The End of the World (4)

By Chris Theobald    16th May 2004    0 responses

revelation

Part 4 – The restoration of God’s people.

By this stage in the series it is probably becoming clear that none of the ideas in the Old Testament teachings should be surprising. Many of us have either knowingly or not heard passages from the New Testament that echo these, or indeed sung songs about them. We are now at the stage in the series where we must consider the personal implications of the day of ‘wrath’ and ‘glory’ for those that follow the Lord. I have purposely avoided direct reference in the articles so far to the New Testament for one reason: I want us to appreciate when we do come to the more recent teaching and that of Jesus, that it is all a continuation of the same ideas but with new emphases. Hopefully this will help us to draw a comparison that will show that God’s plan for the end times is the same now as it was in the times before Jesus.

In this article we come to the other side of the coin of God’s just wrath; we look at the salvation of those that have followed and trusted in God. In the second part of this series I was quite careful to point out that judgment is not something we should deal with lightly, but that we should not find it a frightening or unusual concept if we have knowledge of our personal salvation from it – knowledge of what judgement means should add value to our salvation from it. In escaping anything two words are important: “from” and “to.” Some of us may feel that we know exactly what we have been saved ‘from’, but not what we are saved ‘to’, or vice versa. Hopefully now the ‘to’ will be put into perspective by a better understanding of exactly why we need God. Now we will consider exactly what running to God will bring us.

In Isaiah 1:24 we find a promise that God will purge us of our sins and remove all impurity from us, then he will restore us to be called the “City of Righteousness” and “Faithful City.” The promise continues: “Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.” The concept here of ‘redemption’ is quite well established as a term in the books of the law (as it is in our modern law) meaning to purchase something to move it from one state of ownership to another. In these terms righteousness will purchase us to move us from a state of sin to glory; or God will redeem his claim to ownership of those who have committed themselves to him and are righteous. Let’s also move on through a passage already looked at in part in the last article; Isaiah 4:3 says that those “recorded for life” in Jerusalem will be called “holy,” again we see the metaphor of a book of life as picked up by Daniel. This passage goes on to describe exactly what the cleansing of 1:24-27; the filth and blood that we have been immersed in in life will be washed from us by spirits of “judgment” and “burning.” The next image is an amazing one; God will form a canopy of refuge for his saved ones which will be a cloud by day and a “flaming fire” by night. This is such a strong link to the time when God chose Israel and led them from slavery through the wilderness in a journey towards becoming his people. This is exactly what will happen with us. God will redeem us from the slavery of the world and all that brings sin into our lives and he will lead us: “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God” (Exodus 6:7), a verse used in Ezekiel 37:27 to reflect the return to the close relationship we were meant to have with God. This is very powerfully continued as an idea in Isaiah 11:16, a chapter which discusses the coming of Jesus; at the end of this passage we find the promised consequence of the salvation that is promised: a “highway” for God’s people will be made to lead them out of slavery from Assyria, and on a grand scale from the power of sin and hell. The ‘highway’ metaphor is developed by chapter 35; we will see the glory of the Lord and the God will come to save us; the “Holy Way” shall be made clear for us, free from all danger. Only the redeemed will be able to walk that road and they will “come to Zion with singing.”

