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MODERN ROMANS: A WARNING FOR AMERICA, BRITAIN AND ISRAEL
Chapter 1
God’s Covenant with Israel
God does not do anything arbitrarily. There must be a standard by which He is evaluating America, Britain and Israel. In man’s government, human beings are judged in man’s courts according to human-enacted laws. Human courts punish humans for violations of those laws. But humans are not rewarded in any way for merely diligently adhering to these laws.
God also evaluates humans and nations according to His laws. He punishes humans for violations of His laws. But He also promises handsome physical rewards (riches and prosperity) for diligently adhering to His laws.
Jacob and his children with their children went to Egypt because there was a famine in the land of Canaan where they lived. Jacob’s son Joseph had risen to the rank of Prime Minister in Egypt and had been instrumental in preserving Egyptians alive during the seven years of famine, by having stored 20% of the grain during the previous seven years of plenty.
After Joseph and his generation passed away and Israelites had multiplied in numbers, a new Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph and what he had done for Egypt. The Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptians. God through Moses and Aaron brought them out of Egypt in the Exodus after inflicting the Egyptians with plagues and killing their firstborn.
The situation of the Israelites was very bleak. They had no chance of survival in an unforgiving environment with little water or food. They had no home land to go to, and no nation around would accept them as residents. If they went back to Egypt, the Egyptians would enslave them again and deal with them brutally and vengefully, specially after they had all lost their firstborn and their land had been devastated due to the plagues.
The Israelites had seen God’s almighty powers demonstrated. God even had the Egyptians reward them with riches, gold and silver for wages for all the years of slavery when they went out of Egypt. Then God had promised them the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, Jebusites, Perizzites and Girgashites (Exodus 33:1-3, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, you and the people which you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto your seed will I give it: 2 And I will send an angel before you; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: 3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey.” This is also stated in Deuteronomy 7:1).
They had seen the waters of the Red Sea parted and Pharaoh and his army drowned. After having seen God’s power demonstrated, they believed He was capable of keeping that promise as well. Exodus 14:31 says: “31 And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.”
Then God gave them water to drink in the wilderness and manna to eat. So they saw that their God was able to provide food and water miraculously for up to three million people. When the Amalekites attacked, God gave the Israelites victory over them so that they destroyed the attacking Amalekites.
God had told them that He was bringing the Israelites out of Egypt because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Exodus 2:23-25, “23 And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.”
Under these circumstances, having seen God’s almighty powers demonstrated, when Israelites found themselves in a bleak desert environment, God proposed an agreement or covenant with them, based on the covenant He had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Exodus 19:3-8 records the proposal: “3 And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; 4 You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak unto the children of Israel. 7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. 8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.”
This is before the Lord was going to speak the Ten Commandments to the people. The people agreed to obey the Ten Commandments which would be spoken by the Lord. After the Ten Commandments were spoken by God, the people’s reaction is given next:
Exodus 20:18-20, “18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses, you speak with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. 20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that you sin not.”
The people were afraid when they heard the loud thunder and lightenings, and the loud trumpet and said instead of God speaking to them again, they’d rather hear Moses about what God commands them and will do it. After that God honored their request and spoke to the people only through Moses and the prophets after Moses, and never directly to the people. Even Moses was fearful of the sight as Hebrews 12:21 states: “21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.”
Immediately after speaking the Ten Commandments, God warned the people in Exodus 20:22-23, “22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites this: ‘You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: 23 Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.”
Moses paraphrased these words in Deuteronomy 4:12-19 (NIV), “12 Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13 He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets…15 You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below. 19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things…”
After speaking the Ten Commandments, God delivered His judgments which are recorded in the next three chapters. Then Moses records what happened.
Exodus 24:3-7, “3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord has said will we do. 4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. [Thus the covenant was ratified with blood.] 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord has said will we do, and be obedient.”
Thus, it is recorded three times that the ancients Israelites agreed to obey God’s commandments and judgments and all that He would tell Moses.
Moses was then forty days and forty nights with the God of Israel Who gave him additional statutes and judgments which Moses wrote down in the first five books of the Bible. That is the agreement our ancestors made with God, and that covenant is still binding on us. The American and British people are the descendants of the ancient Israelites. Specifically, Americans are the descendants of Joseph’s son Manasseh and the British are descendants of Joseph’s son Ephraim. The Jews are descendants of Judah mainly, though mixed with the priestly tribe of Levi, and some Benjamin.
Blessings for Obedience and Curses for Disobedience
As part of the agreement, God told Moses the blessings that would follow for obedience to His laws and curses for disobedience. These were recorded by Moses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
God begins the blessings and curses chapter with His two test commandments for demonstrating obedience to His Law. Leviticus 26 begins: “1 You shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall you set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the Lord your God. 2 You shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.”
God also incorporated the command to not make idols or images for worship as the second of the Ten Commandments. It is the second longest of the Ten Commandments and states in Exodus 20:4-6, “4 You shalt not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down yourself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”
Immediately after speaking the Ten Commandments, God reminded the people that they did not see any likeness of God. So do not make any idols of any kind.
In Leviticus 26, after warning Israelites not to make images or idols, He told them in verse 2, “2 You shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.”
There is no disagreement among any scholars that the Sabbath refers to the time between Friday sunset to Saturday sunset every week. So before specifying the blessings for obedience to His commandments, statutes and judgments, God told His worshippers not to use idols or images to worship Him, and then to keep His Sabbaths holy. He emphasized these two commandments because they are the test commandments which people most often break.
