Confusion of Face

Exodus 23:20-22:

20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

Sometimes the angel of the LORD, as in Exodus 23, leads directly into the battle—but the battle is necessary if we are to conquer the enemies of our soul and rejoice in God’s maintainable victory.  In the military, a standard—an ensign—is employed to organize the troops.  I personally served in the U.S. Navy.  In boot camp, there were thousands of us and we were separated into companies of about 100 each.  Each company had its own standard, which was a company flag on a pole.  The standard is the place where the troops gather for instruction and direction.  In battle, if we were struck by the enemy and scattered, the standard was the place the group repaired to in order to carry on the fight.  The standard must be lifted high for all to see. 

When Israel went forth in their armies, the standard of the tribe of Judah went first.  Jesus Christ, the son of man and the only begotten Son of God, was of the lineage of King David who was of the tribe of Judah.  Jesus Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah and He is the standard of the redeemed.  He must be held high and lifted up.  He is the leadership of glory.  He is the Saviour of our souls, the healer of our bodies, and our victory over every foe. 

Have you yet to be born again?  Jesus Christ can be your standard.  His Word and hand can lead you out of the messes of this life.  He will be your daily companion and the champion of your soul.  You can find the King of loving-kindness today.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the supernatural Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Ezra 9:6-7:

6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

7 Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

GOD SAID, Daniel 9:4-8:

4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

GOD SAID, Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

MAN SAID: If it feels good, do it! 

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It’s simply not possible to reject a commandment of God without suffering the curse. It is necessary to repeat here that all commandments of God have inherent within them a blessing or a curse.  Because God’s directives are founded on perfect science, those who obey enjoy the benefits of doing the right thing.  Those who disobey reap the curse of doing the wrong thing.  It really is that simple. 

Those looking for proof of God and His inerrant Bible need look no further.  The results of man’s disregard for God’s commandments play out as a gigantic scientific field study—statistics and all. 

The condition that permeates a society that has rejected the commandments of God is known Biblically as “confusion of face.”  From the very beginning, Satan has contradicted the commandments of God: appealing to the carnal desires of man, literally destroying the lives and damning the eternal souls of the sons of Adam.  In these last days, he is succeeding in his seditious efforts at a frantic pace.  The very first social structures established by God, the man-woman and husband-wife relationship, is being dismantled.   We are watching the tenants of God’s original societal structure disintegrate right before our eyes.  Confusion of face abounds. 

The September 2014 issue of the AFA Journal published a feature by Franklin Graham, CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and of Samaritan’s Purse.  Several paragraphs follow:

Michael Landon Jr. grew up in the industry.  When asked how Hollywood had changed since his father’s series Little House on the Prairie, he observed that Hollywood no longer abides by any restraint when it comes to infiltrating programs with provocative content.  He said, “When you are immersed in this dark, edgy constant flow of entertainment, there’s no way it can’t affect you.” 

Today parents can buy software to filter such programming.  My mother was the filter in the Graham home.  We were allowed to watch some Disney programs and westerns, including an occasional John Wayne movie where good overcame evil, but after two hours of television a week, at the most, my mother turned the hardware off! 

To consider how far we’ve come in just 60 years is disturbing.  Suggestive jokes in the 1970s are today fully demonstrated in speech and acts, conditioning the carnal mind to openly celebrate shameful behavior.  Even Disney World is preparing for Gay Day at the Magic Kingdom in June, exposing thousands of children to a lifestyle that the Bible calls corrupt.  In an article on Breakpoint.org titled “Why the USA Went Gay,” John Stonestreet said that “the hearts and minds of Americans—especially our young people—are being changed when it comes to same sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual practice because of entertainment.” 

Sinful entertainment deposits rubbish in the mind, giving Satan a foothold in our lives (Ephesians 4:27, KJV).  Once there, he thrashes around even as we sleep.  Whatever has entered the theater of the mind crosses the welcome mat as a thief and begins its lethal work of breaking down defenses.  The moral compass that once guided our nation’s people has been ridiculed and rejected, making sin the national sport and pastime. [End of quotes]

In the same AFA Journal, feature writer Ed Vitagliano discussed the television code constructed in the 1950s by the National Association of Broadcasters.  Some of the regulations follow:

Treatment of religion: “Attacks on religion and religious faiths are not allowed.  Reverence is to mark any mention of God, His attributes and powers. … [M]inisters, priests, and rabbis portrayed in their callings are [to be] vested with the dignity of their office and under no circumstances are to be held up to ridicule.” 

Foul language: “Profanity, obscenity, smut, and vulgarity are forbidden, even when likely to be understood only by part of the audience.”

