Thursday, August 23, 2018

A Sign Is Fulfilled, What Does It Mean?


LUKE 21-

… And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 
Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 
  For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 
  But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. 
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 

When you see…
…flee.

Jews led away captive- truth.
Jews led into all nations as captive-truth.
Jews throughout our entire history are an OUTCAST people in many ways.
Jews political and religious.
Jerusalem-homeland Israel- trodden down of the nations until the TIMES of the nations are fulfilled.  I say nations because the same word for Gentiles is nations.

Jerusalem belonged to God's people, the Jewish people for a long time and the Romans razed the temple to the ground and overtook Jerusalem completely. There have been a succession of other nations being in control of Jerusalem and many thought it impossible for Jerusalem to ever belong to the Jewish people again.  This is TRUTH. Up until 1948.  Only 70 years ago.  From the year 70 to the year 1948…  for 1, 878 years Jerusalem was out of Jewish control. Jesus said that a time WOULD come when Jerusalem would NO longer be under the control of others.

Jesus told us that the city would be surrounded by armies and it was.
Jesus told us that Jerusalem would be taken over by non-Jewish nations and would one day revert to the Jewish people again, and it was.

People who listened to the prophecies, people who knew the signs and saw them acted and were spared death when Jerusalem was taken over in the year 70.

What are the people who see this sign, the sign that occurred in 1948, with a subsequent war in 1967, and yet another milestone in 1980 when Jerusalem was declared the actual capital of the Jewish people, what were they supposed to do?

Luke 21 -… And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 
 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 
 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. 

We are to take heed to ourselves.

Why? Because our hearts could be overcharged with surfeiting, with drunkeness, with cares of this life.

We are to take heed that these things DON'T happen. That we don't let ourselves be fooled into looking away from the signs, from the truth of our Savior's return.

Satan would have us NOT concern ourselves with Jesus returning. Satan would have us put it off to the future just far enough that it doesn't interfere with our day to day present life.  If we can keep pushing it to the future just out of our current reach we won't treat it as a reality, right? We'll treat it as that 'someday' with the little voice of Satan whispering in our ears, that someday will never come.  We will get so caught up in cares of this life that we won't be prepared for Jesus.

What does it mean to be prepared for Jesus? How can being caught up in cares keep us from salvation?

These are good questions and by the grace and will of our Savior we will study on them tomorrow, praying for comprehension, for enlightenment, for the Holy Spirit guiding us in all things.

All in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, now and FOREVER.

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