A Call To The Remnant

In Isa 19:1 we see that the “Idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence. And the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.” Can I suggest that since 9/11 there has been an unleashing of fear in America. The people have had their foundations shaken, and they now suffer from unbridled insecurity. To be hit in the financial capital and the political capital was like being struck with arrows directly in the heart. It has left the people staggering and unable to find their footing.The near financial collapse of 2008 has only re-inforced that.

THE DEBT CRISIS-JUDGEMENT UPON AMERICA?

We see in Isa 19:1 that ‘behold, Jehovah rides on a swift cloud and comes into Egypt.” Now, how many of us know that when God visits a particular land for the purpose of judgment, that it will not go well for that land? You see, He sits upon the cloud, meaning, that our God is above all resistance. He will do what He has come to do, no one will resist Him. Now the Lord has come to Egypt on a cloud. What does this mean for Egypt? Well, God was going to deal with them directly. There would be no foreign invasion and then captivity, no God was going to prove something. The methods that God will employ are truly frightening.

In a combination of natural disasters and His sovereignty, which allows Him to effect the minds of men, God would bring Egypt down. As we see how and why God was judging Egypt, I want you to keep America in mind. I am going to suggest to you that God has arrived on a swift cloud and has come into America, even as we speak. Now , I know that this staggers the mind. Please pray that the Lord will give you eyes to see what is truly unfolding in our time and why.

First of all, let us consider the reasons that God came down to Egypt. At this period of time the Jewish people had a strong alliance with Egypt. While on the one hand they professed a dependence upon God, in reality they were truly dependant upon Egypt for their continued protection against stronger forces than them. They depended upon Egypt’s strength and military might. Now we know that our God is a jealous God, He will have no other God’s before Him. Do you really believe that? Seriously brothers and sisters, do you truly believe that? If indeed that is so, then we see that God has come down to dismantle, piece by piece, one of the major sources of the Jewish people’s idolatry, Egypt.

Keep in mind, an idol is something that we put our trust in above God. Can I suggest that God has come down to dismantle, piece by piece, the major source of the American Christian’s idolatry, the nation of America itself. If the Jewish people slept at ease in their beds because of their alliance with Egypt, does the American Christian really do anything different? Does their peace and security come from God or does it come from their military might? Does their peace and security come from God or does it come from their vast wealth?

In the natural, who would have argued with the Jewish alliance with Egypt? Would today’s Christians have dealt with the situation any differently than the Jewish nation did? Would they not look at it pragmatically and say “well yes you can pray to God and trust Him, that’s all well and good, but lets be practical.” Using the exact same logic today, American Christians have an alliance with their institutions to protect them. Remember, God knows our hearts. He knows if we trust our political, financial, and military institutions over and above Him. And to further complicate the situation today, many Christians have co-mingled their Christianity with their nationalism, to them they are one and the same. Whether its our “Godly foundations,” or our founding Fathers or our laws or our constitution, these are all seen as guarantors of our continuing heritage. Rather than God being our guarantor, our protector, our defender, we see human institutions given that role, which is why so many fight so feverishly in the political realms to guarantee their “rights,” and their survival. Take these same people and transplant them back into the days of Isa 19 and we would see them argue with intensity that the alliance with Egypt is vital and that it must be maintained.

Of course, this truly is a sign a people who do not trust God at all, but only pay lip service. And so God begins to unravel the source behind the Jewish man’s security, so as to judge the source and to expose the claims of those who call themselves by His name.

In Isa 19:1 we see that the “Idols of Egypt shall tremble at His presence. And the heart of Egypt shall melt in its midst.” Can I suggest that since 9/11 there has been an unleashing of fear in America. The people have had their foundations shaken, and they now suffer from unbridled insecurity. To be hit in the financial capitol and the political capitol was like being struck with arrows directly in the heart. It has left the people staggering and unable to find their footing.The near financial collapse of 2008 has only re-inforced that. In Isa 19:2 we read “And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians and they shall fight each man against his brother and each against his neighbor, city against city, Kingdom against Kingdom. Jesus speaks this exact thing in relation to the end of times in Mat 24:7 “For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.” The word kingdom is from the Greek “ethnos,” its where we get our word ethnic.

In the context of America under judgment we have already seen different groups turn against each other. The biggest categories seem to be Liberals and Republicans. The country is sharply divided right down the middle, and there is an intense hatred and mistrust from either side. God turned the Egyptians upon themselves and He has done the same in this country. In Egypt they had 12 different regions, this would be the kingdom part of the scripture. They also turned on each other. In this country we will see red states and blue states turning on each other and fighting with one another, at least in the political realm. This will be part and parcel of the national breakdown of leadership as they abdicate responsibility and lose wisdom.

So we can see that fear has struck the heart of the people of America, just like the Egyptians. We also see the rise of hatred and fear of one another. This is part of the unraveling of American society, the very fabric of it being ripped apart and destroyed. TV Pundits have become the mediums and fortune tellers and idols of many professing Christians.

