New Thoughts (09/20/11-09/26/11)
Admittedly, this set of passages is something of a jumble, parts of which are more properly parallel to passages already considered. That said, there is quite a lot here, and quite a lot that deserves some attention. I have, as best I may, marshaled those topics in some semblance of order, but that order has little direct relationship to the order in which they are presented in the text.
The first topic I want to address is more of a question. When I read in Luke 17:22 that Jesus is telling His disciples that they will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, I find a need to stop and consider for just a moment. Is He speaking in terms of longing for what they enjoyed during these three years of training? Had the comment been made as Jesus was discussing His upcoming death (however temporary), or His returning to the Father, this would seem more reasonable an assumption. But, that is not the subject at hand. The subject is the arrival of the kingdom, the culmination of events.
This being the case, is it not more appropriate to hear this longing as applying to a thing yet future? ‘The days of the Son of Man’ would be the phrase that is key to determining our answer. Given the reference to Daniel’s prophecies that come from those passages I am considering as parallels to Luke’s record, it’s not unreasonable to go back to that prophet’s introduction of the Son of Man. “I kept looking in night visions, and behold! With the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom […] and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed” (Dan 7:13-14). Later in that passage from Luke, there is another comment made regarding the days of the Son of Man, that they shall be like the days of Noah (Lk 17:26).
This is in keeping with the subject on which the disciples had come questioning Jesus. As such, it seems that the longing of which Jesus speaks is not a longing for what was, but a longing for what will be. It is not a looking back upon the years when they walked with Jesus, but a looking forward to the day when they shall march to victory with Him. With that in mind, finish reading that verse. “and you will not see it.” They would live out their lives in hope, and that hope would most assuredly be the certainty of hope that is befitting those who believe the promises of Scripture. Because their hope was and is fastened to the promises of God, that hope is certain. But, it is not promised that hope will be fulfilled in this lifetime, in this brief earthly existence. Indeed, if I am hearing this correctly, they are assured that the schedule is so far future that however hard things would get for them in their own run, the end was not going to come during the span of their days.
Arguably, that is rather obvious in hindsight, right? I mean, if the end had come during their lifetime, then we are piteous fools for awaiting His return in ours, as wrongheaded as the Jews who are still waiting for His first arrival. I am mindful that at least some of those who sat listening to His answers that day would be around to witness the fall of Jerusalem not so many years hence. Indeed, it seems clear that Luke is writing after the reality of that event, and is therefore more inclined or more able to associate that fall with what Jesus had been saying. Let me just say, at this point, that Luke’s applying the message to those more immediate events does not preclude them from applying to things yet to come. Prophecy has a tendency of finding at least a twofold application, occasionally more.
I think that the brief consideration of the significance of the days which Jesus marks as the object of their longing suffices to provide a check on any tendency I might have to read my experience or desires into the text. As I say, it would be only natural for me to suppose that day is yet future. But, as Jesus holds it out as a matter yet future, and then proceeds to tell them they won’t be around for it, I think I’m on a safe footing here. It’s funny, though, because it strikes me that my natural tendency when reading that passage is to think of it as yearning after what they had enjoyed. It is only as I stop to reflect on the passage that I begin also to reflect on the record we have of their experience. I fold in the fact that Jesus promised (and delivered on) the Holy Spirit as such a constant companion and guide for them and for us that such longing for the past ought find no basis. The Apostles certainly had enough and more to keep them occupied and joyfully so. We ought to likewise find more than sufficient opportunity to be about the work of the kingdom. While we might have these sentimental ideas about how wonderful it would be to have been walking the countryside in the company of our Lord, He Himself seems to indicate that we are in a better situation as we are.
Think about that for just a moment. When Jesus went off to pray by Himself, the disciples were deprived of His company and felt it. I picture, for example, that stormy night on the Sea of Galilee. Before He returned to them in that boat, the apostles had no sense of Him being with them, no assurance. We, on the other hand, have the abiding, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit as a constant in our lives. If there is variability in our sensing of that truth, it is in us, not in Him. It is because we have tuned Him out, not because He has departed our presence. Yet we, as we look at the days in which we live, might well commiserate with the longing of the Apostles for the time when Jesus comes and establishes that kingdom promised to His people.
Before I move on, it strikes me that there is a lesson that needs to be drawn from this. As much as we must take heed to the warnings our King gives to His church, to heat up what has been lost of our first love (Rev 2:4), we must not let that become in us a longing for the past. We have something of a cultural tendency for looking back to the past, for nostalgia. It seems to grow with age, that we look back at certain periods of our own life as times we would wish to revisit with the benefits of our present wisdom and wherewithal. Oh, to be young again! It’s the drumbeat of modern advertising, isn’t it? Not feeling the man you once were, take this! Remember when you were hip and popular? Those days can be yours again! Just buy our package of whatever. Relive those days! We’re given every opportunity. That’s at least one of the reasons things like youtube have become so popular. We can go back and watch the shows we grew up with. How cool is that? Well, it turns out, not so cool. The past always looks so nice until you get to see it up close and personal again. Then, all the grit shows. Then all the innuendo, all the subversive influences that maybe went over your head at the time show up in stark relief. Then one discovers that, no, I really don’t have so great a desire to go back there.
Pull that into the spiritual. We can come to have these glowing, hazy memories of the early days, the days when we first came to faith, when everything was fresh and exciting. And, we may wonder if we haven’t lost something, because these days it feels a bit more old and familiar to us. It’s no longer cutting edge. It’s no longer such a radical concept to be in Christ. Now, to the degree that this is a dimming of our first love, absolutely, we need to think about how to rekindle that devotion!
It’s not unlike marriage in that regard. Having just passed our 20th anniversary, I’m happy to say that while the nature of our love for one another may be quite different than it was at the outset, the love my wife and I have for one another is, if anything, deeper now than it ever was then. The excitement may not be the same. But, it’s only because things have matured, rather like a fine wine. The passions may not be so evident on the surface, but only in that sense that still waters run deep. And with that, I’m sure I’ve used enough clichés for the moment.
My point is this: As in marriage, as in life, so in the Spirit: We are not to be a nostalgic people. We are not to become focused on the way things were. Rather, we are to be constantly stirred to action by the longing for what is to come. We are to be a forward-looking people, in particular because we have so great a revelation of what lies ahead. Yes, there are dark days around us, and darker on the horizon. But, we have been given to know what lies beyond the horizon. We have been given to know that though we may die, yet we live; though it remains possible even for us that martyrdom will seal the days of our earthly sojourn, yet having endured, we will find we have but gained Life. Be, then, set in your mind and soul to look forward with longing, and never backward. The kingdom lies ever ahead, and therein lies our goal and our rest.
Bear in mind the question which prompted these remarks from Jesus. They had come asking, “When will these things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, of the end of the age?” (Mt 24:3). Now, I observe that there are really three questions here, although they are related, and certainly related in the minds of those asking. First, there is the question in regard to ‘these things’. That points back into the contextual setting from which the question arises. Recall what has been. They had been in the courts of the temple, watching Jesus and His opponents sparring, as it were, with their words. They had been marveling at the beautiful construction of that temple, as they left, all the more impressive, one supposes, for those who grew up in the countryside of Galilee. They had pointed out this wonderful construction to Jesus, and His response had been that it would be so thoroughly and utterly destroyed that not one stone would remain atop another (Mt 24:2). This same message, we might recall, had been spoken of the entirety of Jerusalem as well (Lk 19:43-44).
When, therefore, the disciples refer to ‘these things’, it is the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple that is foremost in their thoughts. That they associate this with the coming of His coming is something we ought to interpret in light of that fact. His coming, as they perceive it in that time, is not a function of returning from heaven, or returning from the grave, even. They are thinking in terms of the typical Messianic understandings of their time. They are looking for the Mighty Warrior come to kick some Roman butt. They’re looking for the kingdom of Israel reestablished and more glorious than even David’s and Solomon’s days. This, then, is something that Jesus is still working to correct in them. We’ve seen it before. They’re still thinking in terms of what their positions will be in this new government. They’re still not seeing beyond the brief span of their own lifetime. To which Jesus says, “You will not see it.”
In that they also bring in that reference to the end of the age there is some evidence that they are beginning to look farther ahead. Some of that remains no more than that same popular understanding of the Messianic future. His coming signifies the end of the age, the dawning of the new perfection. They get that. Of course, if He’s here, we might wonder that they’re still looking for His coming. But, that, as I have said, points up that what they have in Him at present is not matching their expectations. Where’s the army that’s going to remove the Roman overlords? Where’s the overwhelming force? That’s apparently something still lying ahead, so when are You going to get to it, Jesus? They have inklings of the plan, but they still haven’t digested the reality of the schedule, the scope of events. “You will not see it.”
