MPV Commentary

Warnings to Prepare for His Second Coming, Suggested by It--His Days and Nights during His Last Week.

5-7. (See on Mt 24:1-3.)

8. The time of the Kingdom is at hand in all its glory.

Go after them, but I am not coming immediately (2Th 2:1, 2).

9-11. Do not be terrified (Lu 21:19; Isa 8:11-14). That which will come to pass will not happen right away (Mt 24:6; Mr 13:7); worse things must occur before all is over.

10. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom (Mt 24:8; Mr 13:8), as the beginning of sorrows or travail pangs that precede heavy calamities (Jer 4:31, etc.).

12. You will be brought before rulers and kings for a testimony (an opportunity to bear witness).

18. Not a hair on your head will perish (Lu 21:16). This promise is far above immunity from mere bodily harm, and it provides insight into the right interpretation of Psalms like 91.

Matthew adds that because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will grow cold (Mt 24:12), but those who endure to the end will be saved. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness, and then the end will come (Mt 24:14). God never sends judgment without previous warning.

20-21. By armies besieged, the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet (Da 9:27) will stand where it ought not (Mr 13:14). "Whoso readeth [that prophecy] let him understand" (Mt 24:15).

Then flee to a safe place, and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the sabbath (Mt 24:20), for then shall be tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be (Mt 24:21). But for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.

23. Woe to those who are pregnant and nursing in those days, for there will be great suffering involved; as also flight on the sabbath, which they should pray against (Mt 24:20).

24. Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Ro 11:25). This implies that one day Jerusalem will cease to be "trodden down" and that this will happen at the completion of "the times of the Gentiles."

25-28. Signs in the sun, moon, and stars will appear, as well as on the earth distress among nations, perplexity, and fear (Lu 21:25-27). Though these expressions carry the mind over the head of all periods but that of Christ's second coming, nearly every expression will be found used of the Lord's coming in terrible national judgments.

28. Redemption will come from the oppression of ecclesiastical despotism and legal bondage by the total subversion of the Jewish state and the firm establishment of the evangelical kingdom (Lu 21:31). But these words are of far wider and more precious import.

32. This generation will not pass away until all these things take place (Lu 9:27).

34-37. Surfeiting, drunkenness, and cares of this life will quench spirituality (Mr 4:7; Mr 4:19). Watch and pray, for you do not know when the time will come (Lu 21:36).

37, 38. In the daytime of His last week, Jesus was in the abode in the mount, that is, at Bethany (Mt 21:17).