Bro Kenneth Yoder
Deuteronomy 30:1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
2 And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;
3 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
4 If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
5 And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy Sand, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good as he rejoiced over thy fathers:
10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the /aw, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God
The above passage of Scripture holds forth a promise from God to restore his blessings to Israel after a period during which the curses of judgment had been experienced. Israel would suffer the loss of God's blessings when God unleashed his curses against them. Moses is assuming the worst has happened to Israel. He pictures them as having been carried away into captivity. Israel eventually returns to God as a result of the judgments
that they suffered. The curses are described as having an awakening affect upon them. After experiencing a period in exile, God would gather them from the nations where they had been scattered. They would experience a time of restored blessings in which God would make them prosperous again.
Moses is referring to a time in Israel's future. Notice the expression, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse. He is presupposing that Israel would prove unfaithful to God. This did occur several times in the history of Israel. Moses is assuming the blessings of God which they enjoyed will be lost because of their apostasy. The loss of those blessings is associated with the curses of God. Following this loss, God's blessings would be restored after Israel turned back to God.
God's manner of dealing with nations can be expressed chronologically as: Blessings -Curses - Blessings. That is a simplistic view of a complex matter. Let me state it more completely. First, a period of original blessings, followed by a period of judgment when the curses are experienced because of apostasy and finally a period of restored blessings that is conditioned upon genuine repentance. The initial blessings were those which they had originally enjoyed when they were rightly related to God. These original blessings were followed by a period in which they would suffer the curses of God because of their apostasy from God. Ultimately a period of restored blessings would be enjoyed contingent upon their turning back to God. This has been repeated among the nations many times in history. Nations that at one time experienced the blessings of God later suffered the curses of God because of their wickedness. Those nations eventually enjoyed the restored blessings of God when they turned back to God.
Moses is stating a basic principle in this passage. The implication of the promise of blessings and the threat of curses would be remembered when they were scattered among the nations, (verse 1). God's promise to bless the obedient and to curse the disobedient would come to their mind. Their remembrance and meditation of these principles would lead them to considerations that would result in their return unto the Lord, (verse 2). They would then obey all the things that God had commanded because they would turn unto him with all their heart and soul, (verse 2). When they turned unto God in genuine repentance, (with their whole heart and soul), God would have compassion on them and gather them from the nations where they had been scattered, (verse 3). They would then be brought back to their homelands and God would restore his blessings, (verse 5). God said that he would do them good and multiply them.
The process of their awakening and turning back to God is a work of God. Notice verse 6, And the LORD thy God mil circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to iove the LORD thy God wilt a// thine heart, and mil all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
The results of this convicting and awakening work of God is found in verses 8-10, And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and Ms statues which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy
After they have experienced the curses of judgment, if they would return unto the Lord and obey him, God would bless them again. The promise of restored blessings is found in the following words of verse 9, The LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle and fruit of thy land. The blessings of prosperity and protection from the Lord would again be theirs. God would be glad to do them good as he had previous righteous generations.
The 10th verse expresses the precondition of restored blessings, if thou shall hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God to keep his commandments and his statues — if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul. Restored blessings are conditioned upon genuine repentance. A shallow turning to the Lord will not do. A sincere and genuine repentance is what is often lacking today.
Many of the religious moves that are being made today are nothing more nor less than superficial. They do not go deep enough. They do not represent a turning to God with the whole heart and soul. Until there is a sincere turning to God there will be no change in what we are presently experiencing.
I want to demonstrate this predictable pattern of history, Blessings - Curses -Blessings, from the book of Hosea. I want to show that a prophet of God may predict the future of any nation by resting his predictions upon this principle. Predicting the future in this sense does not require a special revelation. Prophesying in its simplest form is applying the principles of God's Word to a present spiritual condition.
Hosea employs this principle of "Blessings - Curses - Blessings" to inspire a hope for the future. The people were facing the immediate curses of God. The book of Hosea mainly concentrates on the judgments of God in its earlier chapters. The hope of restored blessings is offered in the last chapter of Hosea.
Hosea 14:1-9, O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
As stated above, Hosea's main message was that the curses of judgment were coming soon. Judgment was unavoidable and inevitable when Hosea preached. The people had stubbornly resisted every effort to bring them to repentance until it was now too late. But beyond the suffering of the curses of God lay the promise of restored blessings. Eventually, the suffering experienced from the judgment of God would gain the attention of the people and they would turn back to God. Hosea was looking beyond the time of judgment. He looked beyond the coming exile to a future time of restoration. His prophetic vision was in accordance with the ancient promises of God found in the blessing and curse sections of the covenant. Hosea knew that someday restoration was bound to come.
