The Divine Invitation to Satisfaction
Psalms 65:4 Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple.
All the earth is looking for satisfaction. From the newborn baby ready to eat again, to the 90-year old man channel surfing for something interesting to watch...and everyone in between...everyone is looking for some sort of satisfaction. we were designed to live satisfied. Adam and Eve were placed in a garden of satisfaction where the eternal source of life, God, let them live in the light of mankind:
John 1:1-4 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.
Mankind is hard-wired for this kind of satisfaction. It is what our heart desires. Worship is the highest expression of desire, and Adam and Eve were made to worship what their eyes took in. When they were created, God was the most glorious one in the room. The were made to desire His presence and be satisfied by Him forever. Since the fall, mankind can no longer see God...we have to fight to keep the eyes of our heart looking to God.
David said there is only one place where he really was ever satisfied: the place where God is. It wasn't in a building that David encountered God this way, though He was fine with finding God in sanctified places...it wasn't with religious leaders that David encountered the satisfying God, though he loved Samuel, and Nathan, and many that he worshiped God with...no...David encountered God mostly in his internal conversation provoked by hard circumstances. David figured out how to let his heart...his soul... go to the Lord, and he said being in a hard spot was God's plan to help him desire...God! God orchestrates opportunities for us to lean hard against Him. This is all to orchestrate our own satisfaction!
Psalms 130:1-2 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord ; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.
Psalms 130:5-6 I wait for the Lord , my soul waits, And in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than those who watch for the morning— Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
The Bible is clear that the seemingly least satisfying times...times of trouble and fear...are designed to produce the greatest satisfaction for the contrite...for the humble. But, humility is required.
Pride says "God, you must be mistaken by letting this happen to me." Humility says the opposite "God, only you could know that this trial would unlock my heart more to you, to learn to be satisfied more BY you."
Psalms 66:10-12 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.
The truth is, the earth is mostly very mistaken about satisfaction. Our hearts...our mind, will, and emotion...are made to exist forever, and because God is good, that means they are made to be satisfied forever.
Our hearts were made to feed on the tree of life forever. Jesus IS the tree of life. Abiding...partaking of the sap...from this tree makes you a fruitful...satisfied... branch. This is the reality that truly fulfills desire:
John 15:1-7 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
It is all about satisfied desire...
John 6:50-53 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
Jesus is the Tree of Life. He is the eternal source of satisfaction. Many who love Him don't understand this about Him. They think that simply adding Jesus to "the mix" of life makes life better. This denies who He is. Jesus isn't an add-on to make life full. He IS life. He requires a radical reorganization of desire:
Matthew 16:25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Not agreeing with this basic tenant of salvation creates a very unsatisfied Christian. Many who claim to be Jesus' want their lives to be full with Him as a big part of that fullness. They want their "best life now" BEFORE life comes home! That is impossible. It is tapping more and more into true life that is "hidden" now...that is how you get satisfaction that lasts through fire:
Colossians 3:2-3 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
My heart was made for eternal existence...to be satisfied forever. There is only one source of eternal satisfaction in all of creation. There is only one who is bigger than His finite creation. By simple arithmetic, only God could supply eternal satisfaction. This experience of life I have without Him face to face is designed to teach me to draw on the only one who can satisfy my heart forever. Every lesser desire will fail at some point.
The end time tribulation is designed to demonstrate to all the world the failure of every lesser desire...in one generation...in one 7-year time frame.
The earth is becoming very unsatisfying for anyone unwilling to humble themselves and begin turning more and more from even the permissible distractions the world offers. If I want to be satisfied during the next several years, I need to get serious about deciding what can really satisfy my heart no matter what circumstances are happening around me.
To be satisfied, I need to make more and more room for Jesus in my heart by getting rid of the things that attempt to satisfy me in His place. This is what it means to eat of the tree of life.
I eat of the Tree of Life like David did...by waiting on Him to satisfy me with Himself. By learning to see the reward for love is LOVE. The benefit of knowing Jesus is JESUS...not revival, not an important ministry, not abundant provision, not a confident heart that feels justified...not even avoiding hell...the reward that satisfies forever...that produces the experience of life forever...is the Tree of Life, and I don't have to die to start eating, but I do have to turn away from lesser foods. Jesus promised the Tree of Life to people who were still alive, because they had figured out how to make Him their complete desire, even to the point of the death of their body:
Revelation 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’
Let every heart prepare Him room...He is coming again.
Jesus isn't going to force His way into occupied places. He is looking for places that make room for Him. He can take the shabbiest of accommodations and transform it into the place of God's presence:
Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Jesus' first coming produced a lot of tribulation, as every baby under two years old died in Bethlehem because the darkness revolted against the dawning of light. Jesus isn't a baby in a manger this time. He is coming to actually take over every government of earth. The tribulation this time will be MUCH more intense.
