Scripture:

2 Chronicles 7:14 — “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

2 Chronicles 20:9-12 – “If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in Your presence before this temple that bears Your Name and will cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear us and save us.’

^“But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory You would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession You gave us as an inheritance. Our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Psalm 32:5 — “Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.’ And You forgave the guilt of my sin.”

John 16:33 – “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Ephesians 6:10-18 – Put on the Whole Armour of God

There is, at this time in human history, a tremendous amount of anxiety in the world. It is palpable – you can feel it. It is helped along way too much by our Chicken-Little media, who never stop telling us that the sky is falling. Climate change is killing the planet, they shout. They call for governments to do something, and governments oblige by passing laws that cause pain to the taxpayers without any gain against the so-called ‘foe.’ We see this repeated in the issues of inflation, pandemics, threats of famine and war, and everything you can think of in between.

Media programmers dish out the fear, then peddle retail therapy as an antidote. You may have noticed that all television programming is now even more heavy-laden with heavy-handed commercials. (And the pharmaceutical commercials are some of the worst!)

While it would be easy to dismiss these programmed fears as a means of selling airspace, the truth is all this fear arises from the real issue of judgment. Our world is now under judgment from the LORD God. The sword of judgment in the form of war or of plague or of famine, as we read in the 2 Chronicles 20 text a couple of minutes ago, is now at our door.

The people of the ancient kingdom of Judah, in the time of King Jehoshaphat, were experiencing something similar to what we moderns are facing at this time. The political face of the whole world was changing. While we face world changes coming from the new elite power – the globalists – the ancients were dealing with the regime change from the Assyrian superpower to the new superpower – the Babylonian Empire. The northern kingdom of Israel had gone into exile during the time of the Assyrians. Now the Babylonians were threatening the southern kingdom of Judah.

Not only that, but the nations surrounding Judah, which had never been exactly friendly, were now being downright hostile, and battles and skirmishes were breaking out daily with the threat of an all-out attack coming from the combined forces of Edom, Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir – all nations which the Israelites were supposed to have destroyed when they entered the Promised Land and which nations they failed to wipe out.

With one wicked king after another on the throne in Jerusalem, many of the people had lost faith: faith in their king, faith in themselves, and worst of all, faith in the LORD God. Within just a few years of the death of King Solomon, people were setting up Ashtoreth poles in honor of Astarte, the lewd Canaanite goddess of fertility, and making sacrifices to Moloch, the idol god that demanded child sacrifice.

These false idols were worshipped alongside the LORD God Almighty. It seems the Jews had forgotten the first commandment God had given them through Moses: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and place no strange gods before the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

Even though the previous administration of King Asa had kept the LORD’s commandments, so many before Asa had not, and now it was beginning to look very bleak for the people of Judah. God had had enough. He was bringing judgment on a nation that had turned its back on Him for far too long.

Finally, when a vast army of their enemies came against the people of Judah, their king, Jehoshaphat, resolved to ask the LORD what they needed to do to be saved. Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast for the whole country. All the people were to observe this fast and then gather in Jerusalem to seek the favor of the LORD God.

The people came from every town and village to Jerusalem to stand with Jehoshaphat as the king sought to beseech the LORD. Then King Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD to pray.

Now, the Bible doesn’t say, ‘you could hear a pin drop,’ but I think it is safe to say that every breath was held, every voice was stilled when Jehoshaphat began to pray. And this is what he said,

“LORD, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God Who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and not one can withstand You. Our God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, Your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for Your Name, saying, ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether plague or famine, we will stand in Your presence before this temple that bears Your Name and will cry out to You in our distress and You will hear us and save us.”

I’m going to interrupt the narrative here to perform a Berean text comparison with 2 Chronicles 7:14. (Note: The Bereans were ancient believers who searched the Bible to corroborate Bible Truth.)

To do this, we go back to Chapter 7 in 2nd Chronicles where we find King Solomon finally had finished building the first temple. At that time, Solomon prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and praise, after which the LORD God, Himself, appeared. The LORD said to Solomon, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a temple for sacrificers.” (Notice – the “r” on the end of sacrifice.) The LORD continued to speak to Solomon, saying, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among My people, if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

And now, a century later, here was King Jehoshaphat seeking the LORD’s Face, asking for deliverance from their enemies and asking for their attacking enemies to be judged. Then, humbly, the king prayed this beautiful little prayer: “LORD, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you, LORD! I propose that this is the exactly perfect prayer for all believers to be praying at this time of great fear in the world. We don’t know what to do, but God knows.

Sometimes when we pray, we have the temerity, the hubris really, to tell the LORD God what to do to rectify a situation. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Will be done,” not “My will be done.” When we tell the LORD of the Universe what to do and how to do it, we are presuming for ourselves a much greater status than anyone of us is entitled to. We are puffing ourselves up to a higher level than we deserve.

The great King Jehoshaphat prayed, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

As our world devolves into what is prophesied to become the most wicked period of history, the best we Christians can do, at this time, is to keep our eyes firmly, squarely upon our Saviour. We may not know what to do from moment to moment, but we have our eyes on You, dear Jesus.

