Wednesday, January 22, 2014

A Harvest of Punishment Is Also Waiting For You Though God Wants To Restore The Fortunes Of His People

The Minor Prophets Speak to Today

A Harvest of Punishment Is Also Waiting For You

Hosea 6:11 NLT

“O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you,
    though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.


Fire Destroys Crops In Dry Season 
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GOD ALWAYS WANTS TO RESTORE
THE FORTUNES OF HIS PEOPLE
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What do you think God's prophetic warnings are for?

Are they just angry rants of a god willing and wishing to pounce on the  poor mouse of his people?

Are they empty threats because his love will always rescue the people if they just hold on?

Are they but reflections of a God who used to be vindictive and quick to act negatively?

A God who is no longer the same yesterday, today, and forever?

I don't think so!

The lesser player in the book of Hosea has always been Judah - a people who were prostituting their religion while not yet having given it up, at least in form. Yet, just like today, God's people in Judah had piled up a harvest of punishment against themselves. And God does not want them to remain ignorant of that fact.

Even the New Testament makes clear a central principle of creation - you reap what you sow. Jesus spoke of that principle often. It is not a part of the law he came to do away with though grace can modify the result. Paul repeats the message. At one point he even talks about sowing for a loss at the judgment. A loss of all but our soul's entry into heaven. He says it will be like passing through the fire and coming out with nothing. And he did not sound the warning as a praise to grace, but as a dire warning to believers in Christ Jesus.

Judah has sown a harvest of punishment. It is they who have heaped up punishment against themselves not God. Punishment goes with the fallen order. It is a consequence of reaping what you sow and will happen, one way or another, without a repentance, a turning to the God who, during all of your punishment sowing, has been wanting to restore the fortunes of his people.

Oh, American Church! God has always wanted to restore the fortunes of his people, but you would not. You continue to store up for yourselves a harvest of punishment. Even today, you have begun to reap it. But--


GOD ALWAYS WANTS TO RESTORE
THE FORTUNES OF HIS PEOPLE



Photo Credits: 
Fires in dry season destroy crops_Ghana_by Yaw Osei-Owusu (modified) Some rights reserved by CDKNetwork @flickr.com 
Working in the field. Ghana. Photo: Curt Carnemark / World Bank Photo ID: GH012S17 World Bank Some rights reserved by World Bank Photo Collection @flickr.com
 

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