In Judges 2:8-13 we find the blueprint of the eventual fall of the nations of Israel: “And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old …. After all that generation passed away there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor did they know the works that He had done for Israel in the past.  And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord–they worshiped and served Baalim.  They forsook the Lord God of their fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) Who had brought them out of the land of Egypt and followed the gods of the people who were around them, bowing down to them and provoking the Lord to anger.  They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth.” “Baliim” is the plural of Baal.  Following the death of powerful, God-directed Joshua the children of Israel worshiped a variety of false gods, depending on which heathen nation they were involved with at any given time.

The one characteristic shared by all of the gods worshiped and served by the heathen with whom Israel prostituted herself was the use of hand-made images of how the people believed their gods would have looked if they had been visible.  Many of these images have been discovered in the ancient ruins explored by archeologists, including the ruins of ancient Israel.  In the previous posting I mentioned the image of Ishtar (Easter) which had many breasts.  This image was made of wood and stood about two inches tall.  Other images of other gods were made of stone and clay.  Some were drawn on clay tablets, animal skins and carved on the walls of caves and municipal buildings.  These images (symbolic of their gods) came in a variety of sizes.  Some were small and personal, like the statue of Ishtar/Easter.  Others were life-sized or larger and were venerated by entire societies.  Some images/idols were used in the ritual of child sacrifice.  One such idol was Molech (also called Moloch and Milcom), the god of the Ammonites.  This god was also called Chemosh by the people of Moab.  At one point the Israelites worshiped this god and sacrificed their children to it.  It is from this god that the celebration of Christmas originated.  Read the postings concerning Christmas.  Key word–Christmas and Darkness.  As previously stated, Ishtar, known as the Queen of Heaven and the Goddess of Fertility is the deity from which the celebration of Easter evolved in the Western World.

Other images were also used to honor the heathen world’s many gods.  Images such as carvings, clay sculptures and paintings representing men, women and children, animals were popular.  The sun and moon, the cross, the fish symbol, serpents were also used.  Fire, colored glass, halos and wings on paintings, statues and drawings of human beings, prayer beads, holy water, finger rings, etc. were also popular anciently.  Many are still used today by the counterfeit church.  It is for this reason that God condemns 1) the making of and 2) the use of graven (man-made) images in a spiritual sense (commandment #2).  Read Simon of Samaria: The Legacy.  Key word–Legacy.  Incidentally, the cross was being used by heathen religions 1200 years before the time of Christ by people who nailed their human sacrifices to crosses.  Also, it is from the worship of fire that Christmas lights came into being.  The Romans adopted the practice from some of the people they conquered during the hayday of their empire.  They used it as a form of capital punishment.

Anciently, Israel would become involved with the heathen people around them and would come to worship and serve their respective gods and goddesses.  In keeping with their new worship mates, they used their molten images as symbols of their gods.  It was for this reason that God would send heathen nations to defeat and enslave them.  The next generation would recognize the sins of their ancestors, repent and return to God, Who would then raise up a deliverer to lead them out of heathen idolatry.  Then the sin-curse-repent-return-sin cycle would be repeated again and again.  The cycle ended when Israel and Judah were defeated and enslaved by the Assyrians and Babylonians respectively.

Fast forward to the modern age.  Those who call themselves by Christ’s name have continued the obey-sin-repent-bless cycle for some 1900 years, which explains the times of cursing followed by the times of blessing of those nations known as “Christian.”  Throughout the process up to the present time God has had a remnant of very elect saints who, though all around them had fallen into Satan’s trap, have remained true to Him.  Though they have seen generation after generation follow in the footsteps of their ancient ancestors, these determined servants of God have stayed the course He laid out in His Holy Word.  And when their nations have been repeatedly cursed by God for their sins, these saints have soldiered on by obeying Him, even in the face of persecution and rejection by false Christians, some to the point of death.

Over the years nothing has changed in the hearts of men.  As a result, God is going to do to modern day Israel (the U.S., Britain and the Middle-eastern Jews) as He did to their ancestors.  He will cause them to be defeated, slaughtered and enslaved.  The three modern nations of Israel will be no more.  But there is a way to not merely survive what is coming–the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.  To be safe during that 3 1/2 year time of terror, death and destruction, one must enter His strait gate and walk His narrow way until Christ returns.  God promises to take these holy people to a place of safety called “her (the true church’s) place” where they will be protected and cared for as the world around them goes up on flames.  I believe this to be a mountainous area in Jordan called Petra.  I have been there.  It is not only beautiful, it is the home of thousands of caves where one could live in comfort indefinitely.  I look forward to the move.

In a very real sense the Book of Judges served as a template of what would happen and has happened to the descendants of the ancient Israelites.  As Epesians 2:20 and 1 Cor. 10:11 tell us, the Old Testament warns today’s church people of what is coming upon them if they do not repent and turn to Him with all of their being.  To know what is coming, read God’s Holy Scriptures.  To be prepared for what is coming, believe and obey them.  L.J.