Fisheries in Canada have had Masses of dead fish, starfish, crabs and other creatures wash ashore in Nova Scotia this month. One of many fish die-offs this month which also include 10 TONS of dead fish found in a river in Greater Vitoria, Brazil. A massive die-off of fish in a lake in Xiamen, China. Thousands of dead crayfish found floating down a river in Putaruru, New Zealand. Tens of thousands of dead fish wash up in Cornwall, England. 100 TONS of fish dead in Lake Maninjau, Indonesia.
A few months ago we reported on some birds dying, and only this month we’ve had reports of 16 MILLION poultry killed due to avian flu in various areas of South Korea, also 1,000 wild geese found dead, and 700,000+ birds killed due to avian flu across Iran. 200,000+ chickens to be killed due to avian flu in Hokkaido, Japan. Among numerous other mass die-offs. These all in December to close off the year.
This year in 2016 there have been 586 mass animal deaths. Authorities are many times at a loss for the cause. But the scriptures tell us about these things, and they also give us the reason. In Hosea we read the following:
The FORGOTTEN LAW
Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
The people today have a lack of knowledge as to why these things are happening. But God’s people know the cause. The bible says that “the curse causeless shall not come” (Proverbs 26:2). Hosea tells us more of our lack of knowledge in verse one he writes:
Hos 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
We are told that we don’t really know God. We are forgetting his law, and we are destroyed because of this lack of knowledge. But also notice in verse three what Hosea writes:
Hosea 4:3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
“The 2014 Living Planet Report gives an index that tracks the numbers of animals in selected populations of vertebrates—mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish—across the globe. This “Living Planet Index” declined by 52 percent between 1970 and 2010…” (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/09/1409030-animals-wildlife-wwf-decline-science-world/)
And 2016 has shown us that we are much closer to the Lord’s coming. God’s word is fulfilling before our eyes all because we have “forgotten the law” (Hosea 4:6). The opposite of forgetting is to “remember”. And interestingly we are given a message in the very last 3 verses of the Old Testament that tells us that we are to do that very thing.
REMEMBER THE LAW
Malachi 4:4-6 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
We are told the law of Moses has the answers as to why these curses come. Jesus himself quoted from Moses often. It can be especially noted that when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness he quoted from Deutoronomy all three times that he answered the devil. In one of those instances he quoted Deutoronomy 8:3 which says “that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live”
Perhaps these books have several admonishments for God’s people today. Paul the apostle talks of the Israelites in the wilderness and warns us “Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.” (1 Cor 10:10) These stories are written in the Law of Moses, and our Father wants us to understand these things so that we might have a wilderness experience similar to Jesus who overcame the tempter in times of trouble, distress, and temptation.
We are told in Leviticus that God was not just thinking of Israelites when he gave the statutes, nor were they just applicable to Jews, but they were applicable to even the nations in the land before they were written on paper.
JUDGED – LAND SPUED OUT – LAODICEA
Leviticus 18:24-28 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments…
The judgment for not keeping the statutes and judgments was that the land would spue out those who didn’t keep the law of God written in the law that Moses gave to the Israelites. It wouldn’t just spue out Israelites, but the gentiles or inhabitants that were in the land before the Israelites were also spued out for not keeping them. God does not give a blessing for things that he cursed back then.
In the book of Revelation, the final apocalyptic and prophetic book of the bible, we read of seven churches. The last of which is called the church of Laodicea. The bible says of this church:
Revelation 3:15-17 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
This church, the final church is to be “Spued out” just as the heathen who didn’t keep the commandments in old time were to be “spued out”. Why were these judgments pronounced on the heathen? Because they were not keeping the statutes, commandments, and laws. So then, why will the judgment of being “spued out” be pronounced on the final church? Same reason… Because they were not keeping the statutes, commandments and laws.
Pro_29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
Many today, as with the Laodiceans are not happy, but “miserable”, have no vision and are “blinded”. As the Israelites in the wilderness who didn’t want to hear God’s voice when he gave them his statutes and judgments. (Exo 20:19) And they don’t know why all of these curses are coming upon them.
2 Corinthians 3:14-15 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
The Pharisees also were called “blind” several times by Jesus and told that they had “left out the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” (Matt 23:23) Perhaps our Father has much for us to see and understand in the law of Moses that we have been blinded to. May we pray for the Spirit to give us an understanding as to why the earth has been smote with a curse, and to realize that “the god of this world has blinded the minds” and to clearly see “the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God” and his covenant of mercy and the blessing of keeping the law. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
This was written by David Barron and published in the January 2017 Newsletter from Bible Explorations. To subscribe click here:
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Also, if you would like a copy of the booklet “Temple of God” which deals with many issues concerning this topic including health, identity, the law, the covenants and how you can have healing in your life please contact us with your address and I will mail you a copy.
