THE APPEARING.
In Isaiah 2:12-21: “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low.... And the idols He shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they make each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”
In Isaiah 13: “I have commanded My sanctified ones, I have also called My mighty ones for Mine anger, even them that rejoice in My highness. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land. Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty,” ... “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity,” (Isa. 13:3-11).
“Behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many” (Isa. 66:15-16).
After the judgment of the Western powers under the beast, the terrible foe of the Jews, the king of the North, “The Assyrian” will be smitten by the Lord. Used by God as the rod of His wrath to chastise the apostate Jews, when they bow to the idol and the beast, he exalts himself against God, and is then himself judged (Isa. 10:5-12). He comes as a destroying storm upon the land (Isa. 28:2), attacks antichrist in Jerusalem, at the head of a powerful army, takes the city, and overthrows many countries (Dan. 11:40-41). The king of the South (Egypt) pushing at antichrist, the willful king, at the same time (Dan. 11:40), is also conquered by him (the Assyrian); but tidings out of the East and out of the North troubling him, he returns with great fury to destroy and utterly take away many of the Jews— plants the tabernacles of his palace between the seas close to Jerusalem, and is then smitten by the Lord (Dan. 11:41-45).
A graphic description of his last march to Jerusalem is given in Isaiah 10, where he is seen to shake his hand against the city; but just as he thinks to possess it a second time, “Behold,” saith the prophet, “the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror.”(Isa. 10:33)
A striking type of the Assyrian’s fall is seen in the destruction by the angel of the Lord of the mighty army of Sennacherib (Isa. 37:36).
This closes the judgments of God on Israel and the nations; the Deliverer, the Lord, comes out of Zion, and delivers His faithful remnant (Rom. 11:26). “Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O My people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and Mine anger in their destruction” (Isa. 10:24-25). “The consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness” (Isa. 10:22). Isa 11-12 teem with millennial blessing.
Another very distinct scripture (Mic. 5:5-7), has reference to this same period. After speaking of One who shall come forth from Bethlehem to be ruler in Israel (Mic. 5:2), the prophet continues, “And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men” (Marg., princes of men.) “And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall He deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders, And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord.”
(Continued)