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The prophesies pertaining to Israel most certainly will be fulfilled. When they flee from the presence of the Lord He will throw a net after them and they shall be snared and brought down. Hos. 7:12 This message and warning had come to them from all the prophets whom the Lord had sent unto them. The curse and sentence of the Lord was upon them. They were seeking the help of the arm of the flesh and not the Lord who had been their perseverance and protector. Because they had forsaken the Lord they turned to the wrong source for help and would have to suffer the consequences. Jer. 17:5.
In forsaking the Lord, they had forsaken their own mercy. The One whose very being is mercy would have cared for them as none other would have been able to do. Their turning from Him and flight was going to create grief for them, not the help which they so desperately needed. The Lord would bring destruction upon them because they had forsaken Him. The dire warnings of the Lord covered the very situation in which they found themselves. He had warned them that if they went after other gods it was a breach of covenant and its penalties were dreadful. In His anger He would be against them. He would hide His face from them. They would find a flood of evils and difficulties coming against them. In that day they would confess that all their troubles stemmed from the fact that they did not have the presence of the Lord among them. Deut. 31:16-17.
The cause of their destruction was because they had transgressed against the Lord. Sin and wickedness are obnoxious to the Lord. They had gone beyond that and created a direct insult to the Lord in substituting gods who were not gods in His place. Their transgression was personal and was a complete rejection of the Lord. For the great anger of the Lord to be kindled upon them in such a manner they would have had to have deliberately and presumptuously forsaken the Lord. Not only had Israel been utterly unfaithful, but Judah had followed suit. They had lied about the voice of the Lord which had been among them in the messages of the prophets. They said; it is not His voice. He will not punish us, we will not experience evil. His prophets are just so much hot air. The Word is not in them. Therefore, He pronounced His verdict upon them. The Word would become fire and the people but wood and they would be destroyed. Israel would know defeat at the hand of a nation which would utter destroy them. Jer. 5:12-15 They had forgotten the history of their nation and the deliverance of their forefathers from Egypt, at which time the Lord had redeemed them. Sin, stubbornness, disobedience will cause mankind to do their own thing and go their own way. The end of such actions has but one result and that is a spiritual calamity.