August 5
Mark 13:14-23
Confused? The principle today says that Jesus has told me all I need to know about the future, which made me laugh because I didn't really understand some of the verses today. Here's what I learned... The 'abomination that causes desolation' is referring to the pollution of the Jewish temple by idolatry. The warnings that follow don't really apply to us today. In about 70 a.d. the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem and defiled the temple. The warnings in today's scripture probably refer to that time in history, however Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans is a foreshadow of the events of the tribulation. The rest of the verses are easier to understand. The tribulation is basically gonna be horrible. So horrible, that if God allowed it to go on we would all die (which, mind you, is what we deserve). Here is also another warning about false Jesuses, and then Jesus sums it up with "I have told you everything ahead of time." For some people this may seem like too much information. For some it may seem like not enough. But the reality is, Jesus told us exactly as much and as little as we need to know so that we can be prepared, tell others, and rely on God!
Principle: Jesus has told me all I need to know about the future in order to prepare myself, warn others, and trust Him.
Application:
1. How often do I thank God that I am one of His own and for the warnings He gives me?
2. Whom will I warn so that they will escape also?
3. Do I know His Word well enough to be able to distinguish Him from the false Christs?
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Because these verses are so confusuing, I offer this commentary from William Barclay: "Jesus forecasts some of the awful terror of the siege and the final fall of Jerusalem. It is his warning that when the first signs of it came people ought to flee, not even waiting to pick up their clothes or to try to save their goods. In fact the people did precisely the opposite. They crowded into Jerusalem, and death came in ways that are almost too terrible to think about.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase the abomination of desolation has its origin in the book of Daniel (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). The origin of the phrase was in connection with Antiocheius. We have already seen that he tried to stamp out the Jewish religion and introduce Greek thought and Greek ways. He desecrated the Temple by offering swine's flesh on the great altar and by setting up public brothels in the sacred courts. Before the very Holy Place itself he set up a great statue of Olympian Zeus and ordered the Jews to worship it. Jesus prophesies that the same kind of thing is going to happen again.
What does Jesus mean when he speaks about the abomination of desolation? Men expected not only a Messiah, but also the emergence of a power who would be the very incarnation of evil and who would gather up into himself everything that was against God. Paul called that power the Man of Lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3). John of the Revelation identified that power with Rome (Revelation 17). Jesus is saying "Some day, quite soon, you will see the very incarnate power of evil rise up in a deliberate attempt to destroy the people and the Holy Place of God." He takes the old phrase and uses it to describe the terrible things that are about to happen.
It was in A.D. 70 that Jerusalem finally fell to the besieging army of Titus, who was to be Emperor of Rome. The horrors of that siege form one of the grimmest pages in history. The people crowded into Jerusalem from the countryside. Titus had no alternative but to starve the city into subjection. The matter was complicated by the fact that even at that terrible time there were sects and factions inside the city itself. Jerusalem was torn without and within.
Josephus tells the story of that terrible siege in the fifth book of The Wars of the Jews. He tells us that 97,000 were taken captive and 1,100,000 perished by slow starvation and the sword. He tells us, "Then did the famine widen its progress and devoured the people by whole houses and families. The upper rooms were full of women and children dying of starvation. The lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged. The children and the young men wandered about the market places like shadows, all swelled with famine, and fell down dead wheresoever their misery seized them. As for burying them, those that were sick themselves were not able to do it. And those that were hearty and well were deterred by the great multitude of the dead, and the uncertainty when they would die themselves, for many died as they were burying others, and many went to their own coffins before the fatal hour. There was no lamentation made under these calamities . . . the famine confounded all natural passions. . . . A deep silence and a kind of deadly night had seized upon the city."
He paints a grim picture of men gnawing the leather of straps and shoes, and tells a terrible story of a woman who killed and roasted her child, and offered a share of that terrible meal to those who came seeking food.
The prophecy that Jesus made of terrible days ahead for Jerusalem came most abundantly true. Those who crowded into the city for safety died by the hundred thousand, and only those who took his advice and fled to the hills were saved.
Reminds me of the movie "A Few Good Men" where Jack Nicolson breaks down on the witness stand and yells something like "The truth! You can't handle the truth!!"
ReplyDeleteI think if we knew all the details about the end times two possible things might happen -- a.) most people would not believe it and not change anything in their lives (kind of like smoking cigarettes) or b.) there would be a few that would build a misguided religion around it.
I like not knowing the details, just the fact that it will happen. It is one more way that I get to excercise Faith.
I would appreciate your prayers for my brother Bill who lives in Ct. He just had 2 heart attacks and is not a Christian. He has heard the gospel many times but choices not to believe it. He told me yesterday that he was scared to death when this happened but I did not take that opportunity to say anything else to him. I was trying to be so careful with what I said to him that I missed the one opening I had. I pray for another opportunity today. Maybe I can use today’s lesson and tell him that there are so many things that I don't understand, but faith is not one of them. Please pray for me as well. Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteJohn thanks for all the history behind this passage, some of the language is confusing. I too like to live by faith, knowing that it will happen, that I need to be watchful for false christs and share the gospel with others.
ReplyDeletequestion 2. I need to pray for God's leading me to share His gospel with all that I meet.
Linda I will pray for you and your brother.