Prophetic Prospective Daily Devotional

Our devotional recently was from Matthew 24:1-14 which is a record of the "Olivet Discourse" as reported by the disciple, Matthew. Luke also recorded the "Olivet Discourse", Luke 21:5-38.

Our devotional for today Mark 13:28-37 is a section of Mark's record of the most "profound prophetic conference" ever held on the Earth with Jesus, the Messiah, as the teacher.

As we discussed in the devotional from Matthew, the first portion of the Lord's message dealt with six major "signs" of the soon coming of Jesus Christ, His second coming to the Earth. We drew an interesting parallel between the "signs" Jesus gave, Matthew 24:4-7, and the "seals", the sealed judgments found in Revelation 6.

As we look at Mark's record of the "Olivet Discourse" we bypass additional "signs" that we will look at in another devotional. At the conclusion of the Lord's discourse, He used a parable to emphasize how to recognize the time and nearness of His coming. It's the parable of the "fig tree".

Jesus would often use the natural surroundings of where He was teaching to drive home His point. Let me remind you that this parable is not using the "fig tree" as the nation of Israel.

It's a simple illustration of how in the spring, which was the time of the year when the discourse was given, two days before the spring Feast of Passover. The Lord says to His disciples, "notice that when leaves show up on a bare limb of a fig tree, it means summer is near".

Then Jesus says, "so likewise when ye shall see these things", these things were deception, war, famine, pestilence and earthquakes, the sealed judgments, know that it will be His time to return to Earth.

Our key verse even gets more specific, verse 30. "This generation shall not pass, until all these things be done", Jesus will come back to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

When the Lord referred to "this generation" He was not referring to those with Him that day on the Mount of Olives, they have passed away. Jesus was referring to the generation who "sees these things", the "signs".

Therefore, those people who are seeing "these things", they are the people who will not pass until He comes. The people who are seeing these things are "we" that are alive today. Some of this generation will die but the main group could well be the "generation" that sees Jesus come back to the earth.