Matthew 24:21–29

At the time of the end, the abomination of desolation that Daniel 12:11 speaks of will stand in the holy place. Jerusalem is in question, as verse 16 shows... The setting up of this abomination will be the signal to the godly that the great tribulation He foretold has begun. Their safety lies in fleeing from Jerusalem and Judaea, where the suffering will be fiercest... The Lord was speaking to His disciples, who at that moment were godly Israelites gathered around their Messiah on earth. So at that moment they represented the godly remnant of Israel, not the church.

When the Lord quotes Scripture, He gives further light... So here the Lord goes beyond Daniel by adding "and never will be." It will never be repeated. It will be the most trying experience any nation has ever had. There is that idolatry, and they will be forced to take the mark of the beast either openly or secretly. Publicly or privately, they must own it, or else be put to death and cut off from every privilege of society.

Nothing has ever matched the great tribulation, and nothing will ever equal it, let alone go beyond it. The Lord says this in verse 21. The reason, as the book of Revelation shows, is that heaven will send down wrath at that time — the pouring out of the bowls of judgment. It will not just be men afflicting men, or one nation punishing others, as we see so plainly today. It will be God punishing the nations as He settles His accounts with them.

The destruction of Jerusalem, with all its horrors, may have foreshadowed the future, but in no way fulfils the prophecy of this time of trouble. This passage tells us that right after the great tribulation the Lord will come to earth. Yet after the destruction of Jerusalem He plainly did not come. Moreover, there cannot be two times of tribulation "such as never were."

Note too that the tribulation comes after the setting up of the abomination of desolation. If you apply it to Titus and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, then setting it up closed the tribulation.

Two passages in the prophets (Jer. 30:7 and Dan. 12:1), as well as two passages in the gospels (Matt. 24:21 and Mark 13:19), tell us of this great tribulation. There we notice that it will fall chiefly on the Jews, though the Gentiles may also suffer from it... The tribulation will take place during the second half of the last week mentioned in the book of Daniel (chap. 9), and will last until the Lord's appearing.

"Because you have kept the word of My patience, I also will keep you (not during, but) out of the hour of trial that is about to come upon the whole habitable earth, to try those who dwell upon the earth."... The refuge is not just a matter of place, because that hour of trial will fall on the whole habitable world. The heavenly saints will be caught up before that crisis comes. That crisis repays the lawlessness of the Jews and the Gentiles. It is a wholly different trouble from the one that falls to us as Christians.

All this is plain enough. It is not a question of the soul but of the salvation of the body. They will then live and be the subjects of the blessed reign and glory when the Lord comes. It is earthly glory here, not in heaven. For the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.

The last week of the seventy predicted in Daniel (9:24–27) is divided into two parts. Only the second half is the time of the great tribulation. Then the suffering is so great that unless the days had been shortened no flesh could be saved (Matt. 24:22). In connection with this passage, one writer finds that the appearing of the Son of Man follows "immediately after the tribulation of those days."

Here the Lord's mind rests on the great fulfilment. There may be a partial early fulfilment in the capture of Jerusalem by the Romans, which Scripture does not record as history. But the mind of the Spirit rests clearly on the great final catastrophe of God's house and people and city.

All the might of the Roman Empire, energised by the Dragon, will be used to wipe out everyone who dares to make a stand for God. The godless mass of people in Judea will be in full sympathy with the persecutors.

This is a remarkable statement even about the evil of their own hearts. The spirit of death and evil is among them. They would destroy themselves, and this has been seen in Jerusalem and elsewhere. It comes from within and from without; but for the sake of the elect, who were to be spared in the flesh, those days were shortened.

I confess this is the strongest indication to me that the Lord was not thinking of His heavenly people but of His earthly people. Later He speaks through His Spirit in the apostles about His heavenly ones. There He tells us plainly that the saving of the flesh was, and could be, of no importance. The reason is that flesh and blood can never inherit heaven. Saved flesh must be for the inheritance of the earth. The elect of this verse are, I am sure, the Lord's earthly remnant.

