God Is Coming!

The LORD will be king over the whole earth (Zechariah 14:9).

God is coming. God is coming to earth to reign as king. Many years ago John Lennon wrote, "God is a concept." But his coming proves otherwise. God is real. Even though to many he is a philosophical idea, a warm thought, an ancient myth, he is very real.

You may say you believe in God. You may never call him a "concept" or a myth. But is he real to you? If you believe that he is really coming to earth to reign, then he must be real to you. If he is real to you, what kind of difference does he make in your life today?

If he is coming to reign, then current events are only temporary. None of the circumstances we find ourselves in will last forever. God will come and then the world will be everything that he always wanted it to be.

This Shabbat begins the festival of Sukkot (Booths). This is the time we remember the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness prior to entering the Promised Land. That was a time like no other. God was present with the people, miraculously guiding them and providing for them. Few times in history was God's reality so tangible as then.

So every year we are to remember that God is our guide, protector and provider. Even though he is invisible to our eyes and seems distant in many ways, he is real. And even though we spend much of our time struggling through the many problems of life, the God who was so present with us in the wilderness, is present with us today, and will be finally with us as king, tangibly and forever.

But how can we be sure? How can we know that the coming of God to earth will actually happen and is not myth after all?

We can know that God is coming, because he has always been true to his word. His coming is guaranteed, because he has already visited us once. The coming of Yeshua the Messiah the first time is the guarantee of God's future reign. No amount of religious fervor, and diligent adherence to rules and regulations will ever convince our hearts of God's reality. It is only if we humbly receive the Messiah into our hearts and lives that we can find assurance of a most glorious and secure future.