Thanks to a change in the atmosphere, I am jumping out of our study on Matthew once again.
If I did not say it before, let me say it now. I have been struggling with mild depression. Some would say it is a demonic attack, and I don't doubt it, as Satan would love to stop anyone who has a sincere heart and wants to share the Word and Love of God with others. I feel as if my primary purpose in life is to do just that: share the Word, so it does not take a genius to imagine where this attack has hit me; yep, I lost interest in doing Bible studies, but I will add that there has been a tremendous amount of family-oriented activities taking place and I frequently stop what I am doing and take care of my wife, Doctor appointments, and grandparent duties. Well, sometimes you just have to dig yourself out of the pit, and that is what I am doing now.
Is it merely a strange circumstance that Israel would be attacked in the midst of my spiritual battle on the Sabbath (October 7, 2023), filling the nation of Israel with death, confusion, and war?
I don't think so. What I do believe is that Satan, who knows his time is short, has released his demon hordes upon the earth, and we, who are followers of Jesus Christ, will experience attacks on many levels.
Oh, by the way, though I cannot legitimately claim that I am a Jew, even though I did have a Jewish grandfather who died when I was around 12, because of this, I have progressively turned my heart toward Jerusalem. This attitude makes me feel a bit aggressive when someone attacks my nation.
With our eyes on the Holy Land, we should be hearing messages from Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and 1 Thessalonians, to say the least. I know I can't get enough of intelligent messages about Eschatology – end times events.
With that said, I want to talk about the idea that “we are to know” what is going on around us.
A common verse used to berate those who are excited about the return of Jesus Christ for His bride is this.
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of
heaven, but My Father only.”
Matthew 24:36 NKJV
First off, there is a context to this verse, and it has everything to do with Jesus talking exclusively to a Jewish audience.
What importance does that knowledge play in such a bold and rather blatant statement by Jesus?
They were not Christians as yet, for Jesus had not gone back to the Father; therefore, Jesus would not have spoken to them about things that pertained to anyone but Jews. So, everything we see in Matthew's account was directed to Jewish ears and understanding alone.
As for understanding the idea of being the bride, many were Galileans, and Jesus first recorded “miracle” was at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Several of the newly chosen disciples were in attendance there. If anyone could understand the depth and meaning of being the bride, it would be a Galilean. If you are having trouble grasping what I mean by the depth of the Galilean wedding, it was bathed in tradition and Jewish understanding and held together by a contractual agreement, which the bride had every right to reject.
Another translation of Matthew 24:36 may give you more understanding.
“But of that
[exact] day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of
heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Matthew 24:36
AMP
The Amplified Bible added words that provide us with alternative understandings, while other [italicized] words provide “synonyms and explanations in brackets and parentheses within the text […] The strength of this version is that it acknowledges that no single English word or phrase can capture precisely the meaning of the Hebrew or Greek.” The quotation is from Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplified_Bible#:~:text=is%20unique%20among%20Bible%20versions,of%20the%20Hebrew%20or%20Greek.
So, if you must be one that holds to tradition because this is the way we have always been taught, and, therefore, agree that NO ONE can know the day or the hour, then knowing that we can't know the precise timing, we may easily be able to place ourselves within the season and what we are living in is the Baseball World Series, which we, in America, just experienced.
Let's talk about this phenomenon called the World Series for a moment.
Do we have an idea when this series of games will take place?
Yes, it happens on a yearly basis, in September, after a prescribed number of games have been played by every team. That is not the case with Christ's return, as He is first coming to collect His bride. Evidence, in every way, shape, and form, is pointing to Jesus's soon return. We like to refer to this evidence as signs.
Once the World Series begins, are there things that we can absolutely know about the event?
The series will be controlled by rules.
In baseball, three outs bring about changes in the inning and the side as the home team now gets their opportunity at bat and a chance to score.
There will be a prescribed number of games played within the series to determine the winner. It is not mandatory, however, that the series includes the entirety of the seven games as it is a best-of-seven series, meaning that one team could win the first four games and, therefore, win the series.
And though each game has nine innings, there can be no tie games, and some games have gone on for well over 12 hours. Typically, the games last about two hours.
So, as in Jesus coming for His church, there are variables that affect the length of the period we are looking for and at.
The point of this was not to have a discussion of baseball, which may mean little depending on where you live and the restrictions you live under, but to make a point that we can know the timing of the rapture just as we can talk with understanding about the World Series. Since we have established that Baseball has variables, then we must surely know that the rapture or snatching away of the church is filled with variables. Consider this: the game belongs to God, and the rules, though set in scripture, are His as well.
Most translations entitle this next section of the Bible
“Signs of the End of the Age.”
This is how it played out. Having ridden the young colt into Jerusalem, the crowd welcomed Him with wild enthusiasm.
“And
a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut
down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then
the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out,
saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES
IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!' Hosanna in the highest!"
Matthew 21:8-9 NKJV
Where do we find the Jewish context of what Matthew conveys?
“Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the LORD!
We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.”
Psalms
118:26 NKJV
Leviticus elaborates on the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.
“Speak
unto the children of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this
seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the
LORD.”
Leviticus 23:34 JPS
And there are specific instructions associated with the Feast of Tabernacles.
“And
on the first day you shall take the fruit of pleasing trees [and make
booths of them], branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick (leafy)
trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the
Lord your God for seven days.”
Leviticus 23:40
AMPC+
The excited crowd anticipated the warring Messiah because all the signs pointed to Yeshua as being that Messiah.
