Eschatology – The way of Jesus lies in the shadow of the cross

The Sheep & the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46)

The Christian Scriptures certainly call followers of Jesus toward generosity and hospitality. As Jesus Himself taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew:

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you, do not show opposition against an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other toward him also. ⁴⁰And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. ⁴¹Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. ⁴²Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘you Shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same? ⁴⁸Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:38-48, NASB

Generosity toward those in need, hospitality toward strangers, and care for the vulnerable or disenfranchised are behaviors expected of the people of God. These are, indeed, ethics of the Kingdom of the Heavens. As God explained to Israel through Moses:

¹⁴Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵Yet the Lord set His affection on your fathers, to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, you over all the other peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶So circumcise your heart, and do not stiffen your neck any longer. ¹⁷For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe. ¹⁸He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the stranger by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹So show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.
Deuteronomy 10:14-20, NASB

Throughout the First and New Testaments, these behaviors are commended to the people of God. Those who live in these ways are praised. Those who do not are warned, called to repent, and, if continuing in their rebelliousness, disciplined.

But, contrary to much contemporary preaching and teaching, this is not what Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats was about. Before we look at the parable, we must first contextualize the language that Jesus uses therein.

One of the terms that proves essential to understanding Jesus’ intent as it has been preserved by the Gospel of Matthew is the term brother. The Greek word is adelphōn, and since it can be used to refer generically to one’s relatives, it is often translated today as brothers and sisters. This is not a word Jesus used casually in Matthew’s recollection of His ministry. Perhaps the most illustrative context is Matthew 12:46-50:

⁴⁶While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. ⁴⁷[Someone said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak to You.”] ⁴⁸But Jesus replied to the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?” ⁴⁹And extending His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold: My mother and My brothers! ⁵⁰For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.”
Matthew 12:46-50, NASB

The Christian Scriptures do not teach the universal brotherhood or sisterhood of humanity. It is true that all humans are descendants of Adam and Eve by way of Noah and his wife. However, this reality does not lead the writers of Scripture to describe humans universally as brothers and sisters. Quite to the contrary, the New Testament authors have insisted that to become part of God’s family, we must be adopted by faith in Jesus. As Paul has explained in Galatians 4:1-7:

¹Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, ²but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. ³So we too, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elementary principles of the world. ⁴But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, ⁵so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters. ⁶Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!” ⁷Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Galatians 4:1-7, NASB

In addition to Galatians, Paul used the terminology of adoption in Romans 9:4 and Ephesians 1:5, as well. This is the way Jesus was speaking of family in Matthew 12, when He said, “For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother, and sister, and mother.” When Jesus used the word brother, He was not referring to humanity generally, but to those who do the will of His Father particularly.

Now, let’s listen to the parable of the sheep and the goats with contextualized ears.

³¹“But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. ³²And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; ³³and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.
³⁴“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; ³⁶naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ ³⁷Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ³⁸And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ³⁹And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ⁴⁰And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’
⁴¹“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; ⁴²for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; ⁴³I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ ⁴⁴Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ ⁴⁵Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ ⁴⁶These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31-46, NASB

We have to go back a long way to discover the context of this teaching of Jesus. It can be found in Matthew 24:3:

³And as He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
Matthew 24:3, NASB

This parable of Jesus is the last of a long series of teachings that Jesus did in private with His disciples during the last week of His pre-resurrected life. According to Matthew, only the disciples heard it. What was Jesus trying to tell them?

These teachings were prompted by Jesus’ declaration that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. His disciples were understandably vexed by this prediction, and they asked Jesus both when the destruction would occur and when He would reveal Himself to be the Messiah. Jesus’ responses to both questions were not encouraging to the disciples. Jesus spoke of seasons of great difficulty and tribulation ahead for them. Most dire was his prediction of their future suffering:

⁹“Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. ¹⁰And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. ¹²And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. ¹³But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. ¹⁴This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:9-14, NASB

It is to this mistreatment of the disciples that Jesus was speaking when He told them the parable of the sheep and the goats. Who are these brothers of mine? Jesus meant to single out those of His disciples who had suffered in the way described in the parable for bearing His message. It was those who bore His message faithfully who would be hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, and imprisoned. What Jesus was revealing to His disciples (and to us through them) was that the judgment of the nations at the end of time would take into account their treatment of the disciples of Jesus. Though they would be persecuted and oppressed and even killed for the message of Jesus, at the final judgment, the nations will answer for their treatment of Jesus’ brothers—i.e., their treatment of those who were doing the will of the Father.

