14 “When you see the disgusting thing that will cause destruction standing where it should not (let the reader take note), those of you in Judea should flee to the mountains. 15 Those who are on the roof should not come down to get anything out of their houses. 16 Those who are in the field should not turn back to get their coats.
17 “How horrible it will be for the women who are pregnant or who are nursing babies in those days. 18 Pray that it will not be in winter. 19 It will be a time of misery that has not happened from the beginning of God’s creation until now, and will certainly never happen again. 20 If the Lord does not reduce that time, no one will be saved. But those days will be reduced because of those whom God has chosen.
21 “At that time don’t believe anyone who tells you, ‘Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’ 22 False messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will work miraculous signs and do wonderful things to deceive, if possible, those whom God has chosen. 23 Be on your guard! I have told you everything before it happens.
Read Mark 13:14-23 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Our passage for this entry covers a portion of Jesus’ famous message to His disciples regarding the time of the future. A couple of verses in this message seem to always stand out in my mind when I read or hear this part of the gospels talked about. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all include this famous message, though only Matthew and Mark include the portion we’ll focus on for this entry – and we’ll use Mark’s gospel for this journal entry.
“At that time don’t believe anyone who tells you, ‘Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’ False messiahs and false prophets will appear. They will work miraculous signs and do wonderful things to deceive, if possible, those whom God has chosen.” (v. 21-22)
There are a number of parts in these two verses that stand out.
First off, to set the stage, Jesus has just finished describing a time of great persecution of His followers, and then immediately after that time has been cut short, He tells us to be on our guard and don’t believe anyone who points towards – or claims to be – a messiah.
This warning stands out to me because Jesus wants to make it clear that His return will be different, and in other places, He has promised that His return will be visible to everyone. This means that at the very least, if you had not seen the return of this so-called messiah’s return, then don’t believe that they are Jesus coming back.
Next, because Jesus is warning about false messiahs and false prophets, we could understand this to mean either that there will be no more true or false prophets in the future, or simply that there will be a time when false prophets arise who will try to lead people away from paying attention to true prophets in the future. On this point, I won’t dwell too much time on, except to say that in every case someone claims to be a prophet, they have some pretty big hurdles to clear to be known as genuinely from God.
Fortunately for us, Jesus makes it clear what these false messiahs and prophets will focus on and do: “They will work miraculous signs and do wonderful things to deceive . . .” (v. 22)
The focus of these prophets and messiahs will be to shift the focus away from God and the historical Jesus of the Gospels. And while we don’t know what miraculous signs they will do, the signs they do show off will have the goal of drawing the focus onto themselves and away from God. This stands in contrast to Jesus, who used the Holy Spirit’s power, which He has promised us that we can have to when we are connected to Him.
Lastly, the phrase “if possible” gives me hope, because it tells me that there are a group of people who have been selected, who are unwavering in their dedication to God and Jesus. These people may see the signs, but they will be so in tune with who Jesus is, what He is like, and what He promised that they will immediately recognize these to be false prophets and false messiahs.
God has chosen a group of people to be His, and this group will not be deceived by miraculous signs aimed at pulling the focus away from God.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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