The Beginning of Sorrows
Matthew 24 records Jesus’ description of the end time following a request of his disciples to know what signs for which to look that would indicate the end was indeed upon them. The longing of the Jews has been the restoration of Israel as a mighty nation with Messiah ruling and reigning. That’s what these boys were expecting, but here comes this, well, let’s go with the flow and call him the “suffering Messiah.” This suffering Messiah dude was definitely not at all what they were expecting, but of course, after seeing the miracle of feeding five thousand men with five bread loaves and two fish and listening to him string the prophecies together, they believed him. In fact, they were ready to name him King of Israel they were so impressed. Until he said what he said, and bam! Just about all of them left. He told them they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
That did it for them, and look, it wasn’t as much about cannibalism as it was the fact that their religiously-confined minds could not, would not accept the blood drinking thing. Anything they ate had to be blood-free or prepared kosher, especially humans. Not really! Anyway, most of them didn’t get what he was saying, and so instead of hanging around to find out, they left. Jesus had a hard time keeping a congregation together—he just kept saying things that, to them, contradicted their “religious” doctrines.
Old Testament practice was a show or external demonstration of what would become the New Testament internal truth. Simply stated, it was forbidden under the Hebraic religious law (Law of Moses) to put blood, the covering for sin, on the inside, until Jesus came and now the blood comes in and washes all sin away for those who accept Jesus as their savior.
Sorry, I get carried away with this stuff. It’s so good, I can’t help it!
Matthew 24:4-8 records Jesus’ description of the beginning of sorrows—signs to expect just before the tribulation period. Here He says there will be deception, false christs, wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. This year, we are well-acquainted with earthquakes in various places. If, for some reason you’ve been asleep, take a look at the earthquake page in Prophecy Dude. That will wake you up. Although we see pestilences and famines now, I don’t believe we are seeing them quite as much as what we will when we fully enter this “beginning of sorrows” stage which preludes the official tribulation period. Look for those to increase for sure. When we talk about pestilences, let’s also include computer bugs. Computer bugs or viruses are putting people’s personal identification at risk. The answer to that (drum roll please) will eventually result in the Mark of the Beast, but building up to that will be a series of technological improvements such as national identification cards (read some of my archived blogs on biometric identification). All of this will require people yielding up certain freedoms and controls, but the virus attacks will be so great causing worry and anxiety, people will welcome the transition as it leads to peace for them. Oh, that is the other thing, it’s all about peace—everything is all supposed to be for peace. That will be the cry, “Peace on Earth, good will to Humankind.” I’m not talking about Christ’s birth either.
Out of this list of items that Jesus says to expect during the beginning of sorrows, the one to me that will have the most devastation will be deception. That is Satan’s number one and most powerful tool. Now, Jesus was talking to Jews and warning them about deception. The Antichrist is the master deceiver. He will deceive Israel right into a fantastic covenant, one in which I believe will deliver to them the ability to construct the third temple. But, the church will also experience a time of deception, and I believe, already is. I’ll talk about that next time. I’ve written too much this time for my little tapping fingers to handle.
PD