9th of Av
11 And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? 12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they...
22 Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; 23 Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: 24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it...
28 Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: 29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me. 30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. 31 But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.
Curse
32 But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. 33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. 34 After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. 35 I the Lord have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die. 36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, 37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still. 39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
Signs of the End of the Age
Explosion of Global Travel -- We see this is the Lord's judgement on the 9th of Av. You searched the land for 1 day, now you wander for 1 year. That is a 365x increase. Think about that. Just this year alone I have driven close to 10,000 miles going back and forth from NY to South Dakota 3 times and going from South Dakota to St. Louis twice. A hundred years ago that would have taken me at least 60 days if not longer, it would have been much more dangerous. Since one of those trips involved moving my family, if I had gone by wagon train that trip alone would have taken at least 100 days. In other words, what was a few days of driving over the last six months would have been 5 continuous months of very hard and dangerous travel. Think about the Jews, how far they have travelled in 2000 years, what was the point? I believe that although it was a punishment, it also had a positive purpose, so that now they could love the land of Israel even more than ever.
Explosion of knowledge -- the spies spied out the land for 40 days. The Lord said they "searched" the land. This is like our searching the scriptures, no doubt they picked up valuable knowledge. However, they are cursed to do this for 40 years, one year for one day, again an increase of 365x. It is quite amazing how much is available to us today through the computer. I can check the Blue letter Bible, I can go to commentaries on any verse in the Bible, I can access youtube videos of various messages that people are sharing, and I can search the scriptures for key words. When I was younger I needed 25 different versions of the Bible, I needed a concordance, Vine's word study, and an entire bookcase of Bible commentaries. Now it is all available easier, faster, and better online. Again, this was a punishment, but it had a purpose. Why did the people fear entering the good land? They lacked faith. What the Lord has done has provided us with the tools to strengthen our faith.
Global weather events -- There are five times the Lord promises to consume those that slandered Him with death and that we would know this was because we had broken the promise. When I see the fires in California I know that is because they have been very poor stewards of the land. When they say there is a drought in California I know the reality is they have been consuming more water than they received for decades and they did it intentionally, planting water intensive crops like Almonds and putting up golf courses. I also know that 80% of California's water budget is for agriculture. You could plant crops that use less water but they don't. I studied geology and I know that the vast majority of floods where you see houses, streets, and buildings flooded is because they ignored the science. Rivers are supposed to flood. You should put your farms next to the rivers and when it floods it leaves a layer of silt. But they put houses and cities in flood plains. For example, the 9th ward in New Orleans was destroyed after hurricane Katrina. Everyone knew this would happen. If you wanted flood insurance for a house in the 9th ward it costs 1/3 of the cost of the house per year. These are man made catastrophes.
Global telecommunications -- At the time of Israel everyone in the camp would know when a disaster happened and when people died. But today we are a worldwide camp. So disasters like fires in California and floods in New Orleans are broadcast all over the world. Every one of these events should be a message that we are reaping what we sowed by doing what is right in our own eyes and ignoring the Lord's leading.
Global Evangelism -- In this curse that God gives is also the promise of evangelism. Your children that you were so afraid of, they shall enter the land, you won't. Not only is there a promise of evangelism but it is your only hope. You are not going to enter in, so you had better invest in your kids. Now I want you to consider how much easier it is to preach the gospel now with the internet, and cyberspace, and Youtube, and people all over the world able to access your posts.
Global Pestilence -- Epidemics are the result of unclean living. The Bible warns of uncleanness and yet people have ignored these rules. Bubonic plague -- uncleanness. Dysentary -- uncleanness. Monkey Pox -- uncleanness. AIDS -- uncleanness. I am not saying that a virus is the result of unclean living, that is the result of sin. No, but the widespread transmission of a disease is due to uncleanness. This is what it means to "bear your whoredoms", that is widespread uncleanness. We see this judgement in verse 12 and verse 37.
Digitization of Money -- This is the hardest to see in this curse. Look at the long discourse prior to the curse where God says they saw my miracles and they tempted me these ten times but "Caleb had another spirit". What does that mean? If I tell twelve people, you need to give up everything to follow the Lord, 10 people will find a reason to ignore this. In their spirit there is no way they are giving up their money, it is their security blanket. But, Caleb had a different spirit. The world's spirit is to rely on money, it makes people feel safe and secure. But in the end what is it? Money is simply a number. If I look in my account and it says 5 million I feel secure, if tomorrow it is down to 4.5 million now I am scared, O No, what happened? This is a slap in the face to God. If you are in God as your high tower then you are safe and secure, if not you aren't. Those numbers on a piece of paper are vanity. Today we have 62 trillion in derivatives, just numbers. This makes it so a few people living near Washington DC and a few other places around the globe (Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard, Aspen, etc) can party and celebrate while the rest of the world starves. This is what it means to "bear your whoredoms". This is the economic system of the whore of Babylon.