DECEMBER 21 "WHAT ARMIES ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?"

  What armies are we talking about here?  When I think of Heaven, I don’t think of armies. I think of ‘Ol Saint Francis sitting on a cloud, playing a Harp.  In Zechariah Jesus keeps being referred to as “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies”.  Armies in Heaven, really? Armies for what? Aren’t armies for war?  What wars? Celestial Wars? Two of the highest box office hits were “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter”. Why are we so fascinated with the epic movies about wars between evil and good. Is our fascination with fiction, perhaps not really a fascination with fiction, but rather a fascination with what we innately know to be non-fiction. Christian movies don’t tend to do well at the Box Office, but one movie that did particularly well was “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Again, a movie about evil being at war with good, talking animals, heavenly beings and demonic beasts. As we near the end of the year, it’s amazing how the Old Testament begins to mirror the New Testament. Epic movies of mass armies going to war are also another strong pull at the box office. There is a rumbling in the air of a celestial war on the horizon. It will not be the 1st, but according to scripture, it will be the last. The Battle of Armageddon will be the Epic Motion Picture of all Time, it’s interesting that no producer has dared to try to take that project on. Perhaps the magnitude and strength of “The Lord’s Armies” would not make such a great motion picture because the battle would be to lopsided. Aside from the fascinating beasts and Angelic Hosts that could be displayed, the war itself would be quite lopsided.  We would not be on the edge of our seats, wondering who wins.  People like to dismiss scriptures they don’t’ understand as simply, “symbolic” or “metaphors” and some are, but not today in our text. There is no symbolic terminology here in our text. Jesus is a literal Lord of a literal Army. It’s a vast army and so is the evil army they will face. Jesus will lead his army on a white horse and he will come to conquer. This Jesus will not be the meek Jesus who rode into Jerusalem on a Donkey to be crucified. The World might seem, right now, like it is winning and the Church right now, may seem like it is losing, but that is all going to change in the last quarter of the game. There is an army in Heaven, that is more than ready and waiting for that day and we’d better make sure, we are on the right side of good and evil, when that day happens. As a matter of a fact, why not make sure you’re on the right side today! 

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