Of

Manure & Man

II. Israel

1. Israel
   1. Israel is a representative nation, God’s test case.
   2. Israel’s majority chose the golden calf, and the majority of humanity chooses the same.
   3. The selfish impulse is the devil’s dogma.
   4. The manure of stolen lands will fertilize a condemnation that grows the torment of shame through eternity.
   5. Yes, Israel is a representative nation, God’s test case. Let the chosen few learn from them what not to do.

Israel

Israel is a representative nation, God’s test case.

The highest question in the universe is: If God were to visibly manifest His presence, audibly speak to humanity, sustain their lives with miracles, and give them a system of law that rewards good deeds and punishes evil, then would humanity be faithful to God or defect before the sensual pull of false religion, gold, sex, and intoxication?

Israel’s majority chose the golden calf, and the majority of humanity chooses the same.

In the 8th century BC, the prophet Isaiah cried out a rebuke to this representative nation. He said:

“Woe to those who join house to house,
who add field to field,
until there is no more room,
and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land”
(Is. 5:8).

The selfish impulse is the devil’s dogma.

Like a flashing lure, the devil dangles the promise of golden calf orgies before humanity, but he first puts our lusts under tribute, and takes the gold from us with which he hammers out it’s damnable form. He takes gold from us, the gold of moral values, our true worth, our honor, and by promising to give us something he takes everything away. This is how Satan could say to Christ that all the kingdoms of the world are his to give (see Matt. 4). However, this devil always lies. He promised Eve that if she would accept Satan’s scheme of redistribution, then she would become like God; but she was already like God, made in His image. So, Eve joined the merchant of death and traded what paradise she had for hell on earth. All men and nations trade their gold for bull dung when they forsake the Law of God: this manure is all stench, all mess, empty of that life-giving fertility that drives men to walk and work among it.

Other prophets have rebuked the devil’s disciples for their dogma.

Micah 2:2
“They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses.
They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.”

Habakkuk 2:9
“Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain,
to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!”

The devil fiercely competes against human logic which is the common grace of God in every man. If Satan gives a man the world for the short time of his life, then he robs him of his right to eternity with God. The devil is a royal dignitary of leachdom, always taking where he promises to give. Leachdom’s father has many mansions in his house; and he his preparing a place for his dupes, palaces packed with termites, filled with deluding fumes from a leaking gas main that is ready and predetermined to combust with that same flame that consumes Satan himself from the inside out.

The manure of stolen lands will fertilize a condemnation that grows the torment of shame through eternity.

Sometimes, such devils who lie, steal, kill, and destroy, dare to enter into the celebrations of the congregations of God, and they profane the holy things of the Lord. Regarding them, God says:

Malachi 2:3
“Behold, I will rebuke your offspring,
and spread dung on your faces,
the dung of your offerings,
and you shall be taken away with it.”

What does it profit a person to gain the world but lose their soul in the bull market of hell, in the market of the golden calf, where all values are inverted, where man’s soul sinks deeper into hell the higher he builds the Babellian tower of his greed, cravings, lusts? Nothing.

Yes, Israel is a representative nation, God’s test case. Let the chosen few learn from them what not to do.

1 CORINTHIANS 10:
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”