The Time of Jacob's Trouble

I want to read an article to you by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Broadrib.

Starts this way. There is but scant innovation in human folly. Every generation convinces itself that it's living in a new era where all the rules have changed, and consequently stumbles into the same potholes which swallow countless ancestors.

That's a polite way of saying we keep making the same mistakes, keep doing the same wrong things over and over. Knowing some history they write, and paying serious attention to its lesson, rarer in any age, is an excellent way to avoid all too predictable calamities. Take the current woes in the credit market. Triggered in part by the government meddling in the mortgage market, certainly this must be an unforeseen consequence of our 21st century fiber optic global connected financial system with computer-modeled financial derivatives, risk management strategies, and all the rest of the Huey cooked up by all these bright fellows on Wall Street. How could they possibly anticipate the mess they were getting us into? In other words, was there any way that they could have anticipated that the problems we are faced with today were going to happen?

Well, they go on to say they could have if they had read Tacitus from one thing.

In book six of the Annals, Tacitus, Roman historian, describes how runaway mortgages, our mortgage lending, combined with government meddling with interest rates and loan terms, resulted in a credit crunch and an eventual collapse in real estate prices. All of this happened in AD 32 during the reign of Roman emperor Tiberius. So, a very similar pattern occurred back then. Quoting a Latin translation of Tacitus here, it says, Meanwhile, a powerful host of accusers fell with sudden fury on the class which systematically increased its wealth by usury. Do we know of anyone today who increases their wealth by usury? They're called banks, loaning institutions. People don't give away. They loan you money and they charge you an exorbitant interest rate on it. It says, The curse of usury was indeed of old standing in Rome, a most frequent cause of sedition, discord, and it was therefore repressed even in the early days of a less corrupt morality. Hence, following a scarcity of money, a great shock being given to all credit their current coin to and consequence of the conviction of so many persons in the sale of their property. In other words, they couldn't make their payments. They couldn't get credit. They lost their property, these being locked up in the imperial treasury of the public exchanger. The government ended up owning much of the property, and the average person who had owned property was not able to continue to own property. They couldn't afford it. They couldn't get a loan. And you find the exact same thing happened back there that is happening today. And I would dare say that it's probably been repeated more than once down through the ages in the history of mankind. Why is it that man fails to learn the lessons of history? Well, one of the big reasons is probably most people are totally unfamiliar with history. Don't know diddly-squat about history. Don't know anything about what God might say or what, you know, just reading the secular histories. Let's go back to Psalm 78, verse 1. And let's notice here a charge that God gave to the Israelites. Psalm 78 will begin here in verse 1. It says, Give ear, O my people, to my laws, and cline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, and I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard known, and our fathers have told us. We've not hid them from their children, telling them to the generations to come, the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wonderful works he has done. So God shows that there's a responsibility that the present generation should tell the coming generation, the new generation, about God, his plan, his purpose, and along with that would be lessons that you might learn from history, lessons that you might learn from the Bible. And certainly a big part of the Bible is history. For he established a testimony in Jacob. He appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generations to come might know them. God wants us to pass on knowledge to the future generations so that they might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children. So one generation passes on the acumothy wisdom to the next generation and is certainly about God, that they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God in keeping his commandments. Now what's the problem? Well, verse 8, that they not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart right and whose spirit was not faithful to God. So we find that Israel constantly made the same mistakes over and over. So do we teach our children lessons from history? Do they in school learn history?

