The day of the Lord and the return of Jesus King of kings has been prophesied since the beginning of God’s creation.
Matthew 24:1-8 Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” The Disciples’ Two Questions Mark 13:3, 4; Luke 21:7 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” The Tribulation Mark 13:5–23; Luke 21:5–24 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
In 70AD the Roman’s destroyed the temple. What would be the end? Many anti christ would say they were the Christ. Do not be deceived. We need to be discerning when it comes to His return. When Israel was returned to her homeland the beginning of the end was ever closer. The world would be in chaos. These are the beginning of trouble upon the earth. The Jews would be held in derision and all nations would be offended by them. Hatred and persecution of the Jews will increase. All of this would be caused by satan and his hordes. The 144, 000 remant would be preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom not the Gospel of Grace in Christ Jesus. They would save many as they preached Jesus their King and Him who they had crucified.
Daniel 9:24 “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.
The prophesy spoken by Daniel will come to pass. There will be seventy weeks to finish the transgression and fulfill all of prophesy concerning Jesus the Christ. Then He will return and reign forever.
Zechariah 13:8-9
And it shall come to pass in all the land,”
Says the Lord,
“That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die,
But one-third shall be left in it:
9 I will bring the one-third through the fire,
Will refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them. I will say,
‘This is My people’;
And each one will say,
‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
A remnant will come through the tribulation unscathed. This will be a time since the beginning that will never come again. It is beyond our comprehension.
Today we live in the grace of the finished work of the Cross. All things concerning the end times would be with Israel. Their tribulation will last for seven years. The anti-christ will meet his end at the end of it. When will this come to pass? No one but the Father knows. But now is the time of the Gentiles to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Grace to all who will listen! Carla
The disciples ask Jesus about His prediction in verse 2. They want to know when the temple will be destroyed and how they can discern the timing of His return. He responds by discussing the troubling events that will signal His return and the end of the age. Jesus’ teaching in 24:3–25:46 is commonly called the Olivet Discourse because it was His teaching on the Mount of Olives (verse 3).
The disciples assume that these two events will happen at the same time. His return signals the end of world empires and the beginning of His kingdom (similar to Daniel and John in Revelation). The Jewish War of ad 66–73 partially fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy. Famine is often the result of war, and earthquakes represent cataclysmic chaos that extends to nature itself (Acts 11:27–30; Revelation 6:8; Joel 2:10). This metaphor, birth pains, is used throughout the Bible in reference to suffering and judgment (Isaiah 26:17–18; Jeremiah 22:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:3). Faithlife Study Bible
The discourse of chapter 23 had evidently been given in the temple precincts. The first temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 b.c. The second temple, built under the encouragement of Haggai and Zechariah and the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua (Hag. 1:1), was completed after considerable delay in 516 b.c. This second temple was completely and lavishly renovated by Herod the Great. He began the work around 20 b.c., but the renovations were not completed during the lifetime of Christ (John 2:20). The work was finally finished in a.d. 64, and the temple stood completed for only six years before it was reduced to rubble by the Romans. The devastation of the temple by the Romans in a.d. 70 was so thorough that the precise location of the sanctuary is still unknown today.
Undoubtedly the disciples were immediately confounded by the Lord’s prophecy (verse 2); however, they held their tongues until they had crossed the Kidron valley and come to the Mount of Olives. When Jesus sat, as Jewish teachers did (5:1), the disciples finally questioned Him about His statement regarding the destruction of the temple. Some say that this verse contains two questions: (1) When will these things be? That is, “When will the temple be destroyed?” and (2) What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? Others believe that one basic question was in the disciples’ minds. To the disciples, the devastation of the city and the coming of the Messiah were part of one event. The disciple’s questions should probably be taken as one question, though the fulfillment would come in stages.
Jesus’ warning about being deceived was especially appropriate for the disciples. The destruction of Jerusalem did not necessarily mean the nearness of the end of the age. This principle was a point of confusion for them (Luke 19:11–27; Acts 1:6, 7). Three indicators of time are given in verse 6–14. The first is found in verse 6, the end is not yet. The second is found in verse 8, “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” The third is found in verse 14, “then the end will come.” Verses 4–6 may describe the first part of Daniel’s seventieth week (Daniel 9:25–27), but possibly they present a general picture of the present age.
False messiahs and wars and rumors of wars are characteristic of the fallen world in which we live. When the Lord said all these things must come to pass, He used a word for must that indicates a divine or logical necessity. Such activities are necessary because of the people’s sin.
False messiahs had existed before (Acts 5:36, 37; 21:38), and false preachers would come in the future (Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Corinthians 11:13–15). Verses 7-8 describes characteristics of the end times. Nation … against nation, and kingdom against kingdom seems to indicate wars on a broad or worldwide scale. The famines, pestilences, and earthquakes are more fully described in Revelations 6:1–8; 8:5–13; 9:13–21; 16:2–21. Sorrows literally means “birth pangs.” The earth continually has birth pangs today (Romans 8:22); during the tribulation, these “sorrows” will increase in intensity and frequency until Jesus returns in glory (19:28; Acts 3:21). The NKJV Study Bible
Matthew 24:9–51 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another…
Luke 21:5–36 Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”…
Acts 11:28 Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Isaiah 19:2
“I will set Egyptians against Egyptians;
Everyone will fight against his brother,
And everyone against his neighbor,
City against city, kingdom against kingdom
“Dear God, anchor us in the stillness beneath the noise. Guide our hearts to respond with courage, compassion, and clarity when the world feels too heavy to hold. Amen.” (Thank you, Maria Shriver)
Cole Arthur Riley’s affirmation, “Liberation begins with an awareness that you are worthy of so much more than whatever form your chains have taken today.”
A beautiful day in the PNW. There are leaves now on the trees, and my garden, columbine, bleeding hearts, camellia and daphne blooms all welcoming us home. Sabbath Moments
Pride often leads us to reject knowledge and wisdom, and if left unchecked, it can lead us to reject God and His commandments. In our reading today, after generations of pridefully rejecting God, the people of Israel received more warnings about His judgment from the prophet Hosea.
God brought serious charges against Israel in Hosea 4:1, condemning their unfaithfulness and their rejection of God.The language here is meant to remind us of a courtroom, with God as the Prosecutor and Judge bringing justice against lawbreaking Israel. The phrase translated as "the LORD has a controversy" can also be translated as "the LORDhas a case" (CSB), and God built His case by listing the people's offenses: "There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed" (Hosea 4:2). Each of these crimes was a direct violation of the Ten Commandments God had given Israel in Exodus 20:2-17.
When God is rejected, sin abounds. Pastor and Bible scholar David Guzik explains: "When people forsake the knowledge of God, soon truth and mercy are both gone. Truth must be rooted in something more than personal opinion, and mercy means going beyond self-interest. True wisdom and understanding always begin with the knowledge of God."
When God's people follow, love and pursue knowledge of Him, we can trust that His goodness and mercy will follow us, leading us in the everlasting way (Psalm 23:6). So instead of being "destroyed for lack of knowledge" (Hosea 4:6),let's learn and keep God's commandments to pursue a deeper relationship with Him. As believers today, our righteousness is based on faith in Christ, and we obey out of love for Him (Philippians 1:11; John 14:15).
Proverbs 1:7 and Proverbs 9:10 remind us that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, warning that only fools despise wisdom and instruction. May we be people who live out our love of God while seeking the knowledge of God and following the instructions of God. First5
No comments:
Post a Comment