But what did Jesus do?
“And
Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold
and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money
changers, and the seats of them that sold doves,
And
said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of
prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed
them.”
Matthew
21:12-14
KJV
This verbal onslaught went on for days.
“And
he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged
there.”
Matthew 21:17 KJV
The next day, He went back to the temple.
“Now, when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the
people confronted Him as He was teaching and said, "By what
authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this
authority?" But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also
will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell
you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—where
was it from? From heaven or from men?" And they reasoned among
themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to
us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'”
Matthew
21:23-25
NKJV
We have records that indicate that He delivered the parable of the two sons, the tenants (which was directed at the Jewish leadership); the wedding feast, and more. He cursed the fig tree because it had no fruit on it; He spoke about paying taxes to Caesar as a rebuttal against those who tried to trap Him; the Sadducees asked Him about the resurrection; and He berated the leadership over the demands that they placed on the people but would not follow themselves.
I imagine that the disciples imagined that they would be killed during this process. After two long days, they left the temple and headed to the Mount of Olives, and this was the best they could come up with.
“Then
Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His
disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple.
And Jesus said to them,
"Do
you not see all these things?
Assuredly, I say to you, not
one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown
down."
Matthew 24:1-2 NKJV
Jesus, finally seated on the Mount of Olives, begins to answer the question below.
“And as he sat
upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately,
saying, Tell us,
when shall these things be and what shall be
the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
Matthew 24:3 KJV
While the answer to the questions has great depth, Jesus's first response was this.
“And Jesus
answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.”
Matthew 24:4 KJV
How many different ways can you be deceived?
Look up the Greek word for deceived, and you get planaō. It means don't let anyone (cause you to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue): - [don't let anyone make you] go astray, deceive, [don't allow yourself to be] seduce[d], to wander, or be [taken] out of the way.
“For many will
come in My name, saying, 'I
am the Christ,' and will deceive
many.”
Matthew 24:5 NKJV
This doesn't even make sense to me. Since I know that Jesus will first come in the clouds and gather His church, it doesn't make sense that people would try to portray themselves as the Messiah.
“My name” is the Greek word onoma; it means authority or character. The Word Study Dictionary tells us they will come using the name, title, character, reputation, or the person of Jesus.
An example can be seen in Jeremiah.
“Then
the LORD said to me, "The
prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent
them nor commanded them nor spoken to them;
they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility, and
the deception of their own minds”
Jeremiah
14:14 NASB
Deceive? We already covered this. It is the Greek word planaō. It means don't let anyone (cause you to) be [taken] out of the way.
I can remember Jim Jones and David Koresh. The latter managed to tell these fools that he was entitled to have other men's wives. Try that line on me, and you are probably going to get hurt.
So, fools will cause you to go astray from God's truth, which is His Word, and to be taken out of the way – the way is God's way and not what Allah or some guru says. But wait, there is a context, and it is Jesus responding to their Jewish-oriented questions in a manner that they would understand.
So, even if you think you can stay committed to “the truth,” why can't we understand what Jesus or the scripture is saying?
We can, but most will choose not to perceive that the Bible is a Jewish book written to a Jewish audience that somehow applies to us now because we were adopted into the family.
So, how many questions did the disciples ask Jesus?
Their questions covered three distinct events.
When will these things be?
This had more to do with the destruction of the temple, which was a relatively short few years away. The immediate destruction happened in 70AD. The future sign and destruction have a specific timing once the antichrist comes into power, and that only happens after the church is removed from the earth.
“What will be the sign of Your coming?
The NLT translates this portion in this manner: “What sign will signal your return.” As Jews, they were NOT asking about the church, as the church did not exist yet, and to be honest, filled with Gentiles, they would not have considered those attending to be worthy of the kingdom of God.
The first thing to take note of, although since sin made time notable, there have been wars.
“And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom...”
Matthew 24:6-7a NLTSecondly,
“...There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.”
Matthew 24:7-8b NLTI cannot remember a time when some third world nation wasn't suffering famine. Now it is a common conversation pertaining to hunger and our streets here in America. And earthquakes, though common, are now incessantly in excess of 6 and 7s in terms of magnitude.
Thirdly,
“Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers.”
Matthew 24:9 NLTWhile we were able to sit unrestrained, in many of our churches, the Spirit of the Lord – the Holy Spirit, had spoken through me, saying, the time is coming when you, too, shall experience persecution, and you will NOT be able to handle it.
With the war in Israel and heated conversations about abortions, the hatred toward Jews and Christ-followers is growing more each day.
Fourth,
“...Many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other.”
Matthew 24:10 NLTI have watched this happen, and if you were paying attention, you would agree.
Fifth
“Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe things that are wrong.”
Matthew 24:11 ERVWho is doing this?
I honestly cannot imagine such a thing, but there are plenty of highly driven people, like those in the Faith movement, who are trying to act and speak in the authority of the name of Jesus. Consider that Jesus emphasized that deception would be great.
Who was he talking to?
Jews, and so our focus is on a Jewish impact.
Did you know that a Rabbi was picked to be the high priest in the new Jewish temple once it gets built?
It was reported by Israel 365 News, several years ago that his name is Rabbi Baruch Kahane. Although he did not feel it was the right time for such a declaration to be made, however, in 2022, he was front and center when a preparation to sacrifice on the temple mount was performed. When I showed this man to some friends of mine, they made comments like, he looks like a fine young man; why would you think that he might be the one to cause such a deception? That's my point; such a trusted man would cause such an uproar.
