The Second Coming of Odysseus

Odysseus has been on a long journey, and he comes back to find his house overrun with suiters. Once a noble dwelling place, now it is a den of thieves. In order to reclaim his house, he disguises himself as an old man until his preparations for revenge are complete. At the right time, he reveals himself to the men and says,

You dogs! You never imagined I'd return from Troy— so cocksure that you bled my house to death, ravished my serving-women— wooed my wife behind my back while I was still alive! No fear of the gods who rule the skies up there, no fear that men's revenge might arrive someday— now all your necks are in the noose— your doom is sealed!

The suitors plead for mercy but receive none. The time for mercy is past; now is the time for judgment. With that, he unleashes a swarm of arrows to slaughter the suitors— the wrath of Odysseus. This imagery was also used by the Psalmist to describe the boding wrath of God.

God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts. (Psalm 7)*

Christ too has been on a long journey, and at his second coming, he will destroy all his enemies, those faithless and unrepentant who ransacked his house and abused his bride. No longer will he disguise himself as the impoverished Jewish carpenter; instead he will come from the right hand of the Father to judge the living and the dead. There will be no more mercy; only judgment.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war... From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19)

EDIT: Commented on Gary Hamner's "Bow Test." 
________________________

* Jonathan Edwards famously used this verse's imagery in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. "The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being drunk with your blood."