We are looking back at the prophesies about the Day of the Lord. This devotional reading looks at what Jeremiah and Zechariah said.
Nuggets
- Armageddon, the Day of the Lord, and eternity are going to be bad news for those who have not ABCDed.
- All will need to accept the Plan of Salvation.
- We are to abhor sin.
We’ve long said that prophesies had an element of what is going to happen at the time the prophesy was made and at another point in the future. We are looking at some Old Testament prophesies to see what they say about the Day of the Lord.
We’ve looked at Joel and Daniel in the last devotion. In this devotion, we are going to look at Jeremiah and Zechariah. In the next devotion, we will at minimum look at Malachi.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the The Day of the Lord series
Jeremiah
“At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts” (Jer. 8: 1-3 ESV).
Armageddon, the Day of the Lord, and eternity are going to be bad news for those who have not ABCDed.
First off, we need to figure out what the that is referring to in verse 1. To do this, we have to go back to Jeremiah 7: 32-34.
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth, because there is no room elsewhere. And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away. And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste” (Jer. 7: 32-34 ESV).
This reminds me of the Battle of Armageddon, not the Day of the Lord. In The Completion of the Battle of Armageddon, we talked about the call to all the birds. “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather” (Mt. 24: 27-28 ESV).
But how many times did we think Armageddon is the Day of the Lord? I sure did.
Armageddon is the sixth bowl. The seventh bowl sounds like the Day of the Lord.
In the ending verses of Jeremiah 7, it is talking about all voices — “… the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride …” (Jer. 7: 34 ESV).
I don’t remember reading about the voice of the bridegroom being silenced. That would mean Jesus would be silenced.
I don’t think this means Jesus is going to go through eternity mute. I look at this as being the gospel as we know it is silenced.
Don’t take that wrong. Yes, we will be living out the gospel throughout eternity — but in a different way.
The purpose of the gospel now is to be proclaimed in order to bring mankind to salvation. That won’t be an option in eternity.
I think that is the point that the opening verses of Jeremiah 8 are making. Even the dead will rise for Judgment Day.
They will be judged, but they won’t be buried again. They will be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.
Ooo, baby. They are going to prefer death to that! Unfortunately for them, there is no death in eternity.
“O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: ‘Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” (Jer. 16: 19-20 ESV)
All will need to accept the Plan of Salvation.
When I’ve read these verses in the past, I really haven’t thought of them as being prophetic. But I can see it now.
We’ve talked before about being from every race, tribes, and nations being in Heaven. They are going to make up the multitude in Heaven.
So, we can see Jeremiah saying that.
The Jews didn’t read this as the Gentiles coming from everywhere. In their book, Gentiles wouldn’t be anywhere near Heaven.
It never dawned on them that they were Gentiles when they hadn’t ABCDed.
Being born into the family of God isn’t a physical birth, like the Jews thought. It is being spiritually born into God’s family.
As soon as Adam and Eve committed the original sin, we “… inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit” (Jer. 16: 19 ESV).
Above and beyond that, we do try to “… make for [ourselves] gods? …” (Jer. 16: 20 ESV). Worse yet, we try to make ourselves gods!
The whole purpose of the Gospel is so that we know God wants our relationships with Him restored. ““Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD” (Jer. 16: 21 ESV emphasis added).
Anyone still on the fence that God wants us to know?
Once we admit that we have inherited lies, we have to admit that we can’t help ourselves to purity. We have to rely on God and His Plan of Salvation.
Zechariah
“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satana standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?’ Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And to him he said, ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’ And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch. For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree’” (Zech. 3: 1-10 ESV).
We are to abhor sin.
No, this isn’t Moses’ Joshua. Meyer told us that it was the Joshua that Ezra talked about in Ezra 2: 36-39. We have to go up to Ezra 2: 1 to see that Joshua is among the list of those who came out of the Babylonian exile.
John doesn’t say anything about this, but I think we can pull from Matthew and Paul.
I think this might be where we get the idea that we will stand before God to be judged a sheep or a goat, and Jesus will swoop in and rescue us, shouting, “This one is mine!”
But Matthew tells us that Jesus will do the sorting. And we talked about Jesus being the One on the great white throne.
I don’t think there will be any swooping.
One thing Meyer said was important. He wrote, “But when the white light of the throne of God breaks on us, we cry with Job: ‘If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean, yet wilt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.’ [Job 9: 30-31 KJV] The more we know of God, the more we loathe ourselves and repent.”
Resource
We have salvation, but we still sin. We are called to abhor the fact that we still sin.
Yes, God expect us to still sin, but what is our response when we do? Are we repentant or indifferent?
If Satan is standing right there before the throne of God, we would think that this was the end of time. The only other time we know they were even in the same room was when Satan asked for Job (Job 1: 6). Once Satan fell from Heaven, he wasn’t allowed back in because he was no longer pure.
We shouldn’t gloss over the fact that the accused is a High Priest. No, it isn’t THE High Priest – i.e., Jesus – but one who is accused. But because he prays for forgiveness, Joshua is given new garments.
The High Priest – which is symbolic for all the Church – wasn’t indifferent. He was repentant.
Satan is put in his place promptly. Yeah, I don’t see judgment as taking very long.
But let’s look at this in another way. We aren’t really told what happens “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet …” (I Cor. 15: 52 ESV). Zechariah 3: 3-5 gives us a good clue as to what is done and said.
Hewlett agreed. He wrote,
“This is the Old Testament description of the removal of guilt, the manifestation of salvation by grace. We must in this manner go to God in our filthy garments. Wait not to try to change your heart, as you would your raiment. Prayer is necessary, but prayer is no qualification; [repentance] is necessary, but repentance does not qualify for God’s mercy.”
Resource
Yes, this what happened upon conversion, but we are still sinning, aren’t we? We aren’t going to achieve complete, true salvation until the Day of the Lord.
Making the Connections
Look at what Meyer said. He wrote, “When we pray, he is quick to detect the wandering thought, the mechanical repetition of well-worn phrases, the flagging [fervor]. When we work for God, he is keen to notice our desire to dazzle our fellows, to secure name and fame, to use the Cross as a ladder for our own exaltation instead of our Master’s.”
Resource
God knows our motivations. God knows when we are faking it. He knows when we are going through the motions.
Ooo, baby. We don’t want to do that. That is the quickest way to identify as a goat masquerading as a sheep.
How Do We Apply This?
- Keep evaluating ourselves so that we continue to loath sinful ourselves and continue to repent.
- Keep doing the mission Jesus gave us (Lk. 9: 23).
- Get our missions from Jesus and do them.
- Prepare for answering for ourselves on the Day of the Lord by answering for ourselves now.
Resources
Father God. Help us to understand the prophesies that we read. We don’t want to read into them what isn’t there, but neither do we want to miss something. On the Day of the Lord, we want to be the ones who Jesus says, “They’re mind.” Amen.
What do you think?
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