The Weapons of War

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Jeremiah 14:11-12 says, “Then said the LORD unto me, Pray not for this people for their good.  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.” 

     I recall some times when I did something wrong at home, how my punishment came about.  One time, my Father was measuring something, I can’t remember what, with a yardstick.  I made a disrespectful comment and he took after me with that yardstick.  Everytime he hit my rear end, the yardstick broke, but he kept on chasing me until the yardstick was no longer a yardstick but only abou a foot long.  Each whack was felt more than the preceding one.  I never did that again.  He could have used his belt  or a branch from the weeping willow, but he used that which was in his hand at the time.

     The people of Israel had been disobedient for a number of years.  It kept getting worse and worse and we can see the fall of the ten tribes of Israel and then the two tribes of Judah.  Soon, Jerusalem would fall and the prime people would be carried off to Babylon for the next 70 years.  In the passage above, it is interesting to note that there  were several different methods that God would use in order to bring retribution to the people.  God was going to use either the Sword, or the famine or pestilence.    The sword was the obvious one of the three as we can see in the Book of Judges.  When Israel was doing right, they were in control, and when they did wrong, the enemy was over them such as the Philistines.  It was a cycle that would last about 20 years and then repeat itself time and time again.  God, however, also uses famine and pestilence.  The recent news also reported that there was hail the size of grapefruit falling in a city in Canada. Just think what an ice block that weighs  as much as  a talent is going to do.  God has many different items in His arsenal to accomplish His will.  We mentioned insects and other creepy and flying things that can rout an army and now we see that He can also use pestilence and famine also.  An army with no food can’t fight  very long nor can they fight when they are sick.  The lessons of the Old Testament are important to us today and we can learn from them if we take heed to what they are saying.  False religions with their false gods will eventually reap the vengeance of God.  As the closing  days creep in upon us, we should be taking note of what God is doing in the world today.  Payday is coming for the world and we should be aware of the signs and the tools which God uses.  It may or may not be fire and brimstone but could be famine and pestilence as well as the sword, or in our case, nuclear war.  God is still on His throne.  Praise Him for His justice and mercy and His grace. Jesus is coming again.