Dear John and Five Doves readers:

Maybe the subject sounds familiar; it's an expression that appears in Ezekiel 8:17 and it appears to mean "to mock with false humility."  In this case, the one being mocked is God.  NOT ever a good idea, and especially in these days as we teeter on the brink of devastation.  The "branch" to the nose may have been replaced by the thumb:  https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/thumb-your-nose

But that seems to be what the "Asbury Revival" was all about.  Geoff Grider covers the story here:  Time to 'End the Revival' -  The reason?  "It Has Caused Many To Feel ‘Unsettled And Alienated’ On Campus."

I would submit that it has been God Himself who may have felt unsettled and alienated on this purportedly "Christian" campus.  Game Over.

In Ezekiel's day, God's responded to their contempt and mockery:

"Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them."

Immediately thereafter, God called His servants to mark for preservation those who were sighing and crying over the wickedness of the city and the Temple.  This is significant.  Like us, they could not effectively change the tidal wave of corruption that had overwhelmed their land.  There was no "vote out the bad guys" option.  Their civil and spiritual leadership were all corrupt.  God had sent prophets to warn the leaders, but the prophets and their message were spurned.  There was no remedy. 

Among the people, there were some who grieved; those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness and pleaded with God to intervene.  They sighed and cried.  Others, however, were indifferent.  They were busy living their lives and really couldn't be bothered.  No prayer closet for them.  They may not have been participating in the sins of their culture, but they weren't grieving over it.

God saw it all, just as He sees it all today.  Once those who were sighing and crying were sealed for protection, the rest were mercilessly slaughtered.  God raised up Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans to judge His people. 

Will the same happen in America?  Are we on the very threshold of God's WRATH?  Can we reasonably expect that God's FURY will soon be unleashed, with no pity and no access to God to appeal for mercy?    Might God have raised up the Russians and perhaps the Chinese, just as He raised up Nebuchadnezzar?