I can’t imagine how it felt for our precious Savior or for our Loving God, after eons of intra-Trinitarian delight, of giving and submitting, loving, planning, and creating, sweetly delighting in each other’s presence, then for Jesus to be apart from God or for how it felt for God to be separated from His Son. It is painful to even think about…that moment in the Garden when Jesus was praying to be released from the agony of the cup, or the moment on the cross when He felt God’s presence depart from Him (Luke 22:42) … Oh! Oh! Oh!
How can the death of one man be the best thing for the whole world? But Jesus was not only man, he is God! He poured His infiniteness onto flesh to love, teach, preach, and give the Gospel because he IS the gospel. he is THE good news for all mankind.
But Sunday’s comin’!!
S.M. Lockridge’s sermon combines with footage from The Passion Of The Christ for this powerful video.
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be … 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3: 1-2,5).
As a kid on Easter morning in a secular household, it was all about the basket. The eggs, the chocolate, and toys. Even the fake green grass. Our baskets were always generously filled, and I especially loved the centerpiece of a large chocolate bunny on the mound of grass.
As a kid, if you see a 5 inch chocolate bunny you get very excited. You don’t think about how much to eat or not eat, you don’t think about the appropriate time of the day to eat it. You just rip the cellophane and chomp.
I remember being disappointed that the bunny was hollow. As a kid, I could not tell the difference between a solid bunny and a hollow one, they looked the same to my immature eyes. But when I bit into the ear it seemed to be a total gyp when it crumbled to bits because it had no interior support. The bunny had only a form of solidity.
We are told over and over in the Bible that the last days would be filled with deception, false pastors and false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, antichrists, false apostles, false doctrine … and are repeatedly warned not to fall for it.
How can we tell if a bunny is solid chocolate or hollow? Test by eating it, you say? Satan is poison, his deceptions are poison. Who wants to eat poison? Ingesting falsity for too long will inevitably pollute. As mature Christians, we must be able to discern and detect hollow Christianity and false teachers who only have an appearance of Godliness early on, before it permeates the entire congregation, or our own heart.
Are you a child in Christ, seemingly mature but having fallen out of the habit of testing the scriptures for yourselves? Have you lost the ability to test the spirits? Are you, yourself hollow? Professing a form of godliness but denying its power? Have you departed from the spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading the word, giving, fellowship, and gathering with saints for worship? Abandoning these will hollow youout.
Ephesians 4:14 tells us not to be babes. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.”
Pray for experience, wisdom, and discernment through a healthy relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Let us be mature, our faith be solid. We should not have only a veneer of godliness but be solid to the core, strong, with the interior support of the Holy Spirit. A counterfeit Christianity will reveal the person to be a child, rushing toward something that looks oh so good to eat but biting into the hollowness to be disappointed, but perhaps already hooked by its tastiness. Do not be a baby in discernment! Do not be hollow in faith!
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14).
The word of God is a sure way to stay close to Jesus and grow in faith to mature, solid Christians, who in turn extend a hand to new babes in Christ and help them along. And so it goes.
I woke this morning to horrifying news. I’ll relate the news then below I’ll discuss a personal connection to the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
A container ship flying under flag of Singapore, the “Dali,” apparently lost power twice briefly just before passing under the Francis Scott Key Bridge, bouncing it off course for safe navigation under the bridge and causing a collision with a pier. This occurred at about 1:30 AM. The bridge immediately collapsed within seconds, taking whatever traffic was upon it into the Patapsco River, along with the iron trusses, concrete, and a construction crew working on the bridge.
Reportedly, the an officer on board the Dali called a mayday prior to the collision, alerting bridge workers to the danger. Thank the Lord he did, because workers were able to halt traffic from that moment on.
“Police radio traffic recorded at 1:27 a.m. captured responders rushing to evacuate and hold traffic on the bridge after an officer announced that a ship had lost control of its steering, according to records from Broadcastify, an open-source audio streaming service“, reports Washington Post. Sadly, not ALL traffic was cleared because reportedly 7 vehicles went into the water and also the construction crew who were on a meal break.
Reuters aerial view of Francis Scott Key Bridge. It is outermost bridge going up the Patapsco River headed to busy Port of Baltimore. The entire port is now cut off.
Road map showing position of bridge. The entire river to this busy port will be clogged for months as workers rescue, then clear it. Road traffic that used Rt 695 is affected also. The bridge is part of the beltway road system around the city.
“The bridge is more than 8,500 feet, or 1.2 miles, long in total. Its main section spans 1,200 feet and was one of the longest continuous truss bridges in the world upon its completion, according to the National Steel Bridge Alliance.”
“About 31,000 vehicles a day use the bridge, which equals 11.3 million vehicles per year, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.”
“The river and the Port of Baltimore are both key to the shipping industry on the East Coast, generating more than $3.3 billion a year and directly employing more than 15,000 people.”
The 1,200 feet (366 m) span bridge was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland which crosses the Patapsco River has reportedly Collapsed within the last few minutes after being Struck by a Large Container Ship; a Mass Casualty Incident has been Declared with over a Dozen Cars and many Individuals said to… pic.twitter.com/SsPMU8Mjph
These were reactions on Twitter that I thought were of interest,
Justin Z, @JayZMD Going to be a nightmare for a while. Daily Commutes, interstate Travel to and From NY/ Philly, Shipping to and From the Port of Baltimore, and Amazon has a huge facility right there.
