What God Does for Us in the Tribulation

I believe the rapture of the church happens at the singular return of Christ and that we do in fact go through the tribulation. I don't mind if you disagree but I see Scripture bearing witness to this reality and Isaiah helps me get there. In the 25-26 chapters, Isaiah describes God's protective care for His people through the end times. As the world will be judged, God's people will be shielded from the wrath of God. Not at all because we have deserved it or earned it but because we believed in the Son He has sent to save us. Now in Isaiah 27, the prophet enunciates God's activity in the spiritual realm as we see the world descend into chaos. 

Isaiah 27:1 (ESV) In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

The word for serpent is the same as in Genesis 3:1. Leviathan is a sea creature and beastly. It is clearly an image of the dragon of Revelation, satan himself either personified in a world leader or representing that rule from behind the visible. Isaiah uses the familiar last days refrain "in that day" to refer to the time of the end. 

The good news here is that in the last days, it will seem like the serpent is winning with the world roiling from wars, devastation, division, and hate. But God will be chasing him into a corner and ultimately destroying him completely. 

In the midst of this cosmic attack, the church, again is protected by God. 

Isaiah 27:2–3 (ESV) In that day, “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! 3 I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day;

God will not just provide protection, He will still be chastising His beloved and purging the evil from among them. Notice the next few verses:
Isaiah 27:4–5 (ESV) I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together. 5 Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.”

If among the people of God, there are sinful hearts, He will purge them with fire in order to turn them toward Himself. Then, as Revelation and Romans 9-11 make clear, God will raise up the nation of Israel once again as Holy ambassadors.
Isaiah 27:6 (ESV) In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.

What a wonderful promise of God. He will use Israel as He originally intended, to bless the nations with the goodness of God's truth. The chapter further illustrates God's disciplinary hand on Israel through the ages. And for sure, Israel has been handed from one world leader to another in her hardness toward the Gospel. But that age will come to an end, Israel will be raised to new life in Christ and teach the world to believe on Him.

The last two verses of Isaiah 27 illustrate that hope:
Isaiah 27:12–13 (NLT) Yet the time will come when the LORD will gather them together like handpicked grain. One by one he will gather them—from the Euphrates River in the east to the Brook of Egypt in the west. 13 In that day the great trumpet will sound. Many who were dying in exile in Assyria and Egypt will return to Jerusalem to worship the LORD on his holy mountain.

Notice that Isaiah references the trumpet of God. The feast of trumpets in October/November was held on the first day of the seventh month - a month signifying completion by number. The trumpet is sound and the Lord raptures His church in the air and returns with us to the Earth. The day of atonement being fulfilled as sin will be cast away forever. 

Leviticus 25:9–10 (ESV) Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan.

The kingdom has come and all the nations will return to worship Him forever. 

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