The first indication of Israel’s impending judgment actually came as early as the last days of Solomon. The Lord could not allow his name to be profaned in this manner. An evil people might bespeak of an evil God. If the Lord ignored the problem, then the world might think that God himself somehow condoned Israel’s lifestyle or that they represented or reflected his divine character. To have God’s name associated with their evil was something that He could not let continue. The Lord could not sit idly by and watch as his people became just like all the evil nations that surrounded them. Think of the hurt that the Lord must have felt when the people that he had delivered from Egypt now denied his very existence. They built images and altars to worship them in the most abject defiance of God imaginable. In many cases, the Israelites did not just fall into some evil practice or habit, but actually turned from the Lord so completely that they ended up worshipping idols. When things looked bleak, God would send a prophet to preach to the people and turn them back to righteousness. “The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.”įor centuries the Lord suffered with the repeated sinfulness of Israel. Moses originally prophesied, however, that if all these acts of discipline did not result in complete repentance and a total turning away from evil, then the most horrible curse of all would eventually come upon Israel. The Lord would then hear their cries and send a deliverer (a prophet) who could lead them back to repentance. The severity of the judgment would eventually cause the people to cry out to God for forgiveness. Many times God’s discipline would take the form of having some bordering nation attack and in some cases actually enslave large portions of the land of Israel. Like a yo-yo, Israel time and again would forget God, fall into evil or idolatry, and inevitably suffer the Lord’s judgment. The book of Judges contains a graphic history of the early backsliding of Israel. These progressive judgments led to the eventual scattering of Israel by the the powerful Assyrian Empire. He would stop the rain, make the crops fail, destroy their economy, cause disease to break out among the people, and ultimately allow nearby countries to become powerful enough to attack their borders. Amos tells us that when the judgment of God did come upon his people the result often got progressively worse until the Lord had no choice but to completely turn his back on them (Amos 4:6-12). The entire history of Israel in Palestine has been marked by alternate periods of blessing and curses, the characteristics of which depended on the behavior of the nation. The First Half of Daniel’s 70th Week The Empire of the BeastĮven though a life of blessing was truly what the Lord desired for Israel, He nevertheless judged them quickly if their actions lead them into evil.Characteristics of Christ’s Return and the Rapture.The Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns.Success Teetering On the Brink of Disaster.
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