David Hobby @strobist The port of Baltimore has also just been severed. Huge downstream economic impacts for the city.
0:21
Bridge is destroyed utterly.
I’ve sailed under that bridge and I’ve driven over it. The Patapsco River is an important river on the eastern seaboard leading to one of the busiest ports. It receives and sends a lot of container ships but what Port of Baltimore is known for is one of the largest if not THE largest roll-on roll-off ports. That’s items shipped that can roll on and off, like cars, farm machinery, anything that can roll. After the search and rescue turns to recovery and cleanup, which will take months, the port will be closed to all marine traffic. This will cause a disruption in many of our supply chains. Forbes wrote that the port closure will be:
“[P]otentially causing major economic interruption, as the bridge crossed over one of the largest ports in the U.S.—and the single largest port for cars. Besides the impact on car imports, 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo moved through the Port of Baltimore in 2023, worth more than $80 billion, the state said.“
“Outside of the maritime problems, the lack of the bridge will also affect the movement of goods and leave delivery drivers on the East Coast with fewer routes. A number of major companies also have distribution warehouses in an industrial park on the north end of the bridge, including Amazon, BMW, Home Depot, FedEx and Under Armour, Bloomberg reported.”
When I lived on our sailboat cruising up and down the Eastern Seaboard, we passed under the Key Bridge. It is named for Francis Scott Key, who witnessed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814. He was inspired upon seeing the American flag still flying over the fort at dawn and wrote the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry” which when put to music became the Star Spangled Banner we know today. The Coast Guard sets a red, white, and blue striped buoy at the spot where Key had witnessed the British attack, in commemoration.
We sailed under the bridge, and up to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We anchored there for a few days and saw the sights. Then we upped anchor and sailed back down the Patapsco. When we traveled across country in our VW camper, we drove across the bridge. It’s a nice looking bridge, and serves a highly important function- We used it to avoid the traffic around the city of Baltimore. It’s part of Rt 695, a beltway around the congested city.
As much as I like bridges and admire their architecture, I am not a fan of driving on bridges. I’ve always been scared of traveling over them. The Jamestown Bridge in RI was built in 1939 and opened in 1940. Our family used to go for “Sunday Drives” and we’d head over to Newport to enjoy looking at the Mansions from the Gilded Age. To get there you had to drive across the Jamestown bridge. There were metal grates on top that clacked loudly as you went over them. I used to worry about falling through and plunging to Narragansett Bay many feet below.
I’ve walked over the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the Tower Bridge and London Bridge in London the Forth of Forth in Scotland, Chesapeake Bay bridge, 7-mile bridge in Florida, Sunshine Skyway, Golden Gate, sailed under AND traveled over the Brooklyn Bridge (as well as the other NY bridges). Some were white-knuckle traversals, others like Ponte Vecchio and 7-mile which are barely above the water were less anxiety inducing. I have a horrible fear of drowning in a car, unable to get out from some body of water the car plunged into.
I wonder if the people traveling over the Key Bridge had a fear of bridges or if they commuted that way and had become used to it. Either way, the Lord speaks truth. We all have a number of days to live. I cannot imagine the horror of driving over the bridge and suddenly the bottom drops out from under you. The drivers surely didn’t know what was happening exactly, except that death was coming for them.
We all must be ready to meet Jesus at any moment. Death is a specter we all face, the end of our fleshly existence can come at any moment. For 6 of the construction workers eating a meal in the shadow of the night lights from the port, suddenly they were tumbling down 185 feet to the 47 degree water below, to arrive at their final destination moments later. Which destination will it be for you when the end comes? You might not know it’s coming, as the poor unfortunate folks at 1:30 am last night didn’t. Our bodies die but life continues in heaven or in hell.
Repent of your sins to Jesus, who lived a sinless life, died on the cross absorbing the wrath for your sins, was buried, rose again, and ascended to heaven. If you repent He will forgive you and you will escape your due and just punishment because Jesus already took it. Be cleansed, be prayerful and repentant. If you are already saved, be grateful for salvation and His assurance as one of His children that on the day of your death you will be safe forevermore in heaven, alive and joyful.
What do you do? Why do you do it? Why ‘the end time’?
Origins
For newcomers to this blog ministry, here is a bit about me. I’m just a layperson whom God apparently gave the ability to write. When I was saved late in life (around age 42), I became eager to read the Bible. I’ve always processed complex thoughts by writing, so it seemed natural that I’d write to try and understand the Bible. Blogs were emerging as a platform then, so this made it easy for me to write and self-publish my thoughts, and if a wider audience clicked in, good.
After about 18 months post-salvation I began digging into the Bible in earnest. I had already started a personal blog called The Quiet Life. As my religious interest grew, I split the topics by creating this blog, The End Time, to be my religious writings, and The Quiet Life continue to be my personal blog.
Why ‘The End Time’?
I chose ‘the end time’ as the title because we are IN the time of the end. The end time is the time between Jesus’ ascension and His return. I want us all to be eager to be about our Father’s business, and remember that time is short. He could return any time, or our number of days will be called and we’re translated to heaven. Either way, life is short so let’s be like Paul and pour ourselves out for His name and His glory.
