If you will not return to Me…

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wrong way-largeJust take a look around you! There is widespread famine, tropical storms, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, financial hardship, moral decay and infertility. The whole earth seems to be in turmoil. Is this the beginning of the end times? Are we experiencing what Y’shua described to His disciples in Matthew 24? It could be, but it could also be Abba YHVH calling us to return to Him. If you read His Word, you will know that He uses extreme measures to call His people to repentance and to a life of obedience. We are Israel, His people, and judgment starts in His house! (1 Pet 4 :12)

He promises restoration to those who will hear and obey, but we will have to make that choice for ourselves. Are we going to continue to be rebellious? Are we going to continue to follow our own way and our own thoughts?

Isaiah 65:1–2
1 “I have let Myself be inquired of, not by those who asked; I was found, not by those who sought Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation not calling on My Name. 2 “I have held out My hands all day long to a stubborn people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

We have in a previous post “YHVH restores us back to Him“ determined which way YHVH’s way is. His way is described in His Word; in His Torah. Rebellion is being disobedient to YHVH’s Word – His commandments.

1 Samuel 15:23
23 “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of יהוה, He also does reject you as sovereign.”

This verse is speaking about the sin of Saul, but are we any better than Saul was? We do the same. We are also disobedient to His Word. We are a rebellious people.

Most people say that we don’t have to keep the commandments. Messiah Y’shua Himself, tells us that He did not come to do away with the law (Torah or commandments). He fulfilled the law (Torah); which means that He came to show us how it is to be done. He -Y’shua our Messiah- is the living Torah. He is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). Y’shua’s sinless life on earth was to show us how we should be living our lives according to YHVH’s instructions. The instructions (Torah) which He gave in the beginning is still in effect and we have been shown by Y’shua how to live it. Y’shua is our salvation and through Him we are adopted as children of YHVH. Should we as children not be obedient to our Father’s instructions?

Matthew 5:17–19
17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to complete. 18 “For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done. 19 “Whoever, then, breaks one of the least of these commands, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the reign of the heavens; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the reign of the heavens.

He is the same yesterday, today and forever. YHVH has not changed His mind about the instructions that He gave. His Son Y’Shua came to earth to teach us and to show us, not to change the rules. These words from Y’Shua to His disciples shows us that these instructions will remain in place till the end. Just think how scary our world would be if our Father changes His mind every thousand or so years.

Psalm 102:27
27 “But You are the same, And Your years have no end.

Hebrews 13:8
8 יהושׁע Messiah is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

YHVH is always the same, but we have a choice that we need to make. We can choose to obey and be blessed or we can choose to disobey and suffer the consequences. This is a personal choice that nobody can make for us. Here is what we can expect if we choose to be obedient:

Leviticus 26:3–12
3 ‘If you walk in My laws and guard My commands, and shall do them, 4 then I shall give you rain in its season, and the land shall yield its crops, and the trees of the field yield their fruit. 5 ‘And your threshing shall last till the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last till the time of sowing. And you shall eat your bread until you have enough, and shall dwell in your land safely. 6 ‘And I shall give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and no one make you afraid. And I shall clear the land of evil beasts, and not let the sword go through your land. 7 ‘And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. 8 ‘And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you pursue ten thousand. And your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. 9 ‘And I shall turn to you and make you bear fruit, and shall increase you, and shall establish My covenant with you. 10 ‘And you shall eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new. 11 ‘And I shall set My Dwelling Place in your midst, and My being shall not reject you. 12 ‘And I shall walk in your midst, and shall be your Elohim, and you shall be My people.

To summarize this for you:

  • We shall have rain in its season. Rain in its season means crops grow and trees are fruitful, which in turns means that we have enough to eat and drink. No famine – thus prosperity if our crops produce more than what we can consume. This can only happen if we have rain at the right time of the year.
  • We shall dwell in our land in safety, we shall have peace in our land and no one shall make us afraid. This means a peaceful existence where we can enjoy the prosperity that we have with no threat to us.
  • YHVH shall clear the land of evil beasts – think about it, viruses and bacteria are also evil beasts. We tend to think only of wild animals, but this can refer to sickness and plagues also. Thus, not only will other nations or people not bother us, but neither will the creatures around us.
  • No sword means no war, and if an enemy threat exists – we will be victorious.
  • We shall bear good fruit in our lives.
  • We shall increase as opposed to the current trend of increasing infertility.
  • We shall live in abundance – clear out the old in order to make place for the new
  • YHVH shall walk in our midst like He did in the garden of Eden.

