“But for you who fear my name,
the sun of righteousness shall rise,
with healing in his wings.
You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall.
And you shall tread down the wicked,
for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet,
on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.” - Malachi 4:2,3 (RSV)
It could happen in April. Any month may be the month in which the Lord Jesus comes back! The great day is coming!
We are living in the dark night of evil, living surrounded by a “crooked and perverse generation,” in the words of the Bible, but a day is coming very soon when the light will dawn!
We know it will be soon because Jesus has said “Behold! I come quickly!” The darkness will be scattered as the sun of righteousness shoots up from behind the horizon of history faster than any natural sunrise.
The trumpet will sound. The lightning will flash from the east to the west. Two people will be talking together; one will be taken up into the air to meet Jesus, and the other left stunned, wondering what happened.
Just think! Maybe less than a month to wait now!
The rest of the world is not expecting this, of course. Jesus knew that. He said: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” But we know. We know he has said it will be “soon.”
Lots of people laugh at us. “Look how long it has been already!” they say. But we believe, and we know that all the years that have passed only make it that much nearer.
Aren’t you distressed by the horrors in the news? When that happens to us, we are feeling the fellowship of Christ’s suffering. He is far more distressed by the evils and crises we face than he was by the crown of thorns.
He was despised and rejected of men, and he still is. Being despised and rejected as he was hurt more than the stripes. He endured the cross for the joy that was set before him, despising the shame. He endured the casual thoughtless rejection as well as the deliberate rejection - all from people he loved and came to save from death to life. That’s hard.
All that will be over soon. The day is coming when the deceived will see the truth. The cruel will reap the fruit of their own devices. The innocent victims will be rescued and comforted.
We will all say “It’s about time!” And we will all know that it is exactly the right time. He will not act if one more minute of waiting would have done anyone any good.
Children are right to prefer daylight to darkness. We know that the sun is better than gloom. God knows it too, and the sun will be rising “soon”!
Meditate:
Malachi 4:1-3
email from Donald Grey Barnhouse Jr.
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