VII. The Time of the End
Making our way slowly, but we trust surely, through the 24th of Matthew, we have passed in our progress these events—
(1) The rapture of the church to heaven,
(2) A temporary calm in the world, and the rising of a great leader of remarkable and comparatively peaceful success, who is rewarded with a crown ("a crown was given to him"),
(3) The sealing of a remnant of Israel as servants of God, and their going forth to preach the gospel of the kingdom,
(4) Persecution and martyrdom of the remnant for the name of Jesus,
(5) Cessation of the world's delusive peace, and the outbreak of wars and rumors of wars: peace is taken from the earth; but the end not yet.
Previous pages have afforded some explanation of the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom; but in verse 14 of our chapter we reach a signal mark for the division of the prophecy. Verses 4-14 give “the beginning of sorrows,” not “the time of the end.” Now, however, it is stated, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole habitable earth for a witness unto all the nations: and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). The prophecy now therefore enters upon “the time of the end.” “The end” or “The time of the end” is a technical term of prophecy. Thus in Daniel 11:35 we are told that some of the understanding ones should be tried (persecuted) and fall (that is, martyred) “to the time of the end.” In verse 40 is predicted war by the king of the south, and by the king of the north, “at the time of the end.” In chap. 12:1 (connect with 11:40) the same period is referred to as that in which “the great tribulation” should take place. And our Lord in Matthew 24, after stating in verse 14 that “then shall the end come,” goes on to say, “Then let them which be in Judah flee into the mountains... for then shall be great tribulation,” etc. (vers. 16, 21); adding, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened... and then they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven” (vers. 29, 30). “The end,” therefore, is a period within which events happen; not the exact moment of the coming of the Son of man, but the last brief epoch of the age, commencing with “the abomination of desolation” (ver. 15), and culminating in the appearing of “the sign of the Son of man, in heaven” (ver. 30). It is the latter half-week of Daniel 9:27 when the Roman prince abrogates the Jewish ritual, causes the oblation and offering to cease, substitutes for Jehovah's worship the worship of “the man of sin” in the holy place. These then are distinct sections of our chapter, viz., vers. 4-14, the beginning of sorrows; vers. 15-44, the time of the end.
Before leaving verse 14, let us notice that the common acceptation that the gospel of the kingdom here spoken of must be preached to every individual nation or tribe before the end can come, is scarcely borne out by the text. The verse does not say that the gospel must be preached to every nation, but that its being preached in the whole habitable earth (no longer confined to Israel) was to be a witness to all the nations. Just as the reading of the Riot Act puts a city under responsibility, though every individual person might not hear the words; so the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom in the wide world (ὑλη τῆ οἰκουμένη) will be as a trumpet blast to the nations, requiring them to bow to the universal authority of Christ. It will be one more, one final, appeal, just prior to the coming of Christ in judgment. The kingdom of heaven will then indeed be at hand, and that, in awful significance.
However, on the gospel of the kingdom being preached in the whole habitable earth, “then shall the end come,” and the initial event of that period is given in the succeeding verse: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand), then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains” (vers. 15, 16). What now is meant by this mysterious expression, “the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place"? Of all iniquities, that which is pre-eminently abominable to God is idolatry, for it is the formal, overt denial of His Godhead, and the substitution of the creature for Himself, the Creator. Hence we find in the Old Testament that the word “abomination” has a special use as signifying an object of false worship. Thus, “Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians; Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites; and Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon." The “holy place,” of course, means the temple. The Lord had announced with reference to the temple then standing, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down” (ver. 3). Hence it follows that in the interval the temple will have been rebuilt. Take in connection with this, 2 Thessalonians where the apostle Paul speaks of one who is to be revealed before “the day of the Lord,” namely, “That man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (vers. 3, 4). Here we have in the apostle's teaching, the two points of Matthew 24:15—the temple recognized as again in existence; and an exorbitant phase of idolatry, a man setting himself up as God, sitting in the temple of God, and showing himself that he is God. This somewhat illuminates the expression, “abomination of desolation,” but it will be more fully explained later on.
In the verses just quoted from Matthew 24 it will be observed that our Lord makes pointed reference to the prophecy of Daniel. The parts of that prophecy which principally relate to the subject are in the 9th and 12th chapters. The ninth gives in vers. 24-27 the celebrated prophecy of the “seventy weeks,” viz., “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, unto the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after the threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
The weeks here, it is almost unnecessary to explain, are hebdomads of years, not of days. This prophecy is introduced by the exhortation, “Understand the matter, and consider the vision” (ver. 23). Then it says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city.” These seventy weeks, then, relate to Daniel's people, and to Jerusalem. The church-period, therefore, in which we now are, is no part of those weeks. As a matter of fact it is a gap between ver. 26 and ver. 27, and this harmonizes with what has already been shown, namely, that the church-period is a hiatus between God's past dealings with Israel, and those yet to come. A careful reading indicates that the “seventy weeks” are divided into three parcels, viz., seven, sixty-two, and one. The seven, plus the sixty-two, i.e. sixty-nine, bring us (see ver. 25) to Messiah the Prince—leaving one week of the seventy unaccomplished, and this, the last week, is in ver. 27. But several events, the cutting off of Messiah, and the destruction of Jerusalem, are subsequent to the sixty-nine weeks, and yet before the seventieth, of ver. 27, clearly showing the broken currency of the weeks, broken between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth, so that the whole of the present period, from the cutting off of Messiah, to the appearance of the Roman prince who will confirm covenant with the many, is a gap or interval forming no part of the seventy weeks. For our purposes in considering these weeks we need not go further back than ver. 26, for there we get a clear point of time in the cutting off of Messiah. That event is stated to be “after the three score and two weeks” (virtually, after the sixty-ninth, i.e. seven plus sixty-two).
An important error exists in ver. 26 as given in the Authorized Version. It reads, “Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself.” The correct translation is, “Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing.” That is, the Messiah did not take the kingdom, though it was His by right. Being rejected and crucified, He could only have taken it by judgment in power; and His then mission was not one of judgment but of salvation (John 3:17). So He was “cut off,” and went back to heaven with “nothing.” There are also some minor errors in the Authorized Version, but the following is a correct rendering of vers. 26, 27, with which we have now to do, viz., “And after the sixty-two weeks shall Messiah be cut off and shall have nothing: and the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with an overflow, and unto the end, war—the desolations determined. And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and because of the protection of abominations [there shall be] a desolator, even until that the consumption and what is determined shall be poured out upon the desolate [one].” The first item in this prophecy—the cutting off of Messiah, has been already explained. Next, there is the destruction of the city and the sanctuary—not, mark, by the prince that shall come, but by the people of that prince. We know that the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was by the Romans; and though a Roman prince, Titus Vespasianus, was with the Roman hosts at the time, the destruction of the temple was emphatically by them, not by their prince. It was contrary to his express commands, and he exerted himself to his utmost power to prevent the destruction of the temple. (See Milman's History of the Jews, pp. 408, 409, 2nd Ed.; and Josephus, Wars, VI. ch. 4, pp. 5, 7). But here we have an intimation that that important personage, “the prince that shall come,” and who is referred to in the next verse as “confirming a covenant with the many,” will be of the same nationality as the people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary—the Romans.
(To be continued)
[E. J. T.]