“YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION"
“YOU DID NOT KNOW THE TIME OF YOUR VISITATION"
Beloved Unchained Family and friends:
We read in Luke 19:44:
“You did not know the time of your visitation.”
It’s said that there are three things you can never get back, once it’s passed: the spoken word, the same opportunity, and time. Sadly, most people during Jesus’ time on earth missed their opportunity in all of the above categories.
The verse we’ve just read was spoken by the Lord Jesus and it is maybe one of the saddest moments registered in the Scriptures, because it seals the reality perceived by Him towards the end of His ministry on earth, while in Jerusalem: most of Jesus’ generation did not appreciate or knew the time of their visitation by God Himself!
It’s actually perplexing to realize that Jesus was rejected so many times: when he was born, there was no space or lodging, most of His family didn’t believe in Him, the religious leaders often wanted expel Him from the temple or even stone Him, and ultimately their rejection took Him to the cursed death at the cross. No wonder the evangelist John writes: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him”. (John 1:11)
We, believers today, must also be very aware of this reality!
But why did they miss their opportunities and how can we also, not to be aware, not to know the time of OUR visitation by the Lord?
I think we can summarize it in three points:
They called evil good, and good evil - this was an old practice and routine of the Israelites. 700 hundred years before Jesus, the prophet Isaiah had already said (Isaiah 5:20):
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
They even called Jesus the chief of the demons!
We must be alert to think and judge our values, convictions and place the things we approve under the same perspective and scrutiny of God, as shown in the Scriptures. Today, our world is upside down in its values and standards, and that’s a big way in which we miss the time of our visitation.
They despised God’s warnings - Hundreds of years before Jesus’ generation, the Israelites had been warned about the seriousness of being holy unto the Lord. They disdained all the prophets, they killed them and now Jesus, their Great Prophet Himself, announces that a price was going to be paid. It’s time for us to be alert to the Word of God and live the life of holiness He intended, prepared, and expects from us.
They preferred the worldly, instead of the eternal - this is a classic mistake all of us, age after age, fall into. Being entangled with secular things of this life, putting them before the eternal ones, is something we must avoid at all cost, and Jesus Himself warned everyone on several occasions during His ministry about these matters. Every time we focus on things and not in Jesus, we are missing the time of His visitation.
Dear brother, sisters, friends, let’s watch and be vigilant, so we do not incur in these same mistakes, therefore “not knowing the time of our visitation”.
Wishing peace, health and many blessings to your body and soul,
Pr. Joshua