The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Vision of the Day of the Lord, #7

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:9)

As in the case of Gideon's army, the Christian believers are about to go through a refining process. A remnant of faithful disciples will emerge who will be tested and purified until they truly are the people of the Lord. This is the manner in which the great and strong people will come into being.

The trumpet is sounding in Zion today. The alarm is being given. The people of the Lord are to tremble lest they should be weighed in the balances and found wanting. We must be prepared to stand in a dark and gloomy hour, in the midst of the fury of spiritual judgment and warfare.

It is not true that the Gentile believers will be spared all suffering and that the Jews alone will experience tribulation. Both Mary and Zacharias were promised by the angel of the Lord that Christ and John the Baptist were given to bring redemption to the Jews, that Jesus is the Son of David and will sit on the Throne of David. The Christian salvation is distinctly Jewish in character and promise.

He [Jesus] shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. (Luke 1:32,33)

And many of the children of Israel shall he [John] turn to the Lord their God. (Luke 1:16)

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; (Luke 1:68-71)

Careful attention to the above passages will make clear to the thoughtful reader that the Christian salvation is for the Jew first.

According to the confusing and destructive teaching of the "Gentile rapture," Jesus came to carry off a "Gentile bride" to Heaven while the people of Israel are left to suffer the wrath of the ungodly. Quite a departure from the original vision!

Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. (Joel 2:6)

This is the pain and blackness of the conviction of sin which the inhabitants of the earth, especially the hypocritical believers, will experience in the Day of the Lord. Each member of the true Body of Christ, of the invading army, will be dwelling in Christ in God, and God in Christ in him. In addition, each will be bearing on himself a double portion of the Spirit of God.

To be continued.