God spared them not as an example of what happens to ungodly

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

2 Peter 2:4-6

strange children

Send thine hand from above; rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strange children; Whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood. Psalm 144:7-8

Strange children in the great waters speaking vanity – Rev 13:1-8; Daniel 7:8; Daniel 11:36 beast out of the sea speaking blasphemy and boasting

Right hand of falsehood – raise right hand swearing falsely

thorns

Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you – Joshua 23:13

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell – Numbers 33:55

Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you. – Judges 2:3

Disobedience to God yields harvest of thorns

Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;  Judges 3:1

not all the Canaanites were driven out of the land, some were left by the Lord to “prove” the following generations who inherited the land and had not fought for it.  we are quick to defend something hard won, but just as quick to take for granted and loose something easily gained…

“And there will be no more for the house of Israel a prickling brier or a painful thorn from any round about them who scorned them; then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.” Ez 28:24

other nations buffet Israel as a thorn in the side 

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.  2 Cor 12:7

the Lord may not remove all of the messengers of the enemy but leave some to “prove” us, keep us humble, and keep us in good spiritual shape and fighting readiness by giving us something for sparring and preparation for coming battles…


Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? – Matthew 7:16


And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. – Luke 8:14

fiery darts

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44
the enemy is not creative, the only thing he is the “father” of are lies and those who propagate lies..

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man 1 Cor 10:13
the enemy can only recycle the same old lies over and over in his efforts to steal, kill, and destroy… (John 10:10)
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Eph 6:16

the fiery darts of the enemy are lies…

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17
the truth is God’s word 
you fight off lies the same way Jesus did, with the truth (God’s word)…  (Matt 4:1-11)
faith is trusting the truth, and the truth quenches the fiery darts…
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Luke 8:11
truth is a seed that, when planted in good soil and watered, it grows to bear good fruit (Luke 8:4-18)
lies are also a type of seed, but the seeds of lies only produce tares and thorns (weeds)…

you allow these weed seeds to get planted by repeating these lies to yourself…
lying to yourself no different than any other kind of lying, it is sin…

dirty on the inside

Matthew 23:25-26

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.

It doesn’t matter how clean the outside of the cup is…


if the inside is dirty, then no matter how clean the water is that you put in the cup, the water will come out of the cup dirty.

broken cisterns

Jeremiah 2:13

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Deut 32:32-33
For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

instead of using the word of God that has been given to us, mankind attempts to use their own broken wisdom…   Jesus is our true vine and the Holy Spirit is the new wine.


John 15:1
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Matt 9:16-17
No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

The false prophet will speak as a dragon:

Rev 13:11
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon

warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life

Ezekiel 3:18-21

When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

Ezekiel 33:6

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.