by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
We had seen that in Matthew 24:27-28, the Lord Jesus gives a rather transparent hint regarding his return. The sign of ἡ παρουσία τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (“the coming of the Son of Man”) will be visible to all as it is likened to lightning blazing from one end of the sky to the other; as well as the tell-tale sign of vultures attracted to a corpse.
Then Matthew 24:29-31 and its parallels in Mark 13:24-27 and Luke 21:25-28, all speak about the coming; the return of the Son of Man with more sSon of Man and Biblical scholars conclude that its description leaves no room for doubt that it comes from Daniel 7:13 and its context.
The Greek text of Matthew 24:29-31 is given below followed by my formal translation:
Εὐθέως δὲ μετὰ τὴν θλῖψιν τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐκείνων ὁ ἥλιος σκοτισθήσεται, καὶ ἡ σελήνη οὐ δώσει τὸ φέγγος αὐτῆς, καὶ οἱ ἀστέρες πεσοῦνται ἀπὸ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις τῶν οὐρανῶν σαλευθήσονται.
29But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be obscured/darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
καὶ τότε φανήσεται τὸ σημεῖον τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ τότε κόψονται πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς καὶ ὄψονται τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐρχόμενον ἐπὶ τῶν νεφελῶν τοῦ οὐρανοῦ μετὰ δυνάμεως καὶ δόξης πολλῆς·
30And then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in the sky, and then will mourn all the tribes of the land and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory;
καὶ ἀποστελεῖ τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ μετὰ σάλπιγγος μεγάλης, καὶ ἐπισυνάξουσιν τοὺς ἐκλεκτοὺς αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν τεσσάρων ἀνέμων ἀπ’ ἄκρων οὐρανῶν ἕως τῶν ἄκρων αὐτῶν.
31And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet (sound), and they will gather his elect from the four winds from the ends of the heavens until its farthest ends.
In verse 29, the Lord makes it a point to say that immediately after the tribulation he had earlier spoken of, heavenly signs will follow. Unlike the earth-bound appearing of false Christs and prophets; wars and rumors of wars; earthquakes, famines and plagues; trouble and persecution among believers; the abomination