Punishment

God is in Control

The events of chapter 27 took place early in the reign of Zedekiah (v. 1). Nebuchadnezzar had already invaded Judah once and had taken many captives. Jeremiah was commanded by God to wear a yoke, like those used to hitch a team of oxen together (v. 2), as a symbol of bondage as h …

Punishment For Cursing The Lord

The Lord told Moses to say to the community of Israel (vv. 1-2): You must supply the purest olive oil for the lamps in the sacred tent, so they will keep burning. Aaron will set up the gold lampstand in the holy place of the sacred tent (vv. 3-4). Then he will light the seven lam …

Locusts from the Bottomless Pit

As we read this, we must remember that the Christians have been raptured out of the world before this time. These are the things that will happen during the great tribulation period. The last three trumpet judgments are generally associated with the last three and one-half years of the seventieth …

Reasons Jerusalem Was Captured

Jerusalem had been so prosperous and protected that neither kings nor ordinary citizens anywhere could have dreamed that she could be over-run and conquered. Then why was she captured?One cause of Jerusalem’s siege and fall was the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her p …

IllustrationMoody – A Man Reaps What He Sows

Dwight L. Moody was, at one time, in a southern city preaching about the value of the Word of God in a person’s life. Suddenly he was interrupted by the loud voice of a man in the audience. “Mr. Moody, I do not believe a single word in that collection of old wives’ tales you …

IllustrationPython Swallowed an Alligator

A 13-foot Burmese python swallowed a 6-foot alligator in Florida . The consequences were lethal, as the gator split the snake open from the inside out, literally. That’s like what sin does to us. We think we have something great, until it destroys us from the inside out. (Nation …

IllustrationPraise is a Greater Motivator Than Punishment

BF Skinner, world famous psychologist, proved through experiments that an animal rewarded for good behavior will learn more much more rapidly and retain what it learns longer than an animal punished for bad behavior. He later discovered it also worked with humans. The scripture …

IllustrationSwarms of locusts can migrate

Swarms of locusts can migrate great distances and have even been observed twelve hundred miles at sea. The swarms can reach great sizes: a swarm across the Red Sea in 1889 was estimated to cover two thousand square miles. A swarm is estimated to contain up to 120 million insects …