Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Implications of the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 47)
The Scope of the Second Coming
Chapter 3 – Themes of the Second Coming
Judgment (continuing)
When I say “biblical,” I am, of course, referring to both testaments. To start with, here is an example from the Old Testament. But I want you to see more than just the example of judgment depicted by fire. Notice also how, because of the dichotomous nature of judgment, along with this fire comes insulation from it.
Isaiah 33:14 Sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless.
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with continual burning?”
Isaiah 33:15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,
He who rejects unjust gain
And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;
He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;
Surely Isaiah was inspired, at least in part, by the following scene that Moses had encountered centuries before.
Exodus 3:1 Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Exodus 3:2 The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.
Exodus 3:3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.”
Isaiah would have reflected on what Moses recorded in the book of Exodus, and realized that those who would walk with the angel of the Lord would find protection from the fires of judgment in Him.
And, from a few centuries after Isaiah, recall how vividly this insulation was illustrated by the experience of three Jews in the Babylonian captivity.
Daniel 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.”
Daniel 3:25 He said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”
Daniel 3:26 Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire.
Daniel 3:27 The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them.
From one end of the Old Testament to the other, we see the contrasting outcomes associated with the theme of God’s judgments. Thus, as it was for Noah, Lot, and Joseph, so also it was for Moses, Isaiah, Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, and others.
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