LESSON 16 – THE COMMAND TO FLEE
THE COMMAND TO FLEE
We are starting here on Matthew 24:16-20:
A question you might ask is, If God takes the church out of the world before the great tribulation begins, will no one have a chance to know God during that time?” After Jesus announced that the sign of the close of the age as “the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place,” He adds in verses 16-20:
“Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not to go down and take what is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle. And alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.”
The Lord plainly states, “those who are in Judea.” Judea comprises the hill country surrounding the city of Jerusalem and includes the city as well, so it is to the residents of Jerusalem and Judea to whom this warning is addressed. The Lord’s mention of the Sabbath makes clear that those in Judea are believing Jews, men and women of faith who know and love Jesus Christ as Lord and are prepared to live or die for him. They are not Christians in the usual sense of that term, referring to those who are members of the church, for we are told that in the church there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Jews are not to be distinguished from the Gentiles within the church. We are told by the apostle Paul that these distinctions have been invalidated in the church. There are no distinctions of background, race or religious training that are recognized within the church of Jesus Christ. In addition, we are told that Christians are free from the law and no longer observe special days, special feasts, new moons and Sabbaths. In his letter to the Colossians, the apostle Paul clearly speaks of the fact that the Sabbaths we included in those shadows were done away in Christ. But here the Sabbath distinctly will be a restricting factor in the flight of these people. Here then will be a class of people who cannot identify with the present-day church. They will be Jewish believers in Christ who will be converted after the removal of the church and before the time of the Great Tribulation.
Now, how do these Jews become believers in Christ, since there are no Christians left to preach the gospel to them after the removal of the church? Paul tells the Thessalonians that the Lord Jesus himself will be descended from heaven, accompanied by three remarkable sounds. First, there will be a shout, then the voice of the archangel, and third, the sounding of the trumpet of God.
The shout comes from the Lord himself. As he appears to the church, he will call loudly.
The great shout will obviously be to wake the dead. Jesus said in John 5:28, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice [the voice of the son of God] and come forth.”
Throughout Scripture, God’s trumpet is used as an assembly call. Moses used it in the wilderness to summon the people of Israel to begin their journey. It is a sound directed toward the living. After the dead in Christ have been awakened by the shout of the Lord, then, Paul says, “We who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” The trumpet will sound the beginning of that great gathering in the church.
Scripture refers to only one archangel, and his name is Michael. He is mentioned in the twelfth chapter of Daniel, the same prophet to whom Jesus referred concerning the desolating sacrilege. In verse 1, Daniel is told:
“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people [Daniel’s people, the Jews]. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time [the Great Tribulation]; but at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.”
Here it is strongly suggested that Michael, the great archangel, is responsible for opening the eyes of certain Jews living in Judea at the time of the departure of the church, and that they will then recognize the Lord Jesus as their true Messiah and become believers in him.
Later in Revelation 7:4, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their forehead.’ And I hear the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.”
These 144,000 will be Jews, for the passage goes on to list the twelve tribes of Israel, and to declare that 12,000 are chosen from each of the tribes. Additional information concerning this special group is given to us in Revelation 14:1,3-5:
“Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, [Jesus] and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before their elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless”.
This confirms that Jesus Christ will be on earth during this time, and he we reveal himself from time to time to these Jewish disciples, just as he appeared from time to time to his followers during the remarkable forty days following the resurrection. These Jews are to be turned from unbelief much in the same way as Paul the apostle. They, like so many Pauls, will proclaim the eternal gospel in might Spirit-given power throughout the entire earth. This appearance of Christ to the 144,000 is the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s renewed activity with the Jews that was long predicted by the Old Testament. Also, during this time, the Lawless One will be moving to consolidate his power to present himself to the world as God.
The great multitude of Gentiles will be converted at the eleventh hour of history by believing the gospel preached by the 144,000 of Israel sent by the Son of God. In other parts of Revelation, we are told that the greater part of this multitude will be martyred for their faith and put to death because they will not worship the Beast (the Antichrist) or his image. The “great multitude” as John said, will be different from the present-day church, as they will not exercise the ministry of salt. They will have no restraining effect upon the people around them, nor on the society in which they live. They will be the light of the world, exposing and condemning what goes on, but they will not be as salt as Christians are today, preventing corruption and restraining evil in society. They will live as individuals, risking their lives facing a society dedicated completely to powerful delusion.
Since there will be no salt at work in society, human arrogance and pride escalate further into darkness. It is already evident that man is convinced that he can make anything he likes. He can build machines that can do his thinking; he can produce test tube babies, and he thinks he can control the weather. It is not only Marxists who think man needs remaking, but some western scientists propose to turn man from a human being with an unpredictable will and an unmanageable conscience into a robot, or a compliant human vegetable. Man already has begun to tip the delicate balance of life. The apostle Peter tells us that once before in the history of the world this has happened, and as a result, the world of man perished, except for eight souls who were safely preserved in an ark.
Jesus suggests that man in his clever insanity will go too far. The sign of it will be a world gone mad with self-conceit, permitting and encouraging its own leaders to publicly state what everyone believes: that there is no real God, that man is his own god and he doesn’t need any other. By man’s own hand, the dark forces of nature will be unleashed, the seals of nuclear
power will be removed, the trumpets of human cruelty will sound out, and the “seven vials of revelation” which are the final judgments will be poured out upon the earth in the tribulation period. It is all described in detail in the book of Revelation.
At this point, you might be asking, is there a silver lining that can encourage us? Absolutely! First, the midnight hour has not yet arrived, and God’s grace has not yet run its course. This is not to frighten anyone into faith, but it is simply facing what Jesus Christ has said. He did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. He wants us to understand that in the midst of powerful forces that can sweep mankind to inevitable destruction, that man is helpless without Him.
Jesus’s long-range prediction is so accurate and compelling in line with the present attitudes and events, that it becomes a powerful weapon to awaken many form the dream of death in which they are engaged. There is one question that is forced upon us: Are we spending all our waking hours living for something that is to be swept away from us in an instant, or are we living in a relationship of faith in which the Lord Jesus is living his life again in us? It is either one or the other.
Any Christian knows that there are times of unbelief in their own life. The result of those times of unbelief is invariable one of wandering, of being distant from God. But isn’t it amazing how this account of the 144,000 shows how God can break through unbelief. That is what will eventually happen to Israel, and it is what God is waiting to bring about for us.
The final strengthening word is that it is all happening on schedule, according to plan. It has all been predicted and anticipated. But the most comforting word the Lord Jesus said to his disciples is found in John 14:1,2: “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”
My favorite verse is from John 5:24: “Amen, amen. I say to you whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to judgment but has passed from death to life.”
These are comforting words. Jesus came to set the record straight. He came to outline what will happen and to set the truth before us. The time of tribulation is fully known, but it is not the end of the story. Beyond the darkness lies the dawn of a new day for earth. Faith can lift up its eyes, strengthen its heart and rejoice that God has everything in control. Help us to lay hold of your redeeming grace and love, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Until next time may peace, love and joy be with you always.