And so we see that on the second occasion where our Lord warns His disciples living in Judea to flee to the mountains, our Lord instructions are different this time. The reason for that is because the scenario on the second occasion will be completely different. The sign given to the saints for the end time event will be the sign of the Anti-Christ himself physically standing in the temple, for that is what our Lord is referring to when He says, "So when you see the 'Abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not". And so it is when they see that sign that our Lord tells His saints to flee Judea, not before. You will recall that on the first occasion that our Lord told His saints to flee Judea, that in effect He gave them their warning sign four years before disaster overtook those dwelling in Jerusalem. On the second occasion however, the saints will not be afforded the same timeframe of warning to flee Judea. In fact the time frame from the time that the saints see the sign and disaster striking will be extremely short, because notice on this occasion that our Lord tells His saints to not even go into their homes to pack. He tells them to drop whatever they are doing and leave. Our Lord would not give His saints their warning when it will be too late to do anything about it. And so when the saints see the sign of the Anti-Christ standing in the temple they will have time to flee Judea, but they must do so immediately. Because all Jews would have returned to Israel by that time, there will be approximately sixteen million Jews living in Israel when this event occurs. However, because the two witnesses would not yet have been manifested to Israel the vast majority of the nation will still be unbelievers. And so because most Jews at that time will be unbelievers they will not recognise the sign that the Lord has given to His saints, and so there will not be an exodus of sixteen million Jews fleeing to the mountains. Because most in Israel at that time will be Jews who observe the Sabbath our Lord tells His saints to pray that their flight will not be on a Sabbath (Matthew 24:20). The reason for that is because most of Israel will shut down for the Sabbath and it will therefore be that much more difficult to travel. Nevertheless, those who are saved will recognise the sign given to them by our Lord Jesus and will flee to the mountains.
Michael E.B. Maher
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