The title of this post is taken from Deuteronomy 28:23 in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. It is taken from a chapter wherein God listed national blessings and cursings which would befall the people of the ancient twelve tribes of Israel depending on whether they obeyed his laws or disobeyed them. The twelve tribes of Israel eventually subdivided into two kingdoms named Israel and Judah soon after the death of King Solomon. Both kingdoms disobeyed God and all the cursings that were pronounced upon them in Deuteronomy 28 came to pass on both kingdoms, climaxing in the exile of all twelve tribes from the ancient Promised Land. A reference to the heavens becoming “brass” is a reference to God sending national drought upon nations who are disobedient to Divine laws.
Technically, this chapter was part of the Old Covenant that the tribes of Israel made with God at Mt. Sinai after God delivered them from Egyptian bondage. Modern Christians are under the terms of the new Covenant, but nations, especially “covenant” nations descended from the scattered ten tribes of Israel, can expect to have God deal with them under many of the terms of blessings and cursings that God outlined in Deuteronomy 28. God says he doesn’t change (Malachi 3:6) so we can expect God to use the same menu of national punishments for modern Israelite nations that he used for ancient Israelite nations. As those who have read my books or listened to my audio messages realize, it is easy to prove (yes, prove) that the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many European/Scandinavian nations are the modern nations descended from the ancient ten tribes of Israel.
Our nations enjoyed the great blessings promised in Deuteronomy 28 to covenant nations which obeyed God during the time when our nations practiced and acknowledged God in our national public and private life. Our nations had national greatness, victories in war, fertile lands, possession of strategic geographical chokepoints, prosperity, etc. when we practiced our Christian heritage. However, during recent decades our nations have been steadily abandoning the Christian beliefs that made our nations great. As this has happened, our nations have come under the national curses pronounced by Deuteronomy 28 upon covenant nations who forget and disobey God. Applying it to the USA, we used to be under the blessing of being a great creditor nation which lent to other nations (Deuteronomy 28:12) to now being under the curse of becoming the largest debtor nation on earth (Deuteronomy 28:44). We used to have bountiful harvests and fed the world (Deuteronomy 28:8), but now our nation is experiencing a great and increasingly-severe drought. Is this only a coincidence?
In truth, there have been rainy and dry years throughout history. Deuteronomy 28 is a prophecy about overall national conditions over decades, not prophecies for each and every year. However, this drought is now the worst since 1956 and it is stretching all over America and getting worse. How bad is it? The first two links [1, 2] are media stores documenting the severity of the drought. One states that almost 2/3rds of the continental USA is now officially in drought and the other story reports that it covers 55% of the entire land mass of the lower 48 states. I recommend that you read these links as they delineate how this drought will increase food and energy prices in future months if this trend continues. Why would it affect energy costs? Simple. Vast amounts of the USA’s corn crop is used to produce ethanol, an energy source which lessens our dependence on foreign oil-producers. If there is a dramatic lessening of the corn crop, it means there will be less domestically-produced fuel and more oil will need to be imported from abroad. The USDA recently reduced its forecast of the nation’s corn crop by a whopping 12% (see third link). If the drought continues, the forecasts for all US grain crops will be reduced more and more. The last link offers a national drought map for your information.
A recent post concerned the book, The Harbinger. This book, by a Messianic Jew, described uncanny similarities between the decline of the ancient kingdom of Israel, inhabited by the ten tribes of Israel, and the modern USA—especially since the fall of the Twin Towers in 2001. The book warned that the USA was adopting the same defiant attitude toward God that characterized the ancient kingdom of Israel and which eventually led to its fall. The book is even more gripping when one realizes that the USA was founded by people who actually were the lineal descendants of the ancient ten tribes of Israel! That book included a warning about the need for national repentance on the part of the USA to avoid the same judgments that God sent upon the ancient kingdom of Israel. Has the USA repented at all? No, it has adopted an even-more insulting attitude toward the Almighty.
Recently, President Obama publicly endorsed gay marriage. Seen from a biblical point-of-view, this may be the single greatest insult to the Almighty by any president in the history of the USA. If all the deceased presidents of the USA could come to life and hear what Obama just endorsed, I believe they would cringe in shock at the affront this is to the Almighty who has blessed our nation. Obama’s statement is a barometer of the decline of our entire nation.
Whether you are a Christian or atheist (or somewhere in between), you still have to be honest about the content of the Bible. The Bible states that homosexuality is an “abomination” to God (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13 and Romans 1:25-28). There are all kinds of sins, but “abominations” are an especially repugnant form of sin to the Creator. President Obama, speaking as the leader of the USA from his office, has endorsed an “abomination” which especially angers God. Is it just a coincidence that this drought has gotten steadily worse since Obama made his statement endorsing what the Bible labels an extreme form of sin? If it is a coincidence, then the drought will break and the rains will return. If this is a Divinely-sent drought, it will not relent. Just like all of you, I’ll be watching to see which happens. Indeed, even a Divinely-sent drought can be lessened or averted by the intercessory prayers of God’s people. The Bible had many examples of God mercifully averting or cancelling plagues which he had planned to send on nations. All the people of the ancient tribes of Israel were spared from death by the intercession of one man—Moses, who asked God to spare the people when God had pronounced a death sentence on all of them (Exodus 32:1-14). About seven centuries later, God intended to send two national plagues upon the kingdom of Israel (the people of the ten-tribed northern Israelite kingdom). God told Amos, a prophet, about his intentions, and the intercession of one man, Amos, averted two national calamities (Amos 7:1-6). Don’t ever think that your individual prayers don’t matter. They do. They can affect and change national events and destinies. The USA is in dire need of both national repentance and intercessory prayers from God’s people.
One final word. If there is no God and the Bible is not his Divine revelation to mankind, then none of this matters. Many have been duped into thinking that is the case. Many have been deceived into thinking the Bible is an unscientific book. They couldn’t be more wrong. To anyone who doubts the existence of God or the Divine authorship and scientific content of the Bible, I urge you to read three free articles at my website. They are entitled Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?, The USA in Biblical Prophecy, and Is the Earth 6000 Years Old? [When Lucifer Ruled the Earth]. If you read these three articles, I believe you will see that the Bible really is a scientific and Divinely-inspired book, as only a Creator God could inspire prophecies thousands of years ago and then make them come to pass in our modern world…right on schedule. If you simply want to increase your faith, I urge you to read these articles. If you want to increase the faith of others, I urge you to forward those three articles to others.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-16/news/sns-rt-us-usa-droughtbre86f1d4-20120716_1_corn-crop-midwest-corn-corn-and-soybeans
http://www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt/community/drought_gov/202;jsessionid=1E78F6933F7379801AC560E701C186F3
