First Rats, Now Bats!
14 August 2021
I first heard the thuds of a falling object, like marbles, in the quiet of the night a few week ago. Not rats again I hoped.
The mystery was solved when my helper showed me the hard seeds of longans at the patio, which were fruiting rather luxuriantly this year in the forest in front of our home. She surmised they are from bats eating those longans.
Yikes! True enough, my husband photographed one hanging onto our yard one morning.
Diffusing peppermint oil managed to keep them away from my house but, last night, I could hear the hive activity outside after I turned off the patio lights. It has increased in numbers! I could smell them too - a strong putrid smell of pee.
I decided to turn on the spotlight to attempt to chase them away and, lo and behold, a colony of them appeared – flying frantically to and fro under the glare of the light! Yikes again!
Good or Bad?
Processing what I saw last night, I asked the Lord:
“Is this an aerial attack by the enemy?”
I remember the dream many years ago when He asked me to not to buy the unit next door and showed me that the swimming pool is in the shape of Dracula’s coffin (which thankfully has been removed by a new owner who moved in recently).
Is this a sign of good or is it bad? The Chinese considers bats as “fu” 福 – “good luck”. But I never liked bats as they remind me of vampires (blame it on Count Dracula) and am wary of the deadly viruses they carry.
At that instant, I am reminded of the Wuhan bat we nailed during our warfare that stopped the contagion in China last year (in Reports and Updates, Wuhan Virus Warfare Part 3):
I decided to google if bats are mentioned in the bible.
What the Bible says about Bats
Found an interesting article (extracted below):
https://batsrule-helpsavewildlife.blogspot.com/2016/02/bat-references-from-bible.html
“The bat is mentioned three times in the Bible, twice in the list of unclean creatures and once in a passage in Isaiah, describing the end of all idols. Evidently it was thought a very doleful sort of creature and this is not surprising when we think of its looks... By day they sleep in temples, caves and tombs and at dusk come out in clouds to scour the surrounding country. Naturally, because they seemed to like ruins, graves and desolate places they got a bad name amongst the ancient people. There were lots of superstitions about them. Some thought they were devils and witches. Some of the Chinese and some of our own people like to eat a kind of bat that lives on fruit. The Hebrew name for bat means "that which flies in the dark."
Bat in the Bible: The Bat is "detested" and "abominated" and it is a symbol of darkness, desolation or ruin. Leviticus 11:13-20 (NIV)
THE BAT IS "DETESTED" AND "ABOMINATED" AND IT IS A SYMBOL OF DARKNESS, DESOLATION OR RUIN.
Unclean and Detested bird: "These are the "BIRDS" you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle….. (many more) and the bat, " Deuteronomy 14:11-19 (NIV)
Unclean Food: You may eat any clean bird. But these you may not eat: the eagle….. and the bat.
Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.” Isaiah 2:19-21 (NIV)
Yup, I guess I am justified not to like bats :)
A Sign of the Lord’s Return?
But these words (underlined below) in Isaiah 2:19-21 caught my attention:
“Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth. In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.”
ARE RODENTS AND BATS A SIGN OF THE TIME FOR THE LORD'S RETURN... OR A PRECURSOR?
Are rodents and bats a sign of the time for the Lord’s return… or a precursor?
And oh, yes, I wrote this year about the appearance of rats in my house too!
I recall an article someone shared a week ago in the FB group, “Even at the Doors: Pre-tribulation Rapture Watchers” – which the writer T.W. Tramm shares in his study a convergence of five eschatological timelines that suggests 2021–28 could be a pivotal period in Bible prophecy, pointing to the possible date of the tribulation in 2021, and the Lord’s return in 2028.
As many of you know, I generally do not like to make any predictions as I believe in living in the present and the now as faithfully as I can but since the Lord reminded me of this, I shall share the summary he wrote here, the full article you can go check it out if you wish.
Extract of the post on 6 August 2021:
“SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In this study we have seen how eschatological timelines in the Old and New Testaments—recorded centuries apart and employing vastly different calculations—point to the same seven-year period, 2021–28:
- Counting the biblical upper limit of a lifespan, 80 years, from when the fig-tree, Israel, began to flourish in 1948, we arrive at 2028.
- Counting Daniel’s 1,335 days as years from when construction began on the Dome-of-the-Rock in 685–86 AD, we arrive at 2021.
- Counting Daniel’s 1,335 years from when the Dome of the Rock was completed in 692–93 AD, we arrive at 2028.
- Counting Daniel’s 7 and 62 weeks from the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls in 1537–38 AD, we arrive at 2021.
- Counting Daniel’s 7 weeks (plus one year) from 1971 when a master plan to rebuild Jerusalem was approved and implemented, we arrive at 2021.
Additionally . . .
- From the commencement of Daniel’s Weeks Prophecy in 457 BC to its speculative conclusion in 2028 is 2,520 prophetic years, a symbolic week.
- From Jesus’ first coming in 28 AD to the speculative year of His second coming in 2028 is two (thousand-year) “days” (Hos. 6:2).”
Another Paradox of Truth
My Thoughts:
According to his prediction, the Great Tribulation would start in the summer of 2021, which is now...?
Which means the Rapture may have happened or is going to happen anytime now, before the seven years of the Great Tribulation.
While I do not know whether it is really going to happen so soon, I take heed of the Lord’s words
in Matthew 24: 42-44 (NIV) (underline mine):
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
This is yet another of His paradox of truth.
On one hand, He says no one will ever know when He will come and it will be when one least expects it (which for me, if someone predicts a particular date, then it ain’t going to happen), and on the other, He tells us to look out and be ready for it.
Simply Believe and Be Ever Ready
So what does it mean to be watchful and ready for it Lord?
I see two words: BE EVER-READY.
Ah, perhaps being ever-ready is to simply believe that He will surely return to Earth once more one day. For some it may a frightening day of dread when He shakes the earth, but in believing, I trust that my household and I will behold that moment with great delight and awe and be raptured with Him then; none will be left behind.
And without trying to second guess which is that fateful day, I will go on with living in the present, normally, fruitfully and faithfully.
May the peace of God be with you.
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