The Hebrew word

translated


“tabernacle”


is ohel, which means a 


Tent


(as clearly conspicuous from a distance):


a covering,

(dwelling) (place),


home,


tabernacle, tent


There are three main references to

the

tabernacle (or tent)

of

David: 

Isaiah 16:5, Amos 9:11, and Acts 15:16,

in which the apostle James repeats the passage from Amos.
The reference in Isaiah 16:5 

refers to the tabernacle of David prophetically,

pointing to One from the line of David

who will someday sit on the throne and rule over all.

This is referring to Jesus.


That leaves two other references to the

tabernacle of David.

In Acts 15:16, while speaking to the Jews, James uses Amos 9:11 to give
credence to the recent conversion of the Gentiles in the early church.
Many Jews were objecting to this because there was uncertainty as to

how the Gentiles were to now keep the

Law of Moses.

The essential argument from Peter’s earlier experience with

Cornelius, a Gentile,

was that God was also calling Gentiles to Himself.


The apostles

were not to put on the Gentiles

a burden that

no one could ever keep

(i.e. the Law of Moses).


From James’ words alone, it is clear that God’s promise through the

prophet Amos—that He would


“build again the tabernacle of David”


was related to what He was just then beginning to do,

namely,

visiting the Gentiles to take out

from

among them a people for

His


NAME

After rehearsing what Simon Peter had just told the Jerusalem Christians--

that God had chosen Peter as the instrument whereby He,

for the first time, opened the way of salvation to the Gentiles--

James plainly declared that God’s visitation of the Gentiles agreed with the
words of the prophets (in general) and Amos (in particular).

The

“tabernacle”

referred to in Acts 15:16,

then, is the

House of God

open to all,


both

Jew and Gentile,


who seek Him

in

order to worship


IN


TRUTH


Amos 9:11 says,


“In that day

will I raise up again

the

tabernacle of David,


that is fallen.”


There seems to be reference here to a


restoration

of the Jewish nation to


spiritual life

in the

end times


There might also exist, during that end time,

or into the


1,000-year reign of

Christ,

a tabernacle

like the one

during


David’s day



During David’s


TIME

the

tabernacle (or tent)

housed the 


Ark of the Covenant


 and was a precursor to the temple that Solomon would build.

The temple was a rectangular


house of worship

made with

elaborate design.


Its presence and functionality,

with priests,

was a sign of

God’s favor and presence.


When Israel

fell away from following

the

commandments of the Old Covenant,

the

temple was desecrated



and needed to eventually be

rebuilt,

as described in the book of Ezra.


The phrase tent of meeting

 is used in the Old Testament,

specifically in

Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers,

as the NAME

of a
place where God

would

meet with His people,

Israel


So Jacob called the

NAME

of the place Peniel,

saying,

“For I have seen God

face to face,

and

yet my life has been  

delivered”


Usually, the

“tent of meeting”

was used as another name for the
 Tabernacle of Moses.

However, before the tabernacle

was constructed, God met with Moses in a

temporary tent of meeting:

“Now Moses used to take a tent

and
pitch it outside the camp some distance away,

calling it the

‘tent of meeting.’

Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. . . . As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses” (Exodus 33:7, 9).

The fact that Moses

set up

the tent of meeting

 outside of the camp

underscored that the people had

broken

fellowship with God

at Sinai when they had made the

golden calf

 (see Exodus 33:3).

After the tabernacle was built, Moses

no longer needed his temporary tent,

and the term

 tent of meeting began to be applied to

the tabernacle.


In the Law that God gave Moses,

God provided specific instructions

to build a place of worship

(Exodus 25—27).

This “tent of meeting” or

tabernacle

could be taken up and moved each time

they changed locations

while

wandering in the wilderness.


The word tabernacle is an English rendition of the

Hebrew word miskan, or

“dwelling place.”


The tabernacle was a

temporary dwelling place for the

 Ark of the Covenant 

and the other holy items that the

Israelites were instructed to

use in the

worship of and sacrifice to

Yahweh


Interestingly,

the word tent or tabernacle is also used in the

New Testament to

draw profound

spiritual conclusions about salvation.


Both Paul and the writer of Hebrews

make a distinction between

a heavenly tent and an

earthly tent,

between what was


“built by human hands”

and what is

“not part of this creation”


(2 Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 9:11). Hebrews 9:1–10 


describes the earthly tabernacle, or

“tent of meeting,”

as a place into which the priests would go to offer

sacrifices for the sins of the people.


Then, in verse 11, Christ is shown to be a

better

“high priest” who entered once through the

“greater and more perfect tent,”

referring to His body,

to offer a sacrifice that would

satisfy the wrath of God completely,


for all time. This refers to His blood shed on the cross.

The point of the passage is to show how, if the blood of animals
could temporarily cleanse worshipers of the guilt of sin,

the perfect blood of Christ, the Lamb of God,

would cleanse

His followers perfectly—that is, eternally—of their sins.

In Hebrews 10:14, the writer says that

Jesus has


“perfected forever those

who are

being sanctified.”


This verse expresses a spiritual paradox.
By entering the

“tent of meeting,”

which was His own body, and offering up His own blood,

Christ “perfected forever” those

who have

faith in Him.

And the result of

belief in Christ

is

sanctification, a

continual upward

spiral of holiness

and

closeness to God,

as the

Holy Spirit performs His work

within


Christ’s followers


In this way, we are

eternally “perfect”

because of the preciousness of

Christ’s blood applied to our lives,

yet at the

same time we are “being sanctified”

by the

Holy Spirit who indwells us

and changes us

into the

image of Christ

(Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 8:29).

Paul also mentions the “tent of meeting”
or the tabernacle,

comparing it to the earthly human body:

“For we know

that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed,

we have a building from God,

a house not made with hands,

eternal in the heavens.

For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.

For while we are still in this tent,

we groan, being burdened—not that we

would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed,

so that what is 


mortal may be swallowed up by life. 


He who has

prepared us for this

very thing is God,


 who has given us the

Spirit as a guarantee” 



(2 Corinthians 5:1–5).

When Paul says,

“The tent that is our earthly home,”

he is referring to our earthly body, our temporary dwelling place.

Just as the Israelites

moved the tent of meeting from

place to place

waiting for entrance to the

Promised Land,

believers in Christ

are wanderers on the earth--

people who are not

“at home”

in the world and who

“seek a city that is to come”

(Hebrews 13:14).

Paul says that those

who belong to God will be

“further clothed” with immortality upon their deaths

and that their

earthly tent (their body) will be replaced

with a “heavenly dwelling.”


God does the work of

preparing us

for that day of glorification

by the

process of sanctification

by the Spirit,

and that

work happening within us is a “guarantee”

that our inheritance

and our heavenly dwelling are real.

“In him you also, when you heard the

word of truth,

the

gospel of your salvation,

and believed in him,

were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

who is the guarantee of our inheritance

until

we acquire possession of it,

to the

Praise of his Glory”


(Ephesians 1:13–15).

Before the official tabernacle was built,

“Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp

some distance away, calling it the

‘tent of meeting.’

Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp” (Exodus 33:7). As Moses visited this tent of meeting to intercede for the people of Israel, “the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses” (verse 9).

Moses’ position of favor with God is evident in the fact that “the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (verse 11).

However, later in the same chapter,

Moses requests to see God’s glory,

and God replies,

“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and

I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. . . . But . . .

you cannot see my face,

for no one may see me and live”

(Exodus 33:19–20).

To protect Moses, God put him “in a cleft in the rock”

and covered him with His hand as He passed by (verse 22).

“Then,” God promised, “I will remove my hand and you will see my back;

but my face must not be seen”

(verse 23).

This passage prompts several questions. Does God really have a

“hand,” “face,” and “back”?

Why could Moses speak to God “face to face” in verse 11 but could

not see God’s “face” in verse 23?


What is fatal about

seeing God’s “face”?


We know from Scripture (e.g., John 4:24) that God is spirit. Spirits do not possess physicality. So, when Moses spoke “face to face” with God in Exodus 33:11, there are only two possible ways to understand it: either

Moses was speaking

to the

pre-incarnate

Son of God


(a Christophany)


or the passage is using a figure of speech called anthropomorphism,

in which human qualities are applied to God.

In verse 11 the idiom face to face can be simply understood

to mean “intimately.”

Moses spoke with God familiarly, as a man speaks to a friend.

In verses 20 and 23, face and back are in reference to


God’s “glory” and “goodness”


(verses 18–19).

Since God is spirit, and since glory and goodness

are both intangibles,

we can take face and back to signify

varying “degrees” of glory.

God’s hand (verse 22) is an obvious

reference to

God’s “protection.”

In the Bible, God often communicates using terms easily understood in the human experience. God’s use of anthropomorphism in Exodus 33 was a perfect way to describe what was happening. As humans, we know the importance of one’s face. To readily identify someone, we study his or her face. It is also the face of a person that reveals the most information about his or her character, mood, and personality. However, if all we catch is a glimpse of a person from behind, we are left without a lot of valuable information. It is difficult to identify a person from behind; we know very little about a person if all we can see is a back view.

When God told Moses,

“You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live”

(Exodus 33:20),

He was saying that

truly

seeing God as He is,

in the

fullness of His glory,

is more than

mortal man can tolerate

(cf. Isaiah 6:5).

Therefore, to protect Moses, God was only going to reveal

that portion of His majesty and power

that was humanly possible to absorb.

God communicated this plan to Moses in a way we can all understand: “You cannot look Me full in the face [it is impossible for you to know everything about Me], but I will allow you to see my back [I will reveal to you a small portion of My nature so as not to overwhelm you].”

All of this makes Jesus’ words to Philip all the more amazing:

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”

(John 14:9).

When Jesus walked this earth,

His glory veiled,


we could look Him in the face.


“In Christ

all the fullness of the

Deity

lives in bodily form”

(Colossians 2:9).

On one brief occasion,

Jesus’ glory was revealed in

this world,

at the transfiguration 

(Matthew 17:2).

Interestingly, Moses was there,

speaking to the glorified Lord,

face to face

(Matthew 17:3).


When Jesus was


"presented"

in

Jerusalem

by

Mary and Joseph,

the sacrifice made was

"a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons":


Luke 2: 22

When the days of

their

purification

according to the

law of Moses

were


Fulfilled,

 they

brought him up to Jerusalem,


to present him

to the Lord


as it is

written in the law of the Lord,


“Every male who

opens the womb shall be called

holy to the Lord”

and to offer a sacrifice

according to that

which is said

in the law of the Lord,


“A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

But in Matthew when the Magi found Jesus:

Matthew 2: 11

They came into the house and saw the young child with

Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.


Opening their treasures,

they offered to him gifts:


Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh



Jesus Is Presented in the Temple

21 Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus,

the NAME

given him by the angel even before he was conceived.

Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses

after the birth of a child;

so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord


The law of the Lord says,


“If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be

dedicated to the Lord.”


 So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord—“

either a pair

of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”



The Prophecy of Simeon

At that time there was a man in
Jerusalem named Simeon.
He was righteous and devout
and was eagerly waiting for the

Messiah

to come and rescue Israel.

The Holy Spirit

was upon him and had revealed to him

that he would not die

until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 

 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple.

So when Mary and Joseph came to

present the baby Jesus

to the Lord

as the law required, 

Simeon was there.

He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,

    as you have promised.

 I have seen your salvation,

    which you have prepared for all people.

 He is a light

to reveal God to the nations,

    and he is the

glory of your people Israel!”

 Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him.  

Then Simeon blessed them,

and he said to


Mary, the baby’s mother,


“This child is destined to cause many

in Israel

to fall,

and many others

to rise.

He has been sent

as a sign

from God, but

many will oppose him. 


As a result, the

deepest thoughts of many hearts will

be revealed.

And a sword will pierce your very soul.”



The Prophecy of Anna

Anna, a prophet, was also there

in the Temple.

She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher,
and she was very old.
Her husband died when they had been married only seven years.  
Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.

She never left the Temple

but stayed there day and night,

worshiping God with fasting and prayer.  

She came along

just as Simeon was talking with

Mary and Joseph, and she began

praising God.

She talked about the child to everyone

who had been waiting expectantly for


God to rescue Jerusalem
​

 When Jesus’ parents had fulfilled all the requirements of

the law of the Lord,

they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. 40 There the child

grew up healthy and strong.

He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.




​Sukkot

Sukkot is a Torah-commanded holiday

celebrated for seven days, beginning on the

15th day of the month of Tishrei. It is one of the

Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which those Israelites
who could were commanded to make a

pilgrimage to the


Temple in Jerusalem

Date: 

Fri, Sep 29, 2023 – Fri, Oct 6, 2023


The indwelling of the

Holy Spirit

is the action by which God takes up

permanent residence

in the body of a believer in


Jesus Christ

In the Old Testament,

the Spirit would come and go from the saints, empowering them for service
but not necessarily remaining with them

(see Judges 15:14; 1 Chronicles 12:18; Psalm 51:11; Ezekiel 11:5).

