Matthew 24:15–35
“Daniel the prophet spoke about ‘the horrible thing that destroys.’ You will see this terrible thing standing in the holy place.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) 16 “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains. 17 If a person is on the roof of his house, he must not go down to get anything out of his house. 18 If a person is in the field, he must not go back to get his coat. 19 At that time, it will be hard for women who are pregnant or have nursing babies! 20 Pray that it will not be winter or a Sabbath day when these things happen and you have to run away. 21 This is because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than has ever happened since the beginning of the world. And nothing as bad as that will ever happen again. 22 God has decided to make that terrible time short. If that time were not made short, then no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen. 23 At that time, someone might say to you, ‘Look, there is the Christ!’ Or another person might say, ‘There he is!’ But don’t believe them. 24 False Christs and false prophets will come and perform great things and miracles. They will do these things to the people God has chosen. They will fool them, if that is possible. 25 Now I have warned you about this before it happens.
26 “If people tell you, ‘The Christ is in the desert’—don’t go there. If they say, ‘The Christ is in the inner room’—don’t believe it. 27 When the Son of Man comes, he will be seen by everyone. It will be like lightning flashing in the sky that can be seen everywhere. 28 Wherever there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.
29 “Soon after the trouble of those days, this will happen:
‘The sun will grow dark.
And the moon will not give its light.
The stars will fall from the sky.
And everything in the sky will be changed.’
30 “At that time, there will be something in the sky that shows the Son of Man is coming. All the peoples of the world will cry. They will see the Son of Man coming on clouds in the sky. He will come with great power and glory. 31 He will use a loud trumpet to send his angels all around the earth. They will gather his chosen people from every part of the world.
32 “The fig tree teaches us a lesson: When its branches become green and soft, and new leaves begin to grow, then you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. 34 I tell you the truth. All these things will happen while the people of this time are still living! 35 The whole world, earth and sky, will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed!
The time when enemies will destroy Jerusalem city
Jesus warned about the time when enemies will destroy Jerusalem city. He gave practical advice to the people who would see it happen. He encouraged people who would live in the times after that event. He wanted them to take the Good News to everyone in the world.
In the Old Testement, Moses promised that God would send someone special. (Read Deuteronomy 18:18–19.) This person would speak for God. What he said about the future would happen. This would prove that he had come from God.
For a Jew, one prophecy just did not seem possible. It was that an enemy would destroy Jerusalem. Surely, that could not happen. Jerusalem was their capital city. God was there. Yet this is exactly what Jesus said would happen.
Jesus did not give many prophecies while he was on earth. There was his death. There was the time when he would come back to life. This chapter contains almost all of the rest of the prophecies. But the things that he said about Jerusalem were wonderful. And history proved that his words were correct. Some people have even said that his words were too exact. So, these people have an idea. They think that Matthew must have written his book after the events happened!
Jesus said when these events would happen. Some of the people who were listening to him would still be alive (verse 34). He was speaking in about AD 30. In AD 70, the Romans completely destroyed Jerusalem. Most of what Jesus said in verses 15–26 is history. It is in official records. Nobody could tell about the future like this man! Jesus was not just a prophet. He is called the Word in John 1:1–18. ‘The Word was God.’ Enemies did destroy Jerusalem. That showed that Jesus was right. He was, and he still is, the great King. People of all nations belong to his kingdom. (Read verses 29–31.)
Jesus repeated several Old Testement verses in this passage. He repeated:
• Isaiah 13:10 and 34:4 in verse 29
• Daniel 7:13–14 in verse 30a
• Zechariah 12:10–14 in verse 30b. And, in verse 31, he used
• Isaiah 27:13; Deuteronomy 30:4 and Zechariah 2:6. (This is clear in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.)
These verses help us to understand Jesus’ words.
Josephus, a writer of history, tells about the time when enemies destroyed Jerusalem city.
The Romans ruled the Jews in Jesus’ time. (Note: The Romans were the people from Rome. This was a great capital city.) The Roman Empire included the many countries that they ruled. In AD 66 the Jews decided to refuse their rule. Then a Roman General, Titus, attacked Jerusalem. He destroyed the Jews’ capital city in AD 70.
Josephus lived from AD 37 to AD 100. One of his history books was called ‘the Jewish War’. This book shows how accurate Jesus’ words were. (Note: Famine means that there is no food. This is often because of a lack of rain. But on this occasion, it was because of the Romans. They would not allow any food to go into the city.)
Josephus wrote:
Then the famine got much worse. It destroyed all the people who were in houses. And it destroyed whole families. The upstairs rooms were full of women and children who were dying. The narrow roads of the city had many dead bodies of old people. Children and young men wandered about. They looked like shadows. They fell down dead.
It was not possible to bury them. The people who were ill could not do it. The people who were well enough did not do it. There were two reasons for this. First, the number of bodies was so great. Also, the healthy people did not know how soon they would die themselves. Many people died as they were burying other people. Nobody cried. The famine stopped any natural feelings. Those who were about to die looked at the dead people with dry eyes and open mouths. There was a deep silence too. It seemed like night in the city. As every one of them died, they were looking at the Temple.
Josephus said that the Romans were going to take things from the houses. But they found entire families of dead people. The upstairs rooms were full of dead bodies. These strong men had seen many ugly sights before. But they looked at this terrible sight. Then they left. And they did not touch anything.
The Romans made 97 000 Jews prisoners. But more than 110 000 Jews died at that time.
Questions
1. Many terrible things have happened to the Jews. But they still exist. Does God still have a purpose for the Jews today?
2. Jerusalem city has been very important in world history. Why do you think that this is true?
3. What things from this passage could encourage the members of your church? How safe can we expect to be in wars? How safe can we expect to be when there are earthquakes? Can we expect God to keep us physically safe?