Matt 24 Pt 7 Abomination of Desolation & fleeing to the mountains

So, we're going to talk about the abomination of desolation and Jesus' warning to flee to the mountains and leave everything behind. So, as you know, we've done this several times before, so I don't want to belabor too much how we're going to do the study.

We're going to read the whole passage together, which we've done. We already summarized it in parts 1, 2, and 3. Now we're going to go through each individually and explain things in context. Again, our hermeneutic is the analogy of faith.

That's scripture interprets scripture. There's no better interpreter of scripture than the scriptures itself. We're not going to take something that we think and impose it upon the text. We're going to look for it in the text.

We're going to take the clear scriptures and interpret the hard scriptures in light of the clear ones. Now what happens generally with Matthew 24 and the book of Revelation, people take the harder scriptures and try to interpret the easier to understand scriptures through the hard ones.

And that's the opposite way of doing it. You want to take the clear teaching of scripture and then take the hard parts of it and interpret it in light of the clear. So that's what we're going to continue to do tonight.

We're going to go through the abomination of desolation, fleeing to the mountains, leaving it all behind. And again, if all of these things have taken place within the generation that Jesus was speaking to, then his words prove true.

What he said came true and we should not be looking for another fulfillment of it. These are things that happened already. Now there could be a future understanding of them in context, but the event that Jesus was talking about happened in AD 70.

You don't want to take that out of context and say, well, it hasn't happened yet. Jesus was talking about a future generation that this was going to happen to, and we're still waiting for this to happen.

That's going to skew what you think about the Bible and what you think about how the church is supposed to act in the world today. You're going to have a pessimistic view of the church, not an optimistic view of the church.

Jesus secured victory on the cross. He rose from the dead. He's now sitting at the right hand of the father, waiting for his enemies to be made a footstool for his feet. Now the same way, and I know I'm getting off tangent here, the same way God created Adam and then he pulled Eve out of Adam's side and made a woman for Adam.

The woman is to be a suitable helpmate to Adam. She was supposed to help Adam tend the garden, expand the garden, keep the garden nice, have the garden flourish. Well, the first Adam failed. We know Jesus is the last Adam, right?

So Jesus now comes, he builds, he starts his kingdom here on earth. He brings heaven to earth. And now who is the bride of Christ? The church. And what is the bride? A suitable helpmate to Jesus. The same way Adam was married to Eve, that's his helpmate to help him expand the garden.

Jesus is now in covenant marriage with the church. The church is the suitable helpmate designed to help Jesus to bring the kingdom here on earth. Okay? All right. That was a tangent. Anyway, let's get into what we're talking about tonight, called the abomination of desolation.

Daniel’s Prophecy and the Meaning of the Abomination of Desolation

In Matthew 24, verses 15 and 16, Jesus says, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

So this is an indicator. Jesus is saying, when you see that abomination of desolation, flee, run, leave the city, go into the mountains. Now, if you were listening to him saying that to you, what would you expect that, expected that to mean?

When you see that, we're out of here, we're not staying around. Okay? Okay. So would the disciples even know what Jesus was talking about? What's an abomination of desolation? Would they have understood this?

And the answer is yes, maybe not fully comprehended it, but they would have understood it because parts of this appear in the Old Testament. So an abomination. What does this mean? It means generally that which is detestable to God.

If somebody came to you and says, what you're doing is an abomination in God's sight, you would understand that's not a good thing. That's not pleasant. An abomination is something that God detests. All right.

An abomination is something that's unclean in the Jewish tradition, especially of impure idol worship, hence idolatry, licentiousness, abominable impurity. So the disciples would have understood what abomination meant because they were familiar with the Hebrew scriptures.

So what's a desolation? Our next word needs some attention as well. Desolation addresses the act or the process of making desolate. In the phrase, the abomination of desolation, meaning the abomination that makes something desolate, empty, devoid, stressing the effect of the process and referring to the desolation or depopulation of Jerusalem and the temple as a result of their abomination or desecration.

