Transcription
A thief in the night. A master returning without notice. Two people standing side by side, but only one left behind. A lot of people think they know what Jesus is talking about, but they're missing the clear warning for his disciples. The reality is Jesus is revealing a pattern of judgment that takes us all the way back to the days of Noah. And when we see this, we'll start to understand what he expects of us today. So, let's get into it.
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Welcome back to Every Word. My name is Nate Salah and today we are studying Matthew chapter 24, 36 to 51. Before we do that, as always, please do me a favor, like, sub, and share this video around. My prayer has always been that more and more people would read God's word on YouTube. Amen.
All right. Today's episode is brought to you by Logos Bible Software. Let's read together. Matthew 24:36. "But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then the two men will be in the field, one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that wicked servant says to himself, 'My master is delayed and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards,' the master of that servant will come in a day when he does not expect him and in an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth."
Jesus continues his Olivet discourse by warning the disciples of the unexpected nature of his coming. That's in verses 37 to 43. Uh, he also tells them to be vigilant. That's in verse 44. And he also provides uh, two short parables. One of a master of a house being robbed by a thief. So that's in verse 43. The other is of a faithful and wicked servant. That's verse 45-51.
So here are a couple of noteworthy observations in this passage. Uh, the words "day and hour," right? You see that are common in the Old Testament and they refer to the day of the Lord or the end of the age. Now remember, the Jews were awaiting the end of the current age and the inauguration of the messianic age when Jesus would reign in authority. The phrase "that day and hour" in verse 36, it hearkens back to the disciples' original question back in verse three. Take a look at this. "As he sat on the Mount of Olives, 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?'" As we noted last time, these are multiple questions about the same event. Maybe to put it another way, this is a multi-faceted yet singular question. It's all about the same thing. If the disciples were merely asking about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, which is what I believe they were asking, well then "that day and hour" imports all the eschatological pieces and applies it to the destruction um of the temple and of Jerusalem.
Now, the central concern of the passage is that the disciples are vigilant. This is what Jesus ultimately communicates to them. Jesus does not want them to be caught um off guard when the temple and the city are destroyed. Apparently, people will not be ready. They will not recognize the signs of their own doom. Now, Josephus actually talks about this in the recounting of the destruction of Jerusalem. So, Josephus is a Jewish historian. um, he survived the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and then he went on to write about his particular experiences in the Wars of the Jews, book four. Josephus describes how Vespasian ordered his army, it's the Roman army, to attack certain outposts of the Jews at odd hours of the night. The reason why he wanted to do that was to catch them by surprise. All right, that's exactly what happened, by the way. Uh, they were caught by surprise.
So you know now, Jesus mentions the days of Noah in verse 37, right? You see that? So he's not doing this to suggest that everyone who rejects him will be ignorant of the signs of his coming. He's talking about this because the signs will be given well in advance for those who have the eyes to see it. And the story of Noah is a really great illustration of this. I mean, so if you, you got to think about this, right? Actually, there's an extra-biblical account that suggests that it took Noah 100 years to build the ark. Okay, even if that's nowhere close, it certainly did not take Noah one day to build the ark, right? It took a while. It took a long time. If you, if you take the specifications that God has given Noah seriously in uh, in Genesis chapter 6, it didn't take a day. All right? But if you think about that, that means one of the signs for the people of Noah's day was his construction of the ark itself. Think about that. Every day that Noah built this gigantic structure was a sign to the people around him that God's judgment was coming. That means the people of Noah's day had the opportunity to discern the times. And yet when the flood finally came, it was sudden and severe. That's the point that Jesus is making in this passage.
The lead-up to the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem was actually slow. As a matter of fact, the time between uh Jesus' prophecy to the actual destruction of Jerusalem was around 40 years, more than that. Uh, the Jewish revolt, you know, that ultimately sparked the Roman military response that actually began in 66 AD. Okay, that means it took four years from the Roman mobilization of forces to the actual destruction of Jerusalem. And by the way, uh, the Romans also sacked multiple satellite cities. Uh, uh, this includes Galilee as well. And all of this was well in advance before the Romans finally reached Jerusalem. So you see what I mean? These were all signs of Jesus' prophecy for those who had the eyes to see it. But the Jews who rejected Jesus believed that the city, the temple walls, these were impenetrable and therefore they ignored all the signs and finally when the destruction came, it was sudden and severe, just like the days of Noah.
