When God judges His people, He never dispenses punishment as an end in itself but as a means to an end. Hebrews 12:5-13 expounds this truth as clearly as any passage in scripture. If you are under chastisement, take to heart these steps of obedience as suggested by this passage.
Even in the Old Testament, much of the relationship between God and His people was based on love. God definitely loved them and they were expected to respond to Him in like kind. Yet, as today, when they began to waver from the Lord, God started getting their second-best. They gave Him the leftovers.
Christ the Firstfruits
We begin to be comfortable with our salvation and begin to think it is our due. But we were due nothing. We all deserve the lake of fire. Yet, we have a God who specializes in saving the seemingly unsaveable.
the seven years of famine...we will take this incident in history as an allegory giving a picture of greater truths
