All Tied Up
We often use this term when we are busily active and involved, and we are then interrupted by a request to do some different task, we usually reply thus, ‘I am all tied up at the moment,’ all tied up, what I am doing restricts and prevents me from doing anything else, let me complete this task, and then I will move onto the next urgent task, that bush fire, that disaster, that ‘what-ever.’ Psalm 73:6 “Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them [as] a garment.” Revelation 20:1-3 “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” 2 Peter 2:4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;” Jude 1:6 “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Psalm 17:13 “If I wait, the grave [is] mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.” Psalm 88:11 “Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? [or] thy faithfulness in destruction?” Psalm 9:15-16 “The heathen are sunk down in the pit [that] they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken. The LORD is known [by] the judgment [which] he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands.” Psalm 116:3 ERV “Death’s ropes were around me. The grave was closing in on me.” Psalm 116:16 ERV “Lord, I am your servant! Yes, I am your slave, as my mother was. You set me free from the chains of death.”
It is interesting to review the mechanism that holds a person in the cemetery, in the grave, in hell, we find terms like ‘Chains,’ ‘Ropes,’ ‘Nets,’ even ‘Prison House,’ all physical objects, and all have the concept of holding, restricting, restraining, capturing, much like the concept we have of a ‘Prison Cell,’ very restricted movement in a confined space, and no ability to change this space for a better or more spacious environment, bondage in the worst case, captivity in its nastiest, like a picture of a prisoner chained to a dungeon wall, feet chained, hands chained, you are certainly not going any places soon.
Quote; “The earth was in a most desolate condition. Cities and villages, shaken down by the earthquake, lay in heaps. Mountains were moved out of their places, leaving large caverns. The sea had thrown out ragged rocks upon the earth, and rocks had been torn out of the earth, and were scattered all over its surface. The earth looked like a desolate wilderness. Large trees were rooted up, and were strewn over the land. Here is Satan’s home, with his evil angels, through the 1000 years. Here they will be confined, and wander up and down over the broken surface of the earth, and see the effects of this rebellion against God’s law. The effects of the curse which he has caused, he will suffer through the 1000 years. Limited alone to the earth, he will have no privilege of ranging around to other planets, to tempt and annoy those who have not fallen. Satan suffers in this time extremely. Since his fall his evil traits have been in constant exercise. He is then deprived of his power, and left to reflect upon the part he has acted since his fall, and to look forward with trembling and terror to the dreadful future, when he must suffer for all the evil he has done, and be punished for all the sins he has caused to be committed.” {1SG 211} Satan and sin are “All Tied Up,” Satan cannot rage and roam anymore, the wages of sin is being fully realized deeply, there are no living humans to tempt and to harass, just a whole 1000 years of emptiness, destruction and ruin, all bound up with chains of circumstances, ropes of ruin, and nets of captivity, “All Tied Up,” nothing to do but to sit and to wait it out, till the day the chains fall off, captivity releases, and there are some people persons to rule over once more, 1000 years to review the past, and to dread the punishment for the destruction of God’s very best creation, and for binding in sin and destruction may millions of God’s kids, “All tied up,” tares bound up in bundles, trash, just awaiting the purifying fires that will in a moment consume them and turn them into ashes. 2 Peter 3:10-12 “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. [Seeing] then [that] all these things shall be dissolved, what manner [of persons] ought ye to be in [all] holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” Has sin got you “All Tied Up,” or are you bound by the cords of God’s love and compassion, bound in his love and embrace, and freed from the shackles of sin, destruction and death, that eternally non-existent. Then what has you captivated, ‘All Tied Up,’ are they the chains, nets and bonds of sin unto everlasting death, or are they the cords of love, the bonds of compassion, the Godly desires and compassion of being close to God and in a oneness relationship with him, unto everlasting life?
