“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.”[1] Peter’s first address to the City of the Great King[2] made these tenets clear: the testimony of the prophets continued through the tongues of the apostles—even the very one that had denied the Lord thrice before dawn barely two months prior[3]—and recounts very real events with very real people in very real places serving as evidence of one thing: God started something very real in Eden, and He’s really going to finish it. He wove Abraham into the Story of Eve’s Son to come.[4] Then He wove in Isaac, then Jacob. Then Judah. Moses. David. Joseph. Mary. You. Me. And here we now stand, reckoning with the blood He shed to secure the Everlasting Covenant He cut under the oak trees of Mamre in the hills of Hebron.[5] He came once to atone for sin and break the fangs of death, and He is coming again to rule and reign and restore all things—all things. Genesis again.
What have the locusts stolen from you?[6] God saw it.[7] He saw the loss, He saw the grief, He saw the crimes, He saw the injustices. He heard the insults, the accusations, the smears. He sees, He cares, and He is not ignoring the wounds. He will come, and He will heal all.[8] As Peter finished his first sermon, knowing “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,”[9] he closed his indictment of guilty men with bloody hands with this reference to a Davidic prophecy speaking to the promises of the glory to come purchased with the blood of Golgotha:
The Lord said to my Lord,
‘Sit at My right hand,
Until I make Your enemies Your footstool.’[10]
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made [Jesus of Nazareth] both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.[11]
Evangelists adore the way Luke worded the effect:
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the disciples, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’[12]
They were alarmed, to say the least, and they asked the right question. How do we respond appropriately? Is there a way to end this story well?
But does it not feel like Peter just quit preaching before he got to the last parts? Was there not another page or more of sermon notes to pull from?
No, beloved. He landed right where he needed to: “Until.”
“Until I make Your enemies Your footstool” is a preeminent promise in the most-quoted psalm in the New Testament. Jesus referred to it[13] to draw those who would hear into the nature of His Name and the end game of His meek but mighty purposes. Everyone in Israel, and certainly everyone in Jerusalem that significant Shavuot, knew the prophetic promises surrounding the Great “Until,” when every enemy of God will be vanquished. When the curse is drawn from the stones its haughty consequences have been carved into and blown like dust into the wind. When the condemnations of our treason in Eden find their limit and must bow to the One who was promised to win the war against the serpent’s seed and crush the head of that audacious deceiver who infected Paradise with an accusation against the only One who never lies.[14]
Isaiah provides us with a two-fold glimpse as to how these glorious promises have and will be secured, as succinct as the “MARANATHA” message: the Son of Man came once to atone for sin and death (Isaiah 53), and He is coming again to rule and reign and restore all things (Isaiah 63). We are infinitely more acquainted with the song of the Man “acquainted with sorrow,”[15] covered in His own blood as He pays the incredible debt incurred by Adam and all his sons. We are perhaps less acquainted with Him as He emerges from the “nations roundabout”[16] Israel, covered in the blood of His enemies who gave themselves to rage rather than repentance.[17] But it is the blood shed in Isaiah 53 that proves we can trust Him to shed the blood of Isaiah 63; indeed, “the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome,”[18] yet He approaches the scroll of authority like a Lamb “as though slain.”[19] Truly truly, all hail the bloody King.[20]
One promise perhaps most pertinent to us now as we endure a pandemic is this: one of the “enemies” of God is sickness. He hates all that afflicts our frames enough that He allowed us to wound Him, that He might heal us by His scars.[21] It is Heaven’s infallible intention to break the back of sickness, end disease, and guard us from death—forever. But to access these provisions, we must be born again.[22] Sickness will end, as will death. Pandemics will erode in the annals of bad memories we forget about in the “ages to come that will display the riches of His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”[23] We have hospitals now because we need them. We develop medicines now because we need them. The pharmaceutical industry—let’s go out on a wildly gracious limb and say it exists only to serve the unwell back into health—exists now because it intends to meet an ever-growing need.
But we won’t need them forever. One day, the Day, the medical and pharmaceutical industries will meet their intended and necessary end. Just like we’ll “melt our swords into plowshares”[24] and turn all our guns into farming equipment, so too will we strip every ambulance for scrap metal as we labor alongside the Messiah and rebuild the world anew. We will plunder hospitals and medical laboratories for parts to repurpose for something like irrigation in a now-underdeveloped country. This is our “blessed hope.”[25] Jesus’ return is our “blessed hope,” because we get Him and under His global leadership, every wrong thing will be made right.[26] The death that has tormented us since the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil[27] will end, fully and forever. Cancer, MS, Alzheimer’s—every affliction from small to great will cease, forever. All the corruption that so concerns us these days? He’ll take care of it all in the fullest and most final senses. We can take heart—the Lion of Judah has overcome the world.[28] This is rightly called “Good News.”
When Peter had an opportunity to speak to his nation, when he found himself with all eyes on him, he weaponized the moment to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom. To be sure, it was a particular context with generations of preliminary work behind it—I’m not advocating for immature, poorly strategized engagement methods—but he did not appeal to current events to make his point. He could have—the geopolitical climate and context of the apostles’ generation was as much of a dumpster fire as ours is—but he chose instead to prioritize the Mandate given to all who call upon the Name of the LORD.[29] Peter set his eyes on the Kingdom coming, the Day of the LORD, and the Son of David destined to rule from a hill right where Peter was standing that day. He pointed every ear that heard him that day to eternity: to the resurrection, the Judgment, and the reconciliation and restoration of all things.