Jesus revealed to His disciples

the new role the

Spirit of Truth

would play in their lives:

“He lives with you and will be in you”

(John 14:17).

The apostle Paul wrote,

“Do you not know that your bodies are

temples of the Holy Spirit,

who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own;

you were bought at a price. 

These verses are telling us that

the believer in Jesus Christ

has the third Person of the 


Trinity,

the 


Holy Spirit, living in him.

When an individual accepts Christ as personal Savior

, the Holy Spirit

gives the believer the life of God,

eternal life, which is really His very nature

(Titus 3:5; 2 Peter 1:4),


and the Holy Spirit

comes to live within him

spiritually

The fact that the believer’s body is likened

to a temple

where the

Holy Spirit lives helps us understand

what the indwelling

of the Holy Spirit is all about.

The word temple is used to describe the

Holy of Holies,

the inner sanctum in the Old Testament tabernacle structure.

There, God’s presence

would appear in a cloud and meet the high priest,

who came once a year into the Holy of Holies.

On the

Day of Atonement,

the high priest brought the blood of a slain animal and sprinkled it on the

mercy seat of the

Ark of the Covenant


On this special day,

God granted forgiveness to the priest and His people.

Today, there is no Jewish temple in Jerusalem, and the animal sacrifices have ceased. The believer in Christ has become the inner sanctum of God the Holy Spirit, as the believer has been sanctified and forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:7). The believer in Christ becomes the habitation of the Holy Spirit of God. In fact, Scripture also says that the believer is indwelt spiritually by Christ (Colossians 1:27) and by God the Father (1 John 4:15)
—the Trinity is involved.

As the Holy Spirit lives in the believer, He brings about some life-changing results:

1) The indwelling Spirit comes to a soul dead in sin and creates new life

(Titus 3:5). This is the new birth Jesus spoke of in John 3:1–8.

2) The indwelling Spirit confirms to the believer that he belongs to the
Lord and is an heir of God and fellow-heir with Christ (Romans 8:15–17).

3) The indwelling Spirit installs the new believer as a member of Christ’s universal church.
This is the baptism of the Spirit, according to 1 Corinthians 12:13.

4) The indwelling Spirit gives spiritual gifts (God-given abilities for service) to the believer to edify the church and serve the Lord effectively for His glory (1 Corinthians 12:11).

5) The indwelling Spirit helps the believer understand and apply the Scripture to his daily life (1 Corinthians 2:12).

6) The indwelling Spirit enriches the believer’s prayer life and intercedes for him in prayer (Romans 8:26–27).

7) The indwelling Holy Spirit empowers the yielded believer to live for Christ to do His will (Galatians 5:16). The Spirit leads the believer in paths of righteousness (Romans 8:14).

8) The indwelling Spirit gives evidence of new life by producing the fruit of the Spirit in the believer’s life (Galatians 5:22–23).

9) The indwelling Spirit is grieved when the believer sins

(Ephesians 4:30),

and He convicts

the believer to confess his sin

to the Lord

so that fellowship is restored

(1 John 1:9).

10) The indwelling Spirit seals the believer unto the day of redemption

so that the believer’s arrival in the Lord’s presence is guaranteed after this life

(Ephesians 1:13–14).

When you accept Christ as your Savior
(Romans 10:9–13),

the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart,
bringing with Him an entirely new life of love, relationship,
and service to the Lord.


The Hebrew word translated

“tabernacle” is ohel,

which means “a tent

(as clearly conspicuous from a distance):

a covering, (dwelling) (place),

home, tabernacle, tent.”

There are three main references

to the

tabernacle (or tent) of David: 

Isaiah 16:5, Amos 9:11, and Acts 15:16, in which the apostle James repeats the
passage from Amos. The reference in Isaiah 16:5 refers to the

tabernacle of David

prophetically,

pointing to

One from the line of David

who will someday sit on the

throne and rule over all.

This is referring to Jesus.


That leaves two other references to the

tabernacle of David.

In Acts 15:16,

while speaking to the Jews, James uses Amos 9:11 to give credence to the recent conversion of the Gentiles in the early church. Many Jews were objecting to this because there was uncertainty as to how the Gentiles were to now keep the Law of Moses. The essential argument from Peter’s earlier experience with Cornelius, a Gentile, was that God was also calling Gentiles to Himself. The apostles were not to put on the Gentiles a burden that no one could ever keep (i.e. the Law of Moses).

From James’ words alone, it is clear that God’s promise through the prophet Amos—that He would “build again the tabernacle of David”—was related to what He was just then beginning to do, namely, visiting the Gentiles to take out from among them a people for His Name. After rehearsing what Simon Peter had just told the Jerusalem Christians—that God had chosen Peter as the instrument whereby He, for the first time, opened the way of salvation to the Gentiles—James plainly declared that God’s visitation of the Gentiles agreed with the words of the prophets (in general) and Amos (in particular). The “tabernacle” referred to in Acts 15:16, then, is the house of God open to all, both Jew and Gentile, who seek Him in order to worship in truth.

Amos 9:11 says, “In that day will I raise up again the tabernacle of David, that is fallen.” There seems to be reference here to a restoration of the Jewish nation to spiritual life in the end times. There might also exist, during that end time, or into the 1,000-year reign of Christ, a tabernacle like the one during David’s day. During David’s time the tabernacle (or tent) housed the Ark of the Covenant and was a precursor to the temple that Solomon would build. The temple was a rectangular house of worship made with elaborate design. Its presence and functionality, with priests, was a sign of God’s favor and presence. When Israel fell away from following the commandments of the Old Covenant, the temple was desecrated and needed to eventually be rebuilt, as described in the book of Ezra.


The Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths and Sukkot, is the seventh and last feast that the Lord commanded Israel to observe and one of the three feasts that Jews were to observe each year by going to “appear before the Lord your God in the place which He shall choose” (Deuteronomy 16:16). The importance of the Feast of Tabernacles can be seen in how many places it is mentioned in Scripture. In the Bible we see many important events that took place at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. For one thing, it was at this time that Solomon’s Temple was dedicated to the Lord (1 Kings 8:2).

It was at the Feast of Tabernacles that the Israelites, who had returned to rebuild the temple, gathered to celebrate under the leadership of Joshua and Zerubbabel (Ezra 3). Later, the Jews heard Ezra read the Word of God to them during the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8). Ezra’s preaching resulted in a great revival as the Israelites confessed and repented of their sins. It was also during this Feast that Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–39).

The Feast of Tabernacles takes place on the 15th of the Hebrew month Tishri. This was the seventh month on the Hebrew calendar and usually occurs in late September to mid-October. The feast begins five days after the Day of Atonement and at the time the fall harvest had just been completed. It was a time of joyous celebration as the Israelites celebrated God’s continued provision for them in the current harvest and remembered His provision and protection during the 40 years in the wilderness.

As one of the three feasts that all “native born” male Jews were commanded to participate in, the Feast of Tabernacles is mentioned multiple times in Scripture, sometimes called the Feast of the Ingathering, the Feast to the Lord, or the Feast of Booths (Exodus 23:16; Deuteronomy 16:13). As one of the pilgrim feasts (when Jewish males were commanded to go to Jerusalem), it was also the time when they brought their tithes and offerings to the Temple (Deuteronomy 16:16). With the influx of people coming to Jerusalem at that time, we can only imagine what the scene must have been like. Thousands upon thousands of people coming together to remember and celebrate God’s deliverance and His provision, all living in temporary shelters or booths as part of the requirements of the feast. During the eight-day period, so many sacrifices were made that it required all twenty-four divisions of priests to be present to assist in the sacrificial duties.

We find God’s instructions for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23, given at a point in history right after God had delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt. The feast was to be celebrated each year on “the fifteenth day of this seventh month” and was to run for seven days (Leviticus 23:34). Like all feasts, it begins with a “holy convocation” or Sabbath day when the Israelites were to stop working to set aside the day for worshiping God. On each day of the feast they were to offer an “offering made by fire to the Lord” and then after seven days of feasting, again the eighth day was to be “a holy convocation” when they were to cease from work and offer another sacrifice to God (Leviticus 23). Lasting eight days, the Feast of Tabernacles begins and ends with a Sabbath day of rest. During the eight days of the feast, the Israelites would dwell in booths or tabernacles that were made from the branches of trees (Leviticus 23:40–42).

The Feast of Tabernacles, like all the feasts, was instituted by God as a way of reminding Israelites in every generation of their deliverance by God from Egypt. Of course, the feasts are also significant in that they foreshadow the work and actions of

the coming Messiah.

Much of Jesus’ public ministry took place in conjunction with the

Holy Feasts set forth by God.

The three pilgrim feasts where all Jewish males were commanded to

“appear before the Lord in the place he chooses”

are each very important in regards to the

life of Christ and His

work of redemption.

We know with certainty that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are symbolic of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. Likewise, we know that Pentecost, which marked the beginning of the Feast of Weeks, was the time of Jesus’ bodily ascension. And most scholars would agree that the

Feast of Tabernacles is symbolic of

Christ’s Second Coming

 when He will establish His earthly kingdom.

There are also some who believe that it was likely during the

Feast of Tabernacles

that

Jesus was born

While we celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25, most scholars acknowledge that this tradition was begun in the fourth century AD by the Roman Catholic Church and that the exact day of Jesus’ birth is unknown. Some of the evidence that Jesus might have been born earlier in the year during the Feast of the Tabernacles includes the fact that it would be unlikely for shepherds to still be in the field with their sheep in December, which is in the middle of the winter, but it would have been likely they were in the fields tending sheep at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. The strong possibility that Jesus was born at the time of the

Feast of Tabernacles

is also seen in the words John wrote in John 1:14.

“And the Word became

flesh and dwelt among us,

and we beheld His glory,

the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,

full of grace and truth.”

The word John chose to speak of

Jesus “dwelling”

among us is the word tabernacle,

which simply means to “dwell in a tent.”

Some believe it is very likely that John intentionally used this word to associate the first coming of Christ with the Feast of Tabernacles. Christ came in the flesh to dwell among us for a temporary time when He was born in the manger, and He is coming again to dwell among us as Lord of Lords. While it cannot be established with certainty that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles, some believe there is a strong possibility the Feast of Tabernacles not only looks forward to His second coming but also reflects back on His first coming.


The Feast of Tabernacles

begins and ends with a special Sabbath day of rest. During the days of the feast all native Israelites were “to dwell in booths” to remind them that God delivered them out of the “land of Egypt” and to look forward to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would deliver His people from the bondage of sin. This feast, like all of the feasts of Israel, consistently reminded the Jews and should remind Christians as well that God has promised to deliver His people from the bondage of sin and deliver them from their enemies. Part of God’s deliverance for the Israelites was His provision and protection of them for the

40 years they 


wandered in the wilderness,

cut off

 from the Promised Land.

The same holds true for Christians today. God protects us and provides for us as we go through life in the wilderness of this world. While our hearts long for the Promised Land (heaven) and to be in the presence of God, He preserves us in this world as we await the world to come and the redemption that will come when 


Jesus Christ returns again

to “tabernacle” or dwell among us

in bodily form.



The Temple Mount

is the holiest site in Judaism, the third holiest site in Islam, and a
revered site to Christians.

To the Jews it is known as Har HaMoriyah

 (“Mount Moriah”) and Har HaBayit

 (“Temple Mount”);

to Muslims it is known as Haram el Sharif

 (“the Sacred Noble Sanctuary”).

In the Bible it is also


called Mount Zion

(Psalm 48:2; Isaiah 4:5).

Because of its importance to three major religions, its ownership has been hotly contested for nearly two thousand years. Today the Temple Mount is under the control of the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, a trust that was established in 1187 to manage the Islamic structures in Jerusalem. Under their current rules, access to the holy sites is prohibited to all non-Muslims.

According to the Bible (Genesis 22:1–14), God told Abraham to bring his son Isaac to the land of Moriah (meaning “Chosen by Yah”) and offer him as a sacrifice on a mountain there. As Abraham was about to complete the sacrifice, God stopped him and provided a ram as a substitutionary sacrifice. In this same location, nearly 1,000 years later,

God led Solomon to build the

 First Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1)


David had identified

this location as the place for worshiping God

because it was here

the plague was stayed when he confessed his sin,

and he purchased

the place so he could build an altar

(1 Chronicles 21:18–26).

Solomon’s Temple stood until the Babylonians destroyed

it in 586 BC. Zerubbabel

led the efforts to build the Second Temple, which was completed in 516 BC,
then enlarged by Herod the Great in 12 BC.