I’m laboring this, somewhat, because we need to be mindful that in all Jesus is saying here, He is most assuredly answering the very question they have asked Him. Indeed, He is answering all three parts of that question, and doing so in one answer. I mentioned the twofold aspect of prophecy by which we come to understand why Luke’s account seems to shift the focus in comparison to that of Matthew and Mark. But, the question is two or threefold in focus, so it’s hardly unreasonable that Jesus’ answer should be similar in nature.
So, then, as an answer to the question regarding ‘these things’, yes, the application is pretty immediate. Really, what Jesus is speaking of lies only some thirty or so years ahead at the time of His speaking. But, what He is stressing to His disciples is that “this is not yet the end.” You hear that point being made as He discusses the various wars that will be in the news (Mt 24:6), and other such natural disasters that might be construed as omens by those of a certain inclination (Mt 24:8). But, these things, while the necessary flow of events, and assuredly under the management of God’s decree, are not the end, but only the beginning. Likewise, the fall of Jerusalem. Don’t be misled! You will live to see it, but when it comes to the days of the Son of Man the statement remains before them, “you will not see it.”
Listen! This becomes more clear, and I am thankful that however much my choice of paralleling the passages as I have may be a bit of a mishmash, it is as I have been guided to arranging it, and by that arrangement, I am given to observe these connections. Thank You, Lord, for this insight You have seen fit to impart. What is happening here is in perfect keeping with the standards of prophecy. There is the near term fulfillment, but that is not the end of it. It is only the establishing of it. What do I mean by that? The fall of Jerusalem, terrible though that event was, was to serve a particularly good purpose for those in God’s service: It cemented the trustworthiness of this prophecy. The near term fulfillment served to validate the accuracy of the long term forecast. It was something of a down payment on the promise that would remain beyond the horizon of their days. To that rather saddening, “you will not see it,” there is appended a promise, a guarantee: “though you die in endurance, you will be saved” (Mt 24:13, Lk 21:16-19). You will die, but you will not perish. You will not see it in this life, but rest assured, you will see it!
Think, for just a moment, of the example we have in Moses. Long years he labored and prophesied, and longed after arrival in the Promised Land. The man was eighty years old before he even started the work in earnest! Add the forty odd years wandering around with a stubbornly disobedient nation to herd. And what happens at the end? Oops! Sorry, Moses, you screwed up. You don’t get to go in. We’ll leave that to Joshua. The hope remained future. He did not see it. And yet, he did and he will. He saw it briefly as he stood with Elijah on the mountaintop, conferring with the transfigured Christ. But, even that was only a down payment. After all, the Promised Land as it was then, and as it is to this day, is but a down payment. It’s but a sign and a symbol of the reality yet to come. And when that reality comes, be assured Moses will be there to enjoy it in full. He did not see it, but he will!
I have been touching on the subject of prophecy, which is only fitting as we are reading a major prophecy. It needs rather more of our attention, though. There are several questions that must somehow be resolved, and the only reasonable somehow is to be taught by the Holy Spirit of God Almighty. The Church, in the course of its history has ranged from the excessively mystical to the excessively cerebral. Today, there are sects that are largely founded on one prophecy or another, there are other sects that are forever looking to place a prophetic veneer on anything and everything, and then there are numerous sects that hold to the position that the prophetic gift ceased with the Apostolic age. Clearly these disparate views cannot all be correct. One could wonder, though, whether any of them are correct.
I have explored some of the standard Scriptural arguments against the existence of present day prophecies before. However, there is one verse that came up in conjunction with the current passages which deserves a bit of consideration. As these verses point us back to Daniel, and Daniel points most succinctly forward to Messiah, his message is of course going to be of particular interest. That we are here discussing the end times only makes that more surely the case. The passage I have in mind comes in the midst of that clearly Messianic prophecy of his, in the section speaking of the seventy weeks.
I am not inclined to attempt some theory as to how that seventy week timeline translates into our conceptions of time. What I do find interesting is this. When the seventy week period is introduced, look at how it is introduced. “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place” (Dan 9:24 NASB). Notice that clause near to the end: “To seal up vision and prophecy.” That terminology clearly indicates a cessation of these activities, and one could reasonably surmise that it is a permanent cessation. There is no ‘for a season’ appended. Now, the next marker we are given is that after sixty-two weeks, Messiah is cut off (Dan 9:26), and the city and sanctuary will be destroyed – the events Jesus seems most directly to be pointing to in our passage. Again, I would not seek to set out timescales and measurements here, but it is sufficient, I think, to ask whether or not we ought to understand from this that the time is indeed at hand when vision and prophecy are sealed up.
It is, at the very least, a more viable argument than some of the others I have had cause to consider. As I have explored before, the coming of Jesus being interpreted as the meaning of Paul’s ‘when perfection has come’ makes no sense, for Paul writes after His coming, and the gift of prophecy as we have it recorded in the New Testament is wholly after His coming and His return into heaven. However, if that was nearing the point, then to suppose that the gift continued but briefly before God’s schedule decreed an end to such activities is not such a stretch at all.
My inclination in times past has been to hold that God does not change and therefore the activity of these Spiritual gifts among men has not changed. That, I should have to say, is a particularly shortsighted and wrong-headed view. God need not change in order for His method and His means to change. Clearly, those methods and means have changed to suit the stage of growth in man. It is no different than the fact that we would approach explaining things to a toddler far differently than we would explaining those same things to a coworker. We do not change, but the form of our speech adapts to circumstance. Why would I suppose God to be less able to adapt than I?
Of course, that leaves me with a bit of a quandary, because I have experienced in one degree or another these sorts of visions and prophetic perspectives. I would not lay claim to speaking in the voice of, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” I would not dare to. Neither have I been inclined to even once speak of some future course of events as being so certain in the plans of God as to be spoken of as already accomplished, apart from those things already written. But, there are those messages one gives or one receives that have more power in them than human insight can explain. Is it prophetic? I’m not so sure. I am inclined to think that much of what we apply the prophetic label to is in reality the normal course of things that Jesus speaks of to His disciples, the informing by the Holy Spirit of what we ought to say, or how we ought to hear and observe events.
There may be something of a blurring of the lines here. If what I say is on the basis of what the Spirit is giving me to say, is that not the prophetic voice? I don’t think there’s any who would deny the Spirit’s activity in this regard continuing in our day. But, there is something about that prophetic tag that raises the bar for us. It implies a certain infallibility. But, would not the same hold true if our words are truly informed by the Holy Spirit? I should hope so! Likewise, if we are inclined to measure events with an eye toward Scripture, even toward the prophetic writings, is this a prophetic view of things? I’m not certain how it could be otherwise.
It is one thing, after all, to accept the premise that all truth is God’s truth, and therefore the lips that happen to impart that truth do not transform it to a lie by speaking. It is quite another to be alert and attuned to such pronouncements when they come from some unexpected corner. This, too, requires the input of the Holy Spirit in us, and thus, it too would seem to fall into a different category than our own mundane perspective on things. Put another way, it is one thing to accept the premise that there is no such thing as circumstance. It is quite another to live a life that demonstrates such a belief consistently. That requires actually stopping to consider the why and wherefore of every least occurrence throughout our day. It requires a prayerful life, doesn’t it? One in which we are constantly conversing with God as to why He has arranged things thus and so, what He is trying to turn our attention towards.
I am mindful of those words with which Matthew begins his account in earnest. Having related the first portion of the story of Jesus’ birth, he writes, “all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled” (Mt 1:22). Now, we know that Matthew has a particular concern with demonstrating the continuity of the Christian faith with the Hebrew faith. He wants his readers clear on the fact that this is not a departure from the things Israel had been taught, but the fulfillment. The long era of silence was over and God had indeed spoken most explicitly and thoroughly through the life and the words of Jesus, His Son.
The virgin birth of Christ, in particular, was the fulfillment he had in sight, that coming as a final closure on something Isaiah had written centuries ago. Now, much like our present passage, Isaiah’s was words bespoke things far nearer in time as well as this final fulfillment. Some speculation has gone forth as to what that near term fulfillment was, and that’s fine. There are possible explanations for that lesser fulfillment, and let us accept that one of these explanations is likely accurate. That does not change the fact that the birth of Jesus, coming as it did, was the more complete, more final fulfillment. This brings me back to the nature of the passage at hand. Yes, it bespoke the fall of Jerusalem that lay only a few decades hence. But, it simultaneously bespeaks the more complete, more final fulfillment that concludes the age.