As I said at the onset, hospitality and generosity are part of the ethics of the kingdom. Those who truly follow Jesus will live in these ways. But, the parable of the sheep and the goats does not teach that at the final judgment people will be judged solely based on how they have treated the poor or the criminal. Jesus told the parable of the sheep and the goats to encourage His disciples and to warn the world that the nations and people of the earth will answer at the final judgment for how they received those who have followed Jesus by doing the will of the Father.

There are several ways that we might apply this revelation of Jesus today. But, there is one that the Lord seems to have asked me to highlight today. The Lord has an accusation to make against those professors, scholars, pastors, and laypeople who have persecuted His Prophets and Apostles by disregarding or disrespecting the messages from God entrusted to them and preserved in the Christian Bible. Hear the Word of the Lord:

Throughout the ages many humans have presumed to speak in the Name of a god. Most have spoken presumptuously words from their own imaginations. But, I chose the prophets of Israel and my own Apostles as a people apart from the world. I put my Word in their mouths and I entrusted them with a message for the nations. While they lived, they were persecuted, marginalized, and restrained. After their deaths, many conspired to silence them, to twist the words I had entrusted to them, and to refashion what I said through them into words more amenable to fleshly desires and appetites. Though I had warned such people not to add or to take away from the Word I had sent, they did not heed my warning.

When the day of judgment comes, I will separate the nations as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. To those who have honored, cared for, received, and embraced my prophets and Apostles, I will welcome them into my kingdom. To those who have dishonored, disrespected, rejected, and twisted the words of my prophets and Apostles, I will cast you into darkness.

Whatever you have done to the least of these brothers of mine, you have done to me. Repent, nations and people of the earth. For I desire the destruction of no one. You must heed the words of those I have sent to you.

³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and he leased it to vine-growers and went on a journey. ³⁴And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his fruit. ³⁵And the vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they did the same things to them. ³⁷But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let’s kill him and take possession of his inheritance!’ ³⁹And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” ⁴¹They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other vine-growers, who will pay him the fruit in the proper seasons.”
⁴²Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,
‘A stone which the builders rejected,
This has become the chief cornerstone;
This came about from the Lord,
And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
⁴³“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. ⁴⁴And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and on whomever it falls, it will crush him.”
Matthew 21:33-44, NASB

Many have seized my vineyard, and put my servants, the prophets and the apostles, to death. Their teachings are no longer revered and their words have been twisted to suit worldly gain. I am coming to reclaim my vineyard. Repent, before I come.

As in the days of Ahaz…

As in the days of Ahaz, so my people have traded the fear of the Lord for the fear of temporal things. Ahaz constructed places of prayer in every home and every hovel, on every hill and under every tree. The temple that bore my name was not enough. He longed for me to be available at a whim. Like the false gods of Canaan, Ahaz taught the people to treat me as a common thing in Israel. No more purification, no more pilgrimage festivals, no more Torah. He wanted only the act of worship to suffice.

So, I abandoned Israel to her enemies. I gave my people over to the gods they had worshipped. Their high places and Asherah poles did battle for them, and their enemies swept over them as a flood.

But when my time of wrath was spent, I judged, too, the nation that had judged them. For a nation without mercy will receive no mercy, and a people without compassion will be shown no compassion.

As in the days of Ahaz, so are the days of my people today. Fear rules the land, doctrines of demons are preached from my pulpits, and my people are possessed by the spiritual forces of evil in league with the flesh.

And I have brought judgment on my people. Every hidden thing is being made known. And more than secrets will be unearthed in the days to come. Again, my people have built high places and called them centers of worship. Again my people have fashioned gods of their own choosing and worshipped them in my name.