All right. So then we get to uh, the story of the master and his servant. Okay. Um, notice what the master expects to find his servant doing when he comes. Take a look at this verse 45, right? He expects his uh, servant to be doing whatever the master told him to do. "You know who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time?" Right? And when the master returns, uh, there is a blessing. This is what he blesses, right? When he finds this master or the excuse me, this servant doing what he's supposed to do. In this case, it's feeding uh, and taking care of the household. Notice what the master does not bless because he is not expecting the servant to be doing this. He does not bless uh, the servant who is trying to determine when exactly the master's coming back. Right?
This all helps to shine a spotlight on the actual command of Jesus in this passage. The actual command of Jesus is not to spend countless hours determining the signs of his coming and when specifically that will be. Jesus has reinforced the notion that doing this is a waste of time. Instead, the actual command of Jesus is verse 44, "Be ready." Just be ready. That primarily means feeding the flock and being diligent in obeying the commands that he's already given right now.
Here's a question. Um, why didn't the disciples need to decode the signs? You know, so, so again, you think about this and obviously we grew up in a sort of uh, church and biblical uh, community milieu where we understand these things in a very specific way, especially if you grew up in America as I have, coming out of the late '70s and growing up, it's very specific. Okay. So if you have these signs, um, well, I was under the impression that, and this is how I was taught, well, you need to decode the signs, right? And Jesus obviously gives a bunch of signs. So then why doesn't Jesus give his disciples a way to decode them, you know? Um, the answer is it's because the signs would be obvious. The signs would be so obvious uh, to the believers in the first century, they didn't need to decode them. And the other sort of answer to this is because there again, there was plenty of time between noticing, so what Jesus calls birth pangs in the earlier passage, right? There was plenty of time between that and then actually doing something about it as a faithful servant.
So in the uh, history of the church, which is a very helpful read, kind of dry to be honest with you, it's kind of dry, this is by Eusebius, Church History is sometimes what it's called, right? Eusebius pointed out that the earliest followers of Jesus, they looked out and they saw the Roman armies. This is in, this is in and around that time period, 70 AD, right? They looked out and saw the armies and Ucius says they remembered what Jesus told them in the Olivet Discourse. Because they had obeyed Jesus' command and stayed ready, they ended up leaving the city and fleeing and going to Pella, which is a sort of city. It's in the foothills or the mountains east of the Jordan River in the area of the uh, Decapolis, if I remember this correctly. Eusebius noted that's what the Christians did. So that before the Romans invaded the city on that fateful day, there was not one Christian left in Jerusalem. And the gospel continued to spread even to this day. Amen.
Now, as usual, there are some Old Testament connections to identify in this passage. So, let's get right into it. In this passage, Jesus continues to utilize imagery and references that draw from the Old Testament. Now, remember, Jesus is still answering the specific question that the disciples asked him about the destruction of the temple in verse three. But as we noted last time, they linked Jesus' coming and the end of the age to this particular destruction event. Okay? So, here are some noteworthy connections to identify.
So in verse 36, Jesus mentions again "that day and hour." We noted that, right? Well, this actually comes out of the Old Testament. It comes from places like Isaiah 13:6, Ezekiel 13:5, Joel 1:15, and Zephaniah 1:7. There's more, but I'll stop right there. Okay, this is kind of an established concept in the Old Testament. Okay. In these places, we find this concept called the Day of the Lord. And it's filled with descriptors of a massive army, a bloody battle, right? Actually, take a look at how Joel describes this. Joel chapter 2, verse one. "Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord, there it is, is coming, and it is near. A day of darkness and gloom. A day of clouds and thick darkness. Like blackness, there is spread upon the mountains. Here it is. A great and powerful people. This is an army. They're like has never been before. Nor will be again after them through the years of all generations." Right? Do you see the army? They're marching against a city here. Okay. Look at verse four. "Their appearance is like the appearance of horses. And like war horses they run. As with the rumbling of chariots they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for a battle." Now look at verse 10. "The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. Now does this sound familiar to you? The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining." That's exactly the way that Jesus is describing things in Matthew 24, right?
