, the Israelites would not listen to and obey Him, He would
punish them the duration of 2520 years. Then what?
If, after that 2520 years of withholding the birthright,
our people - with the birthright - still rebel, God continues, verse 19:
"And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven
as iron, and your earth as brass." God has already begun that!
God could not speak about breaking the pride of our national
POWER until after that birthright power had been bestowed! He put
our nations in the position of possessing the greatest national power any
nation or empire ever possessed. We had great pride in that national
power - in our national prestige.
I remember hearing President Theodore Roosevelt
tell of HIS PRIDE in that power - and how he used it when he was president.
The Germans were sending a battleship steaming toward Manila Bay, threatening
to take over the Philippines. The Philippines were then a United
States possession. President Roosevelt sent the kaiser a terse note
demanding that the German warship be immediately withdrawn.
"The kaiser didn't know, then, that I meant it!"
snapped Mr. Roosevelt. "So I sent another note. Only, I didn't
send this second note to the kaiser. I sent it to Admiral Dewey,
in command of the United States Pacific fleet. It ordered the entire
fleet to steam full speed toward the German battleship, and if it did not
turn around and go back, to SINK IT!" said Mr. Roosevelt with emphatic
force! In those days, before World War I, we had pride in our national
power!
Today even little nations dare to insult, trample on,
or burn the United States flag - and the United States, still having power,
does no more than issue a weak protest! What's happened to the PRIDE
of our power?
We have already LOST IT! God said, "I will
break the pride of your power!" AND HE DID!
Other prophecies reveal we are to have soon such
drought and famine that disease epidemics will follow, taking millions
of lives. When our heaven is as iron, our earth as brass, we will
realize rain does not come down from iron, and an earth hard as brass is
not getting rain, not yielding food!
Verse 20: "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."
but will American and Britain heed? They
never have!
Then what? After all that, THEN WHAT?
Verse 21: "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."
There again, as in verse 18, is that Hebrew word
shibah. Actually, in the Hebrew in which Moses wrote, there are not
the two Hebrew words, one meaning "seven" and the other "times."
There is just the one word, shibah.
As explained previously, the word is defined as
"seven times," and also as "sevenfold." The "seven times" conveys
duration of punishment. The "sevenfold" meaning of the same word
conveys intensity of punishment.
Because of its use and construction in the sentence, and
because of what actually happened, it is certain that in verse 18 this
Hebrew word shibah refers to DURATION of punishment - seven prophetic times,
which, during this punishment, was an actual 2520 YEARS!
But also, because of the very different sentence
structure and because there cannot now be another 2520-year WITHHOLDING
of what has now been bestowed, it is just as certain that the shibah in
verse 21 refers to a sevenfold INTENSITY of punishment. Notice, the
wording in verse 21 is entirely different from verse 18. This time
it is not worded "seven times more for your sins," but "seven times more
PLAGUES." The expression "seven times" in verse 21 is descriptive
of PLAGUES to be brought on them.
So now, if twentieth-century Ephraim and Manasseh
- Britain and America - refuse to turn to God in obedience - refuse to
live the way that causes, retains, and increases blessings, God will punish
them in a manner far more INTENSE - and even strip entirely from them this
colossal, unprecedented national blessing - returning them to captivity
and slavery - as continuing verses of this prophecy show.
Do you think so great a fall could not come to
so great powers as Britain and America? Do you say, "It can't happen
HERE?" Do you think the GREAT GOD who was able to GIVE them such
unprecedented world leadership and power and wealth is not able to take
it away from them and throw them, like their ancient forefathers, back
into SLAVERY?
You need to OPEN YOUR EYES to the fact that Britain's
sun already has SET! You need to WAKE UP to the fact that the United
States, even still possessing unmatched POWER, is afraid - fears - to use
it, just as God said: "I will break the PRIDE of your POWER"; that the
United States has stopped winning wars - that America was unable, with
all its vast power, to conquer little North Vietnam! The United States
is fast riding to the GREATEST FALL that ever befell any nation!
The handwriting is on the wall!
You need, now, to UNDERSTAND the remainder of this
prophecy of Leviticus 26 - and also of Deuteronomy 28 - and the many other
prophecies relating to them and events soon to VIOLENTLY affect YOUR life!
You need to look at the prophecies of Jesus, of
Jeremiah, of Isaiah, and others describing how much more intense is to
be the punishment God is going to lay on the British and American people.
For MANY prophecies warn us of a CERTAINTY that
it will be trouble such as NEVER happened to any nation or people!
Knowing our identity - knowing how the British
and American peoples are identified in the prophecies - you need now to
become AWARE of what is said about us in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,
Joel, Hosea, Amos, and the other prophecies - what JESUS foretold - as
well as in these prophecies written by Moses!
And you need, also, to know why a just and loving
God is going to punish His chosen people - people He chose for a glorious
PURPOSE they have refused to perform.
The very fact of punishment implies CORRECTION.
We need to understand that correction is applied to correct WRONG WAYS
harmful to us - to turn us around into RIGHT WAYS that will cause desired
blessings! Understand! God punishes every son he loves (Heb.
12:6).
Understand also human nature! Human nature
wants to be good - to consider itself and be considered good, while it
wants only to do evil. It wants the good result. But it wants
to receive the good while it sows the evil. It somehow fails to grasp
the truth that as we sow, so also shall we reap! It's all a matter
of CAUSE and EFFECT!
God's punishment only reflects God's LOVE - turning
us from causing evil results to the way that brings happy results!
God is now about to STOP US from bringing colossal evils on ourselves!
god is not angry because we are harming HIM - but because we are harming
ourselves - whom God loves!
