The Next Attack ...Will Come from Within..."

Ezekiel 14:7 "For anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity, then comes to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the LORD will answer him by Myself. 8 "I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

"The next attack on America will come from within its own government." This statement is attributed to Osama BinLadin. I have tried to search for the orginal source but have not been able to find it. So I don't know if this an urban legend or truth. However, let's take a look at this statement.

Rephrasing it, it says, "The next attack...will come from within...". This is so true for Christians. We need to be always on the alert to our spiritual condition. Our verse above says that when a man sets up idols in his heart and puts before him what causes him to stumble into iniquity that the Lord will set His face against him. We are our own worst enemy and Satan uses this to his advantage in spiritual warfare! Satan knows that if we let down the guard in our hearts that he can get a foothold on our lives and the attack comes from within our own hearts! This is why it is so important that we constantly put on the whole armour of God in Ephesians 6.

Thinking of this in relation to our nation, listen to what God says here:

Ezekiel 14:13 "Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. 14 "Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness," says the Lord GOD.

This is sobering. The next attack will come from within. It's persistent unfaithfulness to God personally and as a nation that will bring on the attack, and it will be God stretching out His hand against us.

We already see the effects of this persistent unfaithfulness to God. We see it in the divorce rate. We see it in marriages that are on the rocks. We see it in broken families. We see it in churches that have left their first love to go after entertainment and man-centered worship. We see it in the ungodly laws we pass in our land to kill the unborn, and the infirm. We see it in same sex marriages. We see it in the taking of prayer out of the schools. We see it in the removing of the Ten Commandments from our courts. We see it in the rising crime rates. We see it in the ungodliness that is flaunted across our TVs. We see it in the rampant pornography and explicit spam that comes to our inboxes and shows up in internet searches when you weren't looking for it. I am sure you can come up with things here that I have not even thought of, but you see my point. Unfaithfulness to God is everywhere and we are heading for disaster if repentance does not take place.


These are sobering warnings for us individually as well as a nation. What is the answer to all of this?

Ezekiel 14:6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD:"Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations.

What are the idols of your heart? What have you set up before you that causes you to stumble? What do you need to repent of? Do it now.