Drying up the Euphrates

“Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, and He that formed Thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by Myself; that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish… That saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers.” (Isa. 44:24,25,27). “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.” (Rev. 16:12).

Both of these prophecies looked forward to the destruction of Babylon. The first from Isaiah spoke primarily of the literal Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar. The second primarily spoke of the final spiritual Babylon that existed as the “holy” Church of Rome throughout the Dark Ages and was slain by the Reformation’s sword of the Spirit. Both would see their occultic, counterfeit river of life on fire, and their deluded rejoicing and foolish minds dried up. In both cases, Babylon would receive perpetual war from heaven until it would finally succumb to their complete death by the “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Rev. 19:16).

“And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi: for he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” (Ex. 17:13-16). Likewise would the Lord have perpetual warfare against Satan and his earthly organization to corrupt the earth with its abominations.

But, Israel didn’t bring an end to those proponents of wicked spiritualism in the holy land.

“Neither did Manasseh drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean and her towns, nor Taanach and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Dor and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and her towns, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and her towns: but the Canaanites would dwell in that land.
And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.
Neither did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwelt in Gezer among them.
Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries.
Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob:
But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out.
Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Bethshemesh, nor the inhabitants of Bethanath; but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Bethshemesh and of Bethanath became tributaries unto them.
And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley:
But the Amorites would dwell in mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim: yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became tributaries.
And the coast of the Amorites was from the going up to Akrabbim, from the rock, and upward.
And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break My covenant with you.
And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed My voice: why have ye done this?
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.” (Jdg. 1:27-2:3).

Accordingly, today we see that the papacy has recently risen up from its deathbed. Obviously, as the ancient children of Israel ceased from destroying the Canaanites from God’s earthly sanctuary after Joshua died, likewise did the Protestants, after the Reformers died, cease to expose all the wickedness and evil errors of the papacy, instead of continuing to remove those errors from Protestantism. And as a result of not finishing the work of destroying the Canaanites and the Lord’s warning of the ultimate corruption of Israel by the Canaanites, so has Protestantism been corrupted by the revival of Babylonian Catholicism.

“And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger.
And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed….
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, Because that this people hath transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto My voice;
I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:
That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not.
Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered He them into the hand of Joshua.” (Jdg. 2:10-15,20-23).

“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;
Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;
Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.

And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.

And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves.” (Jdg. 3:1-7).

Babylon is alive again, and is about to subjugate America and the world that America has protected from the absolute despotism of Rome. And the subjugation must be our due punishment because we have ceased to represent the God who gave us our high place in the world. “Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter My judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.” (Jer. 1:14-16).

Today we see a group of insurgents that commit the most grisly, barbaric, extreme murders. They are wild; they are uncontrollable; they are unstoppable. They were al-Qaeda; now they are ISIS. They look Muslim, but the Muslims don’t claim them. Just who are they? Who is inspiring them? Who do they work for? They are the resurrected Beast of the Dark Ages. Why are they knocking at our door? Because we have failed make perpetual war against this modern Amalek, and to be sober and vigilant against our own individual decline into moral depravity.

Studying the Spirit of Prophecy and searching our hearts for sin was to be our work during this investigative judgment. We were to watch for the signs of Christ’s coming, but that shouldn’t have superseded the afflicting of our souls. For, even watching the movements of terrorism can become our chief focus instead of this heart-work of searching our souls and crying to the Lord for more conviction of sin.

If we would not search our souls for a true, valid, genuine union with Christ in light of the laws and statutes of Jehovah (which was the requirement of ancient Israel on the Day of Atonement, lest the Lord should cut them off), then we would be cut off from God during this investigative judgment. And being cut off is exactly what explains the sudden emergence of danger all around the world.

“Ah Lord GOD! behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee:
Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is His name,
Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to His ways, and according to the fruit of His doings:
Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast made Thee a name, as at this day;
And hast brought forth Thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror;
And hast given them this land, which Thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;
And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not Thy voice, neither walked in Thy Law; they have done nothing of all that Thou commandedst them to do: therefore Thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them:
Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what Thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, Thou seest it.” (Jer. 32:17-24).

Protestantism was given isolation in this New Continent for a refuge apart from the populated, polluted, pagan, and persecuting Old World. This land of milk and honey was a most wonderful gift from God. But, what have we done in America? We have served the god of this world in the Lord’s land of promise. We have not loved the Lord with all of our heart, mind, and strength. Therefore Providence has “caused all this evil to come upon [us].”

“Behold the mounts, they are come unto the [Protestantism] to take it; and the [United States] is given into the hand of the [Jesuit CIA], that fight against it.” Like the Hebrews of the Old Testament for their disregard of the laws of God and uniting in pagan worship, the Protestants are soon to be taken away for the exact same reason. Long have they been corrupted by the errors of Rome, which they never reliquished.

“And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance [H2706 “set times”], broken [H6565 “disannulled”] the everlasting covenant.” (Isa. 24:2-5).