These words come in the course of His prophetic teaching recorded in Matthew 24 and Mark 13. They do not refer to the way sinful men may receive the salvation of their souls. The Lord was not addressing sinners but men already brought into relationship with Himself — His disciples.

That tribulation will beat harder on the Jews than on any other people. Yet in the middle of it the Lord will have His elect, and for their sake the days will be shortened (v. 22)… They are elect, which means the sovereign mercy of God has chosen them. But how will they be distinguished from the rest of the rebellious people? God's way has always been to bring such people to light by a testimony from Himself.

I understand the shortening of the days to mean that they are held strictly to the 1260 days. Man's will and passions would otherwise carry them on without end. But the Lord would come as a thief in the night and close it all.

Today God is dispensing mercy through the gospel. He has made a very long work of it, stretching over nineteen centuries. When He dispenses wrath He will make swift work, cutting it short in righteousness. A brief three and a half years will cover it, as other scriptures show. So the goodness of God will be shown both in mercy and in wrath.

The shortening of these days of tribulation (verses 19-22) means this: the Great Tribulation does not begin at the start of Daniel's week, but in the middle. It lasts only three and a half years. His people are especially warned against the false Christs (23-26). Then, when evil is at its height, the Son of Man will appear like the lightning in the heaven; there will be no mistaking His appearing (27, 28).

Suppose that someone should go to a Christian and say, Christ is in such and such a place. Could he be deceived in this way? Does not every believer, even the least instructed, know where Christ is, that He is at the right hand of the Father in heaven?… Now imagine that such a temptation were put to the Jews. They do not believe that their Messiah has ever come, and they are still expecting His arrival. You will see at once how wide open they are to such deception. We cannot therefore help seeing this description as applying to God's ancient people, and not to the church.

These disciples were the godly remnant of the nation, looking for the Messiah to bring in glory… The time had come when the true Messiah ought to appear. And He had appeared, but Israel had rejected Him, hardening themselves in the lie that our Lord could not be the promised One. But Israel had not given up the hope of the Messiah yet. This exposes them to the delusion spoken of here… At any rate, the rejection of the true Christ lays them open to the reception of a false Christ.

There will be no need to go into the desert to seek Him, or to the secret chambers to find Him out. When He comes, "every eye will see him." The coming of the Son of Man will be sudden as a flash of lightning, and just as overwhelmingly clear to everyone.

There would be reports that Christ was in the desert (as though another John the Baptist): they were to refuse such reports. Others would claim that He was "in the secret chambers," that is, that He had come secretly, invisibly. So-called Jehovah's Witnesses have made this wicked claim. They had prophesied that Christ would come in 1918. When this did not happen, they invented the contemptible deception that He had come invisibly.

They are warned now against any attempt to mislead them by drawing away disciples after a Christ who has come secretly — in the desert, or in the inner chambers. That is not how He would come. The power of evil at work would have its snares laid on the right hand and on the left; but there would be no need for any careful discrimination to discern the truth.

The Lord warns the disciples against false hopes of deliverance. He warns them against false reports of false Christs, and against false prophets, false signs, and apparent wonders. Their safety will be in remembering the words of the Lord, "I have foretold you all things."

The great thing that marks out the Church is the presence of the Holy Spirit. So the deceit we have to watch against is false spirits, not false Christs, though there are many antichrists. The danger of Christians is grieving the Holy Spirit — or even listening to false spirits.

All this is left out in Luke. Nothing of the kind happened before the siege of Jerusalem, and so it formed no part of the prophecy as Luke reports it. On the other hand, other Scriptures teach us that this is exactly the state of things before Christ appears in power and glory to set up His world-kingdom.

No doubt men claiming to be Christ will force themselves on the public through the entire seven years. Some will show great signs and wonders, as will be true of the antichrist, the man of sin (2 Thess. 2:3-12). In fact, even today there are many antichrists (1 John 2:18). Even the elect must be on their guard, for the deceptions of such men are highly plausible.

After that (v. 23) come the great signs. In those last times there will also be false Christs and false prophets. They will promise the deliverance that hearts will so badly need at that terrible moment, when all the false hopes of an unbelieving nation have passed away... Once again the wickedness of men and the deceits of Satan will turn souls aside. They will keep them from humbling themselves, and from seeking deliverance in the only place where it can be found.

