Once Again
Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.” Genesis 6:13 NASB
Violence – What does a rainbow guarantee? Does it guarantee that God will not again destroy all flesh and the earth polluted by the sins of men? No, it doesn’t. It only guarantees that the destruction won’t occur with water. The next time you see a rainbow, remember why it is there. It is a sign that God once destroyed the people of the earth because of their sins. The Hebrew word, hamas, is almost always connected to sinful violence, not natural disasters. This is the word for extreme wickedness, lawlessness, disregard for the integrity of others and an inordinate will to power. Does it sound familiar?
When Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (a.k.a. Rashi) commented on this verse in the Middle Ages, he noted that wherever you find gross immorality, sexual sin and idolatry, you find summary mass execution. He used the Greek term andralamousia, indiscriminate slaughter of all life, whether good or bad. Rashi points out that certain individual choices combine to produce irreparable damage, and result in universal divine judgment. The flood is one example of such consequences. It is not the last example.
There is little doubt that sexual sin is ravaging the globe. Human trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world. Sexual immorality is commonplace in the media and now in the populations of the West. Islam is right to see the West as the Great Satan, at least in this regard. Freedom has become another word for licentiousness. But that is only the beginning.
There are currently 115,000 abortions performed every day in the world. That’s 42 million per year. That’s equal to the greatest genocides of all the most evil men who have ever lived, over and over, year after year. How many people died in all of the Second World War? 60 million. How many human beings have died as a result of abortions in the same duration as WWII? In six years and one day (the length of WWII), 252,115,000 infants were slaughtered. The scale is simply unbelievable.
Can you imagine that individual choices to terminate a life could result in the death of over 200 million children? Can you imagine that God doesn’t care about this? Andralamousia – that’s what’s coming. And when it does come, the extermination will pay no regard to the righteous or the wicked. The whole earth will be cleansed. Take a long look at the next rainbow – and remember.
Topical Index: andralamousia, mass extermination, abortion, Genesis 6:13, rainbow
One of the great “myths” of our age is that “natural” evil is not connected with personal morality. People refuse to believe in a God who would inflict great natural disasters on large groups of people. Yet in the past half century, there has been a growing number of tsunamis, earthquakes and other “natural” disasters that even if they have not taken life, they have destroyed the property and wealth of thousands.
In the 15th century, a plague that took out about a third of the population was a forerunner to a biblical awakening that was influential, but short lived because it short-changed too much of the Scriptures for one reason or another. Eventually, Pietism and Enlightenment thought devasted the Reformation and ushered in the “secular” age of atheism and unbelief, epitomized in the French Revolution. A new Supreme Being was announced – man. And with the new Supreme Being man’s atrocities to his fellow man continued unabated.
How true are the Scriptures, “All they that hate Me love death.” We live in a suicidal age.
Within a very short period, we in the US have heard the result of this resurging enlightenment. Bouncing back and forth between excluding god and adding god back into the “platform”, what is being accomplished is the lifting up of an unbelieving man as messiah and a promise that if you will elect him as king, your life will improve. That sounds like alot of theology for many would-be christians today.
Adding god back into the platform and celebrating “women’s reproductive rights” are a strange combination. It certainly does not seem to line up with YHWH’s platform. Who’s is the superior? Is He laughing over the spectacle of parading around wearing costumes made to look like vaginas and birth control pills? Just askin’. We are in major trouble! Just sayin’.
“One of the great “myths” of our age is that “natural” evil is not connected with personal morality.”
Hi Ian,
I tend to be skeptical of natural evil or evil in nature; eg, the snake in the garden does not seem evil to me
The two hurricanes in the Gulf that occurred the last couple of years on 10/7could be seen as a punishment
But were they evil? I don’t think they were any more evil than the global warming we support
Even a black widow spider is not evil, rather it is simply doing what God designed it to do IMO
I turned on the TV today to watch Fast Money and they were introducing a guy named JC O’Hara
He was talking about a “music app” stock called Pandora
And employing the David and Goliath metaphor to compare this small company with Apple
He was implying that Pandora (David) would not stand a chance against Apple (Goliath)
In this business
But he seemed unconscious of he fact that David killed Goliath in the story
And I tasked myself if that’s what happens when an Irishman tries to tell a Jewish story
Or maybe it was some sort of joke; in any case, it seemed very odd to me 🙂
above says: the extermination will pay no regard to the righteous or the wicked………..
