LIVING WITHOUT A LONG TERM PERSPECTIVE Luke 12:54-56

He said to the crowd: "When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, 'It's going to rain,' and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It's going to be hot,' and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don't know how to interpret this present time? (NIV)

Everybody likes to be an expert in their own area. The British seem to have an obsession with the weather, and enjoy finding ways of predicting what it will be. The same was true for Jews in Jesus' day. The signs of tomorrow's weather were easy to detect, and brought satisfaction to the self-styled meteorological expert. But Jesus turned to the religious experts and told them that they were play-actors. They pretended to know God's mind and yet they totally failed to understand the significance of Jesus' arrival on earth, and His ministry which would culminate in His death and resurrection - even though it was all in their Bible (our Old Testament).

The implications were immense. Not only did they fail to see the Messiah when He stood in front of them, they had no idea of the consequences of rejecting the Saviour. Less than 40 years after they crucified the Lamb of God, the Romans violently ransacked Jerusalem, destroying the temple and removing the possibility of any further sacrifices. Many Jews were scattered from their homeland and the dream of Israel has not been re-established to this day. The temple has never been rebuilt; instead, another building now dominates the temple mount.

The long term perspective, for followers of Jesus, is that He will return to judge the earth - a far more terrible prospect than even the destruction of Jerusalem. But He will also gather all His own people for eternal safety and blessing. The contrast of those destinies is extreme. That is why it is essential not to reject Jesus now; but to welcome Him in repentance and faith to be King over our lives (see www.crosscheck.org.uk). And the most loving thing Christians can do is to help people to interpret the signs of the times (and eternity) according to God's Word. To leave our friends and colleagues in ignorance of what is clear to us from the Bible, should be unthinkable.