Key Verses: 2, 10, 13, 14, 20, 22, 26, 29,
33
If you were to go to Jerusalem today
you could see these stones still piled
where they fell almost two thousand years ago. For those of Jesus’ day this
would be unthinkable. The Temple had been the center of their collective lives
since the time of David. It was something that symbolized their identity.
Without the Temple, Israel was just a shadow. It had been destroyed once before
and rebuilt. And now Jesus says, as a sign of Israel’s spiritual decline, it
will happen again.
One of the goals of the destruction
of Jerusalem was the scattering of the Believers. Christianity was not to be
localized. We take God’s presence everywhere we go, and going is integral to
the Gospel. Everyone needs to hear. And it will not be a time of peace. Despite
what many want to proclaim, the Gospel often brings division rather than peace.
People don’t like it when we say there is only one way to a relationship with
God. They call us intolerant, bigoted, narrow-minded, simple, uneducated,
backward. Jesus was called worse. When the end comes, we will be pushed to the
edge.
Some of the particulars of who sits
in the Temple are fuzzy to me. Many have pointed to particular moments before
70AD. Some place it still in the future. Some say it is both. What I can tell
from the text is that it will be a horrible time to be around. This distress
will never be this bad again. And even in the middle of the destruction and
distress, God’s grace is present. He shortens the time of distress for the sake
of the believers. Everyone gets the benefit of that shortened distress.
During that time many will be led
away from the faith. Believers won’t be deceived because we are watching, alert
to what is happening and the eternal significance of those events. But those on
the fringes will be led astray. And then there will be Jesus’ return in power
and gather believers from the whole earth and heaven. The exact nature of this
gathering is not spelled out, so we will have to wait until the events unfold
to find out.
With the Christmas buying season
almost complete, I was wondering if you ordered anything online? Was it shipped
UPS, FedEx or USPS? Did you track it online and know what day it was coming?
Were there indications that the package was getting closer to your house? Email
updates? Did you recognize the truck when it pulled up to your house? Did you
know what it contained for you?
So it will be for us. We know many of
the things that surround Jesus’ return. If we are awake and alert, watching for
His return, we will notice the signs and continue to be prepared. We might not
know the exact moment when the box will be handed to us in advance, but we will
recognize the truck when it pulls up in front of our house. We will not be
surprised. We know He is returning. We know it things will get really bad
before He does. We know His grace will sustain us. Be ready!