Here is my two cents for today. These passages are related, but what do they actually mean?
[SUP]16 [/SUP]“then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains... [SUP]20 [/SUP]And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath.
[SUP]14 [/SUP]But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
[SUP]10 [/SUP]and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
[SUP]20 [/SUP]“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. [SUP]21 [/SUP]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. [SUP]22 [/SUP]For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
You see before Titus came to surround Jerusalem, a voice of an angel rang out telling all the Christians in the city to flee to Pella. To protect themselves from the Jews who hated them, all the Jewish Christians of the day lived together on Mount Zion where they also had a massive church. A voice rang out from heaven saying, "Let's remove hence." This flight was written about extensively by many early Christian writers.
These Christians who fled to Pella to escape the wrath of God which would soon come upon Jerusalem in the form of the Roman siege, returned to Jerusalem after 3.5 years in fulfillment of prophesy. They then began to rebuild Jerusalem and the city became a predominately Christian city for the next thousand years. This is recorded in "Panarion 29" by Epiphanius:
7,7 Today this sect of the Nazoraeans is found in Beroea near Coelesyria, in the Decapolis near Pella, and in Bashanitis at the place called Cocabe-Khokhabe in Hebrew. (8) For that was its place of origin, since all the disciples had settled in Pella after they left Jerusalem-Christ told them to abandon Jerusalem and withdraw from it because of its coming siege. And they settled in Peraea for this reason
and, as I said, spent their lives there. That was where the Nazoraean sect began.
Now while in Pella they witnessed, and were given insight into, the age to come as recorded in Hebrews 6. You see the Woman of Rev 12 became the Jewish Christians whom salvation came to first (John 4:22). These Jewish Christians were the "wheat" growing among the "tares" which of course where the wicked, unbelieving Jews. When the end of their age came, the wheat were gathered to Pella while the Tares were gathered to be burned in Jerusalem fulfilling Mat 13. Incredibly, Jews from all over the world returned to Jerusalem for Passover and were thus trapped inside when the Romans surrounded the city.
The destruction of Jerusalem was indeed the worst tribulation any nation had ever endured, or ever will endure.