What Time Is It?

Does Anyone Really Know What Time It Is?

If you are old like me, you are probably humming a tune by the band Chicago right now. Seeing how this blog is titled On Scripture, this post is not a review of the 70’s band. It is about being ready for the second coming.

We are in the last days. Many of us have heard this all our lives. Even the generations before us thought they were in the last days. Especially as the collective trials of life grew worse. You can’t live through two world wars and not feel like the world is coming to an end. It seems clear in the epistles that the apostles believed the second coming would be in their lifetime. Today things are going on that seem to smack of the mark of the beast more so than any other time in history. V-passports come to mind.

Actually, throughout these last two thousand years, we have never not been in the last days.

Peter pointed out that with the LORD/Yehovah, a thousand years (a millennium) is as a day and a day as a thousand years. Yeshua arrived (probably in the fall during the LORD’s/Yehovah’s Feast of Tabernacles) at the end of the fourth day (millennium). The last days started when Yeshua ascended to Heaven right after He gave His disciples their marching orders – “Go into all the world and preach the gospel, making disciples of all men.” At that time there were two working days (millennia) left in the spiritual week before the spiritual sabbath day (sabbath rest – Messiah’s millennial reign). We are very close to the end of the sixth day.

God’s Pattern, Timing, & Plan

God created the world in six days. He rested on the seventh day. He told us to get our work done in six days and rest on the seventh; work the land for six years and let it rest the seventh.

He also declared seven appointed times or holy days. Three of these holy days were when all the men of Israel had an appointment to appear before GOD in Jerusalem. These holy days or feast days were also appointed for specific things to happen in His big-picture plan. He wants us to rehearse or observe them each year. Why? So we are not caught off guard as His plans unfold. God does things in cycles – seven days in a week, seven holy days in a year, the land was to rest every seventh year. When something significant happens on one of His appointed times/holy days it does not preclude something else significant from happening on that holy day at another time centuries later. Yehovah’s timing is cyclical, not linear.

On Pentecost/Shavuot, 50 days later, the Holy Spirit fell on ordinary, faithful people. Prior to this Pentecost, only certain people, priests, judges, prophets, and kings were anointed with the Holy Spirit.

Remember when Yeshua sent out the 70, and they were amazed that even the devils obeyed them? Why were they amazed? Because they were your everyday Joe. They were not prophets, or priests, or kings. And yet Yeshua had bestowed power on them to proclaim the gospel, work miracles, and cast out demons. They set out in faith and things happened. We should be no different.

There have been two millennia since Yeshua ascended. During this time people have been sounding the alarm, leading people to Yeshua, healing the sick, casting out demons, and other miracles. There will be an actual Day of Trumpets and a Day of Atonement – when we meet Him in the air and stand before Him. And then we will enter His Rest on the millennial sabbath – Feast of Tabernacles – and rule and reign with Him when He once again tabernacles with us. Oh, what a glorious day that will be!

No One Knows

Yeshua tells us in Matthew 24 that no one knows the day or the hour of His return. He then goes on to liken His coming to childbirth. Later in the same chapter He likens His coming to being robbed stating that if the homeowner had known he was going to be robbed, he would be prepared to stop the burglar before he broke in.

Paul also uses the pregnancy metaphor in 1 Thessalonians 5, “For when they are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman.”

When a couple finds out they are pregnant, they have a pretty good idea when the baby will come – they don’t know the exact day and hour – but it will not be a surprise when delivery day comes. And even though the doctor gives you a due date that may be fairly accurate, you still don’t know for certain the time of birth that will be recorded on the birth certificate.

Unlike when I was a kid, today pregnant women work all during their pregnancy. Years ago, at the bank where I worked, a woman’s water broke at the office. Still, she did not know the exact hour her child would be born. In fact, depending on the length of labor, it may have been born that day or the next.

My point with all of this is that the not knowing is directed at the children of darkness, not to us who are the children of light, the children of Almighty God. Yes the exact day and hour are reserved by our Heavenly Father, but we are to be observing the signs of the times. We are to be expecting His Son’s return. We are not to be like the woman do doesn’t even know she is pregnant until she goes into labor.

God has given us His holy days, His appointments, to help us keep the entire redemptive cycle rolling through our lives each year as a reminder. He does not want us taken by surprise. He wants us ready and prepared.

Repent and get ready. Spread the Word. Look up for your Redemption is nigh!

Below are the passages referenced above. I encourage you to read the entire chapters for the excerpts below:

3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4 Jesus answered them, “Be careful that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren’t troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, plagues, and earthquakes in various places. 8 But all these things are the beginning of birth pains.
Matthew 24:3-8 (WEB)

1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that anything be written to you. 2 For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. 3 For when they are saying, “Peace and safety,” then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman. Then they will in no way escape. 4 But you, brothers, aren’t in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. 5 You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night, nor to darkness, 6 so then let’s not sleep, as the rest do, but let’s watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep in the night; and those who are drunk are drunk in the night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let’s be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 For God didn’t appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. 11 Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do. 12 But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, 13 and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-13 (WEB)

36 “But no one knows of that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37 As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, 39 and they didn’t know until the flood came and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one will be left. 42 Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don’t expect, the Son of Man will come.
Matthew 24:36-44 (WEB)

Prayer

Heavenly Father, open my eyes to see the signs of the times, to lay aside earthly things and be ready for Your return.

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