Does God care ?
Both houses of Israel were sent into national punishment and banishment
from the Holy Land because they broke God’s Sabbath(s)!
(Jeremiah 29:10), many of the house of Judah returned to the Holy Land
to rebuild the temple, and restore the worship there
The Prophet Nehemiah tells why they had been driven into captive slavery
70 years before (Nehemiah 13:15-18).
The house of Judah was without excuse. They had been warned by the prophets.
“Thus saith the Eternal; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day
neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers…
(Jeremiah 17:21-22, 27).
The house of Judah did not heed it.And burned the house of the Eternal, and the king’s house;
and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire”
(Jeremiah 52:12-13)
WHY Israel Defeated in Leviticus 26: “Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image
to bow down unto it: for I am the Eternal your God. Ye shall keep my sabbaths,
and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Eternal” (verses 1-2).
God promised abundant production and wealth, national peace, and national dominance
that would have led to world dominance (verses 3-13).
But, said God (verses 14-33), if they refused to obey those commandments,
they would suffer sickness and disease, and driven from their land as slaves
to their enemies’ lands.
God made a special eternally binding covenant with them involving the Sabbath
(Exodus 31:12-17). The Sabbath was made the national sign by which the true God
would be identified and known to them, and by which they were to be identified as His people.
After the division into two nations—when the kingdom of Israel made Jeroboam
their king, the first thing this king did was introduce idolatry and Sabbath-breaking.
Ezekiel was given a message from God to the house of Israel(Ezekiel 3:1).
God says, in Ezekiel 20: “Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt,
and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them
my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them.
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them,
that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them” (verses 10-12).
“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness:
they walked not in MY statutes, and they despised MY judgments?…?
and MY sabbaths they greatly polluted?…” (verse 13).
Then God pleaded with their children, a generation later. Notice!
“But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of
your fathers, neither observe THEIR judgments, nor defile yourselves with THEIR idols:
I am the Eternal your God; walk in MY statutes, and keep MY judgments, and do them;
And hallow MY sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you,
that ye may know that I am the Eternal your God” (verses 18-20).
The entire emphasis here is between God’s statutes, judgments and Sabbaths
on the one hand, and their FATHERS’ different sabbaths, statutes and judgments.
the children rebelled against me,” continued God, through the Prophet Ezekiel.
“[T]hey polluted MY sabbaths?…” (verse 21).
He scattered them, in national captivity and slavery (verse 23).
“Because they had not executed MY judgments, but had despised MY statutes,
and had polluted MY sabbaths, and their eyes were after their FATHERS’ idols”
“And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries
wherein ye are scattered?…?with fury poured out. And I will bring you into
the wilderness of the people [coming exodus—Jeremiah 23:7-8],
and there will I plead with you face to face” (Ezekiel 20:34-35).
“Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt,
SO will I plead with you, saith the Lord God?.… And I will purge out from
among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me..
and YE shall know that I am the Lord” (verses 36-38).
43And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein
ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight
for all your evils that ye have committed.
44And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for
my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your
corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.
He says our people, when they are no longer rebellious, who will then be
keeping His Sabbath, shall remember their ways in which they were defiled,
and shall loathe themselves for their Sabbath-breaking!
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They were removed out of their land. “For the children of Israel walked in
all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the
prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day”
(2 Kings 17:22-23).
21For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king:
and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin.
For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did;
they departed not from them; 1 Kings 15:30 (KJV)
Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin,
by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.
1 Kings 14:16 (KJV)
And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin,
and who made Israel to sin.
Isreal became slaves, then lost to the world, dispersed with there captures.
by deforce, becoming the lost 10 tribes,
15Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend;
-130 year after Isreal lost to the world and long gone,
Judah does not listen and goes captive too.
that faithless one, Israel, how she played the harlot
[A]nd her false sister Judah saw it. She saw that for
all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel,
I had sent her away with a decree of divorce;
yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the harlot also.
And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery
I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah
feared not,but went and played the harlot also. Jeremiah 3:8 (KJV)
I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel,
and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen,
and the house of which I said, My name shall be there” (2 Kings 23:27).
Jeroboam changed the fall Sabbath feasts from the 7th month to the 8th month,
it is also implyed that they changed the sabbath to the first day of week at this time.
so Does it matter to God about [his convocations] ?
“And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob(sinful Isreal)
Isaiah 8:17: God is now hidding his face from them, striped of name, heritage, idenity,
and for Davids sake and Gods Holy name do we even see the so. tribe of Judah.
all because of sabbaths breaking, which to God is idoltry