I have taken some classes here and there to deepen my understanding of His word. And to ensure that I am correctly dividing His word. I don’t hold a theology degree or anything, but I have a responsibility to make sure I do not lead anyone astray. So I do my diligence and continue to learn.
Goals with this blog
My goal here is to encourage, to help women discern, and to pass along credible ministry links for women’s further learning if they so chose to click. As to this last one, there is so much false teaching out there, I desire to be a trustworthy platform where women can trust and safely click through on the links I present
Discernment
When I was first saved I resisted going to church (being a loner and not understanding the ‘one anothers’) so I followed Joel Osteen on TV and incorrectly believed I was doing well. After some months, when I began looking into the Bible in earnest and compared Osteen’s speeches to God’s word, I saw that Osteen was false.
I was sad and angry that I had wasted that time of following a false teacher. However, it soon became apparent that one of the spiritual gifts the Spirit dispensed to me was discernment, so I decided to write about discernment topics in hopes that women who follow me would not be deceived, or at least, awaken to the possibility they may be following a false teacher.
Encouragement
I also write encouragement pieces. Much of what women do in this world is hard- if she works outside the home, the world is pressing against her, if she works at home with children, the world mocks her. Submitting to a husband in marriage is also hard work, and against our fleshly nature. So I try to encourage women by extolling the glories of Christ. There is no better encouragement then looking unto Jesus!
Prophecy
Finally, I love prophecy. In my earliest days I was thrilled with prophecy because it answered all the questions I’d had as an unsaved adult who was perplexed with the world and human behavior. Why are people so bad? Why does the world hate Israel? Why is there a heaven (it seemed obvious there was since all cultures spoke of one) but if so, who goes there? And if everyone goes there, what makes it different from here? Who created the world? (Obvious to me it didn’t emerge from a Big Bang, and evolution seemed unwieldy).
I was dwelling in the nether world of Romans 1:19-20 where my understanding was that there IS a Creator, but my fleshly mind rejected anything about Jesus. I also knew deep down I was a sinner but up top of my mind I suppressed that and thought I was a fairly good person. The dissonance was highly uncomfortable.
Prophecy answered my questions. NOW I know who created the world, and why. NOW I know why the world hates Israel. NOW I know why my conscience was bothered by my sinfulness. I was so relieved in learning prophecy in the earliest days of the blog when I was using Blogspot I did some newspaper eisegesis but the Spirit grew me out of that.
Prophecy is THE answer to all the questions pagans have, and we believers hold that key. This is truly amazing. I love the Lord’s prophetic work, it is one way I worship His sovereignty. Who else knows the end from the beginning? Who else created the end from the beginning? And that He deigns to share it with puny humans is amazing.
I came at the Bible in a way that seems different from many, I did not start with the Gospels. I began reading the Old Testament; Genesis, then ALL the Prophets, then Revelation. It took me about 3 years to finish them, and by the end of that I had what I believe is a beginning of an understanding of past-fulfilled end time prophecy.
Eschatological Views
Based on studying the Bible alone, I believe the Bible clearly shows that there will be a rapture, that believers will be caught up in the air to be with Jesus in heaven. I believe that the rapture precedes the Tribulation, during which God will punish Israel and the world for 7 years. I believe during that time the antichrist will rise and persecute Jews and Christians. I believe the Battle of Armageddon will occur but the LORD will return as War-King and slay all his enemies. I believe He will then establish a kingdom of 1000 years of peace since the devil and his minions are locked up…until the end of 1000 years when satan is let out. After one final quick battle, the Lord will melt the earth and make a new heavens and a new earth, He will judge all humans since the beginning at the Great White Throne Judgment, and believers will begin eternity.
Some call this eschatological view “Dispensationalism”. I reject that. It’s simply biblical. I did not arrive at this belief by stumbling on John Darby. I did not arrive at this by listening to John MacArthur. In fact, I was listening to Adrian Rogers during these years, and also a Oneness Pentecostal post-millennial pastor called Irvin Baxter. However as I grew in understanding, Baxter’s beliefs were increasingly confusing and I never understood his version of the end of time. I finally rejected it.
After concluding my studies of the Old Testament, then Revelation, I settled on what seemed clear to me: the order of events I described above. THEN I began in the New Testament.
Some of my favorite preachers are John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Mike Riccardi, Martyn Lloyd Jones, RC Sproul, Paul Washer. Authors I enjoy are John Bunyan & other Puritans, Tony Reinke, Sinclair Ferguson, and Nate Pickowicz. Ministries I enjoy are Just Thinking Podcast, Wretched Radio, Justin Peters Ministries, G3 Ministries, American Gospel TV.
I am wary and careful about women’s ministries because even if they start out great, often, too often, they go sideways with wrong doctrine. But some good ones are Susan Heck, Martha Peace, Open Hearts in a Closed World, A Word Fitly Spoken, Thankful Homemaker. I also enjoy Megan Basham and Allie Beth Stuckey on Twitter.
Trivia
I lived on a sailboat and cruised the Eastern seaboard for two years, then lived in a VW camper van for 3 months and traveled the US Southern border.
I also traveled much in South America and Europe, Canada too. Italy is my favorite.
I hate snow.
I love birds.
