Covid19 has us stuck at home preparing for Easter… but we can mark each day with devotion. Click here if you missed a past day’s reading.
Adding three virtual learning stations in our home has forced a lot of rearranging. In the process, lost things have been found. Moving the guest bed — I doubt we will have any visitors anytime soon — I found toys, movies, and a clementine that was attempting to become a raisin (the picture).
Jesus tells us to keep watch. But this doesn’t mean looking up waiting for rapture. Instead, each of us should be about our “assigned task”. In this busy life it is easy to miss things. But Covid19 has forced us to stop. Forced us to rearrange. This is an opportunity to watch out for those who need us.
Take a moment to consider someone you may have forgotten. Reach out to them.
Deeper — Developing a Prophecy Timeline: If you read the previous post (#7), you realize I believe the prophesy of chapter 13 is centered on the Temple’s destruction in AD70. But I believe that verse 24, “those days following that distress”, transitions from the temple to the future and the second coming.
It is my opinion that this future prophecy is short lived, v24-26, and quickly turns back to the time of the Temple’s destruction. For two reasons: first, v27 references the “lesson of the fig tree”. The fig was a symbol of Israel (one already use by Jesus in Chapter 11). Second, v30 mentions “this generation will not pass away.” The events of the Temple did happen before the generation passed away.
Our generation, far removed from the influence of the Temple and separated from the debates of circumcision and gentile inclusive, does not realize the impact of these events. Jesus is declaring the end of one age and the beginning of another. The age of the temple, the nation, the promised land… all of it found it fulfillment, perfection, completion in Jesus the Messiah. And out of his life the church began. And we now exist in the age of the church.
PLUNGE47 