In Isa 19:3 it states “And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst of it and I will destroy its wisdom and they shall seek to idols and to enchanters and to the mediums and to the future-tellers.” Can I suggest that we are far to modern here in the States to call our idols by those names. Yet so many professing Christians look to the media to hear what their future-tellers have to say and they have enriched these future-tellers, or pundits. Listen to what Matthew Henry has to say about these verses……..

III. The Egyptians shall be embroiled in endless dissensions and quarrels among themselves. There shall be no occasion to bring a foreign force upon them to destroy them; they shall destroy one another (Isa_19:2): I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians. As these divisions and animosities are their sin, God is not the author of them, they come from men’s lusts; but God, as a Judge, permits them for their punishment, and by their destroying differences corrects them for their sinful agreements. Instead of helping one another, and acting each in his place for the common good, they shall fight every one against his brother and neighbour, whom he ought to love as himself – city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

IV. Their politics shall be all blasted, and turned into foolishness. When God will destroy the nation he will destroy the counsel thereof (Isa_19:3), by taking away wisdom from the statesmen (Job_12:20), or setting them one against another (as Hushai and Ahithophel), or by his providence breaking their measures even when they seemed well laid; so that the princes of Zoan are fools: they make fools of one another, every one betrays his own folly, and divine Providence makes fools of them all, Isa_19:11. Pharaoh had his wise counsellors. Egypt was famous for such. But their counsel has all become brutish; they have lost all their forecast; one would think they had become idiots.

You see, when God judges a nation in this fashion he robs their leaders of their wisdom. He brings about situations where the best counselors are at a complete loss as to how to move forward and solve their problems and their problems only mount up higher and higher. This is undoubtedly the situation America faces right now and since it is God that sits in judgement, there are no resolutions to their mounting problems and crisis. Just when they seem to get a handle on one problem and seek to breathe a little easier, quickly the next judgment comes.

In Egypt we see that the Nile was drying up. This was the source of the wealth of that nation, God strikes at the very heart of their resources. Of course we saw recently an unprecedented financial collapse that threatened to swallow up the whole world. In order to solve their problems America spent a vast a mount of money, money that they did not have. This was a country already deeply in debt to foreign nations, now they have have plunged themselves, with complete abandon, into an ocean of debt in order to try and stabilize their world. This is only delaying the inevitable. At some point their enemies will turn on them and call in their debt. The great pride of this nation has been its wealth, its the very heart of the country, now we see all this slipping away just as the Egyptian saw their own wealth slip away as the Nile slowly dried up.

America is drowning in an ocean of debt, started by the Republicans, carried on gleefully by the Democrats. Moving forward these two groups will point the finger at each other as the problems of debt mount. As the intensity of the judgments increase, as the pressure mounts, we will see both groups of people get to the point of wanting to tear each other apart. Isa 19:14 “Jehovah has mixed a perverse spirit in its midst; and they have caused Egypt to go astray in all its work, like a drunkard staggers in his vomit. ” When God mixes in a perverse spirit, woe to that place.

The time has come for proffessing American Christians to rely upon God alone for their security. They must know that their identity is in the Lord and in Him alone. The very country that they take so much pride in will one day soon turn on them. Yet for those who turn to the Lord with their whole hearts they will find great blessings and peace of mind . This does not mean that they will not be persecuted, without a doubt they will be, and by their own country, but they will be covered by a peace that surpasses all understanding.

God is, even as we speak, working His judgment upon the land. The mighty shall be humbled, yet God’s people will be like a city set upon a hill. I wish I could say that judgment will turn the nation back to God but I fear it is not so. Judgment will only harden the hearts of those who resist God, their hatred for God’s people only increasing as a perverse spirit begins to blame God’s people for all the woes of society, much like the Nazis began to blame the Jewish people for all the woes of the German people.

God has begun to pass judgment on all those things that the American Christian holds dear and gleans security from. If the very constitution that so many Americans stand upon, if that is their trust, their security, then that too will be judged and removed. And the people cry “Never, blasphemy,” forgetting that God allowed the nation of Israel and Judah to be invaded and destroyed and the temple, so central to the Jewish identity, completely destroyed, not one stone left standing upon another. Yes, it staggers the American mind, yet nevertheless, God has come on a swift cloud and God has come to judge. Joe 2:1 Blow a ram’s horn in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of Jehovah comes, for it is near at hand;

So brothers and sisters, do likewise. Blow the trumpet. In Joel’s day they lost everything to a devastating plague of locusts. Not an ordinary plague, a devastating supernatural plague designed to call the people to repentance. In the last 10 years we have seen 9/11, a tsunami that was unknown in our times or our history books, Katrina and then a financial meltdown that took the world to the brink. Now, in Joel’s day they had just over 30 years before they were invaded and destroyed. They did not heed this warning from the prophet, they managed to get back on their feet again, just in time to be destroyed. Shall we ignore these devastating, world shattering warnings? Will we write them of as merely natural disasters? Or, will we recognize that God rides on a swift cloud and has come to judge the Land?