More Shaking Of The Nations
“And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.” (Eze. 38:18-23)
To me it feels like everything that is said in the above verses relates to what is happening today. Our Israel lands are being shaken like never before. Nothing that is earthly minded is safe. The only things that are safe and secure are from Word of God and the promises made to His people. We are definitely in dire straits and there appears to be no way out from the mess we are in. It seems that everywhere you turn things are being turned upside down or torn apart or revealed for how bad they really are. Some of the things happening today are for the good, such as revealing evil, and many others for the bad, such as the control of our enemies and the darkness in our lands. There is a shaking up of everything we have believed and trusted in, and it is only through our faith in God that we can rest and know that He is in the midst of it all, so we must not fear as He will help us. Psa. 46 says so in verses 4-7, “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah”.
In Matthew 24 when the disciples asked Jesus what the sign of His coming would be; the first thing He said was “Take heed that no man deceive you”. I think today that is so important as there are so many lies and misrepresentation of everything that we can easily be deceived. This, of course, is the work of Satan to weaken our faith and lead us astray. It is also to give power to those who want to destroy us, as Jesus then talks about those falsely saying, “I am Christ” and then He talks about wars and rumours of wars and nation rising against nation, famine, pestilences, earthquakes, false prophets and the list goes on. All of these are happening today, and we must be very careful these events that are shaking the nations do not shake our faith too. Our faith must be built on solid rock that cannot be shaken.
God is working out His plan through all these events and even though at times some of these things are confusing and frustrating we must “pray and seek His face” on these troubling things and leave it with Him. Let Him lead us in the way we should go and let Him fill our hearts with the peace and understanding that only He can give us. The heathen will rage, and the elite will cause all sorts of problems, especially as they see their world and control crumbling, but in the end God has us in the palm of His hand and we are safe there. Things may not go exactly the way we expect but we know God’s way is always the best way and so we can leave it with Him. 2Thess. 2:1-3 says, “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”
We are living in very uncertain times and it is hard to know exactly how God is using all these things to draw us back to Him but as Pastor Ken Kemble reminded us in a recent sermon I watched online, when we feel over whelmed and fretful we must “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth”. (Psa. 46:10). I think this my favourite Psalm! When we are living our lives every day with Him, He will guide us. There is a poem called “Footprints”, one version which I have hanging on my wall, that was popular years ago and still is, where a man has a dream that he is walking along the beach with the Lord, and the last verse says, The Lord replied, “My precious, precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”
Mary Stevenson’s poem, “Footprints in the Sand” is very touching and to end my article, I thought you might enjoy it as much as I do.
One night I dreamed
I was walking
Along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life
flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed
footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were
two sets of footprints,
Other times there were
one set of footprints.
This bothered me because
I noticed That during the low
periods of my life,
When I was suffering from
Anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only
one set of footprints.
So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
That if I followed you,
You would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
There have only been one
Set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?”
The Lord replied,
“The times when you have
Seen only one set of footprints,
Is when I carried you.”
