Incredible things happening in the weather

  1. Record heat in the Middle East 160 degrees plus
  2. Record storm in the Pacific
  3. Record drought in California
  4. Earthquake in Japan that actually changed the tilt of the earth.
  5. Not my desire to talk about global warming or the consequences of it or if it is real.  I want to talk about the relationship between the earth, man, and God.
  1. The relationship of the earth to sin.

Earth was created perfect.

Genesis states a few times that God saw what was made and it was good.

Romans 8: 19 – 22 All creation fights in the pains of childbirth because it was put under the curse of sin.

Statement that I want to prove to you tonight.

Genesis 3: 17the Ground is cursed because of you.  All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.  It will grow thorns and thistles for you though you will eat of its grains.

Cain killing Abel Genesis 4: 12 No longer will the ground yield good crops for you no matter how hard you work…

the earth used to work with man as he was in the garden, but now it is going against man in opposition to him because of sin.

2. Land cries out because of sin

Romans 8: 19 earth groans under the weight of sin as we already said.

Jeremiah 12: 10, 11 men have made the land mourn out to God.

No saying it is mother earth and alive, but there is a direct relationship between man and God’s plan for the earth.

Isaiah 45: 18 He made the world to be lived in,  not to be a place of empty chaos.

Genesis 4: 10 your brothers blood cries out to me from the ground.

  1. blood has a voice
  2. Where blood is spilled, there is a voice.
  3. Numbers 35: 33 Murder pollutes the land
  4. Psalm 106: 38 Polluted land with murder of children.
  5. (could this be talking about the 70 million aborted children that have happened in the United States?)

3. Divorce corrupts the land

Jeremiah 3: 1 divorce corrupts the land

From these verses we see that the land cries out because of the weight of sin in it.

4. Result of sin of the land?

Leviticus 18: 24, 25 the land will vomit them out because of their sin.

5. God’s plan for the land

Leviticus 25: 1 – 7 land must rest every seventh year.

EXAMPLE:  September do not harvest as the time of rest comes.

Israel got greedy and no longer recognized the sabbath rest.

Land spit them out.  2 Chronicles 36: 21 land enjoyed its sabbath rests.

When sabbath rests were done, the people were allowed to come back to the land and enjoy it again.

6. There is a sabbath rest for us

Hebrews 4: 6 – 13  sabbath rest for the people of God.  Word of God coming into their lives.

2 Chronicles 7: 14 If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

7. Israel in Prophecy

Ezekiel 36 prophecy to the land that it would produce again.  (See Vs 8 ff)

  1. Ottoman Empire taxed trees so they were cut down.
  2. England took over after WW I and new land started to grow.
  3. Now flourishing land in the desert.

Then Ezekiel 37 people come to life and a nation is born