The horrors of the devastation: V. 17. But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! V. 18. And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter. V. 19. For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. V. 20. And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved; but for the elect's sake, whom He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days.
The prophecy of Christ here becomes so vivid that the apostles had the whole picture before their mind's eye; the precipitate flight, the fear and terror, the greatest hardships falling upon those that are by nature least able to bear them. The condition of those that had but recently become or were about to become mothers would be most pitiful, since they would be severely handicapped for hurried departure. And so far as they all were concerned, they should implore God most earnestly that their flight should not take place in the winter, when the season's unpleasantness would be an added inconvenience.
Jesus uses a very strong figure at this point: The days will be tribulation. The people would be so completely submerged and overwhelmed with the horror of it all that they would be able to see nothing but these fears and fightings; there would be such nameless misfortunes and trials that all calamitous experiences of the entire human race would thereby be eclipsed. The siege and destruction of Jerusalem was the bloodiest spectacle which the world has ever seen, and the actual affliction of those days was not been equaled since. If it had not been for the merciful shortening of those days out, of regard for them that were God's own, none would be saved.
Note: Both the creation and the work of redemption are here ascribed to God by Jesus; He has created the whole creation, and He loves, and will care for, His believers, He will hear their intercession for others out of loving kindness.