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Jacob's Trouble |
Dear Brethren,
What kind of plans are you making for the future?
In a God-fearing society, people should be able to make long-range ambitious plans that extend for many
generations into the future. Why is it then, that such a large percentage of our people lack a
strategy for future development, and subsequently neglect to make long-range plans? It is because
too many people have no hope of a bright future and are living their unpromising lives from day to
day - just trying to keep their head above water. Why are so many things going wrong?
What is the cause of the hopelessness that grips so many lives?
When our country was young
there was hope in the air. Fleeing the bondage of religious
persecution and cruel feudal serfdom, our ancestors came to
this rich land seeking freedom of faith and ownership of
property. This bountiful territory provided the opportunity
for the seemingly endless fulfillment of dreams for those
pioneers who possessed the courage to beat back the
wilderness and bring it under civilized development.
Looking to God for guidance and thanking Him for the
prospect of His bountiful blessings, they soon found
themselves to be the recipients of liberty, independence,
and freedom from oppression.
The work was back-breaking
and the hours endless, but homes and families rose out of
the fertile soil. The family unit, looking to Almighty
God, was the foundation of our nation. Members of families
depended upon God and one another for life itself. As
families flourished, communities sprang up and began to
provide for the fabric of society and government. Brave
entrepreneurs manufactured goods and provided services,
which brought abundant trade and created a thriving economy.
God had promised: "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 storehouse." (Deuteronomy 28:2-5)
It is impossible for people today - even our national
leaders and members of the Supreme Court - to believe or
understand the degree to which our founding fathers
and average citizens looked to God for protection and
sustenance. Those pilgrims believed God when He said:
"I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be
my people." (Leviticus 26:12)
Who, today, gives God the credit that only He deserves for
our national greatness? "I will give peace in the land,
and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I
will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the
sword go through your land." (Leviticus 26:6)
After 2,520 years, God had truly blessed the descendents of Abraham, just as He had
promised. "I will make of thee a great nation, and I
will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be
a blessing: And, I will bless them that bless thee, and
curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:2-3)
I wish that I could say right here, "And they lived happily ever after," but only nursery
rhymes end that way. After we became the greatest power on the
earth, we foolishly did as our ancient Israelitish forefathers
did, and forgot our God, who made us strong and
blessed us. Not everyone realizes that we have passed the point
of no return. But, we do not have to be passed the point of no
return. God says, "If my people, which are called by my
name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and
turn [repent] from their wicked ways; then will I hear
from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their
land." (2Chronicles 7:14) The trouble is that we won't
repent and turn to God. Since we have rejected our God and will
not return to Him, here is what is has begun to befall our
nation:
"If ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will
not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I
also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror,
consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes,
and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain,
for your enemies shall eat it. And I will set my face against
you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate
you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth
you." (Leviticus 26:15-17)
We have rejected our God by despising His law and rebelling against His sovereignty. We
are self-satisfied - thinking that we achieved this greatness
all by ourselves - without God. Not only do we not know the
source of our tremendous blessings, we have lost our zeal for
greatness and have become apathetic, believing that we
have a right to the prosperity and abundance in which
we find ourselves.
"Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart,
for the abundance of all things... Also every sickness, and
every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, them
will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou be destroyed."
(Deut 28:47, 61)
Jacob is the grand-son of Abraham through whom all the promises of national greatness were
extended. Because God changed Jacob's name to Israel, he is the
father of the 12 tribes of Israel. In the same way that the
children of Jacob (Israel) received God's
greatest blessings the world has ever seen,
because of our flat-out rejection of God and His ways, we are
about to become the recipients of the greatest trouble
and tribulation the world has ever witnessed.
"Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of
Jacob's trouble." (Jeremiah 30:7)
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Sermon: |
"Jacob's Trouble"
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