“And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the coming fury.”
1 Thessalonians 1:10
What is this “coming fury”? The coming fury is the disaster that was descending on Jerusalem because of her rebellion against God, against Rome, and because she refused to accept Jesus’ way out. The “coming fury” is the curse of a broken covenant.
Jesus asked the scribes and Pharisees,
“You snakes, you nest of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of Gehenna?”
“Because of all this, I’m sending you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will whip in your synagogues. You’ll chase them from town to town. That’s how all the righteous blood that’s been shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Able to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah-you murdered him between sanctuary and altar—will come upon you. I’m telling you the solemn truth: it will come on this generation.”
Matthew 23:33-36 NTE
The Hero becomes the Villan
God called Israel to be the solution to the problem of evil. But Israel could not accomplish her mission. God appointed Jesus as the one faithful Israelite who could get the job done and keep His covenant. The Israel who did not accept Jesus as Messiah did not merely fail but actually embodied rebellion and evil at its worst because they conspired against God’s anointed, they “blasphemed the Holy Spirit.” Israel conspired against the covenant and embodied sin or “became sin.” “The day of the Lord” Paul talks about and “the coming day of fury” are the same thing, the day when God renders judgment on rebellious Israel.
For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they didfrom the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.
1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 NASB
They were the Solution but not like They Thought
Israel was God’s chosen people for a noble purpose. But when the chosen people become rebellious, they become the worst of the worst because of the fall from their high and noble calling. So, the great honor of being God’s chosen people became the great punishment for being God’s most rebellious people. And this turn of events was both foreseen by God and part of His plan. God called out a peculiar people with special purpose: to concentrate the power of sin into one place and destroy it.
A Dirty Trick?
It doesn’t seem fair, like it is a mean trick for God to treat Israel in this manner. Is it fair for to God choose a people for a higher purpose in which He knew they would fail and then hold them to a higher standard because of their calling? This is precisely the objection Paul expressed on behalf of Israel in Romans 9:19:
You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”
“I Will Be Your Failure and God’s Righteousness.”
Israel received an honor she didn’t ask for and also an extra burden of responsibility because of that unasked-for honor. It doesn’t seem fair but what takes away the injustice of the situation is the fact that Jesus “became sin,” and was crucified as a rebellious and failed Israelite Messiah. The judgment Jesus pronounced against apostate Israel described precisely the judgment that He would experience: torment, abandonment, desolation, the fury of God… Jesus represented the whole nation of Israel and thus received her judgments and “became” Israel’s “sin.”
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
Paradoxically, while Jesus became Israel’s sin, He also became God’s faithfulness or “righteousness” concerning the covenant. Jesus became both Israel’s failure and God’s faithfulness or righteousness at the same time.
Jesus took the heat, but more fire is coming
Jesus became broken, failed, rejected, and rebellious Israel on the cross, but his substitutionary act does not apply to those who reject Him as their Messiah. There was good reason for Jesus to weep as He entered Jerusalem, knowing He would be rejected:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, and you were unwilling! Behold, your house is left to you desolate;”
Luke 23:34-35 NASB
This may be the simplest and most profound truth about our relationship to God: Jesus paid it all but for those who are too proud to accept His generosity, there will be Hell to pay. The official Israelites who rejected Jesus’ Messianic candidacy were left to the mercy of their own choices.
Of course, anybody can say, “You must listen to me or bad luck will come upon you.” That is witchcraft 101. Jesus didn't hex Israel, He warned Israel. The destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD (”the coming fury”) was the natural consequence of rebellion against Rome. But Jesus also implied that the terrible things that would come upon Israel at the hands of Rome should also be seen as God's judgment, or “the day of the Lord.”
The Old “Day of the Lord”
“The day of the Lord” should not be considered a new concept in the mouth of Jesus, nor Paul. The prophets spoke about the coming “day of the Lord,” (most notably in Joel 2), a day when God would punish the wicked and rebellious pagan nations, while exalting His chosen servant Israel.
The Day of the Lord
The Bible references “the day of the Lord” many times throughout the scriptures in a kind of swirling description. The prophet Joel spoke much about “the day of the Lord,” describing it from three angles: discipline, deliverance, and final judgment.
The first angle Joel takes concerning “the day of the Lord” is a coming day of discipline for the rebellious people of God. Joel mourned the destruction that came upon Judah through plagues due to her rebellion and called Judah to fasting and repentance before “the day of the Lord” arrived.
“Consecrate a fast,
Proclaim a solemn assembly;
Gather the elders
And all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God,
And cry out to the Lord.
Alas, for the day!
For the day of the Lord is near,
And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”
Joel 1:14-15 NASB
Joel is very severe and sober about this coming day of judgment upon God’s people.
“For the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom…” Joel 2:1-2.
“The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it? ‘Yet even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘Return to me with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.’” Joel 2:11-13 NASB
But the day of the Lord is about more than discipline for the people of God; it is also a day of deliverance from ungodly overlords. The prophets regularly spoke of this kind of thing, where God’s anger with His people runs out, and He turns to become her defender and deliverer. Once God purifies His people of their sins, God becomes her deliverer.
“Then the Lord will be zealous for His land and will have pity on His people…I will remove the northern army far from you, and I will drive it into a parched and desolate land, and its vanguard into the eastern sea. And its rear guard into the western sea. And its stench will arise, and its foul smell will come up, for it has done great things.”
Joel 2:18,19-20 NASB
God will begin to turn the fortunes of His people around, and this will also be part of “the day of the Lord.”
“It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.
Even on the male and female servants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, Blood, fire and columns of smoke.
The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood Before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.
And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Will be delivered;”
Joel 2:28-32 NASB
So, the day of the Lord is a day of deliverance and discipline. But please note that this deliverance has nothing to do with God taking His people off the planet but instead restoring the planet to its proper functioning order for God’s people.
“So rejoice, O sons of Zion,And be glad in the LORD your God;For He has given you the early rain for your vindication.And He has poured down for you the rain,The early and latter rain as before.
The threshing floors will be full of grain,And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil.
Then I will make up to you for the yearsThat the swarming locust has eaten,The creeping locust, the stripping locust and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied And praise the name of the LORD your God,Who has dealt wondrously with you;”
Joel 2:23-26 NASB
These descriptions of the moon “turning to blood” and “the sun turned into darkness” are not weather forecasts for the day of the Lord but rather descriptions of the radical change in the world's powers. The day of the Lord will throw down the unholy overlords and establish His purified people as the rightful lords of the land.
Finally, “the day of the Lord” is a day of final judgment upon the nations who will not worship Yahweh.
“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My land. They have cast lots for my people, traded a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine that they may drink.”
Joel 3:1-3 NASB
The “day of the Lord” the Bible talks about most often is when judgment fell on Jerusalem in the form of destruction by Rome in 70 A.D. The sad irony is that the Israel which rejected Jesus as her Messiah found herself on the side of the pagans on “the day of the Lord.” But there are many days of the Lord for different nations, people groups, families, even churches and ministries. God is still in the business of giving blessings and removing blessings. And indeed, there is the day of the Lord for each individual who must give an account of our lives to the judge of all the earth.
We should always be ready for “the day of the Lord” by keeping a short account with Him and attending to holiness. Because still, no one knows the day nor the hour when God will call “time” on the works of our hands and ask us to give an account of our doings. Are you ready for that day?
Comments