The theologian R .T. France calls it devastating pollution. So an abomination is something that God detests. Desolation is the process of of making it empty, removing something from it. Have you ever?

Oh, he went to a desolate place. Empty. There's nothing around. So the abomination of desolation is not something good. Something's going to be pulled out and God detests it. OK, so we can combine both of the words together to get a full idea of what the abomination of desolation means.

An abomination is either an object or an event which defiles a holy place and causes it to be abandoned, left desolate. An abomination which desolates, a horrible thing which defiles. OK, so again, the listeners, the disciples that Jesus was speaking to would have understood what an abomination is.

They would have understand what desolate is. OK, and we're going to see how they would have understood this in the Old Testament because Daniel talks about it, about another temple. OK, OK, so there's old covenant language about desolation related to judgment that Jesus disciples would have recognized.

OK, remember that Jesus prophesied what was going to happen to the temple or to the house. That's what Jesus says. I leave you your house desolate. Right. This is Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stone those who are sent to it.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing. See your house, your temple is left to you desolate, abandoned, right? What was, remember when we went through the study on the temple in the wilderness?

What was so special about the temple in the wilderness? This is the easy question. Say again. What was, what was, what was the point of the tabernacle in the wilderness? It was where God dwelled. That was where God dwelled.

Right. Exactly. He, he was in the tabernacle, right? What's the sense of setting up a tabernacle if God's not going to be in there? So now what Jesus is telling them is your temple, your tabernacle that you have here, your house, he's leaving.

Elvis has left the building. That's it. That's not a good thing. And why is, is, is God leave? Why is Jesus leaving them? Is their house desolate? First of all, they did not recognize their Messiah, right?

They, Jesus, he confirmed his Messiah ship by signs, wonders, miracles. He spoke with one of authority. He forgave sins. He told them, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. He told them that he was God in the flesh.

They rejected him. Okay. So if he, if they, if they reject him, he's like, I'm not going to stay. Jesus is not going to, um, I'll say force his way into your life, right? You don't want them. You won't get them.

It's very simple. In the end, you're going to get what you want. If you want Jesus, you will get Jesus. No problem. Okay. Hey brother. Okay. So when Jesus uses abomination of desolation, he's referencing a few passages in Daniel, in Daniel nine 27, he says, and he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week.

And for a half week, he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out, poured out on the desolator. Okay.

And in Daniel chapter 12, and from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there should be 1290 days. Okay. So this is, this was a familiar to the disciples and the Jews who were standing there that Jesus was talking to.

So abomination of desolation may not be something that we understand quickly and easily. They understood it clearly. And I can't tell you how many different, um, ideas of what the abomination of desolation is.

Oh, it's when, um, it's when Nero goes in and slaughters a pig on the altar and they come up with all these fanciful things that sell books and sound really, uh, interesting, but have no basis in the scriptures.

So again, we're going to use the analogy of faith that scripture interprets scripture. So if we have a reference to the abomination and desolation in the old Testament, we're going to carry that through so that we think the way the disciples think that's, that's what we're trying to do.

We're trying to put ourselves in the position of the disciples that Jesus was speaking to so that we would hear and understand what he was telling them so that we don't misinterpret it. Obviously the goal is to properly interpret the word of God.

And the only way you can do that is if you understand the proper context and you put yourself in that position, understand what they understood, right? We learned that with the sun, moon, and the stars, like lots of people think that the sun, moon, and the stars are actually going to go blank and stars are going to hit the earth.

And that's not true. Sun, moon, and stars are pertaining to powers and nations. Okay. Israel was called Joseph in his dream. He saw the sun, moon, and the stars, and he saw the stalks bowing down to the sun, moon, and the stars.

