Friends....I so hope and pray you take the time to actually look up the multiple verses I give you and read them yourself. Every time I do, personally...it is like partaking of fresh manna straight from God's word. We’ve been looking at those verses that talk about the return of the Lord coming as a ‘thief in the night’, as Paul put it. (1 Thess. 5:1-6- can you go read that portion now, please? And let's remember who the 'brethren' are, from Thursday's post)

Now, let’s turn to Matt. 24. This is a chapter many read who like to study ‘end time events’ that Jesus taught on. And while there is much written in that chapter pertaining to ‘signs and events’ to be looking for, it is easy to overlook the somber warnings that we find at the start, in the middle, and the end of that discourse. The first one being ‘take heed no one deceives you...for many will come...’.(4-5).

But it is vs. 42-44 we need to pick up from yesterday’s post where Jesus starts talking about the need to ‘watch’...and how if the master of the house had known what hour the ‘thief’ would come...he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.” (43) That is what ‘thieves’ tend to do, you know...break into people’s ‘houses’. We also should know by now that they also come to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’. (John 10:10). So when Jesus implies if we had known when this ‘thief’ was coming, we might prevent him from ‘breaking in to our house’ if we kept ‘watch’.

That word ‘watch’ is the same word used in Rev. 3:3 that we looked at yesterday and Jesus tied that directly in to Him ‘coming as a thief’. It comes from the same Greek word (grēgorōmen) which means to remain awake in the night watch; being alert and vigilant. And it is also the same word that Peter used in his warning to us about remaining alert and vigilant because of our ‘enemy, the devil’ being on the prowl. (1 Pet. 5:8)

So let’s take a moment and explore this idea of thieves breaking into houses, since Jesus alludes to it. Do you recall that lesson He taught in Matt. 12:43-45, and how when an ‘unclean spirit’ goes out of a man, it goes about seeking rest but is unable to find any. So he says: “I will return to my house from which I came...’(44) and when he finds it empty, he not only returns himself, but brings ‘seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there....so in the end that man is worse off than he was in the beginning.” You realize what this ‘house’ is, yes?

Now turn back to Joel 2. The prophet gives warning to the ‘Day of the Lord’ that is ‘at hand. He speaks of a ‘people...great and strong’ coming like an army...the likes of no one ever seen before’. (1-3). You can read there on your own how these armies will come, storming the city, in a sense scaling the walls, running to and fro and they ‘climb into the houses; they enter at the window like a thief’. (9).

Let’s connect a few more dots here as we see mentions of ‘the day of the Lord’, and keeping watch for the thief’ and not allowing our houses to be broken into. Are you able to see what is happening here? The forces of spiritual wickedness and darkness are being ‘released’ to carry out God’s judgements. And it’s not the communist or ISIS or the Chinese that we need to be looking out for. (Eph. 6:12). Would you now turn to Matt. 22:1-8 and see if you can’t draw some parallels here with where we are at today. Who do you think Jesus is giving warning here to and just who do you suppose those ‘armies’ are that He references in vs. 7?

Sometime back, I was sharing some passages along these lines and I was asked by someone if I was suggesting that Jesus was coming back ‘as the devil’. That was a bit of a leap, for sure; but...I will share a few more passages with you tomorrow...that will address that.