But the promise was that in spite of this terrifying, you know, bloody Day of the Lord, something else would actually happen. So, let's keep in Joel, but let's go all the way down to verse 28. "Something good is going to happen. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit." Now, if you're hearing terminology that sounds familiar to you, it's because these have connections. What Joel is doing now or saying has connections to other places in the Bible, right? Specifically, I'm thinking of uh, Peter. So, Peter actually quotes this passage of Joel um, on the Day of Pentecost in chapter 2. Take a look at this. Acts chapter 2. I'll go up here to verse 17. Take a look at this. Um, actually, let me do this. Let me go back up a little bit more because I want to set the table. So verse 14, "Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, 'Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk.'" Wait, what? Why is Peter having to defend the actions of uh, the disciples? It's because the Holy Spirit was poured out on them. Verse four, "They were all filled with the Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." So then the people show up and they go, "Oh wow, they're speaking in our own language, but they're, this is weird. They must be filled with new wine." Look at this verse 13, right? So Peter says, verse 15, "No, no, no, no. These people are not drunk as you suppose." Verse 16, "But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel." And then he goes on to quote, "'In the last days it shall be, God declares, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and my female servants, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy.'" So Peter is saying, now think about this. This is uh, Pentecost, right? So this is 50 days after Jesus has ascended. Peter is saying the eschatological promise in Joel, that end times reality, it's right here and now at Pentecost. And then he goes on to say this, verse 19. "And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. And here it is again. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes. The great and magnificent day." There it is again, right? All of that is being fulfilled in Peter's day. Why? Because Jesus said it would. Are you with me? And as we noted already, you know, the culmination of all of this is the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD.
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Now, uh, Jesus, uh, in Matthew 24:37 references the days of Noah. See this? "For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man." Right? "Where before the flood, folks were eating and drinking." You see that? Verse 38, "marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark." Okay? Well, that connects back to the actual account of the flood and that goes from Genesis chapter 6 and spills over into chapter 7. But of note is this particular clue in verses 11 to 12 of Genesis chapter 6. Now look at this. "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth."
Now, let's press pause for a moment because here's something interesting. I'm going to do a little word study with you. Okay? We're going to go even a little bit deeper than before. All right? If you're using your trusty Logos app, which I encourage you to, this is how I study the word every morning. If you just take a look at the word "corrupt," right? Double-click on this word here. You see there's like a menu that pops up. You see that? It's kind of tiny. If you click on the uh, lookup option here in the menu, you're going to note that the, it pulls up this kind of uh, definition. So, so this is the definition of the word in Hebrew. It gives you the actual Hebrew word here. You can click on the left, right? If you click on the word in the Hebrew, it's actually going to give you a full breakdown of its sort of various definitional choices and usages, which is very helpful. Okay. Um, but if you scroll all the way down, do you see this? You scroll down to dig deeper, you're going to notice guides right here on the very bottom. Sorry, it's kind of tiny print for those of you on YouTube. And you'll find the word again, right? If you click on the word, so it's underneath guides, you are going to find an amazing visual chart of this word along with the correct pronunciation. So, if you go here, right at the very top, there's a speaker button uh, right next to the Hebrew. So, let's click it and let's hear how the word is correctly pronounced.
>> Shachath.
