Matthew Chapter 24

VERSE 20 “And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.”

The “Sabbath day” is the 1,000-year period of the Seventh Day, beginning in A.D. 1874. It is the “Seventh Day” since the fall of Adam. The usual literal Sabbath is 24 hours long, however a Sabbath can also be seven days long or 1,000 years long (as it is here) or even 7,000 years long as in the case of God’s Great Sabbath or rest day.

VERSE 21 “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”

 When Verses 20 and 21 are combined, the thought is, “Pray that your flight will not be in the time of great tribulation, which will occur on (or in) the Sabbath day.” In other words, “winter” IS the “great tribulation.”

The opposite of winter is summer. In Hebrew the day was divided into two parts: morning and evening. And the year was divided into two parts: winter and summer. At the time the Lord was speaking, it was “summer” under the favor of the gospel sun. In Jer 8:20 the Great Company speaks of summer as being over: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” When that time comes, the Great Company class will recognize that the summer of special favor has terminated, and the winter Time of Trouble, darkness, and clouds has come.

The point is that the great tribulation will occur (1) IN the winter (2) OF the Sabbath Day. These two conditions are necessary to pinpoint when the great Time of Trouble starts.

Here it is important to distinguish between the period of time designated as the great tribulation and the climax of this tribulation, which is Armageddon, i.e. “winter”, which will bring about a trouble such as never, was upon the earth.

It will begin when summer has ended. In other words, in the 1,000-year Sabbath period, there will come a point in time when “winter” (Armageddon) will come. Pray that your flight will occur prior to that time.

It will be noted in the diagram above that although it is possible to pinpoint when the great tribulation period began it is not possible to determine precisely when “winter” (Armageddon) will begin (thus the dotted line), that is because this date not only marks the end of the harvest and the completion of the Church, but likewise the time when the present heavens and earth will pass away, and as it is written, “…of that day and hour no one knows…” Matt 24:36

Luke 21:36 says, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things [the Time of Trouble] that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”

Here again the thought of “escape” does not imply that one is going to be mysteriously whisk away, raptured, escaping all that is to come, that is not what the Lord was implying at all. What is meant is that we should pray that we make our calling and election sure, that we should finish our course being proven faithful until death prior to these events and thus be accounted worthy to escape the great trouble coming.

In this regard Jesus warns us to WATCH and PRAY ALWAYS!

Matthew 24 and Luke 21 discuss two DIFFERENT times of trouble. In A.D. 70 Vespasian surrounded Jerusalem in a siege. But when the emperor in Rome died, Vespasian returned to Rome. Of the several contenders for the throne at that time, Vespasian emerged the victor. When Vespasian departed for Rome, he left his son Titus in charge. With this change of authority, the siege around Jerusalem was temporarily relaxed, allowing those who believed Jesus’ words to flee. The length of this interim period is unknown—it may have been only one week or even one day. Those who hesitated and/or did not seize this opportunity to flee were doomed once the cordon was again tightened. None escaped after that time.

The point is that in Luke 21 Jesus gave advance notice, and those who took his advice, acting on faith, were able to escape with their lives. Matt 24:20 identifies an even greater Time of Trouble as occurring future, down here at the end of the age (“in the Sabbath day”, which we have entered), and Jesus’ instruction is to flee BEFORE the “winter” Time of Trouble, before the Great Storm (Armageddon) breaks forth in all its fury.

Alas how many in one or another of the various branches of Babylon have heard the call, “Come out of her my people”, but are still procrastinating, believing that there is still plenty of time, who as the unprofitable servant are heard exclaiming, ‘My Lord delays his coming’, and looking back at all that they would have to sacrifice in leaving Babylon refuse to heed the call, such should remember Lot’s wife and what happen to her because she kept looking back and would not leave until dragged out.

We will continue with Verse 22 in our next post.