hotcoffee
New Member
Matthew 24:15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. 18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. 19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.
a.Matthew 24:15 Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11
The same Bible Study teachers who told me that Daniel was all about the Second Coming, insist that these verses will not take place until Jesus returns. Now that I've read through Daniel, I have to say I don't believe this is so. There are a lot of scholars who also believe that Jesus was telling the disciples what was going to happen in 70AD when Rome destroyed Jerusalem.
Here's a quote from one of the commentaries.
As stated earlier, we can understand this part of Jesus' explanation to refer to the destruction of Judea, which occurred in A.D. 70. Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, who still kept the Law of Moses (Acts 21:17-26), would be caught up in these events and have to flee. They would have to deal with their belief about the Sabbath regulations, if circumstances demanded a flight on that day.
In verse 20 Jesus says that they should pray that this should not happen on the Sabbath. Even today, this is a major problem. According to Chabad.org the use of bikes cars or other means of transportation is prohibited on the Sabbath [or Shabbat]. On top of that, they would only be allowed to walk about a half mile outside the city limits. That just wasn't far enough. Jesus is saying drop everything, don't even go back for your coat and evacuate to the mountains. They would be trapped if they didn't disobey the Law of Moses.
Jesus says in verse 19 that this will be horrible for pregnant and nursing mothers. According to the commentary [linked above] the people in Jerusalem would need to move fast and get to the mountains far from Jerusalem. This would mean that they would have to travel for a long, long, long, way. This type of travel would be physically demanding on a pregnant or nursing mother. There were no cars or trucks, helicopters or planes to use back then.
So what was the abomination that Daniel talked about? According to the commentary I depended on the most, back when reading Daniel, the abomination occurs in 70AD. We know that the Romans actually went into the Temple, stripped it of the Jewish ornaments and temple accoutrements, and raised in stead the pagan symbols and Roman standards.
So Jesus knew that was going to happen.
