Judgment Language
When John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees that "the ax is laid at the root of the tree," he meant judgment was near and people needed to change their lives. He warned that false leaders and unrepentant people would be cut down and face consequences unless they produced true repentance.
As a teen during the hippy days, boys wanted long hair. My father hated hippies and long hair. I tried to grow it, but he kept complaining and threatening haircuts. One day he warned that if I didn’t straighten up, he’d pull that long hair out. I knew he loved me and wanted the best, and though I didn’t like his remarks and never believed he’d really pull my hair, I understood he was serious and needed to change my behavior. My father used language that caught my attention.
One day, my brother and I were fighting. Mom became upset and told us that if we didn’t stop, she would call dad! Well, we didn’t stop, so she called dad. She hung up and said, “your dad is coming!.” COMING! - there was silence! We knew a whipp’n was coming. Our anger immediately vanished into fear. We knew dad was coming, and it would not end well. Mom used words that grabbed our attention.
Likewise, God frequently employs poetry and imagery of "creation undone"—the reversing of the natural order—to emphasize the gravity of His impending judgment.
Judgment Language
Un-creation
The Bible frequently depicts the Lord’s "comings" as moments of ultimate reckoning where divine patience ends and "un-creation" begins. These visitations are marked by dramatic upheavals and reversals of the natural order—including floods, famines, wars, and earthquakes—as judgment for human evil. When the Lord descends, the land is devastated, and humanity, seized by terror, desperately seeks a place to hide.
While carrying His cross, Jesus warned a group of women (professional mourners) to weep for themselves and their children, predicting a time of calamity is coming. Jesus told them they will pray for the mountains to fall on them and hide them; He famously concluded by asking that if the innocent suffer while the "wood is green," what horror awaits when it is "dry"? (referring to fire)” (Luke 23:28)
Examples of Judgment Language:
Cosmic Events: The moon darkens, stars fall, clouds roll up, and the earth shakes with earthquakes, lightning, and thunder.
Natural Disasters/Plagues: Fire burns everything, trees bear no fruit, and the world is hit by famine, floods, and disease.
Human Suffering & Conflict: People experience animal attacks, war, mourning, and vultures gather over the dead.
Reversals:
In Hebraic poetry, God will express His displeasure through divine reversals (or chiasms of fortune), where God disrupts the status quo to vindicate the humble and abused.
Examples of Reversals:
Joy turns into weeping.
The healthy become sick.
The rich become poor.
Kings become slaves.
Peace turns into war.
Security changes into fear.
Abundance of food into famine.
The weak defeats the strong.
The Song of Hannah (1 Samuel 2): She sings that "the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength," and "those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger."
Two-fold Mission
Jesus came to earth with a two-fold mission - to redeem and to judge Israel. While on trial, Jesus judged Israel - guilty! Jesus told them, “your house is left desolate! Due to this “tense or gut-punch” topic matter, Most preachers bypass the “judgment” mission of Jesus and mostly talk about “redemption.”
Another example of judgment is the “cursed fig tree.” Traditionally understood to represent the nation of Israel, the tree’s lack of fruit despite its outward appearance of health symbolized spiritual barrenness and religious hypocrisy. By cursing the tree, Jesus signaled that the existing religious system—failing to produce true righteousness—faced imminent destruction, a prophecy many associate with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.
The Olivet Discourse
In Matthew 24, the disciples marvel at the Temple’s grandeur, only for Jesus to deliver a jarring reality check: that very beauty was spiritually hollow and destined for ruin. In the famous Olivet Discourse, Jesus references the prophecies of Daniel to warn that this "magnificent" structure would be utterly leveled. Most strikingly, He assured His followers that this cataclysmic judgment wasn't a distant myth—it would unfold within their own generation (Matt 24:34).
… end of age (end of the Old Testament era), Matt: 24:3
…this MUST take place, Matt 24:6
… the end will come (end of Old Testament era), Matt 24:14
… great tribulation, the kind that hasn’t taken place since the beginning of the world until now and never will again. (Jewish wars and destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.), Matt 24:21
… the Son of Man comes - people mourn, Matt 34:30
… Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away (nothing can stop what will happen), Matt 24:35
He will cut the wicked slave into pieces (Israel), weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matt 24:51
Revelation 1:1, Jesus says, “I am coming” (quickly, just around the corner), and these things MUST happen!
Summary
In biblical prophecy, the "comings" of the Lord frequently signify specific acts of divine judgment rather than the literal end of human history. These events utilize "judgment language"—characterized by imagery of fire and flood—to describe the total dismantling of a corrupt system or nation. A prime example is found in Acts 2, where Peter quotes the prophet Joel to declare that the "last days" had arrived; this wasn't a prediction of the world's end, but a warning of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
To truly understand the "poetry of un-creation," we must set aside modern assumptions and read through the eyes of a first-century Jew. In the Hebrew tradition, apocalyptic language is often metaphorical, yet many Western readers have been conditioned to see the word "coming" only as the literal end of human history. To avoid this pitfall, we should allow the Bible to interpret itself, using the patterns of Hebraic poetry to reveal how God’s "comings" functioned as historical judgments rather than the final conclusion of time.