We are alive in an era of human history when we must almost exclusively “believe without seeing.”[1] Much like Abraham, we seek a city built by divine hands[2] but unlike Abraham, most of us have not heard a literal knock at the door and looked up to see the Lord stopping by for lunch.[3] “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,”[4] and we can but trust this was so. One day all injustices will end and all blasphemy will be silenced,[5] and we can but believe this Day is coming. In the meantime, we live through innumerable days and weeks and months and years of what we may call, borrowing language from the liturgical calendar, “ordinary time.” It would not be difficult to get caught up in the “cares of this world”[6] such that we simply “eat, drink, and be merry”[7] till we kick the bucket—and face the Lord.
Part of what makes this challenging is the tangible simplicity of life; I can see the fuel level in my gas tank dwindling as I drive. I can feel the weather. I see and hear the people around me. Drivers alongside me on the road agitate me; coffee first thing in the morning delights me. The mundane minutiae of life arrests all my attention. Yet this world is well and truly passing away;[8] it itself is groaning for rebirth, and it will itself be reborn.[9] Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Heaven is apprehended only by those violent enough to fight past the white noise of daily existence.[10]
This grueling war is not for the faint of heart; simply confronting the voice of unbelief that speaks before that first sip of coffee is tasted is enough to fatigue a soul less than a decade in. But, perhaps counter-intuitively, it is the same mundane minutiae lulling us to sleep that serves as the bridge of hope between this “present evil age”[11] and the glorious age of restoration soon coming. The Lord graciously set eternity in our hearts[12] to bait us, and even the sunrise prophesies every morning.[13] His promises are woven through every blade of grass, every bird’s nest, and even undergird plain readings of Scripture if we have ears to hear His whispers. Consider: Jesus has a horse. He literally has a literal horse.
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.” And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS.[14]
The Wisdom writings within the canon tell us “a righteous man regards the life of his animal,”[15] and we can trust Jesus the Righteous King takes good care of His horse. “But,” the proverb continues, “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel,”[16] and here we face the contrast of this age: good and evil. Righteousness and cruel injustice. Maybe you’re not an animal lover; this transcends horses. The inclusion of this proverb in the text tells me the eyes of the Lord, described elsewhere as seeing everything,[17] see even the slightest injustices. He sees when horses are treated improperly, and He is not unkind to His own. The Lord sees even the slightest distinction and deviation from His nature and character, and the Day is coming when even micro injustices will end—because Jesus has a horse.
“That’s cute,” you may say. “But I have bigger problems than how well horses I’ve never seen are being treated.” Unfortunately, that’s probably true. Maybe someone financially exploited you. Maybe someone has abused or assaulted you. Maybe you’ve had to bury someone you love. Maybe some asinine dictator on a demonic power trip bombed your town out and you’ve been living in a refugee shelter ever since. And one Day, every account unevenly extorted by a scoundrel will be settled.[18] Every assault will be avenged by the One who wove your frame together in your mother’s womb.[19] Every body that has one way or another returned to the dust will be returned to the soul of those who trust in Jesus, never vulnerable to corruption again.[20] Every instrument of war and violence will be melted down and repurposed into farming equipment so we can restore the earth under the global theocratic leadership of King Jesus.[21] All the macro, big picture, horrid injustices will both end and be avenged—because Jesus has a horse, and He will soon ride it to us.
We know “the Son of Man will come on the clouds in power and glory,”[22] but He does not float to us. He rides His horse to us.[23] As the psalmist cried,
You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Mighty One,
With Your glory and Your majesty.
And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth,
humility, and righteousness;
And Your right hand shall teach You awesome things.
Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King’s enemies;
The peoples fall under You.[24]
The apostles wisely asked Jesus what it would look like when He does, in fact and in real time, “gird His sword and ride gloriously” to us. He responded:
Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. [25]
So He does not randomly appear without notice, without prophetic warning to all those yet unsaved before the window of mercy closes. Sure, He will come “like a thief in the night” to those “asleep,”[26] but you are not asleep, beloved.[27] If you have the Scriptures and the help of the Holy Spirit, you are not in the dark. As we barrel towards the Day of the Lord, as crises mount and the pregnancy of this age approaches the escalating birth pangs and labor into the next age, we must “be sober, redeeming the time” because the present days are “evil.”[28] These mundane days are full of micro injustices, full of macro injustices, and all of them have an appointed end—when Jesus rides His horse.
