Stand by the roadways and look.
Ask about the ancient paths:
Which is the way to what is good?
Then take it
and find rest for yourselves.
But they protested, “We won’t!”

Perhaps in these last days one might ask, who wants to hear from the Lord? Yet even now, as in the days of the Prophets and fall of Jerusalem, ‘We won’t.’

Isaiah 41:1

Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.

Will we even seek the presence of the Lord in humility and silence? Though we claim His righteousness we speak judgment to the nations without counsel of His Word.

Ezekiel 12:2

“Son of man, you live among rebels who have eyes but refuse to see. They have ears but refuse to hear. For they are a rebellious people.

Have we not heard these words before, “you with eyes to see, you with ears to hear?” Yet we also remain a rebellious house, a rebellious nation, a rebellious claimant of God’s favor.

Why will we not seek God’s leading before the disaster by which the Lord will judge? What difference could it possibly make?

Exodus 32:

“Come, make us a god who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!”

7 The Lord spoke to Moses: “Go down at once! For your people you brought up from the land of Egypt have acted corruptly. 8 They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them…

9 The Lord also said to Moses: “I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave Me alone, so that My anger can burn against them and I can destroy them… But Moses interceded:

Turn from Your great anger and relent concerning this disaster planned for Your people. 13 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel—

The Writing on the wall

The Lord has warned man, made in His Image, over the generations and millennia. 

Prophets of the Lord have both pointed us backward toward our disobedience and forward to its consequences.

Daniel 9:

Ah, Lord—the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands— 5 we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from Your commands and ordinances. 6 We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.

7 Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but this day public shame belongs to us…

11 All Israel has broken Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him… 13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not appeased the Lord our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to Your truth.

14 So the Lord kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all He has done. But we have not obeyed Him.

Some indictment! Those who have claimed the Lord and righteousness have disobeyed the Lord God. Therefore God will judge our sin. Does the Lord our God not have this right – to judge sin and execute justice or show mercy?

Grace of a Cross and Judgment of all Righteousness

Some in these last days yet claim that disaster will not come upon us. Others claim that the Lord will not return. After all, it’s been a long time just like with Israel did not know what had happened to Moses.

Many claim that Christ will tolerate false teaching and false prophets, that the Lord would not punish those who put their trust in the idols of our own desires.

Yet if Jesus IS, if He IS the true and only Son of the Living God; how can the Lord not faithfully return in fulfillment of all Scripture?

How can Jesus not return once more, when He IS risen and ascended and He has prophesied a glorious eternal new Kingdom?

The Final Defeat of Satan

Luke 9:

18 While He was praying in private and His disciples were with Him, He asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” … 20 “But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?” 

Peter answered,

“God’s Messiah!”

21 But He strictly warned and instructed them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.”

Luke 10:18

He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning…

John 8:

21 Then He said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.” …

25 “Who are You?” they questioned.

“Precisely what I’ve been telling you from the very beginning,” Jesus told them…

33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered Him…

34 Jesus responded, “I assure you: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin…

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came from God and I am here…

58 Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Before Abraham was, I am.”

He IS before those who prophesied, before David and Moses and Abraham. Jesus IS before Eden and before Adam, created in His Very Image! 

And as the Lord has promised, He will return. Sin and death will reign no more. All flesh living and dead will be judged and all souls will bow before Him, making account for our sins or proclaiming His own Sacrifice for those He loves.

Jesus IS Lord. He has saved us from sin and death to dwell in His love forever and ever. 

As these last days draw to a close, we will examine predictions of His certain return, God willing.

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To be continued…