Hosea preached near the end of Israel's existence as an independent nation. He predicted the destruction of Israel as a nation who sins and stubbornly refused to repent. Therefore, Hosea predicted that God was going to destroy Israel's national status and scatter her among the nations. No mere token punishment would do at this point of Israel's apostasy. A slap on the wrist is not adequate when people sink to such a depth of immoral corruption. A token punishment would have never turned them back to God. There is a point of stubbornness at which people no longer pay any attention to words of warning. But Israel could not fail to pay attention to what they would experience in exile. The judgment that Hosea forecast was not a token punishment. He prophesied that the worst was about to happen. The destruction of the nation and the carrying off of the people into exile did actually occur within a few years after he preached. Israel had violated the essence of her covenant with God. The essence of the covenant was violated when Israel rejected the status of God as God. When Hosea came on the historical scene, God was recognized as only one among many other gods. Several of the kings of both Israel and Judah worshiped both God and Baal. God therefore was not recognized as God. God's status as God, was not acknowledged anymore. That is the violation of the very essence of the covenant. The first commandment demands, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. It is essential to acknowledge God as God, to be rightly related to him.
We live in a generation that is approaching this point in their rejection of God. The result of a rejection of God as God is destruction for any people. It cannot mean anything else. Unless a nation acknowledges God as God, they will lose the prosperity and protection that only God can give.
In the first chapter of Romans, Paul justifies the judgment of God against the Gentile nations by the argument that those who lead the people away from God had knowledge of God but refused to recognize him as God, (see Romans 1:18-32). Notice the following expressions in verse 21, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. And also in verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. That is a commentary on the intellectual community in our nation. What is the judgment of God against those who know about God but refused to glorify him as God? God simply gave them up to their own immorality and let them go to their own self destruction, (see Romans 1:24,26 & 28). This is the worst possible of all judgments. To become a god-forsaken people is terrifying because such a people will eventually drown themselves in the depths of their own wickedness.
Our nation needs to be confronted with this terrifying reality. The consequences of rejecting God as God means destruction for any nation. Unless our nation acknowledges God as God, we will lose the prosperity and protection that God has provided for us so abundantly. By abandoning God, a society or a nation disassociates themselves from the source of life and happiness. Psalms 9:17, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. To reject God as God is to pursue a path that leads to destruction and death. Whenever a nation dismisses God by refusing to acknowledge him as God, they guarantee their own death as a nation. America is doing that. We are legislating God out of our public life, one legal step at a time.
God is stirred to wrath when people refuse to acknowledge him or the truth of his law, (see Romans 1:18) God's wrath is always justified. Israel simply got what she deserved. Israel deserved the curses of God because of her sins and apostasy. I might add that every nation will get what it deserves. A nation who lives in immoral corruption has no right to the blessings of God. Any blessings that they may enjoy are certainly not deserved but are the result of the gracious nature of God.
All nations that dismiss God from their national life are on a path to destruction. A study of history will show that the great civilizations of the world disappeared from the face of the earth when they abandoned God's standards of righteousness. Every great civilization in history began with a strict moral code but eventually became lax in their moral standards. Their immorality sooner or later leads to their death as a nation. There is not one exception in the history of the world. No nation has ever survived the curse that sin brings. Historically, nations receive what they deserve from God. Not one nation in the history of the world has survived the curse of immorality. That is something for those in America to think about. Sobering isn't it?
A man of God cannot pronounce blessings upon an immoral society. God is not going to pour out his blessings upon a people who refuse to obey his commandments. Hosea never predicted blessings upon his contemporaries. Hosea's message to his contemporaries concentrated on warnings of punishment and coming judgment. He ended his prophecy with a future hope of restoration. But Hosea's message to the immediate generation was that they would experience the curses of judgment. It was a future generation that would experience the restoration.
Notice Hosea 14:4, I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. Three things are promised by God through Hosea. First, to heal their backsliding; Second, to love them freely again; and Third, that his anger would be turned away from them. A reversal of God's attitude towards them from judgment to acceptance is promised. To experience the fulfillment of these promises the people must seek God through genuine repentance. Notice Hosea 14:1-2, O Israel, return unto the lord thy God; for thou has fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. The only offering that God required was the sincere words of repentance. God promises to accept them again and restore his blessings when they turned to him in genuine repentance. Israel's apostasy would then be healed and their prosperity would be restored.
Hosea's hope for a future restoration was based upon the ancient promises of God contained in the covenant. This restoration was not expected to be fulfilled in the lifetime of those who heard his message. They could only expect a judgment of curses in the immediate future. The exact time of the promised restoration was left to an indefinite future. The reason that the time is indefinite is its occurrence depends upon a future repentance of people.
No one knows when our nation is going to wake up and turn to God. If we knew when people were going to repent, then the time of the next revival could be precisely predicted. We could pinpoint the exact time. We do not even know whether the present generation will repent, let alone when. Therefore, the time of the next reformation must always remain an indefinite detail of the future because it depends upon a genuine repentance of the people. When will they turn to God? Who knows, besides God?
