Desolating Sacrilege And Great Tribulation
DESOLATING SACRILEGE AND GREAT TRIBULATION
MATTHEW 24:15-28
Jesus warned the Jews what a terrible time it would be when the Roman armies besieged Jerusalem forty years later.
The “desolating sacrilege” of Daniel 8:13; 9:27; 11:31; 12:11 was an idolatrous installation in the temple of God. The event predicted here can scarcely be equated with the victorious Romans’ sacrificing to their standards opposite the east gate of the temple in AD 70 while the building was still ablaze; it precedes the outbreak of war. The attempt to set up an imperial image in the temple in AD 40 would have been a fulfillment had it not been called off. The language suggests some distinct act of colossal blasphemy which would usher in unprecedented distress for the people of God; we may compare what is said of Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:4. “Let the reader understand” (24:15) is as much a challenge to discernment today as it was then (Revelation 13:18); it implies that there is more in the reference than lies on the surface. Instant flight will be necessary, and it will bear hardly on expectant and nursing mothers (24:19); winter would make speedy escape more difficult and a Sabbath would limit the distance that could be covered (24:20; cf. Exodus 16:29b). The historical departure of the church from Jerusalem before the siege of the city appears to have been more leisurely than what is envisaged here.
The “great tribulation” was already foretold in Daniel 12:1, together with deliverance for the elect; the means of deliverance is here stated to be the shortening of its allotted duration (cf. Daniel 12:6ff.). As for 24:23-26, the “deceivers” whose rise is foretold in 24:5 multiplied as the doom of Jerusalem became more imminent, promising victory when there was none. When the Son of Man comes (cf. Daniel 7:13), his advent will be as sudden and unmistakable as the lightning-flash (24:27). 24:28 means that where a situation is ripe for judgment (as then in Jerusalem), there the judgment will fall. The mention of “eagles” instead of the expected “vultures” may be an allusion to the Roman legionary standards.