GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 13:20
The End of the Rope
“I don’t think I can stand much more,” the patient I was visiting at the hospital said. He had indeed experienced a physically tough time. His treatment was successful, however, and he recovered.
Being at the “end of the rope” is not an unusual experience. Someone quipped that when one gets there, one should tie a knot in the end of the rope and hold on. Yeah—often easier said than done.
Jesus described to his audience the future of Jerusalem, and in fact, for all of Palestine during the coming revolt. “For those days will be tribulation, such a time as has not happened from the beginning of creation, which God created, until now, and will never ever be again. And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no flesh would have survived, but because of the elect, whom he elected, he cut short the days.” (Mark 13:19-20) Within three days, the Roman army reached Jerusalem and established thirteen garrisons that formed a perimeter five miles deep around the city. There was fighting among factions within the city, killing among faction leaders, and the destruction of food supplies. The suffering was horrendous. Jesus said that unless the days were shortened, no one would survive.
The Roman siege lasted about five months. Josephus’ explanations for the brevity of the siege were his own intervention, Titus’ inclination to clemency, and Titus’ attachment to Bernice, a Jewess, the sister of Agrippa. Jesus, on the other hand, said the siege would be cut short because of the elect within the city—believers who could not escape and others who became believers. It’s difficult to imagine that those within the city thought the siege would be brief.
Jesus did offer hope in this gloomy picture. He said that the Father would show mercy to Jerusalem because of the elect; the word translated “elect” comes from a compound term meaning “to call out.”When a believer is “at his wits’ end” or “the end of the rope,” that believer is still the Father’s called-out one.
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