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Bible
prophecy is true and intriguing to say the least. Often the prophecies seem to
be shrouded in mystery and hidden from plain view. The time tables for many
events remain ambiguous and hard to nail down to any particular year or
generation. Nonetheless, people love to hear about and imagine those things
which are to take place in the last days. Even the disciples asked Jesus to
tell them what would take place at the end of time. A considerable portion of
the Bible speaks about the last days and some scholars have devoted their whole
lives to the study of the end time events.
This
evening it is my hope to shine some common light on a few well-known prophecies
so that we might better understand what God meant by foretelling us about these
last days. Let’s begin by reading from two of the Old Testament prophets: Micah
and Isaiah.
Micah 4 KJV
1 ¶ But in the last days it
shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the
hills; and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall
come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the
house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk
in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2 KJV
1 ¶ The word that Isaiah the
son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass
in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go
and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of
the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his
paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem.
Evidently,
the last days are a very important subject to God for Him to speak through two
prophets the very same prophecy, almost word for word, during the same period
of time, (They were both prophets during the same period: basically 740BC or
700BC), and to the same people. Micah lived in the area of Gath and Gaza while
Isaiah lived in Jerusalem, both within the borders of Judah but almost a world
away.
Both
of these prophets focus our attention on The Last Days. Let’s look at these
prophecies a little closer so that we might use them to better understand other
prophecies in the Bible. We will use Isaiah’s prophecy:
Isaiah 2
1 ¶ The word that Isaiah the
son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
·
Herein
is the claim that Isaiah himself was made to understand something concerning
Judah and Jerusalem.
·
This
indicates a spiritual awareness which Isaiah recognized as coming from God and
worthy of recording as prophetic utterance.
·
He
is sure this will happen … and Isaiah knows that he is being used as a
mouthpiece of the Lord to declare what will happen in the future.
·
This
is the same anointing which led Isaiah to later prophesy about a king, King
Cyrus, who would serve the Lord and facilitate the rebuilding of the Temple in
Jerusalem. Isaiah called Cyrus by name over 150 years before Cyrus was even
born.
·
Isaiah
saw something … and then he said something …
2 And it shall come to pass
in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be
established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
and all nations shall flow unto it.
·
The
last days does not strictly refer to the very, very, very end of days. Of
course prophecies can easily and often do have dual purposes and hold capacity
to have multiple shades of fulfillment.
o The Last Days here is more
of the last period or last division of time.
o There only being two
periods for these purposes
§ Former Days, before
Messiah came to suffer for sin.
§ Latter or Last Days:
The time before His second coming.
·
The
last days or the end of days always refers to the time of the spreading of the Gospel
of Christ.
·
The
time between the coming of the Messiah in humility as a suffering Savior and the
time of the returning Messiah in glory as the reigning King, is considered as
The Last Days.
o The Former Days
brought the Messiah to suffer and pay for our sins.
o The Last Days will
culminate in the Messiah’s return to rule and reign in His glory.
·
During
the period of the last days the House of God and the worship of the Messiah
will be exalted above every other religion and spiritual pursuit and it will be
a house for all nations, Not just Israel …
o “My house shall be
called a house of prayer for all nations.”
·
People
from all nations shall flow like a river, people carried by that flow like on a
wave, into the exalted house of the Lord.
·
The
prophet saw people representing all nations of the earth brought to worship the
Messiah during the last days period.
3 And many people shall go
and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of
the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his
paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from
Jerusalem.
·
There
will be mass evangelism and many witnesses
calling out to others to come and worship God in these last days.
·
And
discipleship will be the order of the last day revival
·
Lives
will be changed
·
God’s
ways will be taught by the Church
·
And
the Word of God will go forth into all the world beginning at Jerusalem.
This
is what the prophet Isaiah and Micah saw more than 700 years before Christ
came. They saw you and me sharing the Gospel of Christ with the whole world.
Of
course there will be an ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy when Jesus
returns and sets up His millennial kingdom on the earth. However, the general
fulfillment began with the coming of Christ and the spread of the Gospel by the
Church beginning from Jerusalem going into all the world.
When
we see a reference to “The Last Days” or the
“Latter Days” or the “End of Days”, we should realize that the scriptures are
most often referring to the period of time in which we live. We are living in
the last days. This is the period of time between the
Resurrection of Christ and His return.
This
makes Joel’s prophecy easy to understand when Peter quoted him in:
Acts 2 NKJV
16 “But this is what was
spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘And it shall come to pass
in the last days, says God, That I
will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and
on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall
prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in
heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned
into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and
awesome day of the LORD.
21 And it shall come to pass That
whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.’
Or
Paul writing his last words to Timothy concerning the last days:
2 Timothy 3 NKJV
1 ¶ But know this, that in
the last days perilous times will come:
2 For men will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 unloving, unforgiving,
slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4 traitors, headstrong,
haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having a form of godliness
but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
And
Peter wrote to us:
2 Peter 3 NKJV
1 ¶ Beloved, I now write to
you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by
way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of
the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment
of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
3 ¶ knowing this first: that
scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the
promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue
as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For this they willfully
forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing
out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world that
then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the
earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire
until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 ¶ But, beloved, do not
forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 ¶ The Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering
toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to
repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a
great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and
the works that are in it will be burned up.
11 ¶ Therefore, since all
these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be
in holy conduct and godliness,
12 looking for and hastening
the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved,
being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according
to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells.
14 Therefore, beloved, looking
forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot
and blameless;
15 and consider that
the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation — as also our
beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,
16 as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to
understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own
destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
And
we could go on and on and on. Suffice it to say that we are living in the last
days and we are certainly living in our last days … the only days we have. It
is important for us to expect the coming of the Lord for every person we
encounter. Jesus will certainly bring about the very final last day, a day of
judgment and a day of new beginnings. We do not know that day nor the hour …
but I do believe His returning is close at hand.
But
whatever befalls the world and however much time we have before God concludes
this Gospel age, it is my hope that we would all be found living for and
working for the Lord by spreading the Gospel into our world and into all the
world.
Hosea 6:3 Then shall we know,
if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the
morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former
rain unto the earth.
The
former rain is for the former days … days of planting the seeds in the fields –
while the latter rain is for the latter days … causing the fruit to be ripened
for harvest. The last days are days of great harvest.
Both
Hosea and Amos were contemporaries with Micah and Isaiah. They also saw
something … They saw that the last days harvest time was going to be abundant
and like nothing ever seen before.
Amos 9:13 Behold, the days
come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the
treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet
wine, and all the hills shall melt.
This
is what Isaiah saw and this is the will of God! These were the days Jesus spoke
of when He told His followers:
John 4:35 “Do you not say,
‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say
to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white
for harvest!’”
These
prophecies, the Old Testament prophets and the writers of the New Testament
along with the words of Messiah all tell us that we are in the great days of
harvest when people from all walks of life, servants and masters alike, those
from every nation and generation, will hear our witness and will come to
worship our God. This is the promise of God … and You
have been filled with the Holy Spirit for such a time as this.
