But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not, (he that reads let him consider [it],) then let those in Judaea flee to the mountains;
Here the Lord turns from general troubles to one clear signal, and everything depends on spotting it in time. Commentators ask three things of this verse. What is the "abomination of desolation"? Why is it standing "where he ought not to be"? And did that sign come true when Jerusalem fell, or is it still ahead?
The phrase is not a general word for wickedness. One writer traces its meaning back to Daniel.
We must look at Daniel's prophecy, which speaks of this abomination. We find it in chapter 12. The word "abomination" simply means idol. It is called the abomination of desolation because it causes the desolation of Jerusalem and of the Jewish people.
So the idol does not just warn that judgment is coming. It is why judgment falls.
Mark does not name the place where the idol stands. One writer notes a second reading of the Greek that changes the picture from a thing to a person.
There is an interesting though doubtful reading in the same verse: "standing where [he] ought not"… If the masculine form is right, it points to the Antichrist, the lawless one of 2 Thessalonians 2:4.
That reading is offered as possible, not certain. Commentators differ over whether the words describe the idol or the person behind it.
The parenthesis breaks into the Lord's own sentence and speaks to anyone reading it. Reading and understanding are not the same act.
Clearly many who read it might not understand. At the least our Lord warns those who read to make sure they enter into His thought: "Let the reader understand." He never discourages reading; He wants understanding. He foresaw the confusion that would come over the minds of men, even of His own disciples. He knew there would be all sorts of ideas floating about, especially about prophecy, so that many children of God get it wrong, and many more dread the subject.
So the Lord wants His people to study prophecy, not avoid it. Daniel 12 is where this sign is explained.
Many treat the destruction of Jerusalem as the fulfilment. One writer argues that the timing rules this out, and points forward to Antichrist's reign.
The destruction of Jerusalem, with all its horrors, may have foreshadowed the future, but it in no way fulfils the prophecy of this time of trouble. This passage teaches that the Lord will come to earth right after the great tribulation. Clearly the Lord did not come after the destruction of Jerusalem. And there cannot be two times of tribulation "such as has not been from the beginning." Daniel tells us that this time of trial for the Jewish nation will happen during the reign of Antichrist, who will be welcomed by the nation that rejected their own Messiah (John 5:43). During his reign the most terrible form of idolatry will be set up, and the Lord calls it "the abomination of desolation."
So did the verse say nothing to the disciples of that day? Another writer sees the open wording as deliberate. His text reads "where it ought not."
"Where it ought not" is, I believe, purposely left open. It gives instruction for ministry for what might happen to them, and also, in its stricter and fuller application, for when the abomination is set up in the last days.
Up to this point the disciples' business was testimony under pressure. The idol ends that period at a stroke.
Having given directions for their patient ministry… the Lord then turns to what concerns their position in the land — the immediate question. When they see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not stand — a matter for the reader to consider — then those in Judea were to flee to the mountains. There might be many busy in testimony in far countries, but those in Judea were to flee. They were to escape at once, without the least delay. The door was now closing (in judgment) on unhappy Israel; it was no time for testimony then.
The sign does double duty. It closes one door and opens the countdown to another event.
An idol will be publicly set up in the sanctuary in Jerusalem — as predicted in Revelation 13:14-15 — an insult to God of the most flagrant kind. That sign will show two things: first, that the time of special affliction spoken of in Daniel 12:1 has begun; second, that the end of the age, and Christ's intervention in His glory, is very near.
- Sign — "abomination" means idol. It is called "of desolation" because it causes Jerusalem's ruin, not just warns of it.
- Read — the Lord tells the reader to understand, not just read. Daniel 12 is where this sign is explained.
- Place — the idol stands in God's own sanctuary. On one reading of the Greek the words describe a person: the lawless one.
- Flee — once the sign appears, testimony in Judea is over. Escape at once is the only order given.
- Then — the sign starts the affliction Daniel foretold and marks Christ's coming in glory as near. He did not come when Jerusalem fell, so the verse still waits.
and him that is upon the housetop not come down into the house, nor enter [into it] to take away anything out of his house;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and him that is in the field not return back to take his garment.
The Lord has just told those in Judea to flee to the mountains. Here He shows how fast that flight must be: a coat is not worth the walk home. That one detail raises the real questions. Whom is the Lord warning? When does this happen? And why is there no time to spare?
The command in this verse is not a general call to caution. One event sets it off. Two verses earlier the Lord calls it the abomination standing where it ought not.
The setting up of this abomination will be the culmination of man's hostility to God. It will be the sign that the godly remnant's testimony is over, and that they must flee from Judea to the mountains. There has been nothing in the past, nor will there be in the future, to equal the terrible afflictions of these days.
A cloak was an ordinary man's most basic possession, and doubling back for it would cost only minutes. The Lord rules even that out. Commentators read the scene as total, immediate abandonment.
Flight has to be instant. There is not a moment to lose. The man on the housetop must not stop to pick up anything in the house, however precious. The man working in the fields must not go home for his clothes. Instant flight is the urgent need of the moment. Besides that, everything must give place.
These instructions fit one small piece of land and one set of circumstances. The physical detail settles it. This is not the Christian's hope of going up to meet the Lord.
The point here is escape, because it is not safe to remain. Trouble is coming like nothing before it. Those who refuse to worship the idol will be put to death, and many who worship it will be besieged and carried off as captives. So the Lord warns His disciples to flee, so that this trouble may not reach them. All this has nothing to do with the Christian's hope of going up to heaven to meet the Lord "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." What would be the sense in telling a Christian not to come down from the housetop at that moment? Would it matter whether he was at the top or the bottom of the house? So it is clear that the Lord speaks here only of the Jew who sees this most startling sign of Satan's power. The Lord orders him to escape, at the risk of his life. It is much more like Lot and his family going out of Sodom than Abraham watching from a distance with the Lord.
The geography leads to the same conclusion. A warning tied to one region can only concern the people who live there.
All this instruction is clearly for people living in Judea. Readers who insist on seeing the Church of God in this chapter run into difficulties in every detail of the prophecy. Is the Church of God shut up in one land, that such signs should be of use? Is not the Church found in every quarter of the earth? Once it is seen that the godly in Judea are in view, everything is simple and clear.
The order to drop everything and run can sound harsh. Look again at who gives it, and why.
As always, the Lord thinks of His own in the middle of trials and afflictions. He warns them, He instructs them, and He cares for them. He thinks of the workmen in the field and the women in the home, and He is not unmindful of the weather.
Some read the whole passage as fulfilled when Jerusalem fell to Rome. Writers answer from the speed this verse demands. They also point to Luke's account, which gives the same warning but drops these details.
Luke prophesies the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans eighteen centuries ago. There the Lord gives the same command to flee to the mountains, but the sign is different — "Jerusalem surrounded by armies." Luke also leaves out these later directions; they would be plainly out of place. Escaping the destroying armies needed no such rapid and instant flight as we have here.
- Sign. The flight begins at a signal — the abomination standing where it ought not — which marks the end of the godly remnant's testimony in Judea.
- Speed. The signal demands instant obedience. No prized thing in the house, and no coat in the field, is worth the delay.
- Scope. The housetop, the field, the mountains of Judea — every detail ties this warning to one land and one people. The Church is found in every quarter of the earth.
- Care. The same Lord who commands the flight thinks of those who must run: the workers in the field, the women at home, even the weather. He warns because He cares.
- Schedule. Luke's account of Rome's siege leaves this urgency out. So commentators hold that the flight described here still lies ahead.