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Continuing our discussion from part three, surely, if anyone understood the loving chastisement of the Lord, it was the Apostle Paul. Despite his blatant crimes against the Lord's children through manifold persecutions, the Lord saw fit to deal with Paul -- then known as Saul of Tarsus -- and his stubborn pride, as he traveled on the road to Damascus. He dealt with Paul as with a wayward son, and did not cast him off forever. In fact, as many Christians know, Paul went on to become the Apostle to the Gentiles, and was in large part responsible for converting many people in the nations of the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. I discuss Paul's life in more detail in articles such as part one of "A Biblical Cafeteria, or the Whole Course?".

In similar fashion, because the Lord was willing to forgive him for his gross sins, such as planning the murder of one of his own man -- Uriah the Hittite -- and then committing adultery with Uriah's wife, King David also recognized the Lord's love and mercy in the midst of His chastisements. As you may know, David wrote a beautiful Psalm of repentance. That is, Psalm 51, as well as the following verses that are found in Psalm 103:

"The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust."


In other articles such as "The Children of God and Politics" and the series "The Fruits of Disobedience", I explain that the invasion and destruction of Jerusalem by the forces of Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in approximately 587 BC, was a severe chastisement from the Lord which resulted from the many sins and rebellion of the ancient Israelites. At that time, the Jews were heavily engaged in the worship of false gods; even going so far as to sacrifice their own children to the fires of the false god Molech. Following the third siege and invasion by Nebuchadnezzar's armies, the situation became so desperate that the women were forced to eat their own children according to the Prophet Jeremiah. Despite this fact, Jeremiah -- who had faithfully warned the leadership Of Israel for forty years of impending doom -- never doubted the mercy of the Lord. Consider what he wrote in the Book of Lamentations:

"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."


"The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD . . . For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men . . . Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD."


Turning again to the New Testament, the Apostle Peter was likewise fully aware of the Lord's longsuffering and mercy towards His wayward children. Despite the fact that Peter denied the Lord three times in his moment of weakness, he also found mercy in the sight of the Almighty. As I explain in the article "Peter: Faith Tried in the Fire", Peter went on to become a pillar in the Early Church. Consider what he wrote in his second Epistle:

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."


It can be clearly seen then, that despite the waywardness of His children, the Lord is not one to easily give up on them. He gives all of us the benefit of the doubt and is extremely merciful and longsuffering towards us. However, at the same time, being the righteous God that He is, as we have already seen, the Scriptures also inform us that the time eventually arrives when He must stop talking, and allow His wrath to be felt upon those proud, foolish people who stubbornly rebel against Him; whether it is His own disobedient children, or else the unbelieving world at large. As I point out in the three-part series "Don't Ever Underestimate Our Spiritual Enemy", while some ungodly people may scoff at us Christians, and view us as having one screw loose, one thing we all need to understand is that judgment delayed does NOT necessarily equate to judgment postponed. Stated another way, delayed chastisement from the Lord does NOT mean no chastisement from the Lord.

While Divine Chastisement may be a bitter pill to swallow at the time, through His loving corrections, the Lord will plead with us to return to Him. In some cases, the situation has gone to such an extreme, that the Lord has had no choice but to totally destroy the source of the evil. As I explain in series such as "Nephilim: The Giants of Genesis", God's Word tells us that this is precisely what happened during the days of the Patriarch Noah, when the Lord finally sent the Flood. The world had become so corrupt and so evil, that God had to destroy His entire Creation. Thus, all life perished, save for Noah and his immediate family. Consider the following verses:

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."


"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."


". . . when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."


Of course, in retrospect, from reading the Holy Scriptures, we come to understand that the Genesis Flood was merely the first of many chastisements which God would be forced to mete out against the wicked, rebellious people of our world. In some of the prophetic Books of the Bible, we discover a number of very interesting chapters and verses which clearly describe how the Lord pours out His fiery wrath upon the nations. For example, in the Book of Isaiah, we find the following verses:

"For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many."


In the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, we also find an angry Lord pouring out the cup of the wine of His indignation upon the nations. Consider the following verses:

"For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them . . . Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you . . . Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD."


The descriptive language that is used in the previous verses that are found in the Book of Jeremiah is rather similar to what we likewise find in the Book of Revelation. Consider the following verses which describe the great and final Battle of Armageddon, during which event the Lord pours out the cup of His indignation:

"And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb . . . And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs."