So we have some amazing and powerful images of salvation and the way in which we will be saved; and we come now to look at exactly what will be changed in us by the cleansing process of Isaiah 1. In Isaiah 32 we find a description of ‘The Kingdom of Righteousness’ over which King Jesus will reign. Verses 2 to 4 show a very powerful change that will take place in humanity, we shall see clearly and listen, all will be given “good judgment” and all will be able to speak. In verse 2 we see the images of refuge and “streams of water” in a desert being applied to all mankind. We will be safe and free from any hindrance, physical or spiritual, with our God. This is expanded, in Chapter 35:5-7, when we see another series of contrasting states, changing from this world to become God’s people, much of which is similar to 32:3-8 with the addition of “then the lame shall leap like a deer.” The theme here is that the cleansing of impurities will be a healing process; the wounds which we carry in this world, physical and spiritual, will be gone (Micah 4:6-13 discusses God’s intention to specifically call the lame and those in grief to him). Isaiah 51:3 develops this by saying that God will come to comfort us before he returns with the knowledge of his salvation which will never fail (verse 6). This comfort comes with a challenge “why then are you afraid of a mere mortal who must die…? You have forgotten the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.” If we truly accept all of this we must never fear this world. A few weeks ago I was asked to speak at a meeting on the subject of ‘faith.’ I asked a question: “what is the worst that can happen to you on earth?” The silence that followed was either encouraging that no one could think of anything or indicative of a long day in lectures; so I filled it in: the worst that can happen to you is that you die, which is the event that will bring you into the presence of God. If the worst that can physically happen to us is no cause for fear, then we should have no fear. To have fear is to forget that God is our protector who is, as we have seen from looking at his glory, victorious.

So what effect should this have on us? Further on in Isaiah 62 we find that our righteousness should be “like a burning torch” to the nations. We shall be given a new name, and become a “crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord.” The name we shall be given is “My Delight is in Her” (verse 4) and we shall lose the names “forsaken” and “desolate” which were given in our sin. In Jeremiah 33:11-26 we find the development of the theme of “restoration”, as in Isaiah 62, with the imagery of marriage (which is later developed by John’s gospel and Revelation); the Church is the Bride and the Saviour is the Bridegroom. We shall be restored to the way we were “as at first.” Since the expulsion from Eden in Genesis God’s plan has been to restore humanity to the way it was before we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; God promises to personally come to restore us to our sinless state (Ezekiel 37:23). Most importantly this means that we shall no longer be banished from the place where the tree of life is found (Genesis 2:9) so we will live eternally to praise God in his Holy City. Daniel 12:10 talks of many (but not all) being “purified, cleansed and refined” to bring them into the presence of God. We all have the choice between God and the world. Salvation is opened to all, as we know from numerous prophecies about Jesus (e.g. Isaiah 11:10) yet some will choose to turn “to [their] own way.” Yet we find that God promises even more than he gave before; Haggai 2:9 tells us that “The latter splendour of this house shall be greater than the former.” God will give us more than he has ever given before; which is a vast unimaginable amount when we consider what was given before!

Once again, mere words don’t really do justice to the amazing works that will be done on that day. All we can do is to remember that this is God’s everlasting plan to save us and that he can do more than we can ever hope to imagine for us. A verse I keep coming back to is one of the last things God says before he wraps up the Old Testament: Malachi 3:10 “…and thus put me to the test, says the lord of Hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” This is a promise that if people trust in the promises of the Old Testament, God will pour upon them a blessing beyond their reckoning. It is true that this promise applies in probably the most important way to the coming salvation in Jesus; but it is also a promise for all time that we should trust in God’s promises that are yet to be fulfilled, and we should look for them to be restated in the New Testament. Let us remember that Jesus came not to amend the law, but to fulfil it (Matthew 5:17-20); it is through him alone that salvation is possible, and he teaches us according to that.

The articles that follow in this series are intended to look at the ‘post-Jesus’ view of the ‘Day of the Lord’. We will find that nothing has changed, but that some parts are given greater weight than others, and that new teachings are added. I hope that we have gained from the Old Testament a new understanding of the salvation message that it contains. We have the choice, we can respond by running into the loving and saving arms of God or running away from them; it is our choice. We should, however, be cautious in viewing them in terms of a ‘carrot’ or a ‘stick’ to repel or attract us to either way (although the distinctions are so clear that they will have a similar effect); that isn’t to say that God doesn’t love all humanity and want us to come to him, but it does mean that he loves us so much that he has left us free to choose for ourselves which path we want to take. All I can add is that our prayer for the dying should be that they will choose the path that leads to God, and we should help them find it with our whole strength.

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By Chris Theobald

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