<p>13:14 <i>But when you see the abomination- </i>The word is mainly used elsewhere about the abominations of the Babylon system (Rev. 17:4,5). I would suggest that once the rescheduling of Christ's return was decided by God, the Gospel of John was issued, with its more spiritual interpretation of the Olivet prophecy in terms of the Comforter, and the teaching that the principles of the tribulation are to be lived out throughout the lives of believers. And John was likewise inspired with the prophecy of Revelation, which is clearly based upon the Olivet prophecy and provides further details as to how the prophecy is to be fulfilled in the last days, with the events of AD70 being a partial fulfilment in order to give the prophecy credibility with the generation that first received it. This would be according to the Mosaic principle that a prophet could be judged as true if his words came true- requiring a primary fulfilment of all long term prophecies.</p><p><i>Of desolation- </i>The placing of the abomination is what will bring about the desolation. On Revelation 17 and 18 I suggest that the whore Babylon will enthrone herself in Jerusalem, through the building of some Islamic and blasphemous religious building or capital there. And this will lead to her desolation. Luke records the Lord as saying that&nbsp;<i>when</i>&nbsp;Jerusalem was surrounded by armies,&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;His people should know that the &quot;desolation&quot; of it was near. The desolation is therefore of Jerusalem rather than specifically the temple (Lk. 21:20). The abominating desolation could therefore refer to the invading armies. Seeing&nbsp;<i>them&nbsp;</i>was the signal to flee. &quot;Abomination&quot; in the Old Testament typically refers to idolatry or paganism. One interpretation is that the desolator would place some pagan religious symbol in the temple. But this is the sign to flee, and this was only done by the Romans after the city had fallen. That, therefore, doesn&rsquo;t really fit the requirements of the prophecy. The AD70 interpretation notes the pagan standards of the Roman legions, but even they were not placed in the temple. This was defended until the end, until the Romans forced entry, pulled it down and burnt it. As with many details of this prophecy, a future fulfilment is required. And yet we need to note that such desolation was only a visual reflection of the abomination the Jews had committed in the temple: &quot;Because of the evil of your doings, and because of the&nbsp;<i>abominations&nbsp;</i>which ye have committed; therefore is your land a&nbsp;<i>desolation&nbsp;</i>and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day&quot; (Jer. 44:22). The abomination which caused desolation may not simply refer to some pagan symbols in the temple area. Josephus records that the Jewish zealots came into the Most Holy place, &quot;placed an imposter in office as high priest, and ordained unqualified misfits to the priesthood&quot; (<i>The Jewish Wars</i>&nbsp;4.3.6&ndash;9; 4.5.4). The pagan Idumeans were invited into the Most Holy by the zealots in order to murder the chief priest Annas.</p><p>The word &quot;desolation&quot; is used again about the desolation of the Babylon system (Rev. 17:16; 18:17,19). Yet Babylon will be judged according to what it did to God's people- the judgment for 'desolating' will be 'desolation'. Yet the Olivet prophecy clearly intended the Roman armies to be the means of the desolation, but I suggest that Revelation extends the prophecy by giving more detail, and describing the system of desolation as 'Babylon'. And that system clearly has similarities with Rome- it could have been fulfilled in Rome, but because the fulfilment of the prophecy was rescheduled, we can look for another equivalent of the enigmatic 'Babylon' of the last days. The &quot;desolation&quot; referred to is clearly to be understood as the fulfilment of Dan. 9:26,27 LXX, which says that the abomination that desolates will come &quot;after the cutting off of Messiah the Prince&quot;. Whilst how long &quot;after&quot; is not defined, we are surely intended to understand that the desolating abomination comes soon after the death of Messiah:&nbsp; &quot;The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and&nbsp;<i>the end&nbsp;</i>thereof (&quot;then shall&nbsp;<i>the end</i>&nbsp;come&quot;, Mt. 24:14) shall be with a flood, (&quot;as the days of Noah...&quot;), and unto&nbsp;<i>the end&nbsp;</i>shall be war;&nbsp;<i>desolations&nbsp;</i>are determined . . . and upon the temple of&nbsp;<i>abominations&nbsp;</i>shall come one that makes&nbsp;<i>desolate&nbsp;</i>(cp. &quot;your house is left unto you desolate&quot;, Mt.23:38),&nbsp; even unto the consummation, and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolated&quot; (LXX). And yet note that that prophecy itself had had various potential fulfilments which didn&rsquo;t come true. So it is fair to think that it could have had a fulfilment in AD70, but this was again deferred- for the same reason as ever, Israel&rsquo;s lack of repentance.