I am not understanding this part. What about Noah and family’s being saved and Psalm 91?
Lois
Hi Lois.. the only place of protection is IN CHRIST. Whether we die or whether we live..all is well for those who are in hiding and hiding in the HIDING PLACE.
There is nothing that can separate us from HIS LOVE not even death as Romans 8 teaches us.
We must all come to a place that no matter what can happen to us or not happen to us, we must have the attitude of “SO WHAT”.. I know that MY REDEEMER LIVETH…Job 19:.. AMEN ?
Matt 24:37 As in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noah entered into the ark, 39 And they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be.
The rainbow looks alot more like a prophetic sign in these days. May Messiah come soon!
God’s people are not appointed to wrath. The “Biggie”.
How can anyone believe in a personal God and that God is in control of everything that happens in the world … but then resist drawing a straight line from those beliefs to God’s direct role or judgment in natural disasters that befall this earth.
Scripture tells us Jesus holds all of nature together (Col. 1:16-17). Could God prevent natural disasters? Absolutely!
Does God sometimes influence the weather? Yes. Look at De. 11:17, James 5:17.
Num. 16:30-34 shows us that God sometimes causes natural disasters as a judgment against sin. Revelation describes events which could definitely be described as natural disasters
(chapters 6, 8, 16).
Yet do I think every natural disaster is a direct punishment from God? Absolutely not.
In the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts, God allows the earth to reflect the consequences sin has had on creation.
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
The fall of humanity into sin had effects on everything in the world or even universe. Everything in creation is subject to frustration and decay. SIN is the ultimate cause of natural disasters, all death, disease, and suffering.
Obviously lots of nations have been judged since the flood. For the USA there has been civil War, the Dust Bowl of the 30’s, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires burn all over the US, crops have been severely hampered these past 2 years. I don’t have time to look up more for my “speech” here, but there’s more!
Nine of the ten “top ten natural disasters ranked by relief costs” found on FEMA’s webpage occurred at a time when the U.S. went against Israel.
Some of these judgments occurred within 24 hours of an American push against Israel. God warns us in His Word to not interfere in His covenant with the nation of Israel.
Obama met with Netanyahu in May and made the link between establishing a Palestinian state and dealing with Iran’s nuclear weapons. Within days of their meeting, North Korea began testing a nuclear weapon and then threatened the U.S. with a nuclear strike on Hawaii. Interesting timing, isn’t it?
God can and does bring great good out of terrible tragedies (Rom. 8:28).
Churches are filled afterwards. Amazing miracles occur during natural disasters that prevent even greater loss of life. Millions of people reevaluate their priorities in life. Hundreds of millions of dollars in aid is sent to help the people who are suffering. Christian ministries have the opportunity to help, minister, counsel, pray, and lead people to saving faith in Christ, and they do so. Praise the Good Name of our Wise and Loving Creator.
God remains a Righteous Judge.
Again I firmly say: God’s people are not appointed to wrath. The “Biggie”.
Dorothy,
I highly recommend Bob Gorelik’s seminar on the Last Days as he deals with this subject I feel very well and brings up some very good points to think about in regards to God’s judgment and natural disasters.
“I highly recommend Bob Gorelik’s seminar on the Last Days”
Hi Dorothy,
I have not listened to Bob Gorelik’s seminar on the Last Days
But everything of his that I have read or listened to is excellent
In my view, Bob Gorelik’s work is a great introduction to Skip’s
Skip’s work “assumes” a level of knowledge that Bob addresses
Hi Robert,
Where does one get a copy of these seminars? Does he have any books?
If you are referring to Rashi, his work is in print. Remember he wrote 500 years ago. If you are referring to other seminars, please be specific and I will try to help.
Sorry for being so vague. I was refering in specific to Bob Gorelik’s seminar on the last days. I was wondering if it was on media somewhere. I’ve read some of Rashi’s work and thoroughly enjoy it, he makes me think.
Yes, Bob has an audio series by that title, I think. You can find it on his web site.
Hmmm
Very interesting!
Rashi (Hebrew: רש”י, RAbbi SHlomo Itzhaki; February 22, 1040 – July 13, 1105), was a medieval French rabbi and long highly esteemed as a major contribution Ashkenazi Jewry gave to Torah study.
