In a recent issue we wrote about "A Time of Many Nations." This month we add a few comments from C. E. Lunden on this subject.
When the tribulation begins, the Lord will judge providentially through such means as civil war, famine and economic collapse. Later He will deal directly with the apostates of the earth, including Israel and the revived Roman Empire who dare, under the leadership of the beast and the false prophet, to make war with Him and fall under His wrath as God the Almighty. Christendom, too, falls under His righteous vengeance.
Then the Son of man shall come, sit upon the throne of His glory, gather the nations before Him and judge them. This is the sessional judgment of the living nations. Psa. 83, Joel 3 and Matt. 25 refer to these nations and their judgment.
“They [a confederacy of ten nations] have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." Psa. 83:4.
“Let the heathen [the nations] be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about." Joel 3:12.
“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left." Matt. 25:31-33.
This judgment of the living will be final like the great white throne judgment when the dead are raised and judged.
The ten nations led by Edom (see Obadiah) will be the nations who will lay siege to Israel just before Gog the Assyrian enters the land (Zech. 12:2).
Gog with the ten nations, Israel's neighbors, will attack Jerusalem, but Gog's army will be slain on the mountains of Israel.
Those of Gog and the ten nations who are goats will be judged at that time and cast into the lake of fire (Matt. 25:46; Isa. 30:31-33). The sheep, of course, will enter into the kingdom. Ed.
Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord,
and not a God afar off?
Can any hide himself in secret places
that I shall not see him? saith the Lord.
Do not I fill heaven and earth?
saith the Lord.
" Jer. 23:23, 24