June 17: The Countdown (part 6)
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Revelation 22: 12-14
The connection between patience and commandment keeping in yesterday’s closing verse is set forth in a particular order to show that commandment keeping is the fruit—and not the root—of saving faith. The faith of Jesus (14:12) in His heavenly Father is our perfect example. This is the kind of faith we must have to make it through the looming crisis of our time. During His seven trials* following His arrest and before His crucifixion, Jesus was treated with the utmost contempt and cruelty which continued even after He was nailed to the cross. The horrendous treatment and utterly disrespectful words spoken to Him were intended by the original instigator of cruelty to provoke a response of lashing out at His tormentors. Yet the Sinless One continued in an unbroken pattern of sinlessness. Countless witnesses saw a crucifixion that day like no other. Selfless words of concern for others came from His lips. From beginning to end, Jesus’ earthly ministry was marked with incredible testing. What patience!
The Old Testament prophets spoke of the first coming of the Messiah: His humble arrival, ministry, and ignominious death. But those passages were not popular and largely ignored. The prophets also spoke of the glorious second coming. But those passages were erroneously applied to a “military” Messiah whose goal would be to overthrow the Roman government. With His imminent return in mind, let’s look at a few:
Our God shall come and shall not keep silent; A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. Psalm 50:3
A fire goes before Him, And burns up His enemies round about. His lightnings light the world; The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. Psalm 97:3-5
With the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Isaiah 11:4 (see also 2 Thessalonians 2:8, Revelation 19:21)
The LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste. The land shall be entirely emptied. Isaiah 24:1,3
I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD. Jeremiah 4:26
At that day the slain of the LORD shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. Jeremiah 25:33
But the day of the Lord will come [suddenly, rapidly, unannounced], in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10
*a study of all four gospel accounts reveals seven trials