As we who are ‘born-again’ await the next step in Bible Prophecy – the Blessed Hope of the Rapture — one thing I’m hearing quite a lot these days from committed Christians is that they, and I’ll say we because I’m included in this group, are wrestling with the horror of the guilt of past sins. We wake up in the middle of the night remembering how the sins of our early days affected those around us, and the guilt washes over us like a mighty sea. This process then begets the question, “Am I really ready for Jesus?”

If you are going through something like this, please know that it is Satan trying to pull you off-center – away from the LORD. His strategy appears to be that if he can plant enough doubt in your mind and soul, maybe he can get you away from Jesus. Okay, here’s the rub – Satan hasn’t got a chance!

You may be under siege from the evil one, but take heart, Christian, for Jesus has overcome both Satan and the world (John 16:33). Count yourself among the blessed remnant if the devil is after you, for it means you are on the right side of history – His story. And while it is uncomfortable for a while, you, mature Christian, are equipped with every piece of armour you need to deflect whatever doubt Satan can throw at you. Ephesians 6:10-18 – Put on the Armour of God – the Sword of the Spirit, the Helmet of Salvation, the Shield of Faith, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Sandals of Peace, and the Belt of Truth which is the Gospel of Jesus Messiah.

As we strap on these six key pieces of Christian armour, we do well to remember that God has forgiven us the GUILT of our sin, as well as the sin itself. Psalm 32, verse 5, King David prayed: “Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.’ And You forgave the guilt of my sin.” It is humbling to know that the LORD God of the Universe has the power to take away not only our sins but also the guilt that their remembrance can trigger.

In another psalm of David, 103, we read these wonderful words in verses 8-12, “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

These Old Testament verses are New Testament Gospel – the Good News of Jesus Messiah. Our sins are forgiven when we confess and repent of them and then acknowledge that the LORD is God. He loves us with an everlasting love. He doesn’t leave us naked in a world of evil but clothes us with His righteousness and strength.

In these closing days of human history, we need always to remember that fear of the world, fear of the future, fear of our past sins – all this and Satan, too, are vanquished, that is overcome by keeping our eyes on the LORD at all times.

Verse 21 of 2nd Chronicles tells us that Jehoshaphat put musicians at the head of the army marching against the enemy to sing to the LORD and praise Him for the “splendour of His holiness.” They went into battle proclaiming, “Give thanks to the LORD, for His love endures forever.” And they won!

Beloved of Christ, Jesus has already won the battle for you when He took your sins and mine to the cross and shed His precious blood to cover them, to blot them out forever and ever. He did that so we would be made ready to live with Him eternally. There is coming a day when He will come for us, His Church, when He will call us “up hither,” when dead Christians will be resurrected and when we who are alive will be taken up with them to meet the LORD in the air, and all our bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye (1 Thessalonians 15).

Are we worthy of such a glorious future? No, not in ourselves. But Jesus has made us worthy in the eyes of our Great God for this magnificent life to be opened to us.

While we wait for our Blessed Hope, we may not know what to do, but as long as we keep our eyes on the LORD, we know we’ll patiently endure (Rev. 3:10) for Him, with Him, and in Him. OUR EYES ARE ON YOU, JESUS! Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen and Amen! Maranatha!

Lynda Janzen

On more than one occasion, Scripture provides a grave warning to those who desire to bring harm to the righteous. King David, in the seventh Psalm, testifies that the mischief one devises against the righteous will inevitably turn upon those who devise the evil, and the ill intent they had for others will be meted out upon themselves. False religions call this karma; however, Scripture establishes this as the law of divine retribution. Notice this ‘divine retribution’ comes from God, and He is a just judge who knows exactly what to do in every circumstance. This means diggers of pits, those who dig pits for others to fall into, will actually succumb to their own devices, which will be as severe as they intended. Thus, this “Grave Warning to Diggers of Pits.”

Over the past few weeks, in several articles, it has been established that SIN is abounding, ^[1] because godlessness is returning at an alarming rate. ^[2] This has been shown to be the result of the rise of reprobates and false prophets and teachers, all of whom we have learned that we are to pray for. ^[3] Thus, moving us out of the way of God’s vengeance. ^[4] Therefore, we would be remiss if we did not examine the danger involved for those on the other side of this issue. What will happen to those who refuse to repent, those that choose to remain in a sinful, godless state which is marked by reprobation? The simple answer, they will fall into the hands of the just judge, God Almighty.

Though many are reprobate, there is a distinct group in mind in this article: those who go above and beyond to bring harm to the righteous; these are the diggers of pits to whom this grave warning is being issued. The remnant believer sees this group as those who desire to bring about the ‘Great Reset,’ which is actually a code word for the coming ‘One-World Government’ (Rev 13). ^[5] This could be considered the greatest pit ever dug, and it is designed to bring all of mankind under the sway of the evil one, the antichrist. Words cannot describe the utter horror and shock these will experience when they finally realize they have been snared by the very situation they have themselves created. We can only pray they will heed this warning before it is too late.