In similar fashion, what Isaiah wrote, being fulfilled in that earlier form, made the certainty of the primary fulfillment that much greater. I have already noted that the fall of Jerusalem would serve the same purpose with this prophecy. The near term fulfillment gives greater credence to the long term fulfillment.
Back to Matthew’s opening point: He applies it particularly to Mary’s conception of Jesus apart from male intervention. More generally, Matthew views the whole of the Gospel period as fulfillment of prophecy. Over and over, we find him pointing out how this action sealed a certain prophecy of old. I am led, then, to take that opening statement as more generally describing the whole of what he records. Unmoor it from its immediate setting and it still holds: “All of this took place to fulfill the word of the Lord through the prophet.”
Taking that broader view, I could move it one step further, and declare to you that it is still true. The events of our own day are no less under God’s management. Understand that even that long period of silence that Israel endured between the closing of the period of the prophets and the arrival of the Prophet proceeded fully and solely according to the plan and purpose of God. His Providence is what makes prophecy possible. Because He is in control, He can say what will occur, and He can say so with perfect certainty, because He and He alone has the power and wherewithal to ensure that it does occur. And, rest assured, it will occur at exactly that time which He has ordained. It shall not delay in the least, nor shall it be rushed.
We need to have this perspective in mind when we come to Matthew 24:24. Let me quote that from the NASB. “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Now, many read that and find themselves shaken. Look! It says we, even the elect, can be misled! See? Our salvation is at risk. We must needs be more careful than that. First, there is that ‘if possible’ clause. We may tend to understand that as presupposing that it is possible, but that is not a necessary understanding. It is more a statement of intent. Their purpose is surely to mislead the elect. After all, the non-elect are already misled, and other than keeping their eyes well blinkered, there is no need to try and convince them further. But, the statement of intent is no assurance of success in the matter.
We must bear in mind Who is in control of events, even the events perpetrated by these false messengers. We must bear in mind that their activities are just as fully under the principle contained in, “All of this took place to fulfill the word of the Lord through the prophet.” All of this activity remains under the controlling power of the God of Providence. Their efforts, however devious and deceiving, cannot alter His plan and purpose. With that established, turn your thoughts back to why we are called the elect. The elect are not so because they elected themselves. We would not call that one president who had merely declared himself to be so. No! Presidents are elected, and it is in the power of the electorate to determine who will be elected. In the case of salvation, the electorate consists of one and only one voter: God Himself. He Who has the power to decree, He Who can speak with such certainty of things future (because He sees the end from the beginning (Isa 46:10), having laid it out Himself) has spoken of your future, you who are the elect. He has said, “This one shall be saved.” And can you really suppose that there is any power within our without you that can altar His decree? “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor demons, nothing now present and nothing to come, no power, no distance, nothing in all that has been created, shall separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro 8:38-39). Why? Because the same God Who is Providence, the same God Who is Supreme and in perfect control, is the God Who has said we are His. He is the same One who tells the disciples here that though you be put to death yet not one hair of your head will perish, but you will endure to gain your lives (Lk 21:16-19). He does not change. Ergo, our status in Him does not change.
These deceivers will come, and rest assured, they will put on an impressive display. But, the elect, being truly the elect of God, will not be misled, however many around them may wander after such lies. Now, the description of the activities of these false ones should stand as a stern warning to us. It should be a particular caution to us as we seek to perceive the significance of prophecies that stand as yet unfulfilled. That is the larger part of Jesus’ warning in all that He is laying out here. If I were to summarize the gist of His message, it is something like this: “You will see many things that appear to satisfy the prophecy. You will see countless events unfold that would seem to signify the end. But, this is not the fulfillment.” We might apply that particularly to the event of Jerusalem’s fall to Rome. With what Jesus had said back at the temple, and with what He describes here, it would be quite natural for the disciples to perceive this as the event. Ah! He must be coming. Just look what has happened! It’s just like He said!
Yes, but He has added that very important point that comes at the end of the passage from Matthew, as well as in Luke’s parallel: “Just as the lightning is seen from east to west when it flashes, so will the coming of the Lord be” (Mt 24:27, Lk 17:24). There will be no need to guess. There will be no need to interpret events. When He is come, everybody will know it, friend and foe alike. These trials will come, as they must come, but they are not the end. Don’t be fooled. Don’t be deluded.
We’ve seen it again recently, haven’t we, with talk of May 12th. Oops, that date passed, and the promulgator of this latest deception decides he miscalculated. He meant October. Uh huh. You know, it’s entirely possible that a new denomination will arise around this guy in spite of his obvious error. It wouldn’t be the first time. And that denomination might even survive his deception and grow into the truth. That, too, would not be the first time. But, in its present form, no least student of the Word should find cause to pay his message the least heed. Indeed, we are forewarned and forearmed. “Do not follow.” “See? I have told you ahead of time.”
We must be very careful when we look at current events and begin to see them as fulfillment of prophecy. Even if we are correct, there is the very distinct probability that what we are witnessing is yet but a partial fulfillment, not the final act. Again, the guiding principle we must live by is that which Jesus indicates when He speaks of the lightning and of vultures. His return will be obvious. You need not fear missing it. Your only concern ought be to remain ready for His return at any time. The when is not of interest, or shouldn’t be. The readiness is everything.
Rereading the text this morning [09/23/11] I was reminded that as Jesus lays out the events to come, He makes clear that what is coming comes ‘in order that all things which are written may be fulfilled’ (Lk 21:22). That rather reinforces one of yesterday’s points. What Matthew said at the outset, about His birth fulfilling prophecy has continued to be the case down through the ages, and shall continue to be the case until the final fulfillment of the final prophecy is come. God is in control.
There is something else I am going to just insert wholesale into this study, something not wholly off the topic, but certainly off the current thread of considerations. At last night’s worship practice we were discussing the topic of Sunday’s message, being to the effect that the celebration of communion is something to be anticipated in the days preceding, not something savored only in the moment. As part of this, we were given time to contemplate just what it meant to us that God – Father and Son and Spirit – had planned from eternity the powerful expression of love that is the crucified Christ, the Lamb Who was slain.
While I did not care to comment on it last night, there was an image came to mind for me. I was thinking on the idea that all of the sins of all mankind from the first moment of the Fall right on through the last moment of this age fell upon Jesus in that brief moment of time. I was thinking, too, that the things that tend to grab our attention in His sufferings are really ancillary matters. The abuse He suffered from the Romans? Not to minimize the physical pain, but that was nothing. Bearing His cross on His lacerated back in the heat of the Mediterranean sun? Again, excruciating, to be sure. But, that was nothing. The thing that made His suffering nearly unbearable, even as He looked to the time coming, was that briefest moment of separation from the Father, that briefest moment when the full punishment of all sin came crashing in on Him.
It was while thinking about that way in which all sins past and future came swirling in upon the crucified Christ that the image I speak of came to mind. The image I speak of was that of a black hole, as commonly understood and depicted. I stress that there is a great deal that we (at least I) do not know with the certainty of direct and immediate observation, when it comes to this phenomena. How could we? But, what we understand of it, I think, lends a certain new appreciation for what Jesus was undergoing. We are given to understand that this black hole is a place where mass is being concentrated in the extreme, gravity is such as causes all surrounding matter, even light, to fall into the gravity well which is that hole. For all intents and purposes, all that mass of stuff falls in and simply ceases to be.
Two thoughts emerge for me as I overlay that imagery on the act of Christ in His crucifixion. The first is that the weight of sin that was concentrated upon His person in that moment was enormous beyond our capacity to comprehend. Like the incalculable density of matter that might be surmised in the midst of that black hole, so the incalculable density of sin on Christ as the tides of His action swept in the sins of all surrounding time. What He bore we can in no wise begin to comprehend. But, the benefits, we surely can!
The second thought that came to mind is that the effect the black hole has on all that surrounding matter is also rather demonstrative of the effects of the shed blood of Christ. What has become of that stuff which falls in beyond the event horizon of the black hole? Nobody knows. For all intents and purposes it is gone, forgotten, never to be seen again. This is the precise case, we are told, of those sins which God has forgiven. His forgiveness is like a sea of forgetfulness. The sin involved has been swept in beyond the event horizon of the death and resurrection of our Messiah. What has happened to that sin and its guilt? Nobody knows. For all intents and purposes it is gone, forgotten, and shall not be heard of again.
Isn’t it something that the God of all creation has, in His creation, given us such a marvelous picture of His great action on our behalf! You may think it no more than a flight of fancy on my part to make this connection, and you may well be right about that. On the other hand, have you a better theory as to why God would create these things we know as black holes?
