Chapter BY Chapter

In the year 66 AD the Jews of Judea started rebelling against their Roman masters. In response, the Emperor Nero dispatched an army under the generalship of Vespasian to restore order.  Vespasian took along Titus, his son, as second in command.  By the year 68, resistance in the northern part of the province had been eradicated and the Romans turned their full attention to the subjugation of Jerusalem. That same year, the Emperor Nero died by his own hand, creating a power vacuum in Rome. In the resultant chaos, Vespasian was declared Emperor and returned to the Imperial City. It fell to his son, Titus, to lead the remaining army in the assault on Jerusalem (notice that this makes Titus a prince – remember this).

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The Roman legions surrounded the city and began to slowly squeeze the life out of the Jewish stronghold. By the year 70, the attackers had breached Jerusalem's outer walls and began a systematic ransacking of the city. The assault culminated in the burning and destruction of the Temple that served as the center of Judaism (http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/jewishtemple.htm).

As the fire set by the Romans in 70 AD raged through the sanctuary in the Temple, quantities of silver and gold, which had been placed there for safe-keeping, melted and ran down between the stones. Roman soldiers tore apart the stones to retrieve the gold and silver, literally leaving “not one stone left upon another” as Yeshua had foretold forty years earlier (37 years actually) as recorded in Matthew 24:2 (https://hope4israel.org/jerusalem-70-ad-not-one-stone-left-upon-another/).

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Now Luke recorded Jesus giving this prophecy before he entered Jerusalem as well.

 

Luke 19:41-44,

 

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

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Flavius Josephus, who was present in Jerusalem when the city was captured and burned, described the devastation in this manner (https://hope4israel.org/jerusalem-70-ad-not-one-stone-left-upon-another/):

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“The countryside like the City was a pitiful sight; for where once there had been a lovely vista of woods and parks there was nothing but desert and stumps of trees every trace of beauty had been blotted out by war, and nobody who had known it in the past and came upon it suddenly would have recognized the place: when he was already there he would still have been looking for the city.”

This is very much as Jesus described it in Luke 21:20-14,

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“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near.  Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.  Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people.  They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

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Notice that Jesus says when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that its desolation has come near. 

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Remember this.  Now they go up to the Mount of Olives and his disciples have more questions for him.

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Verses 3-14,

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As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray.  For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

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“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake.  And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.  And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.  And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.  But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

What questions do the disciples ask Jesus?

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1. When will these things be?

2. What will be the sign of your coming?

3. What will be the sign of the end of the age?

 

Which question does Jesus NOT answer?

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         (What will be the sign of your coming?)

 

Why doesn’t Jesus answer this question?

 

         (So we will always anticipate his coming at any moment and always be ready.)

 

Which question does Jesus answer first?

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         (What will be the sign of the end of the age?)

 

What are the signs of the end of the age?

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1. Many will come saying, “I am the Christ.”

2. Many will be led astray.

3. Wars and rumors of wars.

4. Famines and earthquakes.

5. Persecution of Christians.

6. Lawlessness will increase.

7. The love of many will grow cold.

8. The gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole world.

 

Jesus now answers when will these things be.

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Verses 15-28,

 

“So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.  Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak.  And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!  Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.  For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.  And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.  Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.  See, I have told you beforehand.  So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

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First of all, what are the disciples asking when they ask when they ask, “When will these things be?”

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They are asking Jesus three things.

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1. When will the stones of the temple be thrown down?

2. When will the end of the age be?

3. When will your coming be?

 

In verses 15-20, which of these questions is Jesus answering?

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Jesus gives us a clue because he says, “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place.”  So he is definitely talking about the temple here.  Let’s take a look again at what Daniel said about that.

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Daniel 9:24-27,

 

“Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.  Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.  And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed.  And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the 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 on the desolator.”

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Now, the first idea that we can eliminate is the idea that the abomination of desolation refers to Antiochus IV, who in 167 B.C.

sacrificed a pig on an altar for Zeus in the Jewish temple.  Jesus refers to this as a yet future event.  So, we too can look to history to piece together at least parts of this prophecy.  “An anointed one” is mentioned twice, but we can tell they are not the same person.  Since Daniel is talking about weeks of years, there is 434 360-day years between the two anointed ones.  This would put the first “anointed one” right at the time of Nehemiah, who completed the walls of Jerusalem and instituted reforms such as not working on the Sabbath and not marrying non-Jewish women.  Nehemiah is the governor of the district according to Nehemiah 10:1.  This one is also called a prince.  The second “anointed one” coincides with the time of Jesus, and the wording, “shall be cut off and shall have nothing” is a good description of the fact that the leaders rejected Jesus and crucified him.  After this anointed one, Jesus, is cut off, a number of things transpire.  The city and the sanctuary are destroyed, and there is a war.  We know that this happened around 70 A.D.  Now it says the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.  Titus was a prince, and he led the Roman army in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 A.D.  Titus even entered the temple to oversee getting as many of the gold and silver items out of the temple as possible before the temple was overtaken by fire.  The Romans started this attack on Israel in early spring or late winter of 67 A.D.  The Temple was destroyed on August 29, 70 A.D., and there were a couple months of Roman looting after that.  So, this was just about 3 ½ years.  So this is in the half of the week, or in the middle of the week of years.  It does not say that sacrifices will be ceased temporarily.  It says put an end to sacrifices.  As I am writing this, it has been 1949 years since then, so I think we can safely assume that there has been a permanent end to sacrifices.  Now, just as there was a gap of 37 years from the second “anointed one” to the destruction of the temple, there could also be a gap of years to the second half of this last week of years.

