Who Shall We Run To?

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Judgment, God’s

In the days of the pioneers, when men saw that a prairie fire was coming, what would they do? Since not even the fastest of horses could outrun it, the pioneers took a match and burned the grass in a designated area around them. Then they would take their stand in the burned area and be safe from the threatening prairie fire. As the roar of the flames approached, they would not be afraid. Even as the ocean of fire surged around them there was no fear, because fire had already passed over the place where they stood.

When the judgment of God comes to sweep men and women into hell for eternity, there is one spot that is safe. Nearly two thousand years ago the wrath of God was poured on Calvary. There the Son of God took the wrath that should have fallen on us. Now, if we take our stand by the cross, we are safe for time and eternity.

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Mark 13:19–23 ESV

19 For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21 And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23 But be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand.

This passage was not a part of lat week’s Gospel reading, nor is it a part of today’s reading. It is the bridge between the two, and it provides the context through which we view what will happen, and the response of the Christian versus the non-Christian to the notion of the return of Christ. For the Christian, the events surrounding the Lord’s Return pull him closer to the Savior, while for the non-Christian, those same events confirm the utter futility of trusting in anything other than some manifestation of power.

Last week we watched as a Kenosha jury sought to determine their community’s best response to the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, an 18 year old white teenager on trial for killing two white men and wounding a third, during the chaotic civil disorder that took place in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black resident, by a white police officer who was responding to a domestic violence call.

Responding officers looked up a warrant and found that Mr. Blake had been charged with criminal trespass, sexual assault of the same woman and two counts of disorderly conduct. Under department policy, “the officers had no choice but to arrest Mr. Blake due to the felony warrant,” said Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley.

“When they first arrived, officers spoke briefly with Mr. Blake, who was evasive and tried to leave,” the prosecutor said. “Officers scuffled with Mr. Blake, who broke away, then fired two sets of stun-gun probes at him, which he pulled out, and eventually tried stunning him directly.” Noble Wray, the first Black chief of the Madison, Wis., police department and an expert in police use of force incidents who was brought in as a consultant to the prosecutor, said that “Mr. Sheskey used an appropriate escalation of force in dealing with a noncooperative arrest subject. And when the officer was threatened with a knife by a person getting into a car whose ownership was in dispute and with three children inside who might be endangered, he was justified in firing shots to stop the threat,”

My next words chronicle two responses to that event. In the first, The Atlantic’s staff writer Graeme Wood describes “a defense of looting:”

“[On August 26,] National Public Radio’s Code Switch published an interview with Vicky Osterweil, the [transgender] female author of In Defense of Looting: A Riotous History of Uncivil Action. NPR summarizes the book as an argument that “looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society.” … “Looting is good, she (sic) says, because it exposes a deep truth about the great American confidence game, which is that “without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free.” She came to this conclusion six years ago, and in her book, which is written “in love and solidarity with looters the world over,” she defends this view as ably as anyone could.”...

Osterweil’s argument is simple. The “so-called” United States was founded in “cis-hetero-patriarchal racial capitalist” violence. That violence produced our current system, particularly its property relations, and looting is a remedy for that sickness. “Looting rejects the legitimacy of ownership rights and property, the moral injunction to work for a living, and the ‘justice’ of law and order,” she writes. Ownership of things—not just people—is “innately, structurally white supremacist. The rest of the remedy is more violence, which she celebrates as an underrated engine for social justice. The destruction of businesses is an “experience of pleasure, joy, and freedom,” Osterweil writes. It is also a form of “queer birth.” ... “They rip, tear, burn, and destroy to give birth to a new world.”

Neil MacFarquhar, wrote the following description of what brought Kyle Rittenhouse to Kenosha that fateful day:

“Tapping on his cellphone with a sense of purpose, Kevin Mathewson, a former wedding photographer and onetime city alderman in Kenosha, Wis., did not slow down to fix his typos as he dashed off an online appeal to his neighbors. It was time, he wrote on Facebook in late August, to “take up arms to defend out City tonight from the evil thugs.”

One day earlier, hundreds of residents had poured onto the streets of Kenosha to protest the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake. Disturbed by the sight of buildings in flames when he drove downtown, Mr. Mathewson decided it was time for people to arm themselves to protect their houses and businesses.

To his surprise, some 4,000 people responded on Facebook. Within minutes, the Kenosha Guard had sprung to life.

His call to arms — along with similar calls from others inside and outside the state — propelled civilians bearing military-style rifles onto the streets, where late that night a gunman scuffling with protesters shot three of them, two fatally. The Kenosha Guard then evaporated just as quickly as it arose.”

Mark 13:24–31 ESV

24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25 and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. 28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

The world is in a bad place, the culmination of over six millennia of sin ruling and wreaking havoc in the lives of individuals, families, communities, countries, the whole world. The wages of sin is death, and “in the day that” Adam, created in the image and likeness of God, chose to “eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” the world that God created began to experience the impact: “dying, you shall surely die.” The Law of God, which is “forever settled in the heavens,” was powerless to bring forth godliness; it could only reveal the standard and show how far we have strayed from it. It took the Gospel with its promise of justification and sanctification through Christ’s death and resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish that divine purpose.

Isaiah 51:4–6 ESV

4 “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

What else can be done with a world where sin abounded for so long? Can we just “slap on a coat of paint” of exhortations to “be good for goodness’ sake,” and think that we can fix what is broken, the alienation that the entire creation experiences because we who were created to be God’s image-bearers rejected His image, seeking to form our own, based upon the words found in 1 John 2:16 “the lust of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life?”

Mark 13:32–37 ESV

32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

The holiness of God insisted upon justice, the righteousness of God demanded satisfaction, and the love of God provided full payment in the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The message of the Gospel that we have been called to proclaim invites all to recognize that God has laid the foundation for what comes next: the bringing forth of the Kingdom which cannot be shaken, where righteousness dwells. That message invites all to make ready by hearing and believing the Good News, trusting that, as God was faithful in sending His Son as the propitiation for our sins and sending the Holy Spirit as the seal of our sanctification to Himself, He will also be faithful in sending His Son again, to gather together all things in Christ, to establish a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells. This is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s purpose, as it was in the beginning, and it was important. Christ came because He wanted to and needed to, and He will return for the same reason. We could not justify ourselves, and we cannot purify ourselves, and we cannot recreate ourselves, no matter how many lies we tell ourselves.

But God!

God makes all things new, for all things are possible with Him. God gives us love, unearned and unquenchable, God gives us joy unspeakable and full of glory, God gives us peace like a river, that attends our way. In the face of all that we face today, God gives us a promise the the world cannot take away, that it will be well with those who put their trust in Him and abide under the shadow of the Almighty, the shadow of the Crucified One.

So let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.