“For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” (Deuteronomy 32:22).
Here are some people in the Scriptures to whom and about whom some of the strongest language you will ever read in the Scriptures is given. The Bible says God abhorred the way they lived. The word “abhorred” is a strong word for “hatred” These people were so wicked that the Bible says, “God hid his face from them.”
They are called a “forward people” which can be defined “uncontrollable.” These people would not and could not be controlled. These people were so bad that God said there was a fire that kindled in His anger.
God was burning up with anger. God is saying, “I abhor what these people are doing and it just burns me up!” They are uncontrollable! God sent wild beasts among them for punishment. Likewise He sent poisonous snakes and punished them with these snakes.
The Bible says that God sent arrows toward them through other armies. However, the strongest statement that you will find in the Bible to be said about any people is when it says, “Shall burn unto the lowest Hell”
Did you read that! Here are a people for whom the hottest Hell is preserved for them! The lowest Hell or the hottest Hell!
If the unsaved people who commit these sins burn into the hottest Hell, then wouldn’t you believe that saved people who commit this sin would receive the least rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
Obviously this is the worst sin that man can commit on the face of the earth. God did not say they would just go to Hell or to a hot Hell. God said they would go to the hottest Hell.
Now what is this sin? Is this sin drunkenness? No! Drunkenness is a bad sin and the liquor traffic is one of the most wicked and vile things in our nation. However, that is not the sin that God said would send someone to the hottest Hell.
What is this sin? Is this sin dope addiction? No! Dope addiction is wicked and vile. No, dope addiction is not that sin that will send some one to the hottest Hell.
What is this sin? Is it murder? No! It is not murder! What is this sin? Is it stealing, homosexuality, child molestation, or pornography? No! What is this wicked sin to which the Bible confines those who commit it to the hottest Hell?
I would suggest that you read Deuteronomy 32:12-24 and then focus on verse 15. “But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.”
The Scripture says that “Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked.” Fat can be defined as luxury. Fat meaning peace. Fat meaning the blessings of God in a positive way. Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.
These people did not remember the God that created them and blessed them. They forsook God and lightly esteemed the Rock of their salvation. The Bible says to these unsaved people that they would end up in the hottest Hell of all.
II Timothy 3:1-4, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;” Right in the middle of it is the word “unthankful.”
This matter of ingratitude to Almighty God is one of the most wicked sins a man can commit. We drink God’s water, enjoy God’s sunshine, eat God’s food, live on God’s green earth, and gripe because we don’t have what we want.
Amazing! If you are lost you will burn in the lowest Hell and if you are saved you will receive less rewards than anyone at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
There is nothing in this world that disgusts God like ingratitude. Remember that horrible plague that God cast upon the Israelites as they marched toward the Promised Land while wandering in the wilderness in those fiery serpents?
Do you recall how the poisonous serpents that God sent killed thousands of Israelites and what was this awful, wicked, and vile sin, adultery, homosexuality, or drunkenness? No! The sin was complaining about God’s provisions!
May I remind you the conditions under which they were living? They had no houses and they lived in tents. They had no bathrooms, no hot and cold running water, no restrooms, and no kitchens. The only food they had was manna from Heaven every morning.
God said, “I’m sick and tired of you complaining. Think with me for a minute! If God is sick and tired of them complaining when they had no houses, no carpet, no restrooms, no kitchens, no stoves, no cars, and no electricity and God sent fiery serpents for that group of people imagine how God feels about our complaining with all the luxuries we have?
The sin of ingratitude is the sin that unsaved people commit that will send them to the hottest part of Hell or the lowest Hell. Some of us sit in judgment on people in what we call deep sins, but may I remind all of us that ingratitude and being unthankful is the sin that sends people to the hottest Hell.
We complain about the weather, job, car, clothes, and shoes. We are the most blessed generation in the history of mankind and yet we complain the most of any generation. These groups with their placards demanding their rights ought to thank God they do not receive what they deserve because it would be a death in Hell.
We live in the nicest houses, drive the best cars wear the latest clothes, and eat the best foods with a critical spirit.
The truth is we ought to visit some of these ghetto’s that the bus ministry families live in every day. How dare we complain and gripe! Go visit the local mission!
If any one ought to be praising God rather than raising cane it should be God’s people. We ought to be shouting instead of pouting. The smallest apartment represented by the readers of this article is better than 99% of the living quarters in the rest of the world.
Think about that the next time you set your thermostat for your central air or central heat. Most of the rest of the world doesn’t even have a bathroom and yet we gripe. Clean water is a luxury around the world and we sprinkle our lawns with it.
Think about it when you turn on you A/C in your car, flip a light switch, or turn on a water faucet. Think about it the next time you put clothes in the washing machine or the next time you crawl into a nice bed between clean sheets.
