Matthew 24:1-28 is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem. Then in the next verse Christ says, "But immediately after the tribulation of those days," and He gives a list in verses 29-31 of things that are to happen then, immediately after the tribulation and destruction of Jerusalem, not at His second coming, not after a tribulation that is to be at the end of the world. Then in verses 32-44 He gives us the parable of Israel the fig tree in which His coming was "nigh, even at the doors." These verses are highly symbolic of something that took place immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem. In symbolic language the sun is a great ruler on this earth, and the stars are lesser rulers. There were no rulers or teachers in Israel immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem and all the cities of Israel. All was darkness for Israel. "And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn" (see Matthew 10:23 where the coming of Christ is in judgment on Israel before the Apostles had gone over the cities of Israel). In the next parable, Christ is, "Nigh, even at the doors," and "this generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished." Though not literally, Christ did come in judgment in the destruction of Jerusalem. If this were at the judgment when all will be raised from the dead for judgment by Christ, I find it difficult to see how any could think that Christ will not give forth His light at the Judgment, and what would be the stars that shall fall from Heaven? If this were literal, stars could not fall on the earth, even one star would be many time bigger than the earth. If verses 30 and 31 were speaking of the second coming, they would be out of place for the second coming was not "immediately after the tribulation of those days" (verse 29), and not in the "generation that shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished" (verse 34). Many teach that the things in Matthew 24 are events that are happening today, but if so, there would some very old people be living today.
The "great tribulation" of Matthew 24:21 is now past history, not something still to come. "But immediately after the tribulation of these day the sun shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken" (Matthew 24:29). Jesus used the same symbolic language to describe the fall of Israel that Isaiah used to describe the fall of Babylon (Ezekiel 32:7-9), and is commonly used in the Old Testament. "For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will not shed its light" (Isaiah 13:10). Luke added, "And upon the earth distress of nations" (Luke 21:21). The sun being darkened was immediately after the tribulation Christ was speaking of, which was in A. D. 70, not a tribulation yet to come after the second coming of Christ. Most Millennialists move the sun being darkened from “immediately after the tribulation,” and make the darken be in the tribulation, not something that comes “after the tribulation.”
· Darkened “immediately after the tribulation,” the tribulation of verses 1-28 in A. D. 70.
· Not darkened during the tribulation as Premillennialists teach. They must change the time of the sun being darkened.
· Of the fall of Judea (a national judgment) in Jeremiah 4:1-28
· Of the fall of Israel (Amos 8:6-9; 8:18-20)
· Of the fall of Israel (Zephaniah 1:14-18).
· Of the fall of the Nations (Joel 3:15-16; 2:31)
· Of the fall of Egypt (Ezekiel 30:3-4; 32:7-8; Isaiah 19:1)
· Of the fall of Babylon (Isaiah 13:10-20)
· Of the fall of Edom (Isaiah 34:4-6
· Of the city of Arier in Israel (Isaiah 29:5-6)
· Of the fall of "My people" (Isaiah 51:5-6)
Matthew 24:30: "Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven." It was the “sign” of the Son of man that was to appear, not the second coming of Christ. "In Heaven" is where the Son of Man is, not where the sign would appear; if the sign were in Heaven, it would appear to no one on earth. The sign of the Son of Man that did appear was the destruction of Israel. The sign proves that the man Israel rejected is the Lord, and that He is the ruler over all nations, and He has the power to destroy the nations that reject Him. The whole system of worship of the Law, worship that required both Jerusalem and the Temple had ended, and is no longer acceptable to God.
In speaking of God's coming in judgment on Egypt Isaiah said, "The oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud, and is about to come to Egypt" (Isaiah 19:1; also Jeremiah 4:13; Ezekiel 30:3-4). This is not God literally riding a cloud into Egypt, but is figurative language of His coming in judgment on Egypt. When they saw Jerusalem destroyed, they were seeing Jesus coming in judgment on Israel. Jesus told the high priest, "You shall see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of Heaven" (Mark 14:62). The high priest did not literally see Jesus in Heaven, but he and all Israel did see the coming of Jesus in judgment on Israel.
