Day 12/17 – Chaos from God 2

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Thoughts from the Diary of a Desperate Man by Walter Henrichsen
Chaos from God 2
Day Three Hundred Fifty-one

“On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.” Hebrews 7:18-19

The New Testament writers had to show that the Old Testament was incomplete without the further revelation they had to offer. To accomplish this, they had to prove that the Old Testament taught its own inadequacy. Hebrews teaches that a perfect God perfectly created an imperfect system; the Mosaic Law was “weak and useless.” God created an imperfect system so that His people would develop a perfect hope. Paul says that God brings tribulation into your life to help you move toward a biblical hope.448

I don’t know about you, but I abhor disorder of every kind. I dislike dirt, things not working, and my body falling apart. So I constantly work at cleaning the dirt, fixing things when they break, and caring for my body. God follows creating dirt, causing things to break, and my body to disintegrate with old age. Still, I can’t stop stewarding the resources God has entrusted to me. I am ashamed to admit it, but I feel more dependent upon God when things aren’t going well than when they are.

Some friends have an autistic child. They said that the child is oblivious of their efforts to teach unless his world is disrupted and he is made to feel insecure. These moments in which he senses chaos are teachable moments. Most, if not all of us, are spiritually autistic.

448 cf. Romans 5:3-4

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Amos 7-9 Revelation 8 (New King James Version)