The Second Temple was destroyed by

the Romans in AD 70,

fulfilling Jesus’ words in Mark 13:1–2.

As the Roman Empire was fading, Mohammed and his teaching of Islam was rising in the Middle East. According to the Quran (Surah 17:1), Mohammed made a miraculous night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in AD 621. There he led worship at “the farthest mosque,” was lifted to heaven, and returned to earth to carry on his teachings. At that time there was no mosque in Jerusalem, but 15 years later, Caliph Umar built a small mosque to commemorate the prophet’s night visit. The Al Aqsa Mosque (“the farthest mosque”) was built in AD 705, then rebuilt in 754, 780, and 1035. The Dome of the Rock was built in AD 692 over the place where Mohammad supposedly ascended to heaven. This rock is also identified by Christians and Jews as the place where Abraham offered Isaac and the location of the Holy of Holies in the Jewish temple. During the Crusades, Christians took temporary control of the Temple Mount, and the Al Aqsa Mosque was used as a palace and church in 1099.

The Temple Mount continues to be the center of controversy today. Though they are barred from entering the Muslim areas, Jews pray at the Western Wall

(also known as the Wailing Wall),

part of the remaining structure of the Temple Mount from the time of the Second Temple. The Islamic Waqf has created controversy with their decision to allow major renovations to the underground areas of the Temple Mount without regard to archaeological artifacts. Huge loads of earth have been removed from the area and dumped elsewhere. Archaeologists sifting through the dumped earth have recovered several artifacts of Jewish origin, though nothing that can be directly tied to the Jewish temple. Many Jews are making preparations for the Third Temple to be built on the site, and Christians also look with interest on those preparations.

According to the prophecy of

 Daniel 9:27,

it appears that there will be

another temple built,

for there will be sacrifices that are

stopped by the Antichrist.

Since the other parts of Daniel’s prophecies were fulfilled literally,

leading up to Jesus’ life and death,

we look for this part to be literally fulfilled also.


Mount Gerizim

is a

mountain located in the

central

Samaritan highlands.


Its summit is about 2,800 feet above

sea level.

Mount Gerizim

sits directly opposite

 Mount Ebal 

with the biblical

city of Shechem

 resting in the pass between

the

two elevations.


Mount Gerizim on the


south side of the

valley

and Mount Ebal

to the north


played significant roles in a ceremony

renewing

Israel’s covenant


with the Lord upon entering

the

Promised Land.


Mount Gerizim, situated about 30 miles north of Jerusalem, is known as Jabal
at Tur today. Mount Ebal (modern Jabal Ibal) and

Mount Gerizim are the two highest mountains in this

region of the Holy Land.

Shechem, at the base of Mount Gerizim,

was a well-traveled trade intersection in ancient times.

It was also one of the most frequently referenced

cities of the Old Testament.

Through Moses, God gave detailed instructions for a ceremony of

“blessings and cursings”

to take place when the people of Israel entered Canaan

(Deuteronomy 27:1–26).

The ceremony would symbolize the renewal of

Israel’s covenant commitment to the Lord.

Once they had crossed the Jordan, the Israelites were to

build a monument of stones containing the words of the law,

as well as an altar for offering sacrifices to the Lord (verses 1–8).


Worshiping the Lord and

obeying God’s Word

were to be essentials

for Israel’s existence in the


Promised Land


After the law of Moses

was written

on the stones, the people were to

divide into two groups.

Half of Israel’s tribes were to gather on

Mount Gerizim

and the other half on Mount Ebal,


while the priests with the 

Ark of the Covenant 

were to stand

in the valley between


As the Levites read the blessings for obeying the law,

the six tribes on 


Mount Gerizim were to pronounce a resounding

“Amen!”

When the Levites recited

the curses for disobeying the law,

the other six tribes on

Mount Ebal

were to give a great cry of “Amen!”

(Deuteronomy 27:9–26).

Joshua, successor to Moses,

faithfully

and precisely carried out these

instructions,

as recorded in Joshua 8:30–35.


Through the solemn ceremony, Israel was

reminded of the importance

of loyal obedience to God and the foolishness of disobedience.

In this way,

Mount Gerizim came to be known as the

“mount of blessing.”

Mount Gerizim also served as the stage of a pivotal event in the period of the judges. Gideon’s son Abimelech convinced the people of Shechem to make him king by conspiring with his mother’s relatives there. He had his half-brothers, the 70 sons of Gideon, slaughtered.

Only Jotham survived.

From atop Mount Gerizim,

which overlooks Shechem,

Jotham delivered his “Fable of the Bramble King,”
a story

damning Abimelech and cursing the townspeople

(Judges 9:5–20).

His words had no immediate impact,

but within three years Abimelech

lost favor with his supporters in Shechem.

Eventually,

he was killed while fighting against them when a

woman dropped a millstone from a

tower,

crushing his skull 


(Judges 9:22–57).

The New Testament does not mention

Mount Gerizim

by NAME

but it figures notably in the story of Jesus and the 

Samaritan woman,

who called it the mountain

where

“our fathers worshiped”

(John 4:20–23).

According to Genesis 12:6–7,

Abraham built an altar there, and in Genesis 33:18–20

 Jacob constructed an altar there as well.

For the Samaritans, Mount Gerizim had been a sacred site

for the worship of God for centuries.

On this mountain the Samaritans had built a

temple to rival the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

But Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the

physical location of our worship is

not important.


Temples and tabernacles,

cities and mountains:

these were only fading symbols that

pointed to the spiritual reality


—Jesus Christ--


who was standing in front of her.


True worshipers

must worship the Lord their God

in spirit and in


Truth


The room known as the

Holy of Holies

was the innermost and most sacred area of the ancient

 tabernacle of Moses 

and temple of Jerusalem.

The Holy of Holies was constructed as a perfect cube. It contained only the 

Ark of the Covenant

, the symbol of Israel’s special relationship with God. The Holy of Holies was accessible only to the Israelite high priest. Once a year, on 

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement,

the high priest was permitted to enter the small, windowless enclosure to burn incense and sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial animal on the mercy seat of the Ark.

By doing so, the high priest atoned for his own sins and those of the people. The Holy of Holies was separated from the rest of the tabernacle/temple by the veil, a huge, heavy drape made of fine linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn and embroidered with gold cherubim.

God said that He would appear in the Holy of Holies (Leviticus 16:2); hence, the need for the veil. There exists a barrier between man and God. The holiness of God could not be accessed by anyone but the high priest, and then only once a year. God’s “eyes are too pure to look on evil” (Habakkuk 1:13), and He can tolerate no sin. The veil and the elaborate rituals undertaken by the priest were a reminder that man could not carelessly or irreverently enter God’s awesome presence. Before the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he had to wash himself, put on special clothing, bring burning incense to let the smoke cover his eyes from a direct view of God, and bring sacrificial blood with him to make atonement for sins (Exodus 28; Hebrews 9:7).

The significance of the Holy of Holies to Christians is found in the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ. When Jesus died, an amazing thing happened: “When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50-51a). The veil was not torn in half by any man. It was a supernatural event done by the power of God to make a very specific point: because of the death of Christ on the cross, man was no longer separated from God. The Old Testament temple system was made obsolete as the New Covenant was ratified. No longer would we have to depend on priests to perform once-a-year sacrifices on our behalf. Christ’s body was “torn” on the cross, just as the veil was torn in the temple, and now we have access to God through Jesus: “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body” (Hebrews 10:19-20).

The once-for-all-time sacrifice of Christ did away with the necessity of yearly sacrifices, which could never take away sins (Hebrews 10:11). Those sacrifices were merely a foreshadowing of the perfect sacrifice to come, that of the holy Lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world (John 1:29). The Holy of Holies, the very presence of God, is now open to all who come to Christ in faith. Where, before, there was an imposing barrier guarded by cherubim, God has opened a way by the shed blood of His Son.

During the lifetime of Jesus, the holy temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious life. The temple was the place where animal sacrifices were carried out and worship according to the Law of Moses was followed faithfully. Hebrews 9:1-9 tells us that in the temple a veil separated the Holy of Holies—the earthly dwelling place of God’s presence—from the rest of the temple where men dwelt. This signified that man was separated from God by sin (Isaiah 59:1-2). Only the high priest was permitted to pass beyond this veil once each year (Exodus 30:10; Hebrews 9:7) to enter into God’s presence for all of Israel and make atonement for their sins (Leviticus 16).

Solomon’s temple was 30 cubits high (1 Kings 6:2), but Herod had increased the height to 40 cubits, according to the writings of Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian. There is uncertainty as to the exact measurement of a cubit, but it is safe to assume that this veil was somewhere near 60 feet high. An early Jewish tradition says that the veil was about four inches thick, but the Bible does not confirm that measurement. The book of Exodus teaches that this thick veil was fashioned from blue, purple, and scarlet material and fine twisted linen.

The size and thickness of the veil make the events occurring at the moment of Jesus’ death on the cross so much more momentous. “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50-51a).

So, what do we make of this? What significance does this torn veil have for us today? Above all, the tearing of the veil at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice, the shedding of His own blood, was a sufficient atonement for sins. It signified that now the way into the Holy of Holies was open for all people, for all time, both Jew and Gentile.

When Jesus died, the veil was torn, and God moved out of that place never again to dwell in a temple made with human hands (Acts 17:24). God was through with that temple and its religious system, and the temple and Jerusalem were left “desolate” (destroyed by the Romans) in A.D. 70, just as Jesus prophesied in Luke 13:35. As long as the temple stood, it signified the continuation of the Old Covenant. Hebrews 9:8-9 refers to the age that was passing away as the new covenant was being established (Hebrews 8:13).

In a sense, the veil was symbolic of

Christ Himself

as the only way to the Father

(John 14:6). This is indicated by the fact that the high priest had to

enter the Holy of Holies through the veil.

Now Christ is our superior High Priest, and as believers in His finished work,
we partake of His better priesthood.

We can now enter the Holy of Holies through Him. Hebrews 10:19-20 says, “We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.”

Here we see the image of Jesus’ flesh being torn for us just as He was tearing the veil for us.

The profound significance of the tearing of the veil is explained in glorious detail in Hebrews. The things of the temple were shadows of things to come, and they

all ultimately point us to Jesus Christ.

He was the veil to the Holy of Holies, and through His death the

faithful now have free access to God.

The veil in the temple was a constant reminder that sin renders humanity

unfit for the presence of God.

The fact that the sin offering was offered annually and countless other sacrifices repeated daily showed graphically that sin could not truly be atoned for or erased by mere animal sacrifices.

Jesus Christ, through His death, has removed the barriers between

God and man,

and now we may approach Him with confidence and boldness

(Hebrews 4:14-16).


Jesus cleansed the temple

of the money-changers

and sellers of merchandise because of

His disgust

at what they had made of God’s house of prayer

and His zeal to purify it

from the abuse of ungodly men.

Judea was under the rule of the Romans,

and the money in current use was Roman coin.

However, the Jewish law required that every man should pay

a tribute to the service of the sanctuary of

“half a shekel”

(Exodus 30:11–16), a Jewish coin.

It became, therefore, a matter of convenience to have a place where the

Roman coin could be exchanged for the

Jewish half shekel.

The money-changers

provided this convenience but would

demand a small sum for the exchange.

Because so many thousands of people came up

to the great feasts, changing money

was a very profitable business and one that


resulted in fraud

and

oppression of the poor.

Also, according to the Law, two doves or pigeons were required to be offered in sacrifice (Leviticus 14:22; Luke 2:24). Yet it was difficult to bring them from the distant parts of Judea, so a lucrative business selling the birds sprang up, with the sellers gouging the faithful by charging exorbitant prices. There were other merchants selling cattle and sheep for the temple sacrifices as well. Because of these sellers who preyed on the poor and because of His passion for the purity of His Father’s house, Jesus was filled with righteous indignation. As He overturned the tables of the money-changers, He condemned them for having turned God’s house of prayer into “a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). As He did so, His disciples remembered Psalm 69:9,


“Zeal for your house consumes me,

and the insults of those

who insult you fall on me.”


Jesus’ first

cleansing of the temple

is described in John 2:11–12

 as having occurred just after

Jesus’ first miracle, the

turning of water into wine at the

wedding in Cana.

John makes it clear that it was “after this” that He went to Capernaum,

where He

“stayed for a few days.”

Then in the next verse (verse 13), John tells us that the “Passover of the Jews was at hand” (NKJV). These verses trace Jesus’ movements over a

short period of time from Cana in Galilee to Capernaum

and eventually to Jerusalem for the Passover.

This is the first of the two times

Jesus cleansed the temple.