Returning to matters of prophecy, I do not wish to dwell on the topic too much longer, as I do so often enough. But, given the particular warnings given us in these verses, it’s well to consider some of the other points Scripture makes regarding the abuse of the prophetic gift and office. They combine to give us a strong reason to be wary of those who make great claims to be speaking after this fashion. There are boundaries set for us, warnings issued, and they are dire indeed. They are dire for us, lest we pay undo heed to those who make these claims falsely, and they are dire for those making the claims.
Let me begin with the words of Moses to Israel on this matter: If a prophet or a dreamer comes giving signs and wonders, and those things come true of which he speaks, saying, “let’s go after other gods and serve them,” you shall not listen to his words or his dreams. God is testing you to see if you love Him with all your heart and soul (Dt 13:1-3). This is, I think, one of the consistent marks of the false prophet. They are forever prompting us to go after other gods. Now, they may very well call these other gods by the name of the One True God, but if we will only consider the character these liars attribute to their conception of god, we will recognize that whatever name they may call their idol, it remains an idol.
We need to understand this, and understand it most thoroughly. The far greater danger to us as believers lies within the realm of that which calls itself Christian, not without. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islamism are not a terrible threat to our faith, really. They are not well suited to deceive the believer, because they are so obviously not founded on the Bible. But, what of those ‘Christian’ preachers who promote an alien gospel? What of things like the prosperity gospel, the old name it claim it message, the health and wealth diversion? What of those preaching a degree of tolerance for sin in God that one cannot find supportable in Scripture? What of those who so emphasize one characteristic of God as to dismiss or even deny certain other characteristics – those who, for example, are so focused on God as Love that they will not suffer to hear about God as Just in His Wrath? These are the dangerous ones. These are the ones with power to deceive, because their message has enough of truth in it that the unwary may think it passes muster. But, in truth they are the prophets and dreamers telling us to go off and serve other gods.
Notice something about the words Moses imparts there. Those things these false ones are saying, predicting, and the signs and wonders they can point out for themselves are real. “Those things come true of which he speaks.” It doesn’t matter! It does not provide the necessary proof of the validity of their message. The lie remains a lie, however much truth might surround it.
This is something that we hear echoed in the present passage. “False Christs and false prophets will arise with great signs and wonders…” But, their purpose is to attempt to mislead the elect. I will stress the ‘were it possible’ aspect of that danger, but the fact remains that many will be misled by these things. Many around us, many friends and acquaintances of mine, are seeking after signs and wonders even still. If you’ve had ought to do with the Charismatic movement in recent years, you’ve witnessed it. Something’s happening in Toronto and everybody has to go and see it. Something’s going on in Florida, and wow! It’s become a television broadcast, and everybody with any feel for the Spirit is tuned in! How can you be ignoring this, if you call yourself a Christian? Isn’t it exciting? Look! There’s a guy found a gold filling in his teeth. God’s wonderful! Listen! They say that light shows just start happening in mid service out there. Don’t you want to go? No. No, I don’t.
We used to have pastors come through our old church and they would be big on laying out all the marvelous, miraculous things happening in their ministries, and everybody would ooh and ah over it. Why, if these things are happening, then surely this man must be doing something right. Surely we can trust his message. But, the message was so clearly off. And yet, everybody’s nodding. Everybody’s giving the amen. He must be a man of God, look at those signs! But, what does Scripture tell us? Signs deceive.
We need to get ourselves out of this easily impressed mindset and settle down to the hard work of discerning the Truth and living the Truth. Paul took the church in Thessalonica to task for just such tendencies to go chasing after those who offered signs, wonders and dire prophesies. Hear him! “There is that one who is coming in pursuit of Satan’s activities, with all sorts of power, signs and false wonders. They will have all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, for they did not receive the love of Truth so as to be saved. Thus, God sends them this deluding influence, so that they will believe the False” (2Th 2:9-11).
John echoes the same warnings in the Revelation. “He performs great signs, even drawing fire down from heaven. He deceives those of the earth by these signs given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling them to make an image of that beast who was wounded by the sword, yet has come to life” (Rev 13:13-14). Marvels! Guaranteed to grab the attention. And, yes, I understand that God sent forth His own with the message that their ministries would be sealed by accompanying signs and wonders. But, at the end of the day, it was the message that marked the ministries as True, not the signs. The signs were just advertising, not the mark of authenticity. We need to keep that straight. It is the truth of the Gospel which is powerful to save, not the occasional healing of the sick, or accurate predictions of future events. The sick man, having been healed, will still go to the grave lost for eternity if the truth of the Gospel has not found him. Those who survive calamity because of some false prophet’s predictions will still be just as dead in their souls. Worse still, many who have been captured by such false measures will have been deluded into thinking themselves saved, and thereby (were it possible) deprived of the true salvation which is in Christ alone by faith alone.
If there is one thing that should come clear in these verses it is that there is a limit to prophecy. I have already pointed out one bound on the benefit of prophecy, which is that we may tend to see its fulfillment in things that are not the fulfillment, but only an initial unfolding (if that). The second, and greater limit I see here is that which Jesus expresses in Matthew 24:27-28 and its parallel in Luke 17:24. When the Son returns, you will not need anybody to tell you. Gil Scott Heron famously declared that “the revolution will not be televised.” Well, that is as may be, but I would submit that when it comes to the ultimate revolution which is the return of Christ to the fullness of His throne, it will be more widely known than if it had been televised! All the world will know of His return in an instant.
Look forward just a few verses in Matthew’s account. “He will send His angels with a great trumpet. They will gather His elect from all over, from one end of the sky to the other” (Mt 24:31). We have atheists today speculating on what sort of event might mimic the claimed gathering up of the saints. We have Christians speculating on what the aftermath might be, as has been popularized in the Left Behind series. But, I note that this description Jesus gives is exceedingly visible. It’s not folks suddenly disappearing to nobody knows where. It’s “from one end of the sky to the other.” That’s a very peculiar phrase to be using, and rest assured it is used with purpose. It’s not from the ends of the earth but from the ends of the sky.
This is to be conjoined with the notice that His return will be as universally visible as lightning. Now, obviously, lightning such as we know it is not universally visible. But, it is visible to all in the area. The concept is not to be applied literally, but in a figurate sense. As lightning is visible in all the region, so His return will be visible to all His region, which is to say, the whole of the earth, perhaps even more accurately the whole of the universe, or the multiverse if there be such a beast.
I return to a point I have already made once: The time of His coming isn’t the point for us to be focused on. It’s the reality of His coming that needs to hold our thoughts and shape our deeds. Blessed are those whom the Master finds alert when He comes (Lk 12:37). “The Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will” (Mt 24:44). Why, then, do we expend so much energy trying to establish a timetable for Him? He’ll just ignore it anyway. Stop it! Stop playing that game, and focus yourself on living a life of readiness. If it should turn out that events fall for us as they did for the Apostles, that we, too, will be left longing to see the days of the Son of Man, but will not see it, what is that to us when the assurance of an eternity spent with Him remains?
As long as I’m on this point, let me just briefly touch on that odd comment in Matthew 24:28. I have to say that is a verse (along with its parallel) that has always disturbed me. What’s with the corpse and vultures imagery? Which are we? Which is He? What does it even intend to mean? In the context in which that verse is set, I think the meaning becomes pretty clear, and that we are not intended to read into the specifics of the image, only the obviousness implied. Look. It’s common knowledge to us, if only from old Westerns, that vultures circle a dead body. If vultures are circling, then, you know there’s something dead on the ground. That’s the only point here: It’s common knowledge. It’s obvious. It’s a parallel thought to the point about the lightning. You don’t need anybody to tell you why the vultures are circling, and you won’t need anybody to tell you the Son has come.
Let this point be your bedrock when reports of various revivals and “Jesus is in the house” noises arise. Come back to this passage over and over again, and be reminded. “Do not believe them. Do not follow.” We are not to follow movements, not to pursue particularly charismatic leaders. We are to abide in Christ. Will He provide us with leaders worthy of our attentions? To be sure. Will He send seasons of honest revival upon His people? History would seem to suggest that He will. But, don’t believe the advertisements. Seek that revival that begins within and overspills the life, rather than seeking to have that revival spill into you. That will serve much better.
Having read the passages as provided in The Message this morning, I’ll just note the rendering given this matter of vultures in that text. “Whenever you see crowds gathering, think of carrion vultures circling, moving in, hovering over a rotting carcass. You can be quite sure that it's not the living Son of Man pulling in those crowds.” That is a different perspective than I had taken, certainly, and I cannot fault it. It does provide a possible understanding of the imagery Jesus has chosen to use. I dare say, considering some of those various movements that have arisen in my time, it’s not a bad perspective to have. One sees the commotion and hears the excited crowds going off to be part of the scene. Now, open your eyes to the reality: They are acting the part of vultures over carrion. There is no life there, only rotting death. The return of the King will not be televised. There will be no need of it. Just keep that in mind with all these well-hyped activities that are on offer for the Christian today.
