Out of the Wilderness

Part 5. Message to the Captive

July 1, 2008

By Ron Schwartz

To subscribe to these notes: SUBSCRIBE

To see more of these notes: Ron's Thoughts   

Exodus 19:5-6

“'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."

Leviticus 26:14-17

"'But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you. 

Does anyone believe that our nations are listening to God and carrying out God commandments?  Unless we believe that our nations have entered a golden age of spirituality there is no reason to believe that the blessings in these passages would apply to contemporary Christians.  Nevertheless contemporary “prophets” are telling people what they want to hear: that these are the years of overcoming, of prosperity, of Jubilee, or of some other form of goodness.  But the truth is that these years, and many to come, are the years of captivity.

Many times throughout the scripture, the people of God have endured captivity.  God uses captivity as a carpenter uses a tool.  The people of God never seem to understand their captivity, and in the past they always turned to God eventually for deliverance.  Most Christians would be surprised to learn that they are either already in captivity or it is about to come upon them.  It is important to understand that captivity will play a significant part in the lives of God’s people during these last days.

The Captivity of Job

Job 1:1

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. 

Job 42:10

And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Job “was perfect and upright.”  So how does someone go from being “perfect and upright” to becoming a captive and needing God to deliver him?

We know on the surface that Job was good, righteous, and an example, but more than that, God knew his heart.  Job had a secret fear that only God knew about.  His fear was one of the first things he voiced: “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil (Job 3:25-26).”  Job feared losing everything!  Job was perfect while he lived in tranquility.  He was righteous while enjoying the pleasures of riches and abundance.  He ministered (i.e., the offering of sacrifices) while his life was so blessed, but what would happen to him and to his ministry if he were to lose everything he possessed?  What would happen to his spiritual life and his ministry if his friends and family rejected him?  What would happen to him if his body were afflicted with disease and he had to endure painful and lasting tribulation?  What then would become of his relationship with God?  Would he continue to stand as a model of perfection and righteousness?  Would he continue to minister in sacrifice?

At first, when Job suffered the loss of everything, he “fell down upon the ground, and worshipped” saying, “’Blessed be the name of the Lord.’  In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly (Job 1:20-22).”  It was not until later, until some time had passed and his shock wore off, until his friends arrived and together they sat in his ruins for seven long silent days, that his misery turned into bitterness and he cursed the day of his birth.  Then he begins to question God, and asks “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in (Job 3:23)?”

Then, as dialogue developed and persisted between him and his friends, Job’s attitude slowly changed from humility and subjugation to arrogance.  He simply refused to accept that what had come upon him was judgment from God.  As he saw it, he did not deserve God’s judgment.   However, his friends insisted that there could be no other reason for his tribulation. If it were not judgment, then why had it come upon him?  Job did accept his plight as being from God, but that only confused him.

Job 23:1-7

Then Job replied: "Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.  If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.  I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say.  Would he oppose me with great power?  No, he would not press charges against me. There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge.”

God was patient with Job, giving him ample time to expose the part of his life that was not perfect: his arrogance.  Job had sufficient opportunities to admit it but simply refused.  When it became clear that Job was not about to repent of his self-righteousness, God finally intervened.

Job 38:1-7

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?  Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?”

Job finally realized the extent of his arrogance and repented.  But he would not receive these words from his friends.

Job 40:3-5; 42:1-6

Then Job answered the Lord: “I am unworthy — how can I reply to you.  I put my hand over my mouth.  I spoke once, but I have no answer — twice, but I will say no more…

I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. [You asked,] 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'  Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. ["You said,] 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.' My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.  Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

We find here the life of a man who was “perfect” yet not completely so.  There was a hidden sin of self-righteousness that grew within him.  Consequently, Job suffered “captivity” in the form of terrible tribulation so that his perfection would not be simply superficial.

Forced Humility

The end result of Job’s tribulation was the truest sense of humility.  His voice echoed these words: “I am unworthy…  I have no answer…  Therefore, I despise myself and repent.”  This is what God is looking for from His people today: true humility.  Will He find it?  Not yet.  Instead of “despising [themselves] and repent[ing],” contemporary Christians are (like Job) fighting back (in vain) against the rising tide of social opinion, governmental intervention, and judicial insurrection.  And just as it was for Job, it is a battle they are destined to lose.