I support myself as an educator: I’ve been a classroom teacher, substitute, and now a paraprofessional.
I’m a native New Englander living in the American south. I love both regions for their uniqueness.
So that’s it. My goals, my stances and my hopes for women. Be encouraged in Jesus love and care, be hopeful that the end of all things will come, and sin will be no more!
I saw on Twitter a while ago the question posed: “Why don’t we make things like this any more?”
The tweet author presented photos of ornate and beautiful buildings: cathedrals, skyscrapers like Empire State and Chrysler building, Taj Mahal and the like.
Why don’t we build beautiful buildings any more? I wonder that too. I searched and found this video which I think explains it in a reasonable way. Of course, his is not the only opinion, but he did make sense. It is a 10-minute video with nice graphics.
Culture Faith & Beauty @cultrfaith: A beautiful building from an era when we built beautiful places.
But it’s not just buildings. I mean, buildings are important. They are our landscape; the silent, insentient forms populating our visible spaces. I personally believe we need beauty in our lives and that includes buildings plus everything else we see. Anything we see: art, fashion, interior décor, exterior architecture. Beauty. We need it.
RC Sproul thought the same. He was big on “Goodness, Truth, and Beauty.” A while ago when I searched for a teaching on beauty, his was just about the only one I found. It was a course called “Recovering the Beauty of the Arts.”
In that course, Sproul said,
“In the history of the Christian church, goodness, truth, and beauty have remained the three most important concepts. Unfortunately, we have historically overemphasized one at the expense of the others. Some stress ethics, others stress doctrine, and still others stress beauty. But rightly viewed, all three are to be emphasized, since they are all interdependent and interrelated.”
We see that played out in Psalm 27 when David noted the origin of beauty:
One thing I have asked from Yahweh, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of Yahweh And to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4
In 1 Chronicles 16:8–36, David the king mentions God’s glory often—a word that refers to His majesty, worth, and splendor. He then calls on God’s people to worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness. We are to worship the Beautiful, said Sproul.
Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of the mighty, Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength. Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of His name; Worship Yahweh in the splendor of holiness. Psalm 29:1-2
Ponder the word “splendor”. It means grandeur, majestic. We don’t really use the word splendor in common conversation much any more. Growing up in the 1960s, there was a song called Love is a Many Splendored Thing. Aside from the Bible, that’s the only time I heard the word in secular life.
Sproul said further of Christians and Art: “While the Christian church has produced some of the finest artists in history, the modern church has tended to marginalize artists by implying that their vocation is somehow more worldly.“
True.
Art can be ugly, you know. Yes, I know that art is subjective, but you know ugly when you see it. Witness the reaction of the populace of my city when the City installed public art that was pretty much universally denounced as ugly. One local Redditor posted, “Can we all commiserate on how terrible this is?” and hundreds of comments ensued. Then, uh-oh, this news story about this same installation: “Controversial downtown artwork vandalized”. Its ugliness prompted someone to take negative action. We need beauty. Ugliness offends us.
Or how about the MLK statue recently installed in Boston’s Common, Slammed as “The Ugliest Thing Ever.” People tend to take beauty for granted…until ugliness comes in and by contrast, and we mourn the ugly in our need for the beautiful.
The tweet that got me started on this personal musing on beauty and the increasing lack of it in the world, is the tweet author’s opinion that the beauty we mourn the loss of is not exclusive to buildings and art forms like songs and 2-dimensional art, but in people, too.
He had noted that it seems that people dislike going outside into the world now because of lack of aesthetics in people. Not their physical looks, but faces, dress, and attitude. There seem to be so many ugly dressed people, ugly character, and ugly speech.
I was surprised when I went to Italy for the first time in 1990. Maybe things are different now, but when I traveled there, I saw that everyone out and about was dressed beautifully. From head to toe, men and women were polished. They took care and pride in their appearance. Not surprising, Italians through the ages have always loved beauty and they have consistently crafted gorgeous buildings, appealing art, and high fashion. They took beauty seriously.
But I believe we are becoming increasingly inured to the ugliness around us, accepting it and not even noticing its impact on our soul.
Remember, satan always tries to beautify sin. As sin increases (as the Lord lifts His hand of restraint) people’s sin also rises closer to the surface. In the past, moral pressure from society and also a Christian veneer everywhere kept people’s sin more hidden. Now, it is clearly everywhere, including on people’s faces. The rising sin in individuals and in society as a whole is seen on faces.
I am always reminded of Cain’s face when God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s,
And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his face was gloomy. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why is your face gloomy? If you do well, will your face not be cheerful? (Genesis 4:4a-7b NASB).
I like the KJV of verse 6: “And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?”
Think about that connection: as sin rises, the face falls. Cain was the Bible’s first angry, depressed man. And it showed on his face.
COUNTENANCE One’s face as an indication of mood, emotion, or character (Gen. 4:5–6; Prov. 15:13; Eccles. 7:3; Mark 10:22). Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
How about today’s world? With sin rising, don’t people look more upset/angry/depressed/cranky, etc? I believe they do.
