Daily Devotion

We have here references to two disasters about which we have no definite information, and can only speculate.

 

First, there is the reference to the Galilaeans Pilate murdered in the middle of their sacrifices. As we have seen, Galilaeans were always liable to get involved in political trouble, because they were a highly inflammable people. Just about this time Pilate had been in serious trouble. He had decided that Jerusalem needed a new, and improved water supply. He proposed to build it and to finance it with Temple monies. The Jews were up in arms at the very idea of spending Temple money like that. When the mobs gathered, Pilate told his soldiers to mingle with them, wearing cloaks over their battle dress in disguise. They were instructed to carry daggers, rather than swords. At a given signal they were to fall on the mob and disperse them. However, the soldiers dealt with the mob with a violence far beyond their instructions, and a considerable number of people died.

 

As for the eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell, they are more obscure. The KJ Version uses the word "sinners" for them also, but it should be "debtors". It has been suggested that they had taken work on Pilate's hated aqueducts. The popular talk had declared that the tower had fallen on them, because of the work they had consented to do.  However, there is far more than a historical problem in this passage. The Jews rigidly connected sin, and suffering. Eliphaz had long ago said to Job, "Who that was innocent ever perished?" (Job 4:7), but Jesus went on to say that if His hearers did not repent, they too would perish. What did He mean? One thing is clear-He foresaw and foretold the destruction of Jerusalem which happened in A.D.70. He knew well that if the Jews went on with their intrigues, their rebellions, their plotting, their political ambitions, they were simply going to commit national suicide; He knew that in the end Rome would step in, and obliterate the nation. That is what happened. So what Jesus meant was that if the Jewish nation kept seeking an earthly kingdom, and rejecting the kingdom of God they could come to only one end. It is always dangerous to attribute human suffering to human sin but is always safe to say that the nation that rebels against God is on the way to disaster.

Life Application: We live in a world that is hell-bent, so we must keep our relationship with God intact. If heaven is your goal, then you must keep your eyes focused on Jesus and Heaven. Pray for those who are unsaved, and be ready for the rapture call.

 

Praise/Prayer: Dear Father, seeing that we do not know when the rapture call will be made help us to stay in a ready condition all the time. I don't want to miss Heaven. Being with You in Heaven is what I live for. I have no other equal desire. I want to see people saved because I want to see them in Heaven around Your throne. Amen!