Tag: hissing

11.d. “Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness”

Micah 6:9   The voice of the Lord cries to the city—and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it! Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins. You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger within you; you shall put away, but not preserve, and what you preserve I will give to the sword. You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine. For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

1 Kings 16:25    Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did more evil than all who were before him.

1 Kings 16:30  And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him.

Do you ever think about what “counsel” you are walking in?  What counsel is guiding your thoughts and actions?  What counsel do your heart and mind listen to?  Where are you finding direction for your life?  In the times of Omri and Ahab, the people took counsel from their king even though what the king was doing was wrong in the sight of God. They blindly followed and eagerly joined in.  Such is what happens when the Word of God is neglected, abandoned, disregarded, undervalued, unappreciated, and replaced by the counsel of the wicked.  It is not as though you made a conscious choice to seek wick counsel but you did make a conscious choice to stay out of His Word.  In the absence of God’s Word, what is it that fills our hearts and minds?  I can tell you, it is worldly counsel. Counsel void of God’s Word.  When there is this void, mankind will fill it with whatever seems right in their own eyes.  Do you ever wonder how long God should wait until He calls into account all who have shunned Him and disregarded His Word?  Godly counsel will fill a hunger in your soul.  Godly counsel from God’s Word will revive your heart and soul.  Godly counsel from God’s Word, that is obeyed, will bless your heart, mind, and soul.   God’s Word is counsel to the wise and foolish to those who reject it.  Spend time in His Word.

200. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

2 Kings 24:1  In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him. And the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldeans and bands of the Syrians and bands of the Moabites and bands of the Ammonites, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by his servants the prophets. Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon

2 Kings 20:17    Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

2 Kings 21:12-14     therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.  And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.  And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies,

Jeremiah 25:9   behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

Jeremiah 26:20     There was another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like those of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 32:28    Therefore, thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it.

Micah 3:12    Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

Deuteronomy 28:49-50   The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,  a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young.

Isaiah 13:5     They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

Do you ever wonder how something like this could happen, how it could be foretold, how it could be proclaimed, and the people would not or did not believe it?  Warnings were given by numerous prophets about the pending judgment that was coming and yet these warnings were not taken seriously.  Why does God give warnings about pending judgment as a result of our actions that lead Him to wrath and anger, and we give no thought to it?  Do we think the prophecies are just made up fairy tales, or that they do not pertain to us?

The actions of King Manasseh lead the people away from God, but the judgment cannot fall just on the king alone. The people willing followed after him down paths that disregarded God’s love and warnings.  There are numerous warnings about pending judgment for all who do not confess sin, repent and turn away from their sinful nature, and trust in the redemption found in and through the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross.  There are warnings and pending judgment coming to those who follow God with their mouth but not in their heart and mind.  There are warnings and pending judgment coming to those who do not love and follow Jesus Christ with their whole heart, mind, and soul.

God’s grace, mercy, and love were demonstrated in and through Jesus Christ.  If we choose to live in such a way that does not honor, glorify, worship, serve, follow, trust, and obey Jesus Christ then judgment is our reward with no redemption of our soul.  There is a way to know if your whole heart, mind, and soul are loving Jesus Christ.  If you thirst for His word, desire to have it speak into your heart and mind, long for His presence in all that you do and you are ever mindful of what you think, say, and do so as to do that which honors and glorifies Him, you meditate on His word, and you keep His word in your heart and mind, then you will know that this never-ending growth of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding is because you love and humbly serve Him with your whole heart, mind, and soul.