Bible Commentaries
Mark 13

Verses 1-22

44 See 2Co_8:12 .

1-8 Compare Mat_24:1-8 ; Luk_21:5-11 .

2 It took forty-six years to build the temple ( Joh_2:20 ). Our Lord had already hinted that it would be razed to the ground. While He was within the sacred precincts, it was the abode of God. Now that He has left it for the last time, it is a tenantless shell, forsaken by Jehovah. Hence He foretells its destruction. In the spiritual hahitation which takes its place, Peter speaks of the saints of the Circumcision as living stones ( 1Pe_2:5 ). Hence these stones of the temple may well stand for the whole structure of the priesthood, for not only the sanctuary, but the whole Levitical system was demolished at the siege of Jerusalem, about four decades later.

5 It must be remembered that the present interval of God's transcendent grace was an absolute secret, concealed in God ( Eph_3:9 ) and that even the times and eras of the kingdom could not be revealed at that time ( Act_1:7 ). If these are left out of sight, the events here spoken of by our Lord go right on from His time to the time of the end, just before the kingdom comes. We are in the interval between the demolition of the sanctuary (about 70 A.D.) and the still future course of events which are given in fuller detail under the first four seals in the Unveiling. The white horse rider ( Rev_6:2 ) is the false messiah who comes in His name, the fiery red horse brings on the battles, the black horse corresponds to the famine here foretold, while the fifth seal brings us the fate of those who testify in that day.

10 This is not the evangel of God's grace which we proclaim, but the evangel of the kingdom, which will be heralded once again in the great judgment era which immediately precedes the coming of Christ to reign over the earth. It will be carried on by an elect company in Israel who, like the two witnesses ( Rev_11:3 ), will be upheld by divine power. His coming for us is not contingent on any missionary program of the "church".

6 Compare Rev_6:2 . First Seal.

7 Compare Rev_6:4 . Second Seal.

8 Compare Rev_6:5-8 . Third and Fourth Seals.

9-13 Compare Mat_24:9-14 ; Luk_21:12-19 .

11 The method of salvation varies according to God's administration. To say that it is for those who endure to the end, in this economy of pure unmixed grace, would be most misleading. Only at the time specified, just before the consummation which ushers in the kingdom, is salvation accorded to those who endure. The same is true of preparation in speaking. It has no reference to the preaching of the evangel today, but to the defense of those who answer for their lives in the great affliction.

12-13 See Luk_12:51-53 .

14-17 Compare Mat_24:15-22 .

14 See Dan_9:27 ; Dan_12:11 .

14 The great chronological monument for the time of the end is the middle of the seventieth heptad, when the prince breaks his covenant with Israel, the daily offering ceases and the detestation of desolation is given ( Dan_12:11 ). This marks the beginning of the great unparalleled affliction, such as has never yet been known even to the persecuted Jew. So terrible will it be that not a soul would be saved through it If God did not cut it short. There seems to be some asylum for those who flee into the mountains of Judea. In the Unveiling this flight is spoken of as if by a woman. " And the woman fled into the wilderness, there where she has a place made ready by God, that there they may be nourishing her a thousand two hundred sixty days" ( Rev_12:6 ). To the wild fastnesses southeast of Judea they fly before the fury of the Satanic onslaught with no preparations, no provisions, nothing to preserve them alive for their three and a half years' sojourn. Yet they will be miraculously fed and sheltered, as they were once before in the forty years' wanderings in the same wilderness. In the inclement weather of a Palestine winter such a flight would be beyond endurance, especially to those not inured to hardship. Yet amidst it all, their safety is assured, for God has already predicted their preservation and salvation, and He is well able to care for His own.

15 See Luk_17:31-33 .

19 See Dan_12:1 ; Rev_6:9-11 . Fifth Seal.

21-23 Compare Mat_24:23-28 . See Luk_17:22-21 .

