The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 443

Vers. 15-28.-Pmictiom of the tuarer end: 7'ie dutrvction of J6f'Ulalem. I. THI!: wABNINGB OF THE OOMING END. 1. 7'ie sign. The Lord returns to the first question of the disciples," When shall these things be?" His eye had been looking forward in prophetic vision through the process of the ages ; now he returns to the nearer end, to that awful catastrophe which, to the Jews, seemed like the very end of the world-the destruction of the holy city and of the temple, the dwelling-place of God, the centre of their whole religions system. He warns his followers of the horrors of that awful time. The guilty city mUBt perish; the Lord's people mUBt come out of her, that they be not partakers of her sins, and receive not of her plagues, The end of Judaism was to be to the Christian Church the beginning of a more vigoroUB and independent life. The Jewish ChrisUans must separate themselves from their unbe- lieving brethren; they mUBt escape for their life, as Lot fled out of Sodom. They would know the time ; for they would see the abomination of desolation, spoken of through Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place : this was to be the signal for their flight. The Lord emphatically asserts the authority of Daniel's prophecy. He bids us read it with care and thoughtfulness. He says that this prediction, difficult and perplexing as it may seem, was given hy the Spirit of God, spoken. through Daniel, We cannot now with absolute certainty say what "the abomination of desolation" was -whether some profanation of the temple by the Romans, or some awful deed of the Jews themselves, such as those horrors and blasphemies related by Josephus. Plainly it was some definite event understood by contemporary Christians, recognized as the fulfilment of the Lord's words and as the signal for departure. 2. Flight must be immediate. Christians were to flee at once to the mountains before the investment of the city, as we are told they did flee over the mountains of Gilead to Pella, in the north of Penea.. Not a moment was to be lost when once the abomination of desolation was Been in the holy place. All Christians, whether then in the city or in the surrounding country, were to flee at once for their lives; they were not to linger for any purpose, to remove their property or to fetch their clothes. 'l'he body ie more than raiment. It was a wa.rning to Jewish Christiana then; it is a warning to all Christians still. No earthly considerations must keep the awakened soul from fleeing at once to Christ. We hear hie warning words; they reach our hearts as perhaps they have never reached them heretofore. We see the abomination of desolation et.anding in the holy place. This world of ours was once holy; God pronounced it "very good." But the abomination of desolation ie in it-sin in all its forms; uncleanness and dishonesty and cruelty, unbelief and selfishness. The converted Christian must arise at once; he must flee into the mountains, to the clear and lofty height of communion with God, inw fellowship with Christ above the dull and heavy atmosphere of this wicked world. We must flee thither, and that at once. If we delay through lingering desires of earthly things, it may be too late. 3. DijJi,cuUia and lion-or, of the tVtM. The flight would be sudden and without time for preparation ; hindrances of whatever kind would be full of danger. The Lord expresses hie compassion for the afflicted," Woe unto them that are with child I " The "woe" here, as in some other places, ie an utterance of sym• pa thy. We may cast our care upon him in our troubles; he careth for us. And we may pray for the alleviation of those troubles; he allows it. Only before the prayer for present relief, for daily bread, let us pray, "Thy will !>e don~;'.' th~n we m&f safel,Y ask for such things as are needful for the body. The JeW1Sh Christians in those times of distress might pray that their flight should not be in the winter nor on the sabbath ciay. The Lord, indeed, had not encouraged the superstitious o?servance of the sabbath; Christians afterwards were to keep the first day of the week m place of the seventh. But the early Jewish Christians were,. all zealoUB of the Law" (Acts xxi. 20), and the scrupuloUBness of those among whom they lived would cause many hindrances ~nd difficulties. It was in the highest degree desirable that their flight should be unim- peded, for the misery of those days would be awful Buch tribulation never was, n?r would be ever again. The Lord's words are strong, bot not stronger than thoso 1u which Josephus describes the actual horrors of thuicge and fall of Jel'U8alem. Nllvcr. cu. xx1v. 1-51.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 449