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NOTE: This article or series has not been updated recently. As such, it may possibly contain some outdated information, and/or ideas and beliefs which I no longer embrace, or which have changed to some degree.



Every now and then, one of my readers will write to me, and ask me if I have heard of a certain fatal plane crash which has claimed a number of lives, or of a powerful storm which has struck a certain area of the world and left a great deal of destruction in its path, or of some other event which has filled the world press. In such cases, these incidents are sometimes described by the writer as being tragedies, and those people who have without warning lost their lives, as poor souls or victims. From a worldly perspective, this is the normal, natural and acceptable attitude to adopt when we hear of such news; but is it really the correct one to take for one who claims to be a Christian? While this revelation may shock a few of my readers, I personally no longer view such events as tragedies, or those people involved in them as being victims or poor souls. Why is this?

Quite simply, as a long-time reader of God's Holy Word, I have come to recognize that all things, both good and evil, come from the Hand of God; and I realize that He is in total and absolute control of His creation and the affairs of men. In other words, I am fully convinced that nothing happens by so-called accident, but that all things occur only by God's Divine Will and Permission. As such, I can no longer view such incidents as tragedies, but rather as a necessary part of His Plan in some way, even if I do not understand them. I am reminded of the following verses which confirm these points, and which reveal the Omnipotence of El Shaddai; that is, God Almighty:

"See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand."


"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:"


"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."


"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."


"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."


Truly, our God is the all-powerful Lord of the Universe; and He will indeed do all His pleasure; that is, whatsoever He desires, regardless of what we mere humans may think, say or do. As both King David and King Solomon tell us, God has His appointed time for all of us; a time to be born, as well as a time to die. All of the Lord's Divine Purposes are already pre-established. They are all already written in His Books. In fact, He told the Prophet Jeremiah the very same thing. Consider the following sets of verses:

"For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."


"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;"


"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."


Thus, in my mind, there are no victims, or poor souls, but only those people whose lives are cut short by the Lord, for whatever His pre-ordained reasons might be. It is not my place, or yours, to question the ways of the Lord, but only to accept them; for as the Prophet Isaiah, the Patriarch Job and the Apostle Paul were also inspired to write:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."


"Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?"


"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?"


It is only in this modern world of so-called civilized men, where people have become so spiritually blind, so callous of heart, and so alienated from God, that they not only do not recognize the Power, Will and Purpose of God working in each of their lives, but they are also so lacking in godly fear and reverence, that they foolishly and quite arrogantly try to challenge the Almighty, or deny His existence altogether. As if this weren't already bad enough, due to their state of rebellion and unbelief, they attempt to attribute the Lord's Hand of Judgment to other causes; such as to meteorological conditions which they have dubbed as El Nino and La Nina, or to naturally-occurring tectonic plate movement, in order to try to escape the conviction God is trying to place upon their wicked and rebellious hearts. Again I am reminded of the following verses of Scripture:

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."


"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:"


"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."


In stark contrast to this modern anti-god attitude, the Holy Scriptures reveal that the ancient Israelites were very much aware of the Lord working in their lives, down to the most personal level. Whether a woman became pregnant or not was viewed as being the Will of God. Whether or not the rains came and caused the crops to grow, was viewed as being the Will of God. Whether they were victorious or defeated in battle was likewise viewed as being the Will of God; and they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that when things went poorly for them, it was because they were displeasing the Lord in some way. Consider the following words of the Lord spoken through His Prophet, Moses:

"And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:"


Thus we see that the Lord was very clear with the Israelites regarding what He expected of them, if they wanted to remain the object of His affection. To disobey Him in these matters would result in dire consequences, as Moses then proceeded to explain to them. It was because of their acknowledgment of God working in their lives in order to fulfill His Divine Purposes, that even hundreds of years later, after Joshua and Caleb had died, and after the times of the Judges had passed, and after King Saul had miserably failed the Lord, that God found pleasure in King David and his son, King Solomon, who both honored the Lord in their lives, and who were thus inspired to write such words of wisdom as the following:

"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."


". . . no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."


"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever."


"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."


"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."


We find this very same attitude of humbly acknowledging the Lord in one's life, being revealed in the pages of the New Testament by the first Jewish Christians. For example, the writer James tells us that we must resist our pride, humble ourselves before the Lord, and draw close to Him. He then continues by adding that we should not be so haughty as to make any long-term plans, without first considering the Will of God in the matter. Like the Old Testament writers, James also informs us that our stay upon this Earth is brief, and is determined by the Lord Himself. Consider the following verses:

". . . Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up . . . Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil."


The Apostle Peter offers similar advice when he likewise tells us that there is simply no place for pride in the life of a true Christian. Not only must we yield ourselves to God's Will in our lives, by allowing Him to mold and fashion us as He sees fit; but we must also be willing to be humbled before others as well:

"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"


The Apostle Paul was likewise no stranger to the mighty Hand of God which humbles the proudest of men. In fact, beginning with his very own conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter nine, the Lord had to rip out his heart of pride, and give him one of flesh. Whereas Paul had been fighting against the Will of God before his powerful conversion, once he was won over to the young Christian faith, not only did he submit himself to the Lord's Mighty Hand, but he also taught others how to do the same. Consider Paul's admonition to the Roman brethren:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."


In his first Epistle, while briefly discussing the topic of prayer, the Apostle John tells us that when we pray, we must make certain that our prayers are in accordance with the Will of God, in order to be answered:

"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."


Of course, as I point out in the series "So You Really Think You Are So Humble?", we all know that the greatest example of humility and submission to God's Will, was that of Jesus Christ Himself. Consider the Lord's own words, and what Paul later said of Him as well:

". . . My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."