The prophecies do not stop with revealing the unprecedented
multiplied intensity of punishment already beginning to descend upon America
and Britain. The prophecies record also the RESULT of that intensified
punishment. The result will be a corrected people. The result
will be an eye-opening realization of what we have done to ourselves.
The supreme punishment will teach us, at last, our lesson! The punishment
will break our spirit of REBELLION! It will lift us up from the cesspool
of rottenness and evil into which we have sunk. It will teach us
the way to glorious peace, prosperity, abundant well-being!
On beyond the frightful national calamities now
descending upon us will come a BLESSING inconceivably greater than the
national material birthright we have possessed.
We have to learn that material goods are not the
SOURCE of happiness. I have often mentioned the many rich men I have
known - men whose bank balances were full - but their lives were empty!
Material prosperity is indeed desirable - but it is not the source of happiness.
After all, real happiness is a spiritual commodity!
The birthright was only one of TWO major promises God made to Abraham.
The sceptre promise involved not only a dynasty of human kings. It
need not have included them at all - had the Israelites retained and been
obedient to GOD as their King. The sceptre pointed primarily to CHRIST
and spiritual salvation through Him.
Our peoples have basic lessons yet to learn.
The TRUE VALUES are spiritual. Actually, God's law is a spiritual
law. It involves physical acts - but it is based on spiritual principles.
And it requires God's Holy Spirit dwelling in the mind to fulfill!
PUNISHMENT implies CORRECTION. Correction
means a change of course. It means REPENTANCE - and repentance means
turning around and going the OTHER WAY!
Now, before I give you these sensational prophecies,
understand WHY national punishment must come, and who needs the correction!
ONLY those who are sowing EVIL need it - who are transgressing God's right
WAYS - God's law! Those, and only those, who are bringing on themselves
the evils that result from transgression.
And UNDERSTAND THIS: Although the NATIONS as a
whole are to be put through this unprecedented punishment, yet those individuals
who yield to accept God's correction without the punishment shall be protected
from it! No one need suffer this intense tribulation!
Now notice again what is laid down in Leviticus 26.
After the national birthright had been withheld
2520 years and then bestowed; after God gave our peoples that national
POWER, and has now, because of our national rebellion against His laws,
broken the pride of our power; after He shall have punished us with unprecedented
DROUGHT and epidemics of disease in its wake, then IF the British and Americans
still continue in their evil ways - still refuse to repent and turn to
their God - He warns: ". . .I will bring seven times more PLAGUES upon
you according to your sins." Read that in the Revised Standard Version:
". . .I will bring more plagues upon you, sevenfold as many as your sins"
(verse 21).
What people do not seem to realize is that SIN
does bring upon the sinner the consequences of sin - the plagues of suffering.
The Bible defines sin as the transgression of God's law (I John 3:4), and
the law of God is a spiritual law (Rom. 7:14).
Let's understand this! I have said that money
is not the source of happiness. Money can buy only material things
or services. But there must be the spiritual content, as well as
the physical, to happiness. Material things alone do not provide
satisfying happiness. God's law is a spiritual law. In other
words, it is THE WAY to peace, happiness, abundant well-being. Going
that way is what God supplied to CAUSE real happiness.
Conversely, then, can we not see that transgressing
that way is to cause unhappiness, pain and suffering, emptiness, heartaches,
fears and worries, frustrations? All these evils are caused by transgressing
God's law. The sinner is really plagued with these evils he brings
on himself.
Now study again that 21st verse of Leviticus 26.
Punishment is CORRECTION. To teach us the lesson we have failed to
learn by experience, God is going to plague our peoples SEVENFOLD more
than our sins already have plagued us - sevenfold more punishment than
we have brought on ourselves!
Or, as the Authorized Version says, "seven times
more plagues upon you according to your sins." Sevenfold INTENSITY
of punishment - OF CORRECTION!
Notice now verses 23-25 (RSV): "And if by this discipline
you are not turned to me, but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk
contrary to you, and I myself will smite you sevenfold for your sins.
And I will bring a sword upon you. . .and you shall be delivered into the
hand of the enemy."
SLAVERY once again!
Get the real meaning of this! Our SINS have
brought punishment. This punishment we have brought on ourselves.
If we still refuse to learn the lesson, and be corrected for our own good,
God says, "I myself will smite you sevenfold." We have brought the
consequences of SIN on ourselves - now God will Himself bring on us sevenfold
more intense punishment - punishment that is CORRECTION!
Now read on to verse 33 (RSV): "And if in spite
of this you will not hearken to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will
walk contrary to you in fury [the seven last plagues - Rev. 15:1], and
chastise you myself sevenfold for your sins. . . .And I will LAY YOUR CITIES
WASTE. . . And I will scatter you among the nations."
God is going to keep multiplying chastening - correction
- upon our peoples until they do turn from their evil ways - until they
turn to the ways that cause peace, happiness, prosperity, all the good
things!
HOW UNTHINKABLE! - that our Maker shall have to
force our peoples to be happy, to have peace, to be able to enjoy prosperity,
to yield, to accept - our own choice - eternal life in abundant well-being
and JOY for all eternity!
HOW UNBELIEVABLE! - that human nature, desiring
these blessings, has insisted stubbornly in going the way that cuts them
off and causes PUNISHMENT - CORRECTION - and then refuses to be corrected
until it is MULTIPLIED in intensity sevenfold! Yes, sevenfold - three
successive times!
HOW GREAT is our God - and WHAT LOVE for our peoples
He expresses, in patiently tolerating and correcting us UNTIL we accept
His boundless BLESSINGS!