The Many Comings Of The Lord

In the midst of high winds on a shrimp boat, Forest Gump’s Lieutenant Dan challenged God. Then Forest said, “And God showed up” (in a hurricane). There is a sense in which the Lord has come many times in judgment and in salvation. He has come several times bringing the armies of other nations with Him. Let us allow the word of God to wash our brains from non-biblical concepts. Please look at the following examples of the Lord’s many comings in Scripture. Let our minds be cleansed by “the washing of water by the word” (Eph 5:26) and allow it to teach us to think biblically.


God Came Down To The Tower of Babel
Gen 11:5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

God Came Down To Visit Sarah
Gen 18:10 And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.”

God Came Down To Sodom
Gen 18:21 “I will go down now [to Sodom] …”

God Came Down To Deliver Israel From Egypt
Exo 3:8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land.

The Lord Came Down To Deliver Deborah
Jud 5:13 Then the survivors came down, the people against the nobles; The LORD came down for me against the mighty.

God Came Down To Deliver David
Ps 18:9 He bowed the heavens also, and came down
With darkness under His feet.

God Brought a Nation With Him From Afar
Deut 28:49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand.

The LORD Came With His Army of Medes to Destroy Babylon
Isaiah 13 The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw… The noise of a multitude in the mountains, Like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters the army for battle. They come from a far country, From the end of heaven-- The LORD and His weapons of indignation, To destroy the whole land. Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it… For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them (Isa 13:1,4,5,10,17 NKJV). [Fulfilled 536 BC]

The Lord Came To Egypt With Babylon
The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst (Isa 19:1NKJV).

Clark’s Commentary and many others say this was fulfilled when Babylon punished Egypt.

The Lord Came Down And Defeated Assyria
Isaiah 31:4b So the LORD of hosts will come down To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill

John Gill’s Commentary says God came down against the Assyrian army around 720 BC. We see the Lord’s coming many times in the Old Testament. In observing the preceding examples, could it not be that Jesus was speaking the same Holy Spirit language in the Olivet Discourse? Is there some reason He would speak differently from all the other inspired Hebrew prophets just as He had always spoken through them?
The description of Christ’s coming in Matthew 24 is similar to the coming in Daniel 7. Jesus is obviously citing what Daniel described. “One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days …” (Dan 7:13 NKJV). “…[T]hey will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mat 24:30). Jesus again referred to Daniel 7 when He said to the High Priest, “hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Mat 26:64). Nowhere else in the Old Testament is this terminology,“Son of Man coming on the clouds,” used except in Daniel 7. But notice that in Daniel He is not coming to earth. He is coming to the Ancient of Days. Did He not do that in the ascension to the Father? How then, would the High Priest see this since he died around A.D. 40? Could it be that he would see it after he had died? How could he see Christ ascending to the Father after it had already taken place? It seems to be a hieroglyphic word picture meaning that he would meet Christ at the judgment seat and see His ascended authority.
Jesus also said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Mat 16:28). Some explain this by saying that Peter, James, and John saw him coming in His kingdom in the next chapter at the Mount of Transfiguration. But if we say that they saw Him coming then, what is the difference in saying that He came in His kingdom in A.D. 70? Did He not also say, “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20 NKJV). The sign of His coming and the end of the Old Testament age came with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Through that sign every eye saw him coming and not just his disciples to whom He had appeared resurrected.

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Mat 24:30 NKJV).

Just because every eye saw it does not mean they acknowledged it, just as Ezekiel prophesied concerning the destruction of the first Temple that they would “know I am the LORD.”

And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them (Ezek 6:10 NKJV).

Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words says the word translated coming when the disciples asked about the sign of His coming (Mat 24:3) is the Greek word parousia. It means presence. Jesus said He would be with us to the end of the age (Mat 28:20). He also said He would be present where two or three are gathered in His name (Mat 18:20). Below is what Vine says.

parousia>
lit., "a presence," para, "with," and ousia, "being" (from eimi, "to be"), denotes both an "arrival" and a consequent "presence with." For instance, in a papyrus letter a lady speaks of the necessity of her parousia in a place in order to attend to matters relating to her property there. Paul speaks of his parousia in Philippi, Phil. 2:12 (in contrast to his apousia, "his absence;" see ABSENCE). Other words denote "the arrival"…

But the word for coming in Mat. 24:30 (“coming on the clouds”) is not parousia (presence), but is erchomai. It means “to come” or to “arrive.” Jesus was quoting Daniel 7 where Daniel saw the Son of Man coming with the clouds to the Ancient of Days. He “arrived” in the ascension and sat down at the right hand of the Father.

These Comings Are Also Called Visitations.
Please analyze how the Lord’s coming and His visitations are used in the Scriptures listed below. You will see that His presence and His visitations were not meant as physically present, but as spiritually present.

1 Sam 2:21 And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile the child Samuel grew before the LORD.

Psalm 17:3 You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

Psalm 106:4 Remember me, O LORD, with the favor You have toward Your people; Oh, visit me with Your salvation

Psalm 80:14 Return, we beseech You, O God of hosts; Look down from heaven and see, And visit this vine

Jer 15:15 O LORD, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Do not take me away in Your longsuffering. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.

Jer 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place

Amos 3:14 "That in the day I punish Israel for their transgressions, I will also visit destruction on the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.

1Peter 2:12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Luke 19:43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side 44 "and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."

Acts 15:14 Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.

Gen 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as He had spoken.

Gen 50:24 And Joseph said to his brethren, "I am dying; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land of which He swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

Luke 1:68 "Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people,

Luke 1:78 Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us;

1Peter 2:12… they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

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