21 The coming of Christ for His body, the ecclesia to which we belong, will take place more than three and a half years before this time, possibly as many as thirty-seven or sixty-seven. But no one will be able to say when He will come to Israel until the abomination of desolation is set up and the great affliction begins. Then all may be assured that He will not come for three and a half years. By this they will recognize the many false messiahs who will rise at that time. But after three and a half years marvelous portents in the sky will herald the advent of the long-desired Messiah. He will come as a lightning flash, clothed in glorious majesty and might. His first act will be to gather the trembling outcasts of Israel from all quarters of the earth about Him, for theirs is the kingdom for the eons of the eons.

Verses 23-37

23 See 2Pe_3:17 .

24-27 Compare Mat_24:29-31 ; Luk_21:25-27 ; Rev_6:12-17 . Sixth Seal.

26 See Dan_7:13-14 ; 2Th_1:7-10 ; Rev_1:7 .

28-32 Compare Mat_24:32-36 ; Luk_21:29-31 .

28 The fig tree is political Israel. None of the signs here spoken of have yet occurred, so that we cannot say that its leaves are sprouting out. But much that has occurred in recent years indicates that its boughs are becoming tender. The Zionist movement, the Balfour declaration, recognizing the right of the Jews to their ancient homeland, the British mandate, under which there was a greater exodus to Palestine than under Moses, the Jewish colonization, the new Hebrew university on mount Scopus, the change of attitude on the part of many Jews toward Christ-all these acts and facts indicate that Israel is a manmade political unit with a land, a flag, a national anthem, a patriotic spirit-but without Messiah. It is time for the fig tree to put forth its leaves! Before that era Christ will come to the air to catch us away to be with Himself, Before He can declare war with the earth His ambassadors of peace must be withdrawn.

30 These things should have occurred in that generation. Yet He warns them that no one knows the time. It is a secret which God has not confided to men, nor to His heavenly messengers-not even to the Son. The reason is clear, Had the apostles known all that was to intervene they never could have carried on their Pentecostal ministry, and God could not have used Israel's defection as the basis of a much greater and grander exhibition of grace than the kingdom contemplates.

35 While the Son did not know the day or hour, we can now see that He was aware that there would be a delay. He is the light of the world. His absence is night. He might have come at evening. This probably refers to the early Pentecostal proclamation ( Act_3:20 ), The great crisis, or midnight, was when Israel was repudiated ( Act_28:26-27 ). Perhaps the present awakening in Israel is the cock-crowing. The darkest hour still lies ahead. But in the morning He will surely come. When these signs begin to come to pass then it will be possible to watch events. We, however, do not watch the events which accompany the wrath of God, but wait for God's Son to rescue us from the coming indignation ( 1Th_1:10 ).

33-37 Compare Mat_24:45-51 .

1-2 Compare Mat_26:1-5 ; Luk_22:1-2 .

1 The actual festival of Unleavened Bread did not commence until the day after the Passover ( Lev_23:5-6 ), but, since all leaven was removed on the day of the Passover, and it was eaten with unleavened bread ( Exo_12:8 ), it came to be included in "unleavened bread".

2 How blind they were! The Passover must be killed before the festival, not because it might create a tumult of the people, but because this was God's order. They were at great pains and trouble, in their rabid rebellion against God, that they might fulfill the will of God! So it is always. God's enemies are carrying out His will in their very opposition. The Lamb must be slain on the fourteenth, and God can use the fearfulness of the priests to fulfill it, so long as He cannot use their faithfulness.

3-9 Compare Mat_26:6-13 ; Joh_12:1-8 . See Luk_7:36-38 .

3 How precious to the heart of our Lord must have been the intelligent, sacrificing worship of this woman! She alone seems to have understood Him concerning His impending death, or appreciated, in some measure, its preciousness. It is the time, the effort, the treasure, that we "waste" in our worship of Him that gains His gratitude and touches His heart. "Practical" religion provides for the poor; spiritual worship lavishes its all on Him. Benefactors receive their reward in the gratitude of those whom they help. But when has even such a costly gift been so richly rewarded? Men have given as much as a million times the sum she did for philanthropy. But whose name can be mentioned with hers? Yet she simply did with what she had. We do not need to have much, but only give our best and our reward will be beyond all calculation.