English – Chinese
In this incident in which Jonathan dislocated his elbow, I am taking stock and realizing the gravity of God’s calling, revelations and commands. It is serious business. I consider that:
- He had to break my leg to get my attention and set me on track.
- Now I find Him gently “breaking” Jonathan’s arm to get his attention.
- Did not the Lord wipe out the entire population of earth in Noah’s day?
- Did He not slay Judah’s sons, Er and Onan, for their neglect and rebellion?
- Shall we take a look at the consequences of Abraham’s taking Hagar to try to help God keep His promise of a son?
- Did not Samson lose his eyes because he neglected to obey God after being pressed for his secret?
- Did not Zedekiah have his eyes put out for rebelling against God’s command?
- Did not a prophet get killed by a lion because he disregarded God’s command?
- Did not the Lord have Pilate slay some and mix their blood with their sacrifices, and did not the tower of Siloam fall on some because of their unrepentance (Luke 13)?
- Did not Rachel die in childbirth because she valued and stole her father’s gods and lied to both her father and husband about them?
- Did not the Lord seek to slay Moses’ son when Moses but neglected to circumcise him?
- Did not David suffer the loss of at least 3, if not 4, sons and 10 concubines, along with many others, for his sin with Bathsheba?
- Did not thousands die for murmuring, bitten of serpents?
- Did not God slay Nadab and Abihu for offering up strange fire to Him?
- Did not Uzzah die for apparently unintentional irreverence in putting forth his hand to stabilize the ark?
- Did not 36 men of Israel die for Achan’s sin, besides him and those in his family?
- Did not God wipe out Job’s 10 children and many servants?
- Did not God ignore all widows but one in Elijah’s day in a famine?
- Did He not ignore all lepers but one in Elisha’s day?
- Did He not cause women of His people to kill and to eat their own children in the siege?
- Did not God send fire on Sodom and Gomorrah and utterly destroy them?
- Did the Lord not strike Miriam, Moses’ sister no less and a prophetess, with leprosy for murmuring against Moses?
- Did not the Lord open the ground and have Korah, Dathan, and Abiram swallowed up, with their wives and little ones, for their gainsaying and murmuring?
- Was not Uzziah condemned to leprosy when presumptuous and irreverent?
- Were not 42 children destroyed by two she bears when they mocked a prophet of God?
- Did not Jonathan die for standing by his father Saul’s side, even though he was David’s friend?
- Did not the Lord say, by Moses, that those who did not heed “that prophet” would be destroyed?
- Did not the Lord have many young boys die by Herod when he sought for the Christ child?
- Did not God slay Ananias and Sapphira for lying?
What is life to Him? God’s business is serious business. He is serious with us, and He will not permit our being lackadaisical with Him. “Behold both the goodness and severity of God.” How can we not be serious, sober and vigilant in all things?
Let’s consider the present day and the events in our own midst. What has happened to Howard and Jason Benson, Delores Molnar, Pascal Gregoire, Stan Howell, and so many others?
Consider the stupid and ignorant notions about the nature and character of God prevalent in our society today, and the false gospel of mush and sentimentality all around us? Are those people not perishing? Will they not perish? Believe it – they will and are!
What will happen to all those who oppose us for righteousness’ sake?
God had shown me the black angels over the neighbor’s house, where Jonathan was injured. Yes, that was over 18 years ago! So what? No, He did not give me explicit commands, like, “Don’t go there; don’t have any more to do with them,” but must He? Shall we ever be guided by bit, bridle, whip and spur? We are to take heed; the sooner, the better, the more earnestly, the better. Woe to us if we do not. Jonathan had no business there, if only because of that revelation, and especially on the Sabbath, doing what he was doing.
God has not only finished winking with the nations; He has also finished winking with us. And that is why we must speak up and do His will without hesitation, ambiguity, or equivocation. This is especially so when given our great privilege and responsibility we have been granted of God for this day! Wow! All the more will we be called into account, not in the “by and by,” but here and now, even as it happened with all those I have mentioned.
Furthermore, consider how the Lord commanded Israel that when they entered Canaan, they were to destroy all its inhabitants – men, women and children. They were to be ruthless. Was God sparing the tender, delicate, pretty young maid? Was he sparing the suckling? Did He spare any of these in Sodom and Gomorrah or in Jericho, besides Rahab and her house, who assisted God’s people?
Did Saul not lose his kingdom because he failed to kill everything living of the Amalekites and because God had commanded otherwise? What kind of loving prophet was Samuel, who hewed Agag to pieces with a sword after Agag pitifully said, “Surely, the bitterness of death is past”?
If God has finished winking, having repeatedly said so, what are we doing overlooking trespasses and offenses? Are we winking? Is this a time for winking? Isaiah was told, “Cry aloud, spare not….” Is not the Spirit of God the same yesterday and today and forever?
All those who took His life were slain and their nation scattered to the four winds, and what a slaughter that was! And all this was after, not before, His resurrection and ascension. What kind of teaching is it that Jesus would never do such things now, and that He is full of pity and compassion – He wouldn’t hurt a fly? This teaching is demonic and highly deceptive. Look how it has won the hearts of carnal men and even deceived the believing.
Does not Scripture declare dire consequences for offenders in this present “dispensation”? Yes indeed, It does:
“He who despised Moses’ Law died without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy of punishment, the one who has trampled the Son of God, and who has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him Who has said, ‘Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, says the Lord.’ And again, ‘The Lord shall judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:28-31 MKJV).
God made it known very clearly just how serious matters are. He sacrificed His only begotten Son, that’s how serious matters of our existence are. Consider also that His life was not taken by a quiet departing in His sleep or by a merciful bullet to the head or by lethal injection on a cushioned gurney or even by an efficient hanging. No, He had to suffer the horrible agony and public humiliation of the cross, no less, at the hands of brute beasts, with His own people crying for His blood and His own Father turning His back on Him. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
That is how serious it is; but no, we must spare ourselves the gravity of life. It is enough we must live it. We must not make it any worse than it already is (I speak with tongue in cheek) – we must be gentle and tenderhearted and kind and sympathetic and loving and sweet and understanding and wise and compassionate and “godly” and “Christlike.”
Devils tie our hands and tape our mouths with sweet, desirable malarkey. That is Satan’s strategy and his False Love.
“Make your enemies now,” says the Lord.
“He that keeps his life will lose it,” He says.
“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice as a trumpet and tell My people their sins,” He cries.
“Spare not,” He declares, but Agag says, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
God says, “Spare not,” but Satan says, “Let’s love one another.”
God says, “Spare not,” but messengers of Satan, posing as God’s ministers, choose to flatter and coddle and savor the things that are of men, and thus he prevails over them to destroy. Get behind me, Satan! You are an offense to me and to God!
Victor Hafichuk
June 24, 2008