Matthew 24:15-25 “Four Things to Avoid in the End Times”

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 28 July 2013

Translation

24:15 Therefore, whenever you see the abomination of desolation spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place – let the one who reads be understanding -

24:16 then the ones in Judea must be fleeing to the mountains.

24:17 He who is on his patio must not start going over to pack up the things from his house,

24:18 and he who is in his field must not turn back to get his suit.

24:19 And woe to the pregnant and nursing women in those days.

24:20 And you’d better be praying that your flight doesn’t happen during winter or during the Sabbath,

24:21 for then there will be great distress, of such a kind as has not happened since the beginning of the world until now and will not ever happen in the future.

24:22 And unless those days were cut short all who have flesh would not be saved, but, for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be cut short.

24:23 At that time, if someone happens to say to y’all, “Here the Messiah is!” or “There he is!” don’t believe it for one second,

24:24 for false messiahs and false prophets will be raised up, and they will give great signs and wonders so as to cause, if it were in their power, even the chosen ones to wander astray.

24:25 See, I have foretold it to y’all.

Introduction

Review: We’re in the middle of the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus is telling His disciples what to do in light of the fact that He, as the Messiah, is not going to get rid of all the evil right away. And we’ve seen that our world is not essentially different than the world of the apostles and the kinds of challenges they faced. Over the last two weeks, we’ve covered three things to do in the midst of a troubled world:

  1. Don’t get distracted from your focus on Christ
  2. Keep believing in His name, even when Christians are put to death over it.
  3. And keep announcing the good news of the kingdom.
  4. Today I want to look at the next 11 verses and outline four more things not to do during stressful times:

Exegesis

24:15 Therefore, whenever you see the abomination of desolation spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place – let the one who reads be understanding -

‘Οταν ουν ιδητε το βδελυγμα της ερημωσεως το ‘ρηθεν δια Δανιηλ του προφητου ‘εστος[1] εν τοπω ‘αγιω ‘ο αναγινωσκων νοειτω

 

24:16 then the ones in Judea must be fleeing to the mountains.

τοτε ‘οι εν τη Ιουδαια φευγετωσαν επι[5] τα ορη

 

24:17 He who is on his patio [roof/housetop] must not start going over to [take] pack up the things from his house,

‘ο επι του δωματος μη καταβαινετω[7] αραι τα[8] εκ της οικιας αυτου

 

24:18 and he who is in his field must not turn back to get his suit [cloak/clothes].

και ‘ο εν τω αγρω μη επιστρεψατω οπισω αραι το ‘ιματιον[9] αυτου.

 

24:19 And woe to the pregnant and nursing women in those days.

Ουαι δε ταις εν γαστρι εχουσαις και ταις θηλαζουσαις εν εκειναις ταις ‘ημεραις.

 

24:20 And you’d better be praying that your flight doesn’t happen during winter or during the Sabbath,

Προσευχεσθε δε ‘ινα μη γενηται ‘η φυγη ‘υμων χειμωνος μηδε σαββατῳ[11]

 

24:21 for then there will be great distress, of such a kind as has not happened since the beginning of the world until now and will not ever happen in the future.

εσται γαρ τοτε θλιψις μεγαλη ‘οια ου γεγονεν[12] απ’ αρχης κοσμου ‘εως του νυν ουδ’ ου μη γενηται.

1.      Does the word “then” mean “during the time of the siege of Jerusalem and the journeys of refugees away from it,” or does it refer to a set of events which will happen shortly after Jerusalem is conquered? The Greek word “then” is not specific enough in meaning to answer that question[13], however it would be a stretch to say that it was transitioning to an unrelated event thousands of years into the future.

2.      What is the “tribulation”?

3.      In what way is it “greater” than any other distress? The statement that this tribulation will be greater than any other in the past or future history of the world certainly raises the question of whether this is looking beyond the troubles that occurred in Jerusalem in the year 70 ad, and whether that was worse than any other event, say, the holocaust under the Nazi regime which, as far as I can tell, killed more Jews than the Romans ever did.

