“Punished by Our Iniquities”, what does that mean?
Isaiah 64:6 And there is none that calleth upon Thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of Thee; for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast consumed us by means of our iniquities.
Exodus 20: 4 . . . . I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;
Our actions have consequences, while your sin maybe removed from your soul, your actions remain in the world and so are the consequences. For example Moses was forgiven, yet the consequences were not removed. Numbers 20.
King David, 2 Samuel 12:11 Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ 13 And David said unto Nathan: ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’{S} And Nathan said unto David: ‘The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. 14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast greatly blasphemed the enemies of the LORD, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.’
The LORD still loves David, but the worldly consequences stood.
There was a time when we(the great ‘we’) knew that what I (personal ‘I’) did had not only effected me but mattered to others, not just those near and now, but the future of people. A famous example would be the Feud of the Hatfields and McCoys, a war between families which started with a wrong done to one person, lasting for generations. Or, consider the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”, where it is presented, the value of one person and the lives he touched. One more that has effected hundreds of millions of lives, performed by 56 men signing a document called “The United States Declaration Of Independence”. Seemingly small choices have tremendous consequences.
Next consideration:
For this one, you need accepted truths and I mean just accept for this moment, the following:
1) There is ONE CREATOR, HE created the HEAVENS AND THE EARTH(Creator).
2) The Creator not only called light into existence but created in perfect detail everything created, so that over time everything acted exactly as planned. Performed with such precision and detail that we are only starting to see the Glory of the Creator, via physics; astrophysics; geophysics; biology; DNA; nanotechology; to name a few. Those that will not see, do not see –their choice, their iniquity which bears the fruit of their consequences.
3) The Creator knows/knew every decision, every circumstances and every action/re-action, from the beginning to the end of time, before HE said “LET THERE BE LIGHT”. He even knows/knew your thoughts as you read this.
4) Your soul was a gift, not a creation, and IT really does matter. So much so, that all of creation was designed to give YOU the chance to be more that the dirt your body came from.
5) When you sin, your soul is marked for death(non-existence?), not that the Creator wants the death of your soul. However, if you do not care enough to save your soul, then there is an answer for you: Isaiah 27:11 is your outcome.
6) The Creator will not take away your choice, you must choose GOD or other: + is in the Book, while 0 and – are not in the Book of Life.
7) How do you turn a – or 0 into a +? Isaiah 56:”1 Thus saith the LORD: Keep ye justice, and do righteousness; for My salvation is near to come, and My favour to be revealed. 2 Happy is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that holdeth fast by it: that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.”
8) There are NO ACCIDENTS, NO MISTAKES, NO CHANCES; The CREATOR KNOWS/KNEW each event and the outcome before starting creation. As such, HIS purpose and plan are Righteous and for the best results[the maximum number of righteous souls]. So everything has a purpose, there is a reason to exist or or for an event to happen. You are required to make your own choices. The issue is ALWAYS what You do with Your choices. You and I, like almost all life will not know now the importance of what we do, or do not do(our choices).
[ It occurs to me that there is a process that most people will understand: school. You start school knowing practically nothing, you are taught lessons and along the way you get tests. If you pass the tests, you continue receiving tougher lessons which lead to other test and maybe tougher tests. If you do well enough you continue the process, if not you continue to receive the earlier lessons and tests intending that you will be able to learn and grow. However there are many that refuse to learn, fight the teacher and often demand great rewards anyway or they simply drop out of school altogether. The life is the school, THE ALMIGHTY is the Teacher and you choose your own outcome, within the rule defined by the Teacher.]
This is where others get into heaven and hell stories. We know that the Creator has created a book that bears the names of those souls which are the Creator’s(Exodus 32), the names of the souls in the book are alive and are the Creator’s. There are places of waiting, where souls wait for the last day, but I find no evidence of Heaven or Hell after the LAST DAY, only a New Heavens and New Earth where the Creator will reside among HIS people Always.
All of this is to point out that: The Creator(GOD) gifted you a soul, a spark of the Divine, with which you are to choose GOD Paths without being paid, forced or otherwise enticed with visions of heaven and hell. Heaven and Hell are not really described by Moses or the Prophets of the GOD OF ISRAEL in the Tanakh.
Last reference for understanding is Newton’s Laws of Motion, presented via Wikipedia and a paraphrase which sums up an idea: Paraphrase: “For each action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The results of our Wrongs or Rights continue until enough force is applied to stop or change direction of the out come. Your soul may be cleaned of the sin, but the world and its people have not been cleaned of your or my sins. You have the power to choose to generate Good, so do so, the Writings of Moses will show you what GOD wants you to do.
Questions?
– 0 +? Where are you?
Yaakov