City of God - Augustine - XLIV - Book 20 concluded

Required reading
City of God by Augustine (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Conclude Book 20 by reading Chapters 21 to 30.

My summary
Now Augustine turns to the Old Testament evidence for a final judgement.  Augustine finds support for it in:
(i) Isaiah;
(ii) Daniel;
(iii) Psalms;
(iv) Malachi.

Then he looks at a smattering of passages that imply Christ will be involved in the final judgement.

What grabbed me
Augustine made an interesting connection between the 'days of the tree of life' in Isaiah 65:22 with Jesus: 'Now it may be contended that the "days of the tree of life", mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, stand for the present days of the Church of Christ, and that Christ himself is prophetically called "the tree of life", because he is himself the Wisdom of God, of which Solomon says, "Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her."'

Now I'm not sure I agree with Augustine about his interpretation of Isaiah there, but a great bit of typology jumped out at me as I read him. 

I haven't thought much about the 'tree of life' in Genesis and Revelation but Jesus hung on the cross/tree definitely brings life and so in one sense the cross is indeed the tree of life. 

I may be out on a limb there, but it is amazing how many ideas in the Old Testament do in fact point to the cross.

Next week's reading
Commence Book 21 by reading Chapters 1 to 8.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.