“FAMINES, PESTILENCES AND WARS” DAY OF THE LORD MARCH 9, 2023

MATTHEW 24:7-10

7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers’ places.

8. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name’s sake. KJV

10. And then many will be offended and repelled and begin to distrust and desert (Him Whom they ought to trust and obey) and will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue one another with hatred. Amp.

DEFINITIONS

Pestilence -d) any virulent or fatal contagious disease; an epidemic of such disease.

Epidemic -d) prevalent and spreading rapidly and among many people in a community at the same time as a contagious disease.

This is a picture of how bad things will get. It says nation will rise against nation. Then why are we so surprised and repulsed in Russia invading Ukraine? We should be expecting worse than that. We are okay with many earthquakes as long as they are far away and do not hinder our standard of living.

We have not known a war on our soil since the Civil War. So, the people living now have never experienced war unless they were in the Army and sent overseas. We have not known famine in this land. There have been recessions and depression but no real famines like Israel knew. This is not even to say how will it be to be hated.

We have not really known pestilence in this country since the Bubonic Plague. The definition of pestilence is a virulent (which means deadly), or fatal contagious disease of epidemic proportion.

We have not known any disease in my lifetime that has wiped out whole communities. Covid was so gentle in this country compared to what an epidemic is supposed to do. In one of CH. Spurgeon’s writings, he speaks of his neighborhood and congregation being visited by Asian Cholera. He was called by family after family to the bedside of those stricken and visited a grave almost every day.

This country did not taste the effects of a true epidemic with the spread of Covid. And how did everyone react? What will life be like when there is war on this soil or starvation from famine or an actual deadly epidemic?

If you cannot trust Him now when all is well, where will you run when all this happens because it is at the door? He must be your refuge and shelter now or it will be as the scripture says, ” you will be offended and begin to distrust and desert Him whom you should trust and obey.”

PSALM 91:9-10

9. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place,

10. There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.

🎶 SONGS – OH LORD HOW MAJESTIC IS YOUR NAME – I WILL ARISE – IN YOUR PRESENCE – PHIL DRISCOLL