Context No. 2724 of 4322 · Matthew

Matthew 24:15-22: in context

15“When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take out the things that are in his house. 18Let him who is in the field not return back to get his clothes. 19But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days! 20Pray that your flight will not be in the winter nor on a Sabbath, 21for then there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be. 22Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be shortened.

Jesus is describing the terror that will come on Jerusalem and the last days. When you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, flee to the mountains and do not stop for your coat; do not go back into the house. Woe to those who are pregnant or nursing in those days. There will be suffering such as the world has not seen.

The picture is grim and the urgency is real, but the hinge of the whole warning is mercy. Unless those days had been shortened, Jesus says, no one would survive; but for the sake of the chosen ones, they will be cut short. Even in a stretch of severe suffering that God permits, he sets a limit, and he sets it out of love for his own. The command is to take the danger seriously and, at the same time, to trust the God who caps it.

Do I trust that even a season of severe suffering God allows is held within a limit set by his mercy?

Sources

Daniel 9:27: "On the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate."
Matthew 24:13: "But he who endures to the end will be saved."
1 Corinthians 10:13: "God... will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will... also make the way of escape."