Okay. So, the word for uh, corrupt in Genesis chapter 6 is >> shachath. >> Shachath. Um, or, you know, a form of it, depending on the syntax, right? And that's interesting because uh, this is used three times. Shachath is used three times to reinforce the notion that the full community of mankind has been ruined. All right. Remember Gematria? You going to So now I'm just going to assume that you've been through the previous videos. All right? Because I'm just going to make references and move on. But uh, can you see it? Now, interestingly, the same word also means "destroy." And it's used to describe God's destroying the world in two more places. Look at this verse 13 right there. "Behold, I will destroy them with the earth." And also verse 17. So in other words, now put this together, mankind had become so shachath that God shachath mankind. I think the way that this word is used uh, in both senses is actually very helpful for us to understand what corruption ultimately does to people, right? And that's why it's helpful to have Logos with you and to do some of these deep dives. That's what I do. This is how I come up with some of the insights that I give you now in these videos. So, look, I encourage you, if you haven't done it already, you should avail yourself of the free Logos trial. So, right now, you can go to logos.com/everyword. You can get two months free right now. You can download the app, play around, do some word studies, you know, like the one I showed you. All right. Again, that's logos.com/everyword. And I pray it blesses you. I mean, it certainly is blessing me.
Now, why does Jesus reference the people of Noah's day, right? That's a great question. Okay, now remember, remember what just happened previously. Jesus has recently denounced the scribes and the Pharisees for corruption back in Matthew chapter 23 and arguably all throughout his earthly ministry. Okay, you remember that? "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." He gives like eight of these pronouncements of woes for their corruption. But he also did something interesting. He pronounced judgment on this corrupt generation that was listening to him. Look at this. Matthew 23:34. "Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." This is all going to happen. It's all due to their shachath. The corruption here parallels the days of Noah in Jesus' mind. And because they had become shachath, God will shachath them and destroy the city and the temple.
All right. In Matthew chapter 24, uh, 45, Jesus asks the question, "Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time?" Now, there is no small application in this parable. You have to think bigger, right? We have to put all the pieces together of the scripture. The ramifications for this are global, right? Remember, you go all the way back to Genesis uh, chapter 1, the mandate of humanity, right? That the, the command that God gave to humanity in Genesis 1. "Be fruitful and multiply, right? Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." You remember this? This dominion is a borrowed authority from the master of all creation. In other words, this world itself is God's house or his household. Are you seeing what I'm putting down here? You picking up what I'm putting down? The Jews understood um, that their temple was merely a microcosm of the entire world. Now, the temple was called God's house. You see where I'm going with this? And the temple was merely a microcosm of the entire world. In that sense, the whole world is meant to be a dwelling place or a house for God. Now, this is a bit of a rabbit trail, but that's why the temple was decorated. So, you can look this up, you know, which I encourage you to, I'd show you. This is a rabbit trail. The whole temple itself was decorated with earthly and cosmic images all over the walls. It's amazing. The beauty of the temple is amazing. It's because the temple was meant to visually represent God's presence with his creation everywhere.
This is also why Jesus makes the connection to the global flood of Noah. Humanity had been given a mandate as God's servant to be fruitful and care for his earth. But guess what? They refused. They became corrupted. So God destroyed them. Likewise, the people of God in Jesus' day had been given a mandate as his servants to be fruitful and to represent him to the nations, but they refused and they became corrupted. If they would have chosen to obey God, they would be like this faithful servant, right? The faithful and wise servant that Jesus commends. Since they continue to refuse to obey God, thinking that they have all the time in the world to live for themselves, they will be caught by surprise when the master comes.
I think we have what we need to identify a lesson for the original audience. The teaching of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse has proved to be difficult for many to understand. Um, I suspect much of this is due to the highly Jewish nature of his lecture. I would propose to you all of you, and you're probably already picking this up from me, we will all unlock a deeper understanding and appreciation for what is present in the text of scripture if we seek to be aware of the Jewishness of Jesus' teaching methodology as well as the Jewishness of the Bible. Again, the disciples ask uh, Jesus a question about when the destruction of the temple will take place and what will it look like. Okay? Jesus takes his cues from numerous places in order to answer the disciples. He takes it from Tanakh, right? So, so including Deuteronomy, he takes it from Isaiah, he takes it from Daniel, he takes it from Joel in order to provide an apocalyptic picture of God's judgment against the temple and the city. Finally, Jesus warns his disciples to be ready, be vigilant, right? Because God's judgment will slay the wicked but save the righteous. Jesus talks about uh, two men being in a field, right? And one will be taken, one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and one left, right? The taken ones will be spared from God's judgment because they will have obeyed Jesus and remembered what he told them, and the others will be left to endure God's judgment. And again, that is the destruction of the temple and the city.
