Matthew 24:1-28

1-14 Compare Mar_13:1-13; Luk_21:5-19.

1 The sanctuary was doomed, for it was no longer even a nominal shrine after He had left its courts. It was almost unbelievable that such buildings, with such enormous stones, so highly venerated, should fail so suddenly into utter ruin. Its destruction was averted for forty years by His prayer upon the cross, and the subsequent Pentecostal proclamation of the kingdom, much of which took place within its walls. At the siege of Jerusalem, not only were the fanatical Jewish factions within the city anxious to save it from destruction, but the Roman general Titus was very desirous of preserving it without damage. But the divine decree had gone forth. Nothing could save it from its doom. And so it was leveled with the ground and no stone remained upon another.

3 This prophetic outline of events to come before the kingdom can be realized entirely ignores the present secret administration of God's grace, so that we must overlook all that occurs during Israel's unbelief (Rom.11) and consider the future time of the end as following immediately after the close of Acts. It is only as we keep the future before us and the present out of sight, that we can view these scenes aright.

4 Many false messiahs have come and will come, but the greatest of all will be the white horse rider who comes forth under the first seal (Rev_6:2).

5 See 24; Joh_5:43; Rev_6:1-2.

6-7 See Rev_6:3-8.

6 The wars correspond with the second seal (Rev_6:3-4), when a red horse comes forth and takes peace from the earth.

7 The famine is the same one that occurs under the third seal, when wheat and barley will be worth about eight times their normal value.

9-14, See Mat_10:17; Mat_10:23; Joh_16:2-3; Joh_6:9-11.

9 The great affliction occurs under the fifth seal (Rev_6:9). It begins at that great chronological crisis, the middle of the last seven years of Daniel's seventy heptads, when the covenant with the false christ will be broken and the daily offering stopped. Many will be martyred. It is their blood which calls down vengeance on the world and leads to the awful judgments on the nations and Babylon.

15-18 Compare Mar_13:14-16; Luk_17:31-33.

15 See Dan_9:27.

15 The Septuagint of Daniel may be closely rendered as follows: “And he shall establish a covenant with many one heptad, and in the middle of the heptad My sacrifice and libation shall be suspended, and on the temple is the abomination of desolations, and till the conclusion of the era a conclusion shall be given to the desolation” (Dan_9:27). It seems evident that, coincident with the breaking of the covenant, the image spoken of in the Unveiling (Mat_13:14) will be placed in the holy place as a signal for the greatest anti-Semitic outbreak of all time. Then it is that the dragon is cast out of heaven and persecutes the woman, who flees into the wilderness to be there for the remainder of the seventieth heptad (Rev_12:1-16). Through the terrible afflictions the faithful of that day will be gathered in the mountainous wilderness southeast of Judea near the scene of their wanderings of old, when they came out of Egypt. There they will be miraculously preserved for the twelve hundred and sixty days until the coming of Christ.

19-22 Compare Mar_13:17-20.

21 See Dan_12:1; Joe_2:2; Rev_7:17.

23-28 Compare Mar_13:21-23; Luk_17:23-24.

23 Then will the false prophet give spirit to the image of the wild beast and cause it to speak,

and cause as many as should not be worshiping the image to be killed, and all must have the emblem of the wild beast on their right hand or their forehead before they will be able to buy or sell (Rev_13:15-17).

24 See Joh_10:28-29; 2Th_2:8-12; 2Pe_2:9; Rev 13.

26 The coming of Christ to the earth for Israel is not a secret, invisible event. That is the sign of the false prophets. His presence will be with the utmost publicity and swiftness. Like a lightning flash will His glory appear, so that no one will be unaware of its startling brightness, or fail to apprehend His presence. We can only enjoy His presence before this by being caught up to Him in the air the moment that He is present there.

28 See Luk_17:37; Job_39:30.