 

24:22 And unless those days were cut short all who have flesh would not be saved, but, for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be cut short.

Και ει μη εκολοβωθησαν[16] ‘αι ‘ημεραι εκειναι ουκ αν εσωθη πασα σαρξ δια δε τους εκλεκτους κολοβωθησονται ‘αι ‘ημεραι εκειναι.

 

24:23 At that time, if someone happens to say to y’all, “Here the Messiah is!” or “There he is!” don’t believe it for one second[24],

Τοτε εαν τις ‘υμιν ειπη Ιδου ‘ωδε ‘ο Χριστος, η ‘Ωδε, μη πιστευσητε

 

24:24 for false messiahs and false prophets will be raised up, and they will give great signs and wonders so as to cause, if it were in their power, even the chosen ones to wander astray.

εγερθησονται[25] γαρ ψευδοχριστοι και ψευδοπροφηται και δωσουσιν σημεια μεγαλα και τερατα ‘ωστε πλανησαι[26] ει δυνατον και τους εκλεκτους.

 

24:25 See, I have foretold it to y’all.

Ιδου προειρηκα ‘υμιν.

Conclusion

I mentioned earlier that the kinds of things Jesus told His disciples to do in the context of the tribulation of which He spoke in this Olivet Discourse are the same sorts of things we can do when we encounter stress. I see four things Jesus says to avoid doing in difficult circumstances like this:

1.      Don’t hang out where there is trouble. V.16 Jesus said to flee to the mountains when they saw the abomination. The Proverbs tell us that a prudent man hides himself when he sees trouble but the fool blunders on and gets himself hurt (Proverbs 22:3; 27:12). I was talking to a missionary recently who was telling me how terribly stressful and lonely his situation was working in an unreached people group. So I asked him if he ever got together with other believers. “Oh No,” he said, “Then everybody would know I was a Christian and I would lose my opportunities to share the Gospel with them!” It is my opinion that this well-intentioned missionary was pursuing a strategy that isolated himself so much from Christian fellowship that it was more stress than he could handle. Let us be careful not to bring more distress upon ourselves than God calls us to endure.

2.      Don’t prioritize material possessions. V.17-18 Jesus said don’t try to save all your possessions and clothes, just save your skin. When we prioritize our money and possessions, they become huge distractions, and we end up spending our time trying to maintain things that won’t be around much longer. When I moved from Denver to Southern Illinois, I had been such a pack-rat that I had filled up – not one but – two whole storage units with old pieces of furniture and used books and broken pieces of electronic equipment and other things I had collected, much of which wasn’t worth keeping. My friends and family spent an entire day loading a moving truck with all that junk, and at the end of the day, one of my friends said that what I needed wasn’t a moving truck; what I needed was a match! When we encounter stress in our lives, are we willing to let go of unimportant things and instead prioritize the things which God says will last forever?

3.      Don’t forget that God is sovereign. Vs. 20-22 – Pray to the God who sovereignly disposes all things, who chose you before the foundation of the world and who has the power to save you no matter how big the threats are against you. I start too many days out just scrambling to get to meetings and answer emails and fill out paperwork and getting more and more stressed out as the day goes on. After a while I start realizing I can’t keep going at this pace on my own strength; I am in desperate need of God. I need to pray and find peace again in Him and place my anxieties on Him. It makes a huge difference in the stress that I feel when I can remember the sovereignty of God and pray to Him.

4.      Don’t take shortcuts to comfort and deliverance when you are going through stress. Vs. 23-24 Don’t believe the lies that say Jesus isn’t enough for you and you need somebody or something else that will do more for you. It may offer great signs of promise to make you feel better right away, but don’t fall for it. Jesus has a better plan than the shortcut Satan offers you; and Jesus can be trusted all the way to eternal life.


