The Great Escape

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

THE GREAT ESCAPE

Luke 21:20-24

20 "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

NIV

Certainly we know all that Jesus says here happened to Jerusalem and the Jewish people. History has recorded it and so it is what it is. But can we apply any of this truth in history to our lives today. The account which is similar to this in Matthew seems to speak more of the coming age rather than the historic one. The point is there a dreadful experience coming for those who reject Christ. There is a dreadful experience for those who create their own form of religion from what God established. Religion will not save us from the dreadful days that come. Church membership will not save us from those days either. Good deeds, whether done in the name of God, or in the name of man, will not save us from those dreadful times ahead. Clinging to our own lives, family members, material goods, fleeing from the truth will bring us right smack into the middle of those dreadful days. Who can save us? Jesus! The wrath of God is coming against this people, the people of this world, those who live for self, and in opposition to God. They will fall by the sword of his mouth. They will be taken as prisoners to all the nations, to the world, which is controlled by none other than Satan. When we conform to the world, we are in fact prisoners to it, and to him. But praise be to God, he has set us free from the bondage of the chains of sin, and conformity to this world’s way of living. He has freed us from all that, and has given us the right to be call his children, co-heirs with Jesus, and we shall have escape from all this wrath, all the dreadful days that will come, and be with our Lord in heaven when they fall upon those who refuse to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Although there will be many who experience these dreadful days, among them those who practice Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism and Taoism, just to name a few, some who profess Christianity may be among them as well. We have to make sure we are not just practitioners of Christianity, but rather receivers of Christ into our lives. We must always be worshippers of the Most High God, and in so accepting his Son the one and only way to the Father. New birth, being born again is the only way to enter the kingdom of God. Without Christ living in us, or as us, as one man puts it, we are in fact doomed to experience those dreadful days. Jesus is the way, truth and the light. Our very freedom from those days depends on him. Through Christ we can make the great escape.