Foy E. Wallace Jr.: “The signs in the heavens, the darkening sun and falling stars, refer to the falling of Jewish dignitaries, casting down of authorities and powers, long established, and signified the darkness that settled upon the Jewish state, the sun of the Hebrew temple was darkened, the moon of the Jewish commonwealth was as blood, the stars of Sanhendrin fell from their high seats of authority...The sign of the Son of man in the heaven was a signal, the evidence of divine visitation and intervention in the downfall of the Jewish authorities and in all the transpiring events. The mourning of all the tribes of the earth refers to the lamentation of the Jewish families all over the world because of the destruction of their city and their temple and their state. The coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven is not a reference to the second coming of Christ but to the coming foretold by Jesus to Caiaphas in Matthew 26:64: 'Hereafter shall you see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven.' Jesus told Caiaphas that he would see it, he would be living witness to these event." "The Book of Revelation," page 354.
Russell Boatmen: “At a public forum in which chapter 24 of Matthew and chapter 20 of Revelation were under discussion my respondent stoutly contended that Mt. 24:29 could not possibly refer to the fall of Jerusalem. He read the verse slowly and with deliberate emphasis and added, ‘They (the sun, moon and stars) are still up there.’ That scored points with the Premillennialists. But by the same rule we would have to rewrite Old Testament history. Isaiah’s and Ezekiel’s prophecies, noted above, could not then refer to the downfall of the nations to whom they were directed. The sum, moon and stars ‘are still up there.’ And the land of Edom is trodden by caravans of tourists year after year, who see no streams of pitch, no brimstone, no smoke going up for ever and ever. If the Bible is allowed to be its own interpreter, when read in the light of the prophecies couched in the same language style, and even using the same metaphors, Mt. 24:29 will be readily recognizable as fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, 70 A. D.” What The Bible Says The End Time, page 145, College Press Publishing Company, 1980.
"And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn." When their country was destroyed, the Jews that were in other parts of the earth would mourn. The word translated "earth" is "gee," and in the King James Version is translated "land" forty-one times, "ground" eighteen times and "country" two times.
o "Gee" is translated land in Matthew 2:6; 2:20; 2:21; 4:15; 9:26; 11:24; 14:34; 27:45; Mark 4:1; 6:47; 6:53; 15:33; Luke 4:25; 5:3; 5:11; 5:24; 8:27; 14:35; 21:23; John 3:22; 6:21; 21:8; 21:9; 21:11; Acts 7:3; 7:4; 7:4; 7:6; 7:11; 7:29; 7:33; 7:36; 7:4013:17; 13:19; 13:19; Hebrews 8:9; 11:9; Jude 5.
o "Gee" is translated "ground" in Matthew 9:29; 13:8; 13:23; 15:35; Mark 4:8; 4:20; 4:26; 8:6; 9:20; 24:35; Luke 8:8; 8:15; 22:44; John 8:6; 8:8; 12:24; Acts 7:33.
o "Gee" is translated "country" in Matthew 9:31 and Acts 7:3.
Had it been translated "land" in Matthew 24:30, "And then shall all the tribes of the land (gee) mourn" most of the confusion would not have existed. See Zechariah 12:11-12. It is easy to see why all Israel would have mourned when their country and worship was destroyed, but not why there would be mourning at the coming of Christ.
"And he will send forth His angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other" (Matthew 24:31). Still speaking in figurative language Jesus is saying He will send His messengers into all the world with His Gospel, and gather them to Him in His kingdom, the church. Angels is from the Greek “angelos,” which is translated “messengers” in James 2:25 (also Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:24; 7:27; 9:52); the messengers Rahab received and sent out another way were men, not heavenly being; Jesus did not jump from the destruction of Jerusalem to His second coming . Just as there was not literally a "great trumpet" that was heard in Egypt and Assyria (Isaiah 27:13), there was not literally a "great trumpet" after the fall of Jerusalem. "And they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other," is figurative language meaning from all over the earth, just as is "from east and west, and from north and south" (Luke 13:29 also see Matthew 24:14). All the saved, "His elect" are now gathered together in His kingdom, the church.
Those in the first century would understand "blood, fire, vapor and smoke" to be used as it was in the Old Testament (Acts 2:19; Joel 2:28-32), but would never have understood it to be referring to a nuclear war as many Millennialists apply it. Christ used the symbolic language of the Old Testament as it was used in the Old Testament, as those hearing Him would have understood, not something in today's newspapers. Literally, that day was an ordinary day; the moon was not literally turned into blood, but spiritually it was an earth-shaking event. Even the Millennialists, who say all scripture must be interpreted literally, do not believe the moon will ever literally be turned to blood.
