Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 52)
Part Three – The Nature of the Second Coming
Chapter 8 – How the Old Testament Prophets Set the Stage
The Language of the Prophets (continued)
To be more precise and accurate about this specific quote of Jesus (about the sun, moon, and stars failing), however, we should point out that it spoke about a shake-up of heavenly powers. That is, the heavenly Babylon ruled by Satan was going to fall with the Second Coming. The fall of earthly Israel would be prior to that. We will say more about these things as we go along. For now we are just making clear that the kind of warning Jesus was giving above was the same kind of warning that Israel and other nations had heard from the prophets before Him. What was different was the magnitude of the
judgment (heaven would be judged as well as earth) and the transfer of the living covenant relationship from the physical descendants of Abraham to the spiritual descendants of Abraham (who could be either Jew or Gentile).
The prophets used poetic and picturesque language to convey their truths and warnings in memorable ways. Photocopiers and tape recorders were not around – you had to speak in ways that memories could more easily hold. It is not fair, therefore, to take the prophets’ words out of context and give them strange new meanings they never had. If we approached everyday life and conversation this way, we would never know that “purple mountain majesties” and “alabaster cities” were referring to the United States of America. Neither would we be able to get over our shock when the news reporter told us that there was a talking building on the east coast of the United States (“The White House said today that…”). If we were Joseph’s family, we might have asked him why he thought the sun, moon, and stars were going to alter their courses for him, figuring he’d gone wacko with too much physical science homework. But we would only be following in the stumbling footsteps of the disciples who, when Jesus said Lazarus was asleep, could only assume that he would therefore eventually wake up. Jesus then
had to tell them plainly that Lazarus was dead (John 11:11-14).
We can see now that Jesus’ manner of speech, which confused so many, was not entirely original, for He lived His life as a prophet of Israel, drawing from the Scriptures written so many years before He came on the scene. Growing up like other Jewish boys, Jesus was a student of Moses and the prophets. And this also helps us understand why He seemed puzzled when His fellow Jews didn’t understand His spiritual meanings. He was only communicating in a way that should have been quite familiar to them all. After all, hadn’t His contemporaries grown up going to the same synagogues and listening to the same Scriptures being read?
(This concludes this section of this chapter)
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