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There are many that say that the temple must be rebuilt yet again, so that the seven years of the tribulation can occur and that in the middle of those seven years, there will once again be an end to sacrifices.  Now, the book of Revelation keeps mentioning a period of time equaling 3 ½ years.  Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour.  By that, he means that no one knows when the end will come.  If we believe that the temple must be rebuilt once again before Jesus comes, we might be complacent.  At this point, it looks more like the temple does not need to be rebuilt, and the second coming of Jesus is even more imminent.  The only thing that Daniel gives us after the end of sacrifice is that abominations and desolations shall occur until the decreed end.  This consistently describes the nature of the world since then.  Not only has there been war somewhere in the world since that time, but the location of the temple has been desolate ever since.

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So, when Jesus says, “when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place,” he is talking about Titus, who stood in the temple and ransacked it.  This is the only person it could be according to Daniel’s explanation and timeline.  His army made the whole of Judea desolate.  Everyone in all of Judea was either killed or taken captive.

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There are however, two verses that talk about a third temple.

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2 Thessalonians 2:3-4,

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“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”

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So, there will be a man that takes his seat in the temple and proclaims himself to be God.  This has not happened yet.

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Revelation 11:1-2,

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“Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.”

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So there will be a temple in the time of the great tribulation.  But we must not be complacent in thinking that we can just wait until the temple is built.  The temple itself only needs to be 100 feet by 75 feet, and the courtyard is already there, that is the temple mount.

Jesus keeps talking about this time on through verse 20.  What are some of the descriptions Jesus gives in verses 16 to 20 about that time?

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1. “Let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”Notice that he is at this time restricting the area to Judea.This describes the time around 70 A.D.

2. Let the one on the housetop not go down to get his belongings.

3. Let the one in the field not get his cloak.

4. Too bad if you are pregnant or nursing a baby.

5. Too bad if it is in winter or on the Sabbath.

 

Then at the end of verse 20, something happens in the Greek.  There is a period.  End of sentence.  Verse 15-20 is all one sentence.

Verse 21 starts out with the words, “There will be.”  This verb is future indicative middle.  It is in the future, perhaps future to what is in the previous sentence.  Indicative stresses that it will certainly happen.  Middle means that it is neither active nor passive.  The tense here stresses just the fact that there certainly will be.  Next are the words “for then,” which could be additional separators from the previous sentence.  The next words are “a great tribulation.”

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What can we tell about the great tribulation from verses 21 to 28?

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1. It will be a greater tribulation that any time.

2. If those days were not cut short, no human being would be saved.So, Jesus is definitely not talking about 70 A.D. anymore here.The siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. certainly left many people in the world.

3. For the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.In other words, God is not done with us yet.He will add more people to his kingdom.

4. People will falsely claim to be the Christ.Jesus claimed to be Jesus in the 1st century.Nobody else claimed to be Jesus until the 18th century.There were 2 claimants in the 18th century, 6 in the 19th century, 28 in the 20th century, and 5 in the 21st century.69 people in all have claimed to be just the Messiah or both Jesus and the Messiah. That is in addition to those that just claim to be Jesus.

5. The coming of the Son of Man will be like the lightning that comes from the East and shines as far as the West.In other words, it will be instantaneous and seen everywhere.

6. Wherever the corpse is there the vultures will gather.In other words, there will be a lot of death as the Christ defeats his enemies.

 

It was in the fall of 2005 that Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, the most venerated rabbinical Jewish leader in Israel, proclaimed that he knew the name of the real Messiah. He insisted that he knew where the Messiah was and when He was going to reveal Himself to the world. Rabbi Kaduri claimed that he had personally seen the Messiah in a vision.

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Rabbi Kaduri was born in the late 1800’s and died January, 2006. He lived through many horrors of Jewish persecution, the rise or Adolph Hitler, the Muslim Brotherhood, World Wars I and II, and the creation of the state or Israel. He was known for his astounding prophecies and his notable works of charity, and lived a life of mercy, righteousness and simplicity.

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A year before his death, Rabbi Kaduri wrote in his own handwriting a note revealing the name of the much anticipated “Messiah” and when He would come. The note was not to be opened and inspected until one year after his death.

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So, in 2006, Kabbalist sage Yitzhak Kaduri died leaving a note that claims to reveal the name of Messiah: With the biblical name of Jesus (Yeshua), the Rabbi and kabbalist described the Messiah using six words and hinting that the initial letters form the name of the Messiah. The secret note said: 'Concerning the letter abbreviation of the Messiah's name, He will lift the people and prove that his word and law are valid. This I have signed in the month of mercy, Yitzhak Kaduri's The Hebrew sentence (translated above in bold) with the hidden name of the Messiah reads: Yarim Ha'Am Veyokhiakh Shedvaro Vetorato Omdim. The initials spell the Hebrew name of Jesus, Yehoshua. Yehoshua and Yeshua are effectively the same name, derived from the same Hebrew root of the word 'salvation' as documented in Zechariah 6:11 and Ezra 3:2.

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The meaning of Jehoshuah name is YHWH is salvation.  This name is consistent with the message when He was called when the people first called upon the name of YHWH (Gen. 4:26).

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And what’s more than that is the fact that the real meaning of YHWH name in Ancient Pictographic Hebrew language is: behold the hand, behold the nail, or simply behold the nailed hand.

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- Yod: arm e

- Hey: look

- Waw: nail

- Hey: look

 

This is a clear reference to what Jesus did in Calvary: He died as the Holy Lamb of God and the atonement (aqedah) for all sins of mankind throughout all ages (http://vixra.org/pdf/1704.0137v1.pdf).  Rabbi Kaduri realized that the Messiah had already come for the first time when he read a Hebrew version of the gospel of Matthew and then re-read Isaiah 53.

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Song: Greatest of These by Hillsong