It was, his brothers were bowing down to him. He was Israel. Okay. All right. So let's move on. As a foreshadow of this, the temple, the house that Solomon had built was later destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

We read that in Daniel chapter one and Jeremiah 52, Isaiah described it like this. Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem, a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, the tabernacle, where our fathers praised you has been burned by fire and all our precious things have become a ruin.

See this was the second temple. Okay. This is, I'm sorry, this was Solomon's temple that was destroyed because Israel was unfaithful to the covenant. The Assyrians came in, they dragged them away. Okay.

Then the Babylonians came in and they decimated the temple. Okay. Once the temple was destroyed, now the Jews don't have a place to do their sacrifices. They don't have a place to meet and worship, to celebrate the feast, the Passover.

Okay. They're now in captivity in Babylon. Then we get to the book of Nehemiah and that's when Nehemiah wants to rebuild the temple of God and they end up doing it to now the temple that Jesus is talking about.

They call it Herod's temple. The temple was not destroyed and left desolate because of what Nebuchadnezzar had done. This is important. Nebuchadnezzar was God's instrument of judgment because of what the people of Zion had done.

This is an old Testament version. This was the first tabernacle that Solomon built. David wanted to build a house for the Lord. The Lord said, no, your son Solomon is going to build the temple. Solomon builds the temple.

Israel is unfaithful to the covenant. The Assyrians come in, the Babylonians come in and destroy the temple. That's what Daniel is talking about in this particular verse. So the temple wasn't destroyed and left desolate because of what Nebuchadnezzar had done.

Nebuchadnezzar was the leader of the army that came in and destroyed the temple. Okay. He was God's instrument of judgment because of what the people of Zion did. The Jews. They were unfaithful. In the same way, Jesus is telling the disciples that they will see this happen to their temple.

Why? Because of what the people of Zion, Israel had done or not done actually. They should have worshipped Jesus as Messiah. They should have accepted him. They should have repented of their sins and placed their faith and trust in him.

Instead, they rejected him and they would be the ones along with Herod, Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles. They end up putting him on the cross. They kill their Messiah. That's why this is an abomination and he's going to abandon the temple.

They killed him. In fact, I just saw on Facebook the other day, these looters and these rioters, somebody had a sign up, Oh, if Jesus comes back again, we'll kill him a second time. So you know, you have these people, yeah, you have these people who, you know, they just are bent against Jesus.

In fact, there's a website, undo Jesus or something like that. I should have wrote it down, but yeah, no, that's read Psalm 2. That's all I'll tell you. Yeah, they did this first time, right? Okay. So anybody know what that is?

That's a drawing my daughter did, no, I'm only kidding. No, let's not go through it. Okay. This is something that the Roman army would put up. Yeah. There you go. At the time Jesus was speaking, the Roman army used many different styles or standards or in signs.

The letters SPQR in the center and signs stand for Senatus Populus Romanus. In other words, the Senate and the people of Rome. Okay. Jesus and his disciples would have seen many such standards in the first century Jerusalem, notably in the palace of Pilate, the Roman governor.

Some scholars believe that when the Roman legions erected their statutes on the ruins of the second temple in AD 70, they were fulfilling Daniel's prophecy of the abomination of desolation. That obviously is not actually what the abomination of desolation is.

Now I don't doubt that the Roman army scrolled there, you know, put their letters on the temple and, you know, adopted it as their own. Abomination of desolation appears twice in the new Testament. In Jesus' Olivet Discourse, he attributed the saying to the prophet Daniel and indicated that its fulfillment was yet future, which is why we're going through this, right?

Accepting Jesus' testimony as authentic, all references to the abomination of desolation in Daniel were not fulfilled during the time of Antiochus IX, granting that Daniel 1131 refers to Antiochus' blasphemy, Christ's words must point to the abomination of desolation of Daniel 927 or 1211.

And this is kind of like a tangent. Jesus then is identifying the abomination of these passages with a future sacrilege in the Jerusalem temple. So when Daniel wrote what he wrote, the temple was being destroyed, okay?

