Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

THOUGHTS ON MATTHEW XXIV.

FROM all that has been said in the preceding chapters, it is obvious that the great leading events of "the end of this age" (Matt.xiii. 40.) have been revealed very plainly in the Old Testament prophets. They have spoken of the final visitation on Jerusalem-of the destruction of the Gentile power now paramount in the earth-of the manifestation of the Messiah of Israel in glory—and of the forgiveness and restitution of Jerusalem. Consequently, these events must have been familiar to the expectations of all who knew what God had spoken through the prophets of Israel.

When, therefore, the disciples of the Lord Jesus stood around Him, as He was quitting for the last time the gates of Jerusalem, and heard Him speak of the desolation that was about to come upon that city and its temple, it was most natural that their thoughts should instantly revert to the testimonies of the prophets respecting the closing events of the age-that they should think of what Daniel and Zechariah had written respecting the "last end of the indignation," and imagine that the Lord was speaking respecting that same final hour of visitation. How could they have thought otherwise, with the knowledge they then possessed? Hence, as soon as He had spoken of the desolation of the temple, they instantly said, " Master, when shall these things be ?"—that is, when shall this destruction of which thou hast spoken fall upon this

temple ?-and, "what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age ?"

They instantly connected (and herein lay their error) the destruction of the temple with the end of the age, and with the manifestation of the Lord in glory. They imagined that when his prediction respecting the overthrow of the temple should be accomplished, He would appear in his glory and terminate the indignation against Jerusalem, by the destruction both of its Gentile oppressors and of his own adversaries in Israel. It was this error that the Lord Jesus in the succeeding prophecy sought to correct. He had no desire to lessen in their souls their apprehension of those great events which are yet to occur at the end of the age. He did not wish that they should forget one word which the prophets had spoken respecting that allimportant crisis in the history of Israel and of men; but He did desire to correct their mistake as to the time of his appearing, and to enlarge their knowledge respecting the circumstances that were first to come to pass.

The history of the present dispensation-the dispensation in which we live-was that of which the disciples were chiefly ignorant. They imagined that the time of suffering and reproach for the servants of God was nearly concluded, and that the kingdom of God was about immediately to APPEAR. They were uninstructed in the history of Christianity through the long eighteen hundred years which have since witnessed its rise and its corruption. The long absence of their Master from the earth-the character of the service in which they were about to be employed, in gathering together the Church of God-and all the attendant sorrows, were as yet unknown to them. Of the corruptions of professing Christianity, and how it would combine both with Judaism and national Gentilism in giving birth to the antichristian abominations of the latter day-of all this they knew nothing. They

thought that the evil generation then around them was almost immediately to pass away from before the presence of their Master, manifested as the King of Israel in his glory, and that it was to be succeeded by that new generation who should "know the Lord," whom men should call "priests of the Lord, and ministers of their God."

Accordingly, the first object of the Lord Jesus in this prophecy was to instruct them as to the character of the period in which they themselves were about to serve and to suffer. He knew that wars were about to come upon the land of Israel, to result in a more entire desolation of Jerusalem than any that yet had been. He knew that the sorrows thus about to come would in many respects resemble those more terrible calamities which are to conclude the age, and that his disciples, if not forewarned, would be likely to regard these early sorrows (especially when Satan had raised up false Christs around them) as signs of the near approach of the end. Against this He guards them. He tells them to beware of considering these things as signs of the end: "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you; for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And shall hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass. BUT THE END IS NOT YET."

ye

It would indeed have been joy to the disciples, if these events had ushered in the end. They would have rested from their labours, and received their crown of life, and been numbered among those "saints of the high places," to whom, it had been said in Daniel, "the kingdom, and dominion, and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, should be given." "Creation would have been freed from the bondage of corruption, and all the trees of the wood have clapped their hands."

"Nation would have ceased to rise up

against nation, neither would they have learned war any more." "The Lord would have opened his hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing." "Truth would have sprung out of the earth, and righteousness have looked down from heaven."

But how different was the scene about to be opened. Christianity, first to appear in Jerusalem, and to be rejected-like another Naomi, driven from the land of its birth, was to go down and complete a sorrowful sojourn among the Gentiles, there to lose its manhood and its strength. The nations unreached by its gracious testimony were to continue fierce monsters, devouring one another. "Nation," said our Lord, "shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” The relation of God to the earth, instead of being one of millennial peace, was to be a relation of judgment. He would be obliged, because of iniquity, to send the earthquake, the pestilence, and the famine. "There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." The relation of the nations to the Church was to be one of fierce and destructive persecution. "They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all the Gentiles (Twv evv) for my name's sake." And in the midst of these trials the energy of the Church itself would decay; evil would arise in its own bosom, and because iniquity should abound, the love of the greater part, (Tv Tolwv) even of real saints, would wax cold; and it would be found a hard thing to hold fast unto the end. "He that ENDURETH to the end, the same shall be saved."

Such is the picture drawn by our Lord himself of the dispensation in which we live. And how truly has it been verified! Yet this is the picture which we Gentile Christians have ventured to reverse. "Wise in our own conceits," we have not only borne false witness to Israel, and quenched the prophecies which speak of the judgments coming on them, and of the succeeding

glory, but we have perverted also the prophecies which speak of our own corruptions. We have said that there has been and shall be, both in the Churches and in the world, progress of light and increase of blessing, and neither the most obvious facts nor the plainest testimonies of Scripture have availed to awaken us from the delusive dream. We turn to the countries where St. Paul and the Apostles first spread the light of Christianity, and we behold black, settled darkness; we look upon the western nations of Europe, and we see worldliness-idolatry-infidelity; we look to the condition of real Christianity, we discern unsettlement-discord-love waxing cold; and yet many still persist in saying that progress is being madeprogress according to Christ and to God. But the Lord does not say so. He has said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man is revealed." (Matt. xxiv. 37.) "This know, that in the last days perilous times shall come." "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." (1 Tim. iii. 1, 13.) Such is the picture drawn by the Word of God, and verified by each day's experience. Nevertheless, in the midst of all this ruin," the Gospel shall be preached for a witness"-(observe the word, for a witness,) throughout all the world, (oisμevn,) and then shall the END come.

Here the first division of this prophecy concludes. The Lord had given a brief and rapid statement of the general character of events throughout the dispensation, up to the time of the END. It is usual in Scripture to give general descriptions first. They are given first, and extend over the whole of the period spoken of, and then the same or part of the same ground is traced again with more particularity of detail. Accordingly, the next division of this chapter, extending from the 15th to the 28th inclusive, is as specific as the former part had been general. It refers to a period yet future-the period termed in Daniel " the time of

« ElőzőTovább »