Chaos In Chaotic Times – This Is Our World Now Series

CHAOS IN CHAOTIC TIMES – THIS IS OUR WORLD NOW

There is a hymn that I hope is still sung despite all the inferior stuff that today passes as church music, and here is the first stanza –

God, whose almighty word

CHAOS and darkness heard,

And took their flight:

Hear us, we humbly pray,

And where the gospel-day

Sheds not its glorious ray,

Let there be LIGHT!

In those words, we pass from chaos in “Chaos and darkness heard,” to end in “light”. Our God reigns supreme over chaos. We live in chaotic times. There is no dispute about that from discerning people. The undiscerning who live for this life only, and follow their life motto, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” either don’t care less, or use an expression we have in Australia, “She’ll be right, mate.”

In the NASB, the word, “chaos” is used on only one occasion. It is used here – {{Isaiah 24:7-12 “The new wine mourns, the vine decays, all the merry-hearted sigh. The gaiety of tambourines ceases, the noise of revellers stops, the gaiety of the harp ceases. They do not drink wine with song. Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. The city of CHAOS is broken down. Every house is shut up so that none may enter. There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine. All joy turns to gloom. The gaiety of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city and the gate is battered to ruins.”}}

Chapter 24 of Isaiah is a comprehensive chapter. This expression, “The city of chaos is broken down,” is a reference to Jerusalem, years before the event actually happened, but that’s no problem for God who knows the end from the beginning. The destruction that was to come on Jerusalem was that of Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion, and in Isaiah’s message, there was hope the people would listen and turn from their evil ways; no doubt, the same attitude Noah had in 120 years of preaching a coming destruction. In neither case did the people listen.

I said chapter 24 is a comprehensive chapter. The events covered in the description go way beyond Jerusalem or Judah. Consider these verses to see the worldwide extent of the judgement that is described, and that is coming –

{{Isaiah 24:20 “The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard and it totters like a shack for its transgression is heavy upon it, and it will fall, never to rise again.”

Isaiah 24:1-4 “Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled for the LORD has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away.”}}

The description Isaiah gives is of a worldwide judgement on the earth, one causing destruction, and the setting for that is definitely in the Tribulation to come. It is that period the bible calls “The Day of the LORD/Jehovah”. It will be a terrible time and the events of it are contained in Revelation chapters 6 to 19. If any non-Christian reads this, do not delay because that day will suddenly be on the earth once the Lord removes His own people from this world. Repent and give your life to the Lord for He welcomes you. Do it before it is too late. We are already at the end of the Church age.

THE FALL OF SATAN – A DOUBLE APPLICATION OF PROPHECY

It is common in prophecy to give an immediate application, but in the context, it can extend way beyond that specific reference. As an example I will do this. The king of Babylon is being addressed, and this is how it begins – {{Isaiah 14:3-5 “It will be in the day when the LORD gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved, that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say, “How the oppressor has ceased, and how fury has ceased! The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers . . .”}}

However in the description in this taunt it goes way beyond the king of Babylon, and the one to whom it must then be applied is Satan – {{Isaiah 14:10-17 “They will all respond and say to you, ‘Even you have been made weak as we. You have become like us. Your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to Sheol. Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you, and worms are your covering.’ “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.’ “Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit. “Those who see you will gaze at you. They will ponder over you saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, ‘Who made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities, who did not allow his prisoners to go home?’”}}