CHAPTER ELEVEN
BLESSINGS AND CURSES OF THE COVENANT
The Bible is
very clear that God’s blessings or curses for us individually as well as
corporately are inspired and informed by our obedience or disobedience of the
Everlasting Covenant. Leviticus 26 clearly defines the blessings and curses
associated with the Everlasting Covenant.
If we can
look at the history of the Church from Sinai, we see God’s curses all over
their lives since they never lived according to the Everlasting Covenant. The
bad news is that since the fall of man, those who have chosen to follow God
have never corporately committed themselves 100% to the terms of God’s
Covenant. That is why the world was destroyed by floods, that is why Sodom and
Gomorrah were destroyed and the list is endless.
Lets us now
look at the history of the Church and the Covenant since Mt Sinai.
The history of the Church and the covenant
since Mt Sinai
Despite the
miraculous powers that God displayed in the wilderness in favor of the Church,
it is surprising that the Church still went ahead to disobey God even after
entering the promised land. I should point out at this juncture that the journey
across the wilderness was supposed to be a few weeks’ affair but it ended up
taking a whole 40 years due to the disobedience of the people.
THE ASSYRIANS in 723 B.C
The Church
continued with their disobedience reaching their climax when they rejected
God’s appointed Judges and told Samuel they wanted their own King modeled after
the Kings of the World (I Samuel 8). God had promised them that he wanted them
to be a peculiar people but they said no, “we want to be like the other Nations
of the world”. God succumbed to their pressure and ordered Samuel to anoint for
them Saul as their King. Later God again intervened by bringing in King David
but as we will find out later, this did not help but corporately Israel sunk
deep into idolatry thus totally going against the terms of the covenant.
Israel’s
disobedience caused them to be a divided Nation between Judah and Israel and
this angered God who unleashed the Assyrians who attacked and scattered the
Nation of Israel as a punishment around 723 BC.
Nebuchadnezar in 606 B.C
Even after
God allowed them to be waylaid and scattered abroad by the Assyrians, the
Church did not learn a lesson but continued to go against the Covenant even
after God sent servant after servant to help in its revival. God again kept His
promises by unleashing King Nebuchadnezar on the Church again in 606 BC. He
destroyed even the sanctuary and took them captives just as promised to those
who would disobey. The Church was again scattered as a punishment.
KING ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES in 170 B.C
From the
year 536 BC, God started a process of restoring the Everlasting Covenant by the
rebuilding of the temple. This process
appeared to progress very well until around 170 BC when a Grecian King Antiochus
Epiphanes passed laws banning all the sanctuary services. He also banned Jewish
customs including circumcision among others. He actually entered into the
temple and placed His idol god Zeus on the mercy seat in the temple and instead
of the Lamb, he sacrificed pigs during the morning and evening sacrifice. This
is the time that Israel started using the term “the abomination of desolation”
in reference to the actions of King Epiphanes.
This is the
time that new traditions and formulae of moon-reading were introduced. They
changed calendars and did all they could to stop the Everlasting Covenant from
taking root. Satan was inspired more by the fact that the birth of Jesus was in
sight and he had to prepare the world for His rejection. Satan knew that if
Israel continued observing the appointed times of the Lord, then they would be
able to know of the birth, ministry and death of Jesus. Satan had to do away
with any tradition and belief which would endorse and reveal the birth of
Jesus.
The 70th Week
The devil
succeeded in misleading Israel so that they did not recognize Jesus when He
came. As a result, today Israel officially believes the Messiah is yet to come.
When Jesus started His ministry in 27 AD, the Bible is very clear that His main
purpose was to revive the Everlasting Covenant by confirming it afresh.
When Israel
failed to heed the voice of God by accepting to revive the Everlasting Covenant
as requested by Jesus, God was angry and He was as faithful in sending them a
curse as promptly as He sends us His blessings. Daniel 9:27 says that Jesus Himself
took the Abomination of Desolation and established it in the sanctuary as a
curse for the Church for having rejected His message of reviving the
Everlasting Covenant.
The Church
was then sent into spiritual and physical exile for a “time, times and half a
time” after which they would be released from the curse. Jesus said the
following words when cursing the Church in the middle of the 70th
week,” look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not
see me again until you say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”
(Mathew 23:38-39). Jesus was referring to the time of the end when God will
enter into a New Covenant with the Church as promised through prophet Ezekiel.
This is the day that Jesus will send us the promised Holy Spirit otherwise
called latter rain. I have covered that subject in greater detail in my book
“The Great Tribulation”.
You will
realize that ever since our curse expired at the end of the “time, times and
half a time”, the Church is yet to declare “blessed is He who comes in the name
of the Lord” as Jesus said. As a result, the Church has been left spiritually
deficient and lacking the presence of God. The Church’s preoccupation today
should be on how to mobilize every one of us to declare “blessed is He who
comes in the name of the Lord” so that God can come back to the Church and give
us the Holy spirit to mark the beginning of the New Covenant.
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