He is famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).
http://eshavbooks.org/
Hi Robert,
I was thinking of The Essentials by Robert R Gorelik
It is subtitled The Importance of Hebrew Time and Space
It is kind of like Skip’s Words to Lead By, in that it is very simple
Like the picture of the quadrant in the pictures from Venice (Back in the Saddle)
Thank you Michael, I’ll check into it. As I continue to dig into the scriptures, one of the many “paradims” I previously held that have been radically altered, is in this area. Not just “how” the “last days” look, but rather the “why” they look that way. To understand the “source,” is to be able to resist it, or use it, effectively. I look always, to God’s word only, for wisdom and truth, however I also covet what other men of God glean from their understanding as well.
I’m not a “doomsdayer” or a “last days hyperbole” type person. (there’s a lot of that going on out there right now) but I can’t shake this feeling (try as I might) that we need to get some things right, and in a hurry. The whole world seems to be in an “oppressive fog” right now and we can’t afford to be timid. Some of it is as simple as, when and what to speak and when and what to not speak.
Thank you again for your response, Michael. YHWH bless you and keep you…
” Yet do I think every natural disaster is a direct punishment from God? Absolutely not.”
At first I agreed with you, but then, reading this week’s Torah portion(Deut26:1-29:9), Moshe clearly states that, if I disobey the Mitzvot, YHVH SENDS curses and a curse is punishment:
If I DO NOT, 100 percent, with all my heart,soul and recourses try to listen(sh’ma=listen with openmind, hear,pay attention and do), cherish,guard, treasure, carefully whatch over and protect(sh’mar), and interact creatively with and build something tangible with the raw materials(asah) of ALL His mitzvot ……and serve YHVH with joy and gladness in my heart(always!28:47), then….
Adonai WILL SEND ON YOU curses, DISASTERS,frustrations,plague,disease,fever,inflammation,fiery heat,DROUGHT,BLASTING WINDS,mildew…..they will pursue you until you perish.
and He does so for one reason only, that we should Repent and return to Him! The suffering and the aid( and whatever goes with it) will happen over and over if there is no returning to YHVH.
May our Father’s judgement be surrounded by His love and mercy, for I am also guilty.
Hi Luzette, I counter with:
Numerous times God brought plagues and diseases on both His people and His enemies “to make you see my power” (Ex. 9:14, 16). He used plagues on Egypt to force Pharaoh to free the Israelites from bondage, WHILE SPARING His people from being affected by them (Ex. 12:13; 15:26), proving His sovereign control over diseases and other afflictions.
Again its the blood.
I then have to COUNTER MYSELF with this:
God warned His people of the consequences of disobedience, and destroyed 14,700 people and 24,000 people for various acts of disobedience. After giving the Law, God commanded the people to obey it or suffer many evils, among them something that sounds like flu: “The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation…which will plague you until you perish” (De. 28:22). These are just a few examples of many plagues and diseases God caused.
And again counter BOTH our arguemnts with:
There is even at least one case where God allowed disease—blindness—not as punishment for sin, but to reveal Himself and His mighty works through that blindness (John 9:1-3).
Jesus healed “every disease and every sickness,” as well as plagues in the areas He visited (Matt. 9:35; 10:1; Mark 3:10). In just the same way that God choose to use plagues and disease to show His power to the Israelites, Jesus healed as an exhibition of the SAME POWER to verify that He was truly the Son of God. Luke says He gave the same healing power to the disciples to verify their ministry.
God still allows sickness for His own purposes, –personal as well as pandemic,– but we have assurance that God is good and has sovereign control over all things.
(Yay! sigh.) Well who is the winner in all this? Always, the winners are those who trust in YHVH !!!
He is our FATHER, we have no fear. Perfect love casts out fear. This I know.
My little great-grandson is playing in the room I sit in now. At 13 months of age, he’s fairly disobedient and challenging, every other word from me is “No!” [these are definitely commanads!].
Lol.
I warn of danger and pain, I instruct in love, I smack his hand sometimes to inforce my words, my love shelters him, I grab him up and hug and kiss him while he is still longing for the forbidden or having a slight fit. I am his [limited] shelter, I’d give my life’s blood for him in a second.
I will not destroy him. I hope to teach him. I will not hold back disciplines, [age appropriate] in the coming years of his growth, but I have no WRATH for him. Never, never, never any wrath towards him.