The Synoptic Gospels do not record the temple cleansing mentioned in John 2,

instead only recording the temple cleansing that occurred during Passion Week.

The second cleansing of the temple occurred just after

Jesus’ triumphal entry

 into Jerusalem the last week of His life.

This second cleansing is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke but not in John. There are differences in the two events, aside from their being nearly three years apart. In the first cleansing, temple officials confronted Jesus immediately (John 2:18), whereas in the second cleansing, the chief priests and scribes confronted Him the following day (Matthew 21:17–23). In the first event, Jesus made a whip of cords with which to drive out the sellers, but there is no mention of a whip in the second cleansing. So there are two recorded occasions when Jesus cleansed the temple—the first time at the beginning of His public ministry, and the second time just after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem shortly before He was crucified.


The Upper Room Discourse

is the title given to a

block of Jesus’ teaching found only in the

Gospel of John.

The discourse is what Jesus told His disciples on the night

before the crucifixion while they were observing the Passover

(the Last Supper) in the “upper room.”

An upper room would have been on the roof of a typical home and may

have been open-air or covered by some sort of canopy.

It would have been accessible from the outside of the home,

so Jesus and His disciples could have entered and exited

without disturbing the family who owned the home.

The term upper room is not found in John, but Mark and Luke both

identify the location of the final meal together as an upper room

(KJV) that a homeowner allowed them to use.

“On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, when it was customary to sacrifice the Passover lamb, Jesus’ disciples asked him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make preparations for you to eat the Passover?’

“So he sent two of his disciples, telling them,

‘Go into the city and a man

carrying a jar of water

will meet you.

Follow him. Say to the owner of the house he enters,

“The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where

I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”

He will show you a large room upstairs,

furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there’”

(Mark 14:12–15,
emphasis added).

John does not give the background about the upper room found in Mark and Luke,
but John 13 picks up with the meal already in progress. In this chapter,

Jesus washes the feet of His disciples, tells them of

His coming betrayal by Judas

(although not mentioning him by NAME),

and tells of Peter’s coming denial. Although this happens in the upper room,

it is not normally included in the “Upper Room Discourse,”

which formally starts in chapter 14. (Please note that the title “Upper Room Discourse” is simply a term that Bible scholars use to designate a portion of Scripture. It is not found in the text of Scripture itself in much the same way that chapter and verse divisions have been added later and are not the result of inspiration.)

John 14 is the only block of teaching that actually occurs in the upper room, although most include the content in chapters 15—17 as part of the “Upper Room Discourse” because it

all takes place on the same occasion--

just before Jesus’ arrest.

The theme is Jesus’ last words to His disciples, and those words are meant to comfort them and prepare them for what is to come. In chapter 14 Jesus tells His disciples not to be

troubled because He will be leaving them.

He is going to prepare a place for them and will return.

They do not yet understand what He means by this and are

still struggling with the idea

that He will be betrayed and crucified.

Jesus tells them that He is the only way to the Father, that if they have

seen Him they have seen the Father, and that He will

send the Holy Spirit to them after

He is gone in order that they may be comforted.


The last words of John 14 are

“come, let us leave,”

which indicates that Jesus and the disciples are

leaving the upper room


They are walking to the

 Garden of Gethsemane

 at the foot of the Mount of Olives

(cf. Mark 14:26),


and the ensuing teaching happens while they are walking there
and perhaps stopping along the way.

In John 15 Jesus gives the famous illustration of the

vine and the branches.


 Jesus is the vine,

and the

disciples are the branches.


They cannot bear fruit unless they remain connected to Him.

He commands them to love each other and warns them

that the world will hate them as it hates Him.

Once again

He promises the Holy Spirit will come to them.

In John 16 

Jesus warns them not to fall away from Him due to the grief that

they will shortly experience.

He tells them to be encouraged for He has overcome the world.

John 17 records Jesus’ prayer for His disciples, sometimes referred to as 

Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.

He prays for their unity and their protection and for that of believers yet to come: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message” (John 17:20). He also looks forward to the glory that He will once again possess after He completes the Father’s will in the crucifixion and resurrection.

John 18 begins,

“When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and

crossed the Kidron Valley.

On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it” (verse 1).

What happened there in the

Garden of Gethsemane

is recorded in the other gospels.


(See Matthew 26:36–46 or Mark 14:32–42).


Some of Jesus’ most beloved and comforting words are from the

Upper Room Discourse:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

(John 14:1)

“I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

(John 14:2–3)

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

(John 14:6)

“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

(John 14:9)

“If you love me, keep my commands.”

(John 14:15)

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,

you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

” (John 15:5)

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.”

(John 15:9)

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

(John 15:13)

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”

(John 15:17)


“But when he, the Spirit of truth,

comes,

he will guide

you into all the truth.”

(John 16:13)


If a group of Christians sat down to list perplexing passages,

it wouldn’t take long for someone to mention

 Matthew 24:15-16:

“So when you see standing in

the holy place

‘the abomination that causes desolation,’

spoken of through the prophet Daniel

—let the reader understand--

then let those who are in Judea

flee to the mountains.”


The reasons for uncertainty are easy to list.

What is an abomination?

What abomination does Jesus have in mind?

One that belongs to his generation, or one from the last days?

What is the connection between the

prophecies of Daniel and Jesus?

Who is

“the reader,” and what should he or she understand?

In what sense should readers “flee to the mountains”?

Should they obey literally or metaphorically?

As always, the first step is to read the text in literary, cultural, historical, and canonical contexts. Then we analyze the structure of the passage and do the necessary lexical and grammatical work. We begin with the

key phrase, “abomination of desolation.”

The term “abomination”

(Hebrew toevah and siqqus)

appears more than 100 times in the Old Testament and just a

few times in the New Testament.

An abomination is

normally a great sin, commonly worthy of death.

Readers immersed in current debates about sexual ethics

may first think an abomination is a sexual sin.

Indeed, Scripture calls sexual sins like adultery,

homosexuality, and bestiality abominations

(e.g., Leviticus 18:22, 29-30).

But more often throughout the Bible “abomination” refers to

major covenant violations,

especially idolatry

(in Deuteronomy alone, see 7:25, 13:6-16, 17:2-5, 18:9-12, 27:15, 32:16)


In the historical books,


“abomination” always describes


idolatry,


often with


child sacrifice


(1 Kings 11:7, 2 Kings 23:13)


Abomination also refers to idolatry in the prophets, including 

Daniel 9 and 11.

Daniel uses siqqus, a term that always appears in


connection with idolatry


The interpretation of Daniel 9-11 is difficult and disputed,
but it does have

some fixed points, and the nature of the abomination that

causes desolation is one of them. 

Daniel 9:26-27 refers to a prince

who will destroy the city

(Jerusalem)

along with its temple and sacrifices,

“and on the wings of abominations shall come one who makes desolate.”

Two chapters later there is another reference to an “abomination”

in connection to the temple:

“forces from him shall

appear and profane the temple and fortress,

and shall take away the regular burnt offering.

And they shall set up

the abomination that makes desolate”

(11:31).

Scholars generally agree that the first reference of these prophecies is the Seleucid king Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who ruled Palestine from 175-64 B.C. Antiochus treated Israel with such violence and contempt that they rebelled against him. When he came to suppress the rebellion, his forces entered the temple, stopped the regular sacrifices, set up an idol of or altar for Zeus, and apparently offered swine there as a sacrifice. This is an abomination because it is idolatry, and it brings desolation because it defiles the holy place at the heart of Israel. This act was the abomination “of” desolation, the abomination “causing” desolation.

Having surveyed the original meaning of “abomination of desolation” in Daniel, we now to turn Matthew 24:15-16, first looking at the larger structure of Matthew 24.

These verses come in the context of the

Olivet Discourse,

which begins with Jesus telling his disciples that the temple will be destroyed (24:1-2). The disciples then asked Jesus to explain:

“When will these things be, and what will be the

sign of your coming

and of the close of the age?”

(24:3).

The disciples probably thought they were asking one question. The fall of Jerusalem, Jesus’ return, and the end of the age were one complex event in their minds. It may seem to us that they asked three questions:

1. When will the temple fall?
2. What is the sign of Jesus’ return?
3. What is the sign of the close of this age?

But a close reading shows that Jesus heard and answered two questions. Evangelical scholars will disagree about how much of this passage is devoted to each question, but they generally agree that 24:3-35 mostly refers to events leading up to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. The segment ends with Jesus promising “this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place” (24:35). A generation normally lasts 40 years in Scripture, and Jerusalem and its temple did fall within 40 years, as Jesus said. So his core prediction was fulfilled by AD 70. (Space forbids that I address double and partial fulfillments of elements of 24:3-35. The interested reader may consult orthodox commentaries.) Then, in 24:36, Jesus starts to speak exclusively about “that day”—that is, the last day.

In 24:4-14, the, Jesus is preparing his disciples for events—most of them extremely difficult—that will take place in their lifetime. These troubles are not signs of the end; the disciples must be ready to “stand firm” through them (24:4-8, 13). Then he says, “When you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation . . . ‘

—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”

This prophecy makes sense only with reference to the fall of Jerusalem. It cannot possibly apply to Jesus’ return. When he comes it will be pointless for an unbeliever to try to flee. And a believer will not want to flee. For the same reason, the following command not to go back to get a cloak and the woe for nursing mothers who must flee cannot refer to Jesus’ return. But they make perfect sense if Jesus predicts that another abomination of desolation, like Antiochus Epiphanes of Daniel, is coming. Indeed that abomination did come in Roman form in AD 70. The Roman armies were always an abomination because they carried with them idolatrous images of the emperor, whom they worshiped. And those armies brought desolation because their commander leveled the city and entered the holy of holies, defiling it.

The line “let the reader understand” (24:15) means that those who read Matthew—which would have been written before AD 70—must be ready to flee when they see Roman armies besieging Jerusalem. Indeed, the parallel account in Luke 21 makes this point explicit: “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies . . . flee to the mountains” (Luke 21:10-24).

In fact, many Christians did flee,

sparing their lives,

when they saw

Rome’s armies coming.

Eusebius, the first great historian of the church, says that when the

Romans fell upon Jerusalem, “the church at Jerusalem

 . . . left the city,

and moved to a town called Pella.”


So Jesus,

ever the

Good Shepherd,


told and taught

the first Christians how

to survive those most

harrowing years

of the church’s infancy.


A wise preacher dealing with this passage may find particular value in focusing on this point. When Jesus gives instruction concerning future events, his purpose is not to satiate our curiosity or answer all or our speculative questions.


Instead,


his purpose is to

protect and guide and

instruct his people


Jesus gave relatively little attention to the question

“When?”

and much toward the

question


“How shall we live faithfully?”


Preaching on such texts today should

be shaped

​by Jesus’ concern for


the welfare and

endurance of his church.




Acts 2:14-41

Peter's Sermon at Pentecost


 But Peter,

standing with the eleven,

lifted up his voice

and addressed them:


“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem,

let this be known to you,

and give ear to my words. 

For these people are not drunk, as you suppose,

 since it is only the third hour of the day.  

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:


 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

    and your young men shall see visions,

    and your old men shall dream dreams;

even on my male servants and female servants

    in those days I will pour out my Spirit,

and they shall prophesy.

And I will show wonders in the heavens above
   
 and signs on the earth below,
    blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;

the sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,

    before the day of the Lord comes,

the great and magnificent day.

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone

who calls upon the

NAME

of the Lord shall be saved.’

 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth,

 a man attested to you

by God with 

mighty works and wonders

and signs that

 God did through him in your midst,

as you yourselves know--  this Jesus, delivered up according

to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, 


you crucified and killed

by the hands of

lawless men. 


God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death,

because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 


 For David says concerning him,


“‘I saw the Lord

always before me,

    for he is

at my right hand that I may not be shaken;

therefore

my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;

    my flesh also will dwell in hope.

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,

    or let your Holy One

 see corruption.

You have made known to me the

paths of life;

    you will make me

full of gladness with your presence.’


 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence

about the patriarch David

 that he both died and was buried,

and his tomb is with us to this day. 


 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God

had sworn with an oath to him

that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 

 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ,

that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 

 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 

 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God,

and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, 

he has poured out

this that you yourselves are

seeing and hearing. 



 For David

did not ascend

into the heavens, but he himself says,


“‘The Lord said to my Lord,


“Sit at my right hand,

   until I make

your enemies your footstool.”’


 Let all the house of Israel therefore

know for certain that

 God has made him both Lord and Christ,

this

Jesus whom you crucified.”

 Now when they heard this they were

cut to the heart,

and said to

Peter and the rest of the apostles,


“Brothers, what shall we do?” 


 And Peter said to them, 

“Repent

and be baptized every one of you in the

NAME

of

Jesus Christ

 for the forgiveness of your sins,

and you will receive the

gift of the Holy Spirit. 