The entire plan of tribulation is designed to force the question: who do I want to satisfy me? The man-based systems of satisfaction are going away. The leaders of the earth will lie and say "peace and safety" but the proof is in the pudding...the lesser desires are going away for all but the ones driving the ship onto the rocks. The modern-day Herod will say all the right things, but wise men are supposed to know better:
I Thessalonians 5:1-9 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Living in any satisfaction less than the Tree of Life in this hour is going to produce destruction. We are supposed to know the hour we live in and use that knowledge as great incentive to sever every heart tie to lesser, even permissible, desire. The question shouldn't be "can I do this Jesus and still be right with you?"...no!...it should be "what can I get rid of to get closer to you...to make MORE room for YOU?!" People who love His appearing will start cleaning house in the desire and make more and more room in their hearts for Jesus to be their One Desire. This is safety in the time of trouble:
Psalms 27:4-5 One thing I have desired of the Lord , That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord , And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
The tribulation, which culminates in the Great Tribulation, is the worst time of trouble earth will ever see...that makes this "one thing" safety David taught about the most secure place in the Tribulation:
Matthew 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
For those pursuing the Tree of Life, tribulation isn't terrible...it is great. Paul GLORIED in tribulation.
If you aren't looking forward to the tribulation, it is most likely because you haven't yet learned to glory in tribulation. Glory in tribulation is entirely related to what you believe really satisfies you. The tribulation isn't a theological debate, it is a faith debate! If you have faith that Jesus IS the eternal source of satisfaction, then you glory in tribulation...you want the events to come that drive you hard into His arms. If you don't really believe Jesus is the greatest desire, then tribulation seems too terrible to endure:
Romans 5:3-5 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
If you aren't looking forward to the tribulation, that should be a big red flag in your life in this hour, because it means you don't love the "appearing of Jesus." To love His appearing means you love Him coming home more than you fear the disruption His return MUST cause. The light source of all of creation is coming home to satisfy those who love His leadership FOREVER. This return of light into a dark world disrupts the darkness. The darkness is reacting violently...even right now.
The trouble in the earth is going to get MUCH worse. Tribulation is simply the darkness reacting to the sure coming of light, just like the first time Jesus came. You get ready for tribulation by learning to love what it means: Jesus is coming home! This requires redirecting as much of your heart as possible to the source of true satisfaction. This is like pouring yourself out as an offering, but there is a great reward for learning to love Jesus' appearing, which causes the tribulation:
II Timothy 4:6-8 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Paul, by his own words, was entirely focused on the return of Jesus to the point he even warned of the distractions of being married, the most permissible and righteous distraction! This was entirely related to the time he saw himself living in. We can be much more sure of the time than even Paul was by the simple prophetic fulfillments happening all around us:
I Corinthians 7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none,
We are in the hour that mankind will seem to have the answers to peace and safety. They don't. Peace will not come until the Prince of Peace shows up. What is really happening around the globe is a CONSOLIDATION of man-based power. The president is consolidating power and many, even major religious leaders, are agreeing with him in it. This is a very negative sign of the times.
The ship is gaining speed and heading right at the rocks. This doesn't require a ton of understanding to see the entire world order is changing at a breakneck pace. Right now is the hour to seriously sift out what will not last. If you cling to desires that are prophesied to burn, you will burn with them. If you cling to the only satisfaction that will pass through the fire...you will sing through the coming years:
Isaiah 24:1-16 Look! The lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The lord has spoken! The earth mourns and dries up, and the land wastes away and withers. Even the greatest people on earth waste away. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive. The grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine. All the merrymakers sigh and mourn. The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled; the happy cries of celebration are heard no more. The melodious chords of the harp are silent. Gone are the joys of wine and song; alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth. The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders. Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has turned to gloom. Gladness has been banished from the land. The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down. Throughout the earth the story is the same— only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest. But all who are left shout and sing for joy. Those in the west praise the lord ’s majesty. In eastern lands, give glory to the lord . In the lands beyond the sea, praise the name of the lord , the God of Israel. We hear songs of praise from the ends of the earth, songs that give glory to the Righteous One! But my heart is heavy with grief. Weep for me, for I wither away. Deceit still prevails, and treachery is everywhere.
All the earth is looking for satisfaction. From the newborn baby ready to eat again, to the 90-year old man channel surfing for something interesting to watch...and everyone in between...everyone is looking for some sort of satisfaction. we were designed to live satisfied. Adam and Eve were placed in a garden of satisfaction where the eternal source of life, God, let them live in the light of mankind:
John 1:1-4 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.
