Nightmare On Elam Street Series

Isaiah 21: 1 – 17

Nightmare On Elam Street

1 The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea. As whirlwinds in the South pass through, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. 2 A distressing vision is declared to me; The treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All its sighing I have made to cease. 3 Therefore my loins are filled with pain; Pangs have taken hold of me, like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it; I was dismayed when I saw it. 4 My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me. 5 Prepare the table, set a watchman in the tower, eat and drink. Arise, you princes, anoint the shield! 6 For thus has the Lord said to me: “ Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.” 7 And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels, and he listened earnestly with great care. 8 Then he cried, “A lion, my Lord! I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime; I have sat at my post every night. 9 And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!” Then he answered and said, “ Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground.” 10 Oh, my threshing and the grain of my floor! That which I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, I have declared to you. 11 The burden against Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, “ Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” 12 The watchman said, “ The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire; Return! Come back!” 13 The burden against Arabia. In the forest in Arabia you will lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanites. 14 O inhabitants of the land of Tema, bring water to him who is thirsty; With their bread they met him who fled. 15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the distress of war. 16 For thus the LORD has said to me: “Within a year, according to the year of a hired man, all the glory of Kedar will fail; 17 and the remainder of the number of archers, the mighty men of the people of Kedar, will be diminished; for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.”

Today we are going to see the Lord’s Judgment on Iran. The area around the Persian Gulf was called in ancient times ‘mat tamtim’ or ‘ the land of the sea’. If you look at a map you will find the Persian Gulf and the area that our Lord Is referring to.

Do you see at the beginning of this study our Holy God’s significant point? Remember, this land was called ‘the land of the sea’. What does our Lord call it? – the ‘wilderness’ of the sea. What is He referring to? Elementary, dear Watson, the land will be turned into a wilderness as a result of the Assyrian invasion - 1 The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea. As whirlwinds in the South pass through, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

What is a whirlwind? It is a tornado. We have just witnessed some devastating tornados, the most noticeable was in Joplin, Missouri. So, I wanted you to get an idea of what the scientists say about tornados.

Tornado Statistics

Definition of the Fujita Tornado Scale - developed by Professor Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago to classify tornadoes according to wind speed and damage.

(FO) Gale Tornado (40 - 72 mph)

Light damage: some damage to chimneys, breaks branches off trees, pushes over shallow-rooted trees, and damages sign boards.

(F1) Moderate Tornado (73 - 112 mph)

Moderate damage: The lower limit (73 mph) is the beginning of hurricane wind speed, peels surfaces of roofs, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, and moving autos pushed off roads.

(F2) Significant Tornado (112 - 157 mph)

Considerable damage: Roofs torn off the frames of houses, mobile homes demolished, boxcars pushed over, large trees snapped or uprooted, and heavy cars lifted off ground and thrown

(F3) Severe Tornado (158 - 206 mph)

Severe damage: Roofs and some walls torn off well-constructed houses, trains overturned, most trees in forest uprooted, and heavy cars lifted off ground and thrown.

(F4) Devastating Tornado (207 - 260 mph)

Devastating damage: Well-constructed houses leveled, structures blown off weak foundations, and cars and other large objects thrown about.