Defile the Land, It Pukes Up Man

[Mr. M]

I appreciate concern for stewardship over the
earth, for this dishonors the Creator.
Revelation 11:18 The nations were angry, and Your
wrath has come,
And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,
And that You should reward Your servants the prophets
and the saints,
And those who fear Your name, small and great,
And should destroy those who destroy the earth.

From a scriptural perspective, this is more than
just pollution, destroying forests, etc...
The scriptures speak of the shedding of innocent blood,
sexual perversion and pagan idolatry as defiling the earth,
which results in the earth responding by removing man.
Leviticus 18:
24 Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these
the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.
25 For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it,
and the land vomits out its inhabitants.
26 You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit
these abominations, any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you
27 (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you,
and thus the land is defiled),
28 lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it,
as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

 

[Jake Arsenal]

Numbers 35:33
So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.

If justice is not done, if the people of the land do not ensure that the shedding of innocent blood is punished with the shedding of the blood of him that shed it(Genesis 9:5-6), I think the blood of the innocent cries out to God for divine justice.(Genesis 4:10-12, 1 Kings 2:5-6, Revelation 6:9-11, Genesis 15:16) God is slow to wrath and gives everyone ample opportunity to repent.(2 Peter 3:9, Jonah 3:4-10, Jonah 4:2, Jonah 4:11), but no amount of repentance can cleanse land polluted by the shedding of innocent blood without justice.

God showed mercy to Nineveh when they repented, but He would not turn away from His anger when Judah repented. Look at Josiah's reforms.(2 Kings 22 - 2 Kings 23) No amount of repentance was enough. Why? I have heard it said that it was because Judah was to be held to a higher standard, but I think this is incorrect. Look at the sins of Nineveh as listed in both Jonah and Nahum verses the sins of Manasseh.

2 Kings 24:3-4
Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not pardon.

 

[Mr. M]

No amount of repentance was enough.

This is precisely correct. The wickedness of Manasseh
left Judah and Jerusalem without repentance such that
the Lord told Jeremiah not to bother praying for them.
Jeremiah 15:
1 Then the Lord said to me, If Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward these people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.
4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 7:
16 Therefore do not pray for these people, nor lift up a cry
or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me;
for I will not hear you.
17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah
and in the streets of Jerusalem?

2 Kings 21:
11 Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols),
12 therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
14 So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies,
15 because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.
16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.