He wrote of a future temple, which Jesus is talking about now, saying the temple in Jerusalem, that's the temple that's going to be destroyed. And it was. Okay. Now, it's important, again, we're going to compare scripture with scripture.

So we're going to compare Matthew 24, 15 and 16 with the passage in Luke 21 verses 20 and 21. Now, this Olivet Discourse is found in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. So if you want a complete synopsis of what the whole New Testament says about Jesus coming in judgment, read Matthew 13, Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21.

So based on Luke 21, we can pinpoint the time when the abomination of desolation was to appear. Jesus says, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by the armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand.

Those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Now, if you were living in Jerusalem and Jesus told you this, and a couple of years later, you see the Roman armies surrounding the temple, what would you do?

Run. He said this was going to happen, just surrounding the temple, which nobody expected to happen. That wasn't something, it wasn't like they were sitting around all, yeah, this is, it's heating up.

This is going to happen. They had no idea that this was going to happen again. At the time, it was something called the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, right? The Roman army was so strong and conquered all their enemies that they subdued them.

No one dared taunt the Roman, the Roman soldiers or the Roman empire. They would get squashed instantly. Okay. So it was peace throughout the whole land. So for something like this to happen, it was out of the ordinary.

This wasn't something that they were expecting. Okay. So if you were there or I were there and you saw the armies surrounding Jerusalem, you'd be like, we're running. This is where we get the term run for the hills right here.

So was Jerusalem ever surrounded by the armies prior to AD 70? Yes. Right. Did the Christian Jews, did the Christian Jews flee the city? Yes. Yes. Yes. Why? They were told to. They were told to. They recognized what Jesus said was true.

Right. Josephus writes about that. Yes, he does. Yeah. Yep. When Jesus said, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by the armies, any time after this occurrence would have been too late for those living in Jerusalem.

Notice the specifics of Luke's version of this. He says, those who are in Judea must flee and those who are in the country must not come back in and enter the city. You came back and entered the city, it'd be like going to where the looters and the rioters right now.

That'd be the last thing you want to do. You want to go the opposite way, right? And again, remember that this abomination of desolation spoken of here is not the end of the world. It's not a world ending event, but even St. Augustine, okay, who was around 396 AD, the ship of Hippo.

In fact, we derive a lot of good doctrine from Augustine. He's known as one of the fathers of the church. He said this, and thus has made plain sight what might otherwise have been doubtful, namely that what was said of the abomination of desolation belong not to the end of the world, but to the taking of Jerusalem, right?

So he's a lot closer to the, to the, to the time of Christ. 70 AD, to call it 400 AD, he's only 300, less than 300 years away. They had firsthand knowledge of this. They had things written down. You had Josephus, Tacitus, historians writing this stuff down.

Plus he had the scriptures. He understood that this is exactly what Jesus was prophesying. No need to extrapolate this out and say, no, it's going to happen 2000 years from now. Because that's what people believe.

They believe that this hasn't happened yet. Now, looking at everything that Jesus said, looking at everything that the actual disciples did, looking at the historical fact that the army surrounded Jerusalem and they fled the city, and that's actually how the, uh, the Christianity began to spread because they, they started moving out.

This is a foregone conclusion. Okay. All right. The series events were local and visible to those living in the outskirts of the center of the city. But how could anyone escape after Jerusalem was surrounded?

For those in the city, they couldn't. So if you didn't heed the warning, you were stuck in that city. You got, you got plummet, pummeled. Yeah. You got pummeled with, with the temple, uh, theologian DA Carson notes, there is reasonably good tradition that Christians abandoned the city, perhaps in AD 68, about halfway through the siege and later it would have been nearly impossible to escape since once the zealots had gained control of the city, they slashed the throats of any whom they even suspected of trying to escape.

