I reckon. In my childhood, this common phrase communicated assent with resignation more than conviction. Are you coming inside? I reckon. Do you want leftovers for dinner? I reckon. Shouldn’t you be doing your homework? I reckon. To reckon in this sense means to think or suppose, but literally it means to count up or tally such things as a debt or wages, in order to settle accounts.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 6:23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.6.23.NLT
The Bible speaks of a day of reckoning, historically for Israel and for her enemies, and futuristically involving the people of God and God’s enemies. Jesus spoke of this day with his disciples on many occasions. They had questions which He answered in part, and we are privy to these discussions via Scripture.
Reading through Isaiah and half of Jeremiah again to date has made me consider just how much the world today resembles Judah and Jerusalem in those days. The more I read and study scripture, the Holy Spirit highlights passages where God is already teaching me, pulling together sections which are not side by side in the canon, but are interrelated. The Holy Bible is God’s inerrant Word and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man or woman of God may know the truth and be equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16-17) Every word is inspired by God and recorded by human authors, prophets who were carried along, word to word and thought to thought, by the Holy Spirit.
Peter wrote, “This is my second letter to you, dear friends, and in both of them I have tried to stimulate your wholesome thinking and refresh your memory.
I want you to remember what the holy prophets said long ago and what our Lord and Savior commanded through your apostles.
Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.
They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again?
From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.
And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire.
They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends:
A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think.
No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”
2 Peter 3:1-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.3.1-9.NLT
Jesus taught with stories as he addressed the crowds, later revealing their deeper meaning to his disciples. An enemy sows weeds among good seeds and the farmer in His story instructs his workers not to uproot the good with the bad but to let them grow together, sorting them as they’re harvested. His disciples asked for an explanation.
“Jesus replied,
“The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed.
The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom.
The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one.
The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.
Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world.
The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.
And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.
Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!”
Matthew 13:37-43 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.13.37-43.NLT
Babylon, Israel’s enemy from the north, prophesied by Isaiah and Jeremiah, was ultimately responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem. It is referenced symbolically in John’s Revelation.
“-a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions.
Historic Babylon becomes the symbol of many Babylons.”
For The Love Of God: Day 166 • Devotional
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/786/day/166?segment=0
“They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway.
Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.”
Romans 1:32 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.1.32.NLT
Jesus said, “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.”
Mark 9:42 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.9.42.NLT
“The first two sections (of Isaiah 9) tend to emphasize moral decay: “everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks vileness” (Isa. 9:17). But wickedness burns and devours like a forest fire (Isa. 9:18). Soon there is social disintegration and cultural collapse (Isa. 9:20-10:4)
These are already marks of God’s judgment on the nation, but still there is no sign of repentance.
So what will God do?
The answer is that, even though God’s judgment is gradually being ratcheted up, transparently it is not yet enough—so his anger is not turned away; his hand is still upraised.
God has already sent a “message” against Jacob (Isa. 9:8), but they have not attended to it; “the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD Almighty” (Isa. 9:13).
What is left is the “day of reckoning” (Isa. 10:3).
For The Love Of God: Day 131 • Devotional
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/786/day/131?segment=0
Several times, God instructs Jeremiah to stop interceding on behalf of Judah and Jerusalem.
““Pray no more for these people, Jeremiah.
Do not weep or pray for them, and don’t beg me to help them, for I will not listen to you.”
Jeremiah 7:16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.7.16.NLT
God becomes sick of their ritual sacrifices, their lying prophets, and their idol worship. Jeremiah must continue delivering God’s message of judgement and coming destruction, knowing it will fall on deaf ears. How discouraging! How familiar. We have the Great Commission and the promise of God. Go into all the world. I am with you always. Keep delivering my message until I return. (Matthew 28:18-20)
“Jesus told them,
“Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’
They will deceive many.
Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed.
You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers.
And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other.
And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.
Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold.
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:4-5, 9-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.24.4-14.NLT
So at the end, there will be two communities: God’s people at the festal banquet where God himself is host and death is destroyed; and the utterly proud, who will not bend the knee but whom God brings down “to the very dust” (Isa. 25:12).
One commentator (Barry G. Webb) writes, “Either repentance will bring you to the feast or pride will keep you away, and the consequences will be unsullied joy or unspeakably terrible judgment.
The alternatives which the Gospel sets before us are as stark as that.”
For The Love Of God: Day 144 • Devotional
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/786/day/144?segment=0
“Now concerning how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters, we don’t really need to write you.
For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.
When people are saying, “Everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin.
And there will be no escape.
But you aren’t in the dark about these things, dear brothers and sisters, and you won’t be surprised when the day of the Lord comes like a thief.
For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night.
So be on your guard, not asleep like the others.
Stay alert and be clearheaded.
Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk.
But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.
For God chose to save us through our Lord Jesus Christ, not to pour out his anger on us.
Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever.
So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1th.5.1-11.NLT
“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith.
And who can win this battle against the world?
Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”
1 John 5:4-5 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.5.4-5.NLT
Our temptations, like Israel’s vary with our circumstances: faithless fear in one circumstance, arrogant pride in another.
Only the closest walk with God affords us the self-criticism that abominates both.
For The Love Of God: Day 156 • Devotional
https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/786/day/156?segment=0
How we meet the Lord on that day depends on the relationship we share with Him now. Have you accepted the free gift of God in His Son? Will you welcome His coming, anxiously awaiting eternity with Him?
“Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice!
Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise!
Let the fields and their crops burst out with joy!
Let the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming!
He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice, and the nations with his truth.”
Psalms 96:11-13 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.96.13.NLT
“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven:
“The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”
The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him.
And they said, “We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.
The nations were filled with wrath, but now the time of your wrath has come.
It is time to judge the dead and reward your servants the prophets, as well as your holy people, and all who fear your name, from the least to the greatest.
It is time to destroy all who have caused destruction on the earth.””
Revelation 11:15-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.11.15-18.NLT
“You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away.
Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.
He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:13-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.2.13-14.NLT
“For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.
And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us.
We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!””
2 Corinthians 5:19-20 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2co.5.19-20.NLT
“But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.
Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.
On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.
But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.”
2 Peter 3:10-15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.3.10-15.NLT
God will do the reckoning.
“Freely you received, freely give.”
Matthew 10:8 NASB1995
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