OK. I’m going to back up to something more near the start of the passages at hand, that matter of the abomination of desolation. While Matthew and Mark differ somewhat in the phrasing of this statement, both include the interjected comment, “let the reader understand.” Set aside the suggestion that this must surely point to a common source text that both used in writing their own Gospels. That’s as may be. Or, it could be that Matthew had Mark’s Gospel for reference or vice versa. That is beside the point. The more immediate point of interest is what exactly the reader would have been expected to understand. It has surely been a point of curiosity for later readers, as to just what was being signified.
Even the briefest excursion into lexical texts at this point reveals a range of possible understandings. Zhodiates feels quite sure this was intended to refer to that time when the Romans set up their ensigns within the temple. That’s a reasonable surmise, given Luke’s pointing out of the more immediate fulfillment of these events. The Romans did do this very thing, although I forget whether it came before or after the time of Jesus speaking. I’ll assume it was a later event for now. Those ensigns, with the figure of an eagle at times prominent upon them, were indeed viewed as idols by the Jews, and their presence in the temple led to such riots as caused the Romans to back down lest the all important pax Romana be disturbed and they held to blame.
This perspective has a certain resonance with the Daniel reference. In Daniel 9:27, he writes of that one who comes “on the wing of abominations” to make desolate. One could certainly construe a reference to the eagle standard, I suppose. (I just felt compelled to confirm that I wasn’t mixing this memory with those of the Napoleonic wars, and find I am on firm footing, so that’s settled.) These standards were in some ways viewed as totems even by the Roman military, fraught with significance above and beyond their purpose as markers during the chaos of military action indicating the location rallying points or command groups. Even into the modern era, the importance of keeping the nation’s flag aloft and untrammeled remains.
Thayer, on the other hand, points us to the idea of these interlopers having set up their small idol-altars atop the altar of burnt offerings in the sanctuary, effectively desecrating that altar. Perhaps so.
Turning to Fausset’s, it is noted that Jewish tradition saw this fulfilled during the period of the Maccabees, when the Jews themselves erected such idolatrous altars in the temple, and saw the destruction as having come in the work of Antiochus Epiphanes. They also note the issue with the Roman offerings made to their standards in the temple as having come in the victory over Jerusalem in AD 70. They comment that this does not suffice to satisfy the necessary mark of abomination, which being that the Jews themselves participated in the desecration. I would add that, this being the case, the presence of the idols came after the destruction, not as precursor. It would seem, then, that this is not the event Jesus is pointing to.
On the other hand, I am mindful of the atrocities noted by Josephus in his description of this period, and while it may not have been a matter of explicitly making offerings to idols in the sanctuary, it is very clear that the citizens of Jerusalem at that time, and particularly its political leaders, desecrated the sanctity of the temple by acts of murder and internecine war within its bounds. Some note is made of the Zealots, and their time in the temple as perhaps being the precipitating event. In sum, Fausset’s notes a divine law by which, “where the church corrupts herself, the world, the instrument of her sin, is made also the instrument of her punishment”. Words worth thinking about, as one looks around our own time.
The ISBE looks at Daniel’s description as seeking to indicate such a form of idolatry as is “so surpassingly disgusting to the sense of morality and decency, so aggressive against everything that was godly as to drive all from its presence and leave its abode desolate”. It would be hard to count the Roman event as meeting that criterion. The acts of Jerusalem under siege, on the other hand, might well fit. Apart from this, they seem to focus on the events of Antiochus Epiphanes’ attempts to destroy Judaism as fulfilling the prophecy. But, as these things were already historical events at the time, this would seem hard to fit with the current prophetic tone.
McClintock & Strong note that Josephus refers to the pagan sacrifices made in the temple under orders of Antiochus Epiphanes as fulfilling Daniel’s prophecy, along with the book of 1Maccabees. They resolve this by saying the Jesus was pointing to a second fulfillment, indicating the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. OK. Here I’m finding reference to some of the things I had recalled, such as the riots that arose because the Roman ensigns had been brought into Jerusalem. This event occurred under Pilate’s watch, and he was forced by events to reverse the event.
In presenting the arguments for understanding this abomination to indicate a particularly spiritual or moral issue, it is noted that the interjection about the reader understanding lends weight to such interpretation, advising that those who are spiritually minded will understand the sort of corruptions indicated. In such an understanding, it is noted that even a child could grasp the significance of the Romans sacrificing to their standards in the temple, so that can’t be the point. It would require a spiritually minded person to recognize these as but a symptom or a sign of the real abominations which had brought about such vengeance from heaven. Over against this, the only argument presented for perceiving the sacrifices made by not only Rome, but also the Syrians under Antiochus Epiphanes, consist in their historicity. That would seem to sidestep the question as to whether they were the disease or the symptom.
It may perhaps be best to perceive the event in both aspects. Now, I have said already that pointing backward to Antiochus makes little sense for a prophetic passage, except, perhaps as a reference point for recognizing the spiritual interpretation of events. In other words, the depredations of Antiochus were not without cause in the people of God themselves. It was not capricious fate, but godly vengeance against unholiness. But, this is prophecy and must point forward. It cannot, then, refer to that occasion when Pilate had the standards brought in, for that, too, is past tense. It can, however, point to the actions taken by the Roman army at the destruction. Those actions, to be sure, are so obvious that even a child could take note. But, it would still require the spiritual mind to perceive the reasons why God would have allowed such a thing. The only issue I have with that is that, as I have already noted, that event came effectively after the desolation, not as precursor. I suppose one could say that the spiritually minded, observing the things that were happening in that city as it came under siege, would also recognize what must come of such activities, that God could not and would not leave such heinous things as cannibalism unrequited in His people. One who was spiritually minded could be expected to recognize that even this horrific fall in His people was but the first vengeance for previous sins. Indeed, connecting the words of Jesus on this occasion with His previous sorrow over Jerusalem, we will recognize that the particular sin that brought the whole to a head was their rejection of Messiah – they did not recognize the day of their visitation (Lk 19:44).
Would the reader understand this? Or would they have understood something different? Well, I suppose with the period of the Maccabees not that far in the past, the events of the time would still be known. Indeed, with the Messianic fervor of the time, one would suppose such a period of heroic resistance in Israel might be much on the minds of the people. Now, I note that the aside interjected by our authors is to let the reader understand. This is not Jesus telling His disciples to pay close attention. Perhaps, then, if these books were written late enough, they are thinking of the Jewish wars. Or, perhaps at the time of writing the inevitability of such a thing was such as would be on the minds of the faithful, particularly those faithful who were from Israel. I do, however, find a certain resonance in the idea that this was a call to interpret events less in terms of the horror of the moment, and more in terms of seeking out the causes that had moved God to not just permit such things, but decree them. It’s a reminder to view current events in light of a sovereign God, and thus a reminder that is ever timely.
What would happen if we took to reading the news with such a mindset? What would change if we looked at the political landscape with a concern for what God was trying to tell us, rather than fretting over what the economic implications might be? What changes if we look at the situation around the world today not as some cold, indifferent matter of natural causes, the necessary outflow of socialism, or the simple effects of climate or what have you, and begin to consider what it is in man that has caused God to react with such anger? Where is the concern for sin? I don’t even ask on the part of the masses of unbelievers. I ask on the part of the community of faith. Where is our concern for sin? Where is mine?
I go back to that imagery I was thinking about yesterday, about that weight of sin which was swept in and concentrated on the person of Jesus, and I wonder: Do I care more about the weight of sorrow that was His, or the fabulous knowledge that I’m free and clear? Personal interest will of course lend great weight to the latter. But, what a selfish mindset, and one prone to prompting us into a life demonstrative of cheap grace. It is a focus that inclines us to fall into that place of sinning with abandon knowing forgiveness is ours for the asking. Of course, such a mindset must indicate that we are not so saved as we believe, if this is our committed habit. Yet, I find it a prevalent issue amongst those whom I would think sound in their faith and understanding. It is the human condition that, in spite of what we know, yet we act against our own best interests. In spite of the recognition that God must be Just, and that a Just God cannot possibly overlook such an abuse of His grace towards us, yet we will act as if He is blind to our crimes. He is not.
