The Reign of Yahweh’s Anointed
Introduction
Easter is upon us, and rather than rehash the same old narrative of the death and resurrection (which, by the way, is all good), I am choosing today to look to the future (with the image above as the Lion of Judah, the second advent of Christ as per Revelation 1) AND the past through Psalm 2. With this stark imagery, we gain a proper perspective of the sanctified.
The sanctified worship the Lion of Judah, who will one day destroy all those without due sacrificial spiritual slavery to Christ, with due reverential honour of His death and resurrection. When the Lion of Judah appears, we will be given our resurrection bodies (whatever that may be), and we will be with Christ forever.
This essay is a reflection on who I am in Christ today. I suffer daily at the hands of so-called believers as I traverse the lukewarmness of Laodicea, where the Lion of Judah is rarely spoken of. We prefer the image of the baby Jesus in the manger, so we can all goo-goo and gah-gah at Him. Many of us remain in our past-justified state, with the image of the cross in our jewellery and houses, firmly emblazoned in our minds. These are the Creasters among us, the Christmas and Easter worshippers.
Is this how we are to live today as sanctified saints?
How many of us truly live in fear of Yahweh and His mighty hand?
Psalm 2 prepared Israel for the day Yahweh called “time” on Israel for their constant disobedience and gave the apostates a taste of the solution to their recalcitrance.
Psalms 2:1-12 LSB Why do the nations rage And the peoples meditate on a vain thing? (2) The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against Yahweh and against His Anointed, saying, (3) “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” (4) He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord mocks them. (5) Then He speaks to them in His anger And terrifies them in His fury, saying, (6) “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.” (7) “I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. (8) ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth as Your possession. (9) ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like a potter’s vessel.’” (10) So now, O kings, show insight; Take warning, O judges of the earth. (11) Serve Yahweh with fear And rejoice with trembling. (12) Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Psalm 2 is prophetic, and it proclaims three primary occurrences:
- The recalcitrance of mankind against the authority of Yahweh;
- Yahweh’s disdain for the non-stop rebellion;
- Yahweh’s solution to the problem.
1 – The Problem
Psalms 2:1-3 LSB Why do the nations rage And the peoples meditate on a vain thing? (2) The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against Yahweh and against His Anointed, saying, (3) “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”
Satan has so infiltrated the thinking of mankind that their kings stand firmly in opposition to Yahweh, including many of our Laodicean Pastors, conspiring together to destroy both Yahweh and those He has chosen as His holy agents.
Satan is very good at his job!
Is this a phenomenon that only occurred in David’s day?
I think not!
David’s kingship was a divine appointment delivered through Samuel, Yahweh’s anointed prophet of the time. Yet the nations raged against David to no avail. David passed the divine appointment to his son Solomon, who fulfilled the blessings bestowed on Israel through the Abrahamic Covenant until he became a corrupted and perverse man, taking hundreds of wives and concubines from many nations and turning Israel to the worship of idols. (See 1 Kings 11)
Can we not see the satanic influence on Solomon?
Yahweh blessed Solomon upon his ascension to the throne of Israel, bestowing upon him great wealth and lands as king. His corruption led to his spiritual demise, and Yahweh responded by removing him from the kingship. This led to the split of the kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah (which included Jerusalem).
2 – Yahweh’s Disdain for Rebellion
Psalms 2:4-5 LSB He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord mocks them. (5) Then He speaks to them in His anger And terrifies them in His fury, saying,
We see in 1 Kings the anointing of Solomon as King of Israel and the warning against idolatry that Yahweh gave Solomon on His second appearance:
1 Kings 9:6-9 LSB “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have given before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, (7) then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have set apart as holy for My name, I will cast out of My presence. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. (8) “And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will feel desolate and hiss and say, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this land and to this house?’ (9) “And they will say, ‘Because they forsook Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore Yahweh has brought all this calamity on them.’”
What has changed today?
We have syncretised paganism with The Way to form a hybrid mish-mash of apostasy led firstly by the Vicar of Christ, then the Reformers (who failed to vanquish the evil in the institutions) and finally to Laodicea, where our seminary-trained theologians have watered down our Gospel of Truth to nothing more than a social get-together where smiling and agreeing is the “soup de jour”.
3 – The Solution
Daniel 9:24 LSB “Seventy weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies.
The crucifixion of Christ was the fulfilment of this prophecy.
Our job today is as stated in Psalm 2:
Psalms 2:12 LSB Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Kissing the Son does not just entail going to church and paying your 10% tithe. These are good things, but not ALL that is required. We are to be slaves to Christ.
Romans 1:1 LSB Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, having been set apart for the gospel of God,
James 1:1 LSB James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes who are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2 Peter 1:1 LSB Simeon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received the same kind of faith as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:
Jude 1:1 LSB Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are the called, beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
Revelation 1:1 LSB The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His slaves the things which must soon happen; and He indicated this by sending it through His angel to His slave John,
Conclusion
Our constant looking back to the cross subtly subverts the focus of our attention, shifting it from matters of our present salvation, which is sanctification, to the past tense of our salvation, which is justification.
A sanctified saint has his/her name written in the Book of Life and will receive their resurrected body on the day the Lion of Judah appears.
Colossians 1:15-23 LSB Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (16) For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. (17) And He is before all things, And in Him all things hold together. (18) And He is the head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. (19) For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, (20) And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross—through Him—whether things on earth or things in heaven. (21) And although you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and in evil deeds, (22) but now He reconciled you in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— (23) if indeed you continue in the faith firmly grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
Have a great Easter, sanctified saints!
Geoff
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