Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Consequences (Lev. 18:24-30)


10/11/2008 6:37 AM



SPIRITUAL DIARY



My Worship Time                              Focus:  Consequences



Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Lev. 18:24-30



            Message of the verses:  “24 ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. 25 ‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants.  26 ‘But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you 27 (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled);

28  so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you.  29 ‘For whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people.

30  ‘Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the LORD your God.’”

            I think that you can trace what happened to these Gentile nations that are written about here to the book of Genesis to when Noah and his family had gotten off of the ark and Noah had made some wine and fell asleep in his tent.  He evidently had made himself drunk from the wine and was exposing himself and Ham one of his sons saw this and told his two brothers about it and they walked backwards holding a covering to cover the nakedness of their father unlike Ham had done.  “24 When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.  25  So he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brothers.’”  Noah went on to said in the verse twenty-six that Canaan, Ham’s son would be a servant to Shem.  Now all of the nations of the earth came from the three sons of Noah and the nation of Israel came from Shem and the nations of Canaan came from Ham and these peoples that came from Ham have had a tendency of being perverted as can be seen in the verses in this section and because of that God would use the nation of Israel to punish them as he foretold in the book of Genesis.  This prophecy of these nations can be seen in Genesis 15, “13  God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.  14  "But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.  15  "As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.  16  "Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete." 



            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  My question today is the iniquity of the United States of America complete, is that bottle of wrath that I believe is in heaven with the USA written on it filled so that God will have to punish her, this great nation in which much was given to her so much is required of her.  And how about me, as a member of God’s Church am I partly to be blamed for all of this?  I think the answer to that is yes and because the answer it yes I need to repent of this and ask the Lord to give me the grace to do a better job for the cause of Jesus Christ in this land in which I live and love.



My Steps of Faith for Today:



1.    After looking at yesterday’s lesson from our Bible study I am convicted of not knowing enough about God, not only not knowing enough about God, but not fearing the Lord as I should.  I think of the passage in Matthew seventeen that I read this morning, “When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.”  These disciples had the true fear of the Lord after hearing from Him on top of this mountain.  There is a lesson in this for me and that lesson is that after reading something in His Word about Him it should cause me to fall on my face in not only fear, but in to worship Him.



Memory verses for the week:                                  Exodus 20:12-14



12.      Honor your father and your mother, so that your life may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

13.      You shall not murder.

14.      You shall not commit adultery.



10/11/2008 7:12 AM

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