“Offenses will surely come…” Luke 17:1

In Luke 17 Jesus introduces the subject of the Kingdom of God and of His return when teaching the disciples. It is in this context that He begins His discourse with a warning to guard our hearts from offenses. He follows with a message about offering forgiveness to someone who has sinned against you even up to seven times in one day, and then with a parable warning servants not to entertain the idea that the Master was treating them unfairly. In other words, He was telling them they needed to be careful not to get offended, not just by the actions of others, but by the actions of God Himself. The chapter closes with a picture of the sufferings and chaos that will accompany the hour of His return.

There is logic to this sequence. These are not unrelated, pieced-together narratives. As sure as the closing of the Age will be marked by wars and rumors of wars or earthquakes and disasters, the Last Days will also be a time when the people of God will be shaken to the very core of their beings. What you believe, how you believe, and to what depth, will all be tested. How you allow the actions of others, or even the actions of God Himself to affect you, will face intense scrutiny. Whether you stand or fall in that hour will largely hinge upon your ability to go through the fire and not become offended:

“They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated…And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.” Mt 24:9,10

It was the same when Jesus came the first time. Isaiah had prophesied that Jesus would offend people, which was later quoted by Paul and by Peter as the primary reason why the Pharisees rejected Jesus. He said:

“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Rom 9:33

The word in the Greek which is used is skandalon (v. -itzo) from which we get the word scandal, but which originally was used to describe a trap or tripping device causing people to stumble and fall. Time and again, we see that people would become offended by Jesus’ teachings and walk away.

“So they were offended at Him…” Mat 13:57

His words just did not fit their preconceived notions of what God should say. His actions were discordant with how they believed God should act: with the cross, of course, being the greatest scandal (offense) of all (Gal 5:11). Even as they left in disgust, Jesus would often turn to His own disciples and ask them, “Does this offend (i.e.scandalize) you?” (John 6:61) If you don’t completely understand Me or what I am doing, are you going to walk away too? This is what Jesus asked His followers then; and this is what He is asking us now as well.

This is serious stuff. Guarding our hearts from offense, whether in our relationships with others, when we feel mistreated, betrayed, hoodwinked, etc., or whether our anger is directed at God because we perceive that He has allowed great injustice to be heaped upon us, our ability to stand and not stumble in these hard times is dependent upon how we manage offense.

There is an interesting story in David’s life which enshrines God’s perspective on offenses. In 1 Sam 25 is the story about a wealthy man Nabal, whose name appropriately is translated as “Fool”. While David was a fugitive from Saul, he and his men stayed near Nabal and despite being in desperate need of supplies, and easily having the manpower to obtain these needs by force over Nabal’s men, David did not violate this trust in any way, coming instead to Nabal in an honorable way to ask if provisions could be made for their basic needs. When Nabal rudely refused, at first David was startled and vowed to retaliate. As he gathered his men in pursuit, Nabal’s wife Abigail quickly and wisely interceded, bringing all the supplies David needed for his men. Her reason?

“that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have
shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself.” 1 Sam 25:31

In other words, God cared so much about David’s soul, that he moved upon Abigail to perform this deed in order to ward off any residue of offense from David’s heart.

Offenses will surely come. As the hour grows darker, and Satan’s desperation grows more intense, horrors and mass-scale injustices will abound in the earth. As it was in the days of the Pharisees, if we only bring our narrow textbook understandings of who God is and how He acts as pretexts for interpreting our times, we will stumble upon the same Rock as they did, missing God, and becoming offended. As it was in the days of Job, those who think they have God figured out will play the fools just at his friends did.

Beloved, in the same way these friends could not conceive of a God who would allow suffering, whose answers to the injustices which had befallen Job were completely misguided, when the earth begins to reel and rock like a drunken man, when the end-time shaking uproots and overturns, and violence, darkness, and deception abound, will we be ready? When the famines and pestilences are unleashed, will we still be able to sing songs about a good, good Father? When some of the most righteous and godly among us are taken out as martyrs in the days of the Antichrist’s revenge, will we run, or hide, or give up?

The Church of Jesus Christ, His glorious Bride, is told to make herself ready. One of the most important decisions you and I can make in this hour is that we will not succumb to offenses. If we are offended by something the pastor said, or our spouse, or a friend, or people in the church, how are we ever going to guard our hearts from becoming offended when gross darkness is the weather forecast for the unforeseeable future? If we allow ourselves to become angry with God during today’s trials and tribulations, what will happen to us when they grow in frequency and intensity? Will we stand, or will we stumble?

Thankfully, we will not face all of these “enemies” with the strength of today. As darkness increases, His glory and light will rise upon us in greater luminance. The grace we know today will be magnified to empower you to rise to any challenge the enemy has planned against you. The eclipse of Satan will be met with the rise of angelic hosts who will not leave us defenseless. And as God raised up Abigail for David, He will also raise up messengers to steer as away from reacting out of anger, or of harboring offense.

We must do our part. While these are exciting times, and we will see displays of God’s power and the perfecting of His Church and plan in unprecedented ways, the scope of tribulations and evil foretold in the scriptures should also cause us to shudder. For this reason, a call is going forth for us to gird up our loins. While the thought of these end-time scenarios are ominous and threatening, the greatest enemy may not be the devil you expect. As it was at His first coming, offenses may well leave the most casualties before His Second Coming too. We do well to arm ourselves with the same mind as the Apostle Paul in his defense before Felix:

“This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and men.” Acts 24:16