The Second Coming - 10
The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords
Returning from my twin sister’s funeral in North Wales by car at night, suddenly there was a flash that lit up the road. I’d ignored the speed restrictions on the empty road and had been caught on the speed camera. It was sudden, noticeable and irreversible.
Jesus, speaking of His return in Luke chapter 17 says, “For the Son of Man in His day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other” (verse24).
When I lived by the Caribbean Sea, aged 21, many evenings there would be an electric storm on the horizon by the Southern Cross. The Bible says one day the light will get brighter in intensity as He who is the Daystar from on high, the Light of the Word, returns to His earth in great glory. “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him” (Revelation 1 7).
Isaiah saw Him coming from the East over the mountains of Edom. He prophesied six hundred years before Christ’s first coming these remarkable words regarding His second coming.
“Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson? Who is this, robed in splendour, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? ‘It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.’ Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress? ‘I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me, and my own wrath sustained me. I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground’” (Chapter 63 verses 1 to 6).
At the end of the age we know the lawless one (Antichrist) will be revealed. Then the Lord Jesus will be manifested from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. “The Lord Jesus will overthrow the Antichrist with the breath of His mouth and destroy him by the splendour of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2 verse 8). When the King in glory comes, with all His saints, this world is going to be bathed in tremendous light. The light will be so intense – God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus is God, the light of the world, and He’ll return with the children of light. On that day we shall be revealed. We’ll be exposed to the universe. Our lives which are hidden with Christ in God won’t be hidden any longer. The level of holiness we’ve achieved will be apparent to all, when we appear in glory with Him.
I’m mindful of Thomas Binney’s famous hymn:
“Eternal Light! Eternal Light!
How pure the soul must be,
When, placed within Thy searching sight,
It shrinks not, but, with calm delight,
Can live, and look on Thee!”
When the Second Advent, long predicted, takes place, it will be very public and in dazzling light shattering the darkness. Sudden, noticeable and irreversible.
John the Revelator saw how it would be, when exiled on Patmos Island. He wrote (Revelation 19 verse 11 to 16) “I saw heaven standing open and before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron sceptre.’ He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”
It will be as Zechariah foretold over 2,500 years ago. When the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with Him “It will be a unique day, without daytime or night time – a day known to the Lord. When evening comes there will be light” (Zechariah 14 verse 7). The very source of light, Jesus Christ, will be back on earth in human form.
“Who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears?” asked Malachi (chapter 3 verse 2). A day is coming when the glory of His power will be displayed and He will be glorified in His saints and admired in all them that believe. Don’t you long for that day when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea? (Habakkuk 2 verse 14).