Luke 12 - Indepthbible.org

2535(...continued)terrible divine judgment upon Judah that followed as a result, and He is making it into a graphicsymbol for what is happening to first-century Israel because of its rejection of God's message thatHe was delivering to them.Jesus is not "drawing a road-map" of the world to come, or giving his disciples a "geographylesson" concerning the world beyond the grave, although His language has been used inthis way by numerous Jewish and Christian writers in succeeding centuries, who have changedHis language from “Valley of the Son / Sons of Hinnom” into “hell,” and have graphically pictured"tours of hell"--see Martha Himmelfarb's Tours of Hell, An Apocalyptic Form in Jewish andChristian Literature (Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1983).Later popular authors such as Dante and Milton have taken advantage of this tradition topicture in agonizing detail the various levels of hell (just as Michelangelo’s drawings in the SistineChapel do)--but all of this is foreign to Jesus, and can only be derived from His teaching through acrude literalism in understanding, and through reading much into His statements (especially in thecomparison / parable of the “Rich Man and Lazarus,” Luke 17:19-31), refusing to take them asthe shocking hyperboles that they are intended to be, warning the wealthy Jewish aristocrats oftheir future destruction because of their unconcern for the poor people at their gates.Jesus is using highly symbolical language, rooted in the Jewish Bible's story of God'srelationship with His people, to impress upon His hearers the gravity of the choice which Hisgeneration was making. In confronting Jesus, and His call to share in His universal mission ofseeking, saving love, first-century Israel was being confronted with the ultimate decision betweenlife and death for themselves, their children, and their nation–between a joyful world-wide missionto and acceptance of the nations, and the “Valley of Hinnom”–“Valley of Slaughter”–destruction ofthemselves and their temple!To accept the call of Jesus, and to take His mission and ministry upon themselves, wouldbe to choose life, eternal life; it would mean their entry into the kingdom of God which knows noend, and it would mean their entering into a mission of mercy and the proclamation of good newsto everyone possible in their world, including their Roman occupiers. But to reject God's call inJesus, and to work against that mission, speaking crudely concerning the Spirit (or "Finger ofGod") that was present in that ministry, rather than sharing in it, was to choose the very worst fatepossible for Israel--something far worse than physical death. It would result in their bringing downdestruction upon themselves, their children, and their nation--just like Kings Ahaz and Manassehdid to Judah in the sixth century B.C.But to turn that warning into a roadmap of the future, to be used in depicting an “eternalhell,” with God being in charge of an eternal concentration came and crematorium far worse thananything Hitler ever imagined, is not only mistaken but terribly wrong. The church has done this inorder to “scare the hell” out of people–but such scare tactics are illegitimate, and turn God intoMonster instead of the God of Judgment and Mercy and Love that He truly is–as Jesus goes onto explain as He speaks about God’s care for the tiniest bird, which means we can certainly trustin God’s care for us!1227