July 27, 2009

• Isaiah 2: 12-22, idols, Job by Pastor Don Moore

  Thought you might like this picture.  Pastor Don used an umbrella to demonstrate being under the covering of God. And then took the umbrella a way to show God removing the covering through sins of omission and commission.

  

  Isaiah spoke for his time period and what is to come. 

  Isaiah 2:12-22  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up— and it shall be brought low— upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up; upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall; upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the beautiful sloops. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, but the idols He shall utterly abolish. They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from the terror of the LORD and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made, each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of the rugged rocks, from the terror of the LORD and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. Sever yourselves from such a man, whose breath is in his nostrils;  for of what account is he?

  What is the day of the Lord, when will it come and what will it attain?  The terror and judgment of this is not for us.  This is like God telling sinful mankind, you’ve had your day, now this is mine.  We were made to rule and have dominion but that dominion was usurped by sin, and people have turned their backs on God’s plan for their lives. 

  The history of mankind – 6000 years and at the end of that time will come the Day of the Lord.  God let mankind have it’s way up to a certain point, but there will be judgment.

  Genesis 3 to the end of time. 

  Deuteronomy 7:9-10 Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.

  God’s wrath is for those who choose to hate Him. 

  We then spent some time on the 10 Commandments, especially the commandment about idols and carved images.  The discussion was intense, showing that people had real concerns, and after one question was asked, another was raised until one member of our group mentioned that the intensity of the discussion indicates that those asking the questions have an unquietness within them, and that should be an indication to not do what is causing such unquietness. 

  Deuteronomy 5:6-7 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.

  Deuteronomy 5:8 You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;

  Don’t go there.

  Deuteronomy 5:9-10 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

  No carved images for religious purposes, for if you do that it is like hating God.

  Deuteronomy 16:21-22 You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the LORD your God. You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.

  Deuteronomy 17:1 You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God a bull or sheep which has any blemish or defect, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God.

  Pastor Don spoke strongly about idols in churches, and said that if he put up a poster or a sign or anything and he saw anyone go up to it and pray to it, cross themselves or anything, it would be taken down and destroyed.  When we deal with idols we worship from the flesh and through the eyes. 

  The truth is we have idols that others may not be aware of, anything that takes a greater place than God in your life is an idol.  In the Last Days God will strike down the idols and things that are not pleasing to him.  We see God doing this all throughout scripture.  Even the bulls that the Israelites made in the wilderness were ground into powder and the Israelites were forced to eat that.  Gideon was told to tear down his father’s idols. 

  Our flesh likes these things. But the end of Deuteronomy 5:9 (see above) tells us that God is a jealous God, and those who worship idols hate Him.

  A major discussion about idols ensued and various people had questions about angel figurines, what happens to them because their parents had statues of saints in their house, etc.

  Regarding parental use of idols, Pastor Don reminded the people of the following verse.

  Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

  God is always willing to modify punishment if people repent and meet His conditions.  The God of the Old Testament is not different from the God of the New Testament – for the laws hold true – God does not change His mind. 

  God slew many in the Old Testament who disobeyed, it seems like there is a lot of killing in the Old Testament.  We bring our punishments on ourselves by our behavior, the seeds sown, which is why Joy Pollard often tells us to pray for a crop failure.  Deuteronomy 27, 28, 29, and 30 talk of what occurs if you choose to obey God or disobey God.  There are blessings for obedience.

  For example Deuteronomy 28:1-2 Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: Then it lists the various blessings, in the basket, family, etc.

  Deuteronomy 28:15 But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: There are curses listed for disobedience.  Notice that the curses will come and OVERTAKE you. 

  We expect blessings, but when curses come we often do not expect them to come.  We start asking questions like, why did God do this to me?  But when we think that is is God bringing it on a person, it is not.  It is more like God removing His covering, His hand of protection off of a person and then the enemy comes in.

  We don’t always see what evils God has averted from our life.  The devil goes to and fro seeking whom he can devour.  The devil is seeking all the time, and is waiting for an opening in our life, an opening we provide when we sin.

  Pastor Don had one person stand up and another person pretend to try and hit them. Each time a fist came toward the person, Pastor Don’s hand came and intercepted it so that the fist did not touch the person.  That is like God deflecting blows of the enemy from our life.  If Pastor Don removes his hand and does not stop a blow, the person may say, “God did this.”  But God did not do that, God just didn’t deflect a blow from the enemy because the person was out of line with God’s will.  So when the Bible says that God put a curse upon someone, satan always is ready to step forward and do it.  It is God withholding protection.

  Deuteronomy 28:15 But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

  Deuteronomy 28:20 The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me.

  When it says that the Lord will “send” it really means the Lord will remove His covering. 

  One example is the book of Job.

  The book of Job answers the question about why the righteous have to suffer, yet at the end after the suffering Job gains 7 times as much because Job stayed faithful to God.  But what could have permitted satan to put these things on Job?  Job was not perfect.

