The Earth Depopulated

[Thompson, Darryl]

----------------------------------------------------------
Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for October 25
Visit us at http://www.whiteestate.org
-----------------------------------------------------------

The Earth Depopulated

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the
heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was
no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. Jer. 4:23-25. 


At the coming of Christ the wicked are blotted from the face of the
whole earth--consumed with the spirit of His mouth and destroyed by the
brightness of His glory. Christ takes His people to the City of God, and
the earth is emptied of its inhabitants. "Behold, the Lord maketh the
earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." "The land shall be utterly
emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word."
"Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken
the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth,
and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of
the earth are burned." Isaiah 24:1, 3, 5, 6. 

The whole earth appears like a desolate wilderness. The ruins of cities
and villages destroyed by the earthquake, uprooted trees, ragged rocks
thrown out by the sea or torn out of the earth itself, are scattered
over its surface, while vast caverns mark the spot where the mountains
have been rent from their foundations. 

Now the event takes place foreshadowed in the last solemn service of the
Day of Atonement. When the ministration in the holy of holies had been
completed, and the sins of Israel had been removed from the sanctuary by
virtue of the blood of the sin offering, then the scapegoat was
presented alive before the Lord; and in the presence of the congregation
the high priest confessed over him "all the iniquities of the children
of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them
upon the head of the goat." Leviticus 16:21. In like manner when the
work of atonement in the heavenly sanctuary has been completed then in
the presence of God and heavenly angels and the host of the redeemed the
sins of God's people will be placed upon Satan; he will be declared
guilty of all the evil which he has caused them to commit.

>From Maranatha - Page 306