As long as Christians remain self-righteously defiant, tribulation will continue to increase and the anger of the Lord will swell.  They must hear the voice of the Lord who argues against their raging: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?”  Who are we to proclaim that the spiritual quality of our lives does not demand judgment?  Who are we to assume that God’s blessings are upon us?

Just as Job did, today’s Christians see the “riches” of their nation dissolving.  As in Job’s life, today’s Christians are losing rights and freedoms as the spiritual quality of their nation decays.  God means to deal with contemporary Christians just as He did with Job: by stripping them of their riches and leaving them to sit alone in the ashes of their once great kingdom.  And what do we find?  We find that, like Job, today’s Christians are proclaiming their self-righteousness, continuing to declare that what is befalling their nations is not divine judgment as a consequence of their own lives.  They are arrogantly defying God, just as Job did initially.

God allowed Satan to disassemble Job’s life until all he had left were the ashes of the great wealth and fruitful existence he once enjoyed.  However, once Job “successfully” endured his tribulation and humbled himself before God and man, he came out of it no longer fearing the loss of everything he owned.  He then truly became as perfect as God had at first declared.

Now consider the fact that God allowed this perfect man, someone He loved and respected, to be unmercifully tortured in spirit and in body.  Consider the mental anguish and confusion Job suffered as he tried to understand why God allowed this to happen.  Consider the depression and emotional scarring his soul endured as he sat there wondering how long his children suffered before they died.  Consider the pain that racked his body from the boils – oozing blood and puss – from every inch of his body.  Now ask yourself, “Am I any different from him?  What makes me think that God would not allow me to go through such suffering to truly be perfect?”

The truth is that many of you are already suffering.  Some have experienced a marriage break-up, and others have had their children hurt them and/or leave them.  Some have unresolved problems with friends or relatives which continue to plague their lives. Some have suffered financial ruin and the loss of everything they own.  Others are suffering terrible health problems.  And some are even in jail or facing jail time for situations beyond their control.  The safety once taken for granted is quickly fading and fear of the future looms as an ominous storm before us.   As we watch our economies and great societies wither like flowers in the portentous heat of the desert, dare we wonder if we our nations are not in captivity?  Like Job, have we known wealth and prosperity and secretly fear the loss of it all?  Are we, like Job, insecure?  Are we facing the captivity of the loss of our vast material wealth to rid our nations of arrogance and pride?

Some Christians will be quick to point out that Job was rewarded for his suffering.  But anyone who has lost a child knows that it does not matter how many more children you have after that.  Nothing can replace the one that you lost.  On October 2, 2006, five Amish girls (aged 6-13) were murdered by a milk-tank truck driver who was haunted by the loss of a child.  He had other children, but they could not replace the one he lost.  He finally grew to blame and hate God for his loss so much that he struck back in a murderous rage.

Job lost more than one child.  He had “seven sons and three daughters (Job 1:2).”  Job loved them so much that he continually offered burnt sacrifices for any incidental sins they might have committed (Job 1:5).  Therefore, any comfort he may have received from the Lord following his trials could never fully replace what he had lost.

The point is this: if you are experiencing (or have already experienced) “forced humiliation” as did Job, then you bear the permanent scars of shame.  Your reputation may be forever tarnished.  You may be divorced, a single parent, or live in a divided home.  You may be unemployed or living on public assistance.  You may have lost friends, been implicated in a scandal, scarred in an emotional church split, or accused of sin (true or false) of which you still bear the reproach.  You bear deep hurts that are forever before you and, like Job, keep you humble.  When this form of humiliation befalls you, don’t beat your chest and ask why, as Job foolishly did.  Submit yourself to God and understand that it is captivity.  It is designed to humble you, to drive you close to God, and to bring you into a deeper quality of spiritual perfection than you have ever before known.