History, I think, has been de-emphasized a great deal in many schools today and certainly in institutions of higher learning. How many of us have stopped to think about that as you and your wife or your wife and you grew up and you learn lessons of life as you go along? Do we pass those type of things on to our children so that they can learn? Do we teach them and inculcate into them the right principles, values, standards, the way of life that they should live? You see, there is no relevance drawn between the lessons of history and what is occurring today in most places where you study history. Quite frankly, history is a dull, dry, boring subject to many because all it is is memorizing dates, events, and you don't see any connection with what's going on today. Well, God has given us a large portion of the Bible, and a large portion of the Bible is history. A lot of it is the writings of former prophets, and even the prophets still deal with history that we can look back on now and see what occurred. We've got the history of the New Testament Church in the New Testament, and so there are many lessons that we can learn. So, brethren, the history of Israel, as we view it from the Bible and Scripture, is that they were constantly making the same mistake over and over again. Today, I'd like for us to look at some of the prophecies and histories in the Bible and what occurred before and what is going to occur here in the future. What our children, what we may, and our children, and our grandchildren are going to have to face if they are alive. When you look at the Bible, the period of the Judges, the period of the United Kingdom, that's before the division, and then the divided kingdom clearly demonstrated a pattern. Israel constantly forgot God and His law, rebelled, went their own way, established their own ideas, values, standards, worshiped false gods, false rites, religious days. Then God would send them a judge or a prophet who'd come along and say, repent! And very seldom did they ever repent. They continued along. Then they would be taken into captivity, and after a few years in captivity, they would begin to realize what they had done wrong. They'd cry out to God. They would repent. God would send another judge or prophet along to rescue them. They'd be a savior. And then they would come back to the Promised Land. They would live faithfully for a few years, and then they would repeat the cycle all over again. Read the book of Judges, and it reads like a broken record, constantly, one after another after another of rebellion going into captivity, coming back out, going in and out and in and out. So they never seem to learn their lesson. And, brethren, we find that this is true. It's a true principle for many nations, and especially the people of Israel.

Now, God Almighty promised to Abraham certain conditions and blessings. God told Abraham that his descendants were going to grow into a nation and a multitude of nations. That they would be prosperous. That they would have great political and military might and clout. That they would have a great deal of influence. That the nations of the world would shake before them. And God absolutely said that it would happen. It was going to take place. Let's go to Genesis 49, where we find a prophecy about what's going to happen in the future. We'll see here in verse 1. Genesis 49 verse 1 says, Jacob called his sons and said, Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you when. In the last days.

See, it's the last days that these predictions here about the sons of Jacob are going to transpire.

So, whenever the last days are, this is when these are going to take place. Now, you might ask yourself, why didn't God raise Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, to prominence a thousand years ago? What about 500 years ago? What about 2000 years ago? Why do we find that the descendants of those people have risen to such great prominence today? Ephraim being the British Commonwealth of Nations and the United States being the descendants of Manasseh. Well, there is a reason. Hold that thought. We'll come back to it. But notice in verse 22 what God prophesied would happen. The ultimate fulfillment of these promises. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well. His branches run over the wall. The archers have bitterly grieved him, shot at him, and hated him. But his bow remained in strength. So you find that even though there would be enemies, there would be those who would militarily attack, that his strength would be stronger. And the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. So you find our dominance in that way is not because we're greater, but because of God's intervention and God's help. Verse 25, by the God of your fathers, who will help you, and by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lie beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb, blessings of your fathers, have excelled the blessings of their ancestors. Up to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills, they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him who was separate from his brothers.

That Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh, his children were to be blessed above the other tribes.

Now you find that we have truly been greatly blessed. I asked the question, why didn't God fulfill this prophecy a thousand years ago or 500 years ago? Well, there's a reason. Because God was going to do a work in the end time. God was going to raise his church up to do a work. And because he was going to raise his church up, he was going to provide a basis, a platform, a launching pad for that work to be accomplished. You stop and ask yourself. When Mr. Armstrong started preaching back in the 1930s, could the gospel have been preached out of Russia? Well, we know Stalin was there at that time, and there wasn't any freedom of religion. You weren't going to preach to the world with Stalin. What about Africa? They couldn't do it in Africa because they didn't have the money. There was no means of getting the gospel out from there, and they were backward, technologically not advanced. What about the Mid-East? On the Mid-East, you have basically Muslim nations, and they're certainly not going to take the Christian religion to all the world. China, India, Far East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, you go on down through all the stands over there. None of them were going to be used. But God provided, as I said, a platform, a means for the gospel to be preached. And so, he established, Ephraim and Manasseh brought them to great prominence, riches, your wealth unknown in the world at the very end time. And in those countries, the gospel is to be preached. And so, you'll find it started in Manasseh, it spread to Canada, spread to England. And look at the nations that have basically had the gospel preached to them in a way, mighty way. It's the tribes of Israel, South Africa, Australia, England, United States, Canada, and through a lesser degree to the other nations. God commissioned his church to preach the gospel as a witness. God set his church as a watchman to warn the nations and to give hope to the nations. Not just a warning and a witness, but to give hope as we will see.

Now, in Deuteronomy chapter 28, beginning in verse 1, Deuteronomy 28, 1, we find a general principle outlined here. This is a principle that applies to any nation, any nation, any people who put God first, keep his laws, his commandments. God says he will bless them. There are rewards for blessings, and if you disobey, you will be cursed. So let's look at our countries. Here we are. And truly, we have been blessed. No one can doubt the blessings of the British Commonwealth, their rise to power, and then in the 20th century, the rise to power of the United States.

But let's notice, it shall come to pass if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. So they were promised that they would be exalted high above all nations. And all these blessings shall come on you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. But why did the blessings overtake us? Because Abraham had obeyed the voice of the living God and God had promised to him. Now, our continually receiving those blessings then depended upon our obedience. And to start with, this country was much more religious, biblically oriented than we are today. I think anyone who studies history will realize that almost immediately. Notice the blessings that God promised. Verse 4, Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herds and the increase of your cattle. So you find God promised to bless the families, the fruit of your body, that we would have help. We would be an industrious people. And that is read there also to increase our ground. Verse 5, Blessed will be your basket and your kneading bowl. Verse 8, The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses. So we would be blessed agriculturally. Look at the tremendous ability that we've had to produce crops and how we've actually shipped over to less fortunate nations. Tons, millions of tons of grain.

Many times giving it away to people who were in need. And God has tremendously blessed us in those ways. Verse 7, The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way. They shall flee seven ways. So military powers, that we would be able to stand against our enemies, defeat them, and be able to be a mighty military power. Verse 10 sort of summarizes that. And all peoples, not some, not half, but all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. I would say that after the Second World War, that the United States rose to such prominence that most nations did not want to tackle or deal with the United States. And as it says here, people will be afraid of you. And in verse 12, last sentence here says, you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and the Lord will make you the head, and not the tail. You shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and be careful to observe them. So God said we would not be a debtor nation. We would not have to go to other nations and borrow from them to be able to subside. And that was true for quite a bit of the history of this country. But what happens if we disobey? Verse 15, but it shall come to pass if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes which I command you today, and that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. And then it goes on to begin to describe the curses. Can we say that God is that we as a nation as a whole obey God?

Now, we live in what's commonly called the Bible Belt, and you've got a lot of churches and religions basically in the South. But when you get out of here, you'll find that many areas of the country are just irreligious. They believe in humanism, secularism. In fact, it was something I saw someone pass on to me this past week or so on the internet, where they were showing all of the schools where young people have been killed and teachers have been killed. You've been some massacres. You put your cursor on it and it will tell you on this date, so many were killed. This date were so many killed. Then you go on down and the question is asked, God, why didn't you protect those students? Why didn't you save them? God's answer, I'm not allowed in your schools. Well, you see, that's what's happened today. God is not allowed in our schools. Religion is not taught in our schools. And you find that we live in a very secular society where any reference to God, there's going to be somebody suing to have it removed. So, God says that we will be cursed for our disobedience. You reap what you sow. That's a biblical principle. There is cause and effect. And God holds us responsible for our actions. We are responsible. Now, you find in verse 16, we'll be cursed in our cities and cursed in the countries. Can you truly say that the cities in the United States today are blessed?

Do you say that New York City is a blessed area? Washington, DC is blessed.

Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, LA, San Francisco. I mean, you can go on and name them. Are these truly a blessing to the people who live there? Well, no, they're not. Verse 18 says, "...cursed be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land." So, our children today are cursed. And you find that, health-wise, many of our children today overweight, many have diabetes. We find that there's a rebellion going on. And for the first time in the history of this country, it is estimated that the next generation will not exceed the present generation as far as their ability and capacity to earn money and wealth and to add to society. That we have reached a peak, and we're going this way as far as the next generation. Verse 22 says, "...the Lord will strike you with consumption and fever, with inflammation and severe burning fever, the sword and scorching." So, we're going to have health problems. Well, look at the health problems we have, the cancers, the heart problems. You know, I mean, you just go on and on. I mean, we are a sick nation. Look at the billions of dollars that are spent on medicines. In fact, it's hard to even watch a program today without seeing some advertisement. You know, do you have fungus among us? Well, take this. You know, is your hair falling out? Take that. You know, everything in this country is a pill. Take a pill and it'll cure it. And so, you find that we are addicted, you know, as a country to those type of things. In verse 24, we find that God will cause the rain to stop, the land will turn to powder. Actually, what we see in one area, it rains too much. Another area doesn't get enough rain.

And then in verse 43, the alien who is among you shall rise up higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower, and he shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him, and he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. Now, God promised if we obeyed that we would not be borrowing money. But, brethren, how does the government subsidize itself? We're going to borrow money from Europe, from China, from Japan, from the Arabs. Right now, we're talking about another trillion-dollar bailout. So, where are we going to get that trillion dollars? There's not a trillion dollars in somebody's bank account that's just sitting there, and, well, let's decide how to use this trillion dollars. Now, you've got to go borrow it, so they're going to borrow it from somebody who's then going to charge interest. Or, they'll just print new money. Now, that's convenient. You print new money, it's not worth the paper it's printed on, because there's nothing behind it. And so, we either print it or we borrow it. And, ultimately, as this chapter shows, any nation who refuses to obey God and keep God first ultimately goes into captivity. And, brethren, we are living in monumental times because we are living during an age where we see God's blessings being removed from Israel. And, if we can't see that, especially in the economic sector, militarily even, we find that our blessings, the blessings that God has given to us, our power, our prestige, our influence, we are truly hated around the world. Now, in the in-home Bible studies we've been having, we've been going through the book of Hosea. And, I was counting up, we probably maybe have about a third of us who are here who attend those Bible studies. But, let's go back to the book of Hosea, chapter 5. Notice beginning in verse 5, Hosea 5.5, what God says is going to happen.

Now, as the New Testament says, we have the sure word of prophecy. When we read these prophecies, this isn't somebody's opinion. This is God speaking directly to us.

And in verse 5, it says, the pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore, Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity. Judah also stumbles with them. Remember, Hosea is one of the earlier prophets. He wrote to the house of Israel before they went into captivity. So, he's talking here to them. It says, with their flocks and their herds, they will go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him. So, it's going to come a time in the future, perhaps when things really begin to get bad and people begin to look around, looking for answers, looking for help, that maybe they'll go back to church.

They'll begin to seek God, but as it says here, they will not find him. Now, why? He has withdrawn himself from them. There comes a time when God will withdraw. He will withdraw his blessings. He will withdraw his help. He will withdraw his protection. He will withdraw. And you find that God will turn his back. It says, for they have dealt treacherously with the Lord. They have begotten pagan or strange children, and now a new moon shall devour them and their heritage, indicating there's a very short time will transpire once God does this before ultimate captivity occurs on this nation.

Now, verse 13, we read, when Ephraim saw his sickness, sickness would indicate something from within, such as a cancer, gnawing, and eating at the very intros and vitals of the nation. Isaiah chapter 1, you can tie in with this, Isaiah 1 says, the nation is sick from the head to the toes, from the leadership down to the very bottom, all strata, all level, sick. And Judah saw his wound, a wound is something that's afflicted from without.

And so there's going to come here in the future, a time when the nation of Israel in the mid-east is going to be hurt very badly by a rocket attack or by an invasion, or something's going to happen where they have this wound. So when Ephraim begins to realize it needs help, it's sick, and Judah has this wound, where do they go? Do our people get on their knees, cry out to God, ask God to help us, to heal us? Well, no, it says they go to Assyria.

Modern Assyria would be Germany today. They sent to King Jerab, yet he cannot cure you, nor heal you of your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah, I even I will tear them and go away, and I will take them away, and no one shall rescue. There's going to come a time when there will be no help.

