“Yahweh Is Coming With Fire”

“See, the LORD is coming with fire,
and his chariots are like a whirlwind;
he will bring down his anger with fury,
and his rebuke with flames of fire.

For with fire and with his sword
the LORD will execute judgment upon all men,
and many will be those slain by the LORD.

‘Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the midst of those who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things—they will meet their end together,’ declares the LORD.

‘And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory.’” -Is. 66.15-18

We are suffering from a terrible Theological famine these days. I refer not to the need for lofty religious speech and intellectual striving, though I am convinced that we modern believers are far too lazy a bunch when it comes to studying the Scriptures. I am speaking instead of the fact that we are languishing in immaturity, lovelessness, and lawlessness, being pulled and jerked by the powers of entertainment, wealth, and various forms of idolatry, and we scarcely realize that a famine of hearing the word of the Lord is upon us. We are inundated with words about the Lord, but it is still rare for us to hear the word of the Lord.

One of the obvious rotten fruits of this condition is our conspicuous inability to discern the difference between the works of God and the works of the flesh, and in this regard, we are nearly as guilty as the atheist next door. We have been unwilling to ask painful questions, even if they are of the kind set forth in the Scriptures, and have thus robbed ourselves of the knowledge of God, as He is.

Passages such as this from Isaiah 66 are mostly unfamiliar to we modern Westerners, and they do not fit into our Wal-Mart/McDonald’s/HD-TV culture. How can it be relevant if I don’t understand it, and if it doesn’t appeal to my immediate sensory needs? If it doesn’t make me immediately happy, if it doesn’t bring immediate resolution to my curiosity, if it isn’t presented in a manner that entertains and keeps my attention, what have I to do with it? We have lost the ability to muse and contemplate, and succumbing to what C.S. Lewis called a “post-human” state, we have sought to shirk the truth, especially when it is difficult to consider or receive.

Little do we know that nothing is more relevant to our lives upon the earth than the radically Theological nature of passages such as this. Again, when I say Theological I do not mean that this is the stuff of advanced intellectuals. What I mean is, these portions of Scripture are not meant only to fill up space in our Bibles, or even to give us a grid on the end-times, but chiefly to reveal the nature and character of God Himself. In that sense, they are intensely Theological, for Theology is simply the study of God. If we do not know the Lord as He has revealed Himself, and if we have failed to love Him as He has revealed Himself, what will change our disposition toward Him when darker days are upon us? Do we really love the God of the Scriptures, or have we been guilty of making Him after our own liking?

In this passage He reveals Himself as fire, and this is not merely a sentimental description of Himself as passionate and fervent. Though no one is more passionate or fervent than the Lord, He is here revealing Himself as holy and as Judge, and if we have only loved Him as Savior and have failed to love Him as Judge, we have not yet loved Him as He is. What do we know of the God who comes with fire? He “was, and is, and is to come” with fire, and we need to prayerfully reflect on Him in this way, and to ask Him for the necessary understanding of His nature in this context. Consider this:

With fire, or ‘as fire’, has the same construction as Exodus 3.2, where ‘fire’ is defined as a motif of the unapproachable, deadly holiness of God (cf.Gn. 3.24; Ex.19).

…. The whole of human history, from the fall to the last day, is bracketed about by the sword of holiness. In 59.17 ‘righteousness’ was the first garment the Lord put on; in 61.10 it was among the garments passed onto the Anointed One, who, returning from treading the winepress of wrath, ‘speaks in righteousness’ (63.1).

(The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary by J. Alec Motyer, IVP Academic; 1993, p. 539)

What do we know of the “deadly holiness of God”? Is this some heretical teaching; some sadistic description given by an armchair theologian who has been locked in his study too long, removed from the real world? Or have we been so devoid of the Biblical view that we cannot recognize the God who “will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the LORD.”

I recently heard a lecture by a somewhat critical OT theologian whose commentaries I have appreciated over the years. In the middle of his speaking he actually stated that he was embarrassed about the “violence of Yahweh” as it is set forth in the Scriptures. With all of his advanced training, he could not reconcile the mercy of God with the God who “will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.” I understand that this is not an easy subject, but it needs to be prayerfully approached, for the Jesus of the Gospels who blessed children and healed all manner of disease is also the Jesus of Isaiah 63, who tramples the nations in His anger. His mercies and His judgments are intricately linked, for they are the expression of His nature, “full of grace and truth.”

“Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” -Rom. 11.22

Because we have failed to see Him as the One who is both fiery and holy, we have been reduced to a casual understanding of the Gospel, and the fear of the Lord is foreign to our common Christian existence. We make light of sin, and we are mostly unwilling to give a real place to the consideration of God’s dealings with Israel and the Church.

I realize the weight of a statement like this, and I realize that this subject is vast and fraught with all kinds of perils and misunderstandings, but the fact that believers have been satisfied to consider the modern establishment of Israel’s State the fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures is a disclosure of how hollow our understanding of God is. We are not jealous for truth, nor jealous for salvation, so we jump at any apparent fulfillment because the pain of judgement is too difficult to bear.

I am not encouraging some kind of deathly fatalism regarding Israel, and this is certainly not an anti-Semitic rant. I am raising a larger question here. We are more patriotic than we are apostolic, and our perceptions have been formed much more through media and popular Christian thought than they have through a true and prayerful perusal of the Scriptures. We are eager for convenience much more than we are jealous for truth. What can be said of the Church, who is called to be the “pillar and ground of truth”, but has failed to obtain a jealousy for truth in Her inmost parts?

Karl Barth has declared that the Church is the only entity with the authority to actually speak of the Lord, but what can be said of the world’s conception of Him when we ourselves have deviated from, or failed to come into, a revelation of Him as He has set Himself forth in Scripture? Are we willing to give prayerful contemplation to His declaration of coming judgment upon Israel, and upon the nations of the world? It is right to rejoice in the promises of Israel’s present salvation (as Jewish souls come to faith one by one around the world), and to anticipate and glory in thoughts of their future salvation (when a “nation” is “born in a day” at the end of this age), but not without understanding that the final salvific reality will not be established without a staggering time of purging and sifting, as the prophets have declared (Am. 9, Jer. 30.7, Dan. 12.1-2, Matt. 24, etc.). Are we expecting this, have we taken time to pour over the Scriptures in this light, or is our Theological box already sealed and unwilling to make room for this kind of consideration, painful though it is? Who is the God of the Scriptures, what is His true heart with regard to the issue of Israel, and are we truly in alignment with Him along these lines?

Even this passage- Isaiah 66- is a statement of the times to come, and we are too apt to celebrate the present State, without considering all that the Scriptures have declared with regard to the end of this age and Israel’s experience in it. It is much easier to spiritualize or make mystical these kinds of passages, for it absolves our sense of responsibility to the Jew in the present. If the present State is the promised return to the Land, then things must be progressing positively toward the promised end, and God must be bringing things to a close. All this is occurring quite detached from us, and we see no responsibility to weep for the salvation of the Jew, nor to make every effort to bring him the Gospel, nor to live in such a way as would demonstrate the nature of God to him, thus moving him to jealousy after the God of Abraham.

We are happy to continue building up our deferred comp, preparing for retirement, or bulking up our all-too American ministries, to the neglect of our responsibility to the Jew, and to neglect of any consideration of our responsibility to him in the Corrie Ten-Boom type trials that I am convinced are on the horizon.

Do we wish for Israel to be restored on the grounds of man-centered politics? Is our knee-jerk celebration of the modern State a revelation that we are somehow self-sufficient in our Christianity? I am not declaring, “Down with the State of Israel!”, but I am suggesting that the Scriptures seem clear- whatever the condition might be politically in the events leading up to the return of the Lord, there will be a devastation the likes of which we have not seen, so that Jesus Himself declared:

For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. -Matt. 24.21

And how do we know that this “great tribulation” has not to do with the events in 70 AD, or the horrors of the Crusades, or even the more recent devastation of the Nazi-Holocaust? The Lord Himself gives the answer:

But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (vv.29-30)

Our calling is not primarily with supporting the political entity known as modern Israel, but with preaching the Gospel to the Jew, weeping and praying for the salvation of the people, and preparing for a time of great distress, whereby we will be called to stand with them, even to the point of death, that the remnant might be saved. This is our eschatological destiny, to be a “Corrie Ten-Boom” type corporate witness to the people of Israel in a time when the nations are raging against the Lord, and against His chosen ones.

