Dreams from the LORD 2003-2006
12 July 2005
Revelation 16: 15: "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."
Behold I come as a thief; I come as a thief in the night. God's judgment on sinners: unrepentant sinners. If we choose life (abide in the Tree of Life), we will not walk naked. If we choose death (the Knowledge of Good and Evil), we will walk naked and the wrath of God rests upon us.
If I am in sin, I am cut off from God. So when God visits me, He seems like a stranger to me, like a thief to me. What friend would steal from a friend? It is more likely that a man would steal from a stranger. If God is strange to me, He can only come as a thief, because I don't know when He is coming. If I abide in Christ, I am not estranged from Him: He is with me right here, right now: He is no stranger. He is no thief--He is my Friend. My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.
Abraham was intimate with God; Abraham was a friend of God. The Lord told Abraham of the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham's intercession saved Lot, who was righteous, but was not intimate with God. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah did not know of the coming destruction because they rejected God, they were cut off from God and His intimate communion or conversation. When the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah came, the Lord came as a thief in the night. A thief is a stranger. The Lord was a stranger to Sodom and Gomorrah because they were naked with sin (shame).
I come as a thief in the night. Night is the power of sin. At the height (or depth) of sin is the darkest time of night--and this is when God's judgment comes. "I come as a thief in the night" is another phrase for God's judgment on sin.
Revelation Chapter 16 speaks much of God's judgment. Revelation 16: 1: " . . . and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." Revelation 16: 8: " . . . and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire." Revelation 16: 10: "And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain." Revelation 16: 19: " . . . and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath."
I come as a thief in the night.
Clint Eastwood's film High Plains Drifter
The Killer Angels
When I Came to Destroy the City
A Message from Michael Boldea
This is Sodom! This is Sodom!
Las Vegas Earthquake
Isaiah 63: 1-6: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth."
ReplyDeleteLuke 17: 26-33: "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."
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