Matthew 24:29-30 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

As I read this over again, my focus changed from those things I have pondered countless times to an issue I have overlooked. It is in this line of verse; all the tribes of the earth mourn. Everyone, all the tribes of earth, will be in the same condition of mourning. What exactly are they going to be mourning?

I am considering the issue of the light being taken away as a source of the common cause. What does light provide? Illumination, vision, a perception of our reality, what we perceive to be our truths. Having all that stripped away, no matter what we believed, can only be received in one way. I was wrong. No matter what they thought, no matter what believed, no matter where they placed their trust, they all came to an understanding that they were wrong.

Then appeared the sign of the Son, a symbol of His identity which is the polar opposite of their wrong condition. They see the truth coming. I do not know how long they will mourn because it is not a mourning like anything they have ever experienced before. I doubt the classic cycle of mourning; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance will occur. They will not have enough time for all that. Because they do not know truth and truth is coming, they will not know what to expect.

We who do believe understand exactly what is about to happen.

The great and terrible day of the Lord is about to fall upon them.

Bereshis 18:5 Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) And I will bring a morsel of bread, and refresh Ye Your hearts; after that Ye shall pass on; because for this purpose are Ye come to Your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

If you are not familiar with the Orthodox Jewish Bible, this is Genesis 18:5. The reason I bring this to you in this version is because of the clarity of wording used associated with purpose. The Lord came to Abraham for a purpose.

Here is the important part to me for today, not the messages so much as Abraham’s actions. If you stop and look at Abraham’s actions prior to the messages being received, you can see covenant communion. All Abraham’s words and actions align themselves with his covenant communion with the Lord.

Now let us skip forward to this present time and our covenant relationship with our Lord. The Old Testament covenant differs greatly from our New Testament covenant. The Lord does not come to us, He abides in us. One thing that has not changed is His purpose. He still speaks to us with purpose, to accomplish two things. He fulfills His Father’s will and He includes us by revealing His mind to us.

This is covenant communion but have we done our part to reflect the same kind of respect of relationship which Abraham showed in Genesis 18?

Jesus said that He no longer calls us servant but rather friend, but does that relinquish us of our responsibility to respect the relationship? Have we taken Him from granted? Do we entreat Him with casual indifference?

He is sharing His life with us. Are we sharing our lives with Him?