DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO MATTHEW
GATHERED
Matt 24:26-31
26
"So if anyone tells you, 'There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out;
or, 'Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. 27 For as lightning
that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of
the Son of Man. 28 Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
29 "Immediately after the distress of those days
"'the
sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall
from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.'
30
"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all
the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the
clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels
with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds,
from one end of the heavens to the other.
NIV
These words of Jesus are a
continuation of all he has said about what is to come. Why those scholars of old
wanted to say this was all about the Romans destroying Jerusalem is beyond our comprehension.
Jesus is talking about the end of times which is also spoken of by Isaiah in
the past, who Jesus quotes here, and by Jesus himself when he appears to John and
tells him to write all that he sees, which John recorded for us in his
revelation of Jesus when he was in the spirit in the Lord’s day and was taken
up to heaven and shown all that was to come. Everything fits all together and what
is to come, and God has not kept it a secret from us. He has made sure will know
what to expect in the days to come. We, like many who lived before us, may not
see this in our lifetime here on earth, but we will see it, as we observe it in
the presence of our Lord. We might well be that army that appears with him in
the sky. For we will all be gathered, the living from the for winds and those
who have died and were resurrected and are at the ends of the heavens. What a
day that will be! It is assuring, especially at this time of the year when we
mourn the crucifixion, burial, and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.
However, in the meantime, as Jesus warns us again, we need to be on guard
against all those who claim to be the Christ. This may not happen in the sense
of a man claiming he is God, yet men who claim to have power over the earth and
its weather, climate, or environment are in essence saying they are greater
than God. No, we are not to believe them, for when every eye shall see when the
creator who created all things, the one whom nothing was created that he did
not create, will appear in the sky and have complete authority over all the
earth, sun, moon, and stars, as he has all along, will cause men to see how
powerful and awesome Jesus is. We can also be sure the vultures are already
circling because of all this chaos in the world. However, we need not worry
about those vultures for they only feed on dead things and that would imply
those who have refused the life that Jesus gives. We who are in Christ have
life and life eternal, but the world is full of people who live in dead man's
bones, or bodies and will be fed upon by the vultures unless they come to
Jesus. It is going to be a day to see when all of us believers are gathered.
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