The Abomination of Desolation: Why Israel Must Flee (Matthew 24)

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to have everybody, and I'd like to have you in the studio audience turn again to Exodus chapter 19. And again, as we've been doing the last couple weeks, we want to let our television audience understand that we finally have got these lessons in print. No thanks to myself, but a lady out in our Colorado audience offered to take it off the VCR, and through the work of a computer and a word processor, however they do it, she has put it into print, and then Nancy Carter here in Tulsa has gone to the printer and put it in booklet form, and we're able now to offer this to anyone that will write for them for a nominal charge of $2, which will just simply cover our mailing expense and printing. So, write to us if you'd like to have a copy. Now, this, I think, just shows the first two or three lessons, and we'll have others coming on as time goes by. Also, we like to let the viewing audience understand that our conference at Talikoff a couple Saturdays ago is available on just a non -professional VCR tape. I want you to emphasize it. It's just someone used a camcorder. There's about four hours of teaching on here, isn't there, Hugh? Four hours from Genesis through Revelation. A lot of folk enjoyed it. I enjoyed teaching it. So if you'd like a copy of that, they will gladly provide you with one for a $10 contribution to the ministry. And there again, as I've stressed so often, no one takes any money out of this ministry except the fellow who does our tax work. Everything else is done by volunteer. We keep a real tight budget. Okay, now if you'll turn with me then, oh, I'm also supposed to let the viewing audience realize that our Oklahoma classes are on the blackboard. I'll try to stay out of the way once in a while. And if you're in any of those four areas, why, make contact with us, and we'd love to have you come into one of the classes. All right, now then, Exodus chapter 19, and now the third month, the month of June, the children of Israel were going forth out of the land of Egypt. The same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai. Now they're right down in the base of the old mountain itself, the mountain of God, for they were departed from Rephidim and were come to the desert and pitched in the wilderness, and there Israel camped before the mount. Now verse 3, as Israel is camped around the base of Mount Sinai then, Moses goes up into the mount unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and thus shall you tell the children of Israel. Now verse 4, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, drowning them, of course, in the Red Sea, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now it'll be a long time at the rate we've been going before we'll get to the book of Revelation, so I'm going to take the time here to jump all the way back to Revelation because you have the same identical words used, and the reason I like to tie them together is because it's going to be a like circumstance for a group of Jews who at the last days or the last half of the tribulation period will be fleeing away from Jerusalem to a place that God will lead them out in the mountains, I think of Moab, might be the city of Petra, but at least it's going to be someplace out in the mountains southeast of Jerusalem, and we pick this up in Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12, and I'd like to have you look first at verse 6. Revelation 12, verse 6, where the woman, that is Israel, fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they, the Godhead, should feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days, that's three and a half months. Now who are these Jews that are going to be fleeing from Jerusalem? Now keep your hand in Revelation, come back with me again to Matthew 24. As I've said before, a lot of times I'll teach things that I didn't intend to teach, and I didn't intend to do this. I thought I was going to stay in exodus in all four of these programs, but I always have to feel that the Spirit has a reason for doing some things, and this may be one of them. So if you'll come back with me to Matthew 24 and drop in at verse 15. Now, of course, the setting for Matthew 24 is Jesus alone with the twelve, and they have asked Him in the early verse of this chapter, what are the signs of thy coming? In other words, what can Israel look for at the appearance of her Messiah? So now Jesus continues on through the chapter, and at verse 15, Himself speaking, He says, When you... Now, of course, He's talking to the twelve, and so He goes beyond the twelve, but still to the nation of Israel. This is no Gentile language in here whatsoever. So He says to the twelve, When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. Now, we're not going to take time to go back to Daniel, but you'll remember that Daniel says that in the middle of the week, in the middle of that seven years, the Antichrist is going to move down into Jerusalem, and I think from probably Western Europe. He'll move into the temple in Jerusalem, and he will defile it, probably like Antiochus the Syrian did back in the Old Testament. He'll probably offer a hog on the altar there at the temple in Jerusalem, which we know will be rebuilt. If you've been watching your news, you know that every Jew in the world is waiting for the temple to be rebuilt. So the temple will be back on the scene. The Antichrist will come in, and he's going to defile it, and according to Daniel, he's going to turn on the children of Israel, and he's going to bring in that awful, awful last three-and-a-half years end of the Tribulation. Now then, verse 16, Jesus said, when you see that happen, when you see the Antichrist come