The Days of Vengeance

In the last post (here), I discussed one aspect of Jesus’ great tribulation sign: the desolation it brought.¹ Here, I begin examining the descriptions it required. Through these descriptions, Jesus showed the significance of the “great tribulation.” This time of upheaval would be (1) the days of God’s vengeance against apostate Israel and (2) the greatest tribulation of all time. This post will look at the first of these. 

Jesus describes the “great tribulation” period by saying, “These are the days of vengeance” (Luke 21:22). It would relate to the “end of the (Mosaic) age” and the beginning of the messianic age (Matt 24:1–3). Descriptions of it were—to borrow Paul’s words in another context—“written in the Law and in the Prophets” (Acts 24:14).

In the Law

God spoke of these days of vengeance in the Law.² He linked them to the end of the Mosaic age by composing a song. After Israel’s forty-year journey in the wilderness, and just before they entered the promised land, 

The LORD said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.… Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel.…”

Therefore Moses wrote this song the same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.… [and said] “I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands.” (Deut 31:16, 19, 22, 29; emphasis added)

This song described Israel’s future apostasy and God’s latter-day judgment of them. When they heard this song, they would know their time was short.

Deuteronomy 32:1–43 contains the lyrics to this lament. Here are a few of God’s thoughts about apostate Israel and His vengeance against them: 

Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!… Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; their foot shall slip in due time.… Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people. (Deut 32:29, 35, 43; cp. Matt 23:30–38). 

Comparing this Song to Jesus’ reference to the days of vengeance teaches us at least three lessons. First, for Jesus to equate the “great tribulation” period with “the days of vengeance” was for him to announce that Israel would hear the Song of Moses before the temple fell. That Song would be a sign of the temple’s demise.

Second, the disciples understood Jesus’ lesson well. After his resurrection, they began to “sing” the Song of Moses by using it to teach doctrinal lessons. For example, in Romans 9–11, Paul asks and answers a question: If Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, why have so many Jews rejected the gospel of His kingdom? Paul’s answer includes a verse from the Song of Moses: “Did Israel not know? First Moses says: ‘I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation’” (Rom 10:19; cf. Deut 32:21). Paul saw his mission to the Gentiles as God “provoking” Israel to jealousy in her “latter days,” just as the Song of Moses had predicted.

In another example, the author of Hebrews “sings” a refrain from this Song. He says the law was a shadow “of the good things about to be” (Heb 10:1 Wuest³). Jesus had come to take the first (Mosaic-age) covenant away and establish the second (messianic-age) covenant (Heb 10:9). The day in which “judgment and fiery indignation” would devour God’s adversaries was approaching (Heb 10:25–27). Christ would come to execute this judgment, and His coming was near: “For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry” (Heb 10:37).

With these facts in mind, the writer of Hebrews “sings” from the Song of Moses: “We know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The LORD will judge His people’” (Heb 10:30; cf. Deut 32:35–36).⁴ 

The term “His people” must mean God’s Mosaic-age people—Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18). God will never execute a vengeance-judgment against his messianic-age people, for he has already justified them—declared them not guilty—in Christ.

Third, this vengeance against Israel would pave the way for God’s blessings on the Gentiles. They would rejoice after He had “aveng[ed] the blood of His servants” (Deut 32:43; cp. Matt 23:31–36). 

God’s vengeance (Luke 21:22) would be part of the “great tribulation” sign (Matt 24:21). This sign would lead to the temple’s fall and the end of the Mosaic age (Matt 24:1–3). It would occur in Israel’s “latter days.”

The following diagram shows these relationships:

In the Prophets

In the prophets, God linked “the days of vengeance” to the start of the messianic age. For example, the Messiah would say,

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God. (Isa 61:1–2a)

The Messiah would do wonderful deeds before the “day⁵ of vengeance” came.

Isaiah does not leave the matter there; after the day of vengeance, the Messiah would continue

“to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” 

And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But you shall be named the priests of the LORD, they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, And in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs. 

“For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, and will make with them an everlasting covenant. Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed.” (Isa 61:2b–9)

This passage describes the messianic age blessings God would give humanity after the day of vengeance.

