Jesus comes like a thief to the unsuspecting, the sleepy (Revelation 3:3).\u00a0<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t simply mean that His coming is a surprise. It means that He comes to take. That\u2019s what thieves do.<\/p>\n
To prevent this, the angel of the church at Sardis has to \u201ckeep\u201d (tereo<\/em>) or guard what he had received.\u00a0<\/p>\n Israel had to \u201ckeep\u201d the statutes of Yahweh, and to guard the treasures of God\u2019s house. They had to guard those against attacks of all sorts, not least the threat that Yahweh Himself might come and take His gifts back.\u00a0<\/p>\n A sleepy Israel would soon be a poorer Israel, as Yahweh comes to take from those who have but who fail to guard. In the end, that\u2019s just what Yahweh did \u2013 He sent Nebuchadnezzar and later Titus to take away the treasures of Israel that Israel had become weary of guarding.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jesus comes like a thief to the unsuspecting, the sleepy (Revelation 3:3).\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t simply mean that His coming is a surprise. It means that He comes to take. That\u2019s what thieves do. To prevent this, the angel of the church at Sardis has to \u201ckeep\u201d (tereo) or guard what he had received.\u00a0 Israel had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446,447,448],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apocalyptic","category-guard","category-thief"],"yoast_head":"\n