The Son of Man seen coming in His kingdom. "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom" (Matthew 16:28). The parallel passage in Mark says, "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power" (Mark 9:1). His kingdom came in Acts 2; therefore, Christ was seen coming in His kingdom in power and glory in A. D. 30. Christ came both in the coming of His kingdom and in judgment on Israel, but neither one was a visible coming as the second coming that will be seen by all, when both all the living and all the dead will see Him. The problem many have when they read Matthew 24 is that they see only His second coming, and therefore must interpret much of Matthew 24 to be speaking of the end of time. Neither His coming in His kingdom in A. D. 30, nor His coming in judgment on Israel in A. D. 70 was the second coming when the saved will put on immortality and forever be with Him.
Coming of Christ before His disciples had gone through the cities of Israel. Matthew 10:16-23 "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be you therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to councils, and in theirs synagogues they will scourge you; and before governors and kings shall you be brought for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, be not anxious how or what you shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak. For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. And brother shall deliver up brother to death, and the father his child: and children shall rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next: for verily I say unto you, You shall not have gone through the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come."
AFTER TITUS CAME ADRIAN
All of Israel was destroyed.
G. Holford: "'In the reign of Adrian,' say Bishop Newton, 'nine hundred and eighty-five of their best towns were sacked and demolished, five hundred and eighty thousand men fell by the sword, in battle, besides, an infinite multitude who perished by, famine, and sickness, and fire; so that Judea was depopulated, and an almost incredible number of every age and of each sex, were sold like horses and dispersed over the face of the earth'– Newton, vol. I, page xviii.) The war which gave rise to these calamities happened about forty-four years after the destruction of Jerusalem." The Destruction of Jerusalem.
"Therefore, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be called Topheth, not the Valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury. And the dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste" (Jeremiah 7:32-34).
G. Holford: "After the destruction of Jerusalem seventeen hundred Jews who surrendered at Macherus were slain, and of fugitives not less than three thousand in the woods of Jardes. Titus having marched his army to Caesarea, he (Titus) there, with great splendor, celebrated the birthday of his brother Domitian; and according to the barbarous manner of those times, punished many Jews in honor of it. The number who was burnt, and who fell by fighting with wild beasts, and in mutual combats, exceeded two thousand five hundred." The Destruction of Jerusalem.
Adam Clarke lists some that were killed at other places. "The inhabitants of Caesarea, above 20,000. At Scythopolis, above 13,000. At Ascalon, 2,500. At Ptolemais, 2,000. At Alexandria, 50,000. At Joppa, when taken by Cestius Gallus, 8,400. In a mountain called Asamon, near Sepporis, above 2,000. At Damascus, 10,000. In a battle with the Romans at Ascalon, 10,000. In an ambuscade near the same place, 8,000. At Japha, 15,000. Of the Samaritans, on Mount Gerizim, 11,600. At Jotapa, 40,000. At Joppa, when taken by Vespasian, 4,200. At Tarichea, 6,500. And after the city was taken, 1,200. At Gamala, 4,000, besides 5,000 who threw themselves down a precipice. Of those who fled with John, of Gischala, 6,000. Of the Gadarenes, 15,000 slain, besides countless multitudes drowned. In the village of Idumea, above 10,000 slain. At Gerasa, 1,000. At Machaerus, 1,700. In the wood of Jardes, 3,000. In the castle of Masada, 960. In Cyrene, by Catullus the governor, 3,000. Besides these, many of every age, sex, and condition, were slain in the war, who are not reckoned; but, of those who are reckoned, the number amounts to upwards of 1,357,660, which would have appeared incredible, if their own historian had not so particularly enumerated them." Clarke's Commentary on Matthew. The unknown number that was destroyed throughout the country by pestilence, famine, earthquakes, and robbers throughout the reign both before the destruction of Jerusalem, during the destruction, and the years after it must be added to this. Also, Adam Clarke says most of those taken captive "above seventeen years old were distributed through the Roman provinces, to be destroyed in their theaters by the sword, and by the wild beasts."
