Building
a Hedge of God's Protection, for our Nation
America today is like a rudderless ship
drifting in a turbulent sea. Our nation
thrived as it followed God and allowed him to guide our path. God provided a
hedge of protection for America. As America shifts more onto a path of self-righteousness
the hedge of God’s Protection has withered. If we are going to save America and
the World, the Father’s in our nation need to stand up and take the helm and
turn our nation back to God. In Isaiah
it speaks of a great nation crashing on the rocks in rough seas. In 30:25 it
mentions the fall of the towers, and in 33:18 it describes a period of terror.
It also speaks of a period of seventy years which is how long it has been since
Israel became a nation again. The irony in those verses is that Israel had to
exist as a nation. It didn’t for over 2000 years. When you read Isaiah 24:1 it
makes clear that even worse times are to come, all of which is purely
coincidence unless you believe God says what he means, and means what he says.
Surviving in the world today is a hard
thing to do. Especially when you have no
job, mouths to feed and the need to provide shelter. As the old saying goes
been there and done that. It is purely by the Grace of God that I am here
today. God provides a hedge of
protection that protects us from the evil in this world. Left to my own devices
I would have starved to death. At one
point in my life I had my own business and was making what I thought was good
money. The problem was I lost sight of
the source of my blessing. I had to get as low as I could go before I realized
that I had turned away from the source of my blessing. I had lost my business, my house, my car and
my family. In retrospect there was no
need to have lost any of it. The reason
I did lose it all was by feeling that “I” was doing it all. I was the master of my destiny and that “I”
could do it on my own. Looking back it
is easy to see dozens of ways it could have been avoided, but God was letting
me “do my own thing.”
In reality I knew where my blessings
were coming from. It was a willful choice to turn away from God. It was not that I intentionally turned my
back on God. It got to the point I started
taking for granted the blessings I was receiving. Slowly I stopped tithing, I
stopped looking for God in the things happening in my life and worst of all I
quit giving even verbal thanks to him. God simply removed his hedge of
protection and let me see how well I could do on my own. Having reached a point where I had virtually nothing
and the only way I could look was up. I did.
I told God I understood the error of my ways. I had nothing. I promised to tithe 10% of my time to the
Lord as it was all I had to give. The
next several years I spent at least two and one half hours a day in the
Bible. It was easy when I was
unemployed, but it became a challenge when I had a job. It was a period that
changed my life. In less than three
years I had my family back and had recovered all my losses and then some. God is good to His Word. My desire now is to return to spending that
time with the Lord. Notice there are a
whole lot of I's in these first paragraphs.
In the course of studying God’s Word
many things became clear to me.. One is
that God does work the same yesterday, today and forever just as His Word
says. He does provide a hedge of
protection for us. Just as Jesus said,
“Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the
mouth of God.” While that verse is in
Matthew, Jesus was quoting it from Deuteronomy 8:3. If you study the Bible you will find it says,
“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in
him.” Proverbs 30:5 At that point a shield would have been handy. The Bible
gives us many stories as examples of how and how not to live our lives.
Hedges are mentioned several times in
the Bible. The first is in Job 1:10. God
is having a conversation with Satan.
Satan wants to harm Job but he can’t because God protects Job. In the course of the Book of Job we get to
see what happens to a person when God removes his protection. At the end of this post there is a list of
verses that show what and how a hedge works. How it works is determined by our
walk with the Lord. In Hosea 4:6 it says,
“My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will reject thee.” Notice
it says my people. It does not say
sinners or heathens.
God does not wish that any should
perish. II Chronicles 16:9 makes that clear.
It says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect
toward him. He makes it clear in Ezekiel
33:11 that he does not desire that the wicked die, but that they turn from
their evil. He also makes it clear in
the next couple verses that trusting in your own righteousness will not save
you if you sin. It is cut and dried and
as they would say in this day and age.
It is either God’s way or the highway.
He does not play let’s make a deal.
Three verses in the Bible changed my
life. The first was Luke 6:46 “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the
things I say. That means I have to do
what he said to do. He told his Father
to forgive those crucifying him. In
Matthew 6:14 he makes it clear the same is required of us. The last commandment he gave as far as I can
tell was in 1st Corinthians 11:23-30 that we partake of the body and the blood
of Christ every time we come together in remembrance of him and what he
did. Will taking communion get me into
heaven? No I do not think so, but I do
think it shows I am seeking to follow His Word as he proclaimed it. Very few churches besides the Catholic
Church; the Church of Christ which has two kinds, instrumental and non-
instrumental and the Christian Churches actually do so.
In Haggai 1:6 we are told, “You have
sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but
ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and
he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it in a bag with holes. 7. Thus
saith the Lord of host: Consider your ways.”
This was God’s judgment for failing to follow him and His Word. God offered them a solution in Malachi
3:10-12, 10“ Bring all the tithes into
the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now herewith,
saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour out
for you a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11. And
I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruit
of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before the time in the
field, saith the Lord of hosts 12. And all nations shall call you blessed. That
is a pretty awesome challenge.
America may have had a Malachi
blessing, but we are definitely turning towards a Haggai curse. The 28th
Chapter of Deuteronomy gives a list of the blessings and curses that befall a
nation that follows God and one that turns its back on God. The first fourteen verses describe the
blessings. The remaining fifty-four
verses describe the curses that befall a nation that turns its back on God. Read it and make up your own mind where
America is headed as a nation.
Hopefully you will read the verses
that I put at the end of this post. You
will see why you want to have a relation with God. Especially one in which he puts a hedge of
protection around you and your family.
If you feel you are walking with God may you be encouraged to look at
the hedge you presently have. Is it
growing or dying. I challenge you to
spend some time in the study of God’s Word.
Especially if you feel you are coming up short in life and see if it
does not fill the void. All the
blessings may not be financial, some may be doors opening and protection for
loved ones. You will see the difference
if you just open your eyes and look for it.
Verses
dealing with Hedges
Job
1:10
Prov
15:19
Ec
10:8
Isa
5:5
Eze
13:5 Warning against following false prophets
Eze
22:30 Warns that there was no one to stand in the gap.
Ho
2:6
Mic
7:4
Mk
12:1
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