This is the message we must prioritize.
Let me be explicitly clear: If you cracked this article open because the click-bait title intrigued you, or because you are salivating over dreams of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s demise, this is not the high-five you’re looking for. To begin with, “the Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked,”[30] and if there is anyone—and only the Lord can truly see the hearts of men and women[31]—living in disobedience to His Word,[32] raging against His present authority and coming rule,[33] it is ours who follow the slaughtered Messiah to meekly plead for mercy while it is available to the wicked, and get to work declaring the Gospel of the Kingdom[34] with both our words and lives while we can. To truly “rescue those staggering away to slaughter.”[35]
If the Day is coming when the resurrected redeemed cannot cry, get sick, or die—and it is—and if the Day is coming when every committed rebel is justly condemned to an everlasting death in a fire no one can quench[36]—and it is—then we must look beyond our current events, however legitimate they may be, however confusing and complicated they may be, and prioritize the only thing that will matter in eternity: whether or not the soul of a man was washed by the water of the enduring Word of the Everlasting God.[37] We may not make disciples of cultural opinions. We either make disciples of the Great King, or we are wildly disobedient and negligent ourselves.[38] If then we are still “saved as though by fire,”[39] we will have squandered all our numbered days and measured talents.[40] Who cares if someone does or does not wear a mask or get a shot if their heart is yet uncircumcised? Do you? Is anyone liberated from age-old bondage to death by subscribing to a half-educated position on a temporary issue, or are we not all saved by One Name under heaven?[41] What are you prioritizing in these tumultuous days spent barreling towards the birth pangs[42] of the Day of the LORD? What prioritized message are you bearing to those you meet—is it anything less than the Gospel of the Kingdom?[43] If so, grieve the opportunities you have squandered and repent.
Prioritize the preeminence of Jesus. Make disciples who stare into the promises of eternity so that they can stand when all is shaking[44]—and remember you can’t lead anyone into anything you can’t do yourself. If the COVID Era has rattled you, return to the Rock and reevaluate how and what you’re building.[45] Look to the coming of the One who will judge the quick and the dead.[46] Look to the One coming with rewards[47] and a sure path to the Restoration of all things[48] and reconciliation of Heaven and Earth for eternity.
The pharmaceutical industry is a temporary institution. We only need healthcare for as long as we are stuck with fallible frames, and those days are numbered. This night of sickness, decay, and death in the Exile will soon be over.[49] The greater Joshua will come, and resurrect His beloved ones. We will work with Him to restore the world to Eden again, but this time with more than just one man and just one woman. Jesus has an inheritance to fill the nations, the New Jerusalem, and the dinner table at the Wedding Feast. In the meantime, we get to help Him crowd it out as much as possible. That’s our dignity, our privilege. Let us not “bury”[50] it in the name of lesser hopes or unworthy allegiances.
Maranatha.
Stephanie Quick (@quicklikesand) is a writer/producer serving with FAI. She lives in the Golan Heights and cohosts The Better Beautiful podcast with Jeff Henderson. Browse her free music, films, and books in the FAI App and at stephaniequick.org.
[1] Acts 2:14b, ESV
[2] Psalm 48:2; Matthew 5:35
[3] See Matthew 26, Luke 14, Mark 22, and John 18. Jesus ascended 44 days later (Acts 1:3).
[4] See Genesis 3:15, chs. 12, 15, etc.
[5] See Genesis 15
[6] Joel 2:25
[7] Genesis 16:13
[8] Revelation 21:1-5
[9] Revelation 19:10
[10] Psalm 110:1
[11] Acts 2:36
[12] Acts 2:37
[13] Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42-43
[14] See Genesis 3:15; Numbers 23:19; Psalm 12:6
[15] Isaiah 53:3
[16] Ezekiel 36:36
[17] Isaiah 63:1-6
[18] Revelation 5:5
[19] Revelation 5:6
[20] “All Hail the Bloody King,” by Dalton & Anna Thomas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYil5gRmMLI (See related article: https://www.faipublishing.org/articles/all-hail-bloody-king)
[21] Isaiah 53:5
[22] John 3:3
[23] Ephesians 2:7
[24] Isaiah 2:2-4
[25] Titus 2:13
[26] Revelation 21:1-5
[27] See Genesis 3
[28] John 16:33; Revelation 5:5
[29] Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 10:42
[30] Ezekiel 33:11
[31] 1 Samuel 16:7
[32] Ephesians 2:1-4
[33] Psalm 2:1-3
[34] Matthew 24:14
[35] Proverbs 24:11
[36] Revelation 20:10
[37] Isaiah 40:6-8; Ephesians 5:26; Hebrews 12:24
[38] Matthew 28:18-20; Romans 1:14-17
[39] 1 Corinthians 3:15
[40] Matthew 25:14-30
[41] Acts 4:12
[42] Matthew 24:8
[43] Matthew 24:24
[44] Ephesians 6:13; Hebrews 12:27
[45] Matthew 7:24-27; 1 Corinthians 3”9-15
[46] Acts 10:42; 2 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5
[47] Revelation 22:12
[48] Acts 3:21
[49] See “This Night Will Soon be Over” by Dalton & Anna Thomas: https://www.faipublishing.org/music/night
[50] Matthew 25:24-30
