Deuteronomy 32:19 says, And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. Verse twenty adds, And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. Moses said God abhorred the idolatry or the people of Israel, and He removed Himself from guiding them. God also said that He would see what their end would be. We may grow rich and content as Christians, but if we allow this to turn us away from God, He may remove His protective hand from us. Verse twenty-one continues, They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. God said that since they had provoked Him to anger by following after false god's that they would no longer be His people. I don't believe that once we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord that we will ever not be a part of God's kingdom, but if we are we should never give in to the temptation to follow other gods either. Verse twenty-two states, For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. God said the fires of hell would burn against those who rejected Him, especially those who were supposed to be His people but did not worship Him alone. We cannot worship God and idols, or the things of this world, at the same time. God was and is a jealous God. Verse twenty-three adds, I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them. God said that when the people of Israel, people called by His name turned away from Him that He would punish them with mischiefs and His arrows. When we turn away from following God's will, He will remove His protective hand from us. Not everything that goes wrong in the life of Christians is a punishment from God, but I believe that we will know if it is. Verse twenty-four continues, They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. God said instead of being in a land of peace flowing with milk and honey, that because of their disobedience the people of Israel would suffer from hunger and a bitter heat that would destroy their crops. Verse twenty-five says, The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. God said everyone, from babies to old people, would be destroyed by the sword or their own fears. We as followers of Christ should never live in fear of what might happen to us in this world. Our heavenly home will always be our final destination, so we need not live in fear. Verse twenty-six adds, I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: Verse twenty-seven continues, Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this. God said He would scatter the people of Israel to the corners of the world, except for the fact that their enemies might say it was them, and not God, who had done this. It was only for God's glory that He did not just totally blot the people of Israel off the earth and out of remembrance. As those who are called God's people today, if we turn away from Him, it may be that it is only for His glory that He doesn't just blot us out of memory in this world. Verse twenty-eight continues, For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. God pronounced the people of Israel a people devoid of counseling when they would not listen to His voice. If we are to be a Christian nation today, we must seek the counsel of God and obey it when He gives it. Verse twenty-nine declares, Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! God said that He desired that they were wise enough to consider them latter end. This was before they even entered the Promised Land. We need to always consider our latter end as Christians, and that is everlasting life with God in heaven, and be wise enough to remain faithful to Him everyday. Verse thirty adds, How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up? God reminded them of His deliverance of them when one Israelite was able to defeat a thousand enemies. We as followers of Christ need to always remember that as long as we are faithful to God, we already have the everlasting victory over the world and all its false gods. Verse thirty-one continues, For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. God said that the rock of the world, what they put all the faith in, was not the Rock of the people of Israel, which is God Himself, unbreakable and unshakable. Verse thirty-two continues, For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: God said the vine of the world was the vinexof Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah, which lead to their total destruction because of their idolatry and disobedience to God. Verse thirty-three concludes, Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. God said the wine of Sodom and Gomorrah was poisonous, because even though it might have satisfied or even tasted good, it led them away from God. The things of this world may be enjoyable today, but if they lead us away from God they are spiritually poisonous.
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