Faithful to the End

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

FAITHFUL TO THE END

Luke 21:10-11

10 Then he said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

NIV

Jesus said a lot more about what would happen, and most of what he said was what going to happen to his disciples which history recorded did happen. However, before we get to that and see if anything relates to us we spend some time on what will happen on the earth and in the heavens before the end times or at least as one of the signs of the end time. We have seen nations rise up against nations for many years throughout history, however, the great wars, World War One and Two were vast in reach of nations rising up against each other in our generation. Then we had the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm, Iraq and Kuwait, then Iran, Israel, the Gaza Strip, Hamas, and on and on conflicts, wars, rumors of war, the Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and its fall. We have records now of hundreds of earthquakes all around the world, great tsunamis, hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes all causing chaos and death across the globe. There have been famines from time to time, even in this country during the great depression, and others throughout the world. As far as pestilences in various places we have to refer to the Greek because then we can see it can mean either a person who is a pest, or a troublemaker, and in that sense, we have witnessed troublemakers everywhere in the world, and perhaps even in our personal lives. But this Greek word and also be used for a disease. In the time of Jesus, it was leprosy, a disease of the skin. Today, although we have seen some plagues, the greatest has been cancer, which has been a pest to many. When we think of the fearful events and great signs from heaven, it could take us back to tornadoes, hurricanes, and typhoons. The Greek word translated as heavens has the meaning of the vaulted expanse of the sky and all that can be seen in it, so these great storms are in the expanse of the sky, in that sense. But did Jesus mean these kinds of signs, or will there be even greater events in the sky that are more fearful? Yet, the end has still not come, we are continuing to wait. Will we see more signs, even greater signs, and more fearful signs than the world has ever seen before? We cannot know, but what we do know is our task is to be faithful to the end, and perhaps even in our lifetime we will see the end, but if not, we will still need to be faithful to the end of our lives. Jesus informs the terrible things they will endure, and maybe some of us have endured some horrible things in life, but being faithful to the end is what is required if we are to have life.