Fellow Believers,

Remember the day our Lord made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem? The crowd cheered Him, shouting "Hosanna to the Son of David," "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" and so on. Annoyed by the attention Christ received, the Pharisees told Him to rebuke the people. Jesus answered, "I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:40).

In other words, Jesus is saying, I rightly deserve to be cheered and honored by the people. If they should keep quiet, which they won't, then even inanimate objects like stones would shout forth their praises.

In Isaiah 55, where God prophesied the new covenant that Christ would bring, He says in verse 12, "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." We are living in that era now, yet we don't hear mountains and hills singing nor see trees clapping their hands. Again the metaphoric language is aimed at underscoring how joyful every child of God ought to be.

God uses the same figure of speech in Psalm 98 to show how eagerly believers should anticipate His Second Coming. He says in verses 8,9: "Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity."

In fact, the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write flatly in Romans 8:23, "And not only they (the creation), but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." If you really love the Lord, God is saying, you should long for His return so much so that you hurt inside, for even the creation now groans and travails in pain.

Indeed, in heaven the souls of believers that have been martyred have kept asking, "How long...dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6:10) Not so, however, with most churchgoers here on earth. Scoffing the idea of the Lord's imminent return, they are altogether ho-hum with the prospect of seeing Christ face to face.

No wonder Jesus concludes his parable of the persistent widow saying in Luke 18:8: "I tell you that he will avenge them (the elect) speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"
 
 

Tom Holt, Editor

Third Quarter, 2000

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