Urgency In Every Generation

1. 1. Irrespective of how close a generation actually may or may not be to the Day of the Lord and the Second Coming, the church is mandated by God to herald the coming of our King with great urgency and boldness. Every church and every disciple of Messiah Jesus is mandated by God to pray, proclaim, and live as if the intense events of the last days—which will culminate in the Second Coming—could begin unfolding tomorrow.

1. 1. Adam and Eve

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the wild beasts and all the living creatures of the field! On your belly you will crawl and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And I will put hostility(“enmity” [ESV, NASB, NIV], “animosity” [CJB]) between you and the woman (“I will make you and the woman hate each other” [TEV]; “I will make you and the woman enemies” [NCV]) and between your offspring and her offspring (Heb. zě·rǎʿ – “seed”; cf KJV, NASB, NKJV); her offspring will (“srike” [HCSB, NLT]; “bruise” [ESV, NASB]) attack your head, and you will attack her offspring’s heel.” To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you.” But to Adam he said, “Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, but you will eat the grain of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat food until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return.”… So the Lord God expelled him (“banished him” [NIV]; “drove out” [NASB]; “sent him away” [HCSB]) from the orchard (or garden) in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken (^NETGn. 3:14-19, 23)

Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the Lord. (^NIVGen. 4:25-26)

• For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (^NIVRom. 8:20-22)

1. 1. Enoch

¹⁴ Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (^NIVJude 14-15)

1. 1. Lamech

²⁸ When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. ²⁹ He named him Noah (Heb. nō^akh) and said, “He will comfort us (Heb. yénakhamenu, from nākkam; “shall bring us relief” [ESV, HCSB]; “will give us rest” [NASB]) in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” (^NIVGen. 5:28-29)

1. 1. The Patriarchs

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God (cf. Is. 54)….  All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. (Heb. 11:8-10, 13, NIV)

• But Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it (i.e., the land)?” (^NIVGen. 15:8)
• The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the Hittites. (^ESVGen. 23:20)

1. 1. Job

I know that my Redeemer (or “my Defender” [NCV], or “my Vindicator” [NET footnote]) lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth (“there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense” [TEV]). And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (^NIVJb. 19:25)

1. 1. Joseph

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones. (^NIVHeb. 11:22)

1. 1. Moses

“Is it not stored up with Me, sealed up in My vaults? Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay. In time their foot will slip, for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.” The Lord will indeed vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one is left—slave or free (cf. Dn. 12:7)….Rejoice, you nations, concerning His people, for He will avenge the blood of His servants (or “Rejoice with him, O heavens [DSS, LXX]; bow down to him, all gods”, for he avenges the blood of his children” [ESV]). He will take vengeance on His adversaries; He will purify (“or cleanse” [NRSV], or “make atonement for” [NET]) His land and His people. (^HCSBDt. 32:34-36, 43)

1. 1. David

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the grave (lit. to Sheol), nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (^NIVPs. 16:9-11; cf Ac. 2:25-28; Eph. 5:14; 1 Th. 4:15-16)

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. (^NIVPs. 3:5-6, NIV; cf., eg. Ps. 6:4-5, 27:13, Heb. 2:14-14; cf also 1 Clement 26:1-2)

• After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead” (^NIVJn. 11:11-14, NIV)

1. 1. The Prophets
      1. Isaiah

The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty…(^NIVIs. 2:12)

1. 1. 1. Jeremiah

“Look, the days are coming”—the Lord’s declaration—“when the city  from the Tower of Hananel  to the Corner Gate  will be rebuilt for the Lord. A measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb  and then turn toward Goah. The whole valley—the corpses, the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley to the corner of the Horse Gate  to the east—will be holy to the Lord. It (i.e., the city; cf NCV, NET, NIV, NLT, TEV) will never be uprooted or demolished again (“anymore forever” [ESV, NASB]).” (^HCSBJr. 31:38-40)

1. 1. 1. Ezekiel

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel (cf. Joseph; Gen. 50:25). Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’ ” (^NIVEzek. 37:11-14)

1. 1. 1. Daniel

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt…. I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, “O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?” He said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end (^ESVDan. 12:1-2, 8-9)

1. 1. 1. Obadiah

“The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. (Obad 15, NIV)

1. 1. 1. Zephaniah

“The great day of the Lord is near— near and coming quickly. Listen! The cry on the day of the Lord will be bitter, the shouting of the warrior there. That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness, a day of trumpet and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the corner towers. (^NIVZeph 1:14-16)

1. 1. 1. Joel

¹Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is close at hand— ² a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come. (^NIVJl 2:1-2)

1. 1. 1. Haggai

For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. (^ESVHag. 2:6-7; cf Heb. 12:26-27)

1. 1. 1. Zechariah

Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. (^NIVZech. 14:3-4)

1. 1. John the Baptist

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (cf. Dan. 2)…But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.  And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.  The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (^NIVMt.3:7-10)