Zechariah 8:9-10 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Let your hands be strong, you who now hear these words spoken by the prophets who were present when the foundations were laid to rebuild the temple, the house of the LORD of Hosts. For before those days neither man nor beast received wages, nor was there safety from the enemy for anyone who came or went, for I had turned every man against his neighbor.
COVID-19 or the Novel Coronavirus is locking-down provinces, major cities and countries. 100% of non-essential workers have been laid-off in places like New York and California. The economic situation is so severe that the federal government has approved a 1 trillion dollar stimulus package (if not more) to give relief to those laid off and major businesses that have been hit hard by this pandemic.
Italy warned other countries to shut-down to stop the spread of the virus. Hospitals are being inundated by critically sick individuals, and medical supplies are in short supply.
The COVID-19 Pandemic is a dynamic situation and is changing drastically every day so this author isn’t going to go through every newsreel documenting the seriousness of the situation both in regards to the health of the people and the economic repercussions its having. The Greatest Depression is just ahead of us, and while it may take a year or two to feel the full effect of the Black Bat Event that crashed the markets, life will not be returning back to normal.
Indeed, I have received bulk e-mails from my governor stating, “America is America because of our ability to overcome adversity and challenges. . . .We will overcome this and we will get through this and we will come out even stronger.”
The emphasis of the final line was the governor’s, not mine. President Trump has said similar remarks about ‘coming out stronger’. This is pure arrogance, not pep-talk.
And so I want to review at least two outstanding prophesies. Zechariah 8:9-10 and Isaiah 9:13-16.
For before the days the temple is to be built there will be no hire for man nor beast, meaning no receiving of wages. As discussed in the Final Time-Line, this event could only occur in an economic seize up which we are witnessing in the present day with hard hit areas of the virus coming under lock-down, though the current lock-down is not on the scale as prophesied in scripture. Since essential workers are still receiving paychecks, and scripture says no man will receive wages, we should assume that there will be a national economic hiatus for everyone, not just New York.
That doesn’t mean people won’t be working, but people won’t be receiving wages, or at the very least, they won’t be able to spend their wages. Such an event could occur during a bank holiday or a massive quarantine event.
Take note what Zechariah prophesies: “nor was there any safety from the enemy (also translated AFFLICTION) for anyone who came or went”. At the present time, there is no safety or protection from COVID-19 and anyone who goes to work or goes out to grocery shop is going at their own risk.
“For I had turned ever man against his neighbor”. This part can be taken at face-value, as there have been fights breaking out over toilet paper and other necessities–or we can take a closer look at the wording. For I had turned = I had set, set apart, sent away, every man, his neighbor or brother. When viewing Strong’s, ‘against’ is not listed. So the following verse could also be translated as, “I set apart every man from his neighbor”.
Sounds a bit like social distancing, doesn’t it?
Is the affliction Zechariah speaks of COVID-19? This author believes COVID-19 is part of the affliction, since there may be more yet to come. And affliction can be translated as adversary, enemy, or tribulation. Trials and tribulations are typically one thing after another, not a single bad event.
Isaiah 9:13 For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them nor do they seek the Lord of hosts. [14] Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel, palm branch and bulrush in one day. [15] The elder and honorable, he is the head and the prophet that teaches lies is the tail. [16] For the leaders of these people cause them to err and those who are led by them are destroyed.
The elder and the honorable would be anyone in positions of authority. Verse 16 clarifies this by stating ‘the leaders’. The prophets are either the news media or televangelists such as Joel Osteen or Jim Bakker.
We don’t know how this will unfold exactly: anything from civil war to the coronavirus could cut-off these people. But it happens in one day; day for a year principle. We are seeing senators and other congressman announcing that they have contracted the virus, and we are also seeing people losing their tempers over quarantine and social distancing.
But Trump and NY Governor Cuomo are spouting that we will come back stronger and we will overcome. Such sentiments would be noble if the overcoming and becoming stronger was in conjunction with seeking the Lord. But there is no repentance, only empty, arrogant proclamations of strength.
Meanwhile, ministers are claiming “peace, peace”. One whom I’ve listened to from the Hebrew Roots Movement rambles off magic words: “just have emunah and shalom.” If you speak any other language outside of Hebrew these words mean nothing, and spouting them off doesn’t give anymore credence to them. It is merely a form of spoken magic and ministers seem to use it to display their knowledge over another language and thus solidify their power as a minister. Unfortunately those in the flock will believe that if their minister has a good command of the “holy” language, he must have authority to speak about the Bible. If its irrelevant to the subject, don’t use Hebrew, Greek or Latin words–just speak English.
Because contrary to what some have said, you do not have to know Hebrew to understand the Bible, and if that were the case then along with knowing Hebrew you would have to know Greek as well since the New Testament is written in Greek. To this author’s amusement, those in the Hebrew Roots Movement cannot speak or understand Greek beyond using the Strong’s Concordance. Therefore, their credentials as a minister is lacking. By their own admission, if they can’t speak Greek, then they can’t understand the New Testament and therefore they do not understand the Bible.
Emunah and shalom are void of meaning; faith and peace are becoming harder to find. ‘Shepherds’ don’t provide any means of exercising their congregates faith or helping them find peace in the stressful situations that are beginning to grip the world. They are offering no words of wisdom and they are so blinded as to what is about to happen they can’t stand on the hilltops and warn the flock of the coming disaster.
“God is in control and that’s enough for me”. I commend such faith, but not everyone has it. Keeping calm is going to be hard to do when there are no jobs, no food, and there are children to feed and bills to pay. And how many people will cry out, “How could God let this happen?”
