Greetings Beloved!

“Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise to the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them!  Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice… let them shout from the top of the mountains.  Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare His praise in the coastlands.  The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail over His enemies.” (Isaiah 42:10-13)

In almost every passage of Scripture where it declares, “Sing to the Lord a new song,” the following verses describe something about what the Scriptures call ‘The great and terrible day of the Lord’, and what we Christians usually call the ‘return (or second coming) of Jesus Christ.’ In Isaiah 42, we find such a passage of Scripture.

Jesus is described here as a man of war, an idea often foreign to many of us in the western Church, because we know very well ‘The Prince of Peace and the Baby in the Manger’. Many of us are very distant from the reality of Jesus as a conqueror who is coming to judge and lay siege to the nations in a great campaign to establish His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.  Nevertheless, this is a reality that we must have written on our minds and hearts if we are ever to fully understand our God and Savior.  There are a great many truths about or Lord and Savior that flow our of the knowledge of His great might and zeal as a conquering king.

Let me set the stage for you…

In the last days, unrighteous deception will cause every nation under heaven to fall under a delusion (2 Thess 2:1-12; Revelation 18:3).  The only people in the earth who will not take heed to this delusion are Messianic Jews and Christians.  Every nation will be forced to worship the Antichrist, a man who calls himself God.  Believers across the whole earth will be killed because they hold to the testimony of Jesus and will refuse to worship the Antichrist.

In these days there will be a great war in the spiritual realm.  The battle will be fought in the context of worship.  In this time there will exist the greatest worship movement in human history, one more glorious than the worship that existed in David’s Tabernacle.  This worship movement will be two-fold: First, there will be a remnant among God’s people who will worship Jesus day and night.  Their cry will reach heaven and God will release the greatest outpouring of might and power ever to be displayed on earth.  Second, this worship movement will consist of the multitudes in the nations who will worship the Antichrist.  This false worship movement will be the most beautiful, sensual and exciting worship that has ever existed on earth.

This worship will require everything from everyone.  For the unbeliever, it will require that they fully obey the Antichrist in every way, even killing all who do not worship him.  For the believer, it will require that they fully obey the one true God, Jesus Christ our Lord, and proclaim His gospel in the face of persecution, death, famine and every form of trial, enduring the unrighteousness of the wicked, so that “vengeance is the Lord’s”. The last great battle is a war over who will be worshiped.  And we know that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God.  Unlike the kingdom of darkness, we actually have the capacity to give true worship to the one we love.  See, Satan will force his worshipers to worship him.  Whoever doesn’t worship him will be put to death.  On the other hand, God, who is just, will only receive worship from those who freely desire to give Him worship.  That is why it says of these days, “Your workers will volunteer freely in the day of Your power” (Psalm 110)

Finally, once sin has reached its limit, and righteousness has been perfected among the people of God, Jesus will return and judge the nations.  The Prince of Peace will return as a Mighty Man of War, to destroy the work of Satan and kill all who worship the Antichrist.  Jesus will prevail over His enemies and deliver His faithful ones.  The Christians will be raptured and glorified, the leaders of the earth will be executed by the mighty right hand of God, and Satan’s influence over the nations of the earth will be put to an end.  The few inhabitants of the earth who had neither worshiped God nor the Antichrist will mourn unto repentance in Christ and become the seed that repopulates the earth during the reign of Christ over the nations.

The Church of Jesus Christ, His beloved bride, will rule and reign over the nations with Her beloved King.  They will together restore the nations, and the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas.

For this reason, and for many more, it is so important that we know the Mighty Man of War, our great and awesome Savior, Christ Jesus.  I exhort you to find Him in your bibles.  Search for Him! Run after this King of Glory!

May the zeal of the Lord of Hosts perform a great work in you!

Blessings and peace through Christ Jesus our Lord,

-jm