Regarding Jeremiah's prophecy, for the sake of clarification, allow me to point out that while in our modern day, the word "plead" is understood to refer to the act of begging with someone in order to achieve some specific goal or purpose, in the previous verses, it has an entirely different meaning. It actually means to execute judgment, or to punish. This word "plead" is derived from the Hebrew word "shaphat". Pronounced shaw-fat', it has the following definitions according to the Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Hebrew Aramaic English Lexicon:

----- Begin Quote -----

1) to judge, govern, vindicate, punish
    1a) (Qal)
        1a1) to act as law-giver or judge or governor (of God, man)
            1a1a) to rule, govern, judge
        1a2) to decide controversy (of God, man)
        1a3) to execute judgment
            1a3a) discriminating (of man)
            1a3b) vindicating
            1a3c) condemning and punishing
            1a3d) at theophanic advent for final judgment
    1b) (Niphal)
        1b1) to enter into controversy, plead, have controversy together
        1b2) to be judged
    1c) (Poel) judge, opponent-at-law (participle, KJV

----- End Of Quote -----

It is also interesting to note that in both the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus makes a clear reference to the evil days of Noah. The reason why Jesus does this, is not only to demonstrate how the spiritual condition of the world prior to His return is very similar to that of thousands of years earlier when Noah was alive, but also to emphasize the fact that God's judgments fall very quickly upon the world when they are least expected. To further emphasize this point, Jesus also uses the example of the sudden destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Consider what the Lord said in both of these Gospels:

"But as the days of Noe [were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."


"And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed."


As I also mention in the three-part series "Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: A Warning to Modern Society", taking into consideration the similarities between the main sin of the perverted inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the rampant homosexuality which has gripped the world today, we should all recognize the significance of the Lord using the example of these two cities in His Olivet Discourse. It is also noteworthy that these ancient towns were destroyed by fire and brimstone, just as the ancient Prophet Isaiah also describes destruction as being by fire. In fact, if you have read my five-part series called "Destruction of Planet Earth: The Wrath of God Revealed", you will know that the Apostle Peter paints the very same picture in his vivid description of the destruction of both the heavens and the Earth, as we see by the following group of verses:

"But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."


In his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul also warns of the suddenness with which the destruction of the ungodly occurs, as we can determine by these verses:

"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."


If there is one very important point which I hope you have grasped from all of the previous verses, it is this: When God's divine judgment, chastisement and destruction finally occurs, it usually arrives very quickly. As we have seen by a preponderance of verses, our Father is very loving, very merciful and very patient with the rebellious people of our planet Earth. He gives us more than enough time to repent of our wickedness and rebellion against Him. But eventually, He says that enough is enough, and then the hammer of judgment strikes the anvil.

Now, while I have stated that God's judgments arrive very quickly, what I mean to say is that they arrive quickly, and without warning, for certain people, but not necessarily for everyone. The truth of the matter is that certain people are caught off-guard, and are so unprepared for it, as a result of not having properly discerned the signs of the times. Is this not precisely what the Lord warned about in the Gospels? Consider the following verses:

"The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed."


Such reprobate people have become so spiritually blind due to their own pride, that they not only cannot see what is happening around them, and cannot discern God's warnings to them to repent, but they even go so far as to scoff at the Lord's servants, and to mock His messengers, as the Apostle Peter writes in the following verses:

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."


As I stated a minute ago, while Jesus and Paul described the Day of the Lord arriving "as a thief in the night", please understand that this was stated in regards to the unbelieving children of the world who would not be watching for the signs of the times. For a more detailed examination of this topic, I encourage you to read my series "As a Thief in the Night? Not For Me!".

Similar to all of the previous writers, the Apostle Paul also warned that the destruction of the wicked would come by means of fiery judgments from the Lord. Perhaps you will recall the following verses which I shared with you at the beginning of this same series:

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God . . . For our God is a consuming fire."


While the previous Scriptures describe Divine Chastisement on a national or global scale, the same basic principles apply to individuals as well. In fact, as we learned earlier at the end of part three, this is precisely what the verses I shared with you from the twelfth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews are describing. If you go back and re-read them, you will see that what is written is directed to "My son." So it is being written to an individual. Exactly who is the person to whom Paul was writing? My personal guess is that it may have been to Timothy, who eventually became the bishop of the Church at Ephesus. Please notice that at the very end of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find the following four verses:

"And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words. Know ye that [our] brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you. Grace [be] with you all. Amen. [Written to the Hebrews from Italy, by Timothy.]"