Wow, this is such an amazing promise! Wouldn’t we like to live like that. This promise is still true today and we can live like this, but sadly we don’t.

Look at what is currently happening in the world around you: drought, famine, terror, sickness and despair, plagues, war and rumors of war. We don’t bear the fruit that we should – there is an overall moral decay in the world – divorce, adultery, pornography, child molestation, murder, theft, strife, lies and deceit. These are the bad fruits that we are currently witnessing. Then we have the increasing infertility rate….poverty, depression…..And then the last and most devastating – we live our lives without guidance, that is to say without Abba YHVH. We call on Him and He doesn’t answer. We pray, but to no avail…..

Why is that? Why don’t we experience the blessings? Could it be because we follow our own ways? Could this be the result of our disobedience?

There really is no other way to look at it. We need to turn back to YHVH and His ways. We are living like the people lived in the days of the judges. That is to say, everybody does what is good in their own eyes”. (Judg 17 :6). We say that we do not need to keep the law of YHVH any more, it has been done away with and we are now under a new covenant, we have grace, not punishment! The claim is that Y’shua (Jesus) nailed the law (Torah) to the cross. No my dear friends – Y’Shua did not nail the law to the cross, He nailed the curse of the law, which is eternal death to the cross. He himself said that the law is not done away with in Matt 5:17-19.

If we will not repent and turn back to YHVH and His ways, He will bring even more punishments to turn us back to Him! Read through these carefully and compare it to the world we live in.

Leviticus 26:14–34
14 ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, 15 if, instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as not to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, 16 I, in turn, will do this to you: I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that will waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also, you will sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies will eat it up. 17 ‘I will set My face against you so that you will be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you. 18 ‘If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 ‘I will also break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 ‘Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit. 21 ‘If then, you act with hostility against Me and are unwilling to obey Me, I will increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins. 22 ‘I will let loose among you the beasts of the field, which will bereave you of your children and destroy your cattle and reduce your number so that your roads lie deserted. 23 ‘And if by these things you are not turned to Me, but act with hostility against Me, 24 then I will act with hostility against you; and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins. 25 ‘I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant; and when you gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, so that you shall be delivered into enemy hands. 26 ‘When I break your staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread in rationed amounts, so that you will eat and not be satisfied. 27 ‘Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, 28 then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. 29 ‘Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. 30 ‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. 31 ‘I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas. 32 ‘I will make the land desolate so that your enemies who settle in it will be appalled over it. 33 ‘You, however, I will scatter among the nations and will draw out a sword after you, as your land becomes desolate and your cities become waste. 34 ‘Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

  • The first type of punishment is terror, consumption and fever, you will sow and your enemies will eat it, those who hate you will rule over you, you will flee when no-one is pursuing you. We see this in the world today: terrorism attacks; chronic diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, lupus, AIDS too many to name; widespread crime and theft, leaders who doesn’t care about their people.

Due to all the conspiracy theories that we are listening to, we are more scared of what may happen, than the terror that is already all around us. Is this not fleeing from something that is not really chasing us? These all cause feelings of fear and terror and turns our heads in the wrong direction – away from YHVH!

  • If we don’t obey; the second type of punishment is described with the words: the pride of your power shall be broken; one source has it as “everything they prided themselves with, and had their dependence on, thinking themselves safe on account of them, but should be broken to shivers, and be of no service to them” Gill’s Exposition of the entire Bible. This means that destruction will come, destruction of everything we have built up, everything we are proud of: houses, businesses, all those material things we treasure so much on this earth – maybe through natural disasters? The words “sky like iron and earth like bronze” describes an absence of rain which will cause severe drought and famine on the earth. If we had stored our treasures in heaven, would we not have been much better off?
  • If we don’t obey; the third type of punishment is plagues -beasts of the field – these include beasts both great and small. Plagues caused by new strains of bacteria and viruses with the potential to kill millions. They will bereave you of your children. Children are most vulnerable to infections, thus, they would be the first to be impacted by this curse.
  • If we don’t obey; the fourth type of punishment is war and everything that is associated with it: more famine, more pestilence, more destruction…
  • If we still don’t obey, then there will be total destruction and devastation and we will be taken into captivity.