So it was brutal. You know, it's, it's an ugly situation, obviously. Fleeing to the mountains outside the city indicates that the judgment was local and not worldwide. Right? So Jesus says, flee to the mountains.

If the judgment was global, how could you flee to the mountains? It's worldwide. Wouldn't make sense. It'd be like somebody saying, if the Corona virus hits the world, flee to the mountains. It's all over.

You, if the coronavirus hits the entire world, it doesn't make sense. But if somebody says, if Corona virus hits Long Island, flee upstate, flee to Carolinas, flee to Pennsylvania. Okay. That makes sense.

You know, but if it's a worldwide judgment, which is what most people think Matthew 24 is, you can't flee to the mountains. It's a worldwide judgment, right? But if it's local, which is what Jesus said it was, then this makes sense.

Okay. Those escaping could not do so on foot. There are biblical examples of similar escapes to the mountains as places of rescue to avoid being caught up in the catastrophic, the catastrophe of judgment.

Okay. And again, here, we're going to look at some other scriptures, scripture interprets scripture. Lot and his family had been warned by the angels, escape to the mountains or you will be swept away.

Right? It was a local judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, right? God rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot escaped to the mountains and was saved. Jesus warned those of his generation, remember Lot's wife, right?

He points to what happened to Lot, to what's going to happen here. Again, indicating this is going to be a localized judgment, not a worldwide catastrophic thing that people now want to make it. It sells a lot of books, sells a lot of books.

It's not true. It sells a lot of books, right? What do we want? We want truth or we want a lot of books, truth. You can't handle the truth, I'm sorry. You know that movie? Thank you. Okay. So now another thing people ask, well, aren't the Romans the abomination of desolation?

Aren't they the ones that God's going to destroy the temple because of them, right? No. The Roman armies are not the abomination that causes desolation. While this has been a popular view with Bible commentators, it doesn't fit the theological context.

Why would God use the Roman armies to bring judgment upon Jerusalem by destroying the temple for something that the Romans did? He's not going to destroy the temple because of something the Romans did.

That doesn't make sense. An abomination in the Old Testament was anything that desecrated the true worship of God. Aaron and the golden calf, the strange fire offered by Nadab and Abihu, all these things were called an abomination in the scriptures.

Eli's two evil sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and the desolating sacrilege that resulted in God's departure from Solomon's temple. Those are called abominations. God sent Judah into captivity under the Babylonians and destroyed the temple because of her abominations.

God's sanctuary had been defiled with detestable idols and abominations. They were the result of Israel's actions. So the reason that Jesus is going to abandon the temple and leave it desolate was because of something Israel did, not something the Romans did.

Again, Israel rejected its Messiah. In fact, they were the ones who said, crucify him. In fact, Pontius Pilate was trying to give them an out. He said, look, it's your custom to release a prisoner. He put before them Barabbas and Jesus.

Who do you want to free? Free Barabbas. Let Barabbas go. Now, Barabbas was an actual criminal. Jesus was innocent. But they wanted Jesus dead. And Pilate said, you know, you want Jesus to die? Yes. Let his blood be on our hands and our children's hands.

And this is exactly what's going to happen. God's going to leave the temple desolate and he's going to destroy many Israelites. Or did. I should say. OK, so the Jews of Jesus day had turned the temple into a house of merchandise.

Remember, they were selling pigeons and all these things, money changers, right? So that they can make their sacrifices and a robber's den. Jesus is the high priest who had passed through the heavens, inspected the temple twice.

He found it unclean, which is called leprous in the Old Testament and issued his priestly evaluation. Jesus comes out of the temple as the priest shall come out from the house in Leviticus. And he what?

He declared it desolate as the priest declared a leprous house to be unclean. So this is pointing back to Leviticus, where the law said, if you came and you have mold in your house or something, the priest would come look at it.

They'd scrape it off. They would do what's necessary. They leave it for two weeks. He comes back again. If the mold grows, you got to destroy the whole house, tear the whole thing down. This is exactly what Jesus is doing with their temple.