Matthew Henry says of the Genesis 4 verse and Cain’s face:
God puts Cain himself upon enquiring into the cause of his discontent, and considering whether it were indeed a just cause: Why is thy countenance fallen? Observe, 1. That God takes notice of all our sinful passions and discontents. There is not an angry look, an envious look, nor a fretful look, that escapes his observing eye. 2. That most of our sinful heats and disquietudes would soon vanish before a strict and impartial enquiry into the cause of them. “Why am I wroth? Is there a real cause, a just cause, a proportionable cause for it? Why am I so soon angry? Why so very angry, and so implacable?”
Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 17). Hendrickson.
Mostly everyone is angry now. It shows.
Absent the Holy Spirit inside us, people will continue to look (and speak and dress) in increasingly ugly ways. One good thing about this, the only thing I think, is that as their faces fall further and ugliness rises, the ONE and ONLY place where beauty reigns is in Jesus. His light is splendorous.
In addition to the familiar Bible verses speaking to God’s sovereignty, one of which is at the conclusion of this essay, there is a famous quote from RC Sproul that exalts God’s sovereignty:
If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.
It is a great quote because it speaks to how God created and upholds every single atom in the universe. He is the author, architect, and absolute king over all.
Jesus, His Son, has been given all power and authority as God. (Matthew 28:18). Jesus is the exact imprint of His Father.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, (Hebrews 1:3).
We Americans are unfamiliar with sovereignty. We shed our King back in 1783 when we signed the peace treaty at Paris, concluding the Revolutionary War. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, sovereignty means
Sovereignty, though its meanings have varied across history, also has a core meaning, supreme authority within a territory
Many people do not believe in God’s sovereignty, yet still serve the Lord. But there is a great difference. Those who see the Lord in His sovereign glory have an inward compulsion to serve this God. Serving God is the glory of their lives. Their service is measured not so much in what they achieve–or what God achieves through them–but rather in the sheer wonder of the God they serve. Like little boys dividing up into teams on the playground, being picked to play on this team is the greatest joy imaginable, especially for those who are so unworthy. “Here am I! Send me,” is not merely the response of those who see God’s sovereign glory, it is their delight. Since God is certain to be glorified, they want to be among those glorifying God.
Let’s finish with AW Pink-
“What do we mean by [the sovereignty of God]? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou? (Dan. 4:35).
To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will (Psa. 115:3). To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations” (Psa. 22:28), setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the “Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.” A. W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God, chapter 1.
In this third and final part of looking at the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel, we’ll look at the spiritual aspect of this holy city. We looked at the land itself in part 1, the geography, animals, and plants. In Part 2 we looked at the political entity that is today’s Israel. Now let’s see what God has in store for the city where He placed His name!
I had said in the introduction that in listening to John MacArthur preach through Zechariah, I have been encouraged, astounded, and blessed as the meaning of that tremendous book opens my mind in awe of God. In one of the sermons he preached about “The Future Glory of Jerusalem“. Here is a small snippet of what he preached. I encourage you to listen in its entirety.
Let me give you a little fast history, hang on. It first appears in Scripture as the city of Salem, ruled by a man by the name of Melchizedek. In Genesis 14 he is called the king of Salem. Most people assume the name Jerusalem or Salem comes from the Hebrew shalom, which means peace. Twenty centuries before Christ it existed as the city of Salem. The next time we see Jerusalem in history it appears as a Canaanite stronghold with an allegiance to Egypt. Soon after that we see it in reference to Joshua. This is 600 years after the Genesis record or 1400 years before Christ. Joshua in Chapter 10 sets his sights on this city as he conquers Canaan. And in Chapter 15 Joshua says that this territory, including this city, has been given to Judah when the land was divided among the tribes. But even though it was 1400 years before Christ that the city was said to belong to Judah, it wasn’t until 1003 B.C. that David stormed Jerusalem, which was then a fortress of the people called the Jebusites and according to II Samuel 5, David took the city, which was later to bear the name the city of David. The city never really became much under David. It wasn’t until David’s brilliant son, Solomon, that Jerusalem reached its golden age.
And under Solomon the wall was extended, an incredible palace was built, an amazing and marvelous wonder of the world the temple was accomplished, and Jerusalem became something astonishing, something astounding. But after Solomon the ages that flowed on brought no comparable glory to Jerusalem and by 586 B.C. or about 400 years after Solomon, the city was a rubble, destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Nehemiah went back and rebuilt it but it remained rather insignificant from then on. Finally in 70 A.D. after the birth of Jesus Christ some 70 years the city was wiped out again and destroyed by the Roman army, as we saw last week. Jerusalem arose rather meekly from the ashes a little after 70 A.D., but by 132 A.D. whatever was left was crushed by the Emperor Hadrian from Rome. And until modern times even in our modern era Jerusalem has been kicked back and forth between the Turks and the Christian nations, the Moslems and the Christians kicking it back and forth.
And finally in our generation the marvelous rebirth of the state of Israel has occurred, a miracle of sociology, a miracle of the perpetuity of a race of human beings. I dare say nobody has ever met a Jebusite, a Hivite, a Amorite, a Moabite or a Edomite, or any other -ite around the Bible, but we sure have Israelites because God has preserved them in their own land. They’ve come back, but the hold it very tenuously don’t they, surrounded by enemies. In fact surrounded on every side of them that is land they are locked in with literally bloodthirsty enemies and their hold is tenuous and they are always on the edge of war. Incredible as it is from Melchizedek in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis to 1977, the story of Jerusalem weaves its way through history. Cities come and go but not that city, it just continues. The city of Melchizedek, the city of David, the city of Christ, the city of Paul, the city of Salidine, the city of General Allenby, the city of Ben Guion, the city of Moshe Dayan, it is ever the perpetual city and someday it’ll be the city of the seat of David, the Lord Jesus Christ yet again.