So the question comes down to this. What's the difference between uh, these two types? These two types of folks, right? What marks the difference between these two? Jesus says that it really comes down to being a faithful and wise servant. "Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions." Now remember uh, what I taught you about parables and the questions that are helpful in determining a parable's meaning. Okay? I'm not going to do that for you this time around. That's up to you. I've laid out the helpful pieces. I'm going to leave the ball in your court because I want to get to a lesson for the original audience. All right? But I'm curious to see what you sort of come up with in the comments. All right.
The lesson rests here. I think Jesus has shined a bright spotlight on the choice in front of his followers. Remain with those who say they are servants of God but are not, which is best exemplified by the corrupt religious leaders, right? Or be the ones who truly do serve God because they know him. Jesus is saying that the ones who do know God because they follow him, they will replace these corrupt leaders and become a better kingdom of priests. By the way, that was always the plan going back to Exodus 19:6 when God said, "You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
At this point, Jesus has ultimately answered the disciples' question. Okay, remember they wanted to know when the temple would be destroyed. What would be the signs for that? Jesus gave the signs, but he doesn't tell them when. Instead, he essentially says, "You're not going to know when. You're not going to know, but you'll be just fine. Remember my teaching. Do what I've told you to do. Focus on the mission and you'll be spared."
This leads to a lesson for the original audience. Are you ready? In a world of corruption that the Lord will judge, God's people must focus more than ever on fulfilling their calling and the ultimate purpose for their creation. If they do this, they will be blessed on the day of God's judgment. Do you understand? The all-seeing God of the universe wants to look upon his people and find them busy doing the work that he has given them to do. If God's people will make that the primary focus, you know, doing all work out of the overflow of their relationship with him, not only will he spare them from judgment, he will bless them beyond measure.
While this has immediate ramifications for the disciples in the first century, this also applies to us today, does it not? Guess what, friends? The world is still corrupt. Amen. Church leaders as well as secular leaders are shachath and they're leading the flock astray. Sin is still rampant even in our own day, just as it was in the days of the disciples. And it is still just as true for us as it was for uh, the Apostle Paul when he said, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Amen. Our gospel is veiled to those who are perishing, and that requires us to shine the light of the knowledge of Christ upon them and to continue to spread God's kingdom until Jesus returns, whenever that is. We have to continue to spread God's kingdom in a world full of corruption. That means we focus on fulfilling our calling and the ultimate purpose for our creation. And we trust the Lord, right? We trust the Lord. And we keep putting one foot in front of the other in order to do what we know we're supposed to do. Amen.
All right. All right. That's enough out of me. Um, as always, please keep going in your studies. Keep following the 5-day Bible plan, and let me know what you're seeing in the text. I'd love to get your thoughts about that. If you need uh, the 5-day plan, you can get it on the YouTube homepage. Uh, you can get it in the notes, I believe, below. Hey, don't forget to grab your two months free trial of Logos. Just go to logos.com/everyword. You can also find my "Wise Disciple" commentary bundle, which includes not just commentaries, but other books that I think are going to help you as you study God's word, that I prefer when I study God's word. All that again is logos.com/everyword. The link for that is below. Also, if you're interested in learning biblical Greek or Hebrew, you got to check out Biblingo. That's the Biblingo app. And I've partnered with Logos and Biblingo because they're going to be helpful. They're going to be so helpful to you in your studies. Click on the Biblingo link below and use my discount code "wise disciple 10" at checkout. All right, friends. We are plugging right along and I can't wait to get into the most uh, fateful and momentous occasion when everything changed for all of us. Uh, and that will be the uh, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We're heading there, friends. We're getting there. Um, but in the meantime, keep your eyes on the scriptures. Stay close to the Lord. Happy reading and bye for now.
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