09/12/2022 – Day 197 – Luke 21 & 22 / “We must live forever in the shadow of eternity, in the certainty that we are men who are fitting or unfitting themselves to appear in the presence of God. There can be nothing so thrilling as the Christian life.” William Barclay – pg 261 – Barclay’s commentary
Barclay points out appropriately I think that Luke – Chapter 21 is one of the most difficult chapters of the Bible. So, I am going to outline the four different conceptions that are intertwined in Jesus’ instruction to His disciples:
“From verse 5 onwards this becomes a very difficult chapter. Its difficulty rests int he fact that beneath it lie four different conceptions.
(i) There is the conception of the day of the Lord. The Hews regarded time as being in two ages. There was the present age, which was altogether bad and evil, incapable of being cured, and fit only for destruction. There was the age to come, which was the golden age of God and of Jewish supremacy. But in between the two there would be the day of the Lord, which would be a terribel time of cosmis upheavel and destruction, the desparate birth-pangs of the new age.
It would be a day of terror. “Behold the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.” (Isaiah 13: 9; cp. Joel 2: 1, 2; Amos 5: 18-20; Zephaniah 1: 14-18.) It would come suddenly. ” The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” (1 Thessalonians 5:2; cp. 2 Peter 3: 10.) It would be a day when the world would be shattered. ” The stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give up their light; the sun will be deark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light … Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger. (Isaiah 13: 10-13; cp. Joel 2:30,31; 2 Peter 3:10.)
The day of the Lord was one of the basic conceptions of religious thought in the time of Jesus; everyone knew these terrible pictures. In this passage verses 9, 11, 25, 26 take their imagery from that.
(ii) There is the prophesied fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell to the Roman armies in A.D. 70 after a desparate siege in which the inhabitants were actually reduced to cannibalism and in which the city had to be taken literally stone by stone. Josephus says that an incredible number of 1, 100, 000 people perished in the siege and 97,000 were carried into captivity. The Jewish nation was obliterated; and the Temple was fired and became a desolation. In this pasage verses 5, 6, 20-24 clearly refer to that event still to come.
(iii) There is the second coming of Christ. Jesus was sure that he was to come agian and the early church waited for that coming. It will help us to understand the New Testament passages about the second coming if we remember that much of the older imagery which had to do with the day of the Lord was taken and attached to it. In this passage verses 27 and 28 clearly refer to it. Before the second coming it was expected that many false claimants to be the Christ would arise and great upheavels take place. In this passage verses 7, 8, 9 refer to that.
(iv) There is the idea of persecution to come.Jesus clearly foresaw and foretold the terrible things his people would have to suffer for his sake in the days to come. In this passage verses 12 – 19 refer to that.
This passage will become much more intelligible and valuable if we remember that beneath it there is not one consistent idea, but these four allied conceptions.
And I would also like to share with y’all Matthew Henry’s summary commentary on Luke , chapter 21 & 22:
https://www.christianity.com/bible/commentary/matthew-henry-concise/luke/21
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/luke/22.html
Questions to share for group discussion and fellowship?
Soli Deo Gloria!