Scripture for Today, 8-8-20: God's Punishment

Will God Punish America for Her wickedness?
God said: "Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him. Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.”

Isaiah 3:11, 13:11; 1 Samuel 15:21

8-8-20, As we watch in horror as America turns into a vile wasteland where deceit and wickedness prevail and goodness is scorned; we yearn and pray for the Lord Jesus' return. We realize that while today Christians follow Christ rather than the Law, it's important to recognize that the righteous and almighty God still calls all His children to faithfully follow and obey His Word. The blessings and rewards He promises are eternal given to those who are born again in repentance and serve Him. Spending eternity with the Lord is the most important blessing of all.

However, although God provides a list of blessings for obedience, He also provides warnings of curses for disobedience. The following is a short list from the Old Testament of God's judgment and punishment in the form of curses for God's children who disobeyed:

1. Curses upon city and field: “You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.” Deuteronomy 28:16

2. Curses upon food: “Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.” Deuteronomy 28:17

3. Curses upon having children and upon livestock: “The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.” Deuteronomy 28:18

4. Curses during travel and at all times: “You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.” Deuteronomy 28:19

• In verses 15–20, the word for “curse” is used seven times, and those curses are explained throughout the remainder of the chapter. The ultimate devastation for continued disobedience was that God’s people would be removed from the land and scattered among the nations of the earth.
• Verse 64 notes that God’s people would become like the pagans and serve other gods: “Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.
• There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.”​

• ​In Deuteronomy 28:68 the ultimate disgrace is given in the final verse of the chapter: “The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
• "Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil." Ecclesiastes 8:11

"Assuredly, the evil man will not go unpunished,
But the descendants of the righteous will be delivered."
Proverbs 11:21

"But just as every good thing the LORD your God promised you has come to pass, likewise the LORD will bring upon you the calamity He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you." Joshua 23:15
 
Who can deny the progressive downfall has happened to the once obedient America? In humility America's founding fathers honored and tried to obey God's commands. However, now, few and far between are today's leaders honoring the Lord God almighty.

How can the righteous Creator continue to allow the blasphemy, depravity, murder and corruption without His final 'blow?'

However: “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.” (Deuteronomy 28:1) John 14:6; John 14:15-24; 1 John 5:11-13; Joel 3:16

He will come, He said He would - are you one of His?

Even so, Come Lord Jesus.  Revelation 22:20
1 Corinthians 15:52; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 15:4