Shalom,
It’s been two weeks that God talks to us about “Will you still keep your faith despite Jesus’ being rejected?” Today the theme of the word of God is “Preparing for Tribulation”. When you hear this theme what comes to your mind? Will we still have faith when tribulation comes? When will we face the tribulation? What do we need to get prepared for that time?
What did Jesus say to the women (and us) before His death on the cross? Luke 23:26-31 wrote, “… And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
Jesus is telling us how to get prepared for the hardship, namely:
- By not becoming a Christian sympathizer.
It may sound weird that Jesus rebuked the women who wept for Him, and asked them to weep for themselves. Some may misunderstand Him thinking that He said that out of His arrogance for He refused to receive sympathy although He was wounded physically (beaten and flogged) and spiritually (humiliated and mocked). The truth is He told them not to mourn for Him because He longed to make known His kindness.
The God who incarnated in Jesus has shown His love and goodness although several times His words are sometimes expressed in the form of rebuke and anger. Jesus reminded of the same two events took place in two eras: the era of Hosea which had already happened (Hosea 10:8), and the era in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 6:16) which has not yet been fulfilled. What had and will happen? It’s about people who want mountains to fall on them and hills to cover them.
Since God is love (1 John 4:8,16), it’s impossible for His words to cause confusion/error. If it's considered wrong, it's merely because we don't understand it. It had happened and will happen when people think abnormally: “they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin ‘to say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” This event was fulfilled when God's judgment fell on the Northern Kingdom of Israel which was taken into exile (722 BC). And it will be repeated in the Lord's second coming when the wrath of the Lamb descends (Revelation 6:16).
What was Jesus’ purpose in telling the daughters of Jerusalem about the tribulation time? To ask them to check on themselves as where they would be when tribulation came—whether they would be in a position where they would prefer to be buried with mountains and hills or they would be anywhere else. It’s clear that Jesus intended to correct their repentance.
Introspection: Where will we be when the Lord returns? Will we be ready and happy to meet Him? Or will we want to be covered up by mountain ruins and rocks to hide from His wrath?
Why did God punish the Israelites? For in them He saw no more faithfulness, love and knowledge of God (Hosea 4:1,6). Therefore, God doesn’t want us to be Christian sympathizers who only feel empathy for His suffering. Why? We can be diligent in going to church, active in various ministries but not necessarily know Him well. What could possibly happen if we don't know Him properly? Doing evil deeds such as: cursing, lying, killing, stealing, adultery, committing violence and shedding blood (Hosea 4:2), being arrogant, treasonous (Hosea 5:5,7).
A person does not know God because there is no God's Word in them. What about the Israelites? What did they have to apply while following the Lord? They were to obey the Law and the prophets (Deuteronomy 6:1). Also, they had to educate their children anywhere and at all times in all aspects of their lives in order that they knew God properly (vv. 6-7).
There should be no difference between doing secular work (business) and spiritual work (full timer). If we behave differently—living a holy life only while doing spiritual work in church and living recklessly outside by committing corruption, adultery, etc.—it means we don’t really know God. Yet God has ordained that we obey His commands wherever we are, not only in church but also in our family and society. Example: what is the content of the conversation in our WhatsApp group? Do we find a devotion of the word of God but three minutes later dirty jokes, cursing words, a gossip about other friends?
Beware, God's wrath applies to those who don’t repent. How is our condition now? The Bible writes about the Lord's coming and asks us to be on the watch (1 Thessalonians 5:1-8) because we aren’t destined to be afflicted with God's wrath but to be saved through Jesus Christ (v. 9). Therefore we need to weep for ourselves, that is, by repenting. In this way, we will truly know God (Hosea 6:3). If we are only Christian sympathizers, we will want to hide when He comes for fearing of the wrath of the Lamb.
- By becoming a true Christian who lives by faith.
Jesus further described Himself as living wood (Luke 23:31) which the Romans treated as they pleased (v. 25). What will happen to the dry wood? Who is meant by dry wood here? That's us the untrue Christians: nominal Christians who come to church only on Passover and Christmas Services, and Christian sympathizers who actively attend Church services and do ministries but don’t know God well proven by their wicked deeds against Him. They aren’t making progress in their life-transformation.
What’s the reason why Jesus was willing to be tortured and even died on the cross? He did it all for the sake of the Father's will (Luke 22:42). On the cross He accomplished the mission He had been given (John 19:30).
What happens when we do Heavenly Father's will? We must prepare ourselves to be treated arbitrarily by the world that basically hates us. But don't forget that the world hated Jesus first before they hate us, His chosen people (John 15:18-19). So, there comes a time when the world hates us because we choose not to befriend them as the application of God’s will in James 4:4 that says, “friendship with the world is enmity with God.”
We have heard how the Israelites received the punishment of God's wrath that occurred in Hosea's era because they didn’t really know Him and did evil deeds.
What happened to both Jewish and non-Jewish Christians during the time of Emperor Nero as written in Romans by Tertius (Romans 16:22) of which the concept was from the Apostle Paul? History records that Emperor Nero was a cold-blooded killer. Paul and Peter were martyred during his reign. Nero even had the heart to kill his own mother. His first wife, whom he had only married for 8 years, was murdered and her head was given to his second wife whom he later killed while pregnant. It’s not explicitly written in Romans how he hated Christians who were made scapegoats for burning the city of Rome. But the fact is many Christians were captured and covered in animal skins for the hunting dogs to eat them alive. He also ordered that other Christians to be covered with a pile of hay, doused it with oil then burned them alive. It’s clear that Christians experienced oppression and tyranny at that time (Romans 1:18)! What’s the solution if this period of suffering repeats itself? Keep having faith in God (Romans 1:8)!
Our faith becomes a test case! How do we know that someone is living by faith? There is a reconciliation between God and them (Romans 3:23-25). Their lives are at peace with God. On the contrary, those who don’t live by faith have friendship with the world and become God’s enemy. Honestly, Christianity is easy to understand but hard to live out!
Who is God's enemy? They are the desires of the flesh (Romans 8:7-8) such as: fornication, defilement, lust, idolatry, witchcraft, enmity, jealousy, anger, selfishness, divisive spirits, envy, drunkenness, debauchery, etc. (Galatians 5:19-21) as well as the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16).
Our faith must be accompanied by works (James 2:17,26). Acts of faith are opposed to works that arise from the lust of the flesh. Thus we must experience the process and progress towards goodness by abandoning the actions of the flesh.
- By understanding that whether we live or die, we belong to God.
In addition to being a true Christian who continues living by faith (as written in the book of Romans) despite going through difficulties when the world ruthlessly hates us, we need to have a principle: if we live, we will live to God and if we die, we die to God (Romans 14:8).
We also have to humbly understand and get prepared that when we do God's will and are willing to suffer with Him, the world will surely hate and oppress us, lest we grumble and be unable to withstand it. Don't be happy because you feel safe and even friendly with the world because we will someday get the consequences of our actions in the last days! We should be grateful to live in Indonesia, which still guarantees freedom of having a religion. So don't waste the time and opportunity to know God well!
We ought to be thankful for God has reminded us through His word to earnestly keep our faith despite Jesus’ being rejected by the world. Thus we can prepare ourselves in facing the tribulation that will inevitably befall the world when God returns. Having known Him more deeply, believed firmly in Him and had the principle that our life or death belongs to Him, we are certain that God will keep us from great calamity so that we can welcome Him joyfully because we will all live with Him in His Kingdom forever. Amen.