Chariots of fire

Jeremiah writes in Jeremiah 4:23, ‘I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.’

“Where have you read that verse before?” says Jordan. “That’s the second verse in the Bible and I’ve said to you time and again, Genesis 1 describes the original creation. Between verse one and two you had a tremendous rebellion. That’s where Satan rebelled, and as a result of that, God judged the universe and the earth (the command center of the universe) became without form and void. It lost all of its previous structure and was empty.

“He ridded it of all those rebels just like He’s going to rid the land here of all who rebel against Him. The battle between Satan and Jehovah isn’t brought to a conclusion until the transpiring of the events we’re reading about here in Jeremiah and Joel, etc.

“If you can just get all that stuff in your mind, thinking about that, this is a colossal event going on here in Joel 2.

“Joel 2:4-6 says, ‘The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
[5] Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
[6] Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.’

“You think of ‘Ben Hur’ when you think of a chariot, but these are vehicles of and implements of destruction.

“I mean, I don’t know what it looks like, but I’m sure it doesn’t look like anything Ben Hur was riding in because the Lord would have better architects and designers to build things.

“The noise referred to would be deafening. Have you ever heard anybody describe being in a forest fire? I read an article describing these guys in a forest fire in California that overran them. One guy said it was like 10 locomotives coming. He said they couldn’t communicate with each other it was so loud.

“Isaiah 13:6-8 says, ‘Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
[7] Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:
[8] And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.’

“See how that expression ‘their faces shall be like flames,’ is like what Joel says about people whose faces turn black? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anybody who burned up, but that’s how they look. If you don’t know that, if you watch NCIS, and nowadays they got dead bodies lying all around, every now and then somebody will burn up and be like charcoal and that’s what happened.

“Verse 9 says, ‘Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.’

 “He’s just going to rit them out like we saw in Zephaniah. This is the place where He avenges Himself and His cause of righteousness against all sin and evil.

“When you see the morning spread upon the mountains here comes the sun up behind the mountains and what you see on the mountains is just shadow; just darkness. And when you see darkness, you see the light coming up, it makes the darkness there all the darker.

“The coming of Christ is described as morning after a real black darkness. In fact in Hosea 6, His actual coming is described as the morning after a big rain storm and in connection with the Second Advent there’s all this atmospheric disturbance.

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"Revelation 19:14 says, ‘And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.’

“If they’re following him and they’re on horses, then you have to have horsemen. There not physical in the physical realm; they’re in the spirit world.

“When Elijah was caught up into heaven in II Kings 2:11-12 it says, [11] And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

“Notice there’s a chariot and what’s it made out of? It looked like fire. You know, if I saw a chariot made of fire walk up, I wouldn’t be wanting to jump on board. But this is not a physical thing; this is something in the spirit world in a different dimension.

“The horses were of fire. They’re makeup was something different than just the ordinary Carbon-14 world that you and I live in. Verse 12 says, ‘And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.’

“If you take fire out of that domain and put it into our realm, fire doesn’t consume them; it doesn’t destroy them. You put it in our realm, it destroys you.

“That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 25:41, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.’

“A  little later on in II Kings 6, Elijah has a companion, a minister, and he’s a little worried about the people against him being more than the people who are for him and so in 6:16, Elijah answers, ‘Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.’

“Now the boy thought he was nuts because he could see all them dudes on the hilltop out there fixing to come get them and it’s just him and Elijah. He was like, ‘What are you talking about?!’

 

"So in verse 17, Elijah prayed and said, ‘LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.' 'And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.'

“Those are armies of angelic protection to assure Elisha’s safety. So when you’re reading in Joel about the appearance of this army as the appearance of horses and horsemen, go to Habakkuk, which does from just a little different perspective on the Second Advent what we’re doing in Joel.

“By the way, did you ever have anybody ask you where did God come from? I remember years ago at the rescue mission in Mobile, when I was just a young preacher, a bum interrupted Brother Reynolds while he was giving a gospel message, yelling, ‘Where’d God come from?’ Mr. Reynolds looked at him and said, ‘From Teman.’

“I learned years ago preaching on the street that when people heckle you and throw a question at you like that, if you just give an answer it doesn’t have to make any sense. You just give them an answer and put them back on their heels.

“Habakkuk 3:3 says [3] God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. God came from Teman, so Brother Reynolds was quoting Scripture. Now, he wasn’t talking about like how I came from Mobile. This is a passage that is describing the Second Advent of Christ.

“Notice He’s coming from Teman and Paran, and if you run those references, that’s down in Edom. That’s actually south of the Dead Sea and up on the side of it. So what you get is another description of the Second Advent itself."