The End Of The World According To Jesus
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FROM MALACHI’S EDEN TO MATTHEW’S JERUSALEM
As we begin, I want to reinforce two tremendous truths that have revolutionized my study of eschatology. 1) Most of the “end-time” events have already occurred in the past. They truly were future events to the men who described them and wrote them down. But, for us, most of these events have already occurred. 2) Jesus came to earth twice in the first century. The first coming was physical and incarnational. This is where He rescued His people and delivered them from their sins. The second coming was spiritual and covenantal. This is where He rained down judgment upon apostate Judah for her crimes and rebellion.
We know this because Malachi prophecies there will be two specific first-century “comings” of the Lord. His first coming will be a physical coming, where He rescues those who feared the Lord and esteemed His holy name (Malachi 3:16). This includes all those who repented and followed Jesus under the guidance of John, those who repented under the ministry of Jesus, or those that believed in His name in the earliest days of the Church. God saves those men and women by allowing His one and only Son to undergo the punishment they deserve (alluded to in Malachi 3:17) so that He can declare them righteous, and distinguish them from the wicked (Malachi 3:18). This certainly has already occurred and is the very Gospel of our salvation today.
The second first-century “coming” of Christ, described by Malachi, is a spiritual act of judgment against the covenant rebels in Judah. While Jesus’ physical body remained in heaven, seated upon His throne, Malachi tells us that He would bring a fiery judgment that none of that generation could endure. Of that “coming”, Malachi tells us several things:
“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? - Malachi 3:2
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment - Malachi 3:5a
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts. - Malachi 4:1-3
These final verses from chapter 4 bring the entire theological point together. Jesus is coming in two different ways to deal with two very different kinds of people. For the repentant, He will rise from the dead bringing healing to the broken, and He will endow the joyless with never-ending delight. He will welcome His people into the garden of His presence. He will graft them into His covenantal and life-giving vine, even while cutting off the apostate Jews so that neither root or branch remains. Unto that wicked and adulterous generation, the Lord would not come in peace, but with a flaming sword. He will turn them back into the dust from which He made them and put them, like the serpent, under His people’s feet (c.f. Romans 16:20). That is the picture Malachi is painting.
This is also the eschatological picture the whole Bible is painting. Adam was created to live with God, have a legacy and dominion, feast upon the life-giving tree, and put the enemies of God under his feet. Instead, Adam chose to sin, which meant he lost his relationship with God, he was chased out of the garden with a fiery sword, he was banned from the tree of life, his progeny was put under the curse, and his dominion was turned into slavery, and his body was subjected to sweat, blood, and toil until it returned again to the dust.
This is the subtle Edenic picture Malachi is painting for Jerusalem. Like Adam, the Jews were going to lose their favored status as God’s firstborn son (Exodus 4:22-23). The nation would be removed from the garden land of Judah, set ablaze by the sword of His wrath, incapable of consuming the life-giving vine, their legacy finished, their national sovereignty turned to full-on slavery, and their bodies turned to ash so that God’s true people would tread them underfoot.
What Malachi is alluding to is that fallen Jerusalem will fare no better than fallen Adam. But, redeemed Jerusalem, the Israel of God (Galatians 3), who is the church that Jesus would save unto Himself, would be brought back into relationship with their creator by the working of the true and better Adam (1 Corinthians 15). Because of Jesus, the Church will have a lasting legacy that will bless all the families of this world (Genesis 12:1-3) and she will have a never-ending dominion that extends His Kingdom to the ends of the earth (Daniel 2:44-45). Because of Jesus, the Church will be a tree planted beside the fount of living water (Psalm 1; John 7), she will be grafted into the life-giving vine of His love (John 15), to produce all kinds of fruit for His glory (Galatians 5; Revelation 22:1-2), that will also provide healing to the nations. And, instead of returning to the dust in curse, eventually, these people will be given new heavenly bodies (1 Corinthians 15) to live with their true Adam King, forever in a garden city (Revelation 22).
When Malachi speaks of two very specific outcomes, happening to two very different kinds of people, that are brought about by two very different kinds of “comings”, he does two very important things. First, he is simply picking up on the massive Biblical themes that were woven throughout God’s amazing story. The children of the serpent (everyone who rejects God’s messenger), will receive the curses of the covenant (Matthew 23:33; 1 John 3:8-10). The children of God, made alive by the rising Son, will receive every single one of the covenant blessings (Ephesians 1:3). Second, he is rooting the fulfillment and inauguration of all the Old Testament’s eschatology to the two first-century comings of Christ.
Knowing these truths, mentioned above, will help us as we transition from the last book of the Old Testament to the first book of the New Testament. There, we will examine what Jesus, Himself, says about the topic of eschatology, and how that applies to Jerusalem, which will take us several weeks to cover. Today, we will begin with some introductory observations.
