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Continuing our focus of Luke’s Gospel, this week please read Chapter 21 verses 8 to 24 every day this week and, if possible, use a different translation each day, asking God to open your eyes to fresh revelation from His Word.
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Luke 21:8-11(New Living Translation – NLT)
‘He replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and saying, ‘The time has come!’ But don’t believe them. And when you hear of wars and insurrections, don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place first, but the end won’t follow immediately.”
Then he added, “Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and there will be famines and plagues in many lands, and there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven.’
Recently at Oasis, during a Truth in the House teaching session, Roy told us a story about a Sunday School class and I’m going to use it here for illustration purposes. ‘On one particular Sunday, the teacher was using squirrels for an object lesson on hard work and preparation. He started out by saying, “I’m going to describe something, and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it is.” The children nodded eagerly.
“Okay then, this lives in trees…and eats nuts…” No hands went up. “And it is grey…and has a long bushy tail…” The children were looking at each other, but still no hands raised. “And it jumps from branch to branch…and chatters and flips its tail when it’s excited…”
Finally, one little boy tentatively raised his hand. The teacher breathed a sigh of relief and called on him. “Well…,” said the boy, “I know the answer should be Jesus…but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!”’
You see, very often we get conditioned into thinking one way and assuming that what we’re seeing must be something even though it plainly isn’t! In our verses today, Jesus is bringing some very important teaching that the disciples had to hear and apply in the years that were to come. The basic teaching is that ‘Not everything is a sign’. Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen to Israel, He knew exactly what was going to happen to the Roman Empire and He knew precisely when all these things were going to take place. In just a few decades, the whole of Jerusalem was to be completely decimated.
When Jesus uttered these words, the Roman Empire had for some considerable time been enjoying peace. It wasn’t really imaginable that within a generation, Rome would have 4 emperors in a single year and political unrest would affect the whole of this great empire. However, that is precisely what was going to happen. Jesus wanted His disciples to know that even though they would experience revolts, wars and destruction, these ‘signs’ weren’t an actual sign that was pointing to His return.
It is clear though that each of these events are stepping stones toward Jesus’ return. Each war, earthquake, famine and plague takes us one step closer to His return. So, we can’t use these events necessarily as proof that Jesus is going to return tomorrow, but we should humble our hearts knowing that He is coming back and that it’s closer now than it’s ever been!
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