The only antidote I can see for this stupidity of ours is to shift our eyes from the sea of forgetfulness to the great sorrow of our Savior in achieving that forgetfulness. I am once more mindful of my old brother Mark’s comments so many years ago, that he would that his actions not add so much as one more ounce to that weight of sin Jesus bore. It is difficult, perhaps, to view that historic event as being yet subject to modification based on current action, but I point again to the way the black hole sweeps in all surrounding matter. Viewed on the topography of time, that sacrifice of Christ swept in all sin in all surrounding time, right out to the very borders at which time begins and ends. All sin throughout all eternity swept into that temporal whorl. So, yes, my sins today can still add to the mass of sin He bore in that moment, and I, like my brother of old, would that my deeds not add any more to that weight.
Lord, I know full well it is not in me to keep such a focus, to be so mindful of Your suffering as to make it sufficient to hold this flesh from sinning. I am in no wise sufficient to such a task, by any means. Except that You are abiding in me, willing and working in me, I am hopeless against the tide of my own flesh. But, You are here. You are willing. You are working. And, in this is my hope, my certainty: That You have begun the work, and as such, I can have confidence that You will see it completed. All praise be to Your name that I have this certified to my account! And yet, such sorrow to know myself so weak, so fraught with failure still. Strengthen me, Jesus, that I may stand in the light of Your salvation. You have in times past produced men of Spiritual backbone by Your abiding presence within. May I be found just such a man by Your grace and power in me.
I have already touched on my next point, so perhaps I need not dwell on it over long. Luke 21:22 informs us that ‘these are days of vengeance’ of which Jesus is speaking, the fulfillment of all that which is written. As I noted, this reflects the point Jesus had made earlier, that Jerusalem’s destruction comes because it did not recognize the time of visitation. The destruction of Jerusalem was not some surprise event. It was not a matter that could not have been foreseen and avoided. It came as punishment for sin, just as the exile had come as punishment for sin, just as the flood came as punishment for sin.
Many times I’ve mentioned the book Josephus wrote about that period of Jerusalem’s fall. It was a most degrading time for those in the city, a terrible time, and reacted to in terrible ways. All the trappings of civilized life seem to have fallen away, and the people reverted to barbarous behaviors. Don’t for a minute suppose that this is something that can no longer happen. The riots in London are but a hint of what befalls a people bereft of hope. The depths of depravity of which man remains perfectly capable have thankfully not been explored in the West in recent decades. But, that is not to say it won’t happen again.
Vengeance, that most righteous wrath of God against sin, is not only Just, particularly when the execution of it remains in His hands as it ought. It is necessary. It is the inevitable outcome of all that has led up to it. It is made inevitable at some point. There is a tipping point, a point beyond which the patience of God has run out, the measure of a people’s sins have been made full, and all who are going to be rescued from their midst have been rescued. Nothing remains to stop the clock, nor is there any hope of a last moment reprieve. Things are settled and vengeance must come.
It would be so easy to look at our own time and think that surely we as a nation are at that point, if not well beyond it. Surely the things that have been happening are the beginning of that vengeance. But, as I have said already, it is risky to try and interpret events as the fulfillment of prophecy. When it’s time, when He comes, it shall be known with no need for guesswork. There shall be no question but that every last facet of every last prophecy has been fulfilled and all that remains is the denouement.
Another perspective we might take is that the vengeance which began to play out with the fall of Jerusalem has never really ceased, that the whole of history since the Cross has been the day of vengeance. That might better suit the message that Matthew and Mark relay: If the Lord had not cut those days short, none at all would be saved. And, thanks be to God for the assurance that follows on that point: “But for the sake of the elect He did shorten the time.”
Truly, that is the key message of this whole section of Scripture. He did shorten the time. Notice that neither of our authors relays that as He will. He already did. These events that are being discussed are that certain, that determined. He has already done it all. Just as the events of Jesus’ life, the timing of His birth, the circumstances of His death, had been decreed before the first moments of creation, so have the events Jesus describes here. The times, however harrowing, are part of God’s plan. He is in control, and He has determined that they shall not last so long as to overwhelm all flesh. The elect, those He chose out of the populace for His own reasons shall be saved. They shall endure because He shall fill them with endurance. They shall stand because He upholds them. They shall be saved because He saves them.
I think there is perhaps one more reason that lies behind Jesus telling His disciples how things are going to unfold, and it’s a matter we do well to be mindful of. We have a rather natural way of responding to tragedy. We are brought low by it. If it does not touch us directly, still we sorrow for those it has touched. This strikes us as being a right and Biblical response. However, I am mindful of the instructions that were given to Aaron when his own sons were forfeit for their sins. He was not to mourn for those upon whom God’s justice was being served. Likewise, I recall that during the great feasts that marked the Jewish religious calendar, there was to be no mourning.
Think about what the Passover marked. Yes, it was the deliverance of Israel from Egypt’s midst, and for the Israelites, that was a wonderful cause for celebration. But, what of the Egyptians? For them, it was vengeance and destruction. Had we been around to hear the news at the time, we would have been likely to feel a certain sympathy for the victims of such tragedies. So many innocent children struck down in one night. Oh! The agony those parents must be feeling. But, that misses the point of the event, doesn’t it? Of course, we have the benefit of knowing the spiritual history as well as the temporal in this case. But, the same principle applies elsewhere.
The same principle should be applying as we consider the events of our own day. The turmoil throughout the Middle East is more than just a political upheaval, more, even, then signs of a resurgent Islam. Dire as that may be, it is but the surface. Yes, it hints at the spiritual aspect of things, but it stops short of the why. It misses that God remains in control. If Islam is resurgent, it is only because that serves His purposes in this time, and we do well to consider just what His purposes are.
Turn, instead, to the many natural disasters that have been in the news in recent months and years, the shocking devastation of the Japanese earthquake – and so many others; the leveling of Joplin Missouri by one of thousands of powerful tornados this year; the fires in Texas; the droughts here, floods there. Forget global warming. That is perhaps the most asinine attempt to raise man to the causal position of God that has ever been perpetrated, and the greed that motivates its primary advocates ought to suffice to reveal the fraud. Even were it found that the activity of mankind were somehow contributing to the situation, the real question to be asking is why is it that God has determined such punishments upon the peoples of the earth, and does there remain anything that might be done to save?
If nothing else, it ought to put a greater urgency in our hearts to get the Gospel out. And yet, it doesn’t, does it? No, we just hunker down and seek to survive. This is not the Way! There is a time to flee, to be sure, even as Jesus advises, but it’s not the permanent condition. We are saved for a purpose, rescued that we might rescue, preserved that we might be the seeds of Life restored. If, however, we refuse to aid, refuse to be planted, refuse to do the work for which we were fashioned, what cause do we have to expect better than Israel received?
Look through the messages Jesus delivered, particularly those related to the vineyard. The olive tree is unfruitful. It refuses to serve its intended purpose. What is to come of it? There will be patience, one further chance for growth, but then, if it fails it shall be uprooted and destroyed. The gardeners have been keeping the produce, refusing the Lord of the harvest His share. What is to come of it? They will be not just evicted from His garden, but destroyed out of it, and that garden given to another. What held for Israel holds for the Church which is the spiritual Israel. If we are fruitless, we, too, will be cut away, burned off, and replaced.
It may seem to us, as it once seemed to some of the prophets, that God is ignoring the situation while evil prospers and the last vestiges of good are withering and fading. It does feel like the darkness is increasing, that the moral fiber of society is unraveling and that we live in a time when what is good is regularly decried as evil and what is evil is promoted as not only good, but very good. But, the reality is that God has not now, nor ever shall, lost control. He has not turned His attention away that somebody needs to tap Him on the shoulder and remind Him to get to work. No. Time moves ever onward towards its fulfillment. The day of Vengeance will play out, whether that turns out to be some horrific future time that will make this period look like a walk in the park, or whether it turns out to have compassed thousands of years. However it may work out in history, the thing we must hold onto is this: The Lord has already cut the time short for our sake. His vengeance shall be in full, but it shall also be tempered with his mercy. For those on whom He has determined to show compassion, compassion will be shown. But, for the rest, there is only the full force and penalty of Justice served.
When, therefore, that time comes and as it plays out, we who constitute the people of God must resolve to recognize that even in such terrible events, God is glorified. We lose sight of this. God is not solely glorified in those times and places where His mercy is on display, and His forgiveness received. He is every bit as glorified when His longsuffering patience has run out and Justice is served in full by His wrath. We are not to mourn for those upon whom Justice is come. How can we be sorrowful when God is God? Does that seem heartless? Yes, I suppose it does. But, I would stress it only seems heartless to us because we are as yet imperfect. It is the demand put upon a holy people, a nation of priests unto our God, that we know the joy of Him being glorified whatever the means by which He glorifies Himself.
