Now, tell me, what does that picture remind you of? Anything? Anything? How about this one?
Pic from Mark J Norman Twitter handle, @markjnewsman, shot Nov 27 with the caption: "Penn Station is hell right now":
It reminded me of the prophecy in Daniel 12:4,"But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
Speaking of to and fro, many people go back and forth on exactly what this prophecy means. I believe the consensus among scholars is similar to what Pulpit Commentary explains:
"Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. This is to be looked upon as a description of the last time, when circumstance shall remove the seal from the book. The translator of the Septuagint has been led away by the idea of the time as one of sorrow. The verb, however, translated "going to and fro" may be rendered, as it is by Ewald, as "to peruse." The veil then shall be removed, the seals broken when men peruse the prophecy carefully, and knowledge is increased."
Or as Gill's explains,
"many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased; that is, towards the end of the time appointed, many persons will be stirred up to inquire into these things delivered in this book,"
Or as John MacArthur explains,
"run to and fro- The Hebrew movement always refers to the movement of a person searching for something. In the Tribulation, people will search for answers to the devastation and will discover increased knowledge through Daniel's preserved book."
However, in seeing the graphic of all the planes in the air over the US on Thanksgiving Day, and seeing the crammed people at Penn Station, it just strikes me how overburdened the earth is. I'm not talking overcrowding, like the eco-hippies talk about. I know there are many places with room to spare. But overburdened, as in sins piled up to heaven. Tottering sins piling up to heaven. I read Ezra's prayer:
"saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens." (Ezra 9:6).
I read Isaiah 59:12, "For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities:"
I think of all those planes and all those people crammed in at the station and I think of all that sin. All those sinners traveling to and fro, carrying their sin with them, and so many people and so much sin, the earth groans!
"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." (Romans 8:19-22)
More people on the earth just means more and more sin.
Doesn't it feel like the earth would be groaning under all that bursting pressure and sins and people and to and fro and activity and curse?
Sometimes I wonder how much more the balloon can be filled up before it pops. Seeing an airplane graphic like this one makes me wonder how soon the rapture will be here.
The promise of the glory that awaits is compelling. It draws my thoughts often. I so long to worship the risen Jesus in person, in glory, seeing Him full in the face! I can't wait to sing with the brethren and the angels of His holiness and purity. Sure, I'm tired of this world and I'm tired of my own sin, but that's not the total reason for all this longing. It's to be with Jesus, in His place He has prepared for us! It is to finally sing hallelujah for His work on earth and praise and exalt Him to the utmost, with no sin nature in me to pollute it.
Scenes like these flood my thoughts:
"At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal." (Revelation 4:2-6)
O, that emerald rainbow!
Or this, in Revelation 5:11-12,
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
We will be there, singing with them someday! Singing TO the Risen Jesus.
When I drag my mind back from the heavenly scenes and think of all those planes in the air, pointlessly going to and fro for sinful reasons and craven reasons and all the sin we carry, who wouldn't want to be in the purity of a heavenly abode, so beautiful?
"But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Someday it will be us in the air. Come soon, Lord Jesus.