For these sins, I am releasing the flood on my church. Not one stone will remain on top of another. This nation will fall from without and from within. The people will be feasting on each other when they are interrupted by ravenous lions. The vultures are gathering! Feed creatures of the earth, feed! For the feast is before you. The spoils of the earth have been brought into houses of prostitution, but none shall eat of their fruits. What has been gathered will be scattered. What has been ripened will become rotten. My people will not rest. Weariness will be their lot. For they feared the world and only flattered God.

But woe to the creatures who feed on them, and woe to those who pillage their stores. For I will not call innocent those who do violence to those under my judgment. When my wrath is spent, I will call to account every evil deed done against my people. To those who show mercy, mercy will be shown to them. And to those who bind the wounds of justice with compassion, with compassion I will bind their wounds.

A Word for the Nations (August 13, 2021)

The ancient nation of Babylon was a shadow, and Israel’s exile in her was a shadow, as well. This is not to say that these events did not occur. Quite to the contrary. These were historical realities. But they were shadows, types.

History is cyclical; it repeats itself over and over again. God reveals this pattern to us in the Christian Bible. These cycles are not accidental or incidental. History is cyclical by the will of God.

In six days God created life on earth along with its requisite cycles and seasons. And then, on the seventh day, God rested. Perhaps one of the more surprising discoveries of the book of Genesis is that creation has not yet joined God on day seven. Creation is imprisoned on day six. As the writer of Hebrews has taught the Church:

¹Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. ²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. ³For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ” though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.
⁴For in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵And again in this place it says, “They shall not enter my rest.” ⁶Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷again he sets a certain day—“today”—saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
⁸For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later about another day. ⁹So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; ¹⁰for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. ¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
Hebrews 4:1-11, NRSV

It was sin that led God to cage us here. When God first created humanity, He instructed us with these words:

¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”
Genesis 2:16-17, NRSV

The first woman ate of the tree, and then the man. The penalty, the consequence, the promise of God was death. But God sought to be merciful; God sought humanity’s reclamation. And so, God imprisoned humanity on day six. Sleep is a shadow–a type of death–as awakening is a shadow–a type of birth and creation. We still live on the day humanity fell, trapped in a repeating cycle of death and birth. We are barred from entering God’s rest.

As the writer of Ecclesiastes has observed:

⁹What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:9, NRSV

We are imprisoned by our rebellions—the first rebellion and all that have followed thereafter. What has been is what will be. This is the shadow and the reality—the past which is simultaneously the future. There is nothing new under the sun.

As each evening we sleep and each morning we awaken, to be free from this cycle one must die and rise. As Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus:

³. . . . “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
John 3:3b, NRSV

But the worldly mind cannot comprehend its reality. And so, Nicodemus, like so many of us, responded with the wisdom of ignorance:

⁴. . . . “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
John 3:4b, NRSV

Only by faith, by trusting Jesus and walking in the way He carved before us can the gate between day six and God’s rest be passed through. Jesus is both the gate and the gatekeeper from day six to day seven, from death to life, from toil to rest.

History is typology—shadows and realities caught in an endless dance under the sun. Babylon was a type, a shadow, a permutation to be repeated through time. Babel, Sumeria, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, all these were both shadows and realities trapped in a timeless cycle. But the circle is not closed. The course of history is both cyclical and linear, repeating and yet moving toward a final cycle, a final reality, a final dusk followed by an eschatological dawn. History has both a beginning and an end, an alpha and an omega, an aleph and a tav. As John testifies in the book of Revelation:

⁵And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Revelation 21:5-6a, NRSV

The Lord instructed the prophet Jeremiah to speak the following words with respect to ancient Babylon:

