As we have seen so far, there are many references in the Old Testament pertaining to Jesus returning to execute His wrath. In all cases it is followed by the foretelling of the restoration that will follow. This will be the time of Jesus thousand year rule over the earth. Israel will be restored after their chastisement from the Lord Jesus. They will be chastised for their unbelief and rejection of the truth and for making alliances with nations rather than an alliance with their God for protection. Isaiah covered a lot of this in his first five chapters, but I will not cover that in this blog. I am bringing this up to express a warning to those who should know that their trust should be in the Lord Jesus. There are many who are telling Israel that they have been brought back to the land and that they are there to stay. Many of these are well meaning people, but no all, who just don't understand what the Old Testament prophets have foretold. The prophet Micah wrote this in his 3rd Chapter, verses 5-12;
"Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray: when they
have something to bite with their teeth, they cry, 'Peace', but against him who puts
nothing in their mouths, they declare holy war. Therefore it will be night for you
without vision, and darkness for you without divination. The sun will go down on
the prophets, and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed
and the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths
because there is no answer from God. On the other hand I am filled with power-
With the Spirit of the Lord- and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob
his rebellious act even to Israel his sin. Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice and twist everything that is
straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with violent injustice. Her
leaders pronounce justice for a bribe, her priest instruct for a price, and her prophets
divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying, 'Is not the Lord in your mist?
Calamity will not come upon us.' Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed
as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will
become high places of the forest."
When I sat down to write this blog, I did not plan out to write on this. I write as Jesus leads me and this is what He desired to have me declare. In Matthew Chapter 23, verses 37-39, Jesus said this concerning Jerusalem;
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to
her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being
left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see me until you
say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'"
The very own Creator of the universe, came to the earth in the person of Jesus. He came to be the sacrificial Lamb who would die to forgive sin and allow those who would receive it, the free gift of eternal life. He came to and through the people who He had chosen to foreshadow this event with the once a year sacrifice in the Holy of Holies to forgive sin. This shadowed the once and for all sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross. Salvation started with the house of Israel and spread to rest of the world. Jesus waits to this day for Israel to respond. They have not, and soon will instead take refuged in a covenant which is no more than a snare. Satan is buying time until he is kicked out of heaven and down to the earth. In which time he will come against Israel. Satan has created many odd bedfellows. If you look at the world today, there are many different people from many different backgrounds, who in harmony, despise Israel. If you take a rational look at it, there is no human reason for amount of hostility towards Israel, except for the fact that Satan hates Israel because Jesus loves them. Many will be glad when Satan comes against Israel. They shouldn't smile too long, for he will soon come for them. Satan has no friends.
I will also cover in future blogs how Jesus is the God of the universe. I will not just say that and not show it.
The prophet Habakkuk wrote in his 2nd Chapter about the city of Tyre from which Satan will come down into Israel. We read about this city, the Great Harlot, in the book of Revelation, which the whole world will build. Habakkuk writes this in verses 12,13 and 17;
"(12)Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with
violence! (13) Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts that peoples toil for fire,
and nations grow weary for nothing?(17) For the violence done to Lebanon will
overwhelm you, and the devastation of its beasts by which you terrified them,
because of the bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its
inhabitants.
Lebanon in the country in which the city of Tyre is in. The beasts are the military weapons of warfare. In Chapter 3, Habakkuk describes Jesus coming this way in verses 3-15;
"(2) Lord, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear, O Lord, revive Thy
work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in
wrath remember mercy.(3) God comes from Teman, and the Holy One from
Mount Paran...................
If Habakkuk was in Israel, he would have saw the heavens open and Jesus coming as he was looking south towards the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.
..................His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise.
(4) His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays flashing from His hand, and
there is the hiding of His power.(5) Before Him goes pestilence, and plague
comes after Him.(6) He stood and surveyed the earth; He looked and startled
the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered. The ancient hills
collapsed. His ways are everlasting.(7) I saw the tents of Cushan under distress,
the tenet curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.(8) Did the Lord rage
against the rivers, or was Thine anger against the rivers, or was Thy wrath
against the sea, that Thou didst ride on Thy horses, on Thy chariots of
salvation?..............
Habakkuk sees the New Creations, who came about by the means of salvation, riding on their white horses that were given to them at the first resurrection.
