Discerning the Signs but Looking for the Lord
I do listen. As I get older, I forget more easily, but I do listen to people’s concerns. In the last several years, a number of devoted Christians have asked me some form of the following question: “Are we close to the return of Jesus Christ?” As with any Biblical teaching, we must be careful with this subject. In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Later, in Acts 1:7, He added, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” Paul wrote in I Thesssalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Thus, date-setting defies God’s Word and dishonors our Savior. However, in Matthew 16:3, Jesus pointedly asks, “Can ye not discern the signs of the time?” We do not know and cannot know the exact time of Jesus’ Second Coming and the resulting period of the Tribulation, but we are told to seriously study the signs found in Scripture. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
A third sign that we can discern is the increasing importance of Russia in the world. Ezekiel 38:15 says, “Thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts” to invade Israel. Earlier, in verse 2, “the land of Magog” is specifically mentioned as the source of this future enemy of Israel; this area north of the Black Sea is now Russia. Other confederate nations mentioned in Ezekiel 38 include Iran (Persia), Turkey (Meshech and Tubal), Sudan (Ethiopia), and Libya. Russia has strong influences in all of these nations, even though they are Islamic and Russia is not; what they have in common is authoritarianism and an antagonism against Israel. It is interesting to note that “Ethiopia” (verse 5) refers not to that present nation but to what was northern Sudan. A recent civil war has separated Sudan into north and south. South Sudan is a primarily non-Islamic nation with a large Christian population (our church has sponsored the building of a church there). The remaining Sudan corresponds with the designation of verse 5 and is militantly Islamic. Consider also that only since World War II has Russia been important internationally – at almost the same time (1948) that Israel miraculously re-emerged as a nation in fulfillment of prophecy. News sounds old when read in the light of God’s prophetic Word. May we be encouraged that the God of these details knows each detail of our lives.