Mat 24:14-20 | KingComments | STEP | They will experience for themselves how great the hatred against Christ is, for the enemies will indulge their hatred against Christ on those who confess Him. Nowhere in the earth will there be a nation who will treat them kindly. At that time, many will be become public as false confessors. Such persons will then fight in the army of the enemy against the true disciples. But there will also be hatred between the enemies themselves. They do act as if united, but they are not. However, the difficulties and trials do not only come from the outside, they also come from the inside. The false confessors will not only become public through external threats. False confessors will also become recognizable because they will follow the many false prophets that will be there at that time, blind as they are for being misled. Together with a turning away from God and His truth lawlessness will increase, which is the rejection of any authority. At the same time, the love of the many will grow cold, for selfishness will reign supreme. In this terrible time, with all its terrors and deception, it is a matter of enduring to the end. There is a beginning of the birth pangs, but there is also an end to the birth pangs! Those who endure are those who have a living connection with the Lord Jesus, their Messiah. When the end comes, the kingdom will be preached everywhere. It is the kingdom that will be established on earth, as John the baptist and the Lord Himself preached it. The establishment of the authority of Christ, Who went into heaven, will be preached throughout the world to test the obedience of the nations. Those who have ears to hear will see the object of their faith, Christ, in His glory on earth.

‏ Matthew 24:14-20

Endurance to the End

They will experience for themselves how great the hatred against Christ is, for the enemies will indulge their hatred against Christ on those who confess Him. Nowhere in the earth will there be a nation who will treat them kindly. At that time, many will be become public as false confessors. Such persons will then fight in the army of the enemy against the true disciples. But there will also be hatred between the enemies themselves. They do act as if united, but they are not.

However, the difficulties and trials do not only come from the outside, they also come from the inside. The false confessors will not only become public through external threats. False confessors will also become recognizable because they will follow the many false prophets that will be there at that time, blind as they are for being misled.

Together with a turning away from God and His truth lawlessness will increase, which is the rejection of any authority. At the same time, the love of the many will grow cold, for selfishness will reign supreme. In this terrible time, with all its terrors and deception, it is a matter of enduring to the end.

There is a beginning of the birth pangs, but there is also an end to the birth pangs! Those who endure are those who have a living connection with the Lord Jesus, their Messiah. When the end comes, the kingdom will be preached everywhere. It is the kingdom that will be established on earth, as John the baptist and the Lord Himself preached it. The establishment of the authority of Christ, Who went into heaven, will be preached throughout the world to test the obedience of the nations. Those who have ears to hear will see the object of their faith, Christ, in His glory on earth.

The Great Tribulation

To underline the seriousness of the situation in the days preceding His coming, the Lord points to what is spoken of by the prophet Daniel. By this He means parts in the book of Daniel that bring us to the last days (Dan 9:27 ; Dan 11:31 ; Dan 12:11), or the end time (Dan 11:40). The place that the Lord speaks of where these things will play out is Judea, that is Jerusalem and its surroundings. “The holy place” is the temple in Jerusalem. The “abomination of desolation” will be there.

An abomination is an idolatrous image. The abomination of desolation means that the idol will cause desolation. Because of that idolatrous image God will bring great misfortune upon the land through the antichrist, the one who set the image up, to which he also commits himself by showing himself as God (2Thes 2:4). The statue is the image of the beast from the sea and represents the dictator of the restored Roman empire (Rev 13:12-15).

It is a word to the remnant of Israel and not to the church. The Lord tells them that those who are near to that area must flee to the mountains. The mountains will be the only suitable location to hide from the antichrist and his followers. There will be no time to lose. The persecution comes like a storm in the desert. Any delay can be fatal. If you are on the roof, you shouldn’t go back into your house to pick up essential items. If you are on the field, you must not attempt to pick up your cloak that you have placed somewhere else on the field. The watchword is: flee for your life. To give in to any other thought will result in death.

The Lord speaks with compassion about the pregnant women, those who are about to bring new life into the world, and those nursing babies, those who have just brought new life into the world. They are the vulnerable. He even thinks of the weather conditions and religious duties. They must pray that they will play no part. Any obstruction to their flight can be fatal.

He says these things because He knows how terrible that time will be. It will be a time of unparalleled tribulation. There has never been such a thing and never will be. It is a time that, as far as the abominations are concerned, is unparalleled. The Lord emphasizes the horror of that time by saying as a consolation that those days will be shortened. If He did cut those days short, no one would survive that time. This cutting short is made for the sake of the elect. He knows all those who belong to Him and, in view of them, ensures that the maximum suffering is not exceeded (cf. 1Cor 10:13).

He points out once again that this time will be particularly hard because of the false Christs. If, in the midst of the greatest ordeal, people present themselves as those who want to give help, there is a huge temptation to respond to it. Those false Christs and false prophets will present themselves by doing great signs and miracles. It will all seem so real that even the elect are in danger of falling into this deception. They should not do so, especially now that the Lord has told them so in advance. Forewarned is forearmed.

They should not let themselves be lured out of their hiding place by fine words to go to a wilderness or an inner room because the Messiah would be found there. The wilderness, where John preached (Mk 1:4), is not the setting of the Messiah. He is also not in the inner room. They are all traps. When He, the true Messiah, appears, it will be like the lightning that comes from the east and flashes to the west. With this the Lord also answers the question the disciples have asked in Mt 24:3. His coming will be seen everywhere. They only have to pay attention to the ‘flash of lightning’ to know it is He Who comes and not another.

He will come as “the Son of Man”, that is to say to rule over all the earth and not only over Israel. The first acts of His government will be judgmental acts. Where the objects of judgment are, there He will appear, as vultures gather where dead bodies are.