The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

112 GREAT TRIBULATION
pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in
travail.” Again, observe the theme of exile (going out of the city.) But
the most important point is that the object of this exile is, “there shalt
thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of
thine enemies.”
The going of the Church into exile during the Great Tribulation is
also likened to the going of the Church of the Old Testament out of
Egypt into the wilderness, where for forty years the Lord had provided
for His people, before bringing them into the promised land:
Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell
therein, for the fruit of their doings. Feed thy people with thy rod, the
flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst
of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew
unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see and be confounded
at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears
shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out
of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD
our God, and shall fear because of thee. (Mic 7:13-17)
After describing the desolation of the land during the Great
Tribulation, and explaining that this is because of “them that dwell
therein, for the fruit of their doing,” the prophet implores the Lord to
feed His people who dwell solitarily in the wood ... as in the days of old.
Then comes the Lord’s response to the prophet that He will show the
same marvellous things He had shown at the time of the coming of
Israel out of Egypt. The prophet then describes the astonishment of
the nations when they see how the Lord protects His people with a
strong arm. In Revelation 12, we are told that when the serpent (Satan)
tries to reach to the Church in exile by casting out of his mouth water as
a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the
flood, the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and
swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. The
Fathers explain this passage as follows: when Satan acting through
Antichrist sees that the Church is living safely in her place of exile, he
will try to attack her using all the people at his disposal (symbolized by
the water as a flood,) but God will miraculously save the Church, to the
astonishment of the nations around the world.