Surely Joy Has Withered

;tldr  Just as God promised in His Word so long ago, He takes away mirth from His rebellious people.

Sometimes I regret reading into the prophets too much detail; other times just the opposite.  Overall I tend to think there are many more details in the prophecies than most of us give the Bible credit.

Now that the Tribulation is beginning, and the picture becoming more clear, we can go back and re-evaluate our former beliefs in light of current circumstances.

I saw this "feast" theme back in 2012, but now it's clear God will arise from his place to initiate the final years, about a year before Babylon is destroyed.  This "standing up" will bring sudden destruction and initiate a series of promised events leading to the fall of America.

Yes, yes, I know.  No one knows the day or hour.  And certainly we don't.  But why not study the information we've been given and try our best to make sense of it?  More than anything, let's be found watching and waiting for the Master of the house to return.

I submit to you, this reoccurring theme in the prophets that seems to closely correlate civil/religious celebrations with the Day of the Lord.  

Don't we already feel it?  Do we not already comprehend the removal of "mirth" from the land of America?  The eating out at restaurants, watching professional sports, your kids' baseball team, playing in the park even.  All of this, and more, seems to be quickly withering on the vine.

And did not the Word of God promise this to a rebellious nation that has forgotten Him?

Woe to those who rise early in the morning,

That they may follow intoxicating drink;

Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!

The harp and the strings,

The tambourine and flute,

And wine are in their feasts;

But they do not regard the work of the LORD,

Nor consider the operation of His hands.

...

Therefore the anger of the LORD is aroused against His people;

He has stretched out His hand against them

And stricken them,

And the hills trembled.

Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets.

Isaiah 5

“Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

Jeremiah 16

I will also cause all her mirth to cease,

Her feast days,

Her New Moons,

Her Sabbaths—

All her appointed feasts.

Hosea 2

Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples,

For you have played the harlot against your God.

You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

...

The days of punishment have come;

The days of recompense have come.

Hosea 9

Surely joy has withered away from the sons of men.

...

Alas for the day!

For the day of the LORD is at hand;

It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

Joel 1

Is not the day of the LORD darkness, and not light?

Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it?

“I hate, I despise your feast days,

And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.

Amos 5

“The end has come upon My people Israel;

I will not pass by them anymore.

And the songs of the temple

Shall be wailing in that day,”

Says the Lord GOD—

“Many dead bodies everywhere,

They shall be thrown out in silence.”

...

Shall the land not tremble for this,

And everyone mourn who dwells in it?

All of it shall swell like the River,

Heave and subside

Like the River of Egypt.

“And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord GOD,

“That I will make the sun go down at noon,

And I will darken the earth in broad daylight;

I will turn your feasts into mourning,

And all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on every waist,

And baldness on every head;

I will make it like mourning for an only son,

And its end like a bitter day.

Amos 8

"They shall be thrown out in silence."  We know that when Babylon is destroyed, no bodies will be gathered and buried.  But these are thrown out in silence.

“Behold, I will rebuke your descendants

And spread refuse on your faces,

The refuse of your solemn feasts;

And one will take you away with it.

Malachi 2