When God decides the timing is right for that to happen it will be stupendous! During the Tribulation the glorious city will be trodden into the mud. It will become so perverse that it will be called metaphorical Sodom and Egypt. (Revelation 11:8). Both Sodom and Egypt were known for oppression, perversity, and sin. Armies will circle around the city (Luke 21:20). The Gentiles will trample it. (Luke 21:24). An earthquake will split it into three parts and 7,000 will die (Revelation 11:13, Revelation 16:19). Jerusalem is going to have a rough, rough time.
EPrata photo
But we cannot leave it like that.
The Lord chose this city for His name. He endowed it with His presence. (Luke 2:9). He chose to be crucified there. And when he returns, it will be to JERUSALEM!!
“And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. (Zechariah 14:4)”.
EPrata photo
And He will change the topography of the area to raise up Jerusalem!
It shall come to pass in that day That there will be no light; The lights will diminish. 7 It shall be one day Which is known to the Lord— Neither day nor night. But at evening time it shall happen That it will be light.
8 And in that day it shall be That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. 9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be— “The Lord is one,” And His name one. Zechariah 14:6-8
All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.” (Zechariah 14:10).
EPrata photo
Jerusalem! The LORD is there. (Ezekiel 48:35). How close is the time for Jerusalem to be inhabited safely (Zechariah 14:11) and the glorious city and temple to be glowing with the manifested presence of God who is Jesus in the flesh? I do not know, but when it happens, it will be mercy…He promises mercy…
“Therefore thus said the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, said the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth on Jerusalem. 17Cry yet, saying, Thus said the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 1:16-17)
It’s amazing that this powerful, holy God should want to dwell with people. He does, and He will make His home in Jerusalem then New Jerusalem:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, 4and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.Revelation 21:1-4
Jerusalem! It is the eternal city, (Psalm 46:4, Revelation 3:12) God’s city where He has set His name, (1 Kings 11:36, 2 Chronicles 12:13) and is the city in which Immanuel (Matthew 1:23) will dwell in all His glory, (Zechariah 8:3) calling it Jehovah Shammah, The Lord is There. (Ezekiel 48:35). It is the nickname He uses when he calls His people. (Zechariah 3:2). It is a place that it figures solely as the most important land, city, and people in the history of the earth. All of history is dwindling down to one focal point: Jerusalem. So let’s take a look at this incredible place.
God chose a people and a land to bring unto Himself. These are the Israelites and His land is Israel. Its city is Jerusalem. He made this promise to Abram in Genesis 12. God was actually delivering three distinct promises to Abram, later re-named Abraham. God made a land promise, a national promise, and a spiritual promise. In part 1 we looked at the land promise. Here is the verse–
“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3).
Was Israel a great nation? Yes. Militarily secure (for a while) incredibly wealthy (for a while) and led by the wisest king ever to walk the earth (for a while). Israel as a nation has certainly had its ups and downs.
Is Israel a great nation now? Well, yes. It has developed some of the world’s most wonderful technology. It has changed an arid place into a garden, and now most of the world’s fruit is exported from there. It is a military nation, strong and mighty. It is a tiny nation, having given away land during successive political parliaments. It is only the size of New Jersey, but it is incredible in that it simply did not exist for 1900 years and then one day it did! No other nation can boast that history.
However as much as Christians bless the nation, and pray for its deliverance, we have to be realistic. This is from a sermon titled “The Cleansing of Israel,” delivered by John MacArthur in 1977. Not much has changed since then-
“Israel is not a religious nation. I would have to say that I doubt whether been in a more irreligious nation in my life than Israel. It’s an irreligious nation. Their god is the god of armies, the god of strength, the god of surprise, the god of might, the god of racial identity, which is the big thing, but not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Jerusalem is referred to as ‘Salem in Genesis 14:18, when Abram honored Melchizedek, King of Salem and priest of the God Most High (unusual that this one is King AND Priest, something banned later in Israel’s history. Priests always came from the tribe of Levi and Kings from the tribe of Judah).
Below, The meeting of Abraham with Melchizedek
The meeting of Abraham with Melchizedek
Ezekiel 21:25-27 prophesied the end of the kings and there has been no king rightfully officiating over Israel since King Jehoiachin in about 600BC, shortly after Ezekiel’s pronouncement. There has been no priest in Israel since the last High Priest serving when the Roman army came and overthrew the Temple in 70AD since Phannias ben Samuel and he wasn’t even from a priestly family, he was just a revolutionary. He died during the Roman overthrow.
There is still no king or priest over Israel today. And of course, no prophet since John The Baptist and then Jesus who is ultimate Prophet. There was not even any nation Israel between 70AD and 1948. By this standard, the Israel of today is merely a political entity, led by a Prime Minister, a President, and a Parliament (Knesset) and sadly, a spiritual desert.