[1] The Majority of Greek manuscripts make the final vowel in this word an omega, which is the long vowel sound of the omicron and therefore not much of a difference. Editions of the Byzantine and Textus Receptus, however, are divided on this spelling, but modern Critical editions consistently opt for the omicron. The problem with the omicron is that I have not discovered actual manuscript basis for it. The problem with the omega is that, while basically the same word (“standing”), the omega makes it nominative masculine singular and would therefore refer to Daniel instead of to “the abomination” (the omicron spelling is accusative neuter singular, matching “the abomination”), and, while it is possible that Daniel prophecied on the temple grounds before or after the exile, the prophecy of the abomination of desolation recorded in his book was delivered from Babylon, which the Jews would not have considered a “holy place.” I am trusting that the intersection of three diverse editions of the Greek New Testament (GNT) means there is actual manuscript evidence for the omicron, even if it is not published in the critical aparati of Nestle-Aland or the UBS Greek New Testaments. Additionally, the KJV which would have the greatest likelihood of following the majority reading instead opts for the omicron, making clear that the word “stand” refers to “the abomination.”

[2] Of this, the best Old Testament commentators I know of, Keil & Delitzsch wrote, “This much seems to be certain, that the 1290 days denote in general the period of Israel's sorest affliction on the part of Antiochus Epiphanes… [T]he taking away of the daily sacrifice and the setting up of the idol-abomination by Antiochus Epiphanes shows in a figure how the Antichrist at the time of the end shall take away the worship of the true God, renounce the God of his fathers, and make war his god, and thereby bring affliction upon the church of God, of which the oppression which Antiochus brought upon the theocracy furnished a historical pattern… And if we compare with this the testimony of history regarding the persecution of the Old Covenant people under Antiochus, in consequence of which God permitted the suppression of His worship, and the substitution of idol-worship in its stead, for not fully 3 1/2 years, but only for 3 years and 10 days, then we are able to gather the assurance that He shall also shorten, for the sake of His elect, the 3 1/2 times of the last tribulation. We should rest here, that His grace is sufficient for us (2Cor. 12:9). For as God revealed to the prophets, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto us, the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, that they might search and inquire what and what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them did signify (1 Peter 1); so in the times of the accomplishment, we who are living are not exempted from searching and inquiring, but are led by the prophetic word to consider the signs of the times in the light of this word, and from that which is already fulfilled, as well as from the nature and manner of the fulfilment, to confirm our faith, for the endurance amid the tribulations which prophecy has made known to us, that God, according to His eternal gracious counsel, has measured them according to their beginning, middle, and end, that thereby we shall be purified and guarded for the eternal life.”

[3] Matthew 12:3 "Have you not read what David did…?”
Matthew 12:5 “Have you not read in the Law… the Sabbath…?”
Matthew 19:4 “Have you not read that He … made male and female?”
Matthew 21:16 “Haven’t y’all ever read [Psalm 8]?”
Matthew 21:42 “Did you never read in the Scriptures [Psalm 118]?”
Matthew 22:31 “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God… about the resurrection..?”

[4] En topw hagiw in the LXX:
Leviticus 6:16 And Aaron and his sons shall eat that which is left of it: it shall be eaten without leaven in a holy place, they shall eat it in the court of the tabernacle of witness. (Brenton)
Cf. Ex. 29:31, Lev. 6:26 ; 6:27 ; 7:6 ; 8:31 ; 10:13 ; 10:14 ; 10:17 ; 10:18 ; 14:13 ; 16:24 ; 24:9
Psalm 24:3 Who shall go up to the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? (Brenton)
Isaiah 60:13 And the glory of Lebanon shall come to thee, with the cypress, and pine, and cedar together, to glorify my holy place. (Brenton)
Acts 6:13-14 …"This man incessantly speaks against this holy place… that this Nazarene, Jesus, will destroy this place and alter the customs which Moses handed down to us." (NASB)
Acts 21:28 “…he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place." (NASB)

[5] This is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, including some of the most ancient ones (א, K, L, W, Z, Γ, 0133), and is found in Byzantine and Textus Receptus (T.R.) editions, but because five ancient manuscripts (B, D, Δ, Θ, 094) have the more commonly-used preposition εις (“into”), Critical editions use the latter instead. It makes no difference in the standard English translations, for all use a form of the English preposition “to,” despite the two different Greek textual traditions.

