<p>21:23 <i>Woe to them that are with child in those days, and to those nursing babies- </i>This may well match Paul's warning against marrying&nbsp;in the last days in 1 Cor. 7. He understood the Olivet prophecy as having the real prophecy of fulfilment in his generation. As He hung on the cross, our Lord quoted this part of His Olivet prophecy to the women who stood by (Lk. 23:29 &ldquo;blessed are those who never gave suck&rdquo; = Mt. 24:19 &ldquo;Woe to them&hellip; who give suck&rdquo;, s.w.), concerning the sufferings of the believers in the 'last days'. Here we see His matchless selflessness; going out of His own sufferings, to think, with anguish, how they would be experienced by His followers in the tribulation. &quot;Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves... for if they do these things (to) a green tree (the spiritually healthy Lord Jesus), what shall be done (to) the dry&quot;, the spiritually barren tree of Israel. This is a superb essay in the Lord's selflessness and minimizing of his own sufferings: he felt that what he was going through was less than what the spiritually weak would have to go through in the AD70 tribulation (and that of the last days). In the other 11 occurrences of &ldquo;woe&rdquo; in Matthew, the objects of the &ldquo;woe&rdquo; are clearly the unfaithful and the condemned; this category of those &ldquo;with child&rdquo; are therefore not amongst those who obediently &lsquo;flee&rsquo;. Lk. 21:23 states that they would be amongst those who would suffer the &ldquo;wrath upon this people&rdquo;. In Lk. 23:29 the Lord clearly envisaged the women of His generation, the ones who lined the road to Golgotha, as experiencing the trauma He predicted in the Olivet prophecy. And yet it is clear enough that the final fulfilment is yet to come- because His coming was rescheduled.</p><p><i>For there shall be great distress upon the land, and wrath upon this people</i>- Paul's later comment that &quot;Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost&quot; (1 Thess. 2:16) suggests he believed that these words were being fulfilled completely at his time. But the Lord did not come, many aspects of the prophecy were left unfulfilled, and the complete fulfilment has yet to come.</p><p>&quot;Great distress&quot; could mean 'the greatest ever distress'. This would connect with Dan. 12:1- that immediately prior to the Lord's return, there will be a time of distress for Israel such as they have never experienced- far worse than the holocaust. The LXX uses this same word for &quot;distress&quot; or &quot;tribulation2 in several passages pregnant with latter day significance: <br />&ldquo;The day of my Jacob&rsquo;s <i>distress</i>&rdquo; at the hands of Esau (Gen. 35:3)<br />&ldquo;The <i>anguish</i> of his Joseph&rsquo;s soul&rdquo; at the hands of his half brethren and the Ishmaelites (Gen. 42:21)<br />&ldquo;I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and <i>troubles </i>shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?&rdquo; (Dt. 31:17)- a passage in the Song of Moses regarding Israel&rsquo;s latter day tribulations. <br />&ldquo;Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of <i>trouble</i>, and of rebuke, and blasphemy&rdquo; (2 Kings 19:3)- Sennacherib&rsquo;s Assyrian invasion at this time was a clear prototype for the latter day invasion described in Ezekiel 38 and elsewhere. <br />&ldquo;The time of Jacob&rsquo;s <i>trouble</i>&rdquo; from which he will be delivered (Jer. 30:7)<br />&ldquo;There shall be a time of <i>trouble</i>, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book&rdquo; (Dan. 12:1). This time of trouble is specifically for Israel in the last days.</p>