³⁴“King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me like a monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has spewed me out. ³⁵May my torn flesh be avenged on Babylon,” the inhabitants of Zion shall say. “May my blood be avenged on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem shall say.
³⁶Therefore thus says the Lord: I am going to defend your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry; ³⁷and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, a den of jackals, an object of horror and of hissing, without inhabitant.
³⁸Like lions they shall roar together; they shall growl like lions’ whelps. ³⁹When they are inflamed, I will set out their drink and make them drunk, until they become merry and then sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the Lord. ⁴⁰I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.
⁴¹How Sheshach is taken, the pride of the whole earth seized! How Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations! ⁴²The sea has risen over Babylon; she has been covered by its tumultuous waves. ⁴³Her cities have become an object of horror, a land of drought and a desert, a land in which no one lives, and through which no mortal passes. ⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him disgorge what he has swallowed. The nations shall no longer stream to him; the wall of Babylon has fallen.
⁴⁵Come out of her, my people! Save your lives, each of you, from the fierce anger of the Lord! ⁴⁶Do not be fainthearted or fearful at the rumors heard in the land—one year one rumor comes, the next year another, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler.
⁴⁷Assuredly, the days are coming when I will punish the images of Babylon; her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in her midst. ⁴⁸Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, shall shout for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come against them out of the north, says the Lord. ⁴⁹Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, as the slain of all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.
⁵⁰You survivors of the sword, go, do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant land, and let Jerusalem come into your mind: ⁵¹We are put to shame, for we have heard insults; dishonor has covered our face, for aliens have come into the holy places of the Lord’s house.
⁵²Therefore the time is surely coming, says the Lord, when I will punish her idols, and through all her land the wounded shall groan. ⁵³Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height, from me destroyers would come upon her, says the Lord.
⁵⁴Listen!—a cry from Babylon! A great crashing from the land of the Chaldeans! ⁵⁵For the Lord is laying Babylon waste, and stilling her loud clamor. Their waves roar like mighty waters, the sound of their clamor resounds; ⁵⁶for a destroyer has come against her, against Babylon; her warriors are taken, their bows are broken; for the Lord is a God of recompense, he will repay in full.
⁵⁷I will make her officials and her sages drunk, also her governors, her deputies, and her warriors; they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and never wake, says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
⁵⁸Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples exhaust themselves for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire.
Jeremiah 51:34-58, NRSV

Over and over Babylon has risen, and over and over these words have been declared from on high, and over and over these prophecies have been fulfilled. Such is the fate of all who blaspheme the Lord, the God of heaven and earth. Such is the fate of all who seek to build a city and a nation by their own wisdom, their own strength, and under the leadership of their own kings.

These shadows are with us still. Babylon has arisen again. The cycle has repeated. And John heard Jeremiah’s words spoken anew with reference to the final permutation of Babylon in Revelation 18:

¹After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor. ²He called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul bird, a haunt of every foul and hateful beast. ³For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury.”
⁴Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues; ⁵for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. ⁶Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. ⁷As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so give her a like measure of torment and grief. Since in her heart she says, ‘I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief,’ ⁸therefore her plagues will come in a single day— pestilence and mourning and famine— and she will be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”
⁹And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning; ¹⁰they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
“Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” ¹¹And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, ¹²cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, ¹³cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives. ¹⁴“The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your dainties and your splendor are lost to you, never to be found again!”
¹⁵The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
¹⁶“Alas, alas, the great city, clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! ¹⁷For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!”
And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off ¹⁸and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?” ¹⁹And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, the great city, where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in one hour she has been laid waste.
²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints and apostles and prophets! For God has given judgment for you against her.”
²¹Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“With such violence Babylon the great city will be thrown down, and will be found no more; ²²and the sound of harpists and minstrels and of flutists and trumpeters will be heard in you no more; and an artisan of any trade will be found in you no more; and the sound of the millstone will be heard in you no more; ²³and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more; and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more; for your merchants were the magnates of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery. ²⁴And in you was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on earth.”
Revelation 18:1-24, NRSV

Church of Jesus Christ around the world, those who have been faithful to the testimony of the prophets and apostles with Jesus as the chief cornerstone, who have not soiled their garments by adding or taking away from what has been written, who have never adulterated themselves with loyalty to the nations of the earth, God is now assaulting Babylon. The prophecies of Scripture are again being spoken and finding their fulfillment. Take heed and hear the call of the Spirit to the churches:

“Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues; ⁵for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

Come out by repentance; come out by the confession in word and in deed that Jesus is Lord; come out by forgiveness, by generosity, by hospitality, by patience, by kindness, by self-control, by the denial of self, and by faith in Jesus.