............(9) Thy bow was made bare, the rods of Thy word were sworn. Thou
didst cleave the earth with rivers.(10) The mountains saw Thee and quaked; the
downpour of water swept by. The deep uttered forth its voice, it lifted high its
hands.(11) Sun and moon stood in their places; they went away at the light of
Thine arrows, at the radiance of Thy gleaming spear.(12) In indignation Thou
didst march through the earth; in anger Thou didst trample the nations.(13)
Thou didst go forth for the salvation of Thy people, for the salvation of Thine
anointed. Thou didst strike the head of the house of evil to lay him open from
thigh to neck.(14) Thou didst pierce with his own spears the head of his shafts.
They stormed in to scatter us; their exultation was like those who devour the
oppressed in secret.(15) Thou didst tread on the sea with Thy horses, on the
surge of many waters."
The prophet Zephaniah wrote this about the day of the Lord in his 1st Chapter, verses 1-6;
"(2)'I will completely remove all things from the face of the earth,' declares
the Lord.(3) 'I will remove man and beast; I will remove the birds of the sky
and the fish of the sea, and the ground along with the wicked; and I will cut
off man from the face of the ground', declares the Lord.(4)'So I will stretch
out my hand against Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And I
will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the names of the
idolatrous priests along with the priests.(5) And those who bow down on the
housetops to the hosts of heaven, and those who bow down and swear to the
Lord yet swear by Milcom,(6) and those who have turned back from following
the Lord, and those who have not sought the Lord or inquired of Him.
Jesus will come against Judah and Jerusalem because at that time it will be given over to the nations. Remember, Satan comes against Israel and seats himself in the temple of God in the temple in Jerusalem claiming to be God. Israel, at end of this age, will be overrun by people who bow to a false God and those who no longer follow the Lord out of fear of being killed for doing so. When Jesus returns, He will first clean out Jerusalem from all occupants, before He places His remnant back in Jerusalem. Zephaniah continues in the 1st Chapter, verses 14-18, with this;
"(14) Near is the great day of the Lord, near and coming very quickly; Listen,
the day of the Lord! In it the warriors cries out bitterly.(15) A day of wrath is
that day, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day
of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,(16) a day of trumpet
and battle cry, against the fortified cities and the high towers.(17) And I will bring
distress on men, so that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned
against the Lord; and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like
dung.(18) neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the day
of the Lord's wrath; and all the earth will be devoured in the fire of His jealousy,
for He will make a complete end, indeed a terrifying on, of all the inhabitants of
the earth."
The prophet Zechariah made a mention of the city of Tyre and her fate, when writing this in his 9th Chapter, verses 3 and 4,
"(3) For Tyre built herself a fortress and piled up silver like dust, and gold like the
mire of the streets.(4) Behold the Lord will dispossess her and cast her wealth into
the sea; and she will be consumed with fire."
The prophet Malachi will complete the Old Testaments prophecies of the day of the Lord Jesus, when he writes this in his 4th Chapter and the last Chapter in the Old Testament, verses 1-3;
"(1)'For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant
and evildoer will be like chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,'
says the Lord of hosts, 'so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.'(2) But
for those who fear my name the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in
its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.(3) And
you will tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your
feet on the day which I am preparing,' says the Lord of hosts."
Although you don't hear much about such things in the Christian circle today, this was not a mystery to the early church. Many today out of fear of what people might say if they pointed out such truths, choose to remain silent on the matter. The truth is the truth. In the New Testament the apostle Peter told of this days as he wrote in his 2nd letter, 3rd Chapter;
"This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring
up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words
spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and
Savior spoken by the apostles. Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers
will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where
is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues
just as it was from the beginning of creation.' For when they maintain this, it
escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the
earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time
was destroyed by water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being
reserved for fire, kept for the days of destruction of ungodly men. But do not let
this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as
some count slowness, BUT IS PATIENT TOWARD YOU, NOT WISHING THAT
ANY SHOULD PERISH BUT FOR ALL TO COME TO REPENTANCE. But the
day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a
roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works
will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort
of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for the hastening
of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will destroyed with burning,
and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are
looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. Therefore,
beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace,
spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; and
just as also are beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote
to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some
things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also
the rest of Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing
this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by error of unprincipled
men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the
day of eternity. Amen.
May Jesus and His peace be with you.
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