God is giving the warning and has been giving warnings for years, but people cannot fathom that their perfect little world is about to come to an end and so they lie to themselves and they lie to their congregation claiming, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”
Isaiah 9:19 For wickedness burns as a fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.”
Hebrew 6:8 “But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.”
The Lord compares His people to briers and thorns which are both worthless and hated. Ever go berry picking or do gardening and get tangled in the thorns and briers? It can be quite frustrating and painful.
We see therefore that wicked will consume the wicked. Forests are a group of trees, in this case a thicket in the forest, a dense group of trees. Trees are symbolical of leaders, though it could also be in relation to cities.
Isaiah 9:19 “Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is burned up and the people shall be as fuel for the fire. No man shall spare his brother. [20] And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry and he shall devour on the left hand and not be satisfied. Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm. [21] Manasseh, Ephraim and Ephraim, Manasseh, and together they shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away but his hand is stretched out still.
Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm could be taken literally or figuratively to describe catabolism. Verse 20 may also indicate a blood-lust, seeing that it follows on the heels of people being as fuel for the fire. The violence of the people is insatiable. Although this author expects famine so let’s focus on the famine undertones.
During the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, Sam Legg who had volunteered to starve for the war effort (1944-1945) had gone out to cut wood during the third week of controlled rehabilitation. He had just gotten through 24 weeks of semi-starvation in which his caloric intake was somewhere between 1000-1600 per day. While he was cutting wood, he took the axe to three of his fingers–amputating them in one clean chop.
He wasn’t ready to admit that he did it on purpose, but neither was he willing to admit he did it on accident. The psychological toll starvation had on him dawned as the years went by and though he seemed to be in denial at first, later he admitted the self-mutilation might have been intentional.
Rational thinking is gravely compromised during starvation, and self-mutilation can seem like a reasonable and obvious solution to the hunger pains, at least to the famished mind.
In addition, during starvation, the individual is often short-fused. Little things like people running up the stairs, two steps at a time, infuriated the ‘guinea pigs’ of the Minnesota Starvation experiment.
“Scholberg barely noticed Thomas talk. He had come to Minnesota to escape the hospital and the craziness he felt growing inside him. Now the hunger was starting to crawl inside his mind the same way the insane laughter of the inmates had in Maryland. In the food line, he insisted that everything he ate be served as hot as possible. He felt that his exhausted body could convert the heat from his food directly into energy. Henry was also drinking fifteen cups of coffee per day. It did nothing to help Henry’s growing problem with controlling his temper.” – The Great Starvation Experiment, Todd Tucker, pg. 137 1st Edition
In continuing pages the author documents how Henry offended a fellow ‘guinea pig’. George was into theatrical performances and as he sat in the mess hall eating his pathetic meal, he recited Shakespearean verses that pertained to hunger and death by famine.
Henry tried to focus on the Sermon on the Mount, anything that would help control his temper, but he finally lost it and told the man to shut his [expletive] mouth. George, humiliated, now had his meal ruined, which was the most horrible thing one could do to another guinea pig.
Henry later wrote: “How many people have I hurt with my indifference, my grouchiness, my overbearing perversion for food. Please forgive me. I was crazy and didn’t know it.” When the incident was reported to Ancel Keyes, Henry admitted to the doctor that, “I am going crazy” and that he felt a compelling desire to smash and break things.
In stressful and distressing times the anger-level of people will be through the roof coupled with hunger pains of both parent and child, insanity shall abound. Brawls and murder is not beyond the capability of man when the survival of oneself or their families is on the line.
Isaiah 10:5 Woe to Assyria the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hand is my indignation. I will send him [The Assyrian] against an hypocritical nation [Nation is in the Singular = America], and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge [the Israelites], to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. [7] Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
The Assyrian is prophesied to comes against America. Just as the Assyrians had come against Israel in 721 BC as punishment for adopting pagan ways, God will send the Assyrian with his army against the House of Israel once more.
However it states that the Assyrian does not mean to take the spoil or prey or tread them down. Before the Assyrian (Austro-German army) arrives, America will first endure a period of violence and famine, as previously mentioned.
But before those days the temple is to be build, there will be no hire/no wages for man nor beast. In the Final Time Line we established that the building or the decree to rebuild the temple should come some time between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2022, which means mass quarantine, a bank holiday, or some other form of major economic seize up should come before that time.
Following on its heels will be civil unrest and famine. I’ve seen Christians make mention of Jesus Christ getting us through the COVID-19 crisis, but there is no talk of repentance, just ‘we;ll come back stronger’ and ‘we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us”. Until we personally self-analyze, identify our idols and our sins, Jesus Christ is not obligated to do anything for us.
Ezekiel 6:9 “And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.”
Remember Daniel who was a man greatly beloved (Dan. 10:11) and what he prayed, (9:5-6) “WE have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have WE hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes and our fathers and to all the people of the land.”
Daniel a righteous man, beloved of God confessed his sins to God; included himself as having turned away from God’s judgments. He did not point the finger at others while leaving himself out of the equation. Let us learn from the great men of the Bible and be mindful to say that WE as a nation have turned away from God, not ‘You’ not ‘New York City’, not the atheists, not the democrats, but WE, all of us. And we all need to return to God.
II Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.”
John 14:29 “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.”
Zechariah 1:3 “Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.”
And so how can one find peace and have faith during these times ahead? Be proactive; if you know the scriptures and if you know what the Bible foretells you will not be caught off guard. For when these things come to pass, you will believe that all things God says is true. And if He is true about the punishment, he is also true about His mercy.
Repent and prepare, for the Day of the Lord is at Hand.
Laodicea Rises 