Our allies will turn their backs on us. Those that we considered friends will no longer be there, and no one will rescue our people, as it says here. Norm and I, on a couple of occasions, had the opportunity to go through Kruger National Park. We've seen lion kills where lions along the side of the road, a whole pride of them, would be there chewing on a, well, I think giraffes were the kill we saw.

Now, I've often thought, because you know, on Kruger, you can't get out of your car. If you get out of your car and they catch you, they'll throw you out of the park, because you're in the car and the wild animals are out there. I mean, they're wild, and you just drive through and take a look at them. What if you were out there by yourself and there was a hungry lion, and you were the only thing in sight?

Well, he would come along and rip you apart, tear you apart, and that would be the end. Well, this is the analogy that God is using here, that he is going to tear or allow Israel to be torn apart. God says, I will return again to my place. So, God is going to return until they acknowledge their offense. So, he says that our people are going to have to acknowledge their offense, and just like ancient Israel, going into captivity. After a while, they began to realize, well, it wasn't just because these people were smarter, have greater militaries because of our sins, and they will repent.

And God says, they will seek my face and their affliction. They will earnestly seek me. So, here we find God turning his back, and you find Israel, God withdrawing himself.

Now, this period of time in the Bible is called the time of Jacob's trouble. Jeremiah 30, verse 7. Jeremiah 30, we'll read here in verse 7. "'Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it.'" So, here's a time of trouble without parallel. There's no day like it.

It is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. Now, remember, the house of Israel had already gone into captivity in 721-718 B.C. to the Assyrians. Jeremiah is preaching during the time and dealing with the house of Judah 120 years later. So, when he's talking here about Jacob going into captivity, it's obviously referring to a future time, and he refers to it as the time of Jacob's trouble, a time of trouble coming on our people. The Living Bible translates, verse 7, "'Alas, in all history, when has there been a time of terror such as in this coming day? It is a time of trouble for my people Jacob, such as they have never known before. Yet God will rescue them. He won't allow them to be totally destroyed.' The Message translation, the blackest of days. No day like it, a time of deep trouble for Jacob, but he'll come out of it alive." And then the New Living translation says, "'In all history, there's never been such a time of terror. It will be a time of trouble for my people Israel, yet in the end they will be saved.'" So, brethren, there is a prophesied time of trouble at the very end of the age. It is prophesied to be the time of Jacob's trouble.

You know, the descendants of Israel. Now, compare this time we read of here to Daniel.

Let's go to Daniel 11 first. Daniel 11, verse 40.

To get the setting of this prophecy.

Daniel 11, verse 40. "'At the time of the end, the king of the south will attack him.'" So, here's a prophecy that is set at the time of the end.

Verse 12, or chapter 12, verse 1. "'At that time," what time? The time of the end, "'Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people.'" So, Michael has been given the responsibility by God to look out after Israel. "'And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.'" Now, there can't be two times of trouble greater than any other time.

There can't be two times of trouble without parallel, but this is referring to the same time. And it's at the time of the end. That, it says, "'Such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time, and at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life.'" So, what period of time are we talking about here? It's the end time. It's the time right before the resurrection takes place. And here we have a time of trouble without parallel. That has to be the same time as Jacob's trouble.

