We are presently doing a study on the cycles or waves of discipline that God brings on the client nation when believers in the nation fail to persist in the spiritual life of their dispensation.
We have seen that the client nation forms up around what we refer to as the pivot of mature believers who become the target of God's blessing because of the divine righteousness that accrues as a result of their advance in the spiritual life.
As a result, their nation receives blessing by association and has prosperity that goes beyond what would normally be expected and cannot be explained or understood apart from the doctrine of the pivot.
As our Lord stated in Luke 21:24;b We are presently living in the church age or the "times of the gentiles which means that all client nations at this time are gentile not Israelite, but model or pattern for the client nation is Israel so we are looking at how God dealt with Israel as the first client nation.
Just as Israel had responsibilities to God in their dispensation, in the church age, the gentile client nation is responsible to God for the following:
It must evangelize its own population at home.
It must communicate Bible doctrine to the believers in the nation.
It is responsible for the custodianship of Bible doctrine.
It is to provide a safe haven for the Jews.
It is responsible to send out missionaries to evangelize other nations
We will pick up where we left off last time in our discussion of the fifth cycle of discipline that is found in Lev 26: 27-38;
Lev 26:38, "But you will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will devour you."
At the time the Bible was written, the enemies of the Israelite client nations were Assyria, Babylon, and Rome.
Deut 28:49-67 is another description of what happens in the fifth cycle of discipline
Isaiah warned the Northern Kingdom and Jeremiah warned the Southern Kingdom during the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to each of these nations.
Some historical examples of the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the Israelite client nations are as follows:
The Fifth Cycle of Discipline to the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C.
The Northern Kingdom was established as a result of a revolution, based on jealousy of Judah who was the source of the line of David who were the kings for the United Kingdom, 1 Chr 12:30; Ps 60:7; 2Sam 19:40-43;
Mental attitude sins like jealousy destroy any capacity for love. The Northern Kingdom never had the basis to love God because it was founded on jealousy. It was a kingdom founded on emotional revolt of the soul so it was inevitable that it would self destruct.
The actual incident that kicked off the revolution was human good when the people complained to Rehoboam with their grievance and he did not respond with wisdom 1Kings 12:16;
The Northern Kingdom began with Jeroboam in 926 B.C. and he set up a religion so that the Israelites would not go to Jerusalem to worship God. 1Kings 12:26;
Even though the Northern Kingdom had such a bad start, God in His grace tried to stabilize the Northern Kingdom. God provided special prophets for the Northern Kingdom who warned them against apostasy and tried to communicate to them the principles of freedom.
Four prophets were involved in conveying the Lord's message of grace to them; Elijah, c.871-851 B.C; Elisha, c.845 B.C. Amos, 787 B.C. and Hosea, 746 B.C.
Amos warned the Northern Kingdom in 787 B.C. during the reign of Jeroboam II.
Hosea warned the Northern Kingdom, 746 B.C., during the administration of the fourth cycle of discipline when Tiglath-Pileser III was the Assyrian king.
Isaiah also provided some warning as recorded in the first part of Isa 28. (Ephraim was the tribe of the line of kings for the Northern Kingdom)
We have seen in Lev 26:27-46; and Deut 28:49-67.that the fifth cycle of discipline is clearly described so that both the Northern and the Southern Kingdom had adequate warning about it.
The prophetical account of the fifth cycle of discipline to the Northern Kingdom is found in Isa 28:1-13 and is mentioned in Jer 3:8
The historical account of the fifth cycle of discipline to the Northern Kingdom is found in chapters 1-12 of 2Kings.
Before judgment came to the Northern Kingdom, during the two years when the Assyrians occupied the Northern Kingdom the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom fled to the Southern Kingdom. 1Chr 9:3.
Therefore, there is no such thing as the "lost ten tribes of Israel." The remnant of the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom, from the time of Elijah down to the time when Shalmanezer invaded, had constantly fled south.
This means that all the tribes of Israel were represented in the Southern Kingdom after the Northern Kingdom fell.
The fifth cycle of discipline on the Northern Kingdom began in 721 B.C. with the fall of Samaria. The Assyrians' siege began under Shalmanezer V, and ended when Sargon II defeated the Northern Kingdom in battle, Jer 50:17a.
The fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the Southern Kingdom in 586 B.C.
This is recorded in Jer 50:17b,and Jer 7:24-29,
They were destroyed because they did not listen to the teaching of doctrine, Jer 15:5-6, Jer 13:10-11,17, Jer 17:27, Jer 35:13.
The overt manifestation of Jewish reversionism in the Southern Kingdom was idolatry, Jer 2:27-30, Jer 3:9, Jer 7:17-20, Jer 13:10, Jer 17:1-4.
The duration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the Southern Kingdom was seventy years, corresponding to the sabbatical years that they had failed to keep. Exod 23:10-11; Lev 25:3-4, Lev 26:33-36; 2Chr 36:20-21; Jer 25:11-12, Jer 29:10; Dan 9:2, 24-27.
