Matthew 24:7

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingship against kingship, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many different places.”

Indeed the regular disasters that face men, and have always faced men, will continue on. Wars between nations will regularly occur, and rulers will fight against rulers. There will also be famines, often caused by wars, but equally often by providence, and there will be earthquakes which are only caused by providence. Thus man's activities and God's activities will intermingle. The world will go on as it always has. But none of these must be seen as indications of His soon coming. (See Revelation 6:5; Revelation 6:12). It is to be recognised that they are all the result of the inevitable process of history.

‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingship against kingship.' For the language compare ‘nation against nation' in 2 Chronicles 15:6; and ‘kingship against kingship' in Isaiah 19:2. History rolls on as it always has.

There were plenty of such events in 1st century AD before the destruction of Jerusalem, and indeed have been ever since. For the dreadful famine in the time of Claudius (around 40 AD) see Acts 11:27, and in 61 AD Laodicea, for example, was destroyed by a terrible earthquake which shook the whole of Phrygia, while Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by volcanic action not long after. Tacitus, a first century Roman historian, after referring to the horrors and calamities, and disasters and portents, of the period, went on to say ‘never has it been better proved, by such terrible disasters to Rome, or by such clear evidence, that the gods were concerned, not with our safety but with vengeance on our sins.'

Jesus' point is not that this will be a unique period but that these are but the beginning of what must come on the world, not signs of the end, although at the same time being seen as reminders that one day He is coming. They are indications of the start of what is to come (like initial birth pains).