Matthew 10:16-23 ~ you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Matthew 10:16-23

 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷ Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸  and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. ²⁰  For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹  Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²²  and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  

²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

How often we hear people say they don't want to be a Christian because God might call them to move to China or some place and be a missionary. What they are really saying is that suffering is to be avoided.

When Hallelujah, because anyone who'd raise their hand to suffer is very unusual. I feel depressed just reading the parts of Corinthians about suffering. I once heard a woman on a Christian radio literally weep, not in weakness, but in agony about being a missionary to a very despondent, forlorn area of the world. And her husband was very happy to be there. Well, she and her husband were not being wise. If there was a need there, they are saying God could not find another person. We are not Jesus, but I tell you what, we should all pray for that woman who did suffer and did hard work. And for the area of the world it was. 

(The woman was wise to tell is how it was with her, the Church found someone excited to go there. As a result of the radio broadcast. Her husband was wise to let her speak her heart.) 

We will all face times and situations that we'd prefer not to be there. Sometimes we are called to do the hard work. And stay. And other times it is time to do like the passage says and "move to the next." But isn't the last part of the passage important!!!! 

It says do not stay in times of anxiety. It says they will fade and there will be another opportunity. And then,  a very important thing. The most important thing. Salvation. It is Jesus who comes. We are not the salvation, we work to help salvation. To the best of our limited ability. Salvation comes from God. 

All this passage builds up. In the end, God's work is God's. We do what we can. It is exactly what it says on a memorial tablet for John Wesley and his brother, Charles Wesley, in their father's English Church. "God's work goes on, it is his workmen who go home." Or close enough. 

Moses did not lead us into the Promised Land. David didn't stay King forever. David did not build the first Temple. It is God's work - Jesus did the part we need. We rely upon Him.  We were saying in Bible Study - we all wish Moses did. We wish David did. God is telling us - the pressure is off of us. It is God's work. 

We do exactly what we can. We will look to be innocent, as possible, and we look to be wise in thinking how we speak. And when we cannot accomplish salvation for others;  we know we are in charge of only what God brings to us.

1 John 4:10

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:16

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 5:3

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

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