15"Therefore when you see the "abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), 16"then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.
23"Then if anyone says to you, "Look, here is the Christ!' or "There!' do not believe it. 24For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25See, I have told you beforehand.
26"Therefore if they say to you, "Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or "Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it. 27For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
There are two places where Daniel talks of the abomination of desolation. In Daniel 12:31, he talks of the Northern King who would return in rage against the holy covenant, he would defile the sanctuary fortress, take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation. Again, in Daniel 13, he is asking about the time of the end and the great time of trouble that will occur. Daniel asks when this will come to an end. In Daniel 13:11, he is told that from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
Footnotes in my Bible say that the destruction predicted here is the destruction of Jerusalem which has already happened. But what then of the 1290 days mentioned in Daniel 13:12? And Jesus said it would be a great tribulation, such as the world has ever seen or ever would again. Was the destruction of Jerusalem the worst that the world would ever see? Somehow I can’t get myself to believe that Jesus is talking of the destruction of Jerusalem that has already happened. What He is talking of here seems to be much worse.
And what is the abomination of desolation? I would think that an abomination to God is anything that is a great offense to Him. When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, it must be the least holy thing there is. To me, this must be something of Satan. The descriptive term “of desolation” seems so appropriate, because anything cut off from God can only be desolate.
When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, it is a matter of immediate attention. You must flee immediately. Do not take time to gather any provisions. But why flee? Where can anyone go to escape the end of the world? Would the wrath of God possibly hit those He doesn’t intend to hit if we don’t flee? And why is it woe to those who are pregnant or nursing? I cannot believe it would be because they would have a more difficult time fleeing due to their encumbrances, and if they aren’t able to flee quickly enough that it would be their bad luck that they couldn’t be saved. But Jesus says we must flee. The only reason I can think of is to remove ourselves from any possible influence of the abomination standing in the holy place. And woe to those who must make decisions for the innocent unborn or helpless babies if they decide to not flee.
And at that time it will be easy to be influenced. For false christs and false prophets will appear and their purpose will be to deceive. If someone says, look, he is here, do not even be tempted to look. Flee.
But you may wonder, but what if it really is Jesus? We know Jesus will be coming again. How do we know when to look for Jesus and when to avoid looking to a false prophet? But when Jesus comes again, He will not be standing in the desert. He will not be waiting in an inner room. But as a flash of lightning, He will “come from the east and flash to the west.” He will not be waiting around anywhere simply to be seen. His appearance, purpose, and action will be swift.
I struggle with the last statement here: “For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” What is the carcass Jesus is talking about, and what eagles? Footnotes in my Bible suggest He is talking of birds of prey in general, and meaning more specifically, vultures, here. But is Jesus really talking here of something preying on that which is already dead? I wonder instead, if Jesus really is talking about eagles as birds of prey, great hunters going after the living, preying on those who do not flee.
A carcass is the lifeless shell of something once living. Wherever two or three gather in His name, there Jesus will be. But standing out in a desert, or in an inner room? The abomination of desolation will leave a lifeless shell in its wake. And where you see this lifeless shell, this carcass of what could have been, there the ones will be who will try to prey on those yet living, to try to deceive even the elect.
So what is the good news here? Jesus says the tribulation will be so powerful that no one could survive if the time were not shortened. And for the elect’s sake, time will be shortened. It will be possible to survive. He is telling us how to survive. He has told us that we must flee in all urgency. He has told us to not be mislead by those who try to deceive us, and has even explained how we shall know that it is only deception.
No one knows when the time will be. Those days will be extremely difficult. Pray that it will not be in winter when the weather could add to the difficulty. Wait a minute!! Does that mean our prayer will influence when the time will be? Does that mean our prayer will influence how difficult the time might be for us? Jesus does not instruct us to worthless things!! So, yes, I believe our prayer now, can help us when the end days arrive! I do not know the significance of why Jesus said to pray it is not on the Sabbath. Because I do not know all the customs of the time for the Sabbath, I cannot even begin to speculate why Jesus said we should pray that it doesn’t happen on the Sabbath. But I can gather from this statement of Jesus’ that my prayer now can influence what the end days will be like for me. And that is good news!
He gives us a chance, He tells us what we need to know, he even tells us what we can do now to help us through the time ahead, but it is still up to us to make our own choices. It will be a time of our own trial.