</p><p><i>Standing where it should not- </i>In Jerusalem, on the temple mount; &quot;in the holy place&quot; (Mt.). On Revelation 17 and 18 I suggest that the whore Babylon will enthrone herself in Jerusalem, through the building of some Islamic and blasphemous religious building or capital there. And this will lead to her desolation. The contrast is with the Lamb who will descend to the temple mount and &quot;stand&quot; there s.w. Rev. 14:1. This will be the final showdown between the real Christ and the fake one, as likewise foreseen in the prophecy of the man of sin in 2 Thess. 2, where again the place of showdown is the temple. For this to be a sign to the believers to flee to the mountains, any application to the triumphant Roman legions placing their standards in the temple at the&nbsp;<i>end</i>&nbsp;of the Jewish war is precluded. And historically, it is doubtful whether that happened, as the temple was burnt with fire and the legions were told&nbsp;<i>not</i>&nbsp;to do this.</p><p><i>(Let him that reads understand)</i>- The vast majority of first century believers were likely illiterate. So this may be an appeal to teachers to correctly understand and teach. The Lord speaks in a latter day context about &ldquo;let him that reads understand&rdquo; Daniel&rsquo;s prophecies- referring to the special gift of understanding them which Daniel himself was told would come in the very end time. But note the parallels in the Lord&rsquo;s teaching here: &ldquo;Let him&hellip; understand&hellip; let him&hellip; not go down&hellip; let him&hellip; not return&hellip; let them&hellip; flee&rdquo;. The understanding He refers to is not merely academic. It is the understanding that will lead to concrete action.</p><p>The Lord's Olivet prophecy as recorded by Mark has so many allusions to the Maccabean revolt under Mattathias (&quot;the abomination&quot;, flight to the hills, &quot;let the reader understand&quot; and many other phrases are all quotations from 1 Macc. 1-3). But in this context the Lord warns of false Messiahs- as if He considered the Maccabean heroes to be just that. And interestingly it is Mark more than any other Gospel writer who stresses the Messiahship of Jesus throughout the crucifixion record. A crucified Messiah was to the Jews a contradiction in terms. The idea of Jewish revolutionaries marching triumphantly to Jerusalem to liberate it was common in Jewish thought at the time- but Luke emphasizes that Christ's last journey to Jerusalem and triumphant entry to it was in fact in order to die the death of the cross there. The battle had been redefined by the Lord Jesus- not against Rome, but against internal sin and Jewish religious hypocrisy. Victory was by self-crucifixion, not military might. This was just too much for Jewish nationalism, just as legalists today end up baying for the blood of those who preach grace and not works.&nbsp; See on Heb. 5:6.</p><p>There are a number of hints that there will be a progressive growth in Biblical understanding amongst the latter day faithful. In the spirit of Daniel 12:4, Habakkuk was told that the full understanding of his vision concerning the latter day judgment of Babylon was &quot;yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie&quot;, and&nbsp;<i>at that time</i>&nbsp;the one who reads and understands it will &quot;run&quot; - using the same idiom as in Dan. 12:4 concerning the latter day believers 'running' in response to their understanding of God's word (Hab. 2:2,3). The Olivet prophecy repeatedly talks about 'seeing' or (Gk.) understanding things and then acting upon this knowledge. The English translation somewhat masks this. Thus Mt. 24:15 &quot;Whoso&nbsp;<i>reads</i>&quot; uses a Greek word which really means to recognize, distinguish- and he who recognizes, understands, let him &quot; understand&quot; or, better,&nbsp;<i>meditate</i>. Or again, &quot;When you shall see (Greek, to know, perceive) the abomination that makes desolate...&quot; (Mt. 24:15). This might suggest that the &quot;abomination&quot; isn't necessarily something physical. The idea seems to be 'When you understand that the abomination that makes desolate is in place, then...', rather than 'When you see (physically) on the telly or in the newspaper an abomination in Jerusalem, then... do something about it'.&nbsp; &quot;When you shall see (Gk. perceive, understand) all these things, (then you will) know that it is near&quot; (Mt. 24:33). &quot;Behold (same Greek: perceive, comprehend) the fig tree...&quot; (Lk. 21:29). The emphasis is undoubtedly on the need for understanding of the signs, not just observing them.</p><p>&ldquo;Let him that reads understand&rdquo; is inviting us to be like Daniel in Dan. 9:22-25, who also wanted to understand the meaning of the &ldquo;abomination&rdquo; prophecy. But he was told that the meaning of that vision about the abomination that desolates would only be revealed in the very last days, i.e. at the time of its fulfilment (Dan. 8:17,26; 12:9). The implication of all this is that there will be believing Jews living in the Jerusalem area at the time of the setting up of the abomination; and they will have special understanding of this prophecy which will lead them to flee. The importance of this for our present study is that this indicates that there will be believers in Israel just before the Lord returns. They will have &ldquo;understanding&rdquo; and will be motivated by this to respond. &ldquo;<i>Let him</i>&hellip; understand&rdquo; is paralleled with &ldquo;<i>let him</i>&nbsp;that is on the housetop flee immediately&hellip;&nbsp;<i>let him&nbsp;</i>that is in the field not return&rdquo;. Understanding leads to action- both then and now.</p><p><i>Then let them that are in Judea flee to the mountains</i>- This is the equivalent of the plea in Revelation to flee out of Babylon, the latter day Islamic complex to be built in Jerusalem on the temple mount.</p><p>The same word was used by the Lord in introducing the Olivet prophecy in Mt. 23:33: &quot;How can you&nbsp;<i>escape</i>&nbsp;the condemnation of Gehenna?&quot;. The way of escape was through obedience to His word. Clearly the Lord intended His words to be fulfilled in that immediate generation; but fleeing to the mountains did not bring ultimate salvation because the Lord did not return as intended. His coming has been rescheduled, and perhaps utter salvation for the Jewish remnant in the land will likewise depend upon 'fleeing'. The Old Covenant had specified that Israel would flee before their enemies if they broke the covenant; the command to 'flee' may therefore be an invitation to accept guilt for their sin, and thereby be saved through the very act of recognizing the justice of their judgment. For this is the essence of the salvation of every man in Christ. It could be that Rev. 12:6 provides more details, in speaking of the faithful fleeing into the wilderness and thereby being saved. This was the way to flee the coming condemnation (Mt. 23:33; Lk. 3:7). The Lord's words required some faith to accept, because if Jerusalem were surrounded by armies, how could the faithful flee? Josephus explains that the Roman legions did in fact withdraw for a time, allowing civilians to flee (B.J.2.19.6,7).</p><p><i>&quot;</i>To the mountains&quot; is better, 'toward'. Clearly this was capable of fulfilment in the Jewish war, in a fairly literal sense. But what is the latter day equivalent? &quot;The mountains&quot; could be an intensive plural for the one great, special, obvious mountain. The same word is found earlier in the chapter- the Lord is saying these words sitting on &quot;the mount&quot; of Olives (Mt. 24:3). And it is to that mount that He will return, according to Acts 1:12 and Zechariah 14. It could be, therefore, in a literal or figurative sense, an appeal to move towards the mount of Olives to meet Him at His return. Perhaps in a literal, geographical sense, that area will be the only area left by the invading armies, and they will surround the faithful Jewish remnant on that mount- and then the Lord shall come. But such speculation is unhelpful, because the principle of prophecy is that when it happens, then we shall understand. I do not believe we are intended to work out a sequence of events ahead of time. Indeed, given the conditional nature of Bible prophecy, that is impossible to do anyway.&nbsp;</p><p>As the faithful remnant were miraculously allowed to leave Sodom for the mountains, immediately unleashing the Divine judgments by doing so, the faithful Christian remnant were allowed to leave Jerusalem just before the final Roman onslaught of AD70, doubtless spurred on by their Lord's command: &quot;Let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it (Jerusalem) depart out&quot; (Lk. 21:21). The reference to fleeing to the mountains would have suggested a conscious allusion back to&nbsp;the command to Lot to flee out of Sodom &quot;to the mountain&quot; (Gen. 19:17).&nbsp;&quot;Then let them which be in Judaea flee to the mountains&quot; may mean that there will be Jewish believers in Jerusalem in the last days, seeing the whole prophecy has yet to be totally fulfilled (the AD70 application of these words was at best limited). Dan. 12:1 says that in the final tribulation of Israel, those Jews who are &quot;written in the book&quot;, i.e. who are acceptable saints (Ex. 32:32; Rev. 21:27) will be delivered. So there will be a minority in latter day natural Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal, as in Elijah's time- which is typical of the situation at the latter day Elijah ministry. This is certainly encouragement enough to make witness to and within Israel a priority.</p>