Deut 30:15-19; I have set before you the choice between life and prosperity and death and adversity...
In our study we have been noting the consequences of negative volition to God's Word of truth and have been noting passages that describe the fall of the Israelite client nations who had rejected God's Word.
We are looking at God's warning to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in Hosea 4:1-6 and left off at Hosea 4:5; "You have stumbled in the daylight, and even the prophet will stumble with you in night darkness; you have destroyed your own people (your nation). Net note 10"
Verse 5 explains the consequences of negative volition to the Truth and authority of the true communicator; in this case the True teacher was Hosea.
Just as God supplies an abundance of daylight He had made Truth equally available to the Northern kingdom of Israel under Hosea's ministry. Hosea 8:12; NET
He even gave them a grace space of three years to change their thinking but they squandered the time with frivolous pursuits where they reveled in a fool's paradise of unrestrained activity until they were destroyed in 721 B.C. by Assyria.
Even though there was spiritual daylight all around them, the uninterested believers were stumbling in spiritual darkness because they refused the light of God's Word of truth.
Every day is an opportunity to advance spiritually and to contribute to the deliverance of the nation because if a nation is to solve the problems created by negative volition to truth spiritual daylight must replace the spiritual darkness that resides in the souls of the believers
In addition the people influenced the false teachers and they stumbled along with them. These communicators followed the course of the arrogance skills of self-absorption, self-justification and self-deception so they succumbed to their unrestrained greed and libertine lifestyle and told the people what they wanted to hear. Hosea 8:13-14; NET 2Tim 4:3;
The priest's failure to fulfill their responsibility to study and teach God's Word of truth resulted in the blind leading the blind.
The unfaithful priests that comprised the ruling class in Israel were largely responsible for tranquilizing the national mental attitude by advocating world peace through compromise with the enemy along with unilateral disarmament so they were unprepared when a predator nation arrived.
During a period of national prosperity the priesthood and the leaders of the nation that comprised the ruling class failed to communicate truth so without the constant renovation of their thinking the people turned away from God and the principles revealed in His Word of truth.
Those in leadership were distracted by the demon doctrines of world peace through internationalism, equality through activism and psychological pseudo spirituality.
The spiritual darkness that is created by of the rejection of the light of the truth of God's Word creates the unintended consequences of self induced personal and national disaster that are the inevitable result of consistently making bad decisions made from a position of weakness.
Bad decisions limit future options.
The Assyrians would overtake the nation, and the reversionistic ruling class would be terminated by the sin unto death and be permanently silenced for dragging the nation into ruin.
Their fate should be a warning to the USA and to the politicians, the media and the educators who comprise the ruling class in the USA who are largely responsible for undermining the thoughts in the souls of the benighted in our nation at this time.
Hosea 4:6; "My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected the knowledge of doctrine, I will reject you from being a priest nation. Since you have forgotten the law of your God I will forget your children.
This verse explains why the Northern Kingdom was destroyed and removed from human history under the principle of as goes the believer, so goes the client nation.
Believers should not be involved in reformation through activism. They should be growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and becoming invisible heroes.
A nation that is not operating on the basis of the principles that are revealed in God's Word of absolute truth is a nation without solutions. Jesus Christ controls history but the benighted question that because they think that if He does why does He allow evil nations to continue and "better" nations to be destroyed?
They wonder why do the wicked so often prosper while the good suffer?
The reason is that to whom much is given much more is required. Luke 12:48 and to whomever has more will be given more and whoever does not have even what they have will be taken away. Matt 13:12;
This means that for the believer to build capacity from the application of God's Word to experience there must be a certain amount of pressure both personally and nationally in order to maximize the believer's individual role and the client nation's collective role in the angelic conflict.
When it looks to the believer like those with negative volition are prospering it is a test their priorities. For example, an ambush by friends or relatives forces you to draw upon the spiritual assets of God's Word of truth that is resident in your soul and if you have positive volition it serves to reinforce the determination to continue your advance. It also reveals whither Truth has First place in your life or not.
At this period in Israel's history God kept Assyria around as a whip that He could use to discipline His chosen nation in the event that they rejected His warnings, to advance in grace.
God set up the nation Israel as a priest nation to represent Him and His Word of truth Exod 19:6;
They were to be to be the keeper of God's Word of truth, to be the primary agent of evangelism throughout the world and to be an example of the principles of freedom and privacy that God's Word establishes; Deut 4:1-9;
But Israel had completely failed on all counts in spite of God's warnings from the prophets so the nation would suffer total defeat, destruction and become slaves. When a priest nation goes negative to God's Word of truth and there is no recovery that nation is doomed.