Surely, if we can rejoice in that which was accomplished in the death of His Son, we can rejoice in that which is accomplished in the culmination of His judgment as well. Is it not suitable? Is it not necessary? Nobody said that walking humbly before God would prove easy. Indeed, it is a most difficult calling. But, it is the calling to which we are called, so let us resolve to walk it as best we may.
In the meantime, surely we can praise God in earnest and without hesitation for this knowledge that He has set firm limit on the duration of this time of vengeance for our sake. Once again, we see the proof that He is the One Who makes our endurance certain. We need to see these two points as connected. “The Lord has shortened those days.” And “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” In fact, let me add one more bit of Scripture to that heady mix. “He chose us in Him before the world was founded, that we should be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph 1:4). Bear those three thoughts in mind as things conjoined. God controls the times and sets His inviolable boundaries on both the times and the actions of those who play their parts in those times. God likewise controls your outcome.
Oh, we hate the sound of that, don’t we? Why, that makes us no more than automatons, and surely if that is the case we are blameless for what befalls. But, no. We remain beings with moral responsibility for our actions, for we choose our actions willingly whether God is in control or not. Pharaoh was not coerced into seeking to imprison and destroy the Israelites. Hitler was not coerced into the evils he perpetrated. Neither do we require coercion to sin. If anything, we require coercion to cease from sinning. We need that outside agent to work upon us that we might stand against our own propensities. And, praise be to God, He does so work upon us, and why? Because He chooses to. He chose us. He has determined that we shall arrive holy and blameless at His gates. If He has decreed it, we can rest assured that He will see to it that this is exactly how things fall out for us.
When, therefore, He speaks of how we will gain our lives by our endurance, we are not having some conditional explained to us. It’s not a case of it being that if we will but endure through all of this then He will be compelled to keep us alive. No! God cannot be compelled. He is sovereign. The point we need to see in that message of endurance is that because He has chosen us as His elect, He can state as He does that we will gain our lives. Notice, this is an Aorist Imperative. It is not a conditional, not the Subjunctive mood suggesting a possible outcome. It’s a certainty. You will gain your lives. It can only be so because you will endure. And, if endurance is a certainty, it can only be because He Who has decreed it empowers it. Your arrival at Life is made certain by the One Who is able to say, “I have not lost of one of those whom You entrusted to Me.” He never has. He never will.
Having touched on the topic of endurance, it is well to consider what that means. After all, even if we endure by His power it continues to involve our activity. We are active participants in the work God is doing in and through us. So, as we consider endurance I think it well that we consider what endurance is not. It is not, according to Zhodiates at any rate, putting up with people. There is a different term in the Greek to cover that. We are considering circumstances and events. That’s what we endure. I would also stress that endurance is not a morose, stoic determination. Eeyore did not endure circumstances. He resigned himself to them, but he did not endure them.
Now, let me turn to some of the more positive aspects that define endurance. Endurance is patient. Endurance is cheerful! Oy. How do we measure up to that? Cheerful under the crushing weight of circumstance? Surely not! Endurance is hopeful, waiting steadfastly for something. That’s an interesting bit of definition that Thayer throws in. Steadfast waiting for, patiently waiting. For what? For an end to the trial? No, I don’t really think that’s the idea in view. That waiting is for what lies beyond. Put that back into the setting of Luke 21:19: By endurance you will gain your lives. Life lies beyond. Hope understands what Jesus had said just preceding: Even should you be put to death, not one hair on your head will perish. You gain your life. Wow! Whatever the world may throw at us, that is what lies beyond. That is the focus of our cheerful, patient endurance. We experience a certain cheerful constancy under all pressure because we have God with us. He is my strength. When I am weak, yet He makes me strong. When the world comes crashing in, He is there with me.
I am put in mind in this moment of the way weight lifters will have a spotter working with them. That spotter does not lift the weight for them. No. That would defeat the whole purpose of the thing. Weight lifting is done to strengthen the muscles, and what may have been far too much weight when one first began lifting eventually becomes a small matter to lift repeatedly. The spotter is not there to help us avoid all exercise, but rather to aid should the weight become too much to bear. When we are about to break down, when it seems all strength is gone, and we must be crushed beneath the weight, then the spotter steps in, lifting that weight off of us while we recover.
This is, I dare say, how our endurance works. God is our spotter. He does not take all trial and difficulty out of our lives. Far from it! It has often been said that I hardly knew what trial and difficulty were before I came to Christ. But, they come to train, not to crush. Life is our gymnasium, and through the course of our walk with God, trials come to give us exercise, to provide us with the means to increase our spiritual muscle. They may threaten to overcome us, and indeed, we may buckle under the strain at times, but never to our destruction. God, our spotter, is there beside us, and He is certainly able to lift the load from off our necks that we may breathe and recuperate. Knowing this, maybe – just maybe – we can learn to be cheerfully constant under all that pressure, remembering always that the Lord our God is with us yet.
Connected in some ways to this matter of endurance is the matter of attachments. It is only natural that we would form attachments to the things of this life, for they are the only things we have known. But, then comes the Christ. Then comes the revealing of that which lies ahead, the revealing that our true home is in heaven. What to do? It may be our true home, but it is a home we have never known, and we have a pretty universal reaction to the unknown. Even as we begin to learn what home is like, there remains the attraction of the life we’ve become accustomed to.
I was reading in Romans 6 last night, with its discussion of what our baptism into Christ means. This is, of course, the chapter that speaks of our death to sin, our death to the ways of this world as we have been born into a new creation in Christ Jesus. That is, however, but one subset of the attractions this life affords. I am thinking more of those things which, as Charlie Peacock put it, aren’t so bad, it’s just that they are never things that we can trust. Particularly here in the West, we have such a consumer mentality, such a propensity for acquisition that we rather lose sight of the fact that as we gain in property our property comes to own us.
How many do I talk to who are in professions that pay well, working the good jobs, living in the nice houses, but at the same time fully aware that if given the chance they’d be doing something completely different. If money were no object and I could have all the same amenities regardless of my chosen employment, would I still do what I do? Not likely! Come to think of it, it’s unlikely I’d do much of anything, but supposing it necessary that one be about some form of employment I would doubtless pursue my music in preference to engineering. But, I am captive to my stuff, and if it be supposed I could earn anything at all from my music, it could never touch what I earn now.
How many others do we hear about today who are captive to their mortgages? Having been sucked into the modern distortions of the American dream, convinced they could have the luxury version of that dream in spite of an income disparity, now they have the house but they can’t afford it. Neither can they sell it and resign themselves to living more nearly within their means. They are captive to their stuff. Stuff no longer serves the owner, but the owner serves the stuff.
Was this sin or sin’s outflow? Perhaps, but it’s not necessary to perceive it as such. Oh, I’m sure you could find the stench of greed in it, but even were that not the case, it seems that one inevitably accrues these attachments to life. Maybe it’s not the stuff at all, but only the relationships. Maybe it’s the presence of family. Maybe it’s the network of associates. Maybe it’s the people who have become part of our life at church. That can’t be bad, can it? But, to the degree that these relationships keep us so enrapt with this life that we prefer it to eternity, I think it must be considered bad.
One cannot think along these lines without arriving at Paul’s famous summation of the matter. “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Php 1:21). What was his quandary? Life was not pleasant for Paul as we might measure pleasantness. He had suffered a great deal for the work of the Gospel and was now imprisoned in Rome, at peril for his life. And understand that Roman prisons were a far cry from the luxury hotel quality prisons we set up today. It was not a pleasant or health-supporting experience. To die, then, would be both an end to the suffering and trials to which Paul was subjected and introduction into that eternal reward! Tempting indeed when one is in chains and facing a most unpleasant death should the trial turn out as could be expected. And on the other side of that dilemma, what? To live is Christ. If continuation in this life is determined, it is for Christ. It is to serve. It is to see His church planted that much more surely. There is no question in Paul’s mind of retirement. There is no thought of just getting away from the pressures of ministry and going back to being a happy tent maker, or even of making a living as a lawyer or scribe. The choice is home to heaven or remain to work on heaven’s behalf.