Even during the period between May 1948 and June 1967, Jerusalem was not in Israel’s hands. Israel won East Jerusalem back during the Six Day War of June 1967, wresting it from the Jordanians who were occupying it. Later that month the Israeli Knesset declared Jerusalem unified. On July 30, 1980, the Knesset passed a law declaring the City of Jerusalem to be ‘eternal and indivisible.’” The United Nations promptly condemned the action.
There is still contention today. For example, what are the city’s borders? You can search for that answer online and you’ll come up with millions of maps with dotted lines, position papers, and news articles, but no borders.
Why does the world insist on calling Israel a state, and not a nation? The roots of the political conflict with Jerusalem and Israel lay in the fact that the Arab world refuses to declare it a national state for the Jewish people. This goes back to the original enmity between Israel as God’s selected people and the world that hates God. This is especially true of the Philistines who hated the Jews and their descendants are the Palestinians who are currently at war with Israel.
The upshot is that Israel, and Jerusalem, is a political entity. It surely is a great nation, but it is without paying homage to her God. God is still with her, and will protect her to the end. She will be ravaged, for it has been the times of the Gentiles since Jesus ascended. Only gentile Kings ruled Israel, such as Cyrus, Nebuchadnezzar, etc. Even now she is without a king, only a Prime Minister.
Today’s Israel is a politically buffeted nation without a king or a priest or world regard. The world is against it.
Meotti ended his piece this way, “Europe’s public opinion has been persuaded to believe that Israel is a state that ought to be dismantled forthwith. Europe’s population count today is 730,000,000 citizens. What would happen if the anti-Semitic worm infected the mind of all of them? Can Israel really remain immune from that eruption of psychotic anti-Jewish illness?“
Yes. and No. Political Israel’s days are numbered. The world is coming against it as Zechariah showed in the prophecy. The psychotic illness that is hate against Israel is satan’s contribution to his plan to thwart God. In the end of the end the world will gather against Israel and surround Jerusalem. In this regard, the Italian journalist’s question is consistent with prophecy.
“Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes staggering to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will injure themselves severely. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12:2-3).
Things do not look good for the nation Israel and the city Jerusalem, now or in the future. And they aren’t. But the Lord will come and save His nation, His people, and His city. The third part of the series on Jerusalem will look at its glorious future! And it IS glorious! They will go through a dark time, but then things become very bright, as bright as the glory of the LORD himself!
Actually let’s back up a bit. It all begins and ends with God.
Before the foundation of the world, God determined in His mind and His heart to select a people for Himself to have fellowship with, to produce the Messiah through them, and for them to spread the news of a Savior to the world. (Deuteronomy 7:6). And so began the creation of worlds, and His creation of people. (Genesis 1).
However, simply because the Jews were chosen, did not mean they would be exempt from living out God’s holy standards. We know from much of the Old Testament, that they didn’t.
“You only have I known among all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your wrongdoing.” (Amos 3:2)
Out of the dispersed descendants of the builders of Babel, God called one man, Abram, with whom He enters into covenant. Some of the promises to Abram and his descendants were purely gracious and unconditional. These either have been or will yet be literally fulfilled. Other promises were conditional upon the faithfulness and obedience of the Israelites. Israel utterly failed.
The LORD made a promise to Abram, found in Genesis 12, telling Abram that the LORD chose Israel to be His nation and the Israelites to be His people.
Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3).
God was actually delivering three distinct promises to Abram, later re-named Abraham.
He made a land promise, a national promise and a spiritual promise.
1. The Land Promise: “A land that I will show you.” “He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” (Genesis 15:7). Genesis 15:18-21 describes the boundary of the promised land in terms of the territory of various ancient peoples:
“On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
This land promise has never been fulfilled. The land that God promised His people the Israelites is very extensive. It would encompass all of today’s Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza, part of Iraq to the Euphrates & Tigris, the Nile Delta of Egypt, and part of Saudi Arabia.
Ancient maps placed Jerusalem in the center of the page. They knew that Jerusalem is God’s city and is the fulcrum of history, the axle of the wheel, and the center of the world stage. In the Jewish tradition, the Ark in the Temple in Jerusalem, through which God revealed himself to His people, rested on the Foundation stone marking the “navel of world” (‘omphalos’).
Ezekiel 5:5, “This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations.“
And what of this land? What is it like? It is wonderful! From deserts of the southern Negev to the snow-capped mountains to the north, to the 270 miles of coastline along the Mediterranean and to the frontier at the east, it is a diverse land.
Mountains of Judea, source Wikipedia commons
rosh hanikra view. Source Avishai Teicher via Wikimedia CC
Jordan’s Rift Valley. Source Wikipedia Commons
Acacia tree in Negev Desert, Makhtesh Gadol, Wiki photo
The wildlife of Israel includes the flora and fauna of Israel, which is extremely diverse due to the country’s location between the temperate and the tropical zones, bordering the Mediterranean Sea in the west and the desert in the east.(Wiki: Wildlife of Israel)
God called it a land flowing with milk and honey. (Exodus 3:8). A land with abundant milk means that it had abundant grasslands and pastures upon which the grassy lands could support abundant cattle (or goats). I have read in several Jewish commentaries that the honey is not bee nectar but the syrup one extracts from dates or figs. Either bee or fig, it evokes the same sense of abundance, this time from lush and growing vegetation.