Mankind is hard-wired for this kind of satisfaction. It is what our heart desires. Worship is the highest expression of desire, and Adam and Eve were made to worship what their eyes took in. When they were created, God was the most glorious one in the room. The were made to desire His presence and be satisfied by Him forever. Since the fall, mankind can no longer see God...we have to fight to keep the eyes of our heart looking to God.
David said there is only one place where he really was ever satisfied: the place where God is. It wasn't in a building that David encountered God this way, though He was fine with finding God in sanctified places...it wasn't with religious leaders that David encountered the satisfying God, though he loved Samuel, and Nathan, and many that he worshiped God with...no...David encountered God mostly in his internal conversation provoked by hard circumstances. David figured out how to let his heart...his soul... go to the Lord, and he said being in a hard spot was God's plan to help him desire...God! God orchestrates opportunities for us to lean hard against Him. This is all to orchestrate our own satisfaction!
Psalms 130:1-2 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord ; Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.
Psalms 130:5-6 I wait for the Lord , my soul waits, And in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord More than those who watch for the morning— Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
The Bible is clear that the seemingly least satisfying times...times of trouble and fear...are designed to produce the greatest satisfaction for the contrite...for the humble. But, humility is required.
Pride says "God, you must be mistaken by letting this happen to me." Humility says the opposite "God, only you could know that this trial would unlock my heart more to you, to learn to be satisfied more BY you."
Psalms 66:10-12 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.
The truth is, the earth is mostly very mistaken about satisfaction. Our hearts...our mind, will, and emotion...are made to exist forever, and because God is good, that means they are made to be satisfied forever.
Our hearts were made to feed on the tree of life forever. Jesus IS the tree of life. Abiding...partaking of the sap...from this tree makes you a fruitful...satisfied... branch. This is the reality that truly fulfills desire:
John 15:1-7 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
It is all about satisfied desire...
John 6:50-53 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
Jesus is the Tree of Life. He is the eternal source of satisfaction. Many who love Him don't understand this about Him. They think that simply adding Jesus to "the mix" of life makes life better. This denies who He is. Jesus isn't an add-on to make life full. He IS life. He requires a radical reorganization of desire:
Matthew 16:25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Not agreeing with this basic tenant of salvation creates a very unsatisfied Christian. Many who claim to be Jesus' want their lives to be full with Him as a big part of that fullness. They want their "best life now" BEFORE life comes home! That is impossible. It is tapping more and more into true life that is "hidden" now...that is how you get satisfaction that lasts through fire:
Colossians 3:2-3 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
My heart was made for eternal existence...to be satisfied forever. There is only one source of eternal satisfaction in all of creation. There is only one who is bigger than His finite creation. By simple arithmetic, only God could supply eternal satisfaction. This experience of life I have without Him face to face is designed to teach me to draw on the only one who can satisfy my heart forever. Every lesser desire will fail at some point.
The end time tribulation is designed to demonstrate to all the world the failure of every lesser desire...in one generation...in one 7-year time frame.
The earth is becoming very unsatisfying for anyone unwilling to humble themselves and begin turning more and more from even the permissible distractions the world offers. If I want to be satisfied during the next several years, I need to get serious about deciding what can really satisfy my heart no matter what circumstances are happening around me.
To be satisfied, I need to make more and more room for Jesus in my heart by getting rid of the things that attempt to satisfy me in His place. This is what it means to eat of the tree of life.
I eat of the Tree of Life like David did...by waiting on Him to satisfy me with Himself. By learning to see the reward for love is LOVE. The benefit of knowing Jesus is JESUS...not revival, not an important ministry, not abundant provision, not a confident heart that feels justified...not even avoiding hell...the reward that satisfies forever...that produces the experience of life forever...is the Tree of Life, and I don't have to die to start eating, but I do have to turn away from lesser foods. Jesus promised the Tree of Life to people who were still alive, because they had figured out how to make Him their complete desire, even to the point of the death of their body:
Revelation 2:7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’
Let every heart prepare Him room...He is coming again.
Jesus isn't going to force His way into occupied places. He is looking for places that make room for Him. He can take the shabbiest of accommodations and transform it into the place of God's presence:
Luke 2:7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Jesus' first coming produced a lot of tribulation, as every baby under two years old died in Bethlehem because the darkness revolted against the dawning of light. Jesus isn't a baby in a manger this time. He is coming to actually take over every government of earth. The tribulation this time will be MUCH more intense.
