Whirlwind
Whirlwind of Judgment
In Proverbs 1, we see that destruction will come as a whirlwind to those that hate knowledge and refuse wisdom. Wisdom cries from the streets—but scorners delight in scorning her and fools hate her knowledge; men disregard her outstretched hand, ignore her counsel, and heed not her reproof. Of these foolish haters of knowledge, the proverb says, “Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.” (Proverbs 1:31, KJV) In other words, those that follow after false teachings and false gods reap the fruit (or consequences) of their actions.
For example, I once met a person who was steeped in the New Age traditions, and was so enthralled with the dragon symbol that there was a big picture of a dragon at the entrance to her property! New Age haters of knowledge are apparently unaware of Revelation 20:2-3, which clearly identifies Satan as the dragon, the old serpent, and the Devil, and notes that that most terrible dragon will be chained up in the bottomless pit for a thousand years (during the Millennial Reign of Christ). I have even seen a metal dragon sculpture alongside a major highway on the West Coast, and most everyone has seen dragon-this and dragon-that on the signs of Oriental restaurants around the country. In effect, the supine state of American culture (laying down and begging to be filled with foreign influences in the name of diversity) has opened the way for the dragon-mania that we see in cities and even small towns all around the country.
Regarding the unholy nature of tattoos, Leviticus 19:28 (KJV) notes that “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD.” Regarding another chic and unholy fad, that of piercings, Isaiah 3 (verses 16-18a, 20b-22a, 24-25, KJV) gives the following warning:
Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon . . . and the earrings, the rings, and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel . . . . And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
With the amount of piercings among young people today, it would seem wise for Americans to sit up (or stand up) and take notice of what Isaiah has said regarding such matters: if past is prologue, then America (with her numerous unholy women cavorting all about with all the bravery of their tinkling foot ornaments and audacious nose rings, eyebrow rings, earrings, lip rings, tongue rings, and other insidious rings) could potentially fall in a sort of repeat of Zion’s historical fall. When Zion’s mighty men were unable to control their own women, they fell in war. It seems that a country whose men can’t even rein in their own women, can’t stand tall against the enemy at the door (or against the enemy inside the door). Whether it be the adherents of the New Age dragon-mania, the tattoo fetish, or the piercing fad, a whirlwind of destruction awaits those that hate knowledge and refuse wisdom. Indeed, the unholy lust for Eastern mysticism, New Age deceptions, female domination, witchcraft, and all manner of pagan practices has caused many Americans to trade sweetness for stink, and beauty for burning.
So what’s the big deal about a bunch of earrings or nose-rings or false teachings or evil foreign symbols or tattoos? It’s a big deal because Jesus said in Matthew 11:13, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.” (KJV) Isaiah was one of the Hebrew prophets that King Jesus was speaking about, and we have seen how stern is the warning against nose rings and earrings in Isaiah 3; we have seen the prohibition against tattoos in Leviticus 19; and the description of the evil dragon in Revelation 20; the list could go on and on, and would eventually lead one to meditating on the prohibitions listed in Deuteronomy 18, and the ramifications of that list for the world today. “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you,” the Bible says, “you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God. For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-14, NASB)
This reminds me of a conversation I had with another American while we were both living in Taiwan years ago: Basically, I probably indicated that Buddhism is a false religion, and he said that it was so arrogant for one to come to their country and pronounce on what is false there—to which I replied that I didn’t come to Taiwan to give up my God. And such is my position today. Buddhism is a false religion, and the God of Israel is also God over all nations, including Taiwan. I don’t know what my American acquaintance did with my refusal to bow to the foreigners’ religion, but I met many devoted Christians in Taiwan and they are my brothers and sisters in Christ. One very aged, frail, and hunched-over man in Taipei, Taiwan had a long hand-scrawled prayer list that he used to offer fragrant prayers up to the LORD God of Israel; he was a small man, but a very big inspiration; his fervency for the LORD was something to behold, right there in the gritty and grimy streets of Taipei. I also had many Buddhist friends in Taiwan, and for the awakening of their minds we should pray. Still, some say, that’s a lot to derive from earrings and nose rings. Nevertheless, modesty is becoming rarer every day in a world of pop culture saturation, and Christian modesty is still lovely, and godly, no matter what the television executives may say.
Proverbs 10 picks up where Proverbs 1 left off—that is to say, as the whirlwind of destruction passes over the wicked, the wicked will be destroyed and they will be no more; by contrast, the righteous will be an everlasting foundation. Proverbs 10 goes on to explain that fools do mischief as though it were a sport, whereas men of understanding and righteousness, being guided by wisdom, will have their desires granted. (Proverbs 10:23-25) Interestingly, taking the long view, Proverbs 10:30 says that “The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.” (KJV) Indeed, the wicked will not walk the earth, but rather they’ll be punished in hell.
Also, in Jeremiah 23:19 (KJV), we read, “Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.” Nahum put it plainly when he wrote, “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” (Nahum 1:3, KJV) Many atheists want to believe that storms are merely the inevitable randomness of molecular configurations, but the believer knows that God will have His hand in the weather. Tornadoes, and the wrath that they represent, should be sobering reminders that the God who made nature can move the air, the mountains, or the sea to suit His purposes.
In Zechariah 7 and 8 we have a classic case of a whirlwind of judgment coming against the disobedient, even in the context of a reiteration of God’s love for Jerusalem:
Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts. . . . But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate. . . . Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury. Thus saith the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. . . . Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. (Zechariah 7:12, 14; 8:2-5, 7-8, KJV)
Truly, stone-hearted unbelievers who refuse the admonitions of the law and the prophets will be scattered among foreign peoples by the action of God’s whirlwind of judgment. Jerusalem will be the city of truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be the holy mountain. God shall have His people, and He shall be their God.
Whirlwind Part of Last Days’ Worldwide Judgment?
Jeremiah 25:31-33 (KJV), we read an unsettling prophecy that involves a worldwide judgment: “A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations: he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.” To my ear, this seems to mesh with Jesus’s warning about the last days, when He said, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:37, KJV) Let’s contrast the two eras:
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:4-5, KJV)
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. (2 Timothy 3:1-8, KJV)
The conditions described in Genesis 6 resulted in the worldwide Flood, which as far as men are concerned, only Noah and his family escaped on the ark that they built out of obedience to God. The conditions described in 2 Timothy 3, concerning the perilous last days, will result in another worldwide judgment. Could the judgment pronounced in Jeremiah 25, regarding a whirlwind that will be raised up on coastlines around the world, be part of God’s judgment in the last days? Of course, the last days’ judgment will also involve much fire, as we know from 2 Peter 3: “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:3-7, KJV)