What will ultimately break loose the wrath of God upon the earth? When Israel signs a contract with the devil in the person of the antichrist. Isaiah 28: 14-15,18 registers the fact: Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem! Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement- when the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge and in falsehood we have taken shelter… and your covenant with death shall be annulled, and you agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, then you will be trodden down by it (tribulation). When God delivered Israel from the Egypt’s bondage, He made a covenant with them, in a most unlikely and fearful manner when He came down to Mount Sinai in fire, thunder, lightning, with the blast of the trumpet, in a complete expression of what He is: holy, powerful, almighty. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews describes this way: for you have not come to a mountain (Sinai) that can be touched, that is ablaze with fire and to gloom and darkness and a raging storm, and to the blast of a trumpet and a voice whose words make the listeners beg that nothing more be said to them, for they could not bear the command that was given: If even a wild animal touches the mountain, (Sinai) it shall be stone to death. In fact, so awful and terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am terrified (Heb. 12:18-21.) This experience should have been engraved in the hearts of the people Israel, never to be unfaithful to their God.
This experience happened on the third month after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, the same day, they came into the Wilderness of Sinai, on the third day (Exodus 19:1). God came down to covenant with Israel as a nation at that time. The covenant God made with them sealed His promise to them and Israel’s obedience to His commands, constituted their agreement with God, as He formed them into a nation, and He became their King. Throughout their journey, although Israel broke the agreement with God, He continued faithful to them and brought them to the Promised Land, which was promised to their forefather Abraham. The Prophet Jeremiah describes Israel’s breaking of the covenant with their God and gives them an invitation to return to Him (chapters 3,4). God’s love never departed from Israel in spite of their gross sins against Him. One example of it is when YAHSHUA, approaching Jerusalem, in His days before His trials, in which Israel took part against Him, weeping for it, He said, Would that you had known personally, even at least in this your day, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes… (Luke 19: 41-42) O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who continue to kill the prophets (including Him) and to stone those who are sent to you! How often I have desired and yearned to gather your children together as a hen her young under her wings, but you would not! (Luke 13:34). And again YAHSHUA said to them, I have come in My Father’s name and with His power, and you do not receive Me; but if another comes in his own name and his own power and with no other authority but himself, you will receive him and give him your approval (John 5:43). That is in reference to the antichrist, with whom Israel will sign a contract of death, (Isaiah 28: 14-15,18) resulting in the tribulation, mainly directed to them and to the rest of the world- those who have rejected the gift of salvation- YAHSHUA. Israel, as a nation, continues hard toward God, looking for their peace in someone else besides Him, in their pursuit to continue rejecting Him to the end, when the final destruction will fall on them. And only then one third, after being refined as silver is refined and being tested as gold is tested, will they call on the true God’s name (Zech. 13: 9).
Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians, addresses a sudden and “unforeseen destruction” that will come to those who will have signed the contract of peace with the devil. He says, When people are saying, All is well and secure, and, There is peace and safety, then in a moment unforeseen destruction will come upon them, as suddenly as labor pains come upon a woman with child; and they shall by no means escape, for there will be no escape (I Thess. 5:3). Paul is talking about those who will be going through the tribulation, by referring to the third person plural, ‘when people, they’ to show that this destruction is not for the believers. Otherwise, he would had used the pronoun we, us. Directing to the Christian Thessalonians, Paul uses the second person ‘you’ in verses 4-5 to imply a separation between believers and non-believers and to show the believers’ position in the matter. Verse 9, he refers to the first person plural ‘us’ to indicate exemption from God’s wrath; as he said, For God has not appointed us to wrath, but [to] obtain [His] salvation through our Lord YAHSHUA MESSIAH, Who died for us so that whether we are still alive or are dead, we might live together with Him and share His life (I Thess. 5:9-10.) YAHSHUA has appointed the believers for salvation, either dead at His coming or alive, when the first resurrection will take place and those alive will simultaneously experience a glorious transformation from a corrupted body to an uncorrupted one, and will join the resurrected dead to meet the Lord in the air and be with Him forever and ever!
My friend, where do you stand? May the Lord give you revelation into the truth to be exempted from His wrath to come. Only through His Son you will be saved from it. YAHSHUA is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Accept Him today!
Light from the Word 