Amos 7-9
Vision of the Locusts
7 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, He formed locust swarms at the [a]beginning of the late crop; indeed it was the late crop after the king’s mowings. 2 And so it was, when they had finished eating the grass of the land, that I said:
“O Lord God, forgive, I pray!
Oh,[b] that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
3
So the Lord relented concerning this.
“It shall not be,” said the Lord.
Vision of the Fire
4 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, the Lord God called [c]for conflict by fire, and it consumed the great deep and devoured the [d]territory. 5 Then I said:
“O Lord God, cease, I pray!
Oh, that Jacob may stand,
For he is small!”
6
So the Lord relented concerning this.
“This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
Vision of the Plumb Line
7 Thus He showed me: Behold, the Lord stood on a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 8 And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?”
And I said, “A plumb line.”
Then the Lord said:
“Behold, I am setting a plumb line
In the midst of My people Israel;
I will not pass by them anymore.
9
The [e]high places of Isaac shall be desolate,
And the [f]sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste.
I will rise with the sword against the house of Jeroboam.”
Amaziah’s Complaint
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to [g]bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said:
‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword,
And Israel shall surely be led away captive
From their own land.’ ”
12 Then Amaziah said to Amos:
“Go, you seer!
Flee to the land of Judah.
There eat bread,
And there prophesy.
13
But never again prophesy at Bethel,
For it is the king’s [h]sanctuary,
And it is the royal [i]residence.”
14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah:
“I was no prophet,
Nor was I a son of a prophet,
But I was a sheepbreeder
And a tender of sycamore fruit.
15
Then the Lord took me [j]as I followed the flock,
And the Lord said to me,
‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’
16
Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord:
You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel,
And do not [k]spout against the house of Isaac.’
17 “Therefore thus says the Lord:
‘Your wife shall be a harlot in the city;
Your sons and daughters shall fall by the sword;
Your land shall be divided by survey line;
You shall die in a defiled land;
And Israel shall surely be led away captive
From his own land.’ ”
Vision of the Summer Fruit
8 Thus the Lord God showed me: Behold, a basket of summer fruit. 2 And He said, “Amos, what do you see?”
So I said, “A basket of summer fruit.”
Then the Lord said to me:
“The end has come upon My people Israel;
I will not pass by them anymore.
3
And the songs of the temple
Shall be wailing in that day,”
Says the Lord God—
“Many dead bodies everywhere,
They shall be thrown out in silence.”
4
Hear this, you who [l]swallow up the needy,
And make the poor of the land fail,
5 Saying:
“When will the New Moon be past,
That we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
That we may [m]trade wheat?
Making the ephah small and the shekel large,
Falsifying the scales by deceit,
6
That we may buy the poor for silver,
And the needy for a pair of sandals—
Even sell the bad wheat?”
7
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:
“Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8
Shall the land not tremble for this,
And everyone mourn who dwells in it?
All of it shall swell like [n]the River,
Heave and subside
Like the River of Egypt.
9
“And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord God,
“That I will make the sun go down at noon,
And I will darken the earth in [o]broad daylight;
10
I will turn your feasts into mourning,
And all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist,
And baldness on every head;
I will make it like mourning for an only son,
And its end like a bitter day.
11
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12
They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it.
13
“In that day the fair virgins
And strong young men
Shall faint from thirst.
14
Those who swear by the [p]sin of Samaria,
Who say,
‘As your god lives, O Dan!’
And, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives!’
They shall fall and never rise again.”
The Destruction of Israel
9 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and He said:
“Strike the [q]doorposts, that the thresholds may shake,
And break them on the heads of them all.
I will slay the last of them with the sword.
He who flees from them shall not get away,
And he who escapes from them shall not be delivered.
2
“Though they dig into [r]hell,
From there My hand shall take them;
Though they climb up to heaven,
From there I will bring them down;
3
And though they hide themselves on top of Carmel,
From there I will search and take them;
Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea,
From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them;
4
Though they go into captivity before their enemies,
From there I will command the sword,
And it shall slay them.
I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good.”
5
The Lord God of hosts,
He who touches the earth and it melts,
And all who dwell there mourn;
All of it shall swell like [s]the River,
And subside like the River of Egypt.
6
He who builds His layers[t] in the sky,
And has founded His strata in the earth;
Who calls for the waters of the sea,
And pours them out on the face of the earth—
The Lord is His name.
7
“Are you not like the [u]people of Ethiopia to Me,
O children of Israel?” says the Lord.
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
The Philistines from Caphtor,[v]
And the Syrians from Kir?
8
“Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are on the sinful kingdom,
And I will destroy it from the face of the earth;
Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,”
Says the Lord.
9
“For surely I will command,
And will [w]sift the house of Israel among all nations,
As grain is sifted in a sieve;
Yet not the smallest [x]grain shall fall to the ground.
10
All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword,
Who say, ‘The calamity shall not overtake nor confront us.’
Israel Will Be Restored
11
“On that day I will raise up
The [y]tabernacle of David, which has fallen down,
And [z]repair its damages;
I will raise up its ruins,
And rebuild it as in the days of old;
12
That they may possess the remnant of Edom,[aa]
And all the Gentiles who are called by My name,”
Says the Lord who does this thing.
13
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.
14
I will bring back the captives of My people Israel;
They shall build the waste cities and inhabit them;
They shall plant vineyards and drink wine from them;
They shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them.
15
I will plant them in their land,
And no longer shall they be pulled up
From the land I have given them,”
Says the Lord your God.
Footnotes:
• Amos 7:1 Lit. beginning of the sprouting of
• Amos 7:2 Or How shall Jacob stand
• Amos 7:4 to contend
• Amos 7:4 Lit. portion
• Amos 7:9 Places of pagan worship
• Amos 7:9 Or holy places
• Amos 7:10 Or endure
• Amos 7:13 Or holy place
• Amos 7:13 Lit. house
• Amos 7:15 Lit. from behind
• Amos 7:16 Lit. drip
• Amos 8:4 Or trample on, Amos 2:7
• Amos 8:5 Lit. open
• Amos 8:8 The Nile; some Heb. mss., LXX, Tg., Syr., Vg. River (cf. 9:5); MT the light
• Amos 8:9 Lit. a day of light
• Amos 8:14 Or Ashima, a Syrian goddess
• Amos 9:1 Capitals of the pillars
• Amos 9:2 Or Sheol
• Amos 9:5 The Nile
• Amos 9:6 Or stairs
• Amos 9:7 Lit. sons of the Ethiopians
• Amos 9:7 Crete
• Amos 9:9 shake
• Amos 9:9 Lit. pebble
• Amos 9:11 Lit. booth; a figure of a deposed dynasty
• Amos 9:11 Lit. wall up its breaches
• Amos 9:12 LXX mankind

Revelation 8
Seventh Seal: Prelude to the Seven Trumpets
8 When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. 3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. 5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
6 So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
First Trumpet: Vegetation Struck
7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the [a]earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
Second Trumpet: The Seas Struck
8 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Third Trumpet: The Waters Struck
10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
Fourth Trumpet: The Heavens Struck
12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day [b]did not shine, and likewise the night.
13 And I looked, and I heard an [c]angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
Footnotes:
• Revelation 8:7 NU, M add and a third of the earth was burned up
• Revelation 8:12 had no light
• Revelation 8:13 NU, M eagle