Thus says the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One True God of the heavens and the earth and the Lord Jesus Christ:

The current tribulations of the earth have been asked for, even demanded by the wise and the learned of your nations. You have wished for a universe without me, and you have prayed for my death. If I answered your prayers, the waters would overwhelm you like a flood, and life would be extinguished. But, in the days of Noah I promised never again to allow the waters to overwhelm the earth and extinguish all life. I am a God of hesed, and I will not change my mind.
And yet, I am giving you a taste of your desire. I keep the chaos at bay. I set the boundaries and preserve life in my creation. By my Word the universe is maintained, and by my Spirit you live and breathe and have your being. The atheists and agnostics have described a world to you without me, and, as Goliath in ages past, they have blasphemed my Name. I am allowing you to sample the world for which they have wished, and the world in which they have longed to live. They are the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you from your tribulations.
I am making war against the false gods of the heavens and the earth. Come out, come out, My people. Trust in them no longer. I am the God who became flesh in the Person of Jesus. I am the God Who lays down my life only to take it up again. I am the God who, while you were in your rebellion, stayed my hand and made a way from life to death for those who believe in Me and in My way. Put no faith in principalities and powers. I am the Lord who delivers you. Come, enter my rest, by trusting the way and Word of my Son with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your life.
But, to Babylon and her children, the way is made for you into the waters. Logic and reason are taken; wisdom is darkened; and order is turned back. Light is darkness and darkness is light. Heaven and earth are turned against you, and no rescue will come for your transgressions. When hope is within reach, it will depart from you; when peace is at hand, strife will erupt; when respite arrives, despair will dispel it. So shall it be until you repent of your rebellions and ask my faithful ones to intercede on your behalf.
Am I a human that I desire the death of the wicked? Am I not the crucified Lord who desires that the lost be found and the rebel be reconciled? Come to me in repentance, and I will hear. Turn from your selfishness and lustful desires, and I will make you whole again. Can life persist without my Spirit? Can orderliness be maintained without my faithfulness? Can a covenant be upheld without my hesed? This is the way of things, people of the earth, and they can be no other? Do not persist in your rebellions. The Day of the Lord is at hand.

When the Deliverer Comes (1 Samuel 30:1-31)

Cain killed Abel because Abel’s sacrifice was pleasing to God and Cain’s was not. Esau sought to kill Jacob because Jacob had swindled his birthright and his blessing. But, as with Cain, we were told at the beginning of the boys’ lives that God had chosen Jacob and had not chosen Esau. So, Esau’s vengeance was born of envy, as was Cain’s.

Over a millennia later, the story was repeating itself again in the persons of Saul and David. Saul had forfeited his anointing due to his failure to obey what God had told him to do through the prophet Samuel. David had been anointed to replace Saul, and, though Samuel never told Saul whom he had anointed to succeed him, Saul realized quickly that David was the most likely candidate. So, as Cain conspired to kill Abel and Esau conspired to kill Jacob, Saul conspired to kill David who, at that time, was one of the most successful soldiers in his army.

And yet, despite Saul’s repeated attempts to end David’s life, David refused to take any hostile action against Saul, even when given the opportunity. And, perhaps more surprising still, David also continued to fight the enemies of Israel on Saul’s behalf while Saul was pursuing his life. But, David could not carry out his campaign while living in Israel due to the threat of Saul. So, David lived amongst the Philistines and pretended to fight for them, while, in fact, he continued to raid Israel’s hostile neighbors.

While playing this dangerous game, David resided in Ziklag. And during one of David’s excursions, Ziklag was raided by a band of Amalekite warriors. The events that follow are preserved for us in 1 Samuel 30:

¹Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negeb and on Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag, burned it down, ²and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great; they killed none of them, but carried them off, and went their way. ³When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down, and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. ⁴Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept, until they had no more strength to weep. ⁵David’s two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. ⁶David was in great danger; for the people spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter in spirit for their sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
1 Samuel 30:1-6, NRSV

After inquiring of the Lord and receiving assurance from God of victory, David pursued the Amalekite raiders. He set out, at first, with six hundred men, but two hundred dropped out before the search was completed. After having found an informant who revealed the location of the raiders, David and his remaining four hundred men descended upon the Amalekite camp.