in and defile the temple, then let them who be in Judea, and then of course is the area of Jerusalem, those who are in Judea, flee into the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out. Now I always like to break this down. I hope I can take time for that. Here you've got a very segmented society. You've got all kinds of groups of people that Jesus is referring to. Now you go into the Middle East economy, and you'll find that most of the better homes have their patio not outside the back door, but where? On the housetop. And so here you've no doubt got people who are, I like to look at them, as retired, they've got time to spend up on their housetop patio. And so to these people, Jesus said, let them not come down to take anything out of their house. In other words, you better be ready to go. Then verse 18, neither let him who is in the field. Now you've got another category of people, and these are the working class. These are the younger people, the ones that are doing it by the sweat of the brow. And they may be in production, in manufacturing, anything else in our day and time, but Jesus merely referred to them at that point as those who were workers in the field. So to those that are in the field, let him not return back, that is to his home, to even get his clothes. And then verse 19, we come into yet another segment of society, and we've got mothers. Verse 19, woe unto them that are with child, expectant mothers, and those that are nursing, mothers with little ones. And then verse 20, and he says, pray that your flight not be in the winter. In other words, when the weather can be adverse and miserable, and also pray that it won't be on the Sabbath day, because Israel is going back under the law. If they have the temple, they naturally will once again. Now it's interesting, if you read the accounts from the Jerusalem Post, there is a law before the Jerusalem Knesset, their parliament, has been now for several months that will actually reestablish the Sabbath in every category of Israel. And of course, there's a lot of controversy. The secular Jews want nothing of it. And of course, the religious Jew, if I may call them that, they have almost mandated that they've got to go back and keep the Sabbath. So everything is getting set, even in the nation of Israel, where they will, before too long, have the temple, we think, and in temple worship they will institute the Sabbath day. And when that means they're going to shut down all their nightclubs and all their movies and all the places of entertainment and business, they're going to establish the Sabbath. And along with that, of course, even the law of Jesus day, it was not originally, I don't think, in the Mosaic law limiting how far they could walk as it does now, but the present-day Judaism, you know, limits their distance they can walk on the Sabbath day to something like a mile or a mile and a half. But anyhow, this is what Jesus is making reference to. Since you're going to have to go many, many miles, you better pray that this event does not take place on a Sabbath day, because it's going to be just like leaving Israel the night of the Passover. Now, like I told you several weeks ago, there was something about that exodus out of Egypt that had to be miraculous. They walked, but on the other hand, God must have somehow or other miraculously moved them along to have been able to go all the way out of Goshen down to the Red Sea in such a very short period of time. And I think you're going to have the same thing take place again here in the midpoint of the Tribulation, when these Jews in the area of Jerusalem are suddenly going to realize that the one that they thought they could trust, who had signed that treaty three and a half years earlier, turns out to be their mortal enemy. And they see the things. There's also going to be a tremendous earthquake back in chapter 11 that same day. And so these Jews are going to congregate, and they're going to be making their flight out of Jerusalem. I call them a mixed remnant, an escaping remnant of men, older men, working-age men, young mothers, and what have you, a cross -section of society. And now Jesus says, pray that it won't be in the winter or on the Sabbath day. Now then look at the next verse, verse 21. For then, beginning with this event, beginning with this midpoint of the Tribulation, He says, shall be days or great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time nor ever shall be. This last three and a half years is going to be the most awful time in all of human history. We can't even begin to imagine what it's going to be like. But this escaping group of Jews, now if you'll come back with me again to Revelation chapter 12, this escaping remnant of Jews are the ones now referred to here in chapter 12, that they're going to go to their place in the wilderness where the Godhead, the triune God, is going to protect them and feed them. And now if you'll skip across, at least in my Bible, skip across the page to verse 13. And when the dragon, of course the dragon in Scripture is always in reference to Satan, who has been cast out of heaven earlier in this chapter. And so when the old dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted or he turns his attention on the woman who brought forth the man-child. And who's the woman? The nation of Israel. And so he just turns on the Jew that he had earlier given permission to have the temple worship and had been more or less benevolent to them, and now he turns his hatred on them. Now verse 14, here's the identical words from Exodus. And to the woman, to this escaping remnant of Jews, to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, in other words a designated place by a sovereign God, where she is nourished, taken care