"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day."


"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."


From all of the previous Scriptural evidence, it becomes clear then, that unlike many people in our modern society, who deny God's existence, or who ignore His Will and Power working in their lives, both the ancient Israelites, as well as the New Testament Christians, fully acknowledged the Lord in every sphere of their existence. Whether their lives were blessed with abundance and protection due to their obedience in keeping His commandments, or cursed with drought, famine and invasion when they failed to do the same, they accepted it as coming directly from the Hand of God. They didn't try to attribute their abundance to their own hard work or human wisdom, or their suffering to natural causes such as quirks in the weather, or to a stronger enemy. They knew full well that all of these things were ordered by the Lord; at least at first.

Sadly, as I point out in the in-depth series "The Fruits Of Disobedience", even before King David sat upon the throne, the Israelites had already begun to fall away from the Lord during the period of the Judges. In fact, if one studies the Scriptures very closely, he will plainly see that from the moment that the Lord delivered the descendants of Jacob from harsh Egyptian bondage, they began to complain; and their murmuring became so severe, that the Lord finally grew weary of it, and caused them to wonder in the desert for forty years, until the older generation of rebellious, grumbling, faithless souls had all died, save for Joshua and Caleb. In speaking of these events, the Apostle Paul was inspired to write:

"Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."


In other words, Paul is telling us that if we are wise, we will learn from their mistakes and not do the same thing. In his Epistle to the Church at Philippi, Paul offers us some additional words of wisdom when he writes:

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."


Despite this forty-year purge by the Lord, as I mentioned a moment ago, the times of the Judges were a mixture of the Lord's blessings and curses, depending upon the Israelites' obedience to His Word. While King David made some serious mistakes during his reign, which resulted in his wonderful prayers of repentance, it was during the latter years of his son's reign, that Israel fell into a state of deep apostasy; beginning with King Solomon himself. This resulted in the Divided Kingdom, and the many internal wars, and external invasions, which occurred during the hundreds of years that followed. It was during this period of the Prophets, that the increasingly backslidden state of Israel was exposed by way of the writings of such Prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Hosea. Consider these examples:

"Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."


"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?"


"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"


"The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?"


"And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me."


So as you can see, when the Israelite leadership and people backslid, whether it was Israel in the north, or else Judah in the south, they backslid all the way. They still offered God their vain lip service, they still pretended to worship the one true God, but their hearts had departed from Him. They withdrew themselves so far from the Lord, that the Prophet Isaiah tells us that they basically said "He doesn't see us; He doesn't know what we are doing; and we aren't even sure if He is the God who really made us". The Bible tells us that the people of Judah became so utterly devoted to their worship of the pagan gods, that contrary to the very specific warnings that they had received from Moses hundreds of years before, not only did they build altars to them, but they also sacrificed their very own children upon the same. Consider the following shocking verses which expose the degree of their apostasy, beginning with the warnings from Moses:

"And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD."


"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee."


In the following verses, we see how much the Lord's warnings meant to them hundreds of years later after they had already occupied the land of Canaan, and after they had had time to co-mingle with the idol-worshipping heathen for a while:

"And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger."


"And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin."


What a truly sad, sad story of rebellion and disobedience. Here was a people who had been highly favored by the Lord. He had delivered them from harsh slavery in Egypt. Their ancestors had seen the might works which the Lord had done there in order to accomplish so great a deliverance. They had watched as the Egyptians were consumed by all of the plagues while they were left untouched. They had witnessed firsthand the dividing of the Red Sea and the destruction of Pharaoh's army. They had heard the Voice of God thunder from Mount Horeb like a mighty trumpet. They had seen Moses' face glow after his mountaintop encounters with the Lord. They had eaten quail and Manna in the desert during those forty years. They had witnessed the Lord descending upon the Tabernacle in a cloudy pillar in order to speak with Moses face to face. They had seen Moses draw water from the rock, and turn bitter waters sweet. They had followed the cloudy pillar and the pillar of fire on their way to Canaan. They had beholden the parting of the Jordan River by Joshua as they entered the Promised Land. They had all watched as the walls of Jericho fell before them, and as one enemy after another was crushed by their advancing army, led by such heroic figures as Gideon.

During those formative years of their development as a nation, God was with them, just as He had said He would be if they would only obey Him. They were ever-conscious of His presence through the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant. More than any other people living upon the face of the Earth at that time, the Israelites had every reason to believe in the eternal invisible God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In describing God's wonderful blessing of entering the Promised Land, and how the Israelites then foolishly defiled it, the Prophet Jeremiah wrote:

"Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination."


As the Prophet Ezekiel graphically informs us, the children of Israel had fallen from symbolically being the Lord's highly-favored spiritual bride, to becoming an unfaithful, adulterous woman, a whore, and a murderous mother of her own children, due to her voluntary defilement by the heathen in her midst, and the pagan gods which they served:

"But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them, And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD. Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them? And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood. And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;) That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street. Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire; But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!"


As we continue this series in part two, we will further examine the waywardness of ancient Israel, and then bring to light some startling parallels to modern-day America. This will include a look at such topics as the guilt of the Jews, Hosea marries a whore, Israel's loss of her fear of the Lord, the sin of trusting in ourselves, the evil fruit of self-confidence, the Lord's warnings to the Israelites, the temptations of personal strength and goodness, King David's foolish census, Israel's fall into apostasy, self-imposed delusion and intentional deception, the Jews' upside-down distorted view, the blood of the Lord's Prophets, God sends delusion, Israel and Judah invaded, and King Hezekiah's call to repentance. I trust that you will join me.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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