King Of The Jews - Part 20It has been my personal observation in this life that people often cling to the things and people for which they've suffered. God has suffered greatly in His love for Israel and mankind. He suffered the crucifixion of His only son Jesus., "Behold I have graven thee on the palms of my hands;" Isaiah 49:16 His promises of everlasting love are sure for those who come to Him in repentance. When Israel returns to God after the Great Tribulation, God has promised "Kings and Queens shall serve you and care for all your needs. They will bow to the earth before you and lick the dust from your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord". Isaiah 49:23 (NLT). As for Israel's enemies God says, "I will fight those who fight you". Isaiah 49:25 (NLT). When God fights your battle, He always wins. The multitudes that are gathering to battle against His Chosen People will feel the full force of His wrath. God compares Jerusalem to an abandoned baby which He raised and took as a wife. But she becomes an unfaithful wife; as mentioned earlier, scripture shows God's relationship to Israel as Husband, and Jerusalem is Israel's heart. Ezekiel chapter 16 gives a graphic and poignant picture of God's love for Jerusalem and his pain when she spurns Him and takes to herself other lovers, likening her to a prostitute and worse, giving her love even without payment to all who pass by. Yet in spite of this unrequited love from her, God forgives her and makes a new covenant with her; renews His vows to her if you will. This is suffering of an almost incomprehensible magnitude which God endures and yet ultimately forgives and causes reconciliation. It is no wonder that He wreaks vengeance upon an unbelieving world that would do harm to His beloved Jerusalem, for whom He has suffered so greatly and whom He promises to protect and deliver from harm. Having said that, there is the double-edged sword of judgement upon the Jewish unbelievers or rebels which God will purge, just as He purged the rebels before He allowed Israel to enter the Promised Land with Joshua. This too, is an aspect of the time of "Jacob's Trouble" the final 7 years allotted Israel. A judgement upon them and an opportunity to accept "him whom they pierced" Zechariah 12:10. Those who "go in" with Joshua/Y'shua/Jesus will be saved; those who refuse Him will die in the wilderness. "in this wilderness...they shall die". Numbers 14:35. "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword...and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS". Revelation 19:11,13,15 &16. When Jesus returns as the Warrior King and claims His title King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He will judge the nations, smiting them and ruling with a rod of iron. The time for the suffering servant will have ended and the time for a King in the manner of David will have come. The King of the Jews will now become King of Heaven and Earth, Lord of all. "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven". No more being led as a lamb to the slaughter. Now the lamb will BE the slaughterer. "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Revelation 6:15-17. King David was a mighty warrior, and even as a very young man showed unparalleled courage and ferocity. He slew lions and bears as a shepherd boy, armed only with his sling and a "stone cut out without hand". He even killed a lion with his bare hands, holding him by his beard. When Saul offered his daughter in marriage to David if he would bring him the foreskins of 100 Philistines; David brought him 200. He killed the giant Goliath and wrought havoc amongst the entire army of Philistia and eventually subdued all his enemies. He was literally a man with blood on his vesture. The women of Israel sang the song, "David has slain his ten-thousands". In an exponentially greater fashion will Messiah smite his enemies. According to Revelation 19:14, those who have become children of God through faith in His son Jesus will accompany Him when He returns to defeat Israel's enemies, gathered at Armageddon. "And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses..." But He will be the victor. "Let no man deceive you...for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition". II Thessalonians 2:3. The phrase, "falling away" is one which has caused a great deal of debate amongst Biblical Scholars. I personally believe it is not an apostasy from faith in God, as some translate, but a "falling away from" the Earth, meaning the Rapture. Paul was writing to the Thessalonians to reassure them that they had not missed the second coming of Christ, a lie that had been spread and perpetrated as having been in a letter purportedly written by Paul himself. He reassured them by reminding them, "Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things". II Thessalonians 2:5. He had already told them before that they would be raptured prior to the second coming. Many people, even Christians today, need to be reminded of this "Blessed Hope". The "man of sin", the Anti-Christ, cannot be revealed until the Church has been taken from the Earth. While the Church remains, "The light of the World" remains and darkness cannot have its full sway. Also, "the son of perdition" cannot be revealed and the iniquity he will unleash is being restrained by the Holy Spirit, who indwells the Church, the Body of Christ on Earth. The time of Jacob's Trouble, the Great Tribulation cannot come "until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way" II Thessalonians 2:7 NLT. "...the one who is holding it back..." is the Holy Spirit. When the Church is raptured, the Anti-Christ "...is revealed - the one who brings destruction. He will exalt himself and defy everything that people call god and every object of worship. He will even sit in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God". II Thessalonians 2:3&4 NLT |