FROM ESCHATOLOGICAL MALACHI TO JESUS AS TRUE ISRAEL
The first portion of Matthew’s Gospel details how the coming Christ will bring healing to His people, as Malachi predicted. What Matthew uniquely contributes to this story is that Christ would do that work by replacing Israel. For instance, in Matthew 1, Jesus will come from the prototypical line of David and Abraham, which makes Him not only a candidate for the Jewish throne but the one who will bring the Abrahamic blessing to the nations (Galatians 3:16). This makes Him true Israel, but let us keep going.
In Matthew 2, after His Abrahamic birth and flight to Egypt (Just like the people in Genesis), God would call Him back into the land, as the first born Son of God. Since national Israel was known by that title, Matthew is not so subtly telling us that Jesus is replacing them (Matthew 2:14-15). In Matthew 3, the connection with Jesus and Israel continues. Just as Israel was baptized in the Red Sea (1 Corinthians 10:2), Jesus would be baptized in the Jordan river (Matthew 3:13-17). And just like it happened in the Old Testament - where The Father speaks to the sons of Israel (Exodus 14:2, 15), the Spirit hovers, and the Christophanic angel of God charges into the water (Exodus 14:18) - so too the Father speaks, the Spirit hovers, and the true heaven-sent angel of God charges into the water. The obvious point is that Jesus is redoing the story of failed Israel so that all of His elect people could find their citizenship in Him.
That story of Jesus being true Israel continues into chapter 4, where He enters the wilderness like Israel and is tempted in that wilderness like Israel, but unlike Israel, He succeeds and crushes the serpent. By the end of chapter 4, Jesus has replaced the twelve tribes with 12 apostles and is ready to march to the mountain of God (Matthew 5-7), where He will give them a new law as a true and better Moses. By the end of Matthew 7, Jesus is already warning in general terms that every bad tree will be cut down and cast into the fire. By Matthew 21 and 24 that imagery turns sharply in the direction of Jerusalem, which will be cut down like a barren fig tree and thrown into the flames. All of Matthew is preparing us for Malachi’s prophetic outcome.
From Matthew 8-10, the parallels between Jesus and the story of Israel continue. In Matthew 8-9, Jesus takes up the mantle of Moses by doing all kinds of ministry to heal and serve the people. In Matthew 10, like Joshua, He commissions His 12 disciples to go into the land and conquer it for the Kingdom of God (Matthew 10:17). But instead of conquering the devil-worshiping Canaanites, they will be going against the serpent-like people of Israel, who will scourge them, beat them, and hand them over to be murdered (Matthew 10:16-22).
To comfort His disciples, Jesus promises that they will not finish going through all of the towns of Israel before He comes back again to vindicate them from their suffering (Matthew 10:23). This places Jesus’ second coming, not as a far-off future event, but as first-century vengeance, poured out on those who did not fear the one who could throw them, body and soul, into the fires of hell (Matthew 10:28).
Perhaps this is why Jesus tells them that He came to bring a sword (Matthew 10:34), like the righteous judges of old, and that His purpose was to divide first-century families into warring factions (Matthew 10:35). We tend to view this as a truism for all time, but in the eschatological context of Matthew, perhaps a first-century fulfillment was in view. By the time Jesus ascended into heaven, to reign as judge and King upon His throne, many new disciples and converts were being disowned by their families. Many were turned over to be stoned to death by mothers and fathers. The enemy of the Christian was not found in the new family Jesus called them to become (Matthew 12:46-50), but in their former Jewish families who, like Israel, hated God and rejected Him as King (Matthew 10:36-39).
Thus far, we have seen a startling story unfolding. Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew, has retraced all of Old Testament Israel’s footsteps, redone their covenantal failures with perfect obedience and claimed His status as God’s true and faithful servant. He is the one who did what Israel was supposed to do, and now He will be the one to bring the twofold outcome of Malachi upon these first-century people. To those who are weary and heavy-laden, looking for a savior, He will come raising them up with healing in His wings (Matthew 11:28-30). But, for all those who persist in the rebellion of Sodom and Gomorrah, severe woe and curse will overtake them as Malachi predicted (Matthew 11:20-24).
FROM THE REJECTING JEWS TO THE MALACHI-LIKE JUDGMENT
These themes of judgment do nothing but intensify in Matthew 12, as we see the Pharisee's murderous rage and Biblical insanity coming to a boil (Matthew 12:1-21). Among their legionous offenses, the most disgusting and unforgivable, the one that sealed their fate of doom, was when they declared God’s miraculous activity in Israel through His Christ to be nothing more than the working of unclean demons (Matthew 12:22-24). That was, of course, the unpardonable sin (Matthew 12:30-32) that would bring about God’s judgment upon the nation of vipers and serpents (Matthew 12:33-37).