Verse 24 plainly shows that not all miraculous signs are from God. There are two kinds — the divine and the devilish. The divine kind displays the divine character in grace and power. The devilish kind may often be flashier, more startling, and more attractive to unconverted people. People today who crave the miraculous should take great care that they are not deceived.

But it is clear that the Lord Jesus assumes real danger for the disciples here. They were Jewish, not Christian. So the cry that He was here or there on earth might deceive them. No Christian could be in such danger, but the Jewish disciples were. They were looking for the Lord's coming to the earth. They knew that the Lord's feet would stand in that day on the Mount of Olives.

I do not say that such words about them must prove them to be an earthly people. No. I believe, from Revelation 13, that many heavenly men will face deceits in that day, and will be kept from deception in the same way.

The clause "if it were possible" implies that they would be deceived without the protection of God's grace and power. God has decreed that the elect will not be carried away, despite coming so close to it... Believers, however, have no excuse for accepting such deception. The Lord has warned them beforehand how subtle it is, and their protection is in His Word.

The true saints will know that the real Christ is not going to hide Himself in some corner. Men will not have to say, "Look, here is the Christ!" or "There He is!" He will shine out in His glory at His coming, and every eye will see Him.

The Lord Himself sought to fortify His disciples in the same way. He said to them, "They will put you out of the synagogues… But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you." (John 16:2–4.) In tender concern, then, for our weakness, the Lord, through His servants, has forewarned us of what we have to expect among His professing people. And two important things follow. First, only in the light of the Scriptures can we read the state of professing Christianity rightly. Second, if we do not know the teaching of the Word of God, we are open to disappointments and deceptions of every kind.

The Lord never leaves His people unwarned about the dangers and enemies they will have to meet. (See Matt. 24; John 15:16; 1 Tim. 4; 2 Tim. 3; Rev. 2:3; etc.) And if they store up His warnings in their minds, they are neither surprised nor discouraged when there are fears within as well as fightings without. They are ready for conflict with every form of Satan's hostility… How necessary it is, then, for the believer to know these warnings of coming dangers!

The words "if it were possible" imply that they would be deceived without the protection of God's grace and power. For God has decreed that the elect will not be carried away, despite their being so close to it. At this time the chief of all false christs, the Antichrist, will entice great numbers "with all power and false signs and wonders" (2 Thess. 2:9). Believers, however, have no excuse for accepting such deception. The Lord has forewarned them of how subtle it is, and their protection is in His Word.

Here there will be false christs on the earth, and people will say, "He is here in the wilderness," "He is there in the secret chambers." But the saints who will be caught up and return with the Lord have nothing at all to do with false christs on earth. They will go up to heaven to be with Him there before He returns to the earth. The Jews are expecting deliverance on earth, so it is easy to understand that they would be open to such temptations. They would be deceived by them unless God Himself kept them.

A Christian is unlikely to be deceived by such rumours for an instant… He knows that he is to be with the Lord in the heavens. For this he will be taken up out of this world into the air to meet the Lord on high. So the deceits in question are addressed only to those who expect to meet the Lord on the earth.

I do not say that such words about them would necessarily settle that they are an earthly people. No. I believe, from Rev. 13, that there will be many heavenly men exposed to deceits in that day, and preserved in the same way from being deceived.

History has proven how much this warning was needed. Prophetic deceptions today are almost countless, and they have multiplied above all since the 1800s. Many have already come claiming to be Christ. Some of them do not use that title, yet they exalt themselves into the place that belongs only to the Lord Jesus. Many have been deceived by them.

It is clear that the elect here are Jewish. Such rumours would hardly deceive a Christian for an instant. But the Lord Jesus supposes considerable danger for such disciples as are here. In fact, being Jewish and not Christian, they could fall for the cry that the Messiah was here on earth. They were looking for the Lord's coming to the earth. They knew that in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. So these deceits might take them in.