Now, you go to Matthew 24, verse 3, and we find this mentioned again. And Jesus Christ helps to put it into context. And Jesus Christ and His disciples were sitting on the Mount of Olives, and His disciples came up and asked Him, verse 3, "'What are going to be the signs of your coming, the end of the world, or the end of the age?' And Christ began to talk about, there will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be false prophets. There will be famines and pestilence, earthquakes, you know, all of these things. Verse 8, "'All of these are the beginning of sorrows.'" Verse 9, "'Then they shall deliver you up to tribulation, and kill you, and you will be hated of all nations, for my name's sake.'" Now, that refers to both physical Israel and spiritual Israel at the end time, because we find scriptures that indicate that the nations of Israel will be hated, and God's church, God's people, are going to be hated. We're not going to be the most popular group on the face of the earth at that time. Then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will wax cold, but he that endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations. Then the end will come. The end of what? Well, the end of the age, as verse 3 says, the coming of Jesus Christ. Now, in verse 21, we read, "'For then shall be great tribulation.'" So at the end time, there's going to be a great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. All life would be obliterated off the earth. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. Now, here's another reason why God raised the church up at the end time. Because we are the hope, the salvation, because there are a group of people who are obeying God, doing His work at the end time. God will spare humanity from utter destruction. Now, although this horrible time of tribulation is directed towards Israel, towards Jacob, it will affect the entire world. It will affect all nations. Now, if our nation of the United States and Britain, if our people do not repent of our national sins and change our ways, God warns of dire consequences. In Zechariah chapter 13, beginning in verse 8, we find a prophecy that is directed here at the end time. Zechariah chapter 13 verse 8, It shall come to pass in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die. So two-thirds of our people will die, but one-third shall be left in it. And I will bring the one-third through the fire. So the one-third, then, is going to have to go through testing trials and will refine them as silver is refined. And test them as gold is tested, and they will call on my name, and I will answer them, and I will say, this is my people. And each one of them will say, the Lord is my God. So ultimately, going into captivity, being tested, going through the trials, they will repent and God will intervene to help them. Now, tie this in with Ezekiel chapter 22 verse 15.

Ezekiel chapter 22, and we'll begin to read here in verse 15.

God says, I will scatter you among the nations. So there's going to come a time when the descendants, the peoples of Israel, will be taken into captivity, and they will be scattered among all nations. And I'll disperse you throughout the countries and remove your filthiness completely from you. Now, why are they going into captivity? Well, because of their filthiness, or their sins, or their impurities, impure way of life, impure customs, habits, traditions. Now, in verse 18, Son of Man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. They are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the midst of a furnace, and they have become dross from silver. When you melt silver or gold, there's a lot of dross, in other words, a lot of impurities there. And so you burn those off, you smelt them or melt them down, and then you're able to ladle off the impurities, and what's left is the pure item. Well, God says He's going to throw our nations, our people, who are left alive into the furnace of the tribulation, and their impurities will be burned off there. Their sins, they will come to acknowledge and repent, and so God will deal with them to bring them to repentance. And verse 21, Yes, I will gather you and blow on you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst. God says. Just high on Ezekiel 5 verse 12, Ezekiel 5, where it says again, a third will die with pestilence, a third will die of the sword, and a third will be taken into captivity. Now, why is God going to do this to Israel?

Well, it's because of our national sins. Back up to Hosea again, Hosea chapter 4, and verse 1. This is a pretty good summary of what we're talking about. Hosea chapter 4, 1, Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of a land, like a lawyer in court charging someone with a crime. There's no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. No truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God. In verse 2, notice the sins. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing, and committing adultery, the word adultery or harlotry is mentioned dozens of times here in the book of Hosea. They break all restraint with bloodshed upon bloodshed. So you find the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells there will waste away. So we find that when you look at the nation, God highlights some of the sins, adultery, fornication, pornography, murder, killing, stealing. Here recently, we've had a gentleman who built people out of $50 billion through a Ponzi scheme. There are hundreds of those going on, and he's just one because of the largeness of it. They got called, but there are many out there doing the same thing. But you find that there are no restraints. We live in a society where it seems like there are no restraints. If somebody wants to do it, they do it. If they want drugs, they do them. If they want to get another mate, they do it. If they don't want to get married, they don't. If they want to commit sexual perversion, they do it. If you've got it, they want it, they take it. That's basically what we find.

Last night, I went on the world clock, and for the first eight days, 19 hours, 43 minutes, and 40 seconds. I could have done this this morning, and it would have been a little more up to date, but this was last night. You can say almost for nine days in the year 2009, what are the crime statistics in the United States? Nine days. Violent crimes, 34,244. Murders, 411. Aggravated assault, 20,793. Rapes, 2,233. That's just nine days. Multiply, you know, divide nine into 365, and then you multiply times this, and you get a pretty good idea of what it's going to be like. Our look at the 208, 2008 clock, and you can see what happened last year. Robbery, 10,806. Property crime, 241,000. Burglaries, 52,000. Larceny and theft, 159,000. Motor vehicle theft, 28,000. Drug abuse, 40,000. One that scares me, ID, theft. 2,285,145. So how many millions, and maybe some of us, are going to have your identity stolen this year? Prison population, 2,243,000. And illegal aliens, 13,418,000.