This has been a major problem for some people. They constantly want to know when the next revival is going to take place. My advice to those who have this problem is that your first concern ought to be that you are not a hindrance to the occurrence of revival. To a man of faith, it is sufficient to know that God's truth will eventually prevail. Do you realize that revival will eventually occur? The promise of restoration will someday actually be fulfilled. Somewhere in the future, God's people will meet the conditions of revival. They will exercise both the obedience and faith that is required. They will then experience the restored blessings of God. Revival will break forth!
Most of us hope that restoration will come soon. There is nothing wrong in hoping for such. In fact, we ought to hope that revival will come shortly. At the same time that we are hoping that restoration comes soon, we should be prepared to maintain our obedience and loyalty to God if it does not. The exact time of the future revival is indiscernible and it must always remain so. We do not know when the next revival is due, but we must be prepared to maintain our loyalty to God by continuing to obey ail his commandments if it does not come for a long time.
If the revival we hope for or if the restoration that we look for does not come in our lifetime, what are we going to do? Suppose the fellowship that you are associated with continues in its trend towards worldliness and drifts farther away from God. If this continues, you could be witnessing the spiritual death of your fellowship. Suppose that the people continue to refuse to repent and revival does not come. What are you going to do? Are you going to comply with the trend for the sake of keeping the fellowship together? The majority will, of course, but what about you personally? You should settle it in your heart and mind that you are going to be faithful to God.
I repeat, what are you going to do? Of course, you hope and you should hope for revival and restoration. But suppose that revival continues to tarry. Suppose that the people persist in going farther away from God. Suppose that all of your praying, preaching and pleading has little or no effect. What are you going to do? I will tell you what you should do. You should decide that you are going to remain loyal to God, no matter what others do.
Restoration will eventually come. There is no doubt in my mind about this matter. I do not know when but I know it will come. Many wish that spiritual conditions were like they once were. They remember former times when our camp meetings were so richly blessed by God. Suppose we never experience another camp meeting were the blessings of God are poured out abundantly. I am referring to that particular spiritual anointing and special blessings which our camp meetings enjoyed for many years.
I ask you once again, What are you going to do? I will tell you what I have been doing for several years. I have been continually searching God's Word to discover what pleases him. As I discover God's will, I immediately pledge my obedience to God and simply live by it. The most important thing to me is not being a pastor or being accepted by my fellowship but pleasing God. The pursuing of this spiritual objective has strengthened my commitment to God.
We do not have the right to demand that a revival or restoration will occur during our lifetime. We may hope for an awakening, but remember we must continue to serve God within the context of our time. We must live and work in the circumstances of present reality.
Let me close with a few thoughts from Hosea 14:9, Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shaft know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shalt walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.
Hosea's purpose was to challenge his hearer to be wise and accept his prophecy as a warning from God. It is also a challenge to his readers in our day.
To paraphrase this verse: Who is wise? Let him understand these things, (the prophecies of Hosea). Who is prudent or intelligent? Let him know these things, (understand these prophecies). For the ways of the Lord God are right. The just (righteous) shall walk in them, (the ways of the Lord are a guide to the righteous), but the transgressors, (those who rebel against God), shall be stumbled by them.
By implication, this verse is saying that only a fool would ignore the warnings of Hosea's prophecies. Who considers himself to be wise and intelligent? Let him then take heed to these warnings and respond accordingly. This verse serves as a reminder that Hosea's message was not only a warning to his contemporaries but it continues as a warning unto all generations. If it was solely for his generation, it would only have a historical value.
The ways of God continue to be a guide to anyone who wants to be righteous. The ways of God are also a source of understanding to a man who wants to be wise.
Many teens and young adults have very little regard for God's Word. They fail to understand the quality of their life and happiness depends upon knowing and obeying God's ways. Teens and young adults have a basic choice that they must make. They may choose to obey God by keeping his commandments, or they may rebel against them. If they rebel against God's commandments or the ways of the Lord, they will forfeit their passport to a blessed life. God's blessings are promised to those who are obedient. Every one of us would be wise to regard the words of Hosea as the Words of God.
Where are we today? We are in a spiritual decline. That is putting it mildly because actually we are in an apostasy. Thank God, there are some who are deepening their relationship with God by drawing closer to the Lord but they are in the minority. Their relationship with God is in a better overall condition today than it ever has been. I know that is true of some, but the majority are far from God and care nothing for righteousness. It seems nearly impossible to bring our generation to real repentance. They are not sorry for the way they have lived or how they have treated God. This hardened attitude must and will change to godly sorrow and genuine repentance before revival can be experienced.
Revival is coming! I just do not know when. But any people, both on a local and on the national level, who turn to God and seek him with their whole heart, can experience the blessings of God.
Do you understand me? Revival is bound to come. We just do not know when, but I can tell you how it will begin. Revival will begin among those who turn to the Lord with all their heart and do absolutely all that God requires of them, in spite of what others say or do. I hope that you are one of them. If not, then I trust you will become a member of the faithful remnant who is the seed of next restoration. *END*