Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning.
Thursday, August 11, 2022
Today's Passage : Today's Passage :Jesus’ Prophecy of the Last Days
Bible Verse:Matthew 24:15-22 (ESV)
"So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.”
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. ”
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Message:
We have come to a passage that is full of difficulties. Or perhaps more accurately, a chapter that needs considerable examination if we are to understand what Christ wants us to know. Part of the problem is that He is talking about at least two different events and weaves them together.
The more straightforward part is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. Matthew begins the chapter with Christ’s claim that “there will not be left here [in the Temple] one stone upon another.” To a listener at the time, this prophecy would have seemed like lunacy. The Temple was huge, 1000 feet square, and the corner stones were 20 to 40 feet long and weighed 80 to 100 tons. Many wall stones weighed 8 tons. (By way of comparison, the stones used in the Great Pyramid range from 1.5 to 10 tons.)
Final Days
Dies Irae (Day of Wrath)
We thus have Christ giving us a sign, that is, something to demonstrate the truth of His prophecy. For in less than forty years, the Romans will do the unthinkable: utterly demolish the Temple, razing it to the ground. (Christ engaged in a bit of hyperbole, for some of the stones still sit on top of others, but not many.) By giving a prophecy of an unthinkable event that will come true shortly in the future, He gives plausibility to His other (even more unlikely-sounding) prophecies that will occur in the far future.
Secondly, the immediate prophecy of the Temple’s destruction was a warning to the Christians to get clear; and many did, in contrast to the Jews, who fled to the apparent safety of Jerusalem and the Temple. Those who ignored Christ’s warning perished in one of the most terrible sieges of history.
The historian Josephus wrote:
[“T]hose places which were adorned with trees and pleasant gardens, were now become desolate country . . . a desert . . . The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests, those who fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in indiscriminate carnage. ”
We will spare the even more gruesome details. Josephus estimated that 1,100,000 were slain.
Knowing about the more immediate prophecy and how it was fulfilled, we can better understand Matthew 24 insofar as it relates to the “Day of the Lord,” the terrible time to come between the current age and the final institution of the Kingdom of God. (Since the precise identity of the “abomination of desolation” is not given, it is a matter of speculation or interpretation. To save space, we will finish the notes in the Daily Inspiration, so see that if you are interested in this odd term.)
Meditation
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Prayer :
Now all glory to God, who is able to keep me from falling away and will bring me with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time,......Amen
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