The Captivity of Paul

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The life of the apostle Paul is probably the clearest proof of the futility of the prosperity doctrine, which holds that we prosper financially as we prosper spiritually.  The life of Paul was a glaring exception to such a rule.

Speculations abound as to what exactly was his “torment.”  Some believe it was poor eyesight, while others believe it was a recurring sin, like lust.  Still others believe it was arthritis or some malformation due to his many beatings.  Then there is the fact that he did not seem to control his temper very well.  We don’t know what his torment was, but we do know that God had placed Paul in captivity to it.  Why?  Paul was placed into captivity to keep him from destroying himself.

Paul could have easily allowed his revelation and calling to destroy him with pride.  Therefore, what God did was marginalize him.  God crippled him (physically, emotionally, etc.) in the natural so that he could excel in the spiritual.  The negative traits of pride and arrogance would be difficult to retain when your “weakness” goes always before you.

What better person to understand the revelation of grace than the person who needed grace the most?  What better person to understand the mercy and help of God than someone who required it continually?  There is simply no other way to interpret this scripture than to acknowledge that God forced affliction on the life of someone who loved Him and served Him.  And God did it for his own good.

We should not assume that each time affliction or torment comes our way, it is God sending it to us to keep us close to Him, but then we should not discount it, either.  We should realize that the time is approaching when God wants His people to “go no more out:” the time is approaching when God’s people will be forced to be on one side of the fence or the other.  The vacillation between living in godliness and living in compromise will end.  Because of that, God sends “messenger[s] of Satan, to torment” Christians and their churches.

The Captivity of the “Vineyard”

Mark 12:1-9

He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.

"He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, 'They will respect my son.'

"But the tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

"What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

We know that for the first generation of believers this parable spoke to those of Israel and how Israel had rejected and killed the prophets, eventually killing God’s own Son.  The vineyard represented Israel.  It was meant to bring forth fruit for God.  But instead, Israel repeatedly turned its back on God.  God therefore sent messenger after messenger to Israel.  These messengers were treated “shamefully” and “some of them they beat, others they killed.”

But what about us today?  Does this parable and other parables like it have no relevance to us?  The scripture is meant to be timeless.  It is meant to apply to every generation.  So what can our generation learn from such a parable?

To us, one of the last generations of believers, the vineyard represents God’s Church.  God has had great patience over that last two millennia waiting for the fruit of His vineyard.  God has sent messenger after messenger into His Church demanding fruit.  But instead of giving to God what is owed Him, the fruit that is produced is kept by those who tend His vineyard.  We can see, then, that for centuries the Church (vineyard) has been hijacked by men.  Like the tenants of the vineyard, they have controlled their churches as if they were their own.  For centuries, messengers in the form of reformers have come to churches warning them to give their fruit to God.  However, the “tenants” of these churches (vineyard) believe the fruit is theirs to enjoy and keep.

In general, Christians do not attend “church” to give fruit to God but to get fed, to receive a blessing, to feel better, and to ease their consciences.  “Church” has become entirely about self-fulfillment.  Therefore any fruit from their vineyard goes to satisfy their own selfish desires.  It has been this way for over 1,600 years.

Finally, this last century, God sent His Son – through the operation of Holy Spirit in the early 1900’s - into His vineyard to gather the fruit that belongs to Him.  Instead, even the outpouring of the Holy Spirit has been killed through control, manipulation, and institution.  The outpouring of God’s Spirit has been institutionalized into “Pentecostal” and “Full Gospel” churches and bottled up in various flavors of Charismatic counterparts.  The outpouring of the Spirit, which began as a pure and sovereign move of God, is now marketed, sold, and distributed by the tenants of Christendom for profit.  Christian leaders have taken a move of the Holy Spirit and destroyed it by using it for their own advantage and benefit.  They use it to control the masses of God’s people.  They use it to provide them a better financial quality of life.  In short, they killed off the last move of the Holy Spirit in favor of what people want, what draws larger numbers, and what keeps the pastor employed.  So, “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

What we are beginning to see in places like Lakeland and Toronto is the destruction of the “tenants” and the turning over of the vineyard (churches) to demons (i.e. “and give the vineyard to others”).  God has taken their churches from them and given them to the devil to torment them.  Christians have for generations made a mockery of God and now God is turning them over to demons so that Satan can make a mockery of them. But rather than repent, Christians now make a mockery of the Holy Spirit by suggesting that the mysticism and spiritualism in the form of hype and mayhem is the power and manifestation of the Holy Spirit rather than the subversion of Satan.  We believe that places like Lakeland and Toronto are allowed this form of subversion to expose the “modern prophetic movement” for what is has become: a mockery. 

