Book by David Wilkerson
For a moment, I am tempted to think that I have developed what I consider really bad reading habits. This is one of those books that while they were so good, I feel as though I read it in a way that made me dislike it, or not like it as much as I should have.
And just for the record, this is a book review. The thing is that I have been having a bit of trouble doing book reviews in the expected conventional way. It may involve me summarizing sections of the book, but that is something that whoever this review will convince to read the book, can do for themselves. As an early warning, then, I may actually end up speaking quite little about the book in question, and so much about other things I feel connect with the book. Of course those who are quick-witted may pick something sinister about such an approach. It is a tactic that is meant to disguise the fact that some bits of the book may not be as salient as they need to be when a book review is done. I agree. I read the book only once. Great books, or rather good ones, shouldn’t be read just once. And as it turns out, there are so many beautiful and new things to be picked from books while they are being reread. Yes, I had to reread some parts to remind me what the book meant to me at the time I read it.
The book was written just a little before the turn of the century, in 1998, and it was an attempt, I think, to recount the events of a past depression and to warn of a looming one. Depression in this case, really having much to do with the US, involves a financial and economical breakdown of a country. A financial depression means a country’s economic abilities teeter and then to plummet into obsolescence. It means a failure of a country’s economic system, and the disaster that comes with that. So this book, for the most part, is a warning that such are the times that are ahead. I feel as though, important as it may be as a clarion call to those people who believe so much in the system and doubt whether there could ever be such a kind of disaster, it is also what I think to be a rather impressive reminder to believers through out the world about what it really means to put our trust and hope in Jesus Christ in such moments of great desperation.
More than two decades down the line, I am not sure if much can be said about a financial holocaust. We live in times when we could actually be feeling more secure than ever, and most of us probably have not witnessed a country come to its knees when it comes to such economic matters. It promises to be devastating. But there is a problem, with every passing year, men have grown to be more confident and proud of what they have created, and have essentially pushed God out of the picture. Everyone in the world has become like the rich fool who had such a great produce and thought to build more barns to store his crops, only that his soul was required that night. The Lord seems to be keen to ‘require’ the souls of these arrogant billionaires who spend their time trying to get their hands on the next million. People have ceased to trust or even respect God. He has come to represent such an abstract concept that is nothing more than a fantastical creation meant to tickle and calm the consciences of those who seem not to have been fortunate enough when it comes to matters mammon. ‘Christianity is for the poor; they have the time, let them worry themselves with it.’
But in this book, David Wilkerson advances a very important warning. We are treading on very dangerous ground when we make our lives to be wholly about mammon and nothing else. The Lord is promising a great depression. Maybe it may not turn out exactly as Wilkerson envisioned it to be, but the Lord has always been in the business of surprising and punishing those who forget him. And we have really insisted on forgetting the Lord. Our lives have become about us, and so many things have been reduced to a mere rat race that is meant to glorify and benefit only ourselves. In the last days, men will become lovers of themselves. We are setting ourselves up for trouble. Dark times are ahead of us, really dark times. When people know that the future is at stake, that things will certainly go awry, they usually activate the defense strategy that does not involve God. It becomes the drama of men clamoring in order to store away items and resources that they seem to believe will preserve them through the depression. People begin to hoard food and resources, playing Josephs in order to be able to deal with the famine as soon as it comes. But unlike Joseph, the efforts of these men have nothing to do with God but only their selfish ambitions.
The Lord is calling men back to himself. A place of rest and dependence on Him. He requires that His children stop focusing so much on how they will get themselves out of trouble. The book tells of the promise that the Lord has in order to preserve those of whom He calls His. And the Lord has always done so. The Bible reminds us that the Lord knows how to keep the righteous, and how to keep sinners as well for their day of destruction. The Lord is fattening them, as it were, for slaughter. People who seem only care about how far they can go, and how high they can rise, and forget how great the fall can be.
Kenya is in turbulent times, and there’s nothing that is especially promising about our economy. We are in a mess, which however much we may endure with obstinate optimism, the reality is that things could actually get worse at any moment. This book is, therefore, a call to all those people who have forgotten that refuge can only be found in God. It is a warning to everyone who seems to have put their trust in money. The promises of the Lord are sure, and He has promised to protect everyone that leans and trusts in Him in the difficult times that are ahead of us. Maybe the song by the Martins could serve as a reminder that the Lord is not promising that there will be no storm, He’s promising that we will not be alone in it. Things do fall apart, but things will be well for the man who has made the Lord His refuge. The riches we pine for, we have them only today, and they are gone tomorrow. The Bible says that riches make for themselves wings and fly away, but the Lord’s word stays when everything passes away. It is only in God that we have the promise of this world and the one that is to come. The Lord had made His promise, but what will we do?
PS: I should probably delete all this text and rewrite it all in one sentence: Read this book.
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