13 million, excuse me, 418,295. So it gives you an idea. I mean, this is just a nine-day period. What would these stats look like after a month, after six months, you know, after the end of a whole year? Well, what we find is that truly, brethren, when the Bible says that killing, stealing, swearing, lying, cheating, and no restraints, that's exactly what you see in our country. In verses 6 and 7 here, chapter 4, now let no man contend or rebuke another, for your people are like those who contend with the priest. Well, that's verse 4. Let's go to verse 6. It says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Verse 1 says that's a lack of knowledge of God. Because you've rejected knowledge, the knowledge of God, God says, I will also reject you from being priests for me. And because you've forgotten the law of God, I also will forget your children. The more they increase, the more they sin. The more God's blessed us, the more prosperous we become, the more we forget God. And you look to our prosperity. In chapter 2 here, the book of Hosea, in verse 5, Hosea was told to go marry a woman who was a prostitute. Her name was Gomer. She and the sins that she committed were symbolic of the sins of the nation. So in verse 5, it says, Their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.

For she said, I will go after my lovers who gave me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink. So we don't acknowledge God as the one who provides for us. We look to our allies, our neighbors, those we're in alliances with. In verse 8, God says, I'm the one who gave her grain, you wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and her gold, which they then prepared for Baal. And so then God begins to indict our people in verse 11, for keeping their feast days, their new moons, their Sabbaths, their appointed, or her says, her appointed feast and so on, not God's. And you'll find in verse 13, I will punish her for the days of Baal. They weren't worshiping the true God, but Baal. And verse 17 says the same thing. I want you to notice what Paul Johnson, the British historian, has written about our time today. He says the financial crisis was detonated by greed and recklessness on Wall Street in the city of London.

He asked for the west a deep health-inflicted wound. We did it to ourselves.

The beneficiaries won't be Russia, which its fragile energy-based economy, is likely to suffer more than we shall. It will be India and China. They will move into power vacuum left by the collapse of the Western self-confidence. If we seriously wish to repair the damage, we need to accept that this is fundamentally a moral problem. It's a moral problem, not a financial one. It is a product of self-indulgence and complacency, born out of ultra-liberal societies, which have substituted such pseudo-religions as political correctness and saving the planet for genuine distinction between what is right and wrong and the cultivation of real virtues. I think he hit the nail right on the head. We are suffering as a result of our greed and our vanity and our self-indulgence. You'll find that Hosea's wife was a type of the sins of the people, but his children had three children here. His family was an example of what was going to happen to Israel. In verse 5 of chapter 1 of the book of Hosea, we read, It shall come to pass in the days that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

You find the bow standing for our power, military might. Jezreel was the first son that Hosea had. Jezreel means to scatter. So by the very name, the very name that God chose to name this child, showed that Israel, because of their sins, would be scattered, as we've already read among the nations. And then, in verse 6, had a daughter. God said to him, Call her name, Lo Ruhama. Lo in the Hebrew means not. Ruhama means mercy. So God says, I will not have mercy. As it goes on to say, I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.