He came into the temple, right? He comes back, they're doing, they're selling the animals, they're doing the money change, they're making money. He says, this is it. It's coming down, right? A leprous house could be cleansed only in one way.

He shall therefore tear down the house, its stones and its timbers and all the plaster of the house, and he shall take them outside to the city, the city to an unclean place. That's Leviticus. Okay? This is the law that the priest had to follow in Leviticus.

When Jesus's disciples pointed to the temple buildings at the hearing of its promised desolation, Jesus answered, do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down.

This is the priest following the Levitical law saying this house, this temple, it's got to be torn down. It's unclean. That's the abomination. By 70 AD, all the apostles are dead, right? Paul was crucified, Peter was crucified upside down.

They're all dead, except for John. The disciples were told what Jesus said about the destruction of the temple. It happens, they flee and are saved. Would they have thought what Jesus said pertained to their generation or a later one?

That generation, everything that Jesus said was going to happen, happened. They saw the army surrounding Jerusalem. They saw all these things happen. They saw the false prophets. They saw the lawlessness.

They saw all these things. It was for them. They understood it. They understood it so well that they fled to the mountains and lived. There's no reason to apply this to a future generation yet to come.

A lot of people believe that this hasn't been fulfilled yet and we're waiting for it to happen. Not good. So Jesus says, flee to the mountains, leave everything behind. In Matthew 24, 17, whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that they are in his house.

Whoever is in the field must not turn back and get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. But pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath.

That's important. In these verses, Jesus tells his disciples that when the temple's approaching desolation became evident, it would be time for them to head for the hills. Most roofs on Israel were flat with an outside staircase designed for occupancy, storage and rest in the evenings.

In addition, if Jesus said, whoever's on the housetop must not go down to get their things. How many of us hang out on our housetops or hanging out on the roofs? It's not in context. The houses that were built back then, most people hung out on top of the roof.

In fact, the law in the Old Testament said you have to build a parapet. It was like a board with a netting. So if somebody fell off your roof, they wouldn't hit the ground. They'd fall like into this netting and be saved.

They wouldn't hurt themselves and die, fall to the ground. So again, in context, this was applicable to the disciples and the people of Jerusalem. In addition, Jesus referred to the strict Sabbath laws in effect at that time.

An acceptable distance for travel on the Sabbath was about three-fifths of a mile as determined by Pharisaical law. Not enough travel distance to get out of harm's way during Jerusalem's sign-laden destruction.

So when Jesus says, I pray that your flight will not be on a Sabbath, would that make a difference to us here right now today? Are we only allowed to drive a mile and a half on a Sabbath? No. That wouldn't be applicable to us today.

It was applicable to them back then because they had set certain Sabbath laws, how far away you can move from your house. So again, he's saying, I pray that it doesn't happen on a Sabbath because you're only allowed to move a certain length of distance.

Thank you. It may not be far enough to get out of harm's way. Again, that wouldn't apply to us right now. And this is important for if one lived in or around Jerusalem and the wars weren't heard of were going to lead to the prophesied event, then alarm, fear, would be appropriate.

The kind of alarm that might lead to rapid evacuation, which will proceed in verses 16 -18. This is what happened when the Roman armies approached Jerusalem. The church abandoned the city. And they did this because they believed this prophecy was for their benefit in the first century.

They recognized it, they applied it to their circumstance, and they listened to what Jesus said. For the abomination of desolation to be a useful sign that allows people to flee to the mountains, it would need to be visible before the doors of Jerusalem were closed permanently.

So at some point between when Vespasian began his war on Israel and the point at which Jerusalem was destroyed by his son Titus, the church would have had to leave the city. In other words, if the Roman soldiers were in the temple desecrating it, burning it, then we have passed the point when anyone can flee to safety.