Some would report that Christ was in the desert, as though another John the Baptist had appeared. They were to refuse such reports. Others would claim that He was "in the secret chambers," that is, that He had come secretly, invisibly. So-called Jehovah's Witnesses have made this wicked claim. They had prophesied that Christ would come in 1918. When that did not happen, they invented the contemptible lie that He had come invisibly. Other such foolish claims will yet be made.

So the antichristian snare, in the form it takes, shows the same thing. People look for Christ in the desert, or in the secret chambers, as though He would appear not from heaven but among the people. And the false Christ, when he comes, sits with divine honours in the temple of God.

There will be no need to go into the desert to seek Him, or to the secret chambers to find Him out. When He comes, "every eye will see him." The coming of the Son of Man will be as sudden as a flash of lightning, and as clear to everyone as that flash is.

He would come openly, not secretly. The need would be such as to call not for secret help but open intervention. His coming would be like lightning lighting up the whole sky. It would announce swift and unsparing judgment.

What possible use could such words have for people who are told to wait for God's Son from heaven? They know that before He returns to this earth they will have met Him in the clouds and returned with Him to the Father's house. Would any Christian who knows his proper hope believe people saying that Christ is here or there, in the desert or in the secret chambers? Impossible. Such a person is watching for the Bridegroom to come from heaven. He knows one thing for certain: Christ cannot appear on this earth without bringing all His people with Him.

The coming of the true Christ of God will be marked by the greatest possible publicity, like the lightning. No one will need to travel to a remote desert or a secret chamber to see Him.

Others would claim that He was "in the inner rooms," that is, that He had come in secret, unseen... Other such foolish claims will yet be made. But the Lord is emphatic: the coming of the Son of Man in power and glory will be like the lightning shining from east to west — sudden, bright, and evident to all the world. He does not speak here of His earlier coming for His saints, but that will be just as evident to all who share its great blessing.

This is not the Roman conquest. The army of Titus did not come out of the east, as the lightning does here, and it did not shine to the west. If the Romans had been meant, the very reverse would be a more fitting figure. So clearly has the Lord Jesus guarded against the misinterpretations of men! The Son of Man's coming will be quite different and will take everyone by surprise, like the lightning. There will be no question of going here or there to seek Him.

They were not to follow any of those false lights that Satan lit to deceive souls. The Lord, the Son of Man, would come as lightning — suddenly, and with a brightness that would leave no doubt about His person when He appeared in this way.

He would come openly, not secretly. The need would be so great that it would call for open intervention, not secret help. His coming would be like the lightning lighting up the whole sky — the announcement of swift and unsparing judgment... Long-suffering patience held out no more hope. Judgment itself was now the only mercy.

Its precise use in the Epistles is to set forth the actual presence (and so by implication the coming, if previously absent) of a person or thing. It may or may not be a manifested presence; the context, or the nature of the case, must decide it. So the parousia of Christ as Son of Man is clearly so open that all the tribes of the earth mourn as they see Him.

When the Son of Man comes in bodily presence, this is no doubt the fitting comparison. The appearing of the Lord Jesus from heaven will be sudden and bright, like the lightning. Is that our hope? Does Scripture ever present our Lord as the lightning coming to receive the Church? Is that how a bridegroom comes for his bride? On the other hand, if He comes then and in this way to judge... I can understand that the shining of the lightning would be a most fitting figure for such a coming and such dealings. It does not fit the indescribable peace and heavenly joy of the meeting between the Bridegroom and the Bride. It fits exactly His presence in judgment.

The words mean that where the object of judgment is, there the executioners will do their work. The Scripture which our Lord probably had in view is Job 39:30. I believe the prophecy applies to the apostate part of the Jewish nation. That part of the nation will be like a lifeless carcase when divine vengeance falls on it at the end of the age.

This is supposed to be the bird known as the Griffon Vulture or Great Vulture... No sooner does an animal fall than these birds congregate in numbers on its carcase, according to Job 9:26; Matt. 24:28. The true eagle is a solitary bird, but vultures are seldom found alone.

