He Shall See What Their End Shall Be

December 27

He will See what their End Shall Be

They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith (Deut. 32:17-20)

As we learned in yesterday’s devotion, God did not exert divine power to destroy sinners in the Old Testament as is commonly taught. On the contrary, there are always enemy forces waiting to destroy mankind. Were it not for God exerting His divine power to keep these enemy forces at bay, most of us would have experienced certain destruction by now.

However, when we persist in sin and push God out of lives sooner or later He is left with no choice but to withdraw His protective presence. This is known as the hiding of His face. This is the exact opposite of God shining His face on us, which is symbolic of His protective presence:

Tell Aaron and his sons: You will bless the Israelites as follows. Say to them: The Lord bless you and protect you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his face to you and grant you peace. They will place my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them (Numbers 6:23-27; Common English Bible)

God prefers to “shine” rather than “hide” His face. Sadly, men have a strange propensity for ingratitude. Rather than seeing God’s graciousness in protecting His people from the evil forces that surround them, men use it as a false security to sin, not realizing that persistent sin can cause the face of God to stop shining and start hiding.

When God hides His face He takes a step back to observe what will happen to the unrepentant sinner. This proves that God is not actively bringing about the results of their sin but simply removing His protection and allowing the forces surrounding the sinner to have their way. This truth should be the interpretive model for all of the statements in Deuteronomy 28 in which God is said to inflict the results of the curses that come from disobedience. God is only said to do that which He permits to happen when He removes His protection.

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