FAMINE IN THE LAND

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               FAMINE IN THE LAND

When  Joshua entered the Promised Land, he was soon met  by  some men  clothed
in deceit, (read about it in Joshua ch. 9) who  said they  had come from a
very distant place.  They lied, but  Joshua didn't ask of the Lord, and made a
league with them.

Within a few days, he was called upon to defend them against five other  kings
who  were mad at them for having  made  peace  with Joshua  and Israel.  God
managed to turn the bad situation  which Joshua had created by his mistake,
into a victory for Israel.

God  intends  for us to keep our word-- even when it  is  costly.  Psalms
15:1 LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?  who  shall dwell in thy holy
hill?   Psalms 15:4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth
them that fear the LORD. [He that] sweareth to [his own] hurt, and changeth
not.  

We  learn, that over 400 years later, when Saul was king  of  Is-rael,  Saul
broke the National word of Israel to the  Gibeonites, and slew some of them.
Then, later, Saul died.

After David had been reigning about 35 years, II Samuel 21:1 Then there  was a
famine in the days of David three years, year  after year; and David inquired
of the LORD. And the LORD answered,  [It is]  for  Saul, and for [his] bloody
house, because he  slew  the Gibeonites.    And the king called the
Gibeonites, and said  unto them;  (now the Gibeonites [were] not of the
children of  Israel, but  of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children  of
Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal  to the
children of Israel and Judah.) 

Think of it-- nearly 40 years had gone by since Saul's  murderous breach  of
National honor.  But God DOES NOT FORGET.   Time  DOES NOT HEAL a breaching of
our word.  

Bro. Clinton Brown used to preach that even if we missed God when we said we
would do a thing, if it had not been God's Will at the time,  it suddenly
BECOMES GOD'S WILL for our life when  we  give our word that we will do it.
God EXPECTS us to keep our word.

I have often wondered just how much of our National and  personal distress
has been caused by the breaking of our word  of  honor, which we have given at
some time.

Our  great  nation is not yet 400 years old, and  many  different
"administrations" have come and gone since that beginning.   Have some of the
reversals of policy by some of those  administrations been contributing
factors to the mess we find ourselves in today?

I  wonder.  What about my own life?  Are some of my problems  the product of
my own makings?

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