Recently, I posted in “The Fall Feast Days and the Day of the Lord” about how Leon Sexton wrote how most of the world will be “blindly careening down the toboggan slide of destruction” while end time events take place. They will little idea what is going on. They certainly will not have much to rejoice about.
One of the most confusing verses in the Bible, at least to me, used to be Amos.
18Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. (Amos 5:18, King James Version)
[I hope this new embedding works correctly in the Blogger template.]
“But,” you may be thinking, “aren’t we supposed to look forward to God’s Kingdom? Aren’t we supposed to even be praying ‘Thy Kingdom come’?” At least, that is what I thought when I first read that verse in the Bible.
Indeed, even in Revelation, we don’t see a whole lot of rejoicing during most of the events.
15And 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 in the rocks of the mountains;
16And 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:
17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Revelation 6:15-17, King James Version)
And yet, we see Jesus tell His disciples:
28And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28, King James Version)
One of the sermons on the Feast of Trumpets really struck me because of this contrast. We have 2 groups of people. One will be lifting up their heads in joyful anticipation while the rest will be gnawing on their tongues and begging the rocks to fall on them. Obviously, it will be God’s people that will be looking forward to the culmination of these events with the full realization that what follows will be so good as to overshadow even the most dreadful of the end time events. The unrighteous that continue in their rebellion will be shaken with great woes.
In those days, there will be no fence sitters, either.
We often hear people speak about a squishy “god” – a god of “love” and little else. Of course, this “god” happens to define “love” the same way you and I would. In the Protestant world, for example, you rarely hear about a God of vengeance and justice. You rarely hear about a God Who is angry because his creation is busy destroying itself. You rarely hear about a God Who will set things right again. And, even when you do, it is usually so tilted, so skewed (because of the doctrine of an eternal hellfire) as to make God into one that is severely lacking in love.
Christ’s rule will start out harshly because that is what the carnal mind understands. It is focused on the immediate. Harsh tactics will be used in order to bring peace and stability to the planet once more. Only after that, people will see God’s way at work and how it benefits everyone.
I sometimes refer to this as God forcing people to be happy. It sounds ludicrous on the surface, but the fact is that mankind for the most part does not know the way to peace, love and joy. Human beings are most often too shortsighted to see the long term consequences of bad behavior. They trust their faulty perceptions rather than that of the One Who created them and knows how they work inside and out.
This is the message of hope that must go out. God’s Kingdom will come to this earth, and Christ will rule over this physical creation and restore things to its perfect state. Wars will end. Disease will only strike the rebellious. Food and water will be in abundance. People will need to know this if for no other reason than so they know there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Even better, they may repent now and become one of God’s firstfruits.
A trumpet is a warning message. We know where the answers to the world’s most pressing problems are. Real solutions for real problems. People need to be warned.
Yet, a trumpet was also used for celebrations. God’s people need to be looking forward to the coming of Christ to restore the planet and rule with righteousness.