Do we wish for the success of Democracy in the Middle-East because we are truly jealous for the glory of God? Are we jealous for the salvation of His people, or do we wish for political success because deep-down we are hopeful for the prospering of our own ministries and names?

In our enthusiasm for the modern State of Israel, are we incapable of receiving the Lord who deals out judgment upon those who reject Him? Could it be that the “falling away” which Paul predicted could have to do with the disillusionment of believers who cannot fathom that a God of love would go so far in sifting His own people, until all the “sinners” of His people have perished? (Amos 9.9-10)

How were we saved? Did we come into the experience of new life without also experiencing death? What do we expect for them, that somehow they would be saved and made into priests by the power of human government, without first coming to terms with the requirements of their God? We are Christians by profession and secular humanists by our truest feelings, and we need to be delivered from that condition if ever we would be to Israel what the Lord has desired us to be.

I am not bringing a sweeping indictment against the whole of modern Israel. There are many precious men and women of God in the land, and the Lord is still pouring out mercy in the land, calling His people to Himself. And without a doubt, the surrounding nations have functioned in hatred, deception, and great violence, and they will be called to account for it. Indeed, in the last analysis, when Israel has been purged and sifted, it is the surrounding nations that the Lord makes war with. He comes as the great Deliverer to the remnant of His people, and it will be a Day of great woe for those who have inappropriately touched “the apple of His eye.”

The Church is called more than ever to give Herself on behalf of Israel, but it is not out of a mere Republican allegiance, or a desire to spread Democracy in the East. It is not out of some sentimental attachment to certain relics in the Land. It is out of a merciful identification with His people, even when the nations rage against them. It is with a singular and unwavering desire for their salvation, fasting and praying for laborers to be raised up as effectual witnesses both now, and during the time of great “trouble” to come. And chiefly, it is with a radical jealousy for the glory of God in the earth.

The “actions and imaginations” of present day Israel are hardly different from the actions and imaginations of popular American culture, and the Lord will not always permit this of a people who have been called as “a light unto the nations,” a “nation of priests” that will “bless the families of the earth.” The prevalence of abortion, pornography, extortion and lies, and all other manners of sin in the Land will not go unjudged in Israel any more than it will go unjudged in America. We need to realize that He will go to great lengths to establish His glory in the earth, and to bring a remnant back to Himself, “that they may know that I am God.”

Any coming of the Lord related to “actions…. and imaginations” must be a coming in judgment. Consequently, the “glory” referred to would be that of the Judge. The reference to “glory” in verse 18, however, leads to the gathering of the world into Jerusalem as an accepted people. It must be, therefore, that “actions” and “imaginations” refer to what has preceded; just as “glory” refers to what follows.

(Motyer, ibid., p. 541)

God will come “with fire” because He will not change who He is, and His judgments are ultimately His mercies. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If we are offended at His dealings, we have yet to come to know Him adequately, and for this reason the Lord has given us the Scriptures. Israel’s future, and the nature of God’s dealings, are not unlike that which has already been recorded in the Scriptures.

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. -1 Cor. 10.11

He is merciful and kind, compassionate and gracious, holy and pure, true and faithful, humble and wise. All who despise His nature and His government, all who reject His merciful pleas and condescensions, and all who turn a deaf ear to His glorious Son, “will meet their end together.”

We need to understand that this is who God is, and He does not change. Go back to the Scriptures, dear saints. Do not interpret the issue of Israel by watching popular Christian TV or listening to the media on either side. Go to the Scriptures. Go to the place of prayer. Do not swallow another man’s theology without giving yourself to a “Berean” kind of searching, but open the Scriptures yourself and ask the Lord for a greater revelation of Himself.

There is nothing more crucial than knowing the God of Israel, exactly as He is, and not as men have fancied Him to be.

Editor’s Note:

Check out the latest Fire On Your Head Podcast episode “Are You Ready For Jacob’s Trouble“, where Bryan Purtle and Steve Bremner discuss these things dear to Bryan’s heart:

Also, check out an mp3 teaching of Dr Michael Brown, “Stand With Israel“