–2 Corinthians 11:27 (Phillips)       
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          8.7 — The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob:  surely I will never forget any of their works.
            .8 — Shall the land not tremble for this, and everyone mourn who dwells in it?  All of it shall swell like the River, heave and subside like the River of Egypt.
            .9 — “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight;
          .10 — I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, and baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.”

     Suffering is coming for Israel.  It needed not happen.  First of all, they could have obeyed.  Second, they could have repented.  Instead they flaunted, mocked, and ignored God.  “God’s oath that He will never forget Israel’s evil deeds need not disturb us, because it was made to an absolutely unrepentant nation…  God does not forget or pass over the sins of the unrepentant.” (Cohen)  Israel had special privileges, therefore they had special obligations.  Lloyd Ogilvie states, “He will not forget what His people had done to distort the privileges of being chosen and called to be His people.”
     Look at the judgment:  the people will tremble and mourn at the calamity coming because of their perverted sins.  It will come like a flood to overwhelm them.  Darkness will come and this will add to the fear and anxiety bringing utter ruin and confusion.  Their hypocrisies had “made a mockery of the true meaning of the festivals…so the day of light would become a day of darkness.” (Craigie)  No longer will they feast, but mourn and lament over their situation.  “God threatened to make the land so barren, dead, or unproductive that the people would mourn as parents mourn over the death of an only son.” (Garner)  This is not only the end of the family line, but the end of a nation.  Matthew Henry relates, “If they will not tremble and mourn for national sins, they will tremble and mourn for national judgments.”  The light of His countenance would be hidden from Israel.  “One cannot celebrate light and live in darkness.” (Craigie)

          .11 — “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.
          .12 — They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, but shall not find it.
          .13 — In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst.
          .14 — Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, who say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan!’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives!’ They shall fall and never rise again.”

     “Terrible are the judgments of God to those that sleep in security.” (Henry)  We see a great catastrophe ready to take place; it is not of physical suffering but of spiritual.  There will be a famine from God’s Word.  To those who did not wish to hear God’s Word, God proclaims they shall have their desire granted–He will stop speaking to them.  As G. Campbell Morgan states, “The Bible becomes a sealed book when man turns from God.  The result is famine of hearing the Word of God.”  There will be a growing desire for “food” but none shall be available.
     The words found in Deuteronomy did not hold any meaning for the people, “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did you fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” (8:3, NKJV)  Ultimately, it is God’s word that made life possible.  He spoke at the beginning to create, listen, but now the people do not hear His voice.  Peter Craigie explains, “The coming famine of the word could culminate in the starvation of the spirit…when the spirit dies within a person the carcass is of little value.”  The people did not listen to God when He spoke, they would not receive the words of the prophet and receive the Word.  Note here, the word is not taken away, but the ability to hear it.
     Why starve when spiritual food is available?  Food is available, yet what do they do?  They turn to the false religions.  Famine will cause the youth to give loyalty to false gods.  They will find substitutes for spiritual hunger or as Ogilvie calls it, “nutritionaless food.”  The people refused to listen, they refused to practice the proper meaning of the feasts and that “to feed upon the divine word is to obey the divine will.” (Craigie)
     It is too late, as they do not hear God, God will not hear them.  “When your terror comes like a storm…then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.” (Proverbs 1:27,28, NKJV)  The Living Bible is blunt, “Some day you’ll be in trouble, and I’ll laugh! Mock me, will you?—I’ll mock you!” (Proverbs 1:26)  The people will stagger like drunks, they will fall and not get up.  “That means no light in the darkness, no nourishment for the soul, no direction for making decisions, no protection from the lies of the enemy.” (Wiersbe)  We are to walk in the light.  Jesus proclaimed, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, NKJV)
     Listen while there is still time.  Hear the word of the Lord.  Repent–obey–follow after Him.  Do not be like those who the Master sent away saying, “Depart, I never knew you.”

                    –Louis L’Amour  (Reilly’s Luck)

       “The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom should I be afraid?”
                    –Psalm 27:1 (HCSB)
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     The 19th-century writer, Barton Bouchier, said:  “God’s own people–his chosen–he led through the wilderness; and this because ‘His mercy endureth forever.’  It is one of the Lord’s sweet truths that so perplex those that are without, but which are so full of consolation to his own children, that the wilderness and mercy are linked together by God in indissoluable union here.”  The next portion of Psalm 136 looks at the history of Israel and God’s mercy/love, but when reading think of your own history.

