Assured Of God's Plan For Us

Have you ever been in a store and see a child that has gotten separated from his parents? The fear is very evident on the child's face as well as the parents’ face. It's a horrible feeling when the child turns around and can't find his parents. They frantically look through every little nook and cranny and suddenly the sound of relief comes as they hear their name announced over the store intercom to come and retrieve their child.

You may have had a similar experience as a child or as a parent. Many parents have briefly lost a child in public. Maybe you have a memory from your childhood when you lost sight of your parent and you felt lost and alone.

And then I wonder if there has ever been a time in your life when you may have gone through some painful moments when you felt abandoned by God. It can be an empty and lonely feeling. You have heard me say and preach time and again how God says He will never leave us or forsake us. And it is so true. In our passage of Scripture today as Jesus speaks about His return, we will see that God will never forsake us as the end draws near. Now this message concerns end time prophecy that includes the books of Daniel and Revelation. But I don’t want you to get so caught up in the prophecy that you miss the theme of the message and that is: God Assures Us of His Plan for Us. Prayer

We are picking up where we left off last week when Jesus is explaining about some of the things that will occur as we approach the end of time. This message that Jesus gives us gets very deep. I am going to try to make it as light as I can. The word “abomination” appears over 120 times in the Bible. In every case, the word refers to something terrible, something detestable.

The same Greek word is used in the Hebrew Scriptures to refer to things such as unclean animals, magic and divination, idols, and all things that God detests are an abomination. The ultimate abomination, though, is the abomination of desolation, a devastating activity that is idolatrous at its core and an insult to God's holiness. So, we begin.

Matthew 24:15- 16 – “So when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand), 16 “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains.”

I hope that everyone understands that the end of times WILL come. Jesus WILL come again. And those who refuse to accept Christ, will be left on this earth to go through the Great Tribulation period. This WILL happen and believe me you don’t want to be left behind.

I wish that all of you were involved in our study of the book of Daniel this past year. We went into great detail about what Jesus is talking about today. So, in order to understand this passage today, we need a little bit of a history lesson.

The phrase “abomination of desolation” was first used in the book of Daniel where the word abomination referred to the desecration of the Temple of Jerusalem. Many scholars have noted that at least a partial fulfillment of this prophecy occurred in 176 BC. At that time, there was a Greek ruler named Antiochus IV Epiphanes. He set up an altar to Zeus above the altar of burnt offerings in the Jerusalem Temple.

Jesus was speaking in our passage here in Matthew almost 200 years after that event. He was pointing to another future event. Many Bible scholars believe Jesus was referring to the destruction of the temple in AD 70 which has already happened. When Jesus says in verse 16, “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains,” it tends to support this view since the Jews fled at the time of the Roman invasion.

The mountains likely refer to the region southeast of Jerusalem that contains a lot of caves for hiding in. Even though these caves were sometimes favorite places for robbers to hide out, they also were safe retreats for those who were running from danger. Some writers, indicate that many first century Jews did just that as the Roman army attacked Jerusalem. They fled the city and took refuge in a city in Macedonia called Pella.

Most scholars tend to agree that many prophecies in Scripture, reference both the historical event that has actually occurred and a future event. In addition to the destruction of the temple in AD 70, scholars believe Jesus's words in this passage point not only to that, but also to a future event in which the temple will be desecrated. When that day arrives, we can know the end is coming. Yes, difficult days lie ahead, but we are assured that Jesus will return just as He said.