On Friday January 2nd, the Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro stood smiling in front of photographers in Caracus’ Presidential Palace, shaking hands with a Chinese government envoy. He did not realise that in a few hours, his life was going to change for ever.
That night, the city of Caracus was plunged into darkness as power was cut. Explosions lit the skyline as air defences were bombed, and a fleet of military helicopters swept low over the housetops. At 02:01, American special forces stormed the city’s Fuerte Tiuna military base that housed the president’s home. Nicholas Maduro and his wife fled to their steel safe room but were caught and handcuffed before they could make it inside. A few hours later, Maduro found himself in a New York prison, over 2000 miles away.
There’s an English idiom “like a thief in the night” that’s defined as something that happens suddenly and unexpectedly, catching people off guard. That’s how the American raid on Venezuela could be described.
The phrase “like a thief in the night” originated in the Bible, where it’s used to describe Jesus’ second coming. The apostle Peter warned that ‘the day of the Lord will come like a thief’ (2 Peter 3:10). Then he added, ‘what sort of people ought you to be?’ (v. 11). He was probably remembering Jesus’ words when he wrote those verses. Jesus had said, “Know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:43-44).
The lesson is that we must prepare ourselves now so that, when Jesus does suddenly return, we are ready and not taken by surprise. When God’s son arrives, it will be too late to make changes to our lives. As Jesus described it for the Jews of his day, “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out” (Luke 13:28).
The call rings out through the centuries that if we want to be granted a place in God’s Kingdom, we must prepare today. We need to study the Bible to understand what changes we need to make to our way of life, be baptised, and try to behave like Jesus. If we do that, we will be ready and his return will not take us by surprise. On the other hand, if we’re unprepared, it’s the words of the Old Testament prophet Malachi that will apply: ‘But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap’ (Malachi 3:2).
Please start making your preparation today so that you won’t be taken by surprise in the middle of night and find that it’s suddenly too late to do what God requires. One of Jesus’ parables told of a man whose business was doing exceptionally well. That man put all his efforts into boosting his profits further and thought he had a great future to look forward to. Jesus concluded his story with a stark warning: “God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God” (Luke 12:20-21).
Let’s aim to be “rich toward God” by ensuring we find time to learn about Him. If we keep putting it off, we will be taken by surprise by Jesus’ return. If that happens, it’s likely that a place in God’s Kingdom will not be ours to enjoy.
Ian Coates