The first judgment to take hold of them was pure spiritual blindness (Matthew 11:25). As Matthew 12 was drawing to a close, the blind Pharisees had not only missed the point but were looking for a sign to validate Jesus’ claims, since they had no capacity for authentic faith. In response, Jesus condemns that entire generation, claiming that Nineveh and the Queen of the South (Old Testament pagans who repented at Gospel preaching), would stand in judgment against that sordid lot of faithless Jews (Matthew 12:38-42), who had become just like the man who was possessed by seven demons (Matthew 12:43-45).
Is it any wonder that Jesus transitions away from His clear speaking and preaching to communication via parables in Matthew 13? He even tells His own disciples that this was done to prevent the Jews from understanding the spiritual truths He wanted to tell them (Matthew 13:11-12). By doing this, Jesus is securing their fate and ensuring that no repentance will come to His enemies as Isaiah once prophesied (Matthew 13:14-15).
To the disciples, much about Jesus’ coming Kingdom would be learned through these secretive parables (Matthew 11:34-35). They understood that for a period of time, imposters would exist alongside the true followers of Christ, like a field of wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-31). But, by the end, the Kingdom of Christ would tower over all the kingdoms of the earth, like a Mustard tree in the master’s garden (Matthew 13:31-32). And, at the end of the age (As Malachi predicted), all who are in Christ would be separated from the wicked, like good and bad fish caught in a dragnet (Matthew 13:47-52).
CONCLUSION
In all of this, Malachi foresaw the bifurcated response that the Messenger of God would evoke when visiting Yahweh’s rebel people. It was Matthew that not only tells this story of judgment and salvation, but also does it in the most unique way. Matthew tells us the story of a new Kingdom, brought about by a new King, who in perfect one for one parallel with the Old Testament story, relives the people of Israel’s story to become the true and better Israel. For instance:
In Matthew 1, the Abrahamic seed was born as the first born of a new Israel.
In Matthew 2, He was taken down to Egypt just like the sons of Jacob in Genesis.
In Matthew 3, He was led to the divided waters of the Jordan just like Israel was in Exodus.
In Matthew 4, He was led into the wilderness to be tempted and succeeded where Israel failed.
In Matthew 5-7, He stood upon the new covenant mountain and gave a new covenant people a new covenant law, just as Moses did in Exodus and Leviticus.
In Matthew 8-9, Jesus leads, cares for and serves the wilderness people like Moses did in the book of Numbers.
In Matthew 10, Jesus sends out His disciples to conquer the land, like Joshua did in the conquest of Canaan.
In Matthew 11-20, the people of the land reveal themselves to be as deplorably wicked as the odious people of old, described in the book of Judges.
In the weeks ahead, we will see salvation and judgment just like Malachi says. For the elect, Christ will become a true kinsman redeemer, dying to purify a Gentile Bride (an allusion to the book of Ruth). But, for the reprobate Jews, who rejected His rule as King (just as they did in Samuel) He will bring upon them sudden and terrifying judgment.
When we remember that Matthew begins with an Abrahamic King and ends with the true line of David, is it any wonder that he perfectly crafts his narrative to track point by point through the entire story of Israel. Is it any wonder that he begins with the Abrahamic new seed birth and ends with the people who rejected God’s rule in favor of the kings of men? (Matthew 27:11-14). Is it any wonder that they, like Saul, mocked the Lord’s anointed, crowned Him Davidic King, and enthroned Him on a royal cross that bore witness to His reign (Matthew 27:27-37)? Is it any wonder that when this Davidic King died, and went down into the grave, He did not stay there, but rose as New King, the true and better Solomon, the one who established Himself as the true and everlasting temple of God, and declared that all the nations on earth would now come to salvation through Him (Matthew 28:18-20). Is it any wonder that the call to worldwide dominion is no longer given to Israelite warriors but to soldiers in the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:8). Is it any wonder that the epistles function as New Testament prophets that called the churches to repent? Is it any wonder that, after the canon is closed, after the book of Acts (The new Kings and Chronicles), that history records a final downfall for apostate Jerusalem? Just as the people of old, who were destroyed and deported by Babylon, Jewish Old Testament history ends with their final destruction and deportation by Rome. And to the New Covenant people of God, the Israel of God, they are given the end-time Kingdom that will never end (Daniel 2:44-45) with Christ as their King. The New Testament is the entire Old Testament Kingdom of God fulfilled and retold through a victorious Christ. And you and I get to be a part of it through our union with Him!
Until next time, I hope you enjoy living in the end-time Kingdom of the Messiah! From apostate Jerusalem until the very present day, Jesus has been putting His enemies under His feet and He will continue until this Kingdom of His is completed. Enjoy this time you are living in. Join Him in building the Kingdom while today is called today. Do not fear eschatology. It truly is a story of Kingdom joy!
And join us next time, as we will zoom back into Matthew 21-23 and show how that imminent judgment came upon the apostate nation of Israel in AD 70.
God bless you and thank you for listening!