          10 — To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever;
          11 — And brought out Israel from among them, for His mercy endures forever;
          12 — With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, for His mercy endures forever;
          13 — To Him who divided the Red Sea in two, for His mercy endures forever;
          14 — And made Israel pass through the midst of it, for His mercy endures forever;
          15 — But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever;
          16 — To Him who led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy endures forever.  (NKJV)

     We have a history.  It includes the Old Testament, but the crucial point is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  “Skeptics can argue about the miracles of turning water into wine or feeding the five thousand, but somehow the body of a crucified rabbi disappeared, and his followers were willing to die for the historical fact of the Resurrection.  Without that historical grounding our faith makes no sense.”  (William J. Petersen)  
     As the Lord was with Israel in guiding and protecting them, we too can be assured that He will do the same for us.  Why?  Because His mercy endures forever to His children.  If you are sinking into the slough look up and see that His arm is outstretched; reach out and take hold of it and let Him pull you to safety.  If the way in front of you seems overwhelming be assured He is there to divide the sea if necessary.  George Wood states, “Likewise in your life, He thrusts aside whatever would prevent His purposes from being attained.  In His time, He removes them all.”  Our hope is in Him, therefore we should trust and obey Him.
     God is willing and able to show His love toward His people, and that includes you and me.  His love, His mercy is everlasting and we place our hope and faith in that fact.  Think of the amazing power of God in keeping Israel, then look at your life and see how God has brought you forward to this day.  That phrase, “His mercy endures forever,” includes not only the past, our history, but it points forward to a grand future.  This phrase should give “us strength for the present and hope for the future.” (Petersen)  
     Have you found yourself in a wilderness?  Look at how God kept His people during those forty years.  Thirsty–the rock spewed  forth water and the bitter waters became sweet.  Hungry–food was provided daily.  Look at the clothes of the Israelites, they didn’t wear out.  Yes, there were problems, yes, there was punishment, punishment that brought death to those without faith.  But He kept His people through all the trials, troubles, and turmoils of the wilderness and He is doing the same for each one of us.  Petersen writes, “Let’s face it, our love does not endure; His does.  Because of this, we can confidently hope in another resurrection–our own.”

               “I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
               Of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.
               I love to tell the story because I know ’tis true;
               It satisfied my longings as nothing else can do.”
                        –A. Catherine Hankey

                    –Isaiah 1:6 (ESV)
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         “Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.”   –Isaiah 1:4 (NKJV)

         “Doom! Sinful nation, people weighed down with crimes, evildoing offspring, corrupt children! They have abandoned the Lord, despised the holy one of Israel; they turned their backs on God.”   –Isaiah 1:4 (CEB)

Read those verses a couple of times.  The NIV translates the first word as “Woe.”  Woe to us if we do not recognize the meaning when God uses this term.  I am borrowing heavily from Ray Stedman this morning.  The words that he writes regarding this Scripture, the condition of Israel at the time, and thus we can easily take it and apply it to our country and our individual lives.
     “Every breath we breathe is by the mercy of God.  Everything comes from His providing hand.  But man ignores and turns his back upon all that, and then goes about saying that only man matters.  That is incredible blindness.” (Ray Stedman)  Let’s view this verse a little closer, bring it home.  Israel is infected with sin, a fatal virus.  If we thought COVID or polio or smallpox was bad–sin is much more terrible for it not only destroys lives and nations, but also destroys souls.  People try to disregard sin as archaic, old-fashioned, but it is real.  “There is a taint, a poison, spread throughout the whole human world, that causes even our efforts toward good to merely create new problems.” (Stedman)  We want our way–self-centeredness, selfishness.
     Sin brings a heavy burden, not only upon the individual, but also upon a nation.  Just look at the problems our country is facing and it has divided the nation, the creation of another problem.  The burden is heavy–child abuse, domestic violence, divorce, human-trafficking, drugs, abortion, and on the list goes.  People think they have the solution, and they do if they turn to Christ.  But instead they think that man is all-knowing and can solve the problems that come about because of sin.
     We bow to the steel monoliths, the technological advances and say, “Look at us!  Aren’t we something!” and we cannot come to an agreement that sin is the problem.  Man is unable to solve the problems that are caused by sin.  We see in the verse above that man passes on “their evil tendencies to the next generation.” (Stedman)  Stedman continues to say, “There is a strange conspiracy, prevalent in politics and education, to keep God out on the fringes of life, to never mention His name or acknowledge His presence.  Any effort to insert Him into public affairs meets with tremendous resistance.  People have turned their backs on the living God, and do not like to acknowledge that He has any part in human affairs.”
     Resisting God, rebelling against His laws and commandments, and forsaking His name and will have caused them to actually blaspheme the King of heaven.  Man has spurned and abandoned, even to the point of despising Him.   Isaiah says that “they turned their backs on God.”  “People are alienated from God and therefore from each other.  History confirms that when you lose God, you lose man as well.” (Stedman)
     Verse 5 shows the utter foolishness–the stupidity of mankind.  “Why do you invite further beatings? Why continue to rebel? Everyone’s head throbs, and everyone’s heart fails.” (1:5, CEB)  How many times does God have to strike us to get our attention.  I used the illustration many times:  A person runs as hard as he can to get out of the room and smashes into the wall, knocking himself silly (more silly).  He gets up, moves slowly back across the room and runs again, smashing into the wall.  We who are watching are perplexed at what is taking place, as is God who watches our silly actions against Him.  The man pulls himself together, gets ready to run, when someone taps him on the shoulder and suggests, “Why not try the door?”  What a suggestion!  What a solution!  Then why do we not turn back to God?  What a solution!  We have turned our backs on the Lord; sooner or later, He will turn His back on us.