Exhortation, March 20

People often cling to familiar and comfortable things even when they know that clinging to the past will destroy them. Remember Lot�s wife: When fire falls from heaven and starts burning your town, that�s a strong hint it�s time to leave. Yet, Lot�s wife yearned for the doomed world she should have been leaving, and died with it.

The Jews of Jesus�Etime had same mentality, as fanatical as contemporary Muslim suicide bombers. The Romans were amazed at the Jews�Ebehavior during the Jewish War. One historian wrote that �The Jews resisted [Titus] with more ardor than ever, as if it were a kind of windfall to fall fighting against a foe far outnumbering them, they were not overcome until a part of the Temple had caught fire. Then some impaled themselves voluntarily on the swords of the Romans, others slew each other, others did away with themselves or leaped into the flames. They all believed, especially at the last, that it was not a disaster but victory, salvation, and happiness to perish together with the temple.�E

Jesus instructed His disciples to act very differently. When the abomination of desolation appears where he should not be, Jesus says, it�s time to flee and leave everything behind. Jesus tells His disciples, mostly Jews, to put aside their instinctive loyalty to the temple, even though it�s the temple of Yahweh. They should instead take their stand with Jesus, the new temple of the living God, and leave the temple and Jerusalem to their fate.

These instructions are specific to the first-century Christians, but they also have multiple applications to us. Like the Jews of the first-century, we cling to old ways of doing things long after they should have been decently buried. Parents treat their teenage children like infants; a husband with children continues to live as if he is single; Christians remain in churches that have long ago abandoned any serious commitment to God�s Word; we go through the motions of a job that is no longer productive. Habit and comfort are strong motivations, and it is one of the most difficult things in the world to leave an old way of life behind and try something new. Yet, Jesus frequently calls His people to just that. As much as Jesus�Eoriginal disciples, we need to hear Jesus�Eexhortation, �Those who are in Judea, flee to the mountains.�E

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, March 20, 2005 at 08:40 AM

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