Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God"? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Isaiah 40:27-29
For thus says the LORD of hosts: "He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. Zechariah 2:8
Jesus was only one man but one man is very important to God especially if that one man is a son of God. As result God will move heaven and earth for one man! In most organizations religious, political or government that rights and needs of an individual are negated when it comes to rights and needs of the whole group. We see this in the words of the murderers of Jesus who said “it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” The bible records:
Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. "If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation."
And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, "nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish." Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad. Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death. John 11:45-53
But to God, as seen in Numbers 16, the rights of one individual is more important that the rights of the group and as a result the whole national of Israel perished in 70 AD in the judgments of God that followed when God’s other ministers gave retribution for what they did to Jesus. The bible records:
"And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? Luke 18:7
Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. "For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!' "Then they will begin 'to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" ' "For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?" Luke 23:26-31
Flavius Josephus in writing about “The Siege of Jerusalem, AD 70” testified:
Throughout the city people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring unspeakable sufferings. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of life. No respect was paid even to the dying; the ruffians [anti-Roman zealots] searched them, in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes, or just pretending to be near death. Gaping with hunger, like mad dogs, lawless gangs went staggering and reeling through the streets, battering upon the doors like drunkards, and so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or three times in an hour. Need drove the starving to gnaw at anything. Refuse which even animals would reject was collected and turned into food. In the end they were eating belts and shoes, and the leather stripped off their shields. Tufts of withered grass were devoured, and sold in little bundles for four drachmas.
There is a real price to be paid for rejecting truth and doing injustice, even in the current time of life, as the people of Jerusalem who murdered Jesus could testify. By 66 AD Life in Jerusalem had become a nightmare, it was so full of violence and misery. Famine and food shortages become an everyday problem.
Then in 70 AD Titus marched against the city with four legions of the Roman army. They laid siege to Jerusalem and using their battering rams they breached the walls of the city. Fleeing citizens of Jerusalem were caught by the Romans and were tortured and crucified. Later the whole city was destroyed and the people of Jerusalem paid the price for ignoring Jesus warning about what would happen to them. These kinds of things do happen even in the current time of life!
TITUS now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones resisted the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the cloisters, Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. Through that night and the next day the flames raged through the cloisters. Then, in order to save the Temple itself, he ordered the fire to be quenched. On the tenth of August, the same day of the year on which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple built by Solomon, the cry was heard that the Temple was on fire. The Jews, with cries of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to take revenge on their enemies or perish in the ruins.
The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left but a small portion of the outer cloisters, where 6,000 people had taken refuge, led by a false prophet who had there promised that God would deliver His people in His Temple. The soldiers set the building on fire and all perished. Titus next spent eighteen days in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then speedily captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any mercy, night alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of this siege of Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners numbered 97,000.
If we examine the Jewish people and their religious leaders, they were sincere and arrogant in that they were right to crucify Jesus. After all Jesus was in their opinion and according to their theology a false prophet and their leaders told them so. As a matter of fact their leaders told them that Jesus was a Samaritan and had a demon. They were God’s chosen people who thought they had surrendered to Him but in reality denied Him. They refused to see the plain truth that surrender is more than lies. It is a deep desire to surrender all the lies. Most men look how they can carry on without surrendering their will to God. They seek a sign rather than the truth. That is why Jesus told them:
Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.
He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; "and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'
Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed. Matthew 16:1-4
Jesus called them hypocrites and a wicked and adulterous generation. They thought they could see what they cannot see at all. They heard what they desired to and refused to surrender all. They thought and therefore god has spoken. They thought it went that way. They forgot the lilies of the valleys were created before them. They could not see the winds of change were blowing and sweeping across their land. They thought they were secure and continued in their traditional ways not know that the strong winds would be blowing and devastating the land. It was coming nearer and nearer to the hour of their demise. They mindlessly went on in life thinking themselves very spiritual and assuming that sincerity and presumption where a guarantee of salvation. They did not tune their heart and mind and spirit to God’s s still small Voice. They did not take action in their limps and heart toward God's intentions and not theirs. They assumed they knew everything and did not turn it all to the Lord. They were proud of what they had achieved. After all, it was theirs? They never anticipated that the word of the prophets would come to pass just as Jesus prophesied and there were real consequences to their sin, rebellion and deeds. As a result of the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem in 70 AD. The number of people who perished by famine were enormous and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable. Finally on the order of Titus Caesar the entire city of Jerusalem and its temple were demolished except for three towers.
It did not pay to reject and murderer God’s true prophet and Son. A whole nation and its capital were destroyed in the ensuing judgment of God that followed. As God’s word is true even this day:
'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 'And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. Genesis 18:18-19
IN REALITY DECEPTION IS THE NORM IN LIFE! THE DEVIL DECEIVED EVE AND HE HAS BEEN DECEIVING PEOPLE ALL THE TIME. AND CHURCHES DON'T TEACH ABOUT THE WILES OF THE DEVIL AND MANY THINK HE IS ON ANOTHER PLANET
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits."
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
2 Timothy 3l13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
WALTER KAMBULOW
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