Where then, in what the Lord says here, is positive judgment found? It is contained, almost concealed, in these words: "For wherever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered." I think that passage alludes to an expression in the book of Job 39:30. It treats the Jews, who have united themselves with the enemies of God, as lost and dead, without wishing to name them again.

The carcase is the apostate part of the Jewish nation, that which is most offensive to God — only a carcase! lifeless, fit only for judgment, and the judgment will fall on them, and there will be no escaping it.

The moment you refer "His carcase" to the Jewish people, it becomes strikingly true. The mass of the Jews then will be apostate. The eagles or vultures that flock there are figures of God's judgments on the guilty people, carried out by the hostile nations of the earth. Whatever may be the instruments, they are judgments of God executed at this time.

This coming of verse 27 is plainly in judgment, as verse 26 confirms. "The carcass," the corrupt condition of both Israel and the nations, will draw "the eagles," the executors of a well deserved judgment.

Apply this to the Church or to the Christian, and what can you make of it? Is the Church "the carcase"? The Church united to Christ by the Holy Spirit is His body: it is a wonderful privilege and a blessed truth, but is the Church a carcase? Surely not: it is His living body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Nor is the Lord ever regarded as a body dead or merely alive, but as the risen and glorified Head.

If the Christians were the carcase, they must be the object of the judgment... But this is not the relation of the Lord's coming to the Christian. Nor can any Christians be the eagles or instruments of divine vengeance, any more than the carcase, without abandoning all the truth and character of their calling.

But when the Lord had given this solemn warning, the disciples exclaimed, "Where, Lord?"... As if the Lord had said, "Where?" — what a strange question! When the eagles seek their prey, where do they go? Wherever there is a carcase to be found. When these eagle-judgments are abroad in search of the wicked, where will they rest? Of course, wherever any wicked one is to be found. If he is in bed, or at the mill, or in the field, whatever righteous ones may be his companions, even there shall those judgments go.

Notice how Matthew and Mark dwell on the troubles tied to the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. They tell us that no trouble like it had ever been known, and none like it would ever come after… They also speak of the Lord's coming as following close on those days of fierce trial (Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24). Luke mentions neither those days nor the abomination of desolation. His gospel teaches plainly that a period of unmeasured length would come between Jerusalem's capture and the Lord's return (Luke 21:24).

A popular view makes this verse the point where the Lord starts speaking about His own return. That destroys the force of "immediately after the tribulation of those days" and breaks the connection with the true transition to the last days in verse 15.

This is the symbolic language of prophecy. But how should we read it?… In Genesis the greater light, the lesser light and the stars rule the day and the night. Throughout Revelation and prophecy generally, the heavenly bodies stand for rule: the sun for supreme authority, the moon for reflected authority, while the stars represent the minor and lower vessels of rule. So verse 29 is a symbolic picture of all government being completely overturned as soon as Daniel's seventieth week ends.

Supreme power, pictured by the sun, goes dark. Derived authority, pictured by the moon, stops having any influence. Subordinate authorities, likened to the stars, lose their place and power. This age, despite all that men boast about progress, will end in tribulation, confusion and anarchy like nothing before it.

Still, the Lord does not use many symbols in this talk, as the book of Revelation does. So we think we must not rule out real upheavals in the heavenly bodies. We know the sun really did go dark when Jesus died. The darkness of that day will make the brightness of His shining forth stand out all the more, when He comes in the clouds with great power and glory.

It is clear that the whole stability of government will be shaken. The general sense is plain. God's hand and will touch not only the earth, but the sources of power: "I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."… The rulers and authorities in heavenly places stop acting as God's agents, and they shake under this great act, which hands that rule to the Son of man.

In Revelation 12 Satan is cast down clearly before the last great tribulation. He is furious, because he knows he has only a short time… In the gospels, where the mark of time seems precise (Matt. 24, Mark 13), the shaking of the powers of the heavens comes after the tribulation… So, as events, the two have nothing to do with one another.

Here in Matthew 24 there is no gathering of saints to Christ in heavenly glory. This is the coming of the Son of man, to whom all judgment is committed… While He is hidden, they are hidden too. When He appears, they appear too, having been caught up beforehand.