Having given a general description of conditions preceding His return and the end of the present age, Jesus next described one particular event that would be the greatest sign of all.
24:15 "Therefore"or "So"(Gr. oun) ties this pericope very closely to the preceding one. The "abomination of desolation,"or "the abomination characterized by desolation,"is a term Daniel used in Daniel 8:13; 9:27; 11:31; and 12:11. It describes something that because of its abominable character causes the godly to desert the temple on its account.882In Daniel 11:31 the prophet referred to Antiochus Epiphanes as an abomination that caused desolation. He proved to be this when he erected an altar to Zeus over the brazen altar in Jerusalem and proceeded to offer a swine on it. In the Bible the Greek word translated "abomination"(bdeluyma) describes something particularly detestable to God that He rejects.883It often refers to heathen gods and the articles connected with idolatry.884In the contexts of Daniel's references it designates an idol set up in the temple.
Jesus urged the reader of Daniel's references to the abomination of desolation, particularly the ones dealing with a future abomination of desolation (Dan. 9:27; 12:11), to understand their true meaning. Jesus further stressed the importance of these prophecies by referring to Daniel as "the prophet."Matthew's inclusion of the phrases "the abomination of desolation,"which Luke omitted, and "the holy place,"which Mark and Luke omitted, were appropriate in view of his Jewish audience.
Daniel 9:24-27 predicted that from the time Artaxerxes issued his decree allowing the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem under Nehemiah's leadership until the coming of Israel's Messiah 69 weeks (lit. sevens) of years would elapse. This 483 year period ended when Jesus entered Jerusalem in the Triumphal Entry (21:8-11). Because Israel refused to accept Jesus as her King, the events that Daniel prophesied would happen in the seventieth week (i.e., the remaining seven years in his prophecy) would not follow immediately. What Daniel predicted would happen in those seven years was unique national distress for Israel (Dan. 12:1). It would commence when a wicked ruler would sign a covenant with Israel (Dan. 9:27). After three and a half years, the ruler would break the covenant and terminate worship in the temple. He would end temple worship by setting up an abominable idol there (cf. 2 Thess. 2:4; Rev. 13:14-15).
Some interpreters have concluded that we should not take Daniel's prophecy of the seventieth week literally and or as still future. Some of them believe the abomination of desolation refers to the Zealots' conduct in the temple before the Romans' destroyed it is 70 A.D.885This view seems unlikely since the Zealots did not introduce idolatry into the temple. This view, therefore, seems to water down the force of "abomination."Another view is that when the Romans brought their standards bearing the image of Caesar into the temple and offered sacrifices to their gods they set up the abomination that Daniel predicted.886The main problem with this view is that Jesus told the Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea to flee when the abomination appeared in the temple (vv. 16-20). However when the Romans finally desecrated the temple in 70 A.D. most of the Jews had already left Jerusalem and Judea.
". . . there is reasonably good tradition that Christians abandoned the city, perhaps in A.D. 68, about halfway through the siege."887
Thus Jesus' warning would have been meaningless.
There are several reasons why the abomination of desolation must be a future event in God's eschatological program. First, verse 15 is in a context of verses that describes events that have not yet happened (vv. 14-21; cf. v. 29). Second, Daniel's seventieth week with its unique tribulation has not yet happened. Third, Mark described Jesus saying that the abomination of desolation would stand (masculine participle estekota) as a person who set himself up as God in the temple (Mark 13:14). This has never happened since Jesus made this prophecy. Fourth, other later revelation points to the future Antichrist as the abomination of desolation (2 Thess. 2:3-4; Rev. 13:11-18).888
24:16-20 When the abomination of desolation appears, the Jews living in Jerusalem and Judea should flee immediately (cf. Luke 17:31; Rev. 12:14). His influence would extend far beyond Jerusalem. They must seek refuge in places where they can escape his persecution. They must not even take time to retrieve possessions from their houses as they flee. Pregnant women and nursing mothers will have a hard time because their physical conditions will limit their mobility. Weather would make flight harder in the winter, and observant Jews would seek to discourage travel on the Sabbath.
24:21 Jesus explained the reason for such hasty retreat. A tribulation much greater than any the world had ever seen or would ever see would be about to break on the Jews. This description fits the Old Testament pictures of the Great Tribulation, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation (Rev. 11:2; 13:5).889It is not a fitting description of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., as bad as that was. Certainly the Nazi holocaust in which an estimated 6,000,000 Jews perished and the Russian pogroms in which perhaps 20,000,000 died were worse times than the destruction of Jerusalem. Yet the Great Tribulation will be the worst of all times for the Jews. The coming distress would be unprecedented in its suffering (cf. Dan. 12:1; Rev. 7:14).
"In a century that has seen two world wars, now lives under the threat of extinction by nuclear holocaust, and has had more Christian martyrs than in all the previous nineteen centuries put together, Jesus' prediction does not seem farfetched. But the age will not run its course; it will be cut short."890
24:22 Unless God ends (Gr. ekolobothesan, "to terminate or cut off") the Tribulation, no living thing will remain alive.
"This does not mean that the period will be less than three-and-a-half years, but that it will be definitely terminated suddenly by the second coming of Christ."891
The antecedent of "those days"is the days Jesus just described in verses 15-21. However, He will shorten them a little out of compassion. Later revelation of this period in the Book of Revelation helps us appreciate the truth of Jesus' statement here (cf. Rev. 6-18). Not just people but all forms of life (Gr. pasa sarx, lit. "all flesh") will experience drastic cutbacks during the Great Tribulation (cf. Rev. 6:7-8; 16:13-21). Antichrist will target the Jews and then Jews who believe in Jesus particularly (Rev. 12:13-17), but great multitudes of people will perish because of the distress that he precipitates. The "elect"are believers (cf. 20:16; 22:14; 24:22, 24, 31).
Many interpreters, however, take this verse as describing the present age rather than a future tribulation.892Weighing the distress of the present age against that of the Great Tribulation, I must conclude that verse 22 and this whole passage describes the future Great Tribulation, not the present age.