So, as I explain in other articles, due to his poor eyesight, Paul apparently dictated some of his Epistles to other people who wrote them for him. In this particular case, Timothy was the chosen scribe. But notice also that Paul writes "brother Timothy is set at liberty." In other words, just as Paul was forced to appear before Emperor Nero several times, and was placed under house arrest, it appears that Timothy was also arrested at some point while he was in Italy with Paul. Thus, my personal inclination is to believe that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Paul may actually be writing about Timothy's personal trial, in that he was arrested and suffered some kind of affliction as a result of it. The fact that Paul describes it as "the chastening of the Lord", could mean that Timothy got off track in some way, and so the Lord had to deal with him about it. But let me stress that this is just my personal speculation. You don't have to accept it if you don't want to.

But concerning personal chastisement, if someone commits any form of violence against one of the Lord's children, rest assured that sooner or later, the Lord is going to deal with him about it, unless he truly repents. We only need to look at the example of the Apostle Paul traveling on the road to Damascus, to determine that this is indeed so. Even if the Lord's children forgive such persons, unless they personally acknowledge their sins before the Lord, and before us, it does not appear that they are going to escape judgment. When the children of the world purposely harm the children of the Lord, the Scriptures inform us that it is just like poking their finger in God's very own eye. Consider the following verses:

". . . Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."


"Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,"


"For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye."


In the previous verses, the word "apple" is derived from two Hebrew words, both of which actually refer to the pupil of one's eye. These words are "babah", pronounced baw-baw', and "iyshown", which is pronounced ee-shone'. If you would like to learn more about persecution against the Lord's children, please consider reading articles such as "Civil Disobedience and Christian Persecution".

To conclude this series on a positive note, I feel that it is appropriate to share the following short chapter with you which clearly reveals the only real and lasting solution to any form of conflict, whether that conflict is on a personal level with another individual, or on a global scale. I hope that you will enjoy the wise advice which is offered to us by the Apostle Paul. Lord help us all to strive more to live by these wonderful words:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."


What a wonderful chapter! Truly, charity -- or love -- is the healing balm which the world so desperately needs at this current time. Yet sadly, it is the very thing in which many people are lacking the most. Why is this? It's because people are abandoning God -- who is love -- in droves, as they turn to materialism, self-pursuit, and other sinful comforts of the flesh for personal, instant gratification, satisfaction and happiness. The Apostle John was fully aware of this tragedy even in his own day two thousand years ago. Thus he wrote the following lines:

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."


"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."


Without God -- who is the Divine Author of love -- as the center of gravity in each of our lives, we have nothing else to hold us together. As I explain in my 1997 article called "Selfishness: A Prophesied Sign of Our Times?", in place of God, we have inserted self. Sadly, it seems that nowadays, everything that we do is geared towards pleasing self. This is not God's way, it is our own way. It is the wrong way. It is in fact the Devil's way. After all, he is the false god of this present world. As Jesus prophesied so many centuries ago:

"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold."


Thank the Lord that even though we may not know each other face-to-face, and even though we may possibly be separated by hundreds or even thousands of miles, we Christians can be bonded together by His Love, and by His Word. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Colossians:

"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness."


As I point out in my 1998 article entitled "The Royal Law: Thou Shalt Love!", as well as in a few other articles, not only is love the bond of perfectness, but the Apostle James tells us that it is in fact the Royal Law. It is the Golden Rule and the Greatest Commandment; precisely as the Lord Himself taught us in the following group of verses:

"If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:"


"Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."


With these thoughts I am going to bring this series to its conclusion. I trust that it has been a blessing, as well as an inspiration, in your life. Love today! It is the only thing that will truly last. Remember too that love, mercy and forgiveness can mend a life, as well as heal a broken relationship!

If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you would take the time to click on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

A Biblical Cafeteria, or the Whole Course?
All Are Given a Chance, But ...
As a Thief in the Night? Not For Me!
Beholding the Evil and the Good
Civil Disobedience and Christian Persecution
Destruction of Planet Earth: The Wrath of God Revealed
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: A Warning to Modern Society
Don't Ever Underestimate Our Spiritual Enemy
Forgiving and Forgetting: It Can Be So Hard!
Free Will and Personal Choice
Is Jesus the Only Begotten Son of God?
Is the Message of Salvation Meant for All Men?
Nephilim: The Giants of Genesis
Peter: Faith Tried in the Fire
Selfishness: A Prophesied Sign of Our Times?
The Children of God and Politics
The Fruits of Disobedience
The Royal Law: Thou Shalt Love
The Urantia Book: A Dangerous New Age Doctrine
To Pray or Not to Pray, That Is the Question
What It Means to Repent

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