Let’s begin by defining a law that is established in God’s Word, the law of divine retribution. God first established this law when he called Abraham, then named Abram, out of his own country:

Genesis 12:1-3

“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” emphasis mine

This law is also presented in the New Testament:

Galatians 6:7-8

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Holman Bible Dictionary defines ‘divine retribution’ this way: “The process of God’s meting out merited requital—punishment for evil or reward for good. Retribution involves the act of paying someone back according to their behavior.” ^[6] Notice that divine retribution works both ways, good for good and bad for bad. Therefore, the Words of Jesus in what is now called the ‘Golden Rule’ are extremely pertinent:

Matthew 7:12

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” ^[7]

Warning!

Perhaps the most poignant of examples of this law in action is found in the narrative of Mordecai and Haman, which is found in the book of Esther. Mordecai was a righteous man, and Haman was evil. These traits were borne out by their actions. Mordecai saved King Ahasuerus from a plot to kill him by warning Esther, who then warned the king (Esther 2:21-23). Haman, on the other hand, desired to kill off the entire Jewish race simply because Mordecai would not bow to him. Clearly, Mordecai was selfless, and Haman was selfish. Interestingly, these two individuals could stand as a type and shadow of the current situation in the world.

One shrinking group (the remnant church) is selfless, made so by following the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. The other burgeoning group (all who reject Christ) is selfish, and this manifests in their actions toward all who oppose their mindset. Just like Haman desired to kill the Jews (all of them), this rising group of reprobate pit diggers desires to persecute and kill the most righteous among them. Sadly, they will not realize for some time that the absence of the righteous, fully realized at the rapture, will bring upon them the snares they had devised for those who would not bow to them. Ironically, just like Haman, who ended up impaled upon the very gallows he had erected for Mordecai, those who are seemingly prospering in their wickedness will soon pay dearly for their rebellious ways. Hosea speaks of this:

Hosea 10:13

“Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.”

Many pit diggers who trust in their own plans and strength have risen to the greatest positions of power, just like Haman. In fact, Haman look-a-likes (in action) can be seen in governance of seemingly every nation on earth simultaneously. This should be considered very concerning. However, to the remnant Christian, this happenstance is exhilarating on a level never before experienced. This is because this is one of the many signs that the Lord is soon to remove His bride from earth. ^[8] In fact, because the bride will not suffer from the ravages of the Tribulation, seeing the establishment of the beast system is a clarion call to look up. However, those who are busy devising devious plans for the righteous could not be more unaware of their impending doom. They will soon fall into the pits they have dug.

Repent

This is a plea directly to those who are currently digging pits for the righteous. The surest way for you to avoid the pitfalls created by your rebellious actions is to repent (turn from your wicked ways). This means you must first come to the realization that you have need of a Savior (Rom 3:23; 6:23). Then you must call on one whose strength far surpasses your own. In other words, you must realize that the all-powerful God did, in fact, send His only begotten Son to die for your sins, then call upon His name (John 3:16; Rom 10:13). You can rest assured that He paid the price for all of your sins, even the sins of digging pits. Paul is a great example of this; he formerly persecuted and killed Christians, and God not only forgave him, He used Him mightily.

Note to the Christian about this last point. Stephen was being stoned while Paul watched. Do you remember his last words? Here is a reminder:

Acts 7:58-60

“And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.” emphasis mine

Perhaps this prayer by Stephen is the very prayer answered by which Paul was eventually saved and used by God to further the gospel to the formerly unknown mission field of the Gentiles.

Conclusion

Great judgment will soon fall unexpectedly upon those who believe they are so cleverly devising plans to overcome their arch-enemies, the righteous, who would dare not bow their knee to the ungodly ways being propagated by the wicked. This judgment period, called the Tribulation, will last seven full years and see a vast amount of the populace destroyed. Incredibly, this destruction will come as a result of the law of divine retribution, as God will judge the wicked who fail to repent. Therefore, this may be the last “Grave Warning to Diggers of Pits.” Today is the day of your salvation. Repent Now!

Unfortunately, those who fully embrace the reprobate mindset are very unlikely to read this warning. However, many of the remnant may, and this is very encouraging because God has chosen to place many of the righteous in the enemy’s camp so that they may, at His leading, speak the truth which may set these, the most hardened of captives, free. Paul is the perfect example of this. In fact, his trip to Rome and imprisonment actually led to the salvation of many who were previously out of reach. This is proven by those he called ‘saints’ that were of the household of Caesar (Phil 4:22). The key to Paul’s success is he never wavered in his faith regardless of the persecution and suffering he endured. We must follow his example and persevere when assigned a difficult task by our maker, even amongst those who dig pits.

2 Timothy 2:3

“Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

Website: In His Commission

[1] For greater understanding, see the article, “SIN.”

[2] For greater understanding, see the article, “The Return of the Godless.”

[3] For greater understanding, see the article, “The Rise of the Reprobates.”

[4] For greater understanding, see the article, “Vengeance Cometh – Make Room.”

[5] For greater understanding, see the article, “The Ultimate Mandate: The Mark of the Beast.”

[6] Divine Retribution, Holman Bible Dictionary.

[7] “Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the King James Version.”

[8] For greater understanding, see the article, “The Five W’s of the Rapture.”