  Job 1:1-3 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

  Job was like the Bill Gates of his time period, and had many possessions.

  Job 1:4 And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

  This is dicey – the sisters should not have been partying with their brothers.

  Job 1:5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed^b]’> also came among them.

  Sons of God, nephalim, angels.

  Job 1:7 And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

  Looking for anybody who he can usurp.

  Job 1:8-9 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”  So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?

  So satan tried to come up with a reason why Job was serving God, saying it was because he was compensated for that.

  Job 1:10  Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

  This shows that satan had already tried to get to Job or else he wouldn’t have known about the hedge.

  When things are going well in  your life know that you are blessed, don’t be prideful thinking you did it yourself, realize that God set up hedges around you.  That is why we can prosper in a recession, because God has placed a hedge around us.  If something isn’t working in our lives it is important to do a careful self-examination – making sure we have dotted all the “i’s” and crossed all the “t’s”.  It can be a tiny sin that leaves an opening for the enemy, forgetting to latch the screen door.  Ask God to bring to your remembrance what you need to correct in our life. 

  For example, our word is our bond – check what we have said, done, the little things.  Make things right.

  Job 1:11-12 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

  All he has is in your power but now his person (soul & spirit).

  Job 1:13  Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house;

  They were still sinning, and the fire of God comes down.

  We begin to see that his children are killed, the servants killed, the livestock.  Virtually everything but Job’s wife who told him to curse God and die.  When such disasters happen to property and people often God is the one that gets the blame.  How come?  Insurance calls it an act of God, but this was brought about because of something Job did that removed the hedge of protection around himself.

  What was Job’s reaction.  Unlike most of us who would have complained or blamed God, Job worshipped God.

  Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

  Job was wrong in thinking that God did this to him, but Job did not say, “God, You did the wrong thing.”  Satan took away from Job, but God did remove the hedge of protection.  When we are in God’s permissive will (not His perfect will for our lives) and things go wrong we often feel that God did that.  The truth is that if Job did not hold his children to a standard of righteousness, and that opened up the gate to satan. 

  Also Job was not in faith for faith and fear cannot coexist and Job said:

  Job 3:25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.

  The righteous behavior of a righteous man gives no indication of doubt and unbelief to the devil.  The devil can’t read what is going on in our heads, he can only hear our prayers, our words and read our actions.  That is why praying in tongues defeats the devil’s ability to hear what we are saying.

  The koran tells people that allah sets traps for the righteous and pulls them down.  God does not do that to us.  It is by righteousness and faith that we counter satan who is the accuser of the brethren.  The accusations of satan are only valid if there is sin.

  David was a man after God’s heart, and even though he committed fornication, adultery, and murder, he realized and repented for he had sinned against God.  David was not perfect, but when his sin was exposed He did not give excuses, he told God, I did wrong, and accepted the punishment that God meted out.

  God upheld Job, but Job was also lifted up in pride.  Just like we often do, he forgot the sins of omission, and in Job’s case that was the sin of not disciplining his kids. If Job (or us) were all that, then the devil would not have had a right to pull him down.  God permits that to pulling down to happen to Job.

  Job 24:1 Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know Him see not His days?

  We will recognize the end days if we know God, and see what He does. 

  Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

  God will do nothing without telling His prophets.

  Job 24:17 For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death; if someone recognizes them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

  The later days.  We then looked at some scriptures regarding the Day of the Lord.

  Ezekiel 13:5 You have not gone up into the gaps to build a wall for the house of Israel to stand in battle on the day of the LORD.

  Jeremiah 30:7-10 Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. ‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’ says the LORD of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds;  foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the LORD, ‘nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid.’

  If salvation is from afar, it means it is not near, but it will become near and Israel will return and have rest.

  Jeremiah 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall devour; it shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; for the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the River Euphrates.

  This is Iraq

  Amos 5:16-20 Therefore the LORD God of hosts, the Lord, says this:  “There shall be wailing in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, ‘Alas! Alas!’ they shall call the farmer to mourning, and skillful lamenters to wailing. In all vineyards there shall be wailing,  for I will pass through you,” says the LORD. Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to you? It will be darkness, and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him! Or as though he went into the house, leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him! Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light? Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

  Not pray for the coming of the Day of the Lord, but, as Pastor Don says, pray, “Lord, get me out of here.”  We do not want to stick around for what’s coming on earth.

  Obadiah 8-15 “Will I not in that day,” says the LORD, “even destroy the wise men from Edom, and understanding from the mountains of Esau? Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other side— in the day that strangers carried captive his forces, when foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem–even you were as one of them. But you should not have gazed on the day of your brother in the day of his captivity; nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress. You should not have entered the gate of My people in the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. You should not have stood at the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped; nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained in the day of distress. For the day of the LORD upon all the nations is near; as you have done, it shall be done to you; your reprisal shall return upon your own head.”

  Zephaniah 1:7-9 Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD; for the day of the LORD is at hand, for the LORD has prepared a sacrifice; He has invited^YouToMe