How Beautiful on the Mountains are the feet of Those who Bring Good News
Part 4
3rd January 2020
Our final look at this wonderful prophecy concerns the return of Jesus Christ:
Isaiah 52:7-12
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has
comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.
But you will not leave in haste or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
The second coming of Jesus Christ will be announced by angels with trumpets:
1 Thessalonians 4v16-17
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with
the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead
in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with
the Lord forever.
Although Christians may disagree about what this event will be like, there is no doubt that it will happen.
On that greatest day, Jesus will come again, and we'll see him in the sky. And every eye, believing and unbelieving, Christian and atheist, and everything in between, will see him, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! (Philippians 2v10-11)
Rejoice! This day is certain! This day is coming! Some people think it's going to be this week. Some people think it's going to be thousands of years from now. I don't know when it will happen, but I know it's coming! Jesus will return, there will be a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 20v21) and the children of God will come into their inheritance.
1 Corinthians 15v50-54
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed —
in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet
will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal
with immortality.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been
swallowed up in victory."
How lovely on the mountains will be the feet of the angels who announce the return of our Lord and Saviour, the King of the universe, Jesus Christ!
And the prophetic instruction to "go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure" will be completely fulfilled. As Jesus explained in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25v31-46) those who believe the Gospel will be separated for all eternity from those who reject it.
Just as the other fulfilments of this scripture in BC 538 or 39 were certain because they were prophesied in advance, the second coming of Christ is certain because it has been prophesied in advance. It is sure because it is Scripture. And the Bible is true! Hallelujah!
As St John writes at the end of the book of Revelation:
Revelation 22:20b-21
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.