13:20
The Lord cut short the number of days of the siege. The siege lasted “only” five months. This was quite long enough, but sieges could go on for a lot longer than that. If it had gone on much longer then no one would have survived. Why did God cut the days short? “For the sake of the elect”. Note that in all this while men are taking actions, ultimately it is the Lord who is in control. This should induce both fear and hope. Fear because God is a God of judgement, and judgement comes. Hope, because God is also a God of mercy. If we focus on only one of these aspects we will not have a complete or accurate picture.
13:21,22
When there are times of great crisis people are desperate for an answer, so are particularly prone to believe “answers” proffered by all sorts of people. Jesus warns the disciples that “at that time” false messiahs will appear. Schnabel reports a number of false messiahs and false prophets who appeared in the time leading up to AD70. People will also be looking for a messiah. Jesus also says that the false messiahs and prophets will “appear and perform signs and wonders”, with the intention of deceiving the elect. Now these people claimed various things were signs, but were not great at doing wonders! These words also apply to the very end, for Revelation also speaks of the beat out of the sea performing signs and wonders (Rev 13:12-14).
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