For the promise is for you and for your children and

for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 

40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, 


“Save yourselves

from this

 crooked generation.” 


 So those who received his word were baptized,

and there

were added that day about three thousand souls.


At the

 Last Supper,


Jesus warned Simon Peter that a

test of faith was coming:


“Simon, Simon!

Indeed, Satan has asked for you,

that he

may sift you as wheat”


(Luke 22:31, NKJV).

The outspoken disciple seemed to be in the

same predicament as

Job when Satan sought to put him to the test

(Job 1—2).

Satan wanted to “sift Peter as wheat,”

which means that he wished to shake Peter’s faith so

forcefully that he would fall,


proving that

God’s faithful servant was lacking.


It was not just Peter who was in danger, though. The word for “you” in Luke 22:31 is plural.

Jesus was speaking to Peter, informing him that


Satan had his sights

set on

all the disciples.


Some translations, such as the Berean Study Bible, specify the whole group:

“Simon, Simon,

Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.”


The name Satan means “adversary” or “accuser.”

He accuses God’s people of doing wrong (Zechariah 3:1; Revelation 12:10).


Sift as wheat is a metaphor that could also be expressed as “shake someone apart” or “break a person down.” Amos 9:9 gives us a similar image of

God shaking Israel:

“For I will give the command and will shake Israel

along with the other nations as grain

is shaken in a sieve,

yet not one

TRUE kernel will be lost”

(NLT).

In biblical times,

wheat or other grain was sifted through a sieve or large strainer.

As it was shaken violently, the

dirt and other impurities that

clung to the grain during the

threshing process

would separate from the good,

usable grain.

In sifting Peter and the other disciples as wheat, Satan’s goal was to crush them and wreck their faith. In truth, the adversary wants to destroy the faith of every believer (John 10:10). But Jesus assured Peter,

“I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon,

that your faith should not fail.

So when you have repented and

turned to me again,

strengthen your brothers”

(Luke 22:32, NLT). Peter’s leadership role in the early church proved that the Lord’s prayer for Peter was answered.

Jesus did not promise to remove Peter’s impending test.

On the contrary, He predicted that


Peter would fail

the test by

denying Christ

three times


(Luke 22:34).


Trials are to be expected in the Christian life.

“We must go through many hardships

to enter the

kingdom of God,”

say the missionaries in Acts 14:22.

God uses these experiences for our good

(Romans 8:28),

to refine our character and strengthen our faith

(1 Peter 1:6–7; James 1:2–4,12),

and to make us more like Jesus (Romans 8:29).


Whenever we do experience a test, Jesus is with us to strengthen us and intercede for us (Philippians 4:13; Romans 8:26–39).

In challenging times, it’s reassuring to remember that Satan’s power to sift Peter as wheat was limited by Christ’s intercession. When Satan comes after us, we should remember that Jesus Christ always lives to intercede for us
(Hebrews 7:25).

Jesus was confident that Simon Peter would get back up again and go on to strengthen the other disciples. Another reason the Lord allows us to suffer through experiences of testing is so we can learn how to help others grow in faith: “Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer” (2 Corinthians 1:6, NLT).


Before Peter’s threefold denial,

he was overconfident,

trusting in his own strength


(Luke 22:33).

But after being sifted like wheat, Peter learned that failure is possible because the flesh is weak (see Mark 14:38). Now that he understood how easy it is to fall, Peter would have compassion and mercy for others while helping them avoid the same mistake.

Our true faith and 

perseverance 

are revealed not in a walk of sinless perfection

but in

repentance and restoration.

We get up and keep going, like Peter, after we fall.

When Satan comes to sift us as wheat,

we have an advocate, Jesus Christ,

who intercedes for us (John 17:9, 11, 15).

He will protect us so

that the devil can never destroy our faith and hope

(John 10:27–28; Hebrews 7:25).

Jesus Christ began a good work in us, and He is faithful to complete it

(Philippians 1:6).

Jesus asked Peter three times,

“Do you love me?”

as recorded in John 21:15–17. This occurred when Jesus was having breakfast with His disciples soon after His resurrection. Jesus used this opportunity to encourage and exhort Peter about his upcoming responsibilities and even to prophesy the manner in which Peter will die.

By asking Peter,

“Do you love me?”

three times, Jesus was emphasizing the importance of

Peter’s love and unswerving obedience

to his Lord as necessary for his future ministry.

Jesus begins by questioning Peter about His love for Him, and
each time Peter answers in the affirmative,
Jesus follows up with the command for


Peter to feed His sheep


His meaning is that, if Peter truly loves his Master, he is to shepherd and

care for those who belong to Christ.

His words reveal Peter’s role as the

leader of the new Church, the Body of Christ there in Jerusalem that

will be responsible for spreading the

gospel after Jesus’

ascension into heaven.

It is possible that by His repeated question


Jesus is subtly

reminding Peter of his

three denials.

There’s no doubt those denials and how he felt when Jesus turned to look at him at that moment were seared deeply into Peter’s mind (Luke 22:54–62). It wasn’t lost on Peter that Jesus repeated His question to him three times, just as Peter previously denied Him three times.

There is also an interesting contrast when you look at the Greek words for “love” used in John 21:15–17. When Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” in John 21:15–16, He used the Greek word agape, which refers to unconditional love. Both times, Peter responded with “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you,” using the Greek word phileo, which refers more to a brotherly/friendship type of love. It seems that Jesus is trying to get Peter to understand that he must love Jesus unconditionally in order to be the leader God is calling him to be. The third time Jesus asks, “Do you love me?” in John 21:17, He uses the word phileo, and Peter again responds with “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you,” again using phileo. The point in the different Greek words for “love” seems to be that Jesus was stretching Peter to move him from phileo love to agape love.

Whatever the reason for the three-fold “do you love me?” question, Jesus was impressing on Peter how important his new role of tending the flock of Christ’s followers would be. When someone repeats instructions to us over and over, we quickly understand that it’s extremely important for us to heed them. Jesus wanted to make sure Peter understood this vital charge He was tasking him with and the ultimate reason for it, to follow Him and glorify God (John 21:19).

In a world where faith often faces derision from skeptics and cynics, Scripture reminds us of its value: “These [trials] have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7). The apostle wrote his letter to encourage persecuted Christians, as revealed in verse 6. Peter explains that trials act as a refining fire, assuring that our faith will bring rewards when we come before Christ. But how is genuine faith more valuable than gold?

First, Peter emphasizes durability. Gold is precious and long-lasting, but it won’t endure for eternity. Like any other material object, gold has its limits. However, genuine faith has an eternal effect. Not only does salvation come through faith (Ephesians 2:8–9), it also leads to a fulfilling relationship with God that extends beyond this world.

Another quality that makes faith more valuable than gold is its benefit. Both gold and faith are assets, so to speak, for they provide their owners with gain beyond the initial cost, but there’s a difference in value. While gold yields monetary returns, genuine faith leads to rewards that cannot be destroyed. As James stated, “Blessed is the man who has remained steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). Undoubtedly, the crown of life is worth more than billions of dollars!

Furthermore, the level of satisfaction gold brings cannot rival that of genuine faith. Gold and other forms of material possessions may offer some form of comfort and happiness, but they are temporary. In fact, the more wealth we have, the more we must spend to protect and maintain it (Ecclesiastes 5:10–11). Genuine faith, on the other hand, leads to a new life, perfect righteousness, reconciliation with God, indwelling of the Spirit, and godly fruit. Anything that connects us to the Source of Life is infinitely better than perishable wealth. Indeed, a relationship with God enables us to steward any level of wealth without becoming enslaved to it.

Speaking of “new life,” the transformed lifestyle that comes from genuine faith cannot be acquired with gold or any form of treasure. Faith produces virtues like love, forgiveness, self-control, and even selflessness, all of which are intangible qualities without a price tag. All the gold in all the world cannot buy love or produce good character.

To conclude, there is a similarity between gold and genuine faith. For gold to become pure, it is heated to remove the impurities. Similarly, our faith is shown to be genuine when we go through the “fire” of trials. The apostle Paul agrees, “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4). Suffering is hard, but it is also a comfort to know our suffering is not in vain. Rather, in suffering God continues to sanctify us, so our faith will become like purified gold.

The term living stones in 1 Peter 2:5 is used as a metaphor to illustrate the secure and intimate relationship believers have with Jesus, who is described in the previous verse as the “living Stone” (1 Peter 2:4). Together, these two verses picture how Christ and His followers are joined by God Himself: “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4–5).

The foundation of God’s building is His Son, Jesus Christ, the “living Stone.” The “living stones,” in turn, are believers who come to Jesus and place their lives upon this foundation. The living Stone is “precious” to those who believe (1 Peter 2:7), but some men reject the living Stone in order to build their lives their own way, not God’s way (see Psalm 118:22 and Luke 6:46–49). Unbelievers cast this living Stone aside, not caring that Jesus is the only true foundation upon which they can build securely (1 Corinthians 3:11).

In a metaphor much like that of the living Stone, Jesus is described as the chief cornerstone in Ephesians 2:19–22. Peter references Jesus as the cornerstone in Acts 4:11–12, stating that “salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” God accepts no one who refuses to become a part of His building. And God is just like all builders—He has a foundation upon which all workers must build (Matthew 7:24–27).

Believers, then, are the “living stones” of the church that Jesus promised to build (Matthew 16:18). As living stones, we have new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). As integral parts of the building of God, we have security in Christ (John 6:37). As the Master Builder, God places His living stones just where He wants us to be (1 Corinthians 12:18). As living stones, we are connected to one another in the body of Christ (Romans 12:5). Our Lord, the foundation Stone, is alive forevermore and will never crumble. He will support us eternally.

Peter goes on to describe the function of the living stones: to “declare the praises” of Him who called us out of the darkness of sin into the light of life and glory (1 Peter 2:9). This is the “job description” of a living stone: a speaker of praise, a declarer of truth and love and light. The spiritual house God is building is designed for His glory, and we, the living stones, glorify the Lord in all we do (1 Corinthians 10:31).


The story of Peter’s threefold denial of Christ is found in all four Gospel accounts:

 Matthew 26:69–74, Mark 14:66–72, Luke 22:55–62, and John 18:15–18, 25–27. But why would the chief of the disciples deny even knowing Him?

There were two main reasons why Peter denied Jesus:

weakness and fear.

Peter’s denial was based partially on weakness, the

weakness born of human frailty.

After the Last Supper,


Jesus took His disciples to the

 Garden of Gethsemane

to await His arrest.

He told them to stay awake and pray while He went off to pray alone.

When He returned to them, He found them sleeping. He warned
Peter to stay awake and pray because, although his spirit might be willing,
his flesh was weak. But he fell asleep again,

​and, by the time the soldiers had come to arrest Jesus, it was too late to pray for the

strength to endure the ordeal to come.

No doubt his failure to appropriate

the only means to shore up his own weakness—prayer--

occurred to him as he was weeping bitterly after his denials.

But Peter learned his lesson about being watchful, and he exhorts us in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be on the alert, because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Peter’s weakness had caused him to be “devoured” momentarily as he denied his Lord because he hadn’t been prepared through prayer and he underestimated his own weakness.

A second reason for

Peter’s failure

was fear.

To his credit, although all the others had fled (Mark 14:50),

Peter still followed Jesus after

His arrest,

but he kept his distance

so as not

to be identified with Him

(Mark 14:54).


There’s no question that fear gripped him.


From the courtyard,

he

watched Jesus being


falsely

accused, beaten, and insulted


(Mark 14:57–66).

Peter was afraid Jesus would die, and he was fearful for his own life as well. The world hated Jesus, and Peter found that he was not prepared to face the ridicule and persecution that Jesus was suffering. Earlier, Jesus had warned His disciples as well as us today, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18; cf. Matthew 24:9). Peter quickly found he wasn’t nearly as bold and courageous as he had proclaimed, and in fear he denied the One who had loved him.

We might well wonder why Jesus allowed Peter to fail so miserably and deny his Lord three times that night. Jesus revealed to Peter that Satan had asked for permission to sift Peter like wheat (Luke 22:31). Jesus could have easily protected Peter and not allowed Satan to sift him, but Jesus had a higher goal. He was equipping Peter to strengthen his brothers (Luke 22:32). Not only did Peter strengthen the other disciples, but he became the pillar of the early church in Jerusalem, exhorting and training others to follow the Lord Jesus (Acts 2). And he continues to this day to strengthen us through his epistles, 1 and 2 Peter. As with all our failures, God used Peter’s many failures, including his three denials of Christ, to turn him from Simon, a common man with a common name, into Peter, the Rock.


The Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths and Sukkot, is the seventh and last feast that the Lord commanded Israel to observe and one of the three feasts that Jews were to observe each year by going to “appear before the Lord your God in the place which He shall choose” (Deuteronomy 16:16). The importance of the Feast of Tabernacles can be seen in how many places it is mentioned in Scripture. In the Bible we see many important events that took place at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. For one thing, it was at this time that Solomon’s Temple was dedicated to the Lord (1 Kings 8:2).

It was at the Feast of Tabernacles that the Israelites, who had returned to rebuild the temple, gathered to celebrate under the leadership of Joshua and Zerubbabel (Ezra 3). Later, the Jews heard Ezra read the Word of God to them during the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8). Ezra’s preaching resulted in a great revival as the Israelites confessed and repented of their sins. It was also during this Feast that Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–39).



The Feast of Tabernacles

takes place on the 15th of the Hebrew month Tishri.

This was the seventh month

on the Hebrew calendar and usually occurs in

late September to mid-October.


The feast begins five days after the

Day of Atonement

and at the time the

fall harvest

had just been completed.

It was a time of joyous celebration as the Israelites celebrated God’s continued provision for them in the current harvest and remembered His provision and protection during the 40 years in the wilderness.

As one of the three feasts that all “native born” male Jews were commanded to participate in, the Feast of Tabernacles is mentioned multiple times in Scripture, sometimes called the Feast of the Ingathering, the Feast to the Lord, or the Feast of Booths (Exodus 23:16; Deuteronomy 16:13). As one of the pilgrim feasts (when Jewish males were commanded to go to Jerusalem), it was also the time when they brought their tithes and offerings to the Temple (Deuteronomy 16:16). With the influx of people coming to Jerusalem at that time, we can only imagine what the scene must have been like. Thousands upon thousands of people coming together to remember and celebrate God’s deliverance and His provision, all living in temporary shelters or booths as part of the requirements of the feast. During the eight-day period, so many sacrifices were made that it required all twenty-four divisions of priests to be present to assist in the sacrificial duties.

We find God’s instructions for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23, given at a point in history right after God had delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt. The feast was to be celebrated each year on “the fifteenth day of this seventh month” and was to run for seven days (Leviticus 23:34). Like all feasts, it begins with a “holy convocation” or Sabbath day when the Israelites were to stop working to set aside the day for worshiping God. On each day of the feast they were to offer an “offering made by fire to the Lord” and then after seven days of feasting, again the eighth day was to be “a holy convocation” when they were to cease from work and offer another sacrifice to God (Leviticus 23). Lasting eight days, the Feast of Tabernacles begins and ends with a Sabbath day of rest. During the eight days of the feast, the Israelites would dwell in booths or tabernacles that were made from the branches of trees (Leviticus 23:40–42).


The Feast of Tabernacles,

like all the feasts, was instituted by God as a way of reminding Israelites in every generation of their deliverance by God from Egypt. Of course, the feasts are also significant in that

they foreshadow

the work and actions of the

coming Messiah

Much of Jesus’ public ministry took place

in conjunction with the

Holy Feasts set forth by God.

The three pilgrim feasts where all Jewish males were commanded to “appear before the Lord in the place he chooses” are each very important in regards to the life of Christ and His work of redemption. We know with certainty that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are symbolic of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. Likewise, we know that Pentecost, which marked the beginning of the Feast of Weeks, was the time of Jesus’ bodily ascension. And most scholars would agree that the


Feast of Tabernacles is symbolic of

Christ’s Second Coming 

when He will establish

His earthly kingdom.


There are also some who believe that it was likely

during the

Feast of Tabernacles

that Jesus was

born.

While we celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25, most scholars acknowledge that this tradition was begun in the fourth century AD by the Roman Catholic Church and that the exact day of Jesus’ birth is unknown. Some of the evidence that Jesus might have been born earlier in the year during the Feast of the Tabernacles includes the fact that it would be unlikely for shepherds to still be in the field with their sheep in December, which is in the middle of the winter, but it would have been likely they were in the fields tending sheep at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. The strong possibility that Jesus was born at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles is also seen in the words John wrote in John 1:14. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The word John chose to speak of Jesus “dwelling” among us is the word tabernacle, which simply means to “dwell in a tent.”

Some believe it is very likely that John intentionally used this word to associate the

first coming of Christ

with the

Feast of Tabernacles.

Christ came in the flesh to dwell among us for a temporary time when He was born in the manger, and He is coming again to dwell among us as Lord of Lords. While it cannot be established with certainty that Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles, some believe there is a strong possibility the Feast of Tabernacles not only looks forward to His second coming but also reflects back on His first coming.

The Feast of Tabernacles begins and ends with a special Sabbath day of rest. During the days of the feast all native Israelites were “to dwell in booths” to remind them that God delivered them out of the “land of Egypt” and to look forward to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, who would deliver His people from the bondage of sin. This feast, like all of the feasts of Israel, consistently reminded the Jews and should remind Christians as well that God has promised to deliver His people from the bondage of sin and deliver them from their enemies. Part of God’s deliverance for the Israelites was His provision and protection of them for the 40 years they wandered in the wilderness, cut off from the Promised Land. The same holds true for Christians today. God protects us and provides for us as we go through life in the wilderness of this world. While our hearts long for the Promised Land (heaven) and to be in the presence of God, He preserves us in this world as we await the world to come and the redemption that will come when Jesus Christ returns again to “tabernacle” or dwell among us in bodily form.

Jesus’ declaration that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, not to abolish them, obviously contains two statements in one. There is something Jesus did and something He did not do. At the same time, Jesus emphasized the eternal nature of the Word of God.

Jesus goes out of His way to promote the authority of the Law of God. He did not come to abolish the Law, regardless of what the Pharisees accused Him of. In fact, Jesus continues His statement with a commendation for those who teach the Law accurately and hold it in reverence: “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

Note the qualities that Jesus attributes to the Word of God, referenced as “the Law and the Prophets”: 1) The Word is everlasting; it will outlast the natural world. 2) The Word was written with intent; it was meant to be fulfilled. 3) The Word possesses plenary authority; even the smallest letter of it is established. 4) The Word is faithful and trustworthy; “everything” it says will be accomplished. No one hearing Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount could doubt His commitment to the Scriptures.

Consider what Jesus did not do in His ministry. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says that He did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. In other words, Jesus’ purpose was not to abrogate the Word, dissolve it, or render it invalid.

The Prophets

will be fulfilled; the Law will

continue to accomplish

the purpose

for which it was given

(see Isaiah 55:10–11).

Next, consider what Jesus did do. Jesus says that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. In other words, Jesus’ purpose was to establish the Word, to embody it, and to fully accomplish all that was written.

“Christ is the culmination of the law”

(Romans 10:4).

The predictions of the Prophets concerning the

Messiah

would
be realized in Jesus; the holy standard of the Law
would be perfectly upheld by Christ,
the strict requirements personally obeyed, and the ceremonial
observances finally and fully satisfied.

Jesus Christ fulfilled the Prophets in that, in His first coming alone,
He fulfilled hundreds of prophecies concerning Himself

(e.g., Matthew 1:22; 13:35; John 19:36; Luke 24:44).

Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law in at least two ways: as a teacher and as a doer.


Jesus came not to destroy the

Law and the Prophets but

to fulfill them.

In fact, the ceremonies, sacrifices, and other elements of the Old Covenant were

“only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves”

(Hebrews 10:1).

The tabernacle and temple were “holy places made with hands,”

but they were never meant

to be permanent; they were but “copies of the true things”

(Hebrews 9:24, ESV).

The Law had a built-in expiration date, being

filled as it was with

“external regulations applying

until the

time of the new order”

(Hebrews 9:10).


In His fulfillment of the Law and Prophets, Jesus obtained our eternal salvation.

No more were priests required to offer sacrifices and enter the holy place (Hebrews 10:8–14).

Jesus has done that for us, once and for all.

By grace through faith, we are made right with God: “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14).

There are some who argue that, since Jesus did not “abolish” the Law, then the Law is still in effect—and still binding on New Testament Christians. But Paul is clear that the believer in Christ is no longer under the Law: “We were held in custody under the Law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the Law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian” (Galatians 3:23–25, BSB). We are not under the Mosaic Law but under “the law of Christ” (see Galatians 6:2).

If the Law is still binding on us today, then it has not yet accomplished its purpose—it has not yet been fulfilled. If the Law, as a legal system, is still binding on us today, then Jesus was wrong in claiming to fulfill it and His sacrifice on the cross was insufficient to save. Thank God, Jesus fulfilled the whole Law and now grants us His righteousness as a free gift.


“Know that a person is not justified

by the

works of the law,

but by

faith in Jesus Christ.


So we, too, have put our

faith in Christ Jesus

that we may be justified by

faith in Christ

and not by the works of the law,

because by the works of the law

no one will be justified”

(Galatians 2:16).


During the Last Supper

when

Jesus and His disciples

were eating a Passover meal 

together the night

of

His betrayal,

Jesus took bread and said,

“This is my body, broken for you.”

The statement is recorded four times in

the New Testament:

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread,

and when he had given thanks,

he broke it

and gave it to his disciples, saying,


‘Take and eat; this is my body.’

Then he took a cup,

and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying,

‘Drink from it, all of you.

This is my blood of the covenant,

which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’”

(Matthew 26:26–28).

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, ‘Take it; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,’ he said to them” (Mark 14:22–24).

“And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’” (Luke 22:19–20).

“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me’” (1 Corinthians 11:24–26).


When He called the bread His body, Jesus was physically present with His disciples, His body unbroken. How could He have been offering His broken body to His disciples the night before He died? Jesus often spoke in metaphors, calling Himself the door, the shepherd, the vine, etc. He was speaking metaphorically on this occasion, as well.

Jesus took two of those elements and infused them with a new symbolic meaning as He was the fulfillment of everything that Passover stood for. From then on, whenever Jewish believers observed a Passover meal, they would think of the new meaning that Jesus had given to the bread and the final cup. And Gentile believers, who had never been partakers of a Passover meal, would observe the “Lord’s Supper” as part of a “love feast” that the whole church ate together (1 Corinthians 11). Later, the Lord’s Supper (also called communion or the Eucharist) became a separate ceremony all by itself.

Further evidence that Jesus was speaking symbolically is found in John, the only gospel that does not record Jesus’ statement This is my body. In John 6:53–58, Jesus says to a multitude, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

 Earlier, in verses 32–35, Jesus had called Himself bread,

comparing Himself with the manna in the wilderness:

“‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven,

but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from

heaven and gives life to the world.’ ‘Sir,’ they said, ‘

always give us this bread.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never

go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”


As if to clear up any misunderstanding,


Jesus then distinguishes the

physical from the spiritual:


“It is the Spirit who gives life;

the flesh is no help at all.


The words that I have spoken to you

are spirit and life”


(John 6:63, ESV).


When Jesus spoke of His “broken” body at the Last Supper, He was referring to His sacrifice on the cross. His body was broken, and His blood was shed. According to John 6:35, one can “eat” Jesus’ broken body by “coming” to Him and “drink” His blood by believing in Him. Jesus also emphasizes faith (which the eating only symbolizes) in verses 36, 40, and 47.

Again, the whole context of the Last Supper is symbolic. We do not partake of Jesus by physically eating His body. “The flesh counts for nothing” (John 6:63). Rather, we partake of Jesus by coming to Him in faith, trusting that His broken body (and shed blood) is sufficient to pay for our sins. The elements of bread and wine commemorate His broken body and shed blood, and when we eat them, we affirm our faith and fellowship in Christ.

The concept of “binding and loosing” is taught in the Bible in Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” In this verse, Jesus is speaking directly to the apostle Peter and indirectly to the other apostles. Jesus’ words meant that Peter would have the right to enter the kingdom himself, that he would have general authority symbolized by the possession of the keys, and that preaching the gospel would be the means of opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers and shutting it against unbelievers. The book of Acts shows us this process at work. By his sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-40), Peter opened the door of the kingdom for the first time. The expressions “bind” and “loose” were common to Jewish legal phraseology meaning to declare something forbidden or to declare it allowed.

Peter and the other disciples were to continue Christ’s work on earth in preaching the gospel and declaring God’s will to men and they were armed with the same authority as He possessed. In Matthew 18:18, there is also a reference to the binding and loosing in the context of church discipline. The apostles do not usurp Christ’s lordship and authority over individual believers and their eternal destiny, but they do exercise the authority to discipline and, if necessary, excommunicate disobedient church members.