The entire plan of tribulation is designed to force the question: who do I want to satisfy me? The man-based systems of satisfaction are going away. The leaders of the earth will lie and say "peace and safety" but the proof is in the pudding...the lesser desires are going away for all but the ones driving the ship onto the rocks. The modern-day Herod will say all the right things, but wise men are supposed to know better:
I Thessalonians 5:1-9 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Living in any satisfaction less than the Tree of Life in this hour is going to produce destruction. We are supposed to know the hour we live in and use that knowledge as great incentive to sever every heart tie to lesser, even permissible, desire. The question shouldn't be "can I do this Jesus and still be right with you?"...no!...it should be "what can I get rid of to get closer to you...to make MORE room for YOU?!" People who love His appearing will start cleaning house in the desire and make more and more room in their hearts for Jesus to be their One Desire. This is safety in the time of trouble:
Psalms 27:4-5 One thing I have desired of the Lord , That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord , And to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
The tribulation, which culminates in the Great Tribulation, is the worst time of trouble earth will ever see...that makes this "one thing" safety David taught about the most secure place in the Tribulation:
Matthew 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
For those pursuing the Tree of Life, tribulation isn't terrible...it is great. Paul GLORIED in tribulation.
If you aren't looking forward to the tribulation, it is most likely because you haven't yet learned to glory in tribulation. Glory in tribulation is entirely related to what you believe really satisfies you. The tribulation isn't a theological debate, it is a faith debate! If you have faith that Jesus IS the eternal source of satisfaction, then you glory in tribulation...you want the events to come that drive you hard into His arms. If you don't really believe Jesus is the greatest desire, then tribulation seems too terrible to endure:
Romans 5:3-5 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
If you aren't looking forward to the tribulation, that should be a big red flag in your life in this hour, because it means you don't love the "appearing of Jesus." To love His appearing means you love Him coming home more than you fear the disruption His return MUST cause. The light source of all of creation is coming home to satisfy those who love His leadership FOREVER. This return of light into a dark world disrupts the darkness. The darkness is reacting violently...even right now.
The trouble in the earth is going to get MUCH worse. Tribulation is simply the darkness reacting to the sure coming of light, just like the first time Jesus came. You get ready for tribulation by learning to love what it means: Jesus is coming home! This requires redirecting as much of your heart as possible to the source of true satisfaction. This is like pouring yourself out as an offering, but there is a great reward for learning to love Jesus' appearing, which causes the tribulation:
II Timothy 4:6-8 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
Paul, by his own words, was entirely focused on the return of Jesus to the point he even warned of the distractions of being married, the most permissible and righteous distraction! This was entirely related to the time he saw himself living in. We can be much more sure of the time than even Paul was by the simple prophetic fulfillments happening all around us:
I Corinthians 7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none,
We are in the hour that mankind will seem to have the answers to peace and safety. They don't. Peace will not come until the Prince of Peace shows up. What is really happening around the globe is a CONSOLIDATION of man-based power. The president is consolidating power and many, even major religious leaders, are agreeing with him in it. This is a very negative sign of the times.
The ship is gaining speed and heading right at the rocks. This doesn't require a ton of understanding to see the entire world order is changing at a breakneck pace. Right now is the hour to seriously sift out what will not last. If you cling to desires that are prophesied to burn, you will burn with them. If you cling to the only satisfaction that will pass through the fire...you will sing through the coming years:
Isaiah 24:1-16 Look! The lord is about to destroy the earth and make it a vast wasteland. He devastates the surface of the earth and scatters the people. Priests and laypeople, servants and masters, maids and mistresses, buyers and sellers, lenders and borrowers, bankers and debtors—none will be spared. The earth will be completely emptied and looted. The lord has spoken! The earth mourns and dries up, and the land wastes away and withers. Even the greatest people on earth waste away. The earth suffers for the sins of its people, for they have twisted God’s instructions, violated his laws, and broken his everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth. Its people must pay the price for their sin. They are destroyed by fire, and only a few are left alive. The grapevines waste away, and there is no new wine. All the merrymakers sigh and mourn. The cheerful sound of tambourines is stilled; the happy cries of celebration are heard no more. The melodious chords of the harp are silent. Gone are the joys of wine and song; alcoholic drink turns bitter in the mouth. The city writhes in chaos; every home is locked to keep out intruders. Mobs gather in the streets, crying out for wine. Joy has turned to gloom. Gladness has been banished from the land. The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down. Throughout the earth the story is the same— only a remnant is left, like the stray olives left on the tree or the few grapes left on the vine after harvest. But all who are left shout and sing for joy. Those in the west praise the lord ’s majesty. In eastern lands, give glory to the lord . In the lands beyond the sea, praise the name of the lord , the God of Israel. We hear songs of praise from the ends of the earth, songs that give glory to the Righteous One! But my heart is heavy with grief. Weep for me, for I wither away. Deceit still prevails, and treachery is everywhere.
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