[6] I greatly appreciate the sermons of Nathan Trice preached at Matthews (North Carolina) Orthodox Presbyterian Church on this passage and which I discovered on www.sermonaudio.com, and which helped me form my position on this text.

[7] Although this spelling is supported by the majority of Greek manuscripts, including a couple of the oldest ones (W, 1033), the simpler spelling of this same word (καταβατω) is found in many of the oldest Greek manuscripts (א, B, D, L, Z, Θ, 094) and is therefore used in Critical editions of the GNT. It makes no difference in meaning.

[8] There is a minority of Greek manuscripts (including D & Θ) which read the indefinite pronoun τι “something,” and this made its way into the Textus Receptus which the KJV followed, and into all the Latin versions of the GNT. The reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts found in the Byzantine and Critical editions of the GNT is what I kept, and it is plural (“the things”). It is curious that the ESV chose an English word (“what”) which does not take sides on this manuscript variance, and it is also curious that the NIV sided with the Textus Receptus (“anything”) over the Critical editions.

[9] This is a hard call for me. The majority of the Greek manuscripts (including W, Γ, Δ, and 0133) read plural (τα ‘ιματια), and that’s what the Byzantine and T.R. editions read, and that’s what the KJV English reads. But most of the oldest Greek manuscripts (א, Β, D, K, L, Z, Θ), together with a significant stream of later manuscripts (f1 and f13) and early versions (Siniatic Syriac, Peshitta, Sahidic, Boharic, and Egyptian Coptic, and Latin) indicate that “cloak” here is singular, and that’s what Critical editions of the GNT - and the English versions (ESV, NAS, NIV) which follow them - say. I like the development of the thought which moves from the earlier verse which says not to take the time to move everything out of your house to this verse which says don’t even grab a single garment.

[10] Hendriksen cites H. Mulder and Kampen who question the accuracy of these reports, however.

[11] The T.R. adds the Greek preposition εν (“in/during”), following a few Greek manuscripts (E, F, 0133, etc.). This adds clarity, but does not change the meaning, since the spelling of the word “Sabbath” can be recognized as Dative case, and thus we add the preposition “in/during” in English, whether or not it is explicitly there in Greek.

[12] A few ancient Greek manuscripts (א, D, Θ, 700) render this verb as Aorist (ouk egeneto) instead of Perfect tense, but their reading is not accepted as original to Matthew by any of the published editions of the GNT and does not create a significantly different meaning anyway. Two of those same manuscripts plus a handful of others (D, W, Δ, 700) also simplify the ουδ’ ου later on in this verse to oude.

[13] Matthew made more use in one book of the word “then” than any other Biblical author. He uses the word “then” to mean two different things, however. In some cases it clearly means “afterwards” and in some cases it clearly means “during that time” (See use in 2:17, 3:5, 4:17, 11:20, 12:22, 12:38, 13:26, 13:43, 15:1, 19:13, 24:16, 24:23, 24:40, 25:1, 25:31, 26:3, 27:9, 27:16, 27:38.), and in other cases, it is hard to tell whether it meant after or during. We need to keep those possible meanings in mind when we are interpreting Matthew. Unfortunately, Louw and Nida did not make this distinction in their lexicon of semantic domains and only mentioned the sequential use of tote. Arndt & Gingrich, on the other hand, provided evidence in their lexicon of both the sequential and the contemporaneous meanings of this word.

