Whirlwind or Glorious Appearing?

Today I read Jeremiah 25:20-27:20 and Titus 1:14-3:3. My favorite verses are:

Jeremiah 25:32 and 26:13 32 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. 13Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

Titus 2:13-14 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Virtually everyone admits that this world cannot go on forever getting worse and worse. The judgment of God will come! We tend to become complacent, however, and say that it will not come in our time. The people of Judah had that attitude. Prophets had said for generations that they would be judged by God for their wickedness, but they always thought it would come later. By Jeremiah’s day, the time of judgment was at their door; Jeremiah was speaking to the people who would soon be taken captive to Babylon. I believe God is speaking today to the generation who will see the return of His Son and the judgment of the wicked. God spoke of a great whirlwind; if Judah’s downfall was a great whirlwind, I can’t even imagine how to describe the downfall of the whole earth. God will judge, but he tells us there is hope for those who will believe and obey. Jeremiah said, “amend your ways”; Paul told Titus that Jesus Christ will “purify unto himself a peculiar people”. We need to make changes, but we cannot make ourselves pure. We must turn to Christ for that. He died to pay the price for our redemption, and only as we confess our sins and seek His salvation can we be purified. Then we will be able to see past the judgment of God to the “blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God”. The whirlwind of destruction to the wicked is a glorious appearing of God to His children. And God allows us to choose which manifestation we will experience!