"Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together....Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you." (Psalm 122:2)
---------------- And may those who don't love you not prosper!
I changed my reading schedule this quarter to "blitz" straight through the New Testament. I never encounter Luke 21 without a great sense of expectation, anticipation, joy, warning, caution. Consider some of the verses:
8 "Take heed that you not be deceived"
9 "Do not be terrified"
11 "There will be fearful...and great signs"
17 "You will be hated by all for My name's sake. But not a hair of
your head shall be lost"
24 "Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles are fulfilled"
26 "The powers of heaven will be shaken
27 "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with
power and great glory"
29 "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already
budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near"
34 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with...
cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly"
36 "Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worth to...
stand before the Son of Man" ("Selah")
The key to the prophetic timetable is, "until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." Then, "look up." Gentile nations have "trampled" Jerusalem for centuries. Jerusalem always has been the key to Biblical prophecy. Why? "For it is the City of" Jesus "the Great King." This is the reason all of a sudden in human history Arabs are seemingly enamored with Jerusalem. They don't want Jerusalem; they don't love Jerusalem; they don't, "pray for the peace of Jerusalem," because they are contrary to those of our text. Put simply, they don't, "love you," Jerusalem.
Beware those who allegorize our text. They are living in a world of pagan religion. Biblical prophecy brings the reality that history is "headed toward a dramatic climax," and for the allegorists, they just don't want their "world" to come to an end. They want their legacy, their "work," their "ministry" to go on perpetually, while the truth of the "God-Breathed" Word is that, "now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed;" and it's not their "salvation." They want to be "near" you, take your money, your loyalty, your admiration. Woe to them, "in That Day....Have nothing to do with them." Rather, read the Bible for yourself. Stay in the Holy Spirit, open to the Holy Spirit, praying in the Holy Spirit, stay in fellowship with the, "pure in heart," above all, "Looking unto Jesus." Then, you can be very sure that in that day, you will indeed, "stand before the Son of Man."
Father, in Jesus' Name, my faith, my hope is You, not my understanding, not my anything. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Amen.
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When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
