End times Bible Prophecy | Malachi | Day of the Lord

 End Times Bible Prophecy  No Responses »
Sep 302010
 

Context:

Malachi is the last of the great succession of prophets who for over one hundred years foretold the coming of Messiah. Malachi ministered in the time of the governorship of Nehemiah. It is clear that he ministered after the captivity. He prophesied about a century after Haggai and Zephaniah.  Malachi’s ministry dates from about 460 B.C. during the period of Israel’s Persian subjugation.  In that time, the temple had been rebuilt for some forty years, but is a rather mean dwelling compared to its former glory.

Malachi’s message is, for the most part, rebuke and condemnation. The sins of Israel that provoked Nehemiah were the same that stirred up Malachi. Their failure was defilement of the priesthood, divorce of Israelites wives for marriage with foreign women and neglecting tithe and offerings.  According to Malachi they have despised Lord’s name (Mal. 1:6), they have been indifferent towards the worship (Mal. 1:6), they were wrongly instructed by the priests (Mal. 2:7-8), they became faithless to the covenant (Mal. 2:10), followed foreign gods and divorced their wives to marry foreign women (Mal. 2:13-16), did evil (Mal. 2:17) robbed God (Mal. 3:8-9), and spoke against the Lord (Mal. 3:13-14).

Reference:

“Behold I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts.” (Mal 3:1 – NKJV)

Message:

Malachi has used the question and answer method to probe deeply into Israel’s problems of hypocrisy, infidelity, mixed marriages, divorce, false worship and arrogance. Is this list of problems not familiar to the church in modern times?

But the people are not ready to accept their wrongdoings and would rather justify themselves.

They question God and He answers:

How has God loved us?

Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? Says the Lord Yet Jacob have I loved

How have we (priests) despised God’s name?

By sacrificing what is blemished and even their human governor wouldn’t have accepted

How have we (people) profaned the covenant?

By saying that the table of the Lord is defiled and its fruit, its food is contemptible and by saying, Oh what a weariness!

How have we wearied God?

By saying that everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delights in them

How have we robbed God?

By not giving tithes and offerings

How have we spoken against God?

By saying It is vain to serve God

Do all these words sound vaguely familiar? Are they not similar to what we say about Jesus and His church today? We are tired of all these seemingly meaningless rituals and say, “It is vain to serve God”. It is time to get over with the rituals and get close to God with a genuine and repentant heart.

Lesson:

“For behold, the Day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes all who do wickedly will be stubble; and the Day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch.

But to you who fear my name, The Sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings…” (Mal 4:1-2 – NKJV)

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew (spit or vomit) you out of my mouth.” (Rev 3:15-16 – NKJV)

The Day of Judgment is coming and it is as true for the church today as it was for Israel in the days of Malachi. The hypocrites and the wicked will be burnt in the fierce wrath of God while for those who fear God there will be an everlasting healing. The words of Jesus in Revelation are filled with the same kind of warning. He wants us to be piping hot for Him or frozen cold and forget Him altogether and go your way. The lukewarm hypocrites will face the most fearful judgment. May we not be in the “Vomit List”.

End times Bible Prophecy | Zechariah | Day of the Lord

 End Times Bible Prophecy  No Responses »
Sep 302010
 

Context:

The name Zechariah means the Lord remembers. He was the great prophet of the days of the restoration from Babylonia captivity, with Haggai and Malachi he was a post exilic prophet. He was born in Babylonia when some 50,000 people who were in exile trekked their way home under the reign of King Cyrus.  Zechariah began his ministry two months after Haggai had commenced his prophetic ministry. It was in the second year of the reign of Darius Hystaspes (521-485 B.C.).  The first prophetic message of Zechariah comes in the second year of Darius’s reign. He was also a contemporary of Zerubbabel the Governor and Joshua the High Priest.

The reconstruction work of the temple was stopped due to opposition for more than a decade and was then resumed in 520 B.C and completed in 516 B.C. Zechariah encouraged the people to complete their unfinished task. Rather than rebuking them, he encourages them by pointing out the future importance of the temple. The temple had to be built because one day the Messiah’s glory will inhabit it. Sadly, the man who encouraged the temple building was murdered between the temple and the altar (Mat 23:35).

Reference:

“Thus says the LORD; I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the LORD of hosts, the Holy Mountain.” (Zech 8:3) – NKJV

Message:

Zechariah has given very clear messianic prophecies depicting both the first and the second coming of Christ. He has portrayed Christ as Servant and King, Man and God. In the first eight chapters, he frequently refers to the temple encouraging his people to complete the building of the temple because the Messiah will bring His glory into that same structure. The last six chapters were written after the completion of the temple and they anticipate the coming of the Messiah.

Zechariah ends his book with an exciting climax in the fourteenth chapter describing the final siege of Jerusalem, the initial victory of Israel’s enemies, the division of Mount Olives, Jesus’ visible appearance on Mount Olives and defending Jerusalem, judgment on all nations who opposed Israel, and the final restoration under the Messiah’s reign.

