The Latter Days

 

Isa 2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

 2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD'S house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.

 3 Many people shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob”

In the next 3 chapters of Isaiah, we will see the Kingdom of Christ unfold through the pen of Isaiah. This particular prophecy concerns itself with the latter days. Here’s the thing I think we all need to understand about the latter days. The world has been living in the “latter” days ever since the Holy Spirit was handed out to the New Testament church on Pentecost. Jesus has been at the ready ever since, just waiting for the Father’s signal.

Since that time, His kingdom (His church) has gone forth with the Gospel from Judah and Jerusalem unto all nations in accordance with Ac 1:8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Jew and Gentile have come to the mountain of God (Calvary) where Christ was lifted up for the salvation of men! He said in Joh 12:32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.

Every generation from that time until today has felt that, “this is it, the Lord shall soon return for obviously we are in the latter days.” You can’t read the New Testament without catching this expectation from the writers: Even the Apostles assumed the Lord was returning soon.

 

Paul wrote in 1Co 7:29 that time was short, “But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none,”

The writer of Hebrews said, the Day was approaching,” “Heb 10:25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Peter said, the “end of all things is at hand,” 1Pe 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.”

Were they all wrong on this? Was the church wrong in every succeeding generation to say the signs point to the soon return of our Lord? Are we wrong today, when all these terrible things going on in our world point to the end?

No! They and we understood that the time of our Lord’s return has been imminent ever since His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and the gifting of His church with the Holy Spirit. He’s just waiting for the permission of the Father, and only the Father knows the time of the end.

Take comfort from 2Pe 3:9 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.

The bigger question for all is this: Knowing that the Lord’s return could come upon us as a  thief in the night, are we ready? Are we ready to meet the Judge of the Universe? The only way to safely meet Him is to be found in Christ. Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.