June 18, 2008

  • Biblical Eschatology Revisited



    The Long Awaited Expectation of Israel Appears

    Now that we have discussed the Beast and Babylon and how each of them
    is destroyed, we now look at the things God has for the nation of
    Israel in this immediate time period. Now in a short post like this,
    one should figure that we’ll only touch on the very beginnings of
    understanding what will be happening when the Second Coming occurs
    with regards to Israel.  It is hoped that we will be able to examine a
    study of the glorious rejuvenation of Israel after Christ’s return
    sometime in the near future. For now, we will need to be brief.

    Babylon the Great, having already fallen, we then see the Beast turns
    his eyes toward Jerusalem. During the battle for Jerusalem, we find
    that it will partly fall, not completely as in 70 AD and the Lord will
    come and fight for Israel and it is the beginning of the end for the
    evil forces in the world as we know it.

    Now it will be the Lord who is intentionally going to draw Israel’s
    enemies toward Israel in an attack on Jerusalem. It would appear that
    they would be marginally successful to completely draw her enemies into
    the fray. Then the Lord appears...


    Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.



    For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the
    city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and
    half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off
    from the city.



    Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He
    fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount
    of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of
    Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large
    valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the
    other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My
    mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you
    will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah
    king of Judah.



    Then the LORD, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him!     Zechariah 14:1-5 (NASB)

    At a point, of what would seem utter desperation, the Lord appears to
    His people and now they understand who they are seeing and the battle
    turns against the Beast.


    In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the
    one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the
    house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before
    them. And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that
    come against Jerusalem. I will pour out on the house of David and on
    the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication,
    so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will
    mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep
    bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.     Zechariah
    12:8-10 (NASB)

    Perhaps it is desperation and the realization that Jerusalem is falling
    to the Beast that changes the hearts of Israel as a people because of
    what He has told us in Matthew 23:29


    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!'"     (NASB)

    There will be no more false prophets and unclean spirits… after this point.


    I    n that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for
    the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity. It will come
    about in that day," declares the LORD of hosts, "that I will cut off
    the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be
    remembered; and I will also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit
    from the land.

    And if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who gave
    birth to him will say to him, 'You shall not live, for you have spoken
    falsely in the name of the LORD'; and his father and mother who gave
    birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

    Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be
    ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a
    hairy robe in order to deceive; but he will say, 'I am not a prophet; I
    am a tiller of the ground, for a man sold me as a slave in my youth.'
    Zechariah 13:1-4 (NASB)

    This how Israel’s opponents will die…


    Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the
    peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot
    while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their
    sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about
    in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and
    they will seize one another's hand, and the hand of one will be lifted
    against the hand of another.     Zechariah 14:12-13 (NASB)

    There will be no more blasphemy and the last thing they see will be the
    sight of the Son of God that they have spurned who will bring them to nothing.

    The word of the Lord in Psalm 2 is now understood in its proper context…


    Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?
    The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel
    together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us
    tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!"  



    He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. Then He
    will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying,
    "But as for Me, I have installed my King upon Zion, my holy mountain."
    "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:  He said to Me, 'You are
    my Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will surely give
    the nations as Your inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as Your
    possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall shatter
    them like earthenware.'"



    Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; take warning, O judges of the
    earth. Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do
    homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
    for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge
    in Him!      Psalm 2:1-12 (NASB)

    Beloved, the Lord has left nothing to chance and what you see happening
    right now helps us to understand that He means business and when He
    takes care of Babylon, the boasters and those who have changed His
    words into their own, it will be sure and final. Yet as we also know,
    His magnanimous mercy and grace is still with man so that those who can
    still hear His voice and respond to His call away from such evil can do
    so. It is a wonderful thing that those who have made themselves the
    enemy of God can turn away from that and freely accept the grace He is
    offering and live with Him with eternal life. If one waits too long,
    the time to turn from that will be over… and the sure word of prophecy
    has spoken to us about how that will turn out for Babylon, the boasting
    Beast, and the armies that mount their attack against Jerusalem in
    those final days.

    May the blessing of the Lord be with you who look for His appearing.  Mr.Vee