Daily Devotions
Luke
Luke 21 : 8-19 "TAKE HEED THAT YOU NOT BE DECEIVED" Luke 21:8"
Day 255 – Luke 21
Text: Luke 21 : 8-19
“TAKE HEED THAT YOU NOT BE DECEIVED” Luke 21:8
Why did Jesus answer His Disciples with these words? The conversation between Teacher and Disciples had begun on a gentle note. One of the Disciples had spoken in obvious admiration of the Temple. Jesus responded and urged the Disciples not to become too enamoured of the Temple, for one day it would be destroyed!
The Disciples then went on to ask when the Temple would be destroyed. Would there be signs preceding the destruction of the Temple? There was no question about the fact that the Disciples believed the prophetic words of Jesus. But their demeanour, their whole approach had been altogether too simplistic!
They had not asked why the Temple should be destroyed! They had not sought to fathom the prophetic statement of Jesus in greater detail. They had just jumped and asked “when” the Temple would be destroyed, and “what sign” they ought to look out for when the destruction would take place!
Jesus was absolutely right in teaching His Disciples that they must take heed, or else they would be deceived quite easily! It was obvious that they did not know much about prophecy! Why were prophecies made? How should one understand prophecies? How should one interpret prophecies? Their lack of probing questions displayed that they lacked depth and discernment.
Thus Jesus had to begin teaching His Disciples how they may understand His prophetic utterance on the Temple! The very first lesson He sought to teach His Disciples was that they must take great heed, if they were not to be deceived!
Why the emphasis on the subject of “deception”? Jesus knew only too well that deception was the masterwork of the Devil himself. His work was obvious in the eyes of Jesus.
1. He had deceived many people into thinking that they were spiritually all right, when in fact God was going to destroy Jerusalem! The false teachers had deceived the whole nation so cleverly that no one suspected that God was so angry at the corrupt practices that He was going to destroy the Temple.
2. The masters of deception continued their nefarious work without many people being able to see through them. If they did, they did not have the courage or the spiritual power to confront these false teachers!
3. Those who were deceived were the very people who admired the Temple! The Disciples themselves were in danger of being deceived and lulled into thinking that their nation was “all right” in God’s sight!
Jesus of course saw through the deception of the religious teachers. They were to blame! Their work had gone on too long. The whole nation should have been alerted and prepared to receive their Messiah. Instead, when He came, hardly anybody could recognize that Jesus was that Messiah. Worse, the false teachers had gone on the offensive and they were even then plotting to kill their own Messiah!
Jesus just had to warn His Disciples about the danger of being deceived! They needed to be taught even more deeply about false teachers!
A PREVIOUS PROPHETIC WORD OF WARNING
In another era, a similar word of warning had been given to Israel concerning their false understanding of the place of the Temple. In the days of Jeremiah, there were many who were deceived into believing that the mere existence of the Temple of God meant that God was in their midst blessing them!
God had sent a word to His prophet and Jeremiah was to proclaim these solemn words against the Temple!
“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s House,
and proclaim there this word, and say,
‘Hear the Word of the Lord,
all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!’
Thus says the Lord of Hosts,
The God of Israel:
Amend your ways and your doings,
And I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Do not trust in these lying words, saying,
‘The Temple of the Lord,
the Temple of the Lord,
the Temple of the Lord are these…
Behold you trust in lying words that cannot profit.”
Jeremiah1 7:2-4,8
The deceivers in the days of Jeremiah were false prophets and false priests! They had built a romantic idea around the Temple. They had taken false pride in the existence of the Temple. Instead of emphasizing living righteously, they had promoted a form of religion that revolved around the Temple building itself!
Jeremiah’s rebuke was swift and to the point! It may have been popular and politically correct to promote their idea of a national religion. However, true religion is never based upon popular sentiments! True faith is always based on God’s Word and correct theology! Anything else is dangerously false! A religion that is not fully founded on the Word of God is in grave danger of having been founded on deception!
Jeremiah had to battle people who believed in religious plurality. They thought that they could “walk after other gods” (Jeremiah 7:9) and still
“Stand before (God) in this house
which is called by (His) Name
and say, ‘We are delivered (saved)
to do all these abominations’ .”
Jeremiah 7:10
The Temple in the days of Jeremiah had “become a den of thieves” (Jeremiah 7:11)! This deception had been so cleverly done over the years, that the only option was for God to order the destruction of the Temple! Perhaps through the destruction of the Temple, the people would wake up from the deception that had engulfed the whole nation!
Jesus now confronted the deception that enveloped Jerusalem. Watch out for modern day deceivers who continue to become even more skilled in their wicked crafts!