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.

In Ezekiel 32, we learn that the prophet Ezekiel was told to speak against Egypt. The problem with Egypt was that they had come into an agreement with Israel that they would help defend that small nation against other nations. Unfortunately, Egypt did not keep that agreement. Yet, the leaders of Egypt remained arrogant about their own perceived abilities and power. Israel should not have relied on Egypt at all because God had previously saved Israel out of Egypt and judged that nation accordingly for the way they had treated the Hebrews (as slaves) while there. Yet, Israel has a history of looking to neighboring nations for help to this day instead of directly to God for help.

So, God judged Egypt and He used Babylon to do it. Notice in Ezekiel 32:3-5, God says what He will do to Egypt. He said He would use a “company of many people, and they will draw you up in My net.” This turns out to be Babylon’s mighty armies (v11). Do not lose sight of the fact that God used military might from neighboring nations to judge/subdue other nations as His own arm of judgment.

As I’ve mentioned previously, when we see things like this occur in our world today, we tend to use our natural eyes and simply note that it’s one nation pitted against another. We do not normally see beyond the natural into the spiritual to realize that God is controlling things from His throne.

God used that situation with Babylon to scatter Egyptians throughout the world then. God made Egypt a byword, where people shook their heads in dismay and unbelief. So many Egyptians were killed and scattered on the hills and mountains (v5), that they became food for the carrion. The people from other nations (and those who may have survived Babylon’s assault), knew what Egypt had been (just like Assyria), and what it became after God judged it. Death and destruction was complete and the Babylonian Empire was the arm of judgment.

It is like this throughout biblical history. I’ve mentioned this before but from our perspective, we tend not to see God’s controlling influence on the nations. Yet, He clearly does exercise that control. He is not an absent Ruler. In fact, I don’t believe He has ever given up any of His control. But we tend to simply understand things in terms of naturally occurring events caused by tensions between nations throughout the world. That, by the way, is happening now with Ukraine/Russia, China/Taiwan, Hamas/Israel as well as other places. God is certainly allowing and/or causing these things to occur for His own glory that we may never fully understand. But again, to us, it looks simply like bullies puffing out their chests in attempts to conquer other nations.

One of the main points of Ezekiel 32 is that God will bless Israel ultimately. First though, He will judge that nation. He has and continues to do that to this day. I find it remarkable though that God uses what is happening in the world today regarding anti-Semitism to bring Jewish people back to the Land (Ezekiel 38:8). Once God completes His judgment of Israel (with the worst of it occurring during the upcoming Tribulation), He will purify them, making them ready for the upcoming Millennial Kingdom following that Tribulation period.

I like the way Dr. Thomas Constable breaks things down (see the image of his notes). Ezekiel 1-24 highlights the judgment of Israel. Ezekiel 25-32 concentrates on judgment of nations surrounding Israel. Ezekiel 33-39 speaks of Israel’s restoration and hope with Ezekiel 40-48 speaking of Israel as a completely restored community during the Millennial Kingdom reign of Jesus.

All around us, we see a collapsing world, whether it’s the economy, wars, persecution, racial disharmony, increasing crime and violence, the insanity of transgenderism and much more. We tend to simply cry out to God to “fix” it and when it doesn’t get fixed, we then start to believe that God doesn’t care, isn’t noticing our problems and doesn’t take out the trash.

Who knows what this world faces in the next few months or during 2025? No one can tell us for certain what will occur and when things might occur though many guesses are being offered. People are talking about many things and experts in various fields are offering their opinions as to what might occur in the short or long term, but no one can say with any degree of certainty when anything will happen. I don’t even think globalists know (because Satan doesn’t know for certain), though they may have more ability to zero in on things because of all the strings they pull.

But ultimately, it is God who is in charge. As I’ve noted before, God’s timing is His own and that timing is as much a part of His will as the actual events that He allows or plans. We all know Jesus is coming back to this planet physically one day, but no one can say exactly when that will happen.

Because of what is happening in the world today, it is very easy to become discomfited. Every day, gas prices change; sometimes higher and sometimes lower. Every time we shop for food, prices have increased and we seem to have fewer bags of groceries while paying more. Every day, we hear the lies of those who want us to believe they care about us.

So what do we make of this? What we make of this is that the USA (like many other nations across the world), has risen to its height of glory and is now being purposefully destroyed. The destruction is well underway and frankly, I’m not sure what might save this (or any) nation, aside from heartfelt prayerful repentance by leaders. But let me ask, does anyone think the people who are actively destroying America will realize their need to repent and then do it?

When Jonah went to Nineveh (against his own wishes), to preach repentance to them, the last thing he actually wanted was for Nineveh to repent. But this is what the king of Nineveh did and called on all Ninevites to do the same. Because of it, God relented from destroying Nineveh at that time. Yet, some 50 years later, God followed through in His destruction of that local empire (city-nation). Nothing could keep that from happening because God has His plans and His timing and Ninevites refused to repent later.

Today, the remains of Nineveh can be seen. When viewed from the air the outline of the walls are visible and various structures as well. They have done numerous archaeological digs and found many amazing things, but Nineveh itself and its people were destroyed hundreds of years ago by God’s command.

In our day, Russia is warning the USA about attacking Russia through Ukraine. Russia has nuclear missiles that can reach the shores of the United States. If the USA doesn’t have a change of heart, I believe Russia will do what’s necessary to protect itself and its own interests. Could God use Russia as His arm of judgment against the USA? It’s very possible.

The world appears to be actually going mad. Nuclear war is a growing threat. Transgender rights are a high point for the Left. Illegal migrants pouring into western nations are also overpowering individual nations. Costs of nearly everything have skyrocketed as well as crime. Where will it end?

If we know anything, we know that God controls all of these things and for His purposes and glory, and is allowing globalists to have their way. But there will be a time when God says, “Enough!” and will arrive to this world in the form of our risen Lord, to establish His righteous Kingdom following His judgment of the nations. He will then secure His global throne in the final kingdom highlighted in Daniel 2.

Without all of this current global upheaval, the world will not get to the appointed time of His seven years of wrath nor will this same world experience the coming of the Glorious One who is blessed forever, amen!

As difficult as things may be in this world, we must put forth the effort to throw ourselves on the mighty shoulders of our Lord. He controls all things. He moves things forward to the culmination of His plans and purposes. Do you believe that?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2024/09/05/has-god-vacated/