Matthew 24:4-8 War, Famine, and Earthquakes
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 8, 2019 Matthew 24:4-8
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
(Understanding the Text) I used to think that this just meant that these were the beginning of the signs and that more different ones would follow, but Pastor James Rafferty says that birth pains means that these things will become more and more frequent and intense. This makes sense with what I see in the world and throughout the history of the world. By this logic, there will be more and more false leaders and more and more wars and more and more famines and more and more earthquakes. In addition, each of these signs will intensify and become worse.
If there will be more and more false religious teachers who claim to speak for God, then logically it means that there will be many, many people who are deluded and who will follow these deceivers. I should not feel discouraged by all the deceived people who only follow lies and delusions today. They are a sign of the last days. Jesus’ admonishment is that I need to make sure that no one leads me astray with false teaching. The only protection against delusion is to love the truth and reject unrighteousness. “And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:6-12). Paul says that the people who are deluded are people who have been presented the truth, but they knew that to obey would mean change, and they were happy wallowing in muck, so they ignored the truth. When this happens again and again, the time comes when they simply cannot discern truth from falsehood. This is about lawlessness. It is not about breaking a command because of weakness. It is about rejecting anyone’s right, especially God’s right, to tell us how to live. It is about saying that we can live however we wish and that the Biblical laws of morality and love should not bind us when we choose to reject them. It is about remaking the world and ourselves in our own image. The problem is that this is a fantasy, not the real world.
Wars and Rumors of Wars have been happening forever, but WWI and WWII were something new and different with the world involved in the war. The Cold War is my definition of rumors of war. We were constantly worried about the Soviet Union attacking. I guess the War on Terror is the same. People are making decisions based on the fear of rumors of war that they spread around on social media. They fear that illegal immigrants will attack them, and terrorists will attack them, and school shooters will attack them, and mass murder will abound. The Greek word for wars is ” πόλεμος – polēmos /pol’-em-os/ from πέλομαι pelomai (to bustle); warfare (literally or figuratively; a single encounter or a series): – battle, fight, war.” Thus, wars here could refer to a single person attacking and committing mass murder, as well as multi-national wars, such as WW II. On the other hand, Jesus gives the clarifying statement, ” For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” so He may have meant governmental wars specifically, but I kind of think it is the whole thing.
People fear because they are being terrorized. One incident occurs, and then another and then another, and then the rumor mill gets going, and people fear that they might be next. This is Satan’s method of terrorizing us to the point where we will turn on each other and be more open to His influence. Hate and fear are his methods, and humans are falling into that trap more and more. Jesus tells us not to be alarmed. God knows about these events. He is not surprised by them. They will become the new norm, and we must rely on God to protect us or to raise us to a new life if we are killed. We must not fear death. Jesus has won the victory over death and war already. No matter what happens to us now, our ultimate fate is a beautiful one.
Famines are one sign that will increase and intensify. We are destroying our environment. An example is the forests of South America being cut down for cattle farming, and then the water resources drying up, and farming becoming less productive, whereas when the forests were renewed in one place, the water increased. The way we use the land has destroyed much of the productivity of a region. The area of Israel used to be called a land of milk and honey. Now, much of it is barren. On a larger scale, this is what we are doing to our world. The oceans are becoming barren with more and more species going extinct from overfishing and from pollution. We are polluting everything to the extent that we will not be able to meet the food needs of the world eventually. In addition, the greediness of some humans keeps the needy and poverty-stricken from receiving food even when it is available. Also, weather patterns are changing because of global warming, so droughts will become common, but too much rain can also cause crops to be flooded or to rot in the field.
The final sign was earthquakes. Jesus said that these would become more common and intensify also. I’ve heard they are, but I need to investigate this more fully.
These signs were also for the time before the destruction of Jerusalem. There was an earthquake and a famine at that time. There were false messiahs and wars, so the words had meaning in a local sense, but their ultimate meaning is global.
(Revelation of God) Jesus wept when He saw that Jerusalem would be destroyed. God wept in Jeremiah the first time that Jerusalem would be destroyed. God hates to leave us to our own destruction, but He will not force us to live righteously. Jesus had to have hated the doom that He foresaw would come upon this world, and the cruelty, war, and suffering must give Him more and more pain as it increases. However, He is willing to suffer with us until He can extract everyone who will choose to live in love.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is to trust God and not fear when these horrible signs occur more and more often and intensify. I need to believe that God knows what is going on, that He cares for me, and that death is no longer to be feared because Jesus triumphed over death and will do so for me also. Give me faith, hope, and love to meet the present and coming troubles with confidence because I know that You have a plan for a world of paradise that will succeed in the end.