In other words, once you see the armies surrounding the temple, that's the time to leave. Once they're in the temple destroying it, too late, you missed your opportunity. He told them when they surround the temple, that's when you leave.

By the time the Romans had actually desecrated the temple in AD 70, it was too late for anyone in the city to flee. Luke makes it clear by saying, but when you see Jerusalem surrounded by the armies, then you know that it's desolation has come near.

Remember, these are the words that we talked about when we first went through Matthew 24. Near, the time is near, the time is at hand. That means it's close, right? If Jesus meant that it was in the distance, he would say the time is far off.

It is not now. He says the time is now, it's near, it's at hand. History shows that Christian Jews did heed Jesus' warning before the armies of Titus captured the city. Most who remained were slaughtered.

Estimates put the number killed at more than 1 ,000 ,000 people. 1 ,000 ,000 more were taken into captivity and enslaved by the Romans. The Emperor Vespasian brought 20 ,000 Jewish slaves to Rome after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

The Arch of Titus depicts a menorah as part of the plunder from Jerusalem. Vespasian and his successors, Titus, used the slaves to build the Roman Colosseum. Now this is what the Romans built. They built this big archway.

Obviously, this is going into one of the Roman cities. Now underneath, you see that arch there? That's what it looks like. On the right-hand side, you can barely see it. You see it in the corner there?

The little menorah? Okay, that's what it is. This is a picture of the Roman armies taking the plunder from the temple, including the menorah. See the menorah? Okay. Taking the stuff, all the stuff out of the temple with the menorah.

They're taking it out of the city. And what do they do? They etch this in stone so people will remember it. This is what we did to your temple. Remember, we made you slaves. We took your little lamp stand.

It's now in our garage. Okay, we'll put it up on eBay. You can get it later. What did they do with a million dead bodies? Fertilizer? I don't know. I don't know. They probably didn't have bulldozers. Yeah, right?

What? The Valley of Cahena? They could have threw them in the dump, which is commonly known as Gehenna, you know? A lot of times, I was going to say a lot of times, you know, what they did, they would leave the body on, if they crucified, they'd leave the body on the tree and the birds and the animals will come eat them.

So there's any number of things that could have happened to them. I'm sure it wasn't easy, but you know, the Romans were vicious when they wanted to be. Okay. All right. These phrases in Matthew 24, 17, 18, are stark images of the need for speed in the face of coming catastrophe.

They are presented as a warning of momentary disaster, so near that no time is possible to make preparations to leave. So Jesus is saying, look, when you, when this happens, you got to move quick. Don't hang around.

Now, I'm sure people didn't, did go into their houses, right? And grab their children and probably other things that they were going to bring with them, right? They may have grabbed the bag, all packed and ready to go for when the moment arrives.

Some people planned, like if some people got go bags, you know, something, something hits the fan around here, you grab your go bag and you're out, right? Some people did that, right? This was not so much a literal order to not go into your house and get your family, but an image of the need for haste that is almost indescribable without the use of hyperbolic language.

In other words, Jesus was exaggerating it so that they got the point. Don't, don't go back into your house. Just leave. That's how important this is. These statements would correspond to something like, you have exactly two seconds to get into that car, right?

You know, when you got kids, you got two seconds to get into that car. We know it doesn't really mean two seconds. We're just trying to tell them, get in the car, or in two seconds, they're going to swat you, right?

You're trying to get somebody to move, immediate action. That's what Jesus was trying to get through to them. Okay. Matthew 24, 19 says, and alas, for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days, coming in the midst of other flight material, this verse deals with pregnant and nursing mothers caught up in the rigors of flight, not with those trapped in the doom city, the need to abandon everything and move with extreme haste poses huge hardship for pregnant and nursing mothers.

This may be a combination of a literal statement and a stock image. Again, the message is one of a coming disaster that, and the need for extreme haste. In other words, he's warning pregnant women, look, this is going to be tough, especially for you.