We may feel a range of emotions about His soon return; lovesickness will cause us to see the “great”[29] and “blessed hope”[30] of the Day. But dread of the “terrible” nature of the time so actually unprecedented in its suffering weight should rightly cause us to pause and approach this soberly. It will weary “even the elect.”[31] Just the escalation between now and then will cause the “love of many to grow cold.”[32] Just the “beginning of sorrows.”[33] Consider though, the corrective admonition given to the prophet Jeremiah as he was wearied under the weight of the sin and its consequence upon his neighborhood and nation:
If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?[34]
Fighting the good fight of the faith[35] in the days of footmen requires we look beyond the minutiae of “ordinary time” and expect Jesus to make good on His word to return. Not one word uttered by the Lord will ever return void,[36] and He will not either. Heaven cannot, and will not, hold Him back forever.[37] Every “micro” injustice will be smashed under the full weight of His rule and authority. Every “macro” injustice will wither before Him when every knee bows and every tongue confesses His name and crown.[38] He will certainly return—and He will crack open every seal, command the sound of every trumpet, and oversee the full pouring of every bowl to prepare and purge this groaning creation for His great, terrible, and glorious ascent to the immutable throne first whispered of in Eden,[39] the crown promised to Him through David,[40] and awarded to Him following His obedient yield to Golgotha’s violent scourge.[41]
How we need this Day to come! And how privileged are we that we can partner with Him to hasten it.[42] Hear me: “no one knows the day or the hour,”[43] and I’m not suggesting we can manipulate the times and seasons set in the Father’s authority.[44] But we can read the Scriptures, and we can pay attention to the signs He’s marked out, and we can give ourselves to our mandate in the meantime, knowing He will not come until every nation receives a witness of the Gospel of the Kingdom.[45]
So “go ye therefore,”[46] and make disciples who make disciples—because Jesus has a horse, and He will ride to us at the sound of the seventh trumpet.
Stephanie Quick (@quicklikesand) is a writer/producer serving with FAI. She cohosts The Better Beautiful podcast with Jeff Henderson. Browse her free music, films, and books in the FAI App and at stephaniequick.org.
[1] John 20:29
[2] Hebrews 11:10
[3] See Genesis 18
[4] John 1:14
[5] Psalm 63:11; Isaiah 2:12-18; Romans 2:16; 3:19
[6] Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19
[7] Ecclesiastes 8:15; 9:7; Luke 12:19
[8] 1 Corinthians 7:31; 1 John 2:17
[9] Romans 8:22-29; see also Matthew 19:28 (“regeneration”) and Revelation 21:1-5
[10] Matthew 11:11-19
[11] Galatians 1:4
[12] Ecclesiastes 3:11
[13] Psalm 19:1-6
[14] Revelation 19:6-16, NKJV
[15] Proverbs 12:10a
[16] Proverbs 12:10b
[17] Job 31:4; Psalm 33:18; Isaiah 59:1
[18] Proverbs 20:22
[19] 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; see Psalm 139:13
[20] 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
[21] Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3
[22] Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 24:30; Mark 13:26
[23] Revelation 19:11-18
[24] Psalm 45:2-5, NKJV
[25] Matthew 24:4-8, NKJV
[26] 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, 6-7; 2 Peter 3:10
[27] 1 Thessalonians 5:4-10; 2 Peter 3:11-18
[28] Ephesians 5:15-18
[29] Joel 2:11; Titus 2:13
[30] Joel 2:11
[31] Matthew 24:22, 24; Mark 13:22
[32] Matthew 24:12
[33] Matthew 24:8
[34] Jeremiah 12:5, NKJV
[35] 1 Timothy 1:18; 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7; Jude 3-4
[36] Isaiah 55:11
[37] Acts 3:21
[38] Philippians 2:9-11
[39] Genesis 3:15
[40] See 2 Samuel 7; Psalm 110
[41] Philippians 2:9-11
[42] See 2 Peter 3:8-18, particularly verse 12
[43] Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32
[44] Acts 1:7
[45] Matthew 24:14
[46] Matthew 28:18-20