Think about it the next time you start your car. If you own a Ford then at least you have a car to push! Ha! Think about it next winter when you turn on the heater in your car. Think about it the next time you open your refrigerator door.
We, as Americans, live in the most blessed nation on the face of this planet. We live in the most blessed nation in the history of mankind while being the youngest of all the nations. If you live in Texas you are especially blessed!
God said to the unsaved Jeshurun, who complained and was not thankful, who waxed fat and kicked; you will spend eternity in the hottest Hell. He waxed fat and complained, griped, and did not appreciate what God had given.
I thank God I know what its like to have a wood burning stove. I thank God that I know what its like to have to chop wood, to bank a stove, know what a stovepipe is, a grate, a poker, and an icebox is. I thank God I ate food cooked off of a wood stove by my Mama.
Please don’t misunderstand me! I’m not wishing to go back to all that but I do wish we were thankful that we don’t have to go back to it. I thank God I know what it was like to have to have an outhouse. You have never suffered until you’ve had to walk to an outhouse in the wintertime. Picture no bathroom heater, no deodorizer, no flushing, and no toilet paper just Sears and Roebuck Catalogue, which no one ever ordered out of it.
I thank God that I can appreciate what God has given me. I thank God I know what a kerosene lamp was like. I thank God I know what it was like to bathe in a number two tub and we did once a week whether we needed it or not! We didn’t have what we call “wash cloths” we used old shirts.
We did not have Dove, Caress, or Ivory Soap for smoother skin. We had soap that was made at hog killing time and it was in a block. Mama would shave a little bit and use it. I thank God for all of that because every time I get in a shower I praise God for it.
No wonder God is disgusted with America! The most blessed nation in the world and yet the truth is most of us are ungrateful complainers and gripers.
I thank God I know what its like to be poor and wait for the only pair of pants and shirt you have to dry. I thank God I know what its like to be a little boy and have a birthday and receive no presents. I thank God I know what its like to go to bed early because there was nothing to eat in the house. I thank God I know what its like to go to bed and put 5 or 6 quilts on you to keep from freezing to death in the middle of winter.
I thank God that the only recreation we had was throwing washers into a hole in the ground. I thank God that our toys were old tires that we rolled down the street. I thank God for old swimming holes where us boys went swimming with only our birthday suits on. That is where streaking originated.
I’m not suggesting that we go back to those days of pitching washers, but I am suggesting that we go back to praising God. I am suggesting that we have a grateful spirit. I thank God that we played checkers with pop bottle caps. I thank God that I had the privilege of cranking an old international tractor and even the times when it kicked back at me.
I thank God I know what its like to have to push a car to get it started. I thank God I know what its like to see clothes scrubbed in a black wash pot.
I thank God that I know what a churn is, what a well pump is, what a slop jar is, what a throttle is, what a choke is on a car, what an inner tube is, what a flat iron is, what a boot in a tire is, and what stovepipes are.
I know what its like to have papers stuffed in the windows. I know what coal oil is, what one food per meal is, what its like to ring a chicken’s neck, and what its like to pluck the feathers off of a chicken.
I thank God I saw Mama put up preserves. I thank God I drank from a fruit jar. I thank God I know what a party line is, ear plugs for a radio, lived in a day when no one knew a sodomite, and no one knew some one who was divorced. I thank God I lived in a day when curse words were not allowed in the media, when the public schools had dress standards, when employees were required to go to Prayer Meeting on Wednesday night.
I thank God for the card board that covered up the holes in my shoes, the patches that covered the holes in my pants and a poor public one room school with 5 grades in the same room.
I thank God I know what milking a cow is, slopping hogs is and gathering eggs is. I thank God I know what its like to bring a stray dog home with fleas, the mange, and bathe it, love it, let it run free without getting a license for it or having to have shots for it.
These dogs of our day have it better than we did when we were kids. They have toothpaste for dogs now! Mrs. Gray used to take her poodle to the Vet to get its teeth cleaned. She has it groomed and she has to have a special diet. These dogs even have the nerve to stick their nose up in the air if its not premium dog food.
They have their own dog coats. That’s crazy they already have a coat! They give funeral services. They have graveyards for dogs. Some churches have services where they sprinkle the dog and bless the dog.
I am so old that I actually remember when wives kissed their husbands instead of their dogs. We had a poodle named Peaches. I told my wife that I wished she loved me half as much as she does that poodle. She replied, “I do!”
Dogs have it better in America today than we had as kids in America yesterday. Why don’t we shout and praise God for His blessings?
Dog beds, dog quilts, dog comforters, and dog houses with A/C. I read where a couple even put their dog in their will. There are hospitals for dogs, and now even dog sitters. Dogs have it better today than my parents had it and yet we complain and complain and complain and complain!
Let’s start praising God and saying AMEN for the goodness of God. We are a blessed people!