Has God Vacated?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Quick prayer request, folks. My wife’s nephew and wife have a newborn in the home, Isaac. He was not without his problems and was born with what they call “Prune Belly.” This means he has no stomach muscles, which affects swallowing, coughing, sneezing and even breathing. Up until yesterday, the little boy was doing fairly well in spite of everything. However, last night, he started choking and then stopped breathing. His mother tried the Heimlich maneuver and when that did not work, began CPR and called 911.

The medics took Isaac to the hospital because he had a very low pulse. His heart actually stopped and they believe he lacked oxygen to his brain for about 25 minutes. Last night, the hospital intubated him and got his oxygen saturation back to 95%. He is on a ventilator because he could not breathe on his own. Apparently, little Isaac had a very rough night. He got both too hot then too cold. They suspect major brain damage based on how long he was without oxygen to his brain. The only thing that will save Isaac is a miracle from our Lord. We would ask people to join us in prayer for that with the proviso that God is ultimately in control and will do what He knows is best in this situation. We appreciate your prayers, folks.

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No, God has not vacated His throne. In fact, God remains in full control over world affairs. This is something that Satan and many in this world deny completely. Yet, if we consider the history of this world as recorded in Scripture, it’s clear that God allowed nations to thrive but then judged them when their leaders (and often the people as well), became arrogant about their own supposed “powers,” deifying themselves. It appears that God will only allow a nation or empire to continue in its arrogance for so long. Once a particular line is crossed, God moves to judge that nation. Often and unfortunately, most of the time God’s judgment results in the destruction of that particular nation or empire.

Reading through the book of Ezekiel, we gain a clear picture of how God allowed the Assyrians to gain dominance over other nations or empires in that area of the world. Then when it appeared that Assyria believed their leaders to be gods (and often worshipped them as such), God began to announce to those nations through prophets like Ezekiel, that judgment was coming. Assyria was eventually destroyed by Babylon and became the dominant empire. For a while, God chose to use King Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian Empire to judge Israel and other nations. Nebuchadnezzar entered Israel three times and finally destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple there, removing many of the revered objects back to Babylon. He then put them in his treasury for safe keeping.

And so it goes from one empire to another. Following Nebuchadnezzar’s death, eventually his grandson Belshazzar (Daniel 5), took the throne. He made a huge mistake, one that appeared to be either unforgiveable to God or God simply knew the king would not repent of his wickedness. This resulted in God’s judgment using the Medes and Persians. They were upcoming while Babylon was on its way to being destroyed.

The rulers of the Medo-Persian Empire ruled with justice and intelligence. Eventually, the Jewish people who had been brought captive to Babylon were released and allowed not only to return home, but to begin rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple.

By Levi Clancy – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105503056