13:9-13 Still speaking to his disciples, Jesus warns them, Take heed to yourselves. Discipleship will involve suffering. Consider this job description for the disciples: They will be delivered up to councils; and in the synagogues they shall be beaten: and they shall be brought before rulers and kings for his sake, to give testimony against them. They would be punished by Jews and Gentiles alike! Yet their main task was clear—the gospel must first be published among all nations for Jesus' sake. And they would not be abandoned. When they were [delivered] up, they were to take no thought, to have no worry, beforehand about what they would speak, because they should say whatsoever would be given them in that hour . . .: for it would not be them that spoke, but the Holy Ghost. The promise is not that they will avoid these trials, but that they will be given the strength to be faithful witnesses. Yet their witnessing would lead to deep family divisions— brother betraying brother to death, and the father the son; and children rising up against their parents, causing them to be put to death. They would be hated of all men for Jesus' name's sake. The heartening news was that those who would endure unto the end would be saved.
13:14-20 Jesus next describes one sign to watch for. There will be a time when ye shall see the abomination of desolation—something thought to be an idolatrous image or person desecrating the Temple—
spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it doesn't belong, inside. See Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11 It will be the very embodiment of evil, the anti-Christ, a symbol of evil in the world. When this happens, everyone should leave Judaea at once and flee to the mountains. If someone is on the housetop, don't stop to go down into the house to grab any thing to take along. A dire description continues in these verses, setting a grim tone. But again, all is not lost, for these days have been shortened, limiting the suffering, for the elect's sake. Good will prevail, and evil will be overcome.
