Jesus tells us the requirement for His Second Coming and “The Sign” Jesus says to pay attention for. From David Guzik’s commentary at enduringword.com.
---Matthew 23:37-39 Jesus laments for Jerusalem.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’”
d. You shall see Me no more till you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!” Jesus here revealed something of the conditions surrounding His Second Coming. When Jesus comes again, the Jewish people will welcome Him as the Messiah saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”
i. “Till after the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in, Romans 11:25, when the word of life shall again be sent unto you; then will ye rejoice, and bless, and praise him that cometh in the name of the Lord, with full and final salvation for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Clarke)ii. It will take a great deal to bring Israel to that point, but God will do it. It is promised that Israel will welcome Jesus back, even as the Apostle Paul said in Romans 11:26: And so all Israel will be saved
---Jesus’ prediction brings up two questions.
Matthew 24:3 Now 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?”d. And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? As Jesus answers this important second question, He will make many specific comments and predictions about the end times. These predictions have been the source of significant disagreement among Christians who have tried to understand them. Why didn’t Jesus simply say it so clearly that there was no possibility anyone could misunderstand Him?
i. One reason why prophecy may seem vague or imprecise is because God wants every age to have reasons to be ready for Jesus’ return. We should not think of Jesus’ return as an event far off on a time line, but something we have been running parallel with since the day of Pentecost.
ii. Others suggest that God’s intention was to keep the future somewhat vague and clouded to confound the Devil, even as the resurrection of the Messiah was vague in the Old Testament.
iii. Though some prophetic interpretations are different, we are sure of this: He is coming again, and we must be ready
---Jesus describes “The Sign” of His coming and the end of the age.
The sign: the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel.
Mathew 24:15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),”a. When you see the “abomination of desolation”: Essentially, the abomination of desolation speaks of the ultimate desecration of a Jewish temple, the establishment of an idolatrous image in the holy place itself, which will inevitably result in the judgment of God. It is the abomination that brings desolation.
i. In the vocabulary of Judaism of that time, an abomination was an especially offensive form of idolatry. Jesus described a gross form of idolatry, standing in the holy place, that brings with it great destruction (desolation).
ii. “The desolating sacrilege is a literal Greek rendering of the phrase…An ‘abomination’ in Old Testament idiom is an idolatrous affront to the true worship of God.” (France)
b. Standing in the holy place: This means that the abomination of desolation takes place in the Jewish temple. This is the only plain meaning of the phrase holy place. Some believe it happened in a prior Jewish temple, before it was destroyed in AD 70. Others – more properly – believe it will happen in the holy place of a rebuilt temple.
i. For centuries, there was only a small Jewish presence in Judea and Jerusalem. Their presence in the region was definite, and continuous, but small. It was unthinkable that this weak Jewish presence could rebuild a temple. Therefore the fulfillment of this prophecy was highly unlikely until Israel was gathered again as a nation in 1948. The restoration of a nation that the world had not seen for some 2,000 years is a remarkable event in the fulfillment and future fulfillment of prophecy.
ii. Those who believe that the events of Matthew 24 were all or mostly all fulfilled in AD 70 have a difficulty here. There is no good evidence at all that what they believe was the abomination of desolation (the Roman armies or their ensigns) were ever set up as idolatrous images in the holy place of the temple. Instead, the temple was destroyed before the Romans entered.
iii. Therefore, those with this interpretive approach often re-define what the holy place is, as does Bruce: “One naturally thinks of the temple or the holy city and its environs, but a ‘holy place’ in the prophetic style might mean the holy land.”
iv. “The normal meaning of hagios topos (‘holy place’) is the temple complex… But by the time the Romans had actually desecrated the temple in A.D. 70 it was too late for anyone in the city to flee.” (Carson)
c. As spoken of by Daniel the prophet: The mention of the abomination of desolation is taken from the book of Daniel. They shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation (Daniel 11:31). This describes a complete desecration of the temple, prefigured by Antiochus Epiphanes in the period between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
i. Paul elaborates on the future fulfillment of this in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4: That day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
ii. “The discourse itself is undoubtedly a source for the Thessalonian Epistles… we may say that Jesus himself sets the pattern for the church’s eschatology.” (Carson)
iii. Daniel 12:11 gives additional insight: And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be 1,290 days (until the end). When this sign is set up, the end may be determined – there will be almost three and one-half years to go until the consummation of all things.
iv. Through the centuries, the most common interpretive approach to the predictions Jesus made in this chapter is to see them all or mostly all fulfilled in the great destruction that came upon Jerusalem and Judea in A.D. 70. This approach is attractive in some ways, especially in that it makes the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:34 easy to understand. Yet the approach that sees this chapter as all or mostly all fulfilled in A.D. 70 is completely inadequate in its supposed fulfillment of the abomination of desolation. In this approach, the abomination of desolation is almost always understood to be the Roman armies or the ensigns they carried.
v. Yet when we understand the importance and what is said about this event – the abomination of desolation – we must give priority to this event, even more than the easiest interpretation of Matthew 24:34.
· It is the critical sign mentioned in Matthew 24.
· It is the warning to flee mentioned in Matthew 24.
· It is the sign of the consummation of all things in Daniel 9:27.
· It is the sign foreshadowed by Antiochus Epiphanes in Daniel 11:31.
· It is the precise marker of days to the end in Daniel 12:11.
· It is the revelation of the man of sin in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4.
· It is the image of the beast in Revelation 13:14-15.
vi. Taking these passages in their most plain meaning, the abomination of desolation cannot be the Roman armies or the ensigns they marched under; it cannot be totalitarian governments or any other conjecture. The abomination of desolation must be some kind of image of the Antichrist set in an actual temple, and is the decisive sign for the end. This means that for the most part, Jesus’ predictions in Matthew 24 have not been fulfilled; or at least that the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 was a foreshadowing fulfillment, even as the desecration of the temple under Antiochus Epiphanes was a foreshadowing of the ultimate abomination of desolation.
d. Whoever reads, let him understand: Here Jesus (assuming that He said these words, and that they were not added by Matthew) directed us again to the central place of understanding, the abomination of desolation. It was almost as if Jesus said, “Don’t miss this. If you don’t understand this, you won’t understand many other things.” And this is exactly the error of many who, with good intentions, misunderstand the plain meaning of the abomination of desolation. Let him understand!