To fear the Name of the Lord is wisdom, or as it says in Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A respect for the Lord, knowing that He is all powerful, that He has the last word, and that He loves us is a solid foundation for life.
Israel was being disciplined. She had done much wrong, seriously wrong. So she was being punished. The key question was would she react to the punishment? Would she be resentful, would she try and ignore it? Or would she learn from it? Hebrews 12 reminds us that the Lord disciplines those whom He loves. God wants us to learn His ways so that we can have a harvest of righteousness and peace.
Israel had adopted corrupt and violent practices. For a time these had seemed to work, but now the Lord would judge her and everything would fail.
Along with the evil practices she had worshipped false idols as well. So she would be judged, and she would be scorned by other nations. The church too often tries to gain popularity by following the ways of the world, but this only leads to the church being scorned by the world. The only way for us to go is to follow the Lord, then He will exalt us in His ways.
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