Penalties for Failing to Maintain God's Holy Temple, Part 2 - God's Discipline

“For whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives.”   Hebrews 12:6; see also Revelation 3:19
           
The remnant left behind in Israel was disciplined by God in the form of a drought on their land, crops, cattle, their labor (the work of their hands), and their fertility because they left God’s temple in ruins after the majority of Israel was led away as captives.  America has been known for being a Christian nation since its foundation, but its Christian population has decreased significantly.  In fact, the highest concentration of American Christians resides in the southern states.  In other words, the South is where America’s remnant is located.  So the question is:  does the same discipline apply to the remnant of American Christians leaving the Temple of the Holy Spirit (their bodies) in ruins? 
 
Since “God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent,” (Numbers 23:19) let’s do just what He commands in Haggai and:  “give careful thought to our ways.”  Corporately, God we have experienced periods of extreme drought over the years which has resulted in forest fires, bodies of water drying up, and crops failing to grow.  Furthermore, Christian or non-Christian, I’m certain that practically everyone struggling to lose weight can also relate to the individual discipline God described in Haggai 1:6 b and c.  

Specifically, the scriptures state, “You eat, but never have enough.  You drink, but never have your fill.”  That one sums it up for most gluttons in a nutshell.  If you’ve ever wondered why a couple of hours after eating a huge meal, you’re ready to do it all over again, now you know why.  God warned Israel this would be the penalty for committing spiritual adultery in Hosea 4:10: 

“They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine which take away the understanding.”
 
Disobedience brings about God’s discipline.  It was true with Israel, and it is also true for modern-day Christians.  You won’t ever feel full because GOD has decreed that you won’t.  And one way He does it is by allowing the world’s system to work against you.  Specifically, “you eat but never have enough” and “drink but never have you fill,” first of all, because the food you are consuming is not meant to fill you up.  Food manufacturers have admitted that they have hired scientists to manipulate the food you eat in order to keep you craving their products.  For instance, hamburger buns, cheese, and other items that should not have sugar now contain it, and sugar tends to increase your cravings and desire to eat. 
 
Second, you don’t get full because your mind and body are constantly stimulated with thoughts of food.  You see advertisements for various food products every day on television, billboards, etc., hear radio commercials about food, and smell food from various restaurants as you travel to your home, job, school, church, grocery store, or other destination.  Further, you’re confronted with food in other ways throughout the day.  For example, there may be a vending machine or two on your floor which you pass by regularly or a cafeteria on the premises which serves breakfast and lunch, and not much of it is healthy.  Nevertheless, the aroma fills the portion of the building you work in or must visit frequently in order to complete your work. 
 
Likewise, people you work with may have food at their desks, discuss their lunch plans with others in your hearing, or tell you about a brunch they attended over the weekend.  At home, you hear food and beverage commercials even though you’re in another room because they are intentionally recorded louder than regular programming in order to get and keep your attention, which results in the need to lower the television volume during every commercial break.
 
Seeing food, hearing about food, and smelling food frequently, if not all day long, is designed to stimulate your body’s natural responses to food.  When you see it, hear about it, or smell it, the first thing you are likely to do is start thinking about it.  Then your mouth fills with saliva.  Remembering what the particular food feels and tastes like could cause your stomach to growl, even if you’ve already eaten.  Suddenly, you want it.  This is especially true when you’re dieting.  In this way, the world’s system takes great care to make sure this sequence of events is repeated several times throughout the day like a broken record or a CD stuck on repeat.  You probably don’t even notice it’s happening most of the time. 
 
In Haggai 1:6a, God tells the remnant,  “You have planted much, but have harvested little.”
 