This pattern has repeated itself already a few times in history. Take note that these punishments are every time for 7 years and once a punishment starts it goes on throughout the cycle. As YHVH says: “I shall punish you seven times more for your sin“. Times can also be interpreted as years (Dan 12:7). The context confirms it because, YHVH says in Lev 26:32 that the land will then enjoy it’s Sabbaths. This here explains to us that the punishments will be in cycles of seven years and will continue until we turn back in obedience to YHVH’s ways. We are in my opinion currently in such a cycle of punishment. Go and prove this for yourself and understand what you are to do.

Jeremiah 9:12–13
12 Who is the wise man, that he understands this? And to whom has the mouth of יהוה spoken, that he declares it? Why has the land perished, has it been burned up like a wilderness, with none passing through? 13 And הוה says, “Because they have forsaken My Torah which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it,

We live in a world where people have forsaken YHVH’s Torah and who are not obeying YHVH’s voice. We have to seek YHVH while He is to be found!

Isaiah 55:6–7
6 Seek יהוה while He is to be found, call on Him while He is near. 7 Let the wrong forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to יהוה, who has compassion on him, and to our Elohim, for He pardons much.

The passage in Isaiah calls for repentance. Our heavenly Father will have compassion on us if we return to Him. Returning to Him implies repentance followed by obedience to His instructions, but if we choose to follow our own lawless ways, even our prayers will be an abomination to Him. (Prov 28:9). He will not hear our prayers!

Jeremiah 11:11
11 Therefore thus said יהוה, “See, I am bringing evil on them which they are unable to escape. Then they shall cry out to Me, but I shall not listen to them.

At my first reading of this verse I had difficulty understanding it. I wondered how a merciful Elohim would not hear the prayers of desperation of His people. It doesn’t say they prayed to Him, it says they cried out to Him! They are desperate! Would He not have compassion on His beloved people?

Look at the context here. The context is a people so immersed in evil that they completely forsook YHVH’s ways. He then punishes them in order to turn them back to Him. They cry out to Him in despair. Although they cry out to Him, they do not repent. They have not changed their hearts. They are desperate for help, but not with a repentant heart. This is key to our understanding. If we do not repent of our wicked ways – YHVH will not hear our prayers. We shall cry out to Him and He will not hear us.

He even told Jeremiah not to pray for them, because He will not hear him (Jeremiah) or them because of their evil.

Jeremiah 7:16
16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.

Jeremiah 11:14
14 “And you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I do not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their evil.

Their evil is their wicked unrepentant ways. They want help but they want to continue with their own wicked ways – not following YHVH!

An even more shocking passage is Prov 1:24 -29: YHVH will laugh at them who laugh at Him when He calls, He will mock those who mockingly refuses His outstretched hand!

Proverbs 1:24–29
24 “Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one inclined, 25 “And you spurned all my counsel, And would not yield to my reproof, 26 “Let me also laugh at your calamity, Mock when your dread comes, 27 “When your dread comes like a storm, And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. 28 “Let them then call on me, but I answer not; Let them seek me, but not find me. 29 “Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of יהוה‎,

We all know that history has the tendency to repeat itself and that prophecies in the Bible can be fulfilled more than once. The fact that this has already happened to the nation of Judah during the fall of Jerusalem, does not mean that it cannot happen to us. Let this not be the case for us. We still have time now, but time is running out……..

Let us sincerely pray to YHVH to correct us in a gentle way and not with anger and may we heed His call.

Jeremiah 10:24
24 Correct me, O יהוה, but with justice; Not with Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.

We should repent  with an honest heart and do what we are told to do in the Word. Just like the people did in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah: they repented, read the Torah and started keeping the commandments. They learned and obeyed – they did not reason about it – they just obeyed. So are we to do – we are to study the Word and obey – without always wanting to know why.

Ecclesiastes 12:13
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the entire matter: Fear Elohim and guard His commands, for this applies to all mankind!

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Comments

9 responses to “If you will not return to Me…”

  1. Segulah

    I am sharing this with everyone. Timely, true, and on target for today. Thank you so very much. Shalom.

  2. […] for not keeping the commandments are described in Lev 26:14-39. I have discussed it at length in a previous post. Leviticus 26:22 ‘Guard My Sabbaths and reverence My set-apart place. I am […]

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  6. […] have in a previous post “If you will not return to me” explained some of this. This punishment will continue for an indefinite period of time. Once […]

  7. […] you want to read more about these punishments and their relevance in our time, you can read “If you will not return to me” and “If you can’t hear the drums of war you must be […]

  8. Andrew Lewis

    Thank you for sharing this! This helps to keep the Fear of YHVH above and before our eyes. Keep seeking Him – for He will then answer you. Blessed be YHVH and His glorious Kingdom! Shalom.

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