Don’t think that subversion is isolated to these few places or only in this hysterical manner. It has and will continue to spread through every apathetic, backslide, and lethargic church in one form of mockery or another.  We’re witnessing just the beginning of total and complete captivity.  

Is there anything to be learned from this?  Yes, the scripture tells us that, “If any man have an ear, let him hear.  He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints (Revelation 13:9-10).”  We are beginning to see the fulfillment of this scripture today.  Many church leaders who for years have kept God’s people captive, and Christians who have kept (captive) from God the fruit that was owed Him, are now becoming captives to Satan.

We cannot begin to number the times people have contacted us wanting prayer for their churches.  Each time they have prayed and talked with the pastor and other church leaders, but to no avail.  “Why?”  They often ask.  “Why didn’t God intercede?  Why did He allow evil to triumph?”  To begin with, He has turned over their vineyard to the enemy.  Why should He intervene when the “tenets” of their church have no desire to give Him the fruit that is due Him?  That is why prayers for churches so often times go unanswered.  Contemporary churches are falling into captivity.  Most of them have robbed God, they’ve made a mockery of His servants and Son, and as a result they will be (spiritually) destroyed. 

Final Thoughts…

When God’s people have had to endure captivity it was global in scope.  Both the righteous and unrighteous endured tribulation together.  If we are entering a time of captivity then tribulation will befall us all.  So don’t ask the question “why” when trouble befalls you.  Instead repent!  Repent for the sin in the church, repent for the sin of our nations, repent for the spiritual desolation that pervades our societies, and repent for our failure to be the light of this world that our Lord has called use to be.

Many people point to how Israel was protected from the plagues of Egypt as a pattern for how Christians will be protected from tribulation in these last days.  However, that is not a good analogy, because in that example Egypt was a pagan culture oppressing the people of God.  In our western cultures, Christians are not oppressed in this manner.  In our cultures Christians are Egypt!  If the plagues fall on anyone they will fall on contemporary Christians.

Also, most Christians do not understand captivity because they generally think of it as an occupying army.  Captivity is something that limits us, hedges us in, and brings us down.  It is something that God has always used to turn His people back to Him and get them “back on track.”  It is very evident that Christianity has lost its way.  It has been derailed from the direction Christ and His apostles set and is in need of the heavy hand of the Lord to get it refocused on those original objectives.  Consequently, captivity is in our future and no one will be exempt from it.  Some may already be in it – they just have not realized it yet.

A prophecy foretelling the coming of Christ told us that “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain (Isaiah 40:4).”  Job, though perfect, had hidden valleys in his life (sin) that were not “up to” the moral heights of the rest of his life.  These valleys had to come up (“be exalted”).  On the other hand, Paul, because of his tremendous revelation, was faced with mountains of pride.  These had to “come down (“be made low”).”  Both the valleys of compromise and sin and the mountains of pride, arrogance, and elitism must be removed if there is to be a highway for God to come to our lands.  God will use captivity to change His people.  He has done it before, and He will do it again.  We, both as individuals and as nations, will know captivity.

What can you do?  Repent.  That is the answer that Job eventually learned.  Discover humility as Paul did.  Once you do these things, your life will begin to open up as a highway for God.  Rest assured that God knows how to change your life.  If you refuse to take responsibility for your own spiritual life and deal with the issues in your own heart, then don’t be surprised if you find yourself in captivity like Job.

Jeremiah 18:5-10

Then the word of the Lord came to me: "O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.  If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.  And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.

Finally, please pray for us.  We ask that you would remember us before the Lord. 

Counter: