The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
Zechariah 12:10
The rabbis teach that the Messiah will return when every single Jew in the world keeps the same Sabbath. Once again, they use human works as a basis for a relationship with ADONAI. He, however, desires repentance and faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
The Rapture of the Church has no requirements and can come at any moment. But the Second Coming of Jesus Christ has an enormous requirement. However, before we can understand the basis for His return, we must understand His rejection.
Long before the birth of Yeshua, the ancient rabbis separated miracles into two categories. Those miracles that anyone could do if they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, and secondly, miracles that only the Messiah could perform. These messianic miracles were taken from Isaiah 35:5-6 (see my commentary on Isaiah, to see link click Gl – Three Messianic Miracles). The purpose of these messianic miracles was to serve a sign to the nation of Isra’el to force them to come to a decision about them. Unfortunately, because of their belief in the Oral Law (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law), the Jewish leadership led the nation into rejecting Jesus on the basis of demon possession (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Ek – It is only by Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons, That This Fellow Drives Out Demons).
Therefore, just as the Jewish leadership once led the nation into rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, they must one day lead the nation to accepting Jesus as the Messiah. This explains the devil’s war against the Jews throughout history in general, and during the Great Tribulation in particular. The Adversary knows that when Christ returns, his freedom will end. Satan also knows that Jesus will not come back until the Jewish leaders ask Him to come back. So if Satan can succeed in destroying the Jews once and for all before they come to national repentance, then Jesus will not come back and Satan’s free reign will be eternally secure. That is why once Satan is confined to the earth (12:7-12), during the second half of the Great Tribulation, he knows his time is short and he expends all his satanic energies to try and destroy the Jews once and for all. Anti-Semitism in any form, whether it is active or passive, racial, ethnic, national, economic, political, religious or theological, it is all part of the satanic strategy to avoid the Second Coming.407
The two fold basis, then, for the Second Coming of Yeshua the Messiah is first, Isra’el must confess her national sin (Isaiah 53:1-9), and secondly, she must plead for Him to return. There are seven passages that reveal the basis for the Second Coming.
Through the acceptance of the third sign of Jonah to the nation, the resurrection of the Two Witnesses (Dm), the Jews in Jerusalem will become believers. They, along with the preaching of the 144,000 Jews (Cr), will evangelize the leaders of Isra’el with the gospel. These leaders will then lead the nation to confession of their national sin of the rejection of the Messiah and then plead for His return.
First, they must confess their national sin and the national sin of their fathers (Leviticus 26:40-42). Moses predicted the Jews would be scattered all over the world because of their rejection of Jesus. But here in Leviticus, ADONAI, says that He has every intention of giving Isra’el all the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant during the Messianic Kingdom if only they will confess their national sin and the national sin of their fathers when they rejected Jesus as the Anointed One.
Secondly, Jeremiah 3:11-18 the prophet begins to describe the blessings that God has in store for Isra’el during the Messianic Kingdom. It will be a time of tremendous blessing and restoration for the Jewish people when Christ establishes His Kingdom. But all of the blessings mentioned will be conditional. Only acknowledge your guilt – you have rebelled against ADONAI your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed Me, declares ADONAI.
Thirdly, God’s prophet Hosea declares: Then I will go back to My place until they acknowledge their offense and admit their guilt. And they will seek My face; in their misery they will earnestly seek Me (Hosea 5:15). Jesus went back to heaven after His ascension. Because of that one specific offense (the word is singular) committed against Him, He returned to heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:9). Hosea tells us that Jesus will not return until the offense that caused Him to leave is acknowledged. That offense was His rejection by the Jewish leadership and the nation of Isra’el as a whole. In addition, Hosea is the only prophet that tells us how long this national confession will last: After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us (Hosea 6:1-3). So he prophesies that Isra’el will confess her sins and plead for Messiah to return for two days, and then on the third day all Isra’el will be saved (Romans 11:26a).
Dear Holy Heavenly Father, You are so wise! You created the mankind to love You so You could take them to live in heaven with you forever – but first they must accept the sacrifice of Your Son Yeshua as the sin offering for their sin.He made the One who knew no sin to become a sin offering on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). Satan will be working extra hard persecuting the Jews, but You are in control and will turn His evil into good. The persecution will cause the Jews to finally recognize Jeshua as the Messiah that they have been looking for, the Holy Jewish Messiah of the world. They will mourn.
Fourthly, Zechariah Chapters 12, 13 and 14 are one prophetic revelation, a unit of thought that develops one theme. Chapter 13 speaks of the national cleansing of Isra’el from their sin. Chapter 14 describes the Second Coming and the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom. But the cleansing of Isra’el and the Second Coming are all conditional on one verse: And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look to Me, the One they have pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son (Zechariah 12:10). It is important to understand that the Jews will say: They will look to Me, not look upon Me. These are two separate Hebrew words. The Hebrew word alay means to look upon or to see; however, the Hebrew word elay means to look to in faith. The Jews will not merely see Christ like the rest of the unbelieving world, but they will look to Him in faith. Before Isra’el can receive the cleansing of her national sin and before Christ will return to establish His Kingdom, Isra’el must first look to the One they have pierced in faith and plead for Him to return. Once they do this, and only then, will they receive their cleansing and begin to enjoy the blessings of the Kingdom.
Fifthly, in Isaiah 59:1-15a, at the end of the Tribulation, when the antichrist and the armies of the world tighten the noose around the neck of the Jews in Jerusalem and Bozrah (see the commentary on Isaiah Kg – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Bozrah), the spiritual scales will fall from their eyes and the one-third of the Jews still alive confess their national sin in general terms. One of the three purposes of the Great Tribulation is to break the stubbornness of the Jewish nation (Dani’el 11-12; Ezeki’el 20:34-38). It is through the crucible of the Great Tribulation that Isra’el will be brought to repentance.
Sixthly, in Isaiah 53:1-9, we see the death of the Servant on the cross and as a result, Isra’el’s national confession at the end of the Great Tribulation. These verses contain Isra’el’s prayer in more specific terms at the end to the Great Tribulation that brings about the Second Coming of Christ. The actual words of this prayer are found in four key passages of Scripture, first, in Psalm 79:1-13, secondly in Psalm 80:1-19, thirdly here in Isaiah 53:1-9, and lastly in Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12. All tenses are prophetic perfects, or future events looked upon as already taken place.
Lastly, Matthew records Jesus’ condemnation of the Scribes and Pharisees, the Jewish leadership of that day, for leading the nation in the rejection of the Messiah. Jesus said: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:37-39). Speaking directly to the Jewish leadership, and repeats His desire to gather them if they would only accept Him. But because they had rejected Him, instead of being gathered they would be scattered. Their house, the Jewish Temple, will be left desolate and will be destroyed, with nothing remaining. Then He announces that they will not see Him again until they say the messianic blessing: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. When they speak those words, they will have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.408
Thus, at the end of the Great Tribulation, as the armies of the antichrist are closing in on Petra, and as the Jews in Jerusalem await execution for refusing the mark of the beast, the spiritual scales will fall from their eyes and they finally realize that Yeshua is the Messiah. At that time they will confess their national sin and plead for Him to return. Two-thirds of the Jews that entered the Great Tribulation will be struck down and perish; yet the one-third will be left. Jesus says: This third I will bring into the fire of the Great Tribulation; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name and I will answer them. I will say, “They are My people,” and they will say, “ADONAI is our God” (Zechariah 13:8-9). And so all Isra’el will be saved (Romans 11:26a), and receive their glorified bodies at that time going into the Messianic Kingdom.
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