MARK 13:14-23

MARK 13:14-23

It is clear from the ninth chapter of Daniel that the last week will be divided into two parts. The entire period is called a “time of trouble” (Daniel 12:1), and “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7); but it is the last three-and-half years, beginning with the full manifestation of the Man of Sin, which is designated “the great tribulation.” This will be ushered in by the setting up of the abomination of desolation predicted in Daniel 12:11.

We need to distinguish between “the abomination that maketh desolate” spoken of in Daniel 11:31, which refers to the image of Jupiter set up in the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in the distant past, and the “abomination that maketh desolate” of Daniel 12:11, which refers to a desecration yet to take place. It is this latter abomination of which our Lord was speaking. Whether it will be a literal image of the Beast (Rev. 13:14, 15) to be erected by the false prophet, the lamb-like Beast (the Antichrist) in the last days, or whether this image is itself a symbol of some secret agency acting on behalf of the blasphemous head of the coming world empire, we may not be able to speak positively. But in the light of the Lord’s words the remnant living in that hour of trial will be able to understand, and they will know that the power of evil can last only twelve hundred and sixty days thereafter, and at the end of that time the kingdom will be set up. The great tribulation, therefore, will go on throughout three-and-a-half years after this abomination is made manifest. This will be the time when the wrath of God will be poured out upon apostate Christendom and apostate Judaism. To Christians the promise is given that they shall not be exposed to wrath. We look for our Lord Jesus to snatch us away (literal rendering) from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).

The instructions given in verses 14 to 18 apply particularly to the Jewish remnant in Palestine during the reign of the Beast and the Antichrist. As in the days of Titus, warning is given to avoid the city and to flee to the wilderness where they will be protected from the wrath of the devil as manifested through the Antichrist.

Daniel predicted “a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” Jesus here used similar language saying, “For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be” (ver. 19).

So terrible will be the catastrophe which shall fall upon the nations that except the Lord shorten the days “no flesh should be saved.” But He tells us that for the elect’s sake—referring to the elect of Israel and those who shall be spared out of the nations—those days shall be shortened.

Three-and-one-half years would come to approximately twelve hundred and seventy-eight days. But the power of the Beast will be limited to twelve hundred and sixty days. The eighteen days of “shortening” will permit the salvation of many from actual destruction.

In the light of the destructive power of the atomic bomb we can see readily how literally these words of Jesus can be taken.

In that awful time of strong delusion and hardness of heart many will be misled by false Christs and false prophets, as well as by the supreme Antichrist at Jerusalem; but the elect of God will be preserved from their deceitful and blinding influence. To these Jesus says, “Take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.”