By Will Kynes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Samford University
KNOW WHAT’S COMING
Matthew 24:15–22
Though Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden light (Matt. 11:30), Scripture does not promise following Him will guarantee a life of peace and prosperity. Instead, as both the history of Israel and the history of the church demonstrate, obedience to God often inspires opposition and oppression. Are we prepared? Where will we find hope to endure?
The desecration of the temple signals the coming end. (15–16)
The “abomination that causes desolation” was prophesied by Daniel (9:27, 11:31, 12:11) and fulfilled in 167 B.C., when the foreign ruler Antiochus IV, who took the title “Epiphanes” or “God Manifest,” set up an altar of Zeus upon the altar of God in the temple. However, like much of the imagery Jesus uses in this chapter, this image of devastating desecration has further resonance with both the suffering that continually threatens Christians and that which is associated with the end times.
Paul also uses this image to describe the “man of lawlessness,” who, before the Day of Judgment, will “exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:4). In A.D. 70, the Romans did destroy and desecrate the temple, and Christians fled to the mountains, as this passage describes.
But even as these two historical events indicate the desire of worldly rulers to take God’s place, whether literally or not, and the suffering this often brings for those who believe, is a continual threat. If we’re honest, we may even see this urge to usurp God in our own hearts.
The distress that follows will come suddenly. (17–20)
This sudden threat that accompanies the desolation of the temple should inspire immediate, unhesitating and unhindered flight. Jesus instructs His followers not to retrieve items from their houses or even to grab cloaks left behind. He laments the suffering it will bring upon pregnant women and nursing mothers. He encourages His disciples to pray that this cataclysm does not occur in the winter, when travel will be more difficult and cold conditions less tolerable, or on the Sabbath, likely because, for Matthew’s largely Jewish Christian audience, this would make Sabbath observance more difficult.
The urgency here parallels the angel’s instructions to Lot and his family before the destruction of Sodom (Gen. 19:17). The spiritual application of such warnings is to be absolutely committed to fleeing God’s wrath through faith in Christ, “throw[ing] off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” (Heb. 12:1) and following Christ without looking back (Luke 9:57–62).
The time of distress will be so severe that God will mercifully cut it short. (21–22)
Whether the “great distress,” unparalleled in world history, refers hyperbolically to the siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 or eschatologically to final judgment, Jesus makes clear to His disciples that affliction awaits. Yet as Daniel and other apocalyptic texts consistently affirm, God is sovereign, greater than the great tribulations that threaten His people. For the sake of the “elect,” those he has chosen, He will limit the suffering, thereby providing hope.
Scripture does not guarantee freedom from affliction, but it does consistently promise that, though these tribulations may be great, we serve a God who is greater still.
In Daniel’s visions, he sees the Ancient of Days sitting on a throne (7:9). The Son of Man, who comes to him, “was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14).
We see Christ’s triumph celebrated in Revelation, as “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” cry out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (7:9–10).
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