Articles
It Is Finished
It is Finished
The scriptures indicate that all things come to their directional conclusion. When an individual starts on a journey, which begins with the first step, it is with the intent of bringing the journey to a conclusion. When an individual determines good, or evil against another it starts first with the thought and then is directionally purposed to the achieving of the act. All things in life are headed in a specific direction: whether intentionally or simply due to a lack of attention and/or intention.
The apostle Paul indicated such intentionality in his life, saying, “I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14). Paul had his sights set upon a prize! A prize that consumed his life. Robert Bolton, an English clergyman and academic, 1572-1631, is noted to have said, “A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.” Such could be said of the apostle Paul, i.e., “Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death; if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:7-11). When the individual reaches the end of the journey, when they have accomplished all they could accomplish, successful or not, there reaches a time when it can be said, “It is finished.”
In some cases, there are high hopes of accomplishing great things. Not great things in the eyes of man, but rather in that which tends to the glory of God. Isaiah revealed Jehovah’s attitude toward His creation, saying, “But now thus saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine…every one that is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yea, whom I have made” (43:1, 7). Before man had the breath of life to animate the body, it was in the mind of God that His creation would glorify Him and His creation would praise Him (148th Psalm).
Although such was the desire of the Creator, the time came when the book was to be closed on the direction the world had taken. For Jehovah said, “And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented Jehovah that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the ground; both man, and beast, and creeping things, and birds of the heavens; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” (Gen. 6:5-7). It was time for the world, as Noah knew it, to end, i.e., “It is finished.” Noah was “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5) until the day that “Jehovah shut him in” the ark (Gen. 7:16). Noah had preached his last sermon to those who “were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing” (1 Pet. 3:20), i.e., “It is finished.”
When the wrath of Jehovah had reached its apex, Jehovah said to the inhabitants of Judah, “And now, because ye have done all these works, saith Jehovah, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not: therefore will I do unto the house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim” (Jer. 7:13-15). Thus, Jehovah said unto Jeremiah, “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear thee. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?” (vs. 16-17). Three times Jeremiah was told “pray not for this people.” This is reminiscent of the words of Jehovah to Judah by Isaiah, saying, “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?” (Isa. 5:3-4). For Judah, the time had come and “It is finished.”
In 2017, a total of 2,813,503 deaths were reported in the United States (National Vital Statistics, June 24th, 2019, Volume 68, Number 9). 2,813,503 souls who have heard their last sermon, 2,813,503 souls who will offer no prayers, nor to be prayed for. For them, “It is finished.”
As the prophet Zechariah was told, “Speak unto all the people of the land,” (Zech. 7:5) so also must we take heed. Let it not be said, “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which Jehovah of hosts had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets: therefore there came great wrath from Jehovah of hosts. And it is come to pass that, as he cried, and they would not hear, so they shall cry, and I will not hear, said Jehovah of hosts” (Zech. 7:11-13). What will be your condition when the Lord says, concerning you, “It is finished”? ret
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