The Great Depression Part 6 - History Repeats Itself

Good day to each of you reading this column on the depression and what our forefathers went through at that terrible time.

The saying goes, “History repeats itself” for if one reads the Bible, one will see that history repeats itself and that God hath given warnings when his people do not follow his commandments, statutes and laws.

You must agree that the Israelites in the time of Deuteronomy were a very peculiar and special people for God chose them above all others to be delivered out of bondage from Egypt and to be settled into Israel.

God provided the means, protection, leaders, commandments. laws, land, and direction to where each Israelite should follow. God took them from slavery to freedom and to the land filled with milk and honey.

When I read the first beginning books of the Old Testament, it was evident to see man’s nature when things don’t go his way. The phrase commonly used is stubborn or stiff-necked people to which applies to all of us when the “going got tough” and things did not go our way.

Fellow Christian, turn to Deuteronomy 28, 29 & 30 which includes Moses third address or a commitment to God concerning the blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience, covenant renewal and the prosperity after turning to God.

Are you and I any different than the Israelites? Let’s begin to analyze Deuteronomy 28 together with the following questions:

Do you fully obey God by carefully following all his commands?
Has God set you high above all the nations above?
Have those of you living in the city been blessed?
Have those of you living in the country been blessed?
Have you been blessed with children? Have your crops overflowed? Have your livestock overflowed? Are you living in a land filled with “milk and honey?”
Have enemies who have risen against you been defeated and fled?
Are your barns overflowing and has your land provided an overabundance of prosperity?
Can you speak freely and feel safe in your land?
Do you live in a land where God hath established you as his holy people?
Have the peoples on earth feared your name for you are called by the name of the Lord?
Has your land received rain in its season? Have the work of your hands been blessed?
Does your nation lend to others and borrow from none?
Is your country at the head or at the top and not the tail or at the bottom?
Do your decisions waver to the right or to the left, thus following other gods and serving them?

When you read Deuteronomy 28, hear is what the King James 1611 version says in verse 1: And it shall come to pass, if thou shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord they God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day: that the Lord thy God will set thee high above all nations of the earth:

As for Ferrar Fenton in Deuteronomy 28: 1,2—But if you attentively listen to the voice of your Ever-Living God, and take to practice all the commandments that I command you today, then the Ever-Living, your God, will give you superiority over every nation on earth, and all these blessings shall come to you, and surround you, because you listen to the voice of your Ever-Living God:

Please take the time to read both versions for it is so important to begin by intensely listening to the voice of God and daily practicing all the commandments (and not just the 10) that God hath commanded you.

As a people, the apple of his eye, and most treasured, will bless each of us and place our nations high above all other nations on the earth.

Our nations, like the Israelites, must fully obey the commands of God on a daily basis in order to receive God’s blessings. God hath laid the blue print for the blessings of our countries if we harken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God.

As each of us know, if is a very strong word which carries both the promises, the blessings and curses for a people when one does not diligently listen, follow and practice the command of the Lord thy God.

The first fourteen verses of Deuteronomy are filled with God’s blessing both individually and as a nation. Look at what Ed. F. Vallowe says in Biblical Mathematics on the number fourteen (14) the number that represents DELIVERANCE or SALVATION. It is used some 26 times in the Bible. It was the FOURTEENTH (14) day of the first month of the year when the children of Israel were DELIVERED from Egyptian bondage, and from the stroke of judgment which fell upon the firstborn of the Egyptians.

As you read the first fourteen verses of Deuteronomy 28, you must agree that every “jot and tittle” of God’s writing is perfect. In fact the first verses are God’s blessings of deliverance to the Israelite people of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Here is God’s greatness, look at Deuteronomy 28:3-6 and then read verses 16-19. The common thread is twofold, the number 6 which is six blessings and six curses. As for the number six, let us turn to Ed. F. Vallowe and Biblical Mathematics who says six in the Bible has an intensely evil significance standing for the Manifestation of Sin, Evils of Satan and Weakness of Man which can all be related to the curses that befall man.

God hath laid out in fourteen verses of his deliverance for the Israelite people and his blessings if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God both individually and as a nation.

In the next column, let us turn our attention to the curses and take up at Deuteronomy 28:15.