This is how I know if my imperfect, silly, evil heart can do good things, Our Heaveny Father does much more towards me.
God’s people are not appointed to wrath.
But Moses is addressing God’s people, not everyone on earth.
It is certainly true that the whole earh is in the throes of the result of the sins being committed today in every country including””Israel and the Chosen People”” and as in the past GOD will deal with all flesh in HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Why would there be no distinction between the righteous or the wicked? Yah saved righteous Noah and his family. Would not being in covenant relationship elicit protection?
Did the disciples have elicit protection? How did most of them die?
Rev:6:9-11 …I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been put to death for proclaiming the Word of God,that is for bearing witness…….they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow-servants should be reached, of their brothers who would be killed, just as they had been.
One coin; two sides.
Rom 2:3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?
Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
That judgement is (soon) coming upon the world, and no matter how severe, is deserved; I think we are all agreed. The problem seems to be – why me? Aren’t we in covenant with YHWH thru Yeshua and therefor exempt from His wrath? Ask the Jews who were dispersed into the nations when captured by Assyria or those carried off into Babylon or those Jews who suffered the loss of all at the hands of Gentiles in innumerable pogroms or the six million plus souls who were brutally exterminated by the Nazis in the Holocaust but a generation ago. Weren’t they too in covenant with YHWH; were they all in sin and rebellion and deserving the fate meted out to them? And yet even in the midst of these judgements, so severe that it caused even the most faithful to tremble, YHWH was there in the midst of it all and therefore His hesed, His testimony and His covenant was as well. Aside from the comfort that He gave His afflicted chosen- in whatever form, however small, however slight, we know it was effective, as He never fails to deliver what He intends. Numbers 23:19. And there was always a remnant saved both out of and from the judgement. Not all in Israel were dispersed into the nations, nor all Judah taken captive to Babylon and not all European Jewry were slaughtered by Hitler’s Third Reich.
So we cannot historically expect to be spared from that which is coming-despite the hopes and promises of the rapture keepers-nor can we presume upon Yah’s hesed to keep us unscathed, unaffected or under wraps. But know He is just and whatever He decides is good, right and perfect. So whether we fall by the sword, are taken captive or are miraculously spared in the wilderness we must confess, as Job did:
“Yea though He slay me, I will hope in Him”.
Amen and amen!! The two litmus tests for me regarding any politician
are his stand on abortion and other pro-life issues and
his orientation toward Israel. Will God judge our whole country
for these evils? I believe so. Do righteous people suffer for others’ sins?
Sometimes. Look at the suffering of the persecuted church,
going on now around the world. Yes, often God will provide
or our physical protection, but ultimately our safety is being in the
center of His will, wherever that may place us.
Unless a major revival happens in our country, the next
election will only slow down or speed up the inevitable.
I have an example and want to give God and His Word praise. God’s Word is so awesome! My husband and I are both disabled, but God let my husband become a scientist. We have lived in our home for over thirty years. We didn’t move to a more expensive house, but lived carefully, paying off bills, having a garden, and helping others etc. as God’s Word directs. In the past few years some of our physically stronger neighbors have lost homes and jobs and health. I am so sad for our neighbors and that we didn’t have more influence. Everyone is so isolated and disconnected in our neighborhood and I tried to make friends but they were busy with jobs and I was probably not bold enough. Pray for me to grow in boldness.
God has blessed and kept us even though we are the weakest in the bunch,
and made us to prosper above what I ever imagined. He is our strength and protection in weakness! I feel protected like Psalm 91 says.
Lois
Hi Lois
Thank you, you blessed me with this testimony.
“We tend to sin in our strengths(like Eve) – but in our weaknesses YHVH is strong!” – Skip Moen
What does God (our Father) have to do to get our fully focused attention? (Prone to wander, LORD I feel it.. prone to leave the God I love..) Oh yes!- very distracted sheep- no doubt. Whether this or that (or even the other thing) looking everywhere except where we are instructed to. ~ Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Completer of our faith..~- and even beyond that.. ~ bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ!.. A tall order? Impossible would be more accurate, except for the reminder from God’s own Word- ~ with God all things are possible ~.