After that, their return to the land under the Persians occurred in three stages led by Zerubbabel in 538 B.C, Ezra in 458 B.C., and Nehemiah in 444B.C., under whom the city wall was rebuilt.
This re-gathered Southern Kingdom that became known as Judea existed for about 600 years and was taken out when Titus was used by God to administer the fifth cycle of discipline in 70 A.D.
This event was prophesied by our Lord in Luke 21:20-24;
They were also warned by the teaching of Paul and the gift of tongues that was given to warn the Jews that they were about to lose their status as a priest nation to God.
The dispensation of the Church and the completion of the Jewish Age both occur while Israel has been removed under the fifth cycle of discipline.
Grace always precedes the fifth cycle of discipline. If the warnings of the first four cycles are rejected then in the fifth cycle of discipline, the nation is either destroyed or the people are carried off and enslaved.
At the present time, during the dispersion of Israel, there are two substitutes for the nation Israel. During the Church Age, every believer is a royal priest who represents themselves and others before God. During the Tribulation, the 144,000 Israelites represent the Lord as described in chapters 7 and 14 of Revelation.
Hosea 4:1-6; tells us why the cycles of discipline are executed on client nations.
This passage is addressed to believers because in final analysis, it is the believers in the client nation who are responsible for the rise or fall of the client nation.
Hosea 4:1; "Hear the word of the Lord, you citizens of Israel ( in this case the Northern Kingdom) because the Lord has a case (indictment) against the inhabitants of the client nation, because nothing of doctrine is taught, nothing about grace is being applied; there is no knowledge of God in the land."
Just as God had an indictment against the Jewish client nations in their day, today He has an indictment against a Gentile client nation, the United States of America.
"Because nothing of doctrine is taught." There is no demand for Bible teaching in time of apostasy. As a result, "nothing of grace is being applied." Grace and doctrine go together. When they are both gone, God administers the five cycles of discipline.
Hosea 4:2; "Instead, there is lying (dishonesty), deception, homicide, stealing, rape, therefore blood touches blood (idiom for perpetual violence)."
Hosea 4:3; "Therefore, the land mourns, and all who live in it languish along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air."
"The land mourns" means the people are miserable under the cycles of discipline. No one is enjoying anything even when they should be. Social life, business life, and spiritual life are gone; there is nothing but misery.
"All who live in it languish" means loss of national courage, patriotism, vitality, and strength.
Even the animals suffer when people suffer. People with locked in arrogance from NVTD become implacable and viciously cruel under the cycles of discipline.
Hosea 4:4; "Yet let no one find fault (as in evil activism); let no one offer criticism, for your citizens are like those who contend with the priests (communicators of doctrine)."
Activism and crusader arrogance is the last thing the nation needs when it is under the cycles of discipline.
Criticism is blaming others. It is the believer who must take personal responsibility for these things. It is NVTD and the resulting shrinking pivot that has brought God's judgment on the nation.
Hosea 4:5; "Therefore, you have stumbled in the daylight, and even the prophet will stumble with you in the night darkness; and I will destroy your native country (motherland)."
Stumbling in the daylight means cosmic involvement, including crusader arrogance. Daylight means becoming a loser by rejecting Bible doctrine after hearing it, or failing to metabolize gnosis doctrine into epignosis doctrine by faith perception.
"And even the prophet will stumble with you" means prophets become false prophets and they teach false doctrine.
Today, many preachers speak of "`peace, peace,' when there is no peace," just as they said in Jeremiah's day, Jer 6:14; Jer 8:11; Ezek 13:10,16.
Today, too many pastors peddle false doctrine while the United States is declining because the pivot is declining.
There can be no pivot without the pastor-teacher communicating the mystery doctrine for the Church Age. There can be no pivot without the manufacture of invisible heroes.
Hosea 4:6; "My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge of doctrine. Because you have rejected the knowledge of doctrine, I will reject you from being My priest nation."
A client nation to God is a priest nation in that it represents God under three factors of freedom:
Freedom for evangelism in the nation.
Freedom to teach doctrine in the nation.
Freedom to send missionaries to other countries to communicate the Gospel, and form the converts into indigenous local assemblies.
Today, the United States is a priest nation to God, but in the not too distant future it may not be. The only hope for this country resides in the believer's soul.
If there is persistent negative volition, we will go down. If there is a surge in positive volition, it could form a large enough pivot to deliver this country.
A nation without Bible doctrine is a nation without solutions under the principle of as goes the believer, so goes the client nation to God.
This prophecy given in Hosea 4 was fulfilled in the Northern Kingdom. What happened in the past to greater nations than we can certainly happen to us.
We see that at least initially, a major part of the five cycles of discipline is economic. God does this in order to provide a wake up call to the nation and provide the "grace space" necessary for recovery from a change of thinking decision to occur.