According to Webster’s dictionary, Allegiance is loyalty or commitment of a subordinate to a superior or of an individual to a group or cause.

This allegiance brings about loyalty, faithfulness, obedience, homage, devotion, and most of all a covenant relationship.

Hosea the Prophet said, “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness (allegiance) is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.” (Hosea 6:4 KJV)

In other words, Ephraim was double minded in all her ways!

I believe that God is saying yet again to His People, your perspective of Him is distorted and twisted and somehow mere men have become a tree that our nation has begun to look up to, instead of Him!

This tree, I believe, is symbolic for the things we idolize and we look up to that, it has stolen the hearts of many in our nation; as a people.

You see, this tree cannot talk, see, hear, or deliver you from your sins!

If I had a saw, the first places that I would cut down are the pulpits and platforms that many have made out of their gods; instead of the true and the Living God!

Ephraim had forgotten about what true alliance to God was all about! Their love for him had become vain like unto the morning mist, like the dew that came and went away as the sun began to arise.

They failed to understand what faithfulness and covenant was all about when it came to a relationship with God!

I am sure they probably went through all the motions of what looked like allegiance as a tribe (seeing they came from the seed of Jacob) but God was not having their lip service.

For, he said that I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. (Hosea 6:6 KJV)

So many of God’s people have made great sacrifices in the Kingdom of God. Many have done great works in the body of Christ.

They have given money in the offering pans and paid tithes, as well as donated great things to help those in need.

For many have sung worship songs, preached great sermons and even given half of their kingdom, but one thing they fail to give is themselves, as living sacrificial offerings to the LORD! Just as Ephraim did!

Ephraim lacked love, commitment, dedication and loyalty to God! Even though, Jacob gave his blessing to his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh, he chose to bless the younger Ephraim first, despite Joseph’s protests.

In doing so, Jacob noted that Ephraim would be greater than Manasseh (Genesis 48:5–21).

Could have been that Ephraim had become estimable because they were chosen to be first?

While God gifted the tribe of Ephraim as warriors and valiant fighters (1 Chronicles 12:30), Ephraim failed to follow God’s order to remove the Canaanites from the Promised Land, (Exodus 23: 23-25; Judges 1: 29; Joshua 16:10).

However, there loyalty and allegiance was more to their idols than to the true and the living God!

God said specifically, “You shall not bow down to their gods nor serve them, nor do as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. And, You shall serve the LORD your God and Him only shall you serve!”

How many of us in today’s world have placed people, things, gifts, talents, relationships and other things before God after God has been good to you; elevating you as His chosen vessel just as he did Ephraim?

Ephraim’s pride, jealously, and self-centeredness caused them to make a lot of mistakes; even though God had chosen them first.

Isn’t that just like man God begins to elevate them and to cause them to have an open heaven and the first thing they do is to forget their allegiance to him! Not only to God ,but to your fellowman.

You see, the Ephraimites became angry with Gideon because he had not initially called for their help in battling the Midianites (Judges 8:1).

Gideon wisely displayed godly kindness and extolled the tribe’s commitment and willingness to serve the LORD, thus diffusing what could have become an ugly situation. (Judges 8:2–3).

Gideon had to decrease in their sight in order to appease their inflated egos, and he said to them, “What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer? God has given into your hands the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I been able to do in comparison with you?”

Then their anger against him subsided when he said this.

Help us Holy Ghost! Pride and ego are ugly things in the eyes of the Father!

Gideon was humble and he realized he had to depend upon God for his help. And, he walked wisely and cautiously; unlike Ephraim!

He might have been reluctant to go on his own but one thing he had that Ephraim did not was allegiance to his God.

Ephraim was so full of pride and being full of themselves that the Ammonites without the help of the proud Ephraim warriors caused a civil war to break out, and over 42,000 warriors from Ephraim were killed all because Ephraim failed to seek the LORD first, and to realize honor and glory belongs to God and never us!

What is the problem?

The ego, pride, self-centeredness of man wanting and desiring to be more than what God has created him to be, so the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but only a few will be chosen.

I believe that God is saying in this season no matter how much He chooses to bless His People, we never have the right to feel as though we are deserving (esteemed) of the LORD’s blessings!

And, being in that kind of mindset can do more than harm us but those around us.

Being first, or chosen should never cause one to think or to feel as though they are better than everyone else because God has chosen them and it is never an excuse for being disrespectful to God or to His People as Ephraim was to Gideon.

People of God, we can learn a lot from the tribe of Ephraim and the mistakes they made as a tribe when it comes to loyalty and allegiance to God First, and than our fellowman when it comes to the love of God in this season; especially about what true allegiance is all about!

 

~ Apostle Geraldine Fisher

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Apostle Geraldine Fisher has a World-Wide-Social Media Net-Work Ministry. As a Missionary, God moved her into the Office of a Prophet, revealing to her the qualities of a True prophet, humility, humiliation, loving others, interceding in prayer, as she keeps her own life clean to accurately hear from God. Since hearing the audible voice of God calling her to ministry, she’s been called to intercede and pray for others in ministry as God speaks, instructs, directs and gives prophetic words for her to give to others. God promised He would bring her to sit and to learn before great men, all of which He did!

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