Mark 13:14-16

‘But when you see the Desolating Abomination standing where he ought not (let him who reads understand), then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains, and let him who is on the housetop not go down, or enter in to take anything out of his house, and let him that is in the field not return back to take his cloak.'

So dreadful would the subsequent events be when the Desolating Abomination was beginning his action against Jerusalem (the ‘he' refers to their leader) that immediate action would be required. No delay should be considered. If they were on the roof of the house they should immediately take to their heels without even collecting their belongings from inside, speeding down the outside steps, or leaping across the roofs. If they were in the field they should flee as they were, not even going back to collect a cloak. The emphasis was one of extreme and over-exaggerated urgency. The situation was desperate, and was to be escaped from at all costs with no delay.

In reality the majority of the people did the opposite when the time came and fled into the city, there to endure unbelievable suffering, and finally to brutally perish. But some would no doubt escape, even at the last minute as the Roman standards approached Jerusalem, if they had heard and remembered Jesus' words, and certainly tradition tells us that many in the Jerusalem church previously fled to Pella.

‘The Desolating Abomination'. That is, Titus and his Roman armies with their idolatrous standards. They brought sacrilege with them and would commit greater sacrilege on the holy city and Temple, introducing their standards and their gods and desolating the city and the sanctuary and laying them waste. And they above all claimed to represent a god, Roma, to whom they no doubt made their offerings in Jerusalem.

‘Standing where he ought not.' The figure is personalised, probably in terms of the leader as so often in Daniel. The place was one where he should not be, for he was not only challenging the Jews, he was treating God with contempt. As the representative of the god emperor he was the ‘anti-God' who had no right to be standing on the sacred ground around Jerusalem.

‘Let him who reads understand.' These may be the words of Jesus referring His listeners to the Book of Daniel so that they may read it and understand what He was saying. Or it may be a comment by Mark conveying the fact that the meaning of the words was disguised but discernible to the spiritual eye. The reader might well have been reading it to a largely illiterate church, and it may be that the idea was that he should be able to explain what it meant.

‘Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains.' All in the surrounding area, in Judaea, are advised to flee. The thought may well be that they should do so as soon as the threat became apparent. There was in fact plenty of warning as there was an earlier assault on Jerusalem which failed. And when later Roman reconquest of the land began it began in Galilee. But even at that stage all were aware that Jerusalem would be the main target, and it was in order to defend it with their dying breath that all the bloodiest insurgents of the day finally gathered there.

‘Flee to the mountains.' Mountains were always a hiding place in times of trouble. David and his men fled to the mountains away from Saul. Compare also Ezekiel 7:16; 1Ma 2:28. And there were mountains on the far side of Jordan away from the central troublespots. According to Eusebius the Christian church in Jerusalem did in fact flee to Pella in Decapolis, guided by ‘a prophet' who may well have heeded these words, although that was not in the mountains. It was, however, following the principle behind the words.

‘The housetop.' The reference is to the flat roof of the house where a man could find quiet. But suddenly he is roused by the news and must flee immediately and urgently by the outside staircase, or by jumping from roof to roof. The point, however, is to stress urgency, not in order to indicate a particular way of escape.

‘To take his cloak.' This is the cloak that he would need to keep him warm at night. But the urgency would be so great that he must not return for it to wherever he had left it.