12-24-11 - Blessed Are The Paps Which Never Gave Suck - Part 3

12-24-11 – Blessed Are The Paps Which Never Gave Suck – Part 3

Luke 23:29 - For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

This is the third message on the same topic – the concept of change.  It may seem so obvious that we might say, “Why even reference the Bible?  We know that things change – that is obvious, with or without the Bible.”  However, it is important to use the Bible to teach the patterns that God has revealed to us – God’s mercy and grace that extends to us as we turn our hearts to Him, and His judgment that comes when we refuse to hear His voice.

We have been discussing what the Bible teaches about God’s judgment upon Israel for their disobedience, and how it relates to America, and the world, today.  America, as we discussed in the last message, was originally established as a Christian nation.  I know that it is disputed that America was not particularly a “Christian” nation, being that Americans do have the right to the freedom of religion – this is in our First Amendment rights in the Bill of Rights.  Here is the first Amendment to the US Constitution, according to Wikipedia –

§  First Amendment – Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause; freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly; right to petition

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It is amazing in this light that we have seen such an uprising about stripping away prayer and the Ten Commandments from the schools.  Our very nation, which was founded upon the FREEDOM of religion, has worked so hard to STRIP away the religious foundations that many Americans have enjoyed, and that we have the right to enjoy!

That being said, our founding fathers did establish Christianity as a frame of reference for spiritual understanding.  In referencing , we read that the pilgrims came to America to establish a place where they could worship God freely.  It was not that the English did not have Christianity – it was that they persecuted others who did not worship EXACTLY how they required.  The pilgrims fled, and established a base of religious freedom to worship THE CHRISTIAN GOD freely, without fear of persecution.

I want to reference one more portion from the above-mentioned website for reference:

“America was indeed founded by bible-believing Christians and based on Christian principles. When they founded this country, the Founding Fathers envisioned a government that would promote and encourage Christianity.

All but two of the first 108 universities founded in America were Christian. This includes the first, Harvard, where the student handbook listed this as Rule #1: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, John 17:3; and therefore to lay Jesus Christ as the only foundation for our children to follow the moral principles of the Ten Commandments."

In 1777. Continental Congress voted to spend $300,000 to purchase bibles which were to be distributed throughout the 13 colonies! And in 1782, the United States Congress declared, “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in all schools.”

There is more than just this – and I am not saying that America’s First Amendment only applies to freedom to worship the Christian God.  But I am saying that our country was founded upon Christian principles.  This, I believe, is why God has blessed this country.

Can I prove it biblically?  Most certainly!  This is the point – we need to see how God deals with countries that put Him first as their God.  Take a look at His love letter to Israel in the beginning of Ezekiel 16, before He discussed their falling away and the judgments that He would bring upon them for breaking His covenant. 

Ezekiel 16:3-7 / ³And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

 ⁴And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

 ⁵None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

 ⁶And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

 ⁷I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

In short, God is telling here that He had compassion on Israel as if she was a helpless baby, just born, not even cleaned up from the birth, and barely able to support herself.  God took her under His wing as a loving parent, and He helped her to grow. 

Some might dispute this and say, “What about countries like China, who have grown up?”  America has effectively whored out all of her blessings that God has given her for financial gain, worshipping the dollar rather than the Creator.  I am not saying the Bible is against working with other countries.  It never says that.  As a matter of fact, Solomon made covenants with other countries to create a setup of trade, and Israel was a very blessed country financially under this reign.  However, our country has stripped away the jobs that the common American has enjoyed and sold them to another land, so that the rich could get richer, and left the faithful workers hanging in the balance. 

God grew Israel into a country that the surrounding nations could easily see.  We can say that the Bible is incorrect to say that God was the one behind their blessings, but then we would have to leave out the fact of all the miracles that God did in Egypt, how He parted the Red Sea, how He fed Israel in the desert for 40 years, how He helped Israel come into Canaan’s land and defeat nations much larger than herself, and how He helped to establish her as a nation in the midst of a perverse people. 

We see her rise documented in Ezekiel 16:8-14 / ⁸Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

 ⁹Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

 ¹⁰I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

 ¹¹I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.

 ¹²And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

 ¹³Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

 ¹⁴And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

Israel was guilty of whoring out her spiritual gifts to the surrounding nations to get favor from them.  She even bowed herself to their gods in order to make alliances with their people.  Let’s take a look at Ezekiel 16:15-26 to see a good look at what Israel was guilty of /

¹⁵But 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.

 ¹⁶And 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.

 ¹⁷Thou 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,

 ¹⁸And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.

 ¹⁹My 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.

 ²⁰Moreover 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,

 ²¹That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

 ²²And 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.

 ²³And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the LORD GOD;)

 ²⁴That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

 ²⁵Thou 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.

 ²⁶Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

For the sake of time, since we are already at a pretty good length, we will continue next week with God’s judgments upon Israel’s disobedience.  In summary, our country is getting farther and farther away from their original covenant with God, and we cannot expect God to continue to pour out His blessings upon us as we continue in disobedience.  Just as we studied in Leviticus 26 on the 1^st part of this lesson and saw that God would judge disobedience with harsh judgments, so it will be today if we do not turn our hearts back to Jesus.