When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth-pains.
As conflict explodes once more across the Middle East, some words of Jesus give us vital perspective.
Sitting on the Mount of Olives and looking across to the Jerusalem Temple, He predicted the destruction of that great building, and also prepared His disciples for the kind of world they (and we) would be living in.
Wars, He said, are to be expected. Nation will rise against nation. Bible history is full of them, and so, sadly, has been history ever since. Since – as Jesus also says – theft, murder, greed, malice, deceit, envy, slander, arrogance and folly all come naturally to us (Mark 7:21-22), wars are tragically inevitable. It is noble to work for peace, but the idea that we can somehow create a world free of military threat is utterly naive. It flounders on the rock of human nature. Policy-makers are wise when they recognise this.
Jesus also told His disciples not to be alarmed when they hear of wars. This seems a strange thing to say, since there can surely be few things more alarming or horrific. But what He has in mind is a fear that somehow God has lost control, or that war spells the very end of the world. Neither is true: such things must happen, He says, but the end is still to come. Don’t assume (as many self-appointed prophets have) that a new war immediately heralds the return of Christ. And don’t panic, thinking that God’s plans have been derailed.
We should also note that the context of Jesus’ words is His teaching about the great future day when He will return to judge the world. Strikingly, He says that wars (plus earthquakes and famines) are connected to this. These are the beginnings of the birth-pains, He says. Wars do not necessarily spell the immediate return of Christ, but they do point to it in a more ultimate sense. They flag up that we live in a world under God’s judgment, and point to the eventual arrival of that judgment, just as birth-pains herald a birth. (They also highlight the need for God’s judgment, and our inability to solve our basic human problems ourselves.)
It is in this context it should not surprise us that Jesus also directs His servants to what they need to be getting on with: And the gospel must first be preached to all nations (verse 10).
So in this present horrible conflict, let us pray for peace and justice, for the churches in Iran, and for the global spread of the gospel of Christ.