Over two years before giving the Olivet Discourse, Jesus had read from this passage in his hometown synagogue as part of his first public address. He had stopped reading in mid-sentence, just before the reference to “the day of vengeance”:

And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD. (Luke 4:17–19; cp. Isa 61:1–2a)

Jesus told the men of Nazareth, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21).

Jesus handled this passage with profound precision. At that point, God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit; he had preached to the poor, healed the blind, and announced the kingdom of God. However, “the day of vengeance” had not been fulfilled, and neither had the victories and restorations of the messianic age. Jesus stopped reading at just the right spot.

Jesus returns to this passage in the Olivet Discourse, picking up where he stopped in Nazareth. The “great tribulation” just before the temple’s fall would be “the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22; cp. Isa 61:2b).

What were the “all things” Jesus had in mind? A comparison of His words to those in Isaiah 61 suggests He meant the messianic-age blessings that would follow the days of vengeance. The days of vengeance were not themselves the fulfillment of all things, but they were necessary so that all the promises of the messianic age might come.

Jesus mentioned two events from Isaiah 61: (1) His Spirit-anointed ministry, about which he read at Nazareth, and (2) the “days of vengeance,” about which he spoke in the Olivet Discourse. “The days of vengeance” would destroy the temple and end the Mosaic age; they would also establish the messianic age.

Another reference to the “day of vengeance” in Isaiah verifies this conclusion. There, the Messiah says, in prospect, “The day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come” (Isa 63:4). The terms “the day” and “the year” refer “to God’s vengeance as a transitory act, and to his mercy as a lasting one.”⁶ Jesus’ “great tribulation” sign—God’s “days of vengeance” against Israel—would be of relatively short duration; “the year” of His redeemed would follow and comprise the entire messianic age. As Geoffrey W. Grogan says, “The day of vengeance and the year of redemption belong together to the same complex of ideas.”⁷

The following diagram shows the relationship between Isaiah’s “days of vengeance”⁸ and the messianic age:

Conclusion

I will now combine the two diagrams in this post to show the days of vengeance and their relation to both ages of the traditional Jewish two-age model. The result looks strikingly similar to the prophetic model we have already discovered (here):

This arrangement allows us to tie the days of vengeance to the theme of this series of posts—the great commission and Biblical prophecy. This period would end the Mosaic age and fully inaugurate the messianic age with its many blessings for the Gentiles. God gives those blessings through gospel preaching. They come as we obey the command to “preach the gospel to every creature” and “make disciples of all the nations” (Mark 16:15; Matt 28:19). 

May God bless us to understand that the days of vengeance are past. Our job, as God’s churches, is to bless the world by preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

1. This post is part of a series that began with The Great Commission and Biblical Prophecy: Introduction. After several posts and then a hiatus, the series began again here.
2. The image in this post is The Adoration of the Golden Calf by Nicolas Poussin (1633). It is in the public domain.
3. Kenneth S. Wuest, The New Testament: An Expanded Translation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1961), 527.
4. The disciples used the Song of Moses in several other places to similar effect. See the quotation of Deut 32:35 in Rom 12:19, and Deut 32:43 in Rom 15:10 and Heb 1:6. See Appendix E for other examples.
5. Both singular (day of vengeance) and plural (days of vengeance) are used with the same point of reference. Cp. Amos 8:11, 13 and Luke 17:22, 24. [Walter L. Liefeld, “Luke,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 997–98.]
6. Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah, ed. John Eadie (1875; repr., Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1953), 2:399.
7. Geoffrey W. Grogan, “Isaiah,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), 339.
8. Other relevant passages depicting God’s vengeance against Israel include Isa 6:9–12 (cp. Matt 13:14–15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; Acts 28:26–27; Rom 11:8); Isa 63:4; Jer 5:28; Ezek 24:8; Dan 9:26–27; Hos 9:7 and Zeph 1:14–18. Not all of these have explicit connections to either the Mosaic age’s end or the messianic age’s beginning.