Signs of the Times

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him (Jesus) asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say,'It will be fair weather for the sky is red'; and in the morning,' It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.' Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. " (Matthew 16:1-3)

When one speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ second coming, the question that inevitably pops up is 'What are the signs that point to His return?' This is important because the Christian is specially commanded to 'watch and pray' for His second advent. For the reward of the crown of righteousness of the 'blessed hope' awaits those who long for His second coming (2 Timothy 4:8).
However, before we examine that, I would like to address the warnings and signs given through God's prophets of Old about His impending judgments well ahead of time. Yet the people in their respective generations failed to time and again heed the warning signs of their times. We need to look at these in order not to repeat the same foolish mistakes many of them made that eventually sealed their destiny. As the prophet Amos warned, " Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7)

1) The Flood

God instructed Noah (a righteous man of his time) to warn the people and build an ark to save himself and his family from the impending flood that God will bring to judge the earth due to evil and wickedness among the people. The people failed to heed God's warning and the great flood inundated the earth, destroying everything saved those inside Noah's ark.

2) Sodom and Gomorrah

Before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, God sent two angels to warn the people there of the impending destruction of the two cities due to sins and wicked deeds. The warnings were ignored and even scoffed at by the family members of Lot, Abraham's nephew. The two cities were totally destroyed and the fate of the residents sealed in history.

3) Pharaoh

Through His chosen prophet Moses, God warned Pharaoh to let the Hebrews to leave the land of Egypt so that they could gather to worship Him. However, Pharaoh constantly refused to concede to God's demands led to the unleashing of the ten plagues in the land of Egypt that resulted in untold sufferings to the Egyptians. Again, at the Red Sea, Pharaoh's army suffered total destruction as they chased God's people across the desert, despite seeing the hand of God at work for the Hebrews.

Similarly, long before the Messiah (Jesus Christ) was to come as the incarnate Son of God to dwell among men, warnings and signs were given well ahead of time. Yet they missed it all because they turned to the traditions of their fathers rather than the inspired Word of God!

Let's look at some of the signs of the times that preceeded the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ some two thousand years ago.

1) Daniel's Prophecy

In the book of Daniel chapter 9:24-27, it was recorded the prophecy of the 'Seventy Weeks'.
Such is a prophetic revelation from God to mankind upon which all other bible prophecy hinges.
The 'seventy weeks' mentions in Daniel 9 refers to seventy times seven years, equivalent to four hundred and ninety years. In that context, 'weeks' refers to years because Daniel was thinking in terms of the seventy years in captivity by the Babylonians after which his people will be freed as written by prophet Jeremiah.

The 490 years timeline would start from the going forth to restore and rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem given in a decree by King Artaxerxes to Nehemiah to supervise the rebuilding efforts. This is a peiod of 483 years (69 times seven) between the issue of the edict to the time of the appearance of the Anointed One (Jesus Christ) as a Prince.

The issue is when is this time in the Lord's life to be considered as having presented Himself as Priest and King? Not at birth as He came a humble babe born in a manger. Not in the prime of His ministry as He would not put forth Himself as King even though He was anointed of the Holy Spirit. But at His entry into Jerusalem, four days before His crucifixion. The crowd hailed Him as their King as recorded in Luke 19:38, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" It is also a fulfillment of Zachariah 9:9. According to the Jewish calendar of 360 days in a year, the year B.C 445 when the edict was issued by King Artaxerxes to rebuild Jerusalem to the time of Christ entry into Jerusalem in 32 A.D is 483 years.

But then is the balance of seven (7) years to make up the 490 years? The last seven years will be the time of tribulation (judgment on earth) when God will deal with the nation of Israel according to the laws of the Old Testament.

2) The Heavenly Sign

Balaam prophesied in Numbers 24:17 that a Star (the Messiah) will come out of Jacob and that a scepter (governmental authority) shall rise out of Israel. He will have power to destroy the enemies and punish the sons of lawlessness. These imply absolute power and authority which rightly belong to the King of the Jews (Jesus Christ). The wise men of the east knew this sign but not the scribes and the Pharisees.

3) The Scepter of Judah

In Genesis 49:10, Jacob told his son Judah that the scepter shall not depart from his tribe until Shiloh (Messiah) comes. As the scepter is a symbol of governmental authority, it has the power to discharge punishment for capital offence.

When Jesus was convicted of death sentence passed by the Sanhedrin, and brought before Pilate to be executed, Pilate told the crowd to judge Him according to Jewish laws. To which the Jews replied that they could not execute the death sentence as the scepter had departed from Judah since Shiloh had come. (John 18:31)

It would be obvious to anyone who had studied the Word of God that the signs all point to the presence of the Messiah. Yet they failed to see and understand the signs of the times. In like manner, it would be tragic for the church of the twenty-first century to repeat the same mistakes of our spiritual forefathers of generations passed.


Adrian Fah is the author of The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven