24:15,16
“The abomination that causes desolation” comes from Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11. The first “fulfilment “ of this was when Antiochus of Epiphanes put up an altar to Zeus in the temple. The Romans desecrated the temple in AD 70. Jesus is alluding to this latter incident and follows it with a very practical instruction, “run for the hills!”. There was a cultural instinct to believe that Jerusalem was the safest place they could be, that God would defend the temple. This had proved to be misplaced in the time of the Babylonian conquest, and would prove equally misplaced in AD 66-70.
24:17-21
At this time there was to be no hesitation in fleeing, no time to put things in order. There was only one imperative, and that was “get out!”. They are also told to pray to God that this does not happen on a Sabbath, when it would be far harder to get out. Note that even with events that are decreed by God that we should still pray. In verse 21 Jesus says the events would be absolutely terrible, far worse than anything that had ever happened before, or would happen again. The Jewish historian, Josephus, described the events in similar terms. So how are we to interpret this? Are we to take this as an absolutely literal description, or as a graphic description meant to impress the horror of the events, but not meant to be taken absolutely literally? Utterly terrible events did happen in AD 70. Does that mean these events are the complete fulfilment of the words of Jesus? Ie supporting a preterist view point? The problem with this is that it is hard to say that these events have never been equalled again in history. What about the holocaust?
No comments:
Post a Comment