Yet I'll still have mercy on the house of Judah. Of course, that was back at that time. Judah continued for another 120 or 30 years after Israel went into captivity. Then there was a third child, a son, called his name Lo Ami. Ami means my people. Lo means not my people. For you are not my people. Now the first three chapters of Hosea, each one ends on a positive note. It outlines the sins, the problems, what God's going to do to them, and then it ends up with God talking about restoration and bringing them back. So we notice here that God talks about that they are going to become—well, let's read it in verse 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as a sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. It shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people. That it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living God. That God will intervene and He will begin to deal with Israel. And then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together in a point for themselves one head. And they shall come out of the land, and great will be the day of Jezreel. Now Jezreel means to scatter, but here it means to sow. God isn't going to scatter them, He's going to sow them in the land. And in chapter 2, verse 1—this actually should be included here at the end of this chapter—say to your brethren, my people, and to your sister, mercy is shown. So God is going to extend mercy to them, and He will forgive them. Now, we find that in Hosea chapter 2, the same thing is mentioned over here in verses 21 through 23. I'll just reference that to you because God talks here about Jezreel in verse 22 and verse 23. I will sow her myself in the earth, and then I'll have mercy on her who have not obtained mercy. And you are my people, and they shall say you are my God. So our people will go into captivity and repent while in captivity and come back out, and God will begin to deal with them at that time. Okay, with all of that in mind, what is our responsibility? Do you ever stop to ask yourself, what responsibility do I have personally? What does God expect His Church to do today?

We know that God wanted a work to be done at the end time to warn the nations, especially the tribes of Israel. Matthew 24, 14, the gospel is to be preached in all the world as a witness. You find the book of Ezekiel that God said, Ezekiel there, as a watchman, and that we are to be a watchman to the nations. But Hosea 5 in verse 9 indicates that before Israel goes into captivity, we know the two witnesses are going to preach, and their message is going to be carried around the world for three and a half years. But that's during the time of the Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. But notice verse 9, Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke.

Among the tribes of Israel, I make known what is sure. Who makes that known to them? Who tells the tribes of Israel what's going to happen? What's going to transpire? Well, that's the reason why God raised up a work at the end time. That's the reason why you find we're all sitting here. That's the reason why God raised Mr. Armstrong up and called so many at one time. In chapter 7, verse 12, we find the same thing.

Wherever they go, I will spread my net on them, and I will bring them down like the birds of the air. I will chastise them according to what their congregation has heard. How are they going to hear it unless somebody preaches it? Somebody is sending that message. Then chapter 9, verse 7, the days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come. Israel knows. So how are they going to know again unless they're told? I have a request to make of all of us.

I think that we need to be praying and fasting that God would open doors before the church to preach the gospel. We realize that there are a number of groups out here attempting to break up from the worldwide church of God attempting to do works. Yet we're all small. Maybe United is the biggest, but yet still we're all small. Nowhere do we compare to the 100-200 million dollars income that we used to have on almost all major networks, radio, and the eight million plane troops being circulated. How are we going to reach the nations today? We're trying through TV, video, internet, printed word, all of these different ways of reaching the nations. And yet we have the example of the apostle Paul when he was an Asia minor. That he heard someone from Macedonia in a vision say, come over here. And God opened the door to go to Europe, to Greece, and into that area. Well, brethren, if we're going to preach the gospel to this world as a witness and as a warning and to let the tribes of Israel know, God's going to have to open some doors that we may not even have any idea right now what those doors are. Or God is going to have to take what we're presently doing and somehow super jump that to do a work that is going to make a tremendous impact upon the nations. And that's going to depend upon us on our knees, our prayers, our fasting, our, you know, tithes, offerings, you and all of that. We need to pray that God will do a mighty work, but he will open doors. Because, you see, he is the one who opens the doors. And we have that in Revelation chapter 3, where it talks about Philadelphia, that God opens doors. No man shuts them. He shuts them, and no man opens. So God can open doors and will open doors. Brethren, God will provide the opportunities. We have to be ready to go through those doors. So this is something that I think tangibly that all of us can do in furthering the work of God. And sometimes we get down and we pray, and it's sort of nebulous. God bless the works and more mighty, you help this, help that. But I think, too, if we wholeheartedly, all of us are praying that God would open doors, whatever that door might be, in a way, then the gospel can go out as a witness. The gospel can go out as a warning. And not only that, but hope can be offered. Because in the future, when the time of Jacob's trouble finally descends, and you find that our people are in captivity, there are going to be a lot of people who are going to give up or want to lose hope. And yet, many of them will say, I remember I heard a message. I heard that Christ is going to come back. There is hope, and they will cling to that hope. So, brethren, our message is not only just witnessing and warning, but it is a message of hope.