“And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (Dan. 7:25). The church of God would change His times and laws. The very church of God did the work of Antichrist for so long that the church became Antichrist. Haven’t we done the same today? Hasn’t Protestantism abrogated and disannulled the Reformation? Haven’t they returned to Rome, the Antichrist? Isn’t Protestant America speaking like the dragon (Rev. 13:11)? Are we not repeating the history of the church’s falling away of the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries AD?

“And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.” (Dan. 8:10,11). Finally, the apostolic church completely apostatized. “And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” (Dan. 8:12). This prophecy so faithfully articulated the failings of Israel because the multitudes of the church would do the same as Israel. The church departed so widely from the first love and principles of the apostles that they cut themselves off from heaven. (Revelation 2:4,5). They became a beast as Satan increasingly entered into their thinking. Hasn’t Protestantism done the same? Is their brother, Adventism, doing the same? Hasn’t the first beast from the Dark Ages returned to life and power? Isn’t it parading its powers and re-speaking its former boasts against God and its threats against His people?

Protestantism has abandoned its original laws given to the Reformers—the statutes and doctrines of righteousness by faith and God’s Law. Haven’t we Protestants done as the parable described? “His citizens hated Him, and sent a message after Him, saying, We will not have this Man to reign over us.” (Luke 19:14). We have abrogated His authority to condemn our sins and us. We claim to be all holy. And we are the holy people, but only by the unmerited mercy of God. Yet, without the slightest conscience for disclaiming loyalty to the Law of God, we presumptuously hold onto His gracious promises: “God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Thess. 5:9); “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:1). How dare we claim these precious promises while refusing His condemnation for our sins, His loving threatenings, His fatherly hot wrath against us?

It’s true of Jehovah: “Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands….” (Jer. 32:18). But Protestants exclude the rest of the verse, “… and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is His name.” (Jer. 32:18). “And the LORD passed by before [Moses], and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Ex. 34:6,7). Jehovah is a gracious God, but He will only accept genuine, heart-service from those who accept His precious convictions of sin along with His wonderful provisions and protection. As He continued, “…and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” (Ex. 34:7).

The most heinous crime before Christ is to pretend to serve Him while really following Satan in his rebellion against reproof and correction, and serving this destroyer of Christ’s Father and His Father’s kingdom of purity and righteousness. Everyone in His church who fails His tests of loyalty to Him, He will jealously punish for their deceit and then give them to the master they have really loved. “Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.” (Ex. 20:5,6). Grace and Law. We hear it coming out of His mouth again and again. Grace and Law. No Law, no grace; hearing our Father’s Law is the condition for His grace. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him.” (Ps. 103:13).

We didn’t like the conditional grace of the Lord that was contingent upon our submitting to His righteousness. Repeating the song ad nauseam, “Grace, grace, God’s grace….”, we deceived ourselves and each other into believing that grace was all that the Lord wanted in His covenant. We quoted a misunderstood verse, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” (Matt 9:13). Jesus didn’t mean “not sacrifice” as in no self-sacrifice, no self-denial, no abstinence and crucifixion of self. If that had been His definition of “not sacrifice”, then He would have contradicted His own words and example when He said, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24), and “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). No, when Jesus said, “I will not have sacrifice”, He meant that He would refuse the great, ostentatious formality into which the animal sacrifices had degraded. By the word “sacrifice” He spoke against righteousness by their great works and sacraments; He spoke of no more service with great hypocrisy; He meant no more pretense in serving God. False worship is all about substituting our own great acts in order to evade God’s conviction and repentance. It’s a work of replacing the Spirit’s sharp, pointed wounds to my conscience, with my shallow, surface self-affliction. And that kind of ceremonious worship and service all sprung from heathen worship. The pagan world never humbled itself before the God of Israel because Satan would not let them submit themselves to the truths God gave to His people.

We need to be humiliated. But we cannot humble ourselves. Only God can humble us; and He will humble us through trouble. That trouble can come through the bright light of His truth enlightening our sinfulness. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time…. The God of all grace...hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while.” (1Pet. 5:6,10). “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” (Jas. 4:10). “And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.” (Isa. 30:18).

But, if we won’t go to His truth just as we are, then He can still humble us and save us through the much greater trouble that His enemy will bring to us. Thus, through the warfare of God, which is His strange act, the new master we have chosen gives us double the trouble that we would have received under our gracious Father if we had chosen to walk in His light. Jehovah takes no delight in seeing the suffering of His children, but He does delight when He sees them admit that they chose the suffering and then they seek Him with their whole heart. He sings over them and  rejoices like the Father did when He received His humbled, prodigal son.

At the tail end of His threats to Israel’s disobedience, He said that if they confess “that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity….” (Lev. 26:41). Jesus made these requirements very clear to the children of Israel; and He changeth not, as we love to sing. Once again, His people today have lusted for grace without Law and condemnation. Protestantism and Adventism have not surrendered to His justice and His offense toward our sinfulness. If we have, then we would love the Spirit of Prophecy.

