“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be…” Matthew 24:37
The prophet Daniel lived approximately five hundred and fifty years before the coming of Christ, the Messiah. And yet, while he was in captivity in Babylon, remaining in the service of at least four kings, God gave him a vision of the angel Gabriel coming to speak, and reveal to him of future events, some of which were to occur about five hundred years later. Perhaps the greatest of these events concerned the first coming of Christ the Messiah, when He appeared on the pages of history in Bethlehem at His birth, and then after his ministry, at His crucifixion. Gabriel told Daniel, “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks.” (9:25) Gabriel went on to say, “After threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” (v.26) Gabriel is declaring to Daniel, even though he be a captive in a foreign land, that there is coming a very specific day and time when the Messiah will come and minister in Israel. He also pinpoints the time of His crucifixion at the end of His ministry. Such is the clear declaration by heaven’s messenger that Christ was to come, live, and die, with the corresponding fact that Jerusalem and the sanctuary would be destroyed, which it was in 70 A.D.
The importance of the first coming of Christ is beyond description and measure. It was foretold from the earliest pages of the book of Genesis, throughout the writings of “all” the Prophets, and as Jesus put it, “…in all the scriptures.” (Luke 24:27) The Scriptures “preached” Christ, and His coming, from the very beginning of time, and this, most certainly to create in the heart of the true believer an anticipation of the realization of it. The application to the life of this “waiting” for Christ’s coming, was the call to live a holy life, for the certainty of the meeting with God would surely come. In a most wonderful way, the hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt captures something of the great and wonderful glory of this meeting with the believer, when he wrote: “Who is this, who comes to meet me, On the desert way, As the Morning Star foretelling God’s unclouded day? He it is who came to win me, On the Cross of shame; In His glory well I know Him Evermore the same.” Christ would come the first time, this Messiah, the One who comes in the name of the Lord, to be the sacrificial Lamb of God, the Savior of the world, and the Redeemer of all men, specifically those who would trust Him wholly. Though in God’s wisdom and power, Jesus was born in a very lowly manner in Bethlehem, and “hidden” as the Messiah until His baptism at the Jordan River, there would always be those along the way whose eyes were opened by the Spirit, who would recognize who He was. And though there came those very terrible days of the crucifixion and burial of Christ, there would arise out of that tragedy of suffering and loss, a Hope that would endure, with the promise to be fully realized in heaven.
The second coming of Christ has also been foretold, and this somewhat for similar reasons, although, when He comes then, He will come for His own as at the beginning, but it will also be to openly conquer His enemies and judge the world. He will come to establish His kingdom on this earth, in the hearts of men, “on earth as it is in heaven.” He will deal drastically with the unbeliever, that one who defies Him, who will not “kiss the Son,” embracing Him as one’s sole Savior and Lord. The true believer lives in expectancy, seeking to be joyfully faithful.
Dear Father, Give us Thy expectancy. In Jesus’ name. Amen.