Marriage and divorce: “Respect is [to be] maintained for the sanctity of marriage and the value of the home.  Divorce is not [to be] treated casually nor justified as a solution for marital problems.”

Sex, nudity, and sensuality: “Illicit sex relations are not [to be] treated as commendable. … Sex crimes and abnormalities are generally unacceptable as program material. … The costuming of all performers shall be within the bounds of propriety and shall avoid such exposure or such emphasis on anatomical detail as would embarrass or offend home viewers.”

Substance abuse: “Drunkenness and narcotic addiction are never presented as desirable or prevalent.”

Crime, horror, and violence: “Criminality shall be presented as undesirable and unsympathetic.  The condoning of crime and the treatment of the commission of crime in a frivolous, cynical, or callous manner is unacceptable. … The presentation of techniques of crime in such detail as to invite imitation shall be avoided. … The exposition of sex crimes will be avoided. … The use of horror for its own sake will be eliminated; the use of visual or aural effects which would shock or alarm the viewer, and the detailed presentation of brutality or physical agony by sight or by sound are not permissible.”

Occult: “Exhibitions of fortune-telling, astrology, … palm-reading, and numerology are acceptable only when required by a plot or theme of a program, and then the presentation should be developed in a manner designed not to foster superstition or excite interest or belief in these subjects.”  [End of quote]

Of course, the code is gone. Imagine: In 1953, the hugely-popular I Love Lucy show was censored for using the word pregnant. 

Once God and His instructions are rejected, confusion of face becomes the new normal.  Consider the following information from the April 2015 issue of Psychology Today.  The feature is titled, “None of the Above,” and the sub-head is, “An emerging group of transgender people is looking beyond ‘man’ and ‘woman.’”  Quotes follow:

A (Partial) Gender Glossary

• Gender Identity: An internal sense of one’s gender; different from sex.
• Sex: A combination of features, including chromosomes, hormones, reproductive organs, and secondary sex characteristics; babies are typically recognized as having a male or female sex at birth based on their genitals.
• Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from what is expected based on their sex characteristics at birth; includes nonbinary people.
• Nonbinary; Genderqueer: Umbrella term for people who identify as not exclusively a man or a woman, or as something outside of these two concepts.
• Cisgender: Identifying with the gender that is typically associated with one’s designated sex; not transgender.
• Neutrois: A neutral gender that is neither male nor female.
• Bigender: a dual-gender identity, with two sides experienced and expressed either simultaneously or at different times.
• Agender: An absence of gender identification or expression.  Sometimes used interchangeably with neutrois.
• Gender fluid: Shifting between different gender identities or expressions.
• Androgynous/androgyne: Having both traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics and/or identifying as between male and female. 
• Intersex: Having physical sex traits that are not distinctly male or female; not a gender identity. [End of quote]

A few statistics follow from McIlhaney and Bush’s 2008 book, Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children, that demonstrates the confusion and deadly fruits reaped by a society that has cast off God. 

• 75% of high school grads are sexually active.
• Sexually active teen girls are three times more likely to report depression than their counterparts who are abstinent.  Teen boys are two times more likely. 
• Active girls are three times more likely to attempt suicide while teen boys are seven times more likely.
• One in four sexually active adolescents is newly infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) annually.
• In 1960, one in 50 adolescents were infected with an STD.  In 2008, the number is one in four. 
• In 1960, there were only two STDS of real concern: gonorrhea and syphilis.  Both were treated with penicillin. In 2008, there are over 25 sexually transmitted diseases of concern; most are viral and though there are medications to suppress some, none of the viral diseases can be cured. 
• 80% of unwed fathers do not marry the teen mother of the baby.
• 80% of teenage, unwed mothers are on the government dole. 
• 70% of unwed mothers receive no financial support from their deadbeat dads.

It’s not possible to cast off God’s Word without suffering the curse and confusion of face.  The only solution to the dilemma is Jesus Christ, whose name is “The Word of God” (Revelation 19:13).  Deuteronomy 30:19.  Moses speaks to the children of Israel concerning the commandments of God:

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

GOD SAID, Ezra 9:6-7:

6 And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

7 Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

GOD SAID, Daniel 9:4-8:

4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

GOD SAID, Galatians 6:7:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

MAN SAID: If it feels good, do it! 

Now you have THE RECORD. 

 

 

 

References

Authorized King James Version

Graham, F., “Entertaining Ourselves to Death,” AFA Journal, September 2014

Huston, M., “None of the Above,” Psychology Today, March/April 2015

Vitagliano, E., “TV’s Fall,” AFA Journal, September 2014

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