September 17, 2010
Eyes on the Sky
Last weekend there was an air show and it was fun to see people coming out of their houses and watching the sky to see the various types of airplanes and their flying formations. Jesus gives us a similar picture associated with the end times. “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.” (Matt 24:30 NIV)
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Gail;
-----Everything is about two questions God has posed to mankind. The mass of humanity answers these questions incorrectly, for Jesus said the way is broad and many travel it that leads to destruction. The first question regards our temporal lives and the order of our governments. What are you going to do about Israel? Most answer this question by shunning her and standing against her, and in turn their own governments are cursed by God who curses those who curse Israel and blesses those who bless her. Their disobedient ambitions toward Israel are only a part of their disobedient ambitions towards God, and as such they take a defining shape in the events of Jacobs Trouble, the Great Tribulation preceding Christ’s return to reign on Earth.
-----The second question is posed to everyone personally. It is about the absoluteness of God’s governance and our personal and eternal destinies relative to it. What are you going to do about Jesus? Are you going to accept Him as your King and enjoy His reign, or are you going to deny it and be defeated by it? The most of us who accept His reign will pass into the joy of it at death. But a few will see Him coming on the clouds at the designated time for putting an end to all evil and unrighteousness. Even Israel is presented with this second question. And as a nation they will enter into Jacob’s Trouble for their mishandling it. Yet, they will exit Jacob’s Trouble upon finally getting the answer correct at a time when they have no where else to turn accept God. “For I will be like a Lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will rend and go away, I will carry off, and none shall rescue. I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face, and in their distress they seek Me, saying ‘Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, that He may heal us; He has stricken, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him.” (Hosea 5:14-6:2)
-----Upon Israel’s rejection of Jesus, her Temple to God was torn down and her people were driven from Jerusalem. Tens of thousands were taken into captivity by Rome for slaves. Rome tightened its grip and tyranny over the Holy Land, until sixty-five years later when Simon Bar-Kokhba led another Jewish rebellion. At this time Rome became the glove upon God’s hand rending all Jews from all the Holy Land, expelling them completely and renaming the area Palestine. And that is the way it was, until 1948.
-----I love to look at the clouds, especially a puffy single cloud in a clear sky. For as Jesus left in the clouds He said that He would return in the same manner. It is not that I think He might be in that puffy cloud, alone in the blue sky. It is just that the look of it excites my heart for what current history is working in our lifetime. By Peter’s expression - a day being a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years a day - Judah and Ephraim were torn at the beginning of the first millennium AD. After the second millennium, and now at what is the beginning of the third millennium, Israel is back in her land. Certainly, most of the world is standing against her. The time for the cursing due them draws near. So, we enter Hosea’s time frame where Israel, with back against the wall, will finally from desperation call out their right answer to the second question, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Then one little cloud will be different from all others.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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