[14] Chrysostom wrote, “And let not any man suppose this to have been spoken hyperbolically; but let him study the writings of Josephus, and learn the truth of the sayings. For neither can any one say, that the man being a believer, in order to establish Christ’s words, hath exaggerated the tragical history. For indeed He was both a Jew, and a determined Jew, and very zealous, and among them that lived after Christ’s coming. What then saith this man? That those terrors surpassed all tragedy, and that no such had ever overtaken the nation. For so great was the famine, that the very mothers fought about the devouring of their children, and that there were wars about this; and he saith that many when they were dead had their bellies ripped up.

[15] Including Hendriksen, who was not pre-mill: “Jesus is painting in colors borrowed from the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans… the brief period of great tribulation at the close of history ending with the final judgment.”

[16] The only other places that a form of this word occurs in the Greek Bible are Mark 13:20 (the parallel passage), Lev. 21:18 and 22:23 (referring to the ears of sheep being clipped) and 2 Sam. 4:12 (in which men’s hands were cut off). A.T. Robertson calls this a second class conditional, but I don’t think the ei in ei me is part of a conditional. He seems to contradict himself by saying that it was true that the siege was shortened.

[17] Genesis 6:18 And behold I bring a flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven, and whatsoever things are upon the earth shall die… Genesis 9:11 And I will establish my covenant with you and all flesh shall not any more die by the water of the flood, and there shall no more be a flood of water to destroy all the earth. (Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint)

[18] Cf. Isaiah 66:16 For with the fire of the Lord all the earth shall be judged, and all flesh with his sword: many shall be slain by the Lord. (Brenton) and Romans 3:20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. (NASB)

[19] “As a fact, various causes did combine to shorten the siege. Herod Agrippa was stopped in his work of strengthening the walls by orders from the emperor; the Jews, absorbed in their party strifes, had totally neglected preparations to stand a siege; the magazines of corn and provisions were burnt before the arrival of Titus. Titus arrived suddenly, and the Jews voluntarily abandoned parts of the fortification. Titus himself confessed that God was against the Jews, since otherwise neither his armies nor his engines would have availed against their defences.” ~Vincent

[20] Notably Psalm 105:6 “ye seed of Abraam, his servants, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.” (paralleled in 1 Chron. 16:13) and Isaiah 42:1 “Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel is my chosen, my soul has accepted him; I have put my Spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Brenton) Notably, Calvin takes this position.

[21] Matthew 22:14; 24:22-31; Mark 13:20-27; Luke 18:7; 23:35; Romans 8:33; 16:13; Colossians 3:12; 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:4-9; 2 John 1:1,13; Revelation 17:14. In the Greek Old Testament, the word for “chosen” has a range of use about as wide as our English word “chosen.”

[22] Chrysostom reached the same conclusion, “But whom doth He here mean by the elect? The believers that were shut up in the midst of them. For that Jews may not say that because of the gospel, and the worship of Christ, these ills took place, He showeth, that so far from the believers being the cause, if it had not been for them, all had perished utterly.” Here is an additional supporting text: Isaiah 65:9 “…they shall inherit my holy mountain: and mine elect and my servants shall inherit it, and shall dwell there.” (Brenton)

[23] Mark 13:20 NASB  "Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.

[24] This is my attempt to render the Aorist tense here, which focuses on one point in time. In other places I have rendered this grammatical structure with a prohibitive followed by an aorist subjunctive as “don’t start…”

[25] Cf. v.11, and 17:23 and 20:19 where it is spelled in the same passive voice.

[26] There are variants among the most ancient Greek manuscripts, but all are Greek infinitives from the same root, and with Greek infinitives, it’s often hard to translate Aorist differently from Present or even Passive differently from Active. The Passive and Present variants both have scanty manuscript support (L, Z, Θ, f1 and א, D, respectively), and are not considered by any editors I’m aware of to be original to Matthew, but they wouldn’t make any difference in English anyway.

[27] He notes that the “papists” put a lot of stock in the “miracles” of their saints. This reminds me of a modern-day false prophet in America who refers to a book called A Course in Miracles.