LUKE 21:5–22
“But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name”
(Luke 21:12).
Yesterday we saw Jesus tell the disciples that there would be distress in the world, but not to be misled into thinking these things were specific signs of the destruction of Jerusalem (Luke 21:8–11). Today we see Jesus shift His attention to the church, where there would also be much distress during the forty years between a.d. 30 and a.d. 70.
We don’t have to read any more than the book of Acts to see that this period was indeed a time of persecution. Jesus said that such persecutions would provide an opportunity to bear witness to the kingdom. He encouraged them not to worry because He would be with them and help them speak on their own defense.
Jesus told them that family members would betray them, and some of them would be put to death. Yet their eternal life would not be in jeopardy, and even if they were beheaded, in a greater sense not a hair of their heads would be harmed.
Then in verse 20 Jesus gave a specific sign of Jerusalem’s imminent destruction. It is important to notice that Jesus’ warning and advice contradicted the normal practice of the ancient world. When an army invaded your land, you fled to the safety of a walled city. Jesus said that when they saw armies coming into Palestine and moving on Jerusalem, they were to flee to the mountains—because Jerusalem was surely going to fall and all within her would be slain or imprisoned. Jesus’ prophecy came true in the years a.d. 66–70. Though Jerusalem was a fortress city on a high mountain, the Christians did not run to that city but fled to a place called Pella in the north.
The almost unbelievable horrors experienced by the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem were described by the historian Josephus. Christ’s prophecy had come to pass—the subsequent fall of Jerusalem scattered the Jews among the nations, changing the course of Western history.
CORAM DEO
Jeremiah 46–48
Hebrews 3
Our God is a consuming fire, and those who reject His Son can see in the tribulation that befell Jerusalem a foretaste of hell. Unlike the judgment of Jerusalem, there will be no place to run nor hide from the final judgment of God. Pray earnestly for your nonbelieving friends.
For further study: Matt. 24:1–25; John 16:25–33; tape #B57INT.86/87
thursday
november