Zechariah vindicates the stand of the pre-exilic prophets by saying that the judgment prophesied by them came upon Judah because ‘the Lord was very angry with your ancestors.’ He exhorts the people to return to the Lord. Finally he describes the ‘Day of the Lord’ as being a day when the Lord will judge the wicked among Israel and preserve a holy remnant. He will judge the surrounding nations and all the enemies of Israel and He will usher in the Messiah’s golden reign. There is physical salvation to Judah as well as a spiritual salvation in that day.

Lesson:

Though the Lord has glorious plans for the salvation of His people, the unrepentant are doomed to God’s wrath and judgment. Zechariah describes such as the people who refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders and stopped their ears so that they could not hear (Zech 7:11). Sadly, sometimes God’s messengers have to face the brutality of the wicked. The very prophet who encouraged the completion of the temple was murdered between the temple and the altar. How ironic!

Today, God is asking us to return to the Lord and build His temple. The Bible says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). We are also collectively the Body of Christ, the Church or the temple of God. So God is asking us to build ourselves up in Him and to work for building His Church because He is going to come again as King and inhabit us with all of His glory.

End times Bible Prophecy | Hosea | Day of the Lord

 End Times Bible Prophecy  No Responses »
Sep 142010
 

Context:

Hosea was a contemporary of Amos in Israel, and of Isaiah and Micah in Judah, and his ministry continued after the first Assyrian captivity of the northern kingdom. When Hosea began his ministry, Israel was enjoying a temporary period of political and economic prosperity under Jeroboam II. One would have not thought that the end was near. Jeroboam II reigned from 793-753 B.C. (II King 14:23-29) and he was a strong ruler. Before the accession of Jeroboam, the situation had been quite a different one. Because of the military attack by Assyria, far to the east and Syria to the immediate north, Israel had been brought to abject humiliation. Recoveries from this low state had begun with Jeroboam’s father Jehoash.

The prosperity led to a widespread feeling of pride and Lord announces a disaster over them. When prosperity increased, wrong and degrading social and moral conditions developed in the society (Hos. 9:1-10). Extreme poverty also existed along with the wealthy; the strong took advantage of week (Hos. 12:7). Religious conditions were not any better; the pagan cult of Baal had a strong following. Apparently, ritual prostitution was still practiced (Hos. 4:10-18). So Hosea went on courageously and spoke out strongly against the evils of the day and pronounced the judgment of God upon Israel.

Reference:

In that day I will make a covenant for them, With the beasts of the field,

With the birds of the air, And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, To make them lie down safely. Hosea 2: 18 (NKJV)

Message:

Apparently, the message of Hosea concerning the Day of the Lord is a peaceful one where not only will Israel be reconciled with God but other nations also will have peace on earth. Yahweh will make a covenant with all the creatures of the earth. Also the bow the sword, the two main weapons of Hosea’s day will be abolished so that all may live in safety.

In above verses it seems that Hosea tried to present the ‘Day’ as a peaceful day, but a closer study of Hosea 1:5 gives another picture.

It shall come to pass in that day, That I will break the bow of Israel in the “Valley of Jezreel.” Hosea 1:5 (NKJV)

The bow was a symbol of power in his days and it was a principle instrument of warfare. Thus broken bows symbolize the loss of power.  Israel’s bow would be broken in the ‘valley of Jezreel’.  The prediction here is that this valley would see a significant stage in Israel’s final defeat.  Thus Hosea preaches about the doom of that day, a day when Yahweh will judge His people in his fury.

Lesson:

God used a unique method in delivering the message to Israel through Hosea. He was instructed by God to marry Gomer, a prostitute. So he finds his domestic life to be an accurate and tragic picture of the spiritual unfaithfulness of God’s people.

Hosea has real compassion for his people because of his understanding of God’s grief over Israel’s sin through his personal suffering because of Gomer.

When the Word of God exhorts us to have the attitude of Christ, it may even be at the cost of our personal life. If we look at Hosea as an outsider, we may think that he has wasted his life for no reason. But when looked at through the eyes of God, his life was extremely meaningful because it signified God’s love for His people in spite of their spiritual adultery.

The ‘Day of the Lord’ is near and God will judge the earth. But today He wants us to take the message of compassion and salvation to the nations. He wants that our very own lives may be a picture of Jesus’ love.

Are you ready to pay the cost? Only a person who pays the cost is the disciple of Jesus.

End Times Bible Prophecy | Amos | Day Of The Lord

 End Times Bible Prophecy  No Responses »
Sep 042010
 

The general treatment of the concept of ‘Day of the Lord’ by pre-exilic prophets in the Bible has been that of criticizing the society which they perceived to be violating the stipulations of the covenant with God. As a sinful nation, they could only expect divine punishment, rather than a glorious restoration which was their notion regarding the ‘Day of the Lord’.

Pretribulation Rapture of the Church

 Second Coming of Christ  2 Responses »
Aug 242010
 

The word “Rapture” does not occur in the Bible. The concept of the Rapture, though, is clearly taught in Scripture. The Pretribulation Rapture of the church is the event in which God removes all believers from the earth in order to make way for His righteous judgment to be poured out on the earth during the Tribulation period which may be called as “the Day of the Lord”.

 Older Entries