Ever talk to any farmers in the South lately or to elders who grew up in the South when farming was pretty much everyone’s bread and butter, so to speak?  If you do, you may be surprised by what hear.  For instance, farmers may tell you how their crops shrivel up in the heat because it’s so hot and dry during much of the growing season.  Likewise, the elders may recall how plentiful the fields were with what had been planted no matter how hot it was when they were young, and then point out that crops don’t seem to grow in that same way today even though the farmers have sophisticated irrigation systems to water the land.  Since that generation and the ones before it were also weather-watchers, they may also convey that they have observed the current patterns of the rainfall and noticed that even when it did rain, the rain rarely seemed to fall on the farm land.  On the contrary, it invariably appeared that scattered showers fell everywhere but on the modern-day farmers’ crops.
 
Most of us aren’t farmers today, but we are all spiritual farmers subject to God’s law of planting seeds and harvesting, or rather, reaping what is sown.  One area in which most of us sow seeds on an almost daily basis is that of our jobs or careers.  Much like today’s farmers toil in the field without receiving the expected harvest, you may be toiling for an employer, but your efforts go unnoticed.  Is everyone around you being promoted, yet you seem to be at a standstill?  Is there no growth in your personal business even though you have made sound investments, utilized the best business strategies, worked 18-hour days and weekends, and made other sacrifices?  Are you sowing in other areas but not getting the results you expected?  For instance, are you a stay-at-home mom, but none of your efforts with your household or children are working out as expected?
 
“You put on clothes, but are not warm.”  Haggai 1:6d
 
Do your kids grow out of their clothes faster than you can earn the money?  Forget the kids.  Let’s be real.  Are you growing out of your clothes faster than you can earn the money?  Do you and your families’ clothing seem to wear out faster than ever?  New shoes this week, new blouse next week, underwear next month.  A hole here, a button gone there, dryer ate the mate to the new red socks?
 
“You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”  Haggai 1:6e
 
Are you in debt up to your eyeballs?  Have you had or do you have two jobs to make ends meet, but it’s still not enough?  Have you tried to save money, but the rainy days have turned into a perpetual flood and you’re spending money faster than you can bring it in? 
 
“You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little.  What you brought home, I blew away.”  Haggai 1:9
 
Don’t you hate it when that happens?  You’ve been waiting with anticipation for something, and then when you get it, it was nothing like you expected it to be.  For instance, you were told you were finally getting a much-needed raise, but after taxes your net income was only $20.00 more than you previously earned each pay period.  Or the promised Christmas bonus that you planned to use to pay bills and purchase presents with was taxed forty percent instead of at your normal tax level.  Everything you had planned goes up in smoke when what you expected is not what you receive.  This doesn’t only apply to money.  It has applications for almost every other aspect of your life.
 
“I called for a drought…on men and cattle… on the labor of your hands.”  Haggai 1:11
 
In Deuteronomy 28:4, God made specific promises to the Israelites as part of their covenant relationship with Him.  If the Israelites obeyed God’s commands, He promised that:
 
“Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.”
 
Conversely, God warned the Israelites of the judgment to come if they disobeyed Him.  Specifically, the Lord decreed:
 
“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
 
Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.  Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.  Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.”  Deuteronomy 28:15-18
 
As mentioned earlier, God gave a similar warning in Hosea 4:9-10:
 
“I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.  They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.”
 
As Christians, we are also descendants of Abraham, so the blessings and the curses are applicable to us, too.  Science has proven that there is a link between infertility and obesity.  It’s a painful experience for couples who desperately want to have children of their own.  However, the drought extends beyond a person’s body to every other aspect of life.  Consequently, the chances are good that you know someone who has experienced not only issues with fertility in regard to the fruit of their bodies, but also regarding their crops, or the animals they own, or rather, the modern-day work of their hands.  If it’s applicable to you, you are urged today to “give careful thought to your ways.”  Consider whether being out of God’s will due to sin is the source of the problem and whether obedience to God’s commands is the solution you’ve been searching for.
 
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:   
 
You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.   The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.   Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.  You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.   The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
 
 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.   The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him.  Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.   The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
 
The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.   The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.   Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.  Deuteronomy 28:1-14 NIV