“For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (Rom. 10:3). Our focus has been on this world, and we didn’t allow Him to correct us. We, Protestant America, didn’t love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Our highest priority was making a living, getting ahead in this world, getting a good job, “making it big”, accumulating wealth and the American dream. And now Protestantism is busy grabbing all the left-over easy oil and natural resources in the world. We have not used the blessing of God and His land flowing with milk and honey to distribute His wealth to the world, and thus be exalted in the earth because we exalted the world. What we have done in terms of God’s command to distribute our wealth to the world has been only eye-service and half-hearted. All of our efforts in that enterprise have been done by the life-work of a few outspoken people, not by a unified nation, rejoicing to give from our hearts.

So, if we won’t of ourselves distribute to the world the Lord’s wealth then He knows someone who will force us to distribute—Babylon. And it will be very deflating of our ego. We would not police our own morality, so the Lord will raise up the kings of the earth to police us and to redistribute our wealth.

Shouldn’t we have expected this?

“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” (1Cor. 11:31).
“For they [Israel, Christianity, Protestantism, Adventism] are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.” (Deut. 32:28-31). If His last days people had remained repentant before His Law, the Lord would have sent His convicting Comforter to correct and instruct them.

But instead He must send a whip and a rod. Because Israel wouldn’t judge themselves and self-correct, the Lord took the work of judgment and correction and gave it to a powerful enemy.

“But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho: and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him.” (Jer. 39:5

The Jews wouldn’t examine themselves in the light of the Law, and afflict their souls before the Lord for repentance and renunciation of sin. They preferred to do the pagan celebration worship; that is, to dance and sing, “Grace, grace, God’s grace….” They preferred the devil’s cheap emotional religion instead of the Saviour’s convicting, redemptive religion. They preferred to be in and out of faith and up and down in victory over their sins. Surrender to the mighty hand of God and His righteousness would have fixed all these problems. But, they would not suffer the humiliation before the Law of God, the Bible, and the voice of prophets. Therefore, the Lord would humble them. Will we, the modern day Jews, humble ourselves before the Spirit of Prophecy? Or, must we be humbled by the enemy?

Remember that the new master we have chosen who will judge us in the Lord’s place will do so without any mercy, because we would not grant the Lord to judge us through His Law and Spirit. “All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.” (Jer. 50:7). The apostate Jews’ lives were made “for a prey.” (Jer. 21:9). In the end, it would be said that they received “received of the LORD’s hand double for all [their] sins.” (Isa. 40:2). It took 600 years, but they finally surrendered to Christ’s warfare against their disobedience to His Father’s will. The nation knew what it meant to “have suffered a while.” (1Pet. 5:10). Then His Father sent Him. The Jews would be humbled and enabled to send the message to the world of the Messiah who had loved them and had died to save not only them, but the whole world.

This is the essence of sacred history. God has a people who He had gotten to know. He needs them to go out into the world to find the rest of His children sprinkled everywhere. He purifies them with His laws and makes them holy, happy, and the example of everyone “whom the King delighteth to honour.” (Est. 6:9). But, their love for Him cools, they flock to the immorality and wickedness of His enemy, and He rightfully shows them the insults with which they repaid Him. Generations later, their children’s children see the error of their ways and return their honor and reverence to the Lord their God.

Will Protestant America learn from this? Surely, the Protestants know their Bibles. Every man his own priest, right?! Sola Scriptura, right? No. Most Protestants haven’t learned from sacred history because they haven’t known the essence of Bible sacred history. “And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed.” (Isa. 29:11). They don’t understand the main theme of the Bible, that God has children―whoever will obey Him. “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?” (Heb. 12:7). If they don’t want to obey Him as their God and Master, it is because they are serving another god and master. That is the common theme. If they refuse to obey, they reap His punishment and He hands them over to their real master. If they then turn and choose to obey their Creator, they reap His blessing and His everlasting Spirit of life. Will they choose death or life? Simple decision, isn’t it? If it is so simple, then why do we keep choosing death? Because we keep refusing to look at His Law, His scriptures, and the plan for His new kingdom.

“What is written in the law? how readest thou?” (Luke 10:26).
“For what saith the scripture?” (Rom. 4:3).
“Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?” (Mark 12:24). The Bible, our only safeguard against the great adversary, has once again been discredited by his men, and we are believing his every word. Therefore, the unavoidable punishment must come. Isis, the Jesuits, the Inquisitions of the Dark Ages, another Hitler Germany, must bear sway in America and reign over the earth.

“Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.
The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction….
From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.
Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison.” (Isa. 24:6-12,16-22).

“Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act.
Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.” (Isa. 28:17-22).

“Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto Me as Ariel.
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath

He covered.

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men:
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?” (Isa. 29:1-17).

Our exceeding national debt and exceeding gluttony must cause our economy to collapse. We must be punished. We must be visited with the judgments of the Lord.

“Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.” (Isa. 29:6) “Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.” (Isa. 29:5).

“Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.” (Deut. 28:59). In the tribulation, and in the magnificence of the extremity from the Lord, many will see the mighty hand of God. They will believe and humble themselves before their God. “They shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity” (Lev. 26:40,41), then He will mollify their hearts with His Spirit and heal their lives with His truth.