The Sabbath commandment is so important that God incorporated it as the fourth of the Ten Commandments, and also the longest of the Ten Commandments. It states, Exodus 20: “ 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shall you labour, and do all your work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Moses paraphrased the fourth commandment in Deuteronomy 5:14-15, adding these words, “…that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. 15 And remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.”
Moses emphasized that Israelites were liberated from slavery in Egypt where they slaved all seven days of the week. That’s why it was important that they give their servants a rest on the Sabbath day. He also reminded them that they were delivered from slavery, and Sabbath was commanded also as a reminder of that deliverance. A Christian is a slave to sin and God delivers him or her from the slavery of sin. That’s why the Sabbath command is to be kept by the Christian.
God Almighty also elaborated on the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 31:12-17, “12 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,13 Speak also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily [truly] my sabbaths you shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifies you. 14 You shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever does any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”
God says that the Sabbath is a sign between Him and the people who worship Him. By keeping the Sabbath Christians and Israelites acknowledge that it is the Creator God who sanctified them, meaning sets them apart from others as holy. That implies that those who don’t keep the Sabbath holy are not sanctified by God as His holy people.
God also prescribes the penalty for not keeping His Sabbath holy which is death. That needs elaboration. In ancient Israel, the penalty for breaking the Sabbath was physical death. Humanity obviously does not enforce that law immediately. But God does because every human being ultimately dies.
Glib Church pastors in America and Britain and mainstream Christianity everywhere claim that the Sabbath was only for ancient Israel and their descendants forever. By that they mean only the Jews. Therefore, the Churches in Britain and America, or anywhere else in the world do not have to keep the Sabbath. Here is one such comment from a mainstream Christianity church pastor: “The Sabbath was only for the nation of Israel. Neither Gentiles nor the Church have any part of it.”
Is the Sabbath really only for ancient Israel? All these Church pastors say they keep the Ten Commandments, but they don’t, because the Sabbath is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. These are the only commandments that God spoke. They are immutable. No one has the right to change them. The Catholic Church has changed them under its own authority. But God has not given any, human or angel or Church organization, the authority to change His commandments.
The Catholic Church has changed only the two test commandments. In its catechism, it has removed the second commandment about not making idols or images altogether because this false Church is steeped in idols and worshipping relics. Secondly, it has changed the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath holy to ‘remember to keep the Lord’s day [meaning Sunday, the ancient pagan day of sun worship] holy. Sunday means the day of the sun.
Now consider, why God began the fourth commandment by asking the ancient Israelites to REMEMBER the Sabbath day. The reason is that because of slavery in Egypt where they were forced to work all seven days of the week, they had forgotten which day was the Sabbath day. They were asked to remember the Sabbath day, because the Sabbath command was originally given to humanity at the very beginning of creation. Hence it has always been binding on all of humanity and not only on ancient Israel and their descendants. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob kept all of God’s commandments, including the Sabbath command (Genesis 26:5, “Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws; and all three are mentioned in the heroes of faith chapter, Hebrews 11).
Here is the creation account in Genesis 2:2-3, “2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
God blessed and sanctified the seventh or Sabbath day and rested as an example for mankind. Sanctified means to set apart as holy. Only the Sabbath day was set apart as holy and a day of rest. Thats precisely how the Sabbath command is worded. God the Creator created everything in 6 days and sanctified the Sabbath day. That’s why ancient Israel was commanded to REMEMBER the Sabbath day to keep it holy by not doing any work. The Sabbath day points to the God that is worshipped on that day, the God Who created everything. Keeping the Sabbath holy is a sign between God and His people, that the God Who created everything is the one they worship.
This commandment condemns the worship of all Mainstream Christianity the world over. They are not God’s holy people because they do not have the sign that identifies God’s holy people.
Another way the Churches in America and British Commonwealth nations are wrong in stating that the Sabbath was a commandment given to ancient Israel and their descendants is that they don’t recognize that Americans, British Commonwealth nations, France, Ireland, Switzerland, Benelux and Scandinavian countries are all descendants of ancient Israel and are obligated to keep the Sabbath holy as per their covenant with God. For this purpose, I recommend that every American and Briton read the UCG booklets “The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy” and “Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest” available free at the UCG web site www.ucg.org. You can find similar information in my book “Jews Behold Your God.” Available free at my web site www.ChurchofGodMessage.com.
After instructing Israel to obey the two test commandments, God then told them what the consequences for obeying or disobeying His commandments would be.
Leviticus 26:3-13 states, “3 If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; 4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. 6 And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 7 And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you. 10 And you shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. 11 And I set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.”
These are incredible blessings of material prosperity and protection during warfare.
God then describes curses for disobedience beginning in verse 14: “14 But if you will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; 15 And if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that you will not do all my commandments, but that you break my covenant: 16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.”
God says that if our people will not do ALL HIS COMMANDMENTS, then He’ll bring on us terrorism, terrible plagues or diseases, and they that hate us will reign over us. If we continue to break ANY of His commandments (James 2:10, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all) we will bring more of God’s curses on us. Leviticus 26 continues:
“18 And if you will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: 20 And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21 And if you walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
“23 And if you will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. 25 And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when you are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
“27 And if you will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; 28 Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. 29 And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat. 30 And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. 31 And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. 32 And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 34 Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it.
“36 And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursues: and you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
“40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord. 46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.”
Deuteronomy 28 adds some more details to the blessings for obedience to God’s Law and curses for disobedience. His Law is the standard God judges America, Britain and the state of Israel by, and will bless us or punish us according to the terms and conditions of the covenant. Rest of the Bible provides many examples on how the Law is to be applied in our lives.
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