That is a life with no attachments. That detachment from the normal pursuits of this life enabled a greater endurance, or perhaps it was evidence of that by which Paul endured. That same combination of detachment and endurance is seen throughout the history of the Church. The martyrs upon whom we look with such wonder were of this mindset. The men who stood against a church gone astray and insisted on a return to the purity of the Gospel were of this mindset. Their detachment did not mean that they counted this life as nothing, that they put no value on human relationships or on the mundane activities of life. It meant only that through it all, their eyes and their hearts remained centered on home, on the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Look again at the stuff Jesus is telling His disciples here. Everybody’s going to hate you. Even friends and family will turn you in and think they’ve done God a service. You will be put to death, some of you. Expect it. But, none of this is offered as a reason to go hide. Indeed, it must remain connected to the assurance of Matthew 24:14: The Gospel will be preached to the whole world. And, oh, by the way, you shall be the men who see that task done. The world will hate you for it, but it’s your job. Take courage! I have overcome the world (Jn 16:33)! And, this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith (1Jn 5:4). Faith in what? Faith in Christ to be sure, faith in God Who saves. But, look at the very concrete message faith receives here: You will be put to death, yet not a hair of your head will perish. You will endure and you will gain your lives. He Who is Faithful and True has decreed it. It shall be so.
That promise, I dare say, is hardly one reserved for the first apostles, or even for the 200 who stuck it out in the upper room. It is the perpetual decree of Christ. But, we cannot avail ourselves of the full scope of this promise if we are so caught up in the stuff of this life. Stuff! It’s all just stuff. Worse, it’s garbage, dung, refuse with absolutely no redeeming value. And yet, we cling to it as if it were a life preserver. We must awake to the fact that it is no life preserver at all, but more akin to the boat anchor. It’s distraction and worse.
We look back (at least I do) on the heroes of the Church and see men of spectacular courage. Well educated they may have been, but they stood so firmly athwart their cultures, knowing that by doing so they set life and limb at peril. And it didn’t phase them! With the threat of being burned at the stake for a heretic, yet they insisted upon speaking the pure Truth of the Gospel.
Yesterday, as part of the ministry fair at church, one table was handing out a self-assessment sort of questionnaire on spiritual gifts. I was particularly appreciative of one of the questions set forth for those who might consider themselves to be in possession of the gift of prophecy. The wording was to the effect of, “are you willing to stand up and publicly proclaim the Truth of God with no thought for the consequences?” Woe! It’s one thing to hop up in front of the church and describe visions and impressions. It’s one thing to claim the voice of prophecy while telling people what they already know or what they want to hear. Even if the message is harder, it’s one thing to deliver it to the people of God where one might at least expect to gain a hearing. But, how about when the call is to speak to the court of public opinion? Are you ready to go on air and proclaim the Truth to, shall we say, CNN? Are you prepared to stand before the Senate and speak God’s Truth? When civil law insists that you mustn’t so much as bow your head on certain public occasions, whose law will you follow?
We have become, I fear, a church of little backbone. We love our heroes, but we have no interest in trying to emulate them. We read these messages, this admonition that Jesus delivers to pretty much march full speed into certain death and we’re quite satisfied to know that once there were men who would do so. Just so long as it doesn’t fall to us to do likewise. Now, let me just stress that point that I am most assuredly addressing my own condition here first and foremost. I find such prospects hold absolutely zero interest for me. Oh, I am enamored enough of those who have lived and died with such courage, even those who have done so for much lesser causes than the Gospel. I can grasp that it is what it ought to mean to be a man, certainly a man of God. And yet there is that in me that wants no firsthand part in it.
I do not say this as excuse. I say it in recognition that this is not right. I say it in confession that I have great need of that very backbone, that spiritual backbone, that comes of detaching from the stuff and distraction of this life and clinging wholeheartedly to my Christ, my Lord and Savior. I do not yet relish the prospect of death, no. Neither do I find anything in all of Scripture that advises such a thing. Not even Jesus faced His death with relish. But, He faced it. His Apostles faced it. Their disciples faced it. Thousands upon thousands down through the years have faced it, and it has always been by the same strength, the strength of God. In Him they have discovered something more important than life. In Him they have discovered Life on such a scale as causes this present system to pale. It’s not that death has become a thing to look forward to, but it has simply become inconsequential. It has lost its sting, lost its significance, because to die is ultimate gain, for to die is to finally enter into Life in full. May I, by the help of God, come to such a mindset as sets this present life in proper perspective and sets the kingdom of God at the forefront of thought.
I have one final topic I wish to touch on for this study, and that concerns the times of the Gentiles that Luke makes mention of in Luke 21:24. This is something Luke would have heard emphasized in Paul’s teaching as well. We can sense that in the amount of time that apostle spends explaining the Jewish situation in his letter to the Romans. I’ll take but the one verse to more or less summarize the thought. “I would not have you uninformed as to this mystery, brothers, lest you become wise in your own opinions. A partial hardening has indeed happened in Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” (Ro 11:25).
I am not certain at all that Jesus and Paul are thinking about the same matter here. The times of the Gentiles that Jesus describes do not sound like a period of salvific grace, but rather of rampage and vengeance. They are more in keeping with what had been the times of the Persians or the times of the Babylonians. What Paul is describing, on the other hand, is more along the lines of a harvest time amongst the Gentiles, wherein the full fruit of belief is harvested out from their midst before attention turns back in earnest to the faithful amongst the Jews.
What has my focus in all of this is that matter of times. Whether for vengeance or for salvation, there is a season appointed. Its duration is finite. We do not have the timetables and the schedules by which to determine when the gates will close, but we have the certain assurance that they will close on time. There comes a point when all opportunity of redemption is withdrawn. The season’s over, the store is closed, and no further sales will be made. I am once again deeply feeling that point that Zhodiates makes in regard to times in this sense of the term. It is not the convenience of the season that is being pointed out, but the necessity of the task at hand in that season. Times are appointed not merely to provide divisions in the calendar, or eras in history. Times are appointed to a purpose, to God’s purpose.
Rome had its times. Those times had a purpose. That purpose was not to magnify this Caesar or that, nor even to promote their culture as preeminent. The purpose of that empire had to do with God’s plan and purpose. And, the empire lasted precisely as long as His purpose decreed. Its whole development, both rise and fall, was for His purpose only. The same can, of course, be said of the British Empire in its time, and can be said as well of the rise and fall of super powers in our own time, America most surely included. If we have ascendancy yet, it is not because of anything particularly wonderful about us as Americans. It is not, quite frankly, because we have been set in some unique position as a city on a hill for God. It is solely because it still suits God’s plan and purpose for us to remain powerful. When that ceases to be the case, so shall it cease to be the case that we are consequential at all.
As well as signifying seasons and periods carved out by God’s purpose, there is a more personal aspect to this matter of times. There are times in our lives, times which we may recognize as being decisive moments, times I often refer to as crisis points. These are the “choose you this day” moments. They are times when indecision is no longer an option, when failing to decide is a decision in itself. I have touched on that passage from Luke 19, in which Jesus speaks of what befalls Jerusalem for failing to recognize just such a crisis point. The time of their visitation, the time of the Son of God on earth live and in person was a crisis point, an appointed time and, in very many ways a last chance. It was the final ‘choose you this day’ and too many refused to make a choice. Yet, they chose. And all this which Jesus is forewarning His disciples about is the fallout of that choice.
Not choosing, you have chosen, and that choice is final. The decisive moment has come and gone, and the book has been written. Sorry, your names won’t be in it. Every day, we are surrounded by people who have arrived at that same crisis point, and most of them, perhaps all of them, arrive at it unknowing. This is the thing that ought to impel us towards evangelistic efforts, towards mission work, towards all manner of outreach outside the church walls. Every day, you can be guaranteed that right here in this local area, people are dying without having received the gracious offer of God.
Now, I can also assure you that not so many as one among of the elect of God ever has or ever shall depart this life without that grace, nor shall as many as one amongst the reprobate depart having accepted the offer. But, that does nothing, NOTHING to ameliorate the crisis. That does nothing to the necessity of our being out there presenting the opportunity for salvation to a world in need. We do not know the decisive moment. We do not know the duration of the season. We do not know it for our own part, and we certainly aren’t granted to know it on any other’s. What we do know is that every season comes to an end. What we do know is that for every life, there is that point beyond which no further opportunity will be on offer.
If anybody reading this has the least doubt as to their own situation with God, I would pray that you stop right now and settle it. He is real and He is here, wherever here happens to be for you. Who knows but that this might be your hour of visitation? Don’t let it pass by without accepting that holy Visitor, and making Him at home in the upper room of your heart. Don’t pass up the offer of Life. The alternative is, sadly, just as eternal in its effect, but it is an eternity not to be wished on your worst enemy. Don’t let that be your story. Choose you this day, and please, choose life!
For those of us who have already chosen the path of Life, may we find in this reminder a stirring to become more proactive in our service to the Risen Christ. May we recall the parable of the sower and set about sowing. May we do so without fear and without discretion, that all may hear and by hearing, some be saved. The season is short and the laborers few. Let us be about it.