John Calvin: "For within fifty years the city was destroyed and the temple ruined, THE WHOLE COUNTRY WAS REDUCED TO A HIDEOUS DESERT." "Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelist, Matthew, Mark, and Luke." All Israel, the whole nation, not just the temple was totally destroyed, "reduced to a hideous desert."
David Chilton: "'Let Him be Crucified! Let Him be Crucified! His blood be on us, and on our children!' the apostates had cried forty years earlier (Matthew 27:22-25); and when it was all over, more than a million Jews had been killed in the siege of Jerusalem; close to a million more were sold into slavery throughout the empire, and whole of Judea lay smoldering in ruins, virtually depopulate." "The Great Tribulation" 1987, Dominion Press.
Josephus: "The countryside, like the city, was a pitiful sight, for where once there had been a multitude of trees and parks, there was now an utter wilderness stripped bare of timber; and no stranger who has seen the old Judea and the glorious suburbs of her capital, and now beheld utter desolation, could refrain from tears or suppress a groan at so terrible a change. The war had blotted out every trace of beauty, and no one who had known it in the past and came upon it suddenly would have recognized the place, for though he was already there, he would still have been looking for the city" The Jewish War.
Josephus: "The Dead Sea too was filled with corpses which the river (the Jordan River) carried down to it by the thousands."
"And except these days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matthew 24:22). If the war had gone on it would have reached beyond Israel unto Pella and other cities in the mountains where many Christians were that had left Israel; but it was stopped before it reached them. "No flesh" will be saved at the second coming. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 15:50). That the days were shortened, and some flesh was saved proves this is not speaking of the second coming of Christ.
(5) HE (CHRIST) IS NIGH, EVEN AT THE DOORS: Matthew 24:32-44
"Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that the summer is nigh; (33) even so you also, when you see all these things, know you that He is nigh, even at the doors. (34) Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away, till all these things be accomplished. (35) Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (36) But of that day and hour knows no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only. (37) And as were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. (38) For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, (39) and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. (40) Then shall two men be in the field; one is taken, and one is left; (41) two women shall be grinding at the mill; one is taken, and one is left. (42) Watch; therefore: for you know not on what day your Lord comes. (43) But know this that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to broken through. (44) Therefore be you also ready; for in an hour that you think not the Son of man comes." This makes it clear that all Jesus had said before this applies to the destruction of Jerusalem, not to His second coming for "this generation" has long ago passed away. "All these things" are the things He has just told them, things that those Christ was speaking to would see in their life time (wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, the abomination of desolation, the great tribulation, false prophets, sun and moon darkened, Son of Man coming in the clouds, stars falling from Heaven); all these things did come on that generation; when they saw the signs coming to pass, they know that the end of the temple and Israel was at hand. Although we are to watch and always be ready, we are not given any signs as they were that we can see and know that His coming is soon, not even that it will be in our lifetime, or in the next thousand or ten thousand years. Commentaries on verses 35-44 are divided on whether this is speaking of the coming of Christ in judgment on Israel or His second coming. It is unlikely that Christ would have changed from speaking of judgment on Israel in verse 34, then His second coming in verse 35, and back to judgment on Israel in verse 40 with nothing to show He changed. He was speaking to His disciples at this time (Matthew 24:1), and telling them they were to watch for the signs He gave them of His coming in judgment on Israel; He tells them it will be in there generation, but does not specify the exact date, the hour, or the day when His coming on judgment on Israel would come. We are given no signs to watch for as they were; nevertheless, we are always to be ready for His second coming.
· Just as Sodom did not know the day of there coming destruction (Luke 17:26-37).
· Just as those in the days of Noah did not know when the flood was coming (Matthew 24:37-39).
· No one knew when the end of Israel was coming. It came at the time when the devout Jews from all over were in Jerusalem; they were assembled from the whole country for the feast of unleavened bread.
"All these things" are the things He told them to watch for before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., not at the second coming of Jesus. Luke says, "But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draws nigh" (Luke 21:38). This redemption draws nigh to those of that generation. It was a redemption from the persecution of the Jews. "This generation shall not pass away, till all things be accomplished" Luke 21:32. Not the redemption of the U. S. from Russia, or any other redemption today.
1. They shall lay hands on you (those Christ was speaking to),
2. And shall persecute you,
3.