Matthew 24: 16-18 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the
mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of
his house. And let him who is in the field not go back
to get his clothes. “But woe to those
who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! “And pray that your flight may not be in
winter or on the Sabath. Parallel
verses are in (Luke 21:22-23).
How did Matthew’s audience living in Judea and
Jerusalem understand this warning? The
answer here involves the way the homes were built back in ancient Jerusalem.
The top of the houses was built flat, and the people used it in the same way
that we would use a patio. In the cool
of the evening, they went to the top of their house and sat there and talked to
their neighbors on the adjacent rooftops.
So if a person was on his rooftop when the
time came to get out of Jerusalem, he could literally run from housetop to
housetop without ever coming down on the street for a long distance. This would not be an appropriate warning to
anyone under a nuclear attack in our time as you can imagine.
This warning in Matthew 24 is obviously a
local judgment, not a global judgment. The difference of a global judgement
would be where you are on earth not your roof top. Jesus goes on to say, but woe to those who are
pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your
flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath."
Again, we have to understand what Jesus is
saying in its historical context. Jerusalem
was a Jewish dominated city which kept 100% of the law of Moses up to 70AD. Therefore
the Gates of the city would be closed and locked on the Sabbath day.
Nehemiah 13:15-22 In those days I saw people
in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and
loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they
brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them about the day on
which they were selling provisions. Men of Tyre dwelt there also, who brought in
fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the Sabbath to the children of
Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I
contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is
this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers do
thus, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet
you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” So it was, at the gates of Jerusalem, as it
began to be dark before the Sabbath, that I commanded the gates to be shut, and
charged that they must not be opened till after the Sabbath. Then I posted of
my servants at the gates, so that no burdens would be brought in on the Sabbath
day. Now the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside
Jerusalem once or twice.
Nehemiah found, on his return, that the Men
of Tyre carried on their farm labour and also brought their produce to market
to Jerusalem on the Sabbath. So he warned them about the Sabbath day. Not only
did Jews break the Sabbath, but they let heathen do so too. He shows that Sabbath breaking was one of the
sins for which God had brought judgments upon them; and if they did not take
warning, but returned to the same sins again, they could expect further
judgments. So to the prevent any
merchants from selling all kinds of wares inside the city of Jerusalem on the
Sabbath day Nehemiah ordered that the gates of the city are closed and locked
until after the Sabbath.
So Jesus was not telling the Jewish pray that
your flight not be on the Sabbath for fear of breaking the Sabbath. The gates being closed and locked on the
Sabbath day would hinder the Lord's instructions to the Jewish Christians to
GET OUT OF THE CITY before the Roman armies surrounded the city as Jesus said
in Luke 21:20-21 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know
that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the
mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who
are in the country enter her.
Jesus also previously said of
Jerusalem, Luke 19:43-44 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an
embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your
children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone
upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
So He ordered his followers to
make their escape from Jerusalem. Matthew 24: 16-18 “then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out
of his house. And let him who is in the
field not go back to get his clothes.
“But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies
in those days! “And pray that your
fight may not be in winter or on the Sabath.
Jesus lists 3 things that would hinder fleeing the
city:1 Pregnant or Nursing mothers hindered for obvious reasons. The hardness
of the season, the badness of the roads, the shortness of the days, and the
length of the nights, will all be great impediments to a Pregnant or Nursing mothers
2 Winter would hinder because of exposure to cold and snow. 3 Sabbath day
because the gates of the Jewish controlled city of Jerusalem would be locked
and they could not get out!
But how was this escape accomplished? God provide a way for his saints to safely
escape. In the twelfth year of Nero,
Cestius Gallus, came against Jerusalem with a powerful army and besieged
Jerusalem, on every side. During the revolt in Jerusalem, the
Jewish rebels had defeated the pro-Roman civic leaders, the local Roman
garrison, and the forces of King Agrippa. Now the report of the loss went up
the chain of command to the Governor of the Roman province of Syria, Cestius Gallus, upon whom fell the
responsibility to smother the rebellion.
Cestius was forced to lead an
army against Judaea. But he was a civil administrator, with no battlefield
experience historians are aware of; apparently Nero had only recently appointed
him commander of the legions in Syria, succeeding the general Corbulo. His
inexperience showed in a number of mistakes he made in the attack on Judaea
that led to the destruction of the Twelfth Legion.
Although Cestius began his
campaign in classic Roman style, observes Mordechai Gichon including the
wholesale destruction of crops and buildings to undermine Cestius enemy's
ability to wage war, he erred several times.
He delayed rather than acting, thus giving his opponents time to enact
plans of their own.
Cestius did not place his baggage
train in the center of his marching troops, but instead placed it at the end of
the column, where it became subjected to ambush. This loss, which included
important siege equipment, and severely weakened any possibility of assault on
Jerusalem, which must be completed quickly in the face of the oncoming winter
rains.
Most disastrous of all, and
contrary to standard procedure, he failed to secure the heights of the hilltops
beneath which the army had to pass, allowing instead the rebel seized these
strategic positions. As a result, the Romans suffered heavily as they
negotiated the pass at Beth-Horon, not once but twice -- when advancing on
Jerusalem and again on the retreat.
Now, that he put in a period of
war he thought it was time to capture, city but through the treacherous
persuasions of his officers, instead of pursuing his advantages, they fled from
the city with the utmost precipitation. The Jewish rebels, however, pursued
him and his army as far as Antipatris, and, with little loss to themselves,
killing nearly six thousand men.
After this disaster had befallen Cestius, (Josephus said) Cestius forsook Jerusalem as men do
a sinking ship.
To the Jewish, rebels the defeat
of an entire Roman Legion, augmented with auxiliary troops, seemed like a
miracle from God. There can be hardly any doubt that the hand of Heaven was in
the sudden and inexplicable retreat of Cestius.
However the Jews never won another war.
The
warning of Jesus was remembered and wisely followed by the Christians
afterwards. All who believed in Christ left Jerusalem and fled to Pella, and
other places beyond the river Jordan; and so they all escaped the doomed city
and history does not record that even one CHRISTIAN perished in the siege of
Jerusalem.
All this happened during Jesus contemporary
generation.
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