So where is our focus? God attempted ten times through Moses to get the attention of Pharaoh, but Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Again and again, Pharaoh hardened his own heart. This was his own choice until one day, when enough was enough, (when is this?- I don’t know) God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. God no longer was seeking Pharaoh but decided to give him the desires of his own heart and let him go his own way- even unto his own destruction. We are totally free in the choices we make, but must remember every choice contains a consequence and I am today the sum total of all the choices I have ever made. The good, the bad and the ugly. All of the above.
Nebuchadnezzar had a hard way to go for a number of years until God had mercy on him and He realized and recognized the presence and power of God in his life. As our Bible states ~ the way of the transgressor is hard ~ . Anyone want life “the hard way?” Sin and see. Contrary to this, the way of righteousness leans toward life! (Proverbs 12.28)
Does pain serve a purpose? Is the board of instruction connected to the seat of knowledge? (ouch!) – yes, it is. Is God able to “chastise” a nation as well as an individual? Not a doubt, He is able.
There is a place of quiet rest,
Near to the heart of God.
A place where sin cannot molest,
Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blessed Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of comfort sweet,
Near to the heart of God.
A place where we our Savior meet,
Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blessed Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of full release,
Near to the heart of God.
A place where all is joy and peace,
Near to the heart of God.
O Jesus, blessed Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
-Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God.
http://www.youtube.com/user/howlegh1?v=m4xLq_ssMKQ&feature=pyv&ad=9493495233&kw=near%20to%20the%20heart%20of%20god
~ Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40.30,31)
This issue has come “across my desk” so many times as of late that I wonder if I seriously need to pay attention to it!! 🙂
Seriously though, this has been pressed so hard on me lately that at times I’m sick in my stomach. I tend to not look for the fact that it will happen, but rather the answer(s) for when it happens. They tend to be simple, (the answers I’ve found so far) but rigid. They most times (at first at least) scare me.
Rom9:21,22Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath–prepared for destruction?
Rom 2:5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
Jeremiah 35:17 “Therefore, this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.
Judgements, disasters and punishment goes both ways, to the righteous and the wicked.(As farmers, we go through many disasters) The wicked get what they opt for. But its far more important for the righteous to experience and go through God’s disasters and tribulations, for this reveals the true state of my heart, if I truly know Who my God is and in the long run, who His bride is. God’s punishment and wrath is nearly always accompanied by the words: us being stiff-necked and His grieve. It seems to be His last resource, close to the end of the long nose patience but still not releasing His fiery breath.
May I learn quickly that it is God’s kindness that leads to repentence – Rom 2:4 – but the way He shows His kindness is the direct result of my own stiff-necked behaviour.
“But thou shalt utterly destroy them; [namely], the Hittites , and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: ” Deut. 20:17
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these [filthy] dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.” Jude 7,8
No flood here, that’s for certain!
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Jude 10
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Jude 11
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Jude 14,15
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words], having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. Jude 16
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words], having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. Jude 17, 18
These be they who SEPARATE THEMSELVES, sensual, having not the Spirit. Jude 19 (caps are mine)
These are those who distinguish the animal nature, because they do not have The Spirit. Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Is this not one of the major reasons YHWH instructed the Israelites to utterly destroy particular nations as they occupied the land? Others He seemed to cut some slack with, however, the most perverse of peoples, depraved by sexual immorality and offering their children as burnt offerings, were devoted to destruction. Even the most cursory study of these nations named in Scripture, will offer some insight into why YHWH seems to be so harsh in considering them. These nations must have been so steeped in their own mindsets, pursuit of hedonistic pleasure that no hope of redemption remained except destruction. This is very scary to consider…! He has been warning us for a very long time. The philosophies and lusts of these nations are alive and thriving today…
Let’s look wholly unto the Author and Finisher of our faith..it is HIS Faith He gave us through His Word. Apart from it, we are like those Jude pronounced would suffer the wrath of YHWH…they are devoted to destruction. I am so thankful for His tender mercy on me, a sinner, one who ignorantly, yet purposefully, transgressed His Law. Unless we learn it and share it properly with others, we are under that same Law that will lead to judgment. (Please do not throw stones…use something soft like tomatoes…pleeez)
The God news is:
But to him who can keep us without offense and without defilement and present us without a flaw 25Before his glory in joy ( He alone is God our Savior by Yeshua The Messiah our Lord ); to him is the praise, dominion, honor and majesty, even now and unto all ages. Amen. Jude 24,25 Aramaic Bible