Divinity and Desolation
Divinity and Desolation
The Last Days will be a time of glory and fury; revival and judgement! Life on the earth is going to get worse and worse...and better and better. Christians must understand and embrace this scenario and condition of apparent contradiction, in order to be engaged by God's purposes for the human race immediately before Heaven's King takes His Throne on earth in Jerusalem.
This is most apparent in Bible prophecy concerning God's Jewish People. But as it goes for Israel, so it will be for the Church and also mankind.
"There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality." (Romans 2.9-11)
The great Isaiah was granted uncommon insight and foresight along these lines. In chapter four the seer anticipates a day when the Glory Cloud will appear and remain over the city of Jerusalem, because the King is in residence. This is immediately preceded by two events ... one is glorious, but the other terrible. In verse one we read that "seven women shall take hold of one man...saying, 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name, take away our reproach.' "
Something calamitous has happened to Israel in The Land. Men have died in such numbers and such a short space of time that there is an uncommon surfeit of women. War widows?
But at the same time something glorious and miraculous is taking place (vs 2-3), "The Branch of the Lord (Jesus) shall be beautiful and glorious...and he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, every one who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem."
Even as Israel suffers war and its terrible consequences, it is experiencing a unique and ultimate event in its history ... a national revival through the universal acceptance of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah.
Then in chapter eleven, Isaiah foresees the Branch (Jesus) anointed with the 7-fold, fulness of the Holy Spirit coming to "smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked." In His kingdom on earth "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb...the lion shall eat straw like the ox...the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den...they shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain."
The prophet anticipates a day of such divinity that "the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." And "in that day the nations will resort" to Jesus "who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious" in Jerusalem.
But this day is not only divine and glorious. In chapter ten, Isaiah describes (again) a concurrent calamity which befalls Israel from which "only a remnant within them will return ... though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea."
The prophecy decrees that "a destruction is determined overflowing with righteousness" (v22); days of fury running neck-and-neck with days of glory...for Israel and for the Church and for the world!
And following on, in chapter twenty four, the prophet witnesses a moment of such overwhelming majesty that the sun and moon in all of their natural beauty will feel humbled, because "the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders." (v 23)
But how goes it for Israel and the Church and the world at this time?
"Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants...The new wine (Church) mourns, the vine decays...For thus it will be in the midst (centre...Jerusalem) of the earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree (Israel), as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over...the earth is broken asunder, the earth is split through, the earth is shaken violently...it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it." (vs 1,7,13-14,19-20)
And then in chapter twenty eight, because of the "costly cornerstone" Jesus, which God has laid in Jerusalem, Israel's "covenant with death shall be cancelled", and its "pact with Sheol shall not stand". But God also speaks here of an "unusual task ... extraordinary work" which takes place simultaneously. "For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, of decisive destruction on all the earth." (28.22)
What is this? Well, what follows in chapter twenty nine gives partial light,
"Woe, O Ariel, Ariel the city where David once camped (Jerusalem) ... I will bring distress to Ariel, and she shall be a city of lamenting and mourning; and she shall be like an Ariel (altar ... Ezekiel 43.16) to Me ... I will set seigeworks against you and I will raise up battle towers against you.
"But the multitude of your enemies (the nations who wage war against Jerusalem) shall become like fine dust, and the multitude of your ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away; and it shall happen instantly, suddenly." (vs 1-5)
The conclusion of Isaiah's repeated visions is inescapable. Before Heaven's King is finally enthroned on earth, Israel and the Church and the world will experience the very best and the very worst days in history! Days of glory and days of fury! Days of divinity and days of desolation!
And the major part of preparing to live in and engage such days is to acknowledge and accept that these things shall be so, even as God has ordained. Sticking our heads in the sand, or losing them in the clouds will not suffice. The Lord does not need extra ostriches or angels in these Last Days. He needs ordinary people abandoned into the hands of our extraordinary God.
And most especially, He requires a Church which will seize this "one-minute-to-midnight" opportunity to conclusively repent of the Holocaust and our interminable history of antisemitism. How? By identifying with and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and the Jewish People everywhere in their final season of extreme pressure and great difficulty. And also by humbly and prayerfully serving God's ancient People in their greatest and most wonderful hour ... their universal restoration to God through their and our Lord and Saviour and King, Jesus.
"Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your (Daniel's) people (Israel), will arise and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your (Daniel's) people (Israel), every one who is found written in the book, will be rescued. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake (Romans 11.15 'Life from the dead'), these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever." (Daniel 12.1-3)
"Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full ... Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision...And the Lord roars from Zion and utters His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth tremble." (Joel 3.11-17)
"And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like the Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head, and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, 'Put in your sickle and reap because the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.' And He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth; and the earth was reaped." (Revelation 14.14-20)
"The harvest is the close (consummation) of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age...Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matthew 13.36-43)
The city of Jersusalem