of, even as God took care of them in the wilderness with the manna and the water from the rock and what have you. God will take care of this escaped remnant for a time, plus times, plural, or a total of three and a half from the face of the serpent. In other words, this escaping remnant of Jews as they flee to the mountains southeast of Jerusalem are going to be providentially protected for that last three and a half years. Now just as surely, now that's why I would like to connect Exodus and Revelation. Just as surely as Israel was isolated in Goshen from the plagues, you remember that? After the third plague, all the others, it said, in that day I will put a line between you and Egypt, and none of the plagues went into Goshen. Israel was insulated from them all, well so also here. All the ravages of the tribulation will be tearing all around them, and all the world will be coming under it. But wherever this group of Jews are being protected, they'll be completely insulated from it, and God's going to feed them there, He's going to protect them throughout that final three and a half years. And then, now verse 15, when the serpent, now you've got to get all this together from Revelation. You want to remember that the midpoint of the tribulation, as I mentioned in that teleconference, so many things happen. In other words, the only way I can teach Revelation is to always delineate all the events at the beginning, and then all the events at the middle, and all the events at the end, and then you fill in the details. All right, now at the midpoint of the tribulation, the Antichrist comes from his headquarters, like I said, I think will be in Europe. He comes to Jerusalem, and at the same moment, Satan is cast out of heaven, and he indwells this man Antichrist. Now that has happened before, and the best example is Judas. When Satan entered in and literally took over the man Judas and used him, so also he will do with the Antichrist. He will indwell him, he will control him, and so now when Satan, in the man Antichrist, sees this escaping group of Jews, probably quite a few thousand of them, what does he do? Well, just like Pharaoh did, he sent an army after the escaping Jews from Egypt, didn't he? All right, now read on. I think this just gets so interesting if you'll always remember Exodus. These Jews are under a sovereign, mandated protection of God Himself, and when the Antichrist or the serpent casts out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, or after these escaping Israelites, that he, the Antichrist, might cause her to be carried away or destroyed in this flood. Now, you have to always remember that Revelation is speaking in symbolic language. Now just as sure as Pharaoh, when he saw Israel escaping, what did he send after them? Well, not a flood of water, but an armed force, and the Antichrist will do the same thing. As soon as he gets word, hey, there's multitudes of Jews escaping, he will send out after them an armed force, maybe a battalion or a regiment or something, to just simply wipe them out. But you see, God intervenes, even as He did at the Red Sea and drowned all the Egyptians. What does He do here? Now read on. Verse 16, "...and the earth helped the woman," that is, under the control of the sovereign God, "...the earth helped the woman, opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood," or this armed force, "...which the dragon cast out of his mouth, or which he sent by decree to go and destroy those Jews." Now what happens? Oh, just before that battalion or regiment or whatever it is of tanks and trucks and vehicles and armed forces, just before they catch up with the rear guard of those escaping Jews, what happens? The earth opens up in a deep crevice and just literally swallows them up. Now we think, well, that's too hard to believe. Is it? That's no harder for God to do than to open the Red Sea and drown them. And so this is exactly what you're going to have, that as these Jews are escaping, and they're going to go out as if they've got wings like an eagle, but that's what God said happened in Egypt. You came unto Me as if you had the wings of a great eagle. And I always like to ask the question, how did they leave Egypt? Well, they walked. They didn't have helicopters. They didn't have planes to pick them up and fly them out. They walked. But it was so miraculous, the way God did it, it was as if they just literally took wings and flew. And so will it be again. This remnant of Israel is going to escape by virtue of a providential, sovereign God. All right, now I'd like to have you come back again to Exodus chapter 19. And now let's come on to another interesting two or three verses. Now God says, Exodus 19, verse 5, now therefore, if, now come on you English students, what do we call that little word if? What kind of word is it? It's conditional, see? It's conditional. If God says, it's up to you. Israel is going to be left with a free will, even though they're under a sovereign God. If you will obey, see, there's that obedience, faith and obedience become almost synonymous. If you will obey my voice indeed and keep my, what's the word, covenant. My God is always bringing up these covenants. Now there's more than one, of course, but they all boil down to being under the one master covenant, which was the one God made with Abraham, repeated to Isaac and repeated to Jacob. And that is that Israel would become a great nation of people. They would dwell in their own land and one day God would be their king. He would be their government. Now this is the covenant that they're to be aware of and they're to be obedient in preparing for the fulfillment of it as well as to be used of God in the way that this covenant had originally intended. Now therefore, if you, the nation, now I always have to stop. Always remember that God deals with the Jew on two levels. One is national and the other is personal. Never lose sight of that. Now when he makes a national covenant with Israel, then that's just exactly what it means. It involves the whole nation. But a nation is still made up of what? Individuals. And so he will deal with the Jew individually, of course. So when he says in Isaiah, and then Paul repeats it in Romans chapter 11, that the nation of Israel shall be blinded, that is a national thing. Nationally they have been blinded. They're still blind. But what about an individual Jew? They can still be saved, see? And they can still come into an individual relationship even though the nation has been blinded. So keep that always in mind. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then, see? That's the condition and here's the result. Then you, the nation of Israel, shall be a peculiar... What's the next word? Treasure. See? A peculiar treasure. Now if you go back into the root of that word peculiar, it boils down to not just an ordinary treasure, maybe not just a treasure of a few thousand dollars or even a few million, but it is a treasure of intrinsic value. You can't put a value on it. It's beyond comprehension. That's what the nation of Israel is going to be in God's economy. And he says, you will be that above all people. Now why can God designate one nation to be above all the rest? Because He's sovereign. He's sovereign. What does the rest of the verse say? Because all the earth is mine. Trying to think, there's a verse in Deuteronomy, I hope I can find it. Come back with me, and I'm thinking it's in 28, I hope I can find it, Deuteronomy, is it 28? No, it's going to go further than that. I want verse 8. Oh, I probably bit off more than I could chew that time. No, here it is, Deuteronomy 32. I shouldn't do this, at least on television, should I? But once in a while, a verse comes to mind, and I just have to trust the good Lord I can find it. But here it is, in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 8, Deuteronomy 32, verse 8. Now remember, this is written by Moses, but who is speaking it? God Himself, the sovereign, almighty God. And He says, verse 8, "...when the Most High," now remember, that's another one of the terms of deity that we studied way back there in Genesis, "...when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance." In other words, that is all the nations of the world. When He designated where their borders would be, how large their population would be, how they would be blessed in one way or another, all right, "...when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people," that is, of all these nations, "...according to," what, "...the number of the children of Israel." Isn't that amazing? Now, some people may accuse me of making too much of the nation of Israel. How can you? You can't make too much of it. This whole world revolves around God and His chosen people, Israel. Oh, I know, they're out there tonight in a blindness, they're out there in a dispersion, but they're still in the news three times a day, seven days a week. Why? Because they are at the very vortex of all of God's dealing with the nations. Oh, if only our politicians could recognize it. They can't stab Israel in the back and get away with it. They can't ignore it and hope it'll go away. Jerusalem, from day one, God said, would be a stone of what? Stumbling, I quoted it a few weeks ago, and a rock of offense. And isn't that exactly what it is? The world tonight is in constant turmoil because they don't know what to do with Jerusalem. And the reason they don't know what to do with Jerusalem is because they don't know the book. But look what it says, God has divided all the nations of the world. He has set their borders, He has set their bounds according to the number of the children of Israel. You can't escape it. Well, anyway, come back with me now, if you will, then, to Exodus chapter 19 again. God says, you're going to be above all people because I'm sovereign. The world is mine. I can do with it as I please. Now verse 6, oh, I need an hour, not two minutes. And you, the nation of Israel, shall be unto me a ... what's that next word? Kingdom. Kingdom. Now, those of you who have been with me a long time, I've said it over and over. The kingdom is the kingdom is the kingdom is the kingdom. What kingdom? That kingdom that's coming on earth over which Christ will one day rule, not just the nation of Israel. They'll be the apple of His eye. They're going to be the greatest nation when that kingdom comes in. But it's the only kingdom that Scripture's looking forward to. Now granted, you and I, as Grace Age believers, we are members of the kingdom. And where is it? It's in heaven. But where is that kingdom coming? Back on the earth, see? And so always remember that the kingdom is the kingdom is the kingdom unless the text designates something else. All right. Now verse 6 again. The nation of Israel, God says, is to be a kingdom of what? Priests. Priests. Now what's a priest? A go-between, exactly between man and God. So what is the nation of Israel to become according to this, if they're obedient? They are to be a nation of priests. Well, I don't know if I got time. Maybe we won't even get the verse looked up, but turn to Acts 2 real quickly. Acts 2.38, most of you even know it from memory. Acts 2.38, and now we're going to have to wind it down. We'll pick it up again next week. Verse 38 of Acts 2, And Peter said unto them, that is the house of Israel, in verse 36, Repent and be baptized, how many? Every one of you. You know what that means? Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, OK, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time.