History Repeats Itself
Notes
Transcript
Intro; Scholars have always discussed the notion that history repeats itself. Eugene O’Neill once said, “There is no present or future - only the past, happening over and over again - now.”
Karl Marx said, “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce.”
And of course, the most well-known quote about history repeating itself was said by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
There is truth in all those statements, especially of what we are going to look at tonight in the second part of “The Abomination of Desolation”.
Text; Mt. 24:16-27
Matthew 24:16–27 (NKJV)
16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!
20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
23 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it.
24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
25 See, I have told you beforehand.
26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.
27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
I want you to notice how Jewish oriented this passage of scripture is;
Judea, housetop, fields, Sabbath, great tribulation, elect, Christ/Messiah, desert and inner rooms, Coming of the Son of Man.
The reason I wanted you to see this is because it has been the plan of Satan since the Garden to eliminate the people that God would choose to bring salvation into the world.
John 4:22 (NKJV)
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
Since God first called and made His eternal covenant with Abraham, Satan has sought to destroy God’s chosen people, the Jews, and their God-ordained nation of Israel. To have destroyed the Jews would have been to destroy God’s redemptive plan for mankind. To have eliminated the Jews before Jesus was born would have broken the line of promise and thwarted the birth and therefore the redemptive ministry of the Messiah, who had to be a descendant of Abraham and of David. Having failed at that, however, Satan still seeks to destroy individual Jews in order to prevent Christ’s ultimate redemption of them and to destroy Israel as a nation in order to prevent its restoration under His divine rule.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1985). Matthew (Vol. 4, pp. 40–41). Moody Press.
History is repeating itself over and over again concerning the Jewish race. Just look at what is happening even now in America across college campuses and their hate for God’s chosen people!
Even the State Department [Anthony Blinken] yesterday rated Israel’s human rights violations higher than Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan, stating the loss of Palestinian life in the war with terrorist group Hamas and the lack of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
1. Flee; 16
1. Flee; 16
There is a time to stand and fight, but there is also a time to flee. Since the temple would have been rebuilt and the Antichrist sets up worship of himself in the Jewish temple, it is time to get out while you can!
Flee [phuego] - fugitive, a person who takes flight in order to escape danger.
8 And it shall come to pass in all the land,” Says the Lord, “That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one-third shall be left in it:
9 I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
When the Antichrist moves against the Jews of Judea and other parts of Palestine, he will slaughter millions of them, apparently in a short period of time. Two out of every three Jews in the Holy Land will die under the fury of Satan and the Antichrist. Many will be Jews who are not saved and some will be Christians caught up in the crisis.
Mountains would probably be to the rock city of Petra, the mountain of Sela. It has only one way in and is considered an impregnable fortress.
5 She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.
6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
2. Hurry with Haste; 17-21
2. Hurry with Haste; 17-21
When a persons house is on fire, it is a human inclination to try to save as much as we can, especially valuables, before they are destroyed.
Jesus says “Hurry with Haste” to leave and don’t worry about temporary treasures.
[17] Most housetops were flat roofs where a stairway came up from the outside. Jesus says don’t waste time going in the house to grab anything, it’s not worth your life!
[18] If your working in the field and you took your shirt off [cloak], don’t go back and get it, just run!
[19] Fleeing is hard enough when you are healthy and in shape, but it will be a burden for those who are pregnant are that have nursing infants. These women will not be able to flee as fast and will be more susceptible to being captured and killed.
[20] Winter has inclement weather that is a barrier to travel and also the legalistic Jews who see others fleeing on the Sabbath beyond the required distance of travel will try to stop them or stone them as they tried to do Jesus for breaking their Sabbath traditions.
Luke 9:25 (NKJV)
25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?
3. Great Tribulation; 21-23
3. Great Tribulation; 21-23
The tribulation ‘pressure’ that will come upon the Jews and Christians at this time will be unmatched by anything that has ever taken place before!
The massacres of Jews by the Romans in A.D. 70 and by the Nazis during World War II will pale by comparison to what is going to take place here!
The Jewish historian Josephus recorded that when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and devastated Judea, one hundred thousand Jews were taken prisoner and another 1.1 million died by slaughter and starvation.
Barton, B. B. (1996). Matthew (p. 474). Tyndale House Publishers.
During WW II, there were more than 6 million Jews tortured and executed by Hitler in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau.
Adolf Eichmann, a principle player in the Nazi persecution, expressed the kind of hatred the Jews have endured throughout history; “I shall leap laughing in my grave, for the thought that I have 5 million lives on my conscience is to me a source of inordinate satisfaction.” [Jacob Presser, Ashes in the Wind; The Destruction of Dutch Jewry, 1969]
7 Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.
[22] The predetermined days of this tribulation time are 3 1/2 years. God doesn’t shorten the days but He provides grace and safety in the midst of them to those who will obey Him!
Elect- His people Israel and those who have come to faith in Him through Christ during the tribulation.
4 For Jacob My servant’s sake, And Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.
14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”
4. Don’t Be Fooled; 23-27
4. Don’t Be Fooled; 23-27
No doubt during these troubled times as people are oppressed with hunger, pestilence, and death, they will be looking for relief and crying for deliverance in the Lord. No different than us today. That’s when false christ’s/ministers seize the opportunity and take advantage of the vulnerable.
Jesus says, “don’t listen to them!” “I won’t be in the desert nor will I be in the temple”.
Matthew 24:27 (NKJV)
27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
No one misses seeing a bolt of lighting shoot across the sky, and no one will miss the Second Coming of the Son of Man! All will see Him return in the clouds in His shekinah glory!