It’s not that the apostles were given the privilege of changing God’s mind, as if whatever they decided on earth would be duplicated in heaven; rather, they were encouraged that, as they moved forward in their apostolic duties, they would be fulfilling God’s plan in heaven. When the apostles “bound” something, or forbade it on earth, they were carrying out the will of God in the matter. When they “loosed” something, or allowed it on earth, they were likewise fulfilling God’s eternal plan. In both Matthew 16:19 and 18:18, the syntax of the Greek text makes the meaning clear: “Whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever thou mayest loose upon the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens” (Matthew 16:19, Young’s Literal Translation). Or, as the Amplified Bible puts it, “Whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth will have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth will have [already] been loosed in heaven.”



Jesus taught

that the


 apostles

had a


special task on earth.


Their words of authority,


as recorded in the


New Testament epistles,



reflect God’s will

for

the church


When Paul declared an anathema on those


who pervert


The Gospel,


then we know

that

anathema was already

declared in heaven

(see Galatians 1:8–9).
​

Jesus gave Peter a three-fold command to


“feed my sheep”


in John 21:15-17. Each time Jesus said,


“Feed my sheep,”

it was in response to

 Peter’s three-fold declaration of

love for Jesus.

The setting was one of the last of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances to

His disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus prepared a breakfast of

fish and bread

for them, and then commissioned


Peter with the task of

feeding (the word)

His sheep

and tending His lambs.


The three commands, although often translated the same way, are subtly different. The first time Jesus says it, the Greek means literally “pasture (tend) the lambs” (v. 15). The Greek word for “pasture” is in the present tense, denoting a continual action of tending, feeding and caring for animals. Believers are referred to as sheep throughout Scripture.

“For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care”

(Psalm 95:7).


Jesus is both our Good Shepherd

(John 10:11)

and the

Door of the sheepfold

(John 10:9).


By describing His people as lambs,

He is emphasizing their

nature as immature and vulnerable

and in need of tending and care.

The second time, the literal meaning is “tend My sheep” (v. 16). In this exchange, Jesus was emphasizing tending the sheep in a supervisory capacity, not only feeding but ruling over them. This expresses the full scope of pastoral oversight, both in Peter’s future and in all those who would follow him in pastoral ministry. Peter follows Jesus’ example and repeats this same Greek word poimaino in his first pastoral letter to the elders of the churches of Asia Minor: “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers” (1 Peter 5:2).

The third time, the literal translation is “pasture (tend) the sheep” (v. 17). Here Jesus combines the different Greek words to make clear the job of the shepherd of the flock of God. They are to tend, care for, and provide spiritual food for God’s people, from the youngest lambs to the full-grown sheep, in continual action to nourish and care for their souls, bringing them into the fullness of spiritual maturity. The totality of the task set before Peter, and all shepherds, is made clear by Jesus’ three-fold command and the words He chooses.

What is this food with which shepherds are to feed the flock of God? It can be no other than the Word of God. Peter declares that Christians are to desire the pure spiritual milk of the Word so that by it, we can mature in our salvation (1 Peter 2:2). As early as the book of Deuteronomy, we see the Lord describing His Word as food for His people who live not by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from His mouth (Deuteronomy 8:3). Jesus reiterates this thought in His temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:4). The importance of the Word of God as food for our souls cannot be over-emphasized.

Clearly, the job of the shepherds of God’s people is to provide them with the pure milk of the Word of God so they can move on to the meat and solid food of the spiritually mature (Hebrews 5:12-14). Pastoral ministry should be primarily one of pastors feeding their people the Word of God. Only then can pastors declare, as Peter did, their love for the Lord Jesus.


Jesus alerts us to “watch out for false prophets” in Matthew 7:15. He compares these false prophets to wolves in sheep’s clothing. Jesus also tells us how to identify these false prophets: we will recognize them by their fruit (Matthew 7:20).

Throughout the Bible, people are warned about false prophets (Ezekiel 13, Matthew 24:23–27, 2 Peter 3:3). False prophets claim to speak for God, but they speak falsehood. To gain a hearing, they come to people “in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matthew 7:15). No matter how innocent and harmless these teachers appear on the outside, they have the nature of wolves—they are intent on destroying faith, causing spiritual carnage in the church, and enriching themselves. They “secretly introduce destructive heresies,” “bring the way of truth into disrepute,” and “exploit you with fabricated stories” (2 Peter 2:1–3).

The false teachers don “sheep’s clothing” so they can mingle with the sheep without arousing suspicion. They usually are not up front about what they believe; rather, they mix in some truth with their falsehood and carefully choose their words to sound orthodox. In reality, they “follow their own ungodly desires” (Jude 1:17–18), and “they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed” (2 Peter 3:14).

By contrast, a true prophet teaches God’s Word fully (Deuteronomy 18:20). Wolves in sheep’s clothing twist God’s Word to deceive or influence the audience for their own purposes. Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), and his ministers masquerade as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:15).

The best way to guard against wolves in sheep’s clothing is to heed the warnings of Scripture and know the truth. A believer who “correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and carefully studies the Bible will be able to identify false prophets. Christians must judge all teaching against what Scripture says. Believers will also be able to identify false prophets by their fruit—their words, actions, and lifestyles. Jesus said, “A tree is recognized by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33; cf. Matthew 7:20). Peter described false teachers as having “depraved conduct” and who “carouse” as “slaves of depravity” (2 Peter 2:2, 13, 19). If a teacher in the church does not live according to God’s Word, he is one of those wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Here are three specific questions to identify false prophets, or wolves in sheep’s clothing:

1) What does the teacher say about Jesus? In John 10:30, Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The Jews understood Jesus’ statement as a claim to be God and wanted to stone him (John 10:33). Anyone who denies Jesus as Lord (1 John 4:1–3) is a false prophet.

2) Does the teacher preach the biblical gospel? Anyone who teaches an incomplete or unbiblical gospel is to be eternally condemned (Galatians 1:9). Any gospel apart from what the Bible tells us (1 Corinthians 15:1–4) is not the true good news.

3) Does this teacher exhibit godly character qualities? Jesus said to beware of teachers whose moral behavior does not match what the Bible says. He says we will know wolves in sheep’s clothing by their fruits (Matthew 7:15–20)

It doesn’t matter how large a church a preacher has, how many books he has sold, or how many people applaud him. If he “teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,” then he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing (1 Timothy 6:3).


In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), Jesus’ command to "follow me" appears repeatedly (e.g., Matthew 8:22; 9:9, Mark 2:14; Luke 5:27; John 1:43). In many cases, Jesus was calling the twelve men who would become His disciples (Matthew 10:3–4). But other times, He was speaking to anyone who wanted what He had to offer (John 3:16; Mark 8:34).

In Matthew 10:34–39, Jesus stated clearly what it means to follow Him. He said, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."

Jesus’ bringing a “sword” and turning family members against each other can seem a little harsh after words like "whosoever believes on Him shall not perish" (John 3:16). But Jesus never softened the truth, and the truth is that following Him leads to difficult choices. Sometimes turning back may seem very appealing. When Jesus’ teaching went from the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–11) to the coming cross, many who had followed him turned away (John 6:66). Even the disciples decided that following Jesus was too difficult the night He was arrested. Every one of them deserted Him (Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:50). On that night, following Christ meant possible arrest and execution. Rather than risk his own life, Peter denied that he even knew Jesus three times (Matthew 26:69–75).

To truly follow Christ means He has become everything to us. Everyone follows something: friends, popular culture, family, selfish desires, or God. We can only follow one thing at a time (Matthew 6:24). God states we are to have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7; Mark 12:30). To truly follow Christ means we do not follow anything else. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." There is no such thing as a "halfway disciple." As the disciples demonstrated, no one can follow Christ by the strength of his own willpower. The Pharisees were good examples of those who were trying to obey God in their own strength. Their self-effort led only to arrogance and distortion of the whole purpose of God’s Law (Luke 11:39; Matthew 23:24).

Jesus gave His disciples the secret to faithfully following Him, but they did not recognize it at the time. He said, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing" (John 6:63). And "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them” (verse 65). The disciples had walked with Jesus for three years, learning, observing, and participating in His miracles. Yet, even they could not follow Him faithfully in their own strength. They needed a Helper.

Jesus promised many times that,

once

He had

ascended to the Father,


He would send a "Helper"

to them--

the Holy Spirit

(John 14:26; 15:26).


In fact, He told them that it was

for their good

that

He was going away

so that the

Holy Spirit could come

(John 16:7).


Isaiah 40

But those who hope in the Lord will

renew their strength.

They will soar

on

wings like eagles;

they will run

and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.


The Holy Spirit

indwells the

heart

of every believer

 And be not conformed to

this world:

but be ye

transformed

by the

 renewing of your mind,

that ye may

prove what is that good,

and

acceptable, and perfect, will

(Galatians 2:20; Romans 8:16; Hebrews 13:5; Matthew 28:20).


In Genesis 2:18, we read of the one thing that was not declared “good” in all of God’s creation: “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone.’” The same verse includes God’s solution: “I will make him a helper fit for him.” Eve was the solution to Adam’s deficiency.

Two Hebrew terms in this verse provide important information to better understand the creation of Eve as the first woman. The word translated “helper” is the Hebrew term ‘ezer. This word is even used of God, sometimes, noting that He is our Helper (Psalm 115:9-11). We would certainly not view God, as a Helper, as subservient to humans, nor should we understand the role of “helper” in Genesis 2:18 as a position of subservience. The concept of an “ideal partner” seems to convey the thought best.

The second important Hebrew word in this verse, translated “fit” is kenegdow. It literally means “according to the opposite of him.” In other words, the focus is on an appropriate match. Eve was not created above or below Adam; she was complementary.

The animals Adam had

named each had

an

appropriate companion

(Genesis 2:20), and

Adam was given a fitting companion as well. Eve

was “just right” for him.

Further, God’s statement that it was not good for man to be alone
 implies that Adam was lonely and incomplete by himself.
He had been created for relationship,

and it is impossible to have relationship alone.
With the creation of Eve, Adam experienced the joy of love for another person.

The Bible is unique in its depiction of women’s
valued status as a complementary companion.

 “So God created man in his own image,

in the

image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.”

Jesus warned His followers that they were not to begin testifying of Him

"until you have been clothed with power from on high"

(Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4).


 the woman clothed with the sun, 

Greek: γυνὴ περιβεβλημένη τὸν ἥλιον; Latin: Mulier amicta sole)

is the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ


The woman gives birth to a male child who is
threatened by a dragon, identified as the Devil and Satan,

who intends to devour the child as soon as he is born.

When the child is taken to heaven, the woman flees on eagle’s wings into the wilderness at a "place prepared of God" for 1,260 days.

When the Holy Spirit came upon those first believers at Pentecost, they suddenly had all the power they needed to follow Christ, even to the death, if needed

(Acts 2:1–4; 4:31; 7:59-60).

Following Jesus means striving to be like Him. He always obeyed His Father,
so that’s what we strive to do (John 8:29; 15:10).


To

truly follow

Christ

means to make Him


The Boss


That’s what it means to make Jesus

Lord of our lives

(Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 2 Corinthians 4:5)


Every decision and dream is

filtered through


His Word

with the goal

of

glorifying Him

in everything

(1 Corinthians 10:31).

We are not saved by the things we do for Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9) but by what He has done for us. Because of His grace, we want to please Him in everything. All this is accomplished as we allow the Holy Spirit to have complete control of every area of our lives (Ephesians 5:18). He explains the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 2:14), empowers us with spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), comforts us (John 14:16), and guides us (John 14:26). To follow Christ means we apply the truths we learn from His Word and live as if Jesus walked beside us in person.



It goes without saying that the only things of eternal value in this world are those that are eternal. Life in this world is temporal, not eternal, and therefore, the only part of life that has eternal value is that which lasts through eternity. Clearly, the most important thing in this world that has true eternal value is having a relationship with Jesus Christ, as the free gift of eternal life comes only through Him to all those who believe (John 3:16). As Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Everyone is going to live somewhere for all of eternity, Christians and non-Christians alike. And the only eternal destiny other than the one in heaven with Christ is one that provides everlasting punishment for those who reject Him (Matthew 25:46).

Regarding the abundant material things this world offers, which many tenaciously seek after, Jesus taught us not to store up for ourselves earthly treasures that can be destroyed or stolen (Matthew 6:19–20). After all, we brought nothing into this world, and we can take nothing out of it. Yet our core Christian values often get overlooked in our diligent quest for success and material comfort, and in the midst of these earthly pursuits we often forget about God. Moses addressed this issue 3,500 years ago as his people were about to enter the Promised Land. He warned them not to forget about God, for he knew once they “built fine houses and settled down” their hearts would become proud and they would forget about Him (Deuteronomy 8:12–14). There is certainly no eternal value in living our lives for ourselves, looking to get out of life all that we can, as the world system would have us believe.

