(008) – THE DESTROYER

 

This world is full of predators and destroyers.  The predator is the one who destroys another violently. The destroyer is the one who ruins, desolates, eradicates, annihilates.

The apostle Paul affirms that the destroyer of the corrupt flesh is Satan; and gives order to the church that shelters incestuous men: “In the name of the Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor. 5:4,5).

Men are the ones who destroy the earth. Would they be the disciples of Satan? Satan, though, doesn’t want to destroy the earth, since it is his kingdom. He himself declared this to Jesus, and Jesus didn’t deny it. “And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘I will give you all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (1 Cor. 5:4-5).

The devil has power to destroy the flesh, but he doesn’t have power to destroy the soul. Jehovah, who gives orders to Satan, when he handed Job to the devil, said to him: “So the Lord said to Satan, ‘Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life’ “(Job 2:6). THE ONLY ONE THAT HOLDS THE POWER TO DESTROY THE SOUL IS JEHOVAH. “Behold, all souls are Mine. THE SOUL WHO SINS WILL DIE” (Ezek. 18:4). Jehovah sentences all men to death. We read in the New Testament that sin is not attributed when there is no law (Rom. 7:13). On the Father’s part, it is not attributed, however. It was attributed on Jehovah’s part. He attributed sin to the men who lived before the flood, and destroyed them against the will of the Father. Jehovah destroyed all flesh in the flood (Gen. 6:12,13). The New Testament says that it is the devil that destroys all the earth (1 Cor. 5:5). Where there is no law, there isn’t sin or transgression (Rom. 4:15). How could Jehovah destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, when they didn’t have any conscience of either sin or the law? (Gen. 6:7 and 19:24-25).

Let’s analyze the purposes of Jehovah by looking at his desolations:

  1. Jehovah incited David to number the people (2 Sam. 24:1). In obedience, David told his commander to count them. Jehovah, angered, sent his destroying angel, and he stroke 70,000 men. And the angel was going to destroy the entire city of Jerusalem (2 Sam. 24:15-17). What happens next is that Jehovah repented and turned around. A detail cannot go unnoticed: the angel of Jehovah is destructive. The last plague sent by Jehovah against the Egyptians was the death of the first-born. At midnight, Jehovah stroke all the first-born of the Egyptians, beginning with Pharaoh’s first-born, to the first-born of all the slaves, and even to those of the animals (Ex. 12:29). And the author of this great slaughter was the destroying angel of Jehovah (Ex.12:23). In the book of Revelation, this destroying angel is called Abadon, in Hebrew, and Apolion, in Greek. Both words mean “destructor”. This destroying angel is the king of theabyss (Rev. 9:11).
  2. Jehovah had plans to destroy his own people. The biblical narrative says: “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return; a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord God of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land” (Is. 10:22,23). This desolation is the evil that is in Jehovah. “And the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you…” (Jer. 11:17). “…Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you…” (Jer. 18:11). ” ‘For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good’, declares the Lord’ ” (Jer. 21:10).

In the New Testament, though, we read that love does no wrong (Rom.13:10). If Jehovah does wrong, he is, therefore, not love (James 1:17).

Jeremiah prophesied over Judah that Jehovah planned to destroy it. “For I shall set apart destroyers against you…” (Jer. 22:7). When the people were in captivity, Jeremiah declared: “The Lord has done what He purposed; He has accomplished His word which He commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the might of your adversaries” (Lam. 2:17). Jehovah designed and executed his ancient plan. “…you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord shall send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you” (Deut. 28:48). “And it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, SO THE LORD WILL DELIGHT OVER YOU TO MAKE YOU PERISH AND DESTROY YOU…” (Deut. 28:63). God the Father doesn’t delight in the destruction of anybody, because God is love, and love doesn’t do wrong (1John 4:7-8).

In the burning heat of the wilderness, the people of Israel were hungry. They murmured, then, and asked for food. Jehovah heard their grumbling, and sent manna and also meat (Ex. 16:2-4). The biblical narrative says that the meat was still in the mouths of the people, when Jehovah got angry, and struck the people with a very severe plague, and killed the chosen people of Israel (Num. 11:28-33 and Ps. 78:18-31).

When the people were about to go into Canaan, he told them to send spies to see the land. The twelve spies went in and returned with great fear from what they had found there, all except Joshua and Caleb. The ten frightened men prevailed over the two, and the congregation murmured against Jehovah, saying: “And why is the Lord bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder…”(Num. 14:1-3). Then Jehovah, full of anger, ordered the death of all the people twenty years old and up (more than one million persons): “Your corpses shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who have murmured against me. (Num. 14:29). This is how the text ends: “I, the Lord, have spoken, surely this I will do to all this evil congregation who are gathered together against Me. In this wilderness they shall be destroyed, and there they shall die” (Num. 14:35).

Paul, the apostle, who knew whom Jehovah was, reveals us the following: “Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the DESTROYER” (1 Cor. 10:10). Paul knew that Jehovah was not the Father, or the Son, but the destroyer.

Jesus said: “The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Jesus continued, saying: “And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened. Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or, if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?” (Luke 11:9-12). “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matt. 7:7-11).

By Pastor Olavo S. Pereira

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