¹⁶When he had taken him down, they were spread out all over the ground, eating and drinking and dancing, because of the great amount of spoil they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah. ¹⁷David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except four hundred young men, who mounted camels and fled. ¹⁸David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives. ¹⁹Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken; David brought back everything. ²⁰David also captured all the flocks and herds, which were driven ahead of the other cattle; people said, “This is David’s spoil.”
1 Samuel 30:16-20, NRSV

Having recovered what was taken, David also decided to share the bounty with the two hundred men who had neither completed the journey nor fought in the battle. Needless to say, a number of those who had remained to the end objected to David’s decision, but not only did David share the spoils anyway, but he also sent some of the proceeds to the elders of the tribe of Judah in whose territory the Amalekites had been operating.

When reflecting on a story like this it is tempting read oneself into the story in the role of David. But, the canon of Christian Scriptures cautions us from reading this story in that way. Why? Because David was the anointed king of Israel. He may not yet have ascended the throne, but God had already anointed him through Samuel. We cannot anoint ourselves king. We are not David. In fact, only one is truly the heir of the promises made to David; only one is the true Messiah who has been anointed by God to rule His Kingdom—Jesus, our Messiah.

When we read the tales of David, it is important to understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of David. And though it is true that David’s story includes moral and legal failures to which Jesus did not succumb, it is Jesus who fills the role of the true King of Israel in the Christian Scriptures. Read in that way, this story from 1 Samuel 30 finds fulfillment in the second coming of Jesus.

As Adam and Eve found themselves alone with the Serpent in Genesis 3 and as the people of Ziklag found themselves alone with the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 30, so, we too, have found ourselves alone with the enemies of God since Jesus ascended into the heavens. Of course, the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the Church, and God has not left us as orphans in the world. But, the Kingdom of God is not yet manifest and the King is not yet with us in the flesh. Our Messiah has not yet returned.

And while Jesus has been seated at the right hand of the Father in the heavens, the book of Revelation tells us that the Serpent has been pursuing the woman who gave Him birth—Israel—and her children—those who have become children of God by faith in Jesus, our Messiah, our King. We are those in Ziklag, and we have been taken by the enemies of God while our King has been away.

Some of us know we are now living in enemy territory, whereas others have forgotten that we were kidnapped at all. Some seem convinced that the Amalekites are working for David. But such convictions are folly. The children of God have been kidnapped, and the second coming of Jesus, the gathering of the remnant, the awakening of those who are sleeping are ways of saying that just as David led an army to liberate those who had been stolen, so Jesus is coming to deliver His children from their bondage to the enemies of God.

Wherever we live—in whatever nation or tribe or culture—we who follow Jesus must remember that we are exiles in a land not our own. We are citizens of another Kingdom—a Kingdom not of this world. And though we are enslaved by the enemies of God in bondage to our captors, both human and spiritual, our King will not leave us in exile. Our King is coming to deliver His children; our Shepherd is coming to gather His scattered sheep. The enemies of God have prepared themselves for Jesus’ coming, and they will not surrender to Him. So, as God did battle with the gods of Egypt in the events of Exodus, God must do battle with our captors, as well.

For those who have not followed Jesus and have not given their allegiance, both body and spirit, to Him, the days to come will be terrifying. But, for those of us who know we are living in slavery to foreign leaders and false gods, we will shine as lights in the darkness, rejoicing in the suffering of those days for the joy set before us will embolden us. As David rescued the captives of Ziklag, so Jesus is coming to gather His children. Do not waver in your faith in the days to come, children of God. However powerful the Amalekites, as God assured David of victory, so the Father has declared victory for the Son. Do not turn back, children of God. Jesus is coming.

~ J. Thomas Johnson ~