Yet there can be significant eternal value in what we do with our lives during the exceedingly short time we are here on earth. Although Scripture makes it clear that our earthly good works will not save us or keep us saved (Ephesians 2:8–9), it is equally clear that we will be eternally rewarded according to what we have done while here on earth. As Christ Himself said, “For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:27). Indeed, Christians are God’s workmanship, “created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10, emphasis added). These “good works” pertain to serving the Lord the best we can with what He has given us and with full dependence on Him.

The apostle Paul discusses the quality of the works that can bring eternal rewards. Equating Christians to “builders” and the quality of our works with the building materials, Paul informs us that the good materials that survive God’s testing fire and have eternal value are “gold, silver, and costly stones,” whereas using the inferior materials of “wood, hay and straw” to build upon the foundation that is Christ have no eternal value and will not be rewarded (1 Corinthians 3:11–13). Essentially, Paul is telling us that not all of our conduct and works will merit rewards.

There are many ways our service to the Lord will bring us rewards. First, we need to recognize that every true believer has been set apart by God and for God. When we received God’s gift of salvation, we were given certain spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11). And if we think our gifts are insignificant, we need to remember that, as Paul told the church in Corinth, the body of Christ is made up of many parts. And “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be . . . and those parts of the body that seem weaker are indispensable” (1 Corinthians 12:14, 18, 22 emphasis added). If you are exercising your spiritual gifts, you are playing a significant role in the body of Christ and doing that which has eternal value.

Every member of Christ’s body can make meaningful contributions when we humbly seek to edify the body and to glorify God. Indeed, every little thing can add to the beautiful mosaic of what God can do when we each do our part. Remember, on earth Christ has no body but ours, no hands but ours, and no feet but ours. Spiritual gifts are God’s way of administering His grace to others. When we show our love for God by obeying His commandments, when we persevere in the faith despite all opposition and persecution, when in His name we show mercy to the poor and sick and less fortunate, and when we help alleviate the pain and suffering that is all around us, then we are indeed building with the “gold, silver, and costly stones” that have true eternal value.

When someone says, “Jesus is my true north,” he or she is honoring Jesus as the constant in an ever-changing world and the true guide amid shifting morals and fluctuating ideals.

The expression true north is based on a fact that navigators and surveyors must deal with every day: a magnetic compass is not a terribly reliable instrument. A magnetic compass points toward the magnetic north pole, which is not the same as true north, or the geographic (or geodetic) north pole. The difference between magnetic north and true north is currently a matter of several hundred miles—but it changes, due to the fact that the magnetic north pole drifts several miles a year.

The earth produces a magnetic field. The places where the lines of magnetic induction converge are called the magnetic poles. The location of the magnetic north pole changes over time. In contrast, true north is a fixed spot on the globe: the true north pole is found at the conjunction of the lines of longitude, the point at which the earth’s axis exits the globe. Magnetic north varies position from year to year; true north is unchanging.

Because the needle of a magnetic compass points toward the magnetic north pole, not the geographic north pole, it is not entirely accurate. It may give a general idea of where north is, especially in the middle latitudes, but it can be wildly unreliable in the regions closer to the poles, varying by 20 to 60 degrees. The difference between magnetic north and true north is called declination, and it varies according to where one is located on the globe. To compensate for declination and find true north, we must perform some mathematical calculations using an up-to-date chart or calibrate our compasses.

Adding to the confusion is magnetic deviation, caused when nearby metallic objects or electrical equipment influence the compass needle. Deviation is especially a problem inside ships and airplanes and in areas containing a lot of metal ore. Like declination, deviation must be overcome, usually by means of auxiliary magnets, in order to find true north.

When we say that Jesus is our true north, we mean that He is the constant, unchanging source of truth and life. He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The philosophies, theories, concepts, and schemes of mankind are constantly shifting. “But the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:15; cf. Isaiah 40:8).

When we say that Jesus is our true north, we acknowledge that we live in danger of being “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14). In such a tempestuous world, we need to plot our course by the coordinates provided by the Lord Himself. We can avoid making shipwreck of our lives by “fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2).

When we say that Jesus is our true north, we glorify the Lord who defines justice and righteousness. Moral standards that align with His nature will keep us on the correct course, just as a compass that aligns with true north keeps us moving in the right direction. “As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 18:30).

When we follow Jesus as our true north, we must disregard the many distractions and influences in the world that would alter our course. Just as the readings of a compass may be corrupted due to nearby objects, so we are prone to be swayed by various attractions in the world. We must constantly calibrate ourselves to the example of our Risen Savior. Our spiritual needles must point to objective truth and not turn after subjective opinions, vacillating values, or erratic rules. We must be like the man who built his house on the rock, not the sand (Matthew 7:24–27).


True north

is a precise direction,

and, no matter where you start on the globe, true north will lead you to the same location. There is nothing erratic or misleading about true north. It transcends geography, locality, and lesser pulls. For those who are lost, true north is a welcome blessing.

And Jesus Christ

is an even greater blessing

to those

who are spiritually lost.




“True North,”

a song by Twila Paris,

sums up our need

for

 Jesus as our guide:


“We lost our bearings,
Following our own mind
We left conviction behind . . .
How did we ever wander so far
And where do we go from here?
How will we know where it is?

“True North
There’s a strong steady light
That is guiding us home . . .

“We need an absolute
Compass now more
Than ever before.”



Through her assumption into heaven, Mary enjoys now what all disciples hope for—the resurrection of the body, life eternal in the presence of God.
It may seem like just a single moment in your life, but right now, every moment, a river is coursing. We can usually only see it in retrospect. We realize that as we were making a certain decision, this factor from the past was pushing us one way, another factor was shading our thinking in another way, hopes for a particular future were inspiring us, and in the midst of it all, coincidence, happenstance, and any number of other factors were also at work. All kinds of things are going on, including, perhaps, a plan, greater and deeper than we could have realized then or even grasp now.
This dynamic between our ways and God’s, the accidental and the purposeful, the hope that glimmers through questions, uncertainty, and even darkness is the complicated, enticing mystery at the heart of the life God has given us. And given to Mary, because she is one of us.


The Woman in the Book of Revelation
Revelation is a strange, mysterious book, read in various ways throughout history and put to various theological uses. Exploding with symbolism, it is not a book for casual reading.
The form of the book is “apocalyptic,” a term derived from a Greek word meaning “unveiling.” Apocalyptic literature is marked by a sense that great events playing out in heaven are reflected in earthly events, and those earthly events usually involve suffering, but ultimately hope, for believers.
You can find examples of apocalyptic literature in the Old Testament, such as the book of Daniel, as well as in works that were circulating in the centuries before Jesus’ life and ministry. These writings emerged as the Jewish people experienced suffering and oppression at the hands of greater powers, from the Babylonians to the Greeks and finally, the Romans.
The book of Revelation in the New Testament echoes the themes of celestial warfare, suffering, and hope we find in Jewish apocalyptic writings. Scholars are divided as to the time of its composition. It is most commonly dated to the end of the first century during the reign of the Emperor Domitian (A.D. 81–96), but various ancient sources and a growing body of scholarly opinion today date it during the reign of Nero (A.D. 54–68). One of the reasons for a reconsideration of the dating is that Domitian did not actually systematically persecute Christians, while Nero did, and suffering under intense persecution is the constant background for the book of Revelation.
The author of Revelation identifies himself from the very beginning and repeatedly throughout as “John.” Again, the identity of this John is disputed and has been for centuries. Is he the apostle John, the evangelist John (presuming they are not the same person), or another “John of Patmos” who is neither of these?
No one really knows. What we do know is that the author of this book was deeply committed to Christ and was a leader of the Christian community with enough authority to be able to write this book as a letter to the “seven churches” of Asia Minor, which he seems to have overseen.
The content of the book of Revelation is too complex to summarize here, but we have to say something in order to set the passage that refers to Mary in context. What precedes these verses are eleven chapters in which we see heaven, the Lamb enthroned, and a scroll with seven seals, each of which are opened with great and difficult consequences for life on earth. And then, in chapter 12, we meet a woman:
A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne; and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, so that there she can be nourished for one thousand two hundred sixty days. . . .
[A battle ensues between Michael and the dragon. The dragon is defeated and thrown to earth.]
So when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. Then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
Then the dragon took his stand on the sand of the seashore. (Revelation 12:1-6, 13-18)
The one temptation we must avoid in interpreting any passage from Revelation, including this one, is to approach it linearly, with a single dimension of symbolism, thinking, “Well, this means that, and nothing else, and leads to the next set of events.”
Revelation isn’t like that. There are layers of symbolism here, and the writing has what someone has called a “plasticity.” Like life, each detail carries a number of meanings—any number of meanings.
The woman’s appearance in the midst of earth’s turmoil tells us she is associated with Israel and the cosmos God has made. She is clothed with the sun, as God is described in Psalm 104:2 as “wrapped in light.” Her crown of twelve stars reminds us of the twelve tribes of Israel, as well as Joseph’s dream of the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowing down to him (see Genesis 37:9).
The woman’s cries are not just cries of physical pain, they are the “cries” to God that Israel has uttered for generations (Psalm 22:5), yearning for God’s saving presence. The male child who will rule calls to mind the expectations voiced by the prophets, the eagle calls to mind the protection of God, described as “eagles’ wings” (Isaiah 40:31), and the desert calls to mind the role that the desert has played in Israel’s history as a place of refuge and stability.
Of course, the dragon’s pursuit of the woman cannot help but remind us of Eve: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
Finally, who could contemplate this vision of an evil entity pursuing a mother and her child—who is “snatched up” and taken to God’s throne—and then pursuing the woman’s “children,” and not think of Mary, her son, and the Church?
The Assumption of Mary
The assumption of Mary is simply the teaching that Mary has been “assumed” or “taken” into heaven, body and soul. She enjoys now what all disciples hope for—the resurrection of the body, life eternal in the presence of God.
Although the assumption was not formally defined as Catholic doctrine until 1950 by Pope Pius XII, it was widely believed since ancient times. We find the original articulation of this belief in the Eastern Church. This isn’t surprising because the East is where Christianity began and, for the first few centuries, where most theological conversations were taking place. In addition, from early on, Eastern Christians nurtured a strong devotion to Mary, in which her status in heaven reflects the Eastern understanding of salvation as a sharing in the life of God. The Eastern celebration of this event is called the “Dormition” or “falling asleep.” Eastern Christians believe that Mary did die and that Jesus took her body to heaven, leaving an empty tomb.
Western thinking about the assumption developed and flowered over the course of centuries. The feast was celebrated in Rome by the early eighth century. The formal definition of the ancient belief was articulated by Pius XII:
“The Immaculate Virgin . . . when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.” What is left open in this definition is the question of whether Mary actually experienced death. Theologians debated that question, and still do, since death is one of the curses humanity experiences as the result of the fall. Theologians consider whether Mary, freed from original sin, would have experienced the consequence of death. Pope John Paul II, however, articulates the predominant view when he says, “To share in Christ’s Resurrection, Mary had first to share in his death.” In the end, what the assumption means is that Christ’s victory over death can be seen in Mary. What she enjoys now, in the presence of the Lord, awaits us as well.
So the woman of Revelation 12 is really all of these: she is Israel, Eve, the Church, and Mary. Catholic interpretation of this passage has reflected this depth for hundreds of years, as theologians and spiritual writers have interpreted it in light of the understanding, so clear in Jesus’ words to Mary and the beloved disciple at the cross, that Mary and the Church are intimately identified with each other. In birthing the body of Christ, Mary births the Church, a church that she watches in its suffering and with which she suffers.
The image of Mary as a woman “clothed in the sun” certainly has power and has a place in Christian iconography. It is also important in Catholic and Orthodox understandings of Mary’s place in heaven. But the image is also so complex that it serves to enrich our understanding even beyond this identification to help us see God’s gift of Mary as the Mother of the Church—as our mother.
As we’ve seen throughout this book, Mary is a powerful presence in our lives as individuals and as a Christian community because in her we see the promise God holds out to all of us. We see that our yes—our fiat—matters. God moves and redeems in the midst of the most fundamental human mysteries of pregnancy and childbirth, using creation to re-create, to save.
In our presence to one another, we bear and welcome Christ. Our love of God and neighbor is part of the cosmic course of history. In welcoming the light of Christ, in celebrating his justice and passionate love, we are part of something astonishing and miraculous because it is God’s work in the world, through us. The heart of discipleship is seeking Christ and, once we find him, listening and following his word. Suffering happens, and in the suffering of every person is Christ, to whom we are called to be quietly, lovingly present.
This is Mary’s life. It is our life as well, lived, not alone, but under the care of a most loving mother, the gift of a most loving and understanding God.



https://youtu.be/sPrT6QwrIPQ?si=PnN4gfoVgdlj9O2f