According to Israel Birding website, “Israel is situated at an intercontinental junction- a bottleneck for migration routes. An estimated 500 million (!!) birds pass through every spring and autumn, with 530 species in record.”
The bird migration bottlenecks over Israel because when the migrating birds of Europe migrate, there’s the Mediterranean to the west and the Black Sea to the east. Every migration south or north they fly over Israel. There are so many flocks and Israeli aviation and military planes had so many bird strikes that the Israelis developed special radar to avoid downed planes from bird flocks.
“Israel’s climate varies from semi-arid to temperate to subtropical. The region is home to a variety of plants and animals; at least 47,000 living species have been identified, with another 4,000 assumed to exist. 116 species of mammals are native to Israel, as well as 511 bird species, 97 reptile species, and seven amphibian species. There are also an estimated 2,780 plant species. There are insects belonging to roughly 27 orders in Israel, out of about 29 worldwide“. (biodiversity in Israel).
So the landforms, birds, insects, and now mammals are extremely abundant and diverse. Incredible since Israel is only the size of New Jersey.
From Nature Israel, “From ancient times Israel’s native mammals have had an important role in Jewish culture, featuring in colourful biblical metaphors and prophecies, as symbols of the tribes of Israel or discussed at length in the dietary codes so central to the Jewish culinary tradition. The young David battles a bear and a lion, and Samson struggles with a juvenile lion. Torah scrolls are written on parchment from deer or antelope skins, the Jewish New Year is commemorated by blowing on the ram’s horn and the very Land of Israel itself is described as the “Land of the Gazelle”.
Song of Solomon 8:14 mentions the gazelle in terms of its speed. One of the sons of Zeruiah was compared to the speed of a gazelle in 2 Samuel 2:18.
Sadly (or not sadly for the locals…) the lions and bears are now extinct, but most of Israel’s native mammals familiar from the Bible and folklore remain – the jackal and the gazelle, the rock hyrax and the ibex, the wolf and the leopard, the wild boar and the hare.
Psalm 104 mentions many different kinds of vegetation, birds, and mammals of Israel.
rock badger
“mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.” (Psalm 104:18). Proverbs 30:24 says the following animals are ‘exceedingly wise’ and the hyrax, or rock badger, is one of those, “the rock badgers are a people not mighty, yet they make their homes in the cliffs;” (Proverbs 30:26). (Above, rock badger)
As mentioned, lions and cheetahs are now extinct in Israel, but imagine young David, armed only with a slingshot, guarding his flock against wolves, lions, bears, leopards, and cheetahs. Not to mention hyenas and jackals. Leopards still exist in Israel today, as do other wild felines including caracals (a kind of lynx), bog cats and wild cats.
Bears are mentioned in 2 Kings 2:24 as animals that came out of the woods and tore up 42 youths who were mocking Elisha. Of course the lion is prominent in fact and in metaphor in the Land. Proverbs 30:30 says of the lion, “the lion, which is mightiest among beasts and does not turn back before any;“. The LORD used lions as a judgment when Assyrians settled in the Land and did not worship the LORD. (2 Kings 17:25).
The Lord has blessed His land with biodiversity, geographical diversity, a wondrous climate, and beautiful flora and fauna of all kinds. After the restoration when the curse is reversed, it will finally be all that He intends it to be, His city, His dwelling, named “The Lord is there” (Ezekiel 48:35. (Jehovah Shammah!)
I went through Zechariah. Pound for pound, there is more prophecy in Zechariah than any other book in the Bible, including Revelation. The book is at turns comforting, inspiring, and difficult to interpret. Overall, I’m fascinated!
In Zechariah 2, I became fascinated even further. Jerusalem, and by definition, Israel, is a hugely important topic for every Christian to seek understanding of and wisdom about. Israel is the fulcrum of history, God’s nation, the apple of His eye, and future home of Jesus the King. Christians will be living in New Jerusalem. Thus it is our focus as Christians to understand His plans for this city, as well.
When the LORD dwells in Jerusalem the name of the city shall be Jehovah-Shammah, meaning, “The Lord is there.” (Ezekiel 48:35). It never fails to move me to even think of the Lord being there, physically and eternally. Jeremiah 30 is a chapter describing the future restoration of Israel. See here verses 18-22,
“Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its ruins and the palace shall stand where it used to be. 19 Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small. 20 Their children shall be as they were of old, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all who oppress them. 21 Their prince shall be one of themselves; their ruler shall come out from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me, for who would dare of himself to approach me? declares the Lord. 22 And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”
The Lord is there, Jehovah Shammah!
I decided to write a three part series on Jerusalem and Israel. The first part will be about Jerusalem geographically and its natural history. It is not a dry desert with swirling sands as most people think and as I once believed. Jerusalem and environs is a fascinating place, with lush animal and bird life, an interesting climate, and is the crux of three continents. It is the belly button of the world, depicted so on maps in former ages.
The second part will look at Jerusalem politically. I’ll look at what prophecy says about it during this time of the last days.
Last, will be the best part in the series of all. What of Jerusalem spiritually? What of the future glory of Israel? What does the Bible say Jerusalem will look like and what are God’s plans for it?
Stay tuned! This will be exciting look at our spiritual home, Jerusalem, the City of David, the Holy City, Jehovah Shammah!
the-end-time.org 