Prosperity comes when a people live in harmony with God. It will be a day when the land yields its harvest and all is well, and the Lord heals the wounds of His people.
But this is also a day of judgement. Verse 25 talks of a day of great slaughter, and verses 27 onwards of God's wrath. There is a need to overturn the rebellion. The image of Torpeth is used at the end, which is like an image of the traditional view of hell.
At the same time there is great rejoicing on the part of God's people (verse 29). So what are we to make of these seemingly conflicting themes, for they do not sit easily with our normal view of things.
Well we need to understand that judgement is necessary. This is part of the reason why Jesus had to go to the cross. At the end we will see the judgement of God, and we will understand the judgement of God.
There is a lot of debate about whether the fire images of hell are real or just pictorial. Ie will there be a real hell or not? The short answer is yes. People sometimes talk of hell as being eternal separation from God, and this may well be true. But suppose you tell an atheist that he is going to be separated from God forever. Is this going to worry him or cause him to reconsider his life? Will it give him any idea of the likely consequences of his present choices? No, for he will have no conception of what complete separation from God would be like. The fire images of hell used here and by Jesus are far more useful, for everyone gets the message that hell is to be avoided at all costs. Whether they choose to take any action or not is up to them, but at least they have the opportunity to appreciate the seriousness of the matter.
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