September 7

Today's Reading: Mark 13:1-37

This is not an easy passage to understand and there are a lot of different views about the timing of the events that Jesus talks about here. The parallel passage in Matthew does give us some more clarity:

Matthew 24:3 (ESV)
As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Here in Mark it is not as clear that the disciples are asking about two different, but related things: 1) the destruction of the temple, and 2) the return of Jesus and the end of the age..

The prediction of the destruction of the temple is fulfilled in AD 70 at the hands of the Romans. But the return of the "Son of Man" (v. 26) is going to occur "after" a time of tribulation that Jesus describes beginning in verse 14. That will be the fulfillment of the prophecy from Daniel 7 that we read about Tuesday.

There is a lot of mystery regarding the return of Jesus in the Bible and we need to be careful not to do like many of the  people did with the first coming of Jesus and impose our own preconceived ideas on what the Bible teaches about His second coming. I'm pretty sure that a lot of Bible "experts" are going to be quite surprised at how everything plays out. What is certain, however, and what we should be focusing on, is that Jesus is going to come back for His own at a time prescribed by the Father. We should eagerly be preparing for and looking forward to that day.