<p>13:20 <i>And except the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved- </i>&quot;Saved&quot; here (&quot;there should no flesh be saved&quot;) implies 'delivered'; it will appear that none of us will survive the tribulation, &quot;but for the elect&rsquo;s sake those days shall be shortened&quot; and we will be saved by the second coming. Thus 2 Pet. 3:12,15 reminds us that by our prayers and spiritual development, the days before the second coming will be shortened. If they were not, even the elect would lose their faith (Mt. 24:22)- showing how those of us who are alive at Christ's coming will <i>barely</i> survive the spiritual traumas of the last days. The virgins were sleeping when they should have been watching; and Peter says that the righteous in the last generation (see context) will <i>scarcely</i> be saved (1 Pet. 4:18). So it would appear that the days of the final tribulation will be shortened, although in another sense the coming of the Lord is delayed in order to allow our greater spiritual development (Mt. 25:5). This &lsquo;delay&rsquo; is why the harvest will be &ldquo;over-ripe&rdquo; for reaping (Rev. 14:15 RV)- or is this a reference to the lack of zeal of preachers to Israel in the last days, not harvesting the ready fruit? The Lord likens the final tribulation to the travail of a woman to bring forth her child. But we read in Is. 66:7,8 in this same context of Israel&rsquo;s latter day suffering: &ldquo;Before she travailed, she brought forth: before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing?... for as soon as Zion travailed she brought forth her children&rdquo;. This seems to imply that the expected period of Zion&rsquo;s travail will be cut short, and she will give spiritual birth far quicker than expected. Perhaps the Lord was alluding to this passage when He spoke of how &ldquo;the days&rdquo; of Zion&rsquo;s labour? shall be shortened.</p><p><i>But for the elect's sake, which He chose, He shortened the days</i>- Both the Lord Jesus and Israel are called &quot;the elect&quot; (Is. 42:1; 45:4); both are fulfilments of the servant songs in Isaiah. The days will be shortened for the elect's sake; for the sake of <i>Christ's</i> intercession, as well as ours. It&rsquo;s tempting to understand &ldquo;the elect&rdquo; in the Olivet prophecy as referring specifically to the group of faithful believers or perhaps specifically Jewish ones who are alive and remain until the Lord&rsquo;s coming. They are the ones who resist the temptation to be deceived in the very last days (Mt. 24:24) and who are snatched away at the Lord&rsquo;s coming &ldquo;from the four winds&rdquo;, suggesting they are located worldwide (Mt. 24:31). We note that Christ on the cross was called by the same word&nbsp;<i>eklektos</i>- &ldquo;the elect / chosen of God&rdquo; (Lk. 23:35). This group will indeed have identified with His crucifixion sufferings. Perhaps this is the group of believers who are also specifically called &ldquo;the elect&rdquo; who fight on Mount Zion alongside Jesus against the armies of Israel&rsquo;s enemies (Rev. 17:14). In the immediate context, the elect or chosen ones were perhaps intended by the Lord to refer to the listening disciples. Mk. 13:20 labours the point: &ldquo;For the elect&rsquo;s sake <i>eklektos</i>, whom He has chosen / elected <i>eklegomai</i>&rdquo;. The word is specifically used about the Lord&rsquo;s choosing of the twelve (Lk. 6:13; Jn. 6:70; 13:18; 15:16,19; Acts 1:2). He imagined them being scattered to &ldquo;the four winds&rdquo; in their obedience to the great commission, but thanks to them, the days would be shortened and they themselves would be gathered to Him at His return. That was the Lord&rsquo;s hope and ideal intention. It didn&rsquo;t happen in the first century, and thus has some element of reapplication in a different context in our last days.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p><p>The vision will in one sense &ldquo;not delay / tarry&rdquo; (Hab. 2:3 RV). And yet the same verse speaks of how it does &ldquo;tarry&rdquo;. Perhaps in a human sense it delays, but not from God&rsquo;s perspective. &ldquo;It hasteth toward the end&rdquo; (Hab. 2:3 RV) could imply that things are speeded up in their fulfilment in the very end time; for the elect&rsquo;s sake the days until the second coming are shortened. And yet things are also delayed- the bridegroom tarries / delays, to the point that many realize that the Lord has delayed His coming, and begin to act inappropriately. One reconciliation of these paradoxes could be that some prophecies are speeded up in their fulfilment because of the elect would otherwise lose their faith; and yet other prophecies seem to be delayed in fulfilment because of the unspirituality of others.&nbsp; The possibility of changing the fulfilment of prophetic time periods is to be found in Hab. 3:2: &quot;In the midst of the years revive...&quot;- i.e. please, God, do it immediately rather than waiting until the end of days.<br />The Lord&rsquo;s description of the shortening of the days uses some rather odd past tenses: &ldquo;Except the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect&rsquo;s sake&hellip; he shortened the days&rdquo; (Mk. 13:20 RV). One wonders if we have here an allusion back to the days of Noah, where again there was the possibility that no flesh would have been saved. The 150 days of flooding is perhaps the basis of Rev. 9:10, where Israel is to have 150 days of tribulation at the hands of her Arab enemies in the last days. The connection between the passages would therefore seem to be teaching that the final 150 days tribulation will be shortened due to the repentance of the remnant.</p><p>For the elects' sake, the days to the second coming <i>will be</i> shortened (Mt. 24:22); but the Lord also said, perhaps in the same sentence, that the days <i>have already</i> been shortened (Mk. 13:20). This shows that God conceives of time in a radically different way to how we do. The shortening of time in a sense hasn't take place, but in another sense it has. There can therefore be no trite explanation of how God can hasten the second coming in accordance with our prayers, and yet also have a set time to favour Zion. See on Rom. 9:28,29; 2 Pet. 3:9; Rev. 9:10. This was typified in the Joseph story. &quot;Then Joseph could not refrain himself...&quot; (Gen. 45:1) implies he planned to drag out the process of spiritually refining his brothers, but his love for them caused him to cut it short. &quot;For the elect&rsquo;s sake the days shall be shortened&quot; by Christ (Mt. 24:22). The same Hebrew word in Gen. 45:1 is used in Is. 42:14 about how God can no longer refrain Himself in the last days. The RV has: &ldquo;had been shortened&rdquo;, suggesting that maybe the Lord had already been in dialogue with the Father and secured a decrease in the Father&rsquo;s original time period envisaged.</p>