Watch Out And Take Heed.

WATCH OUT AND TAKE HEED.

Mark 13:9-23.

1. Testimony and Martyrdom.

Mark 13:9-13.

Jesus warned His disciples that they would face arrests, persecution, interrogation by the synagogue authorities, imprisonment, arraignment before kings and governors – and all because they bore His name. But it would turn out for them as an occasion for “testimony” (Mark 13:9). The Greek word for “testimony” speaks to us, in its extreme, of martyrdom. We should not chase after tribulation, but when it comes, we must embrace it, and recognize it as an opportunity for witness.

The gospel must be preached to all nations (Mark 13:10), but meantime the lot of the disciple is often suffering and rejection (Mark 13:9; Mark 13:13).

Mark 13:11 is not an excuse for preachers to be slovenly, or slack in their sermon preparation. It would be futile to say, ‘if such and such comes up then I will say…’ because, faced with the crisis, we might fail to recollect all that. But when events catch us unaware, we are forced to depend upon the Lord.

On such occasions He will give us the words, and the wisdom to say just exactly what He wants us to say. The words will be His words, to which none of our opponents will be able to reply; and the wisdom His wisdom which they will not be able to gainsay or resist.

There will even be disharmony within homes and families, warns Jesus (Mark 13:12). ‘Trust not in man,’ suggests one of the prophets: ‘even the people of one’s own household may turn out to be enemies; but I look to the LORD’ (cf. Micah 7:5-7). Jesus illustrates this disharmony elsewhere by bringing it right home to a family of five divided between believers and unbelievers (cf. Luke 12:52-53).

“Expect to be hated for my name’s sake” (Mark 13:13a). The gospel has been preached, and is being preached, and will be preached - whether men will accept it or not (Mark 13:10). In the meantime it is for us to persevere, for "he who endures to the end shall be saved" (Mark 13:13b).

2. The Fall of Jerusalem.

Mark 13:14-23.

The original “abomination of desolation” (Mark 13:14) prophesied in Daniel 11:31, was an idol set up in the Temple precincts in 168 B.C. (cf. Daniel 12:11). However, Jesus here hints that there are other levels of fulfilment to this prophecy (Mark 13:14). The context of Mark 13:14-23 suggests the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. - which is itself a harbinger for the upheavals of the closing of the age.

So, forty years after Jesus' prophecy, Jerusalem was sacked, and her people scattered to the nations. Not for the first time, the "abomination of desolation" was seen in the Temple (Mark 13:14). In the days of the Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes, the successor to part of the Empire of Alexander the Great, had set up an image of himself in the holy place. Now again the holy place would be desecrated in the presence of the Roman Eagle.

Yet I cannot help feeling that these two historic events do not exhaust Daniel's prophecy here quoted by Jesus. We need to keep an open mind on the subject. One thing is sure: the Jews are back in their land, which is a miracle of Providence in itself. They have possession of Jerusalem. The potential for a further siege of Jerusalem, which would only be relieved by the personal appearance of Jesus at His second coming, is at the very least a possibility. Wars and rumours of wars, as we well know, abound in the region.

Jesus here counsels flight into the mountains (Mark 13:14), and warns of the danger of false Christs and false prophets. Even the very elect of God might be deceived, He says, "if it were possible" (Mark 13:21-22).

“But take heed, see, I have told you all things” (Mark 13:23).

The fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. prefigures the tribulation of the last days. The trauma and drama of that earlier cataclysm are echoed in the unfolding of the events leading up to the return of Jesus.