God Preserves

Matthew 24:19-22 “How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now – and never to be equaled again. 22 If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.”
 
JESUS continued his urgent warnings to prepare the Jews and his disciples for the Father’s judgment to come on Jerusalem. His direct reference to pregnant women gives a personal sense of reality to his warnings. He had concern for those who would have more difficulty to flee. Winter would be a bad time because rivers were swollen. The Sabbath travel rules, too, prohibited one from traveling more than 1,000 yards! Also, the Jews barred the city’s gates on the Sabbath to prevent commerce. All are at risk of death if they are not prepared to flee when the signs point  to war. Practical in his warnings, Jesus urged them to pray for ease of escape. Notice their prayers were not to be that God would relent. Jerusalem’s judgment was set in Heaven’s time.
   And escape they must because great distress indicates awful things will occur in Jerusalem. Jesus warned it would be singular in its brutality, and the Romans fulfilled his words in their murderous rampage.
    Why did God destroy Jerusalem? He did so in 70 AD for the same reason He destroyed the city about 597 BC. God’s people rejected him. By 70 AD, they had not only killed his Son, but the Jews were the primary persecutors of his church. The Father judged his children’s unbelief just as he had done since the Garden of Eden and will do until the end time.
   And we rejoice the Father also graciously preserves his faithful. Jesus warned his disciples, so they would survive to be his church. Faithfully many believed him and fled when they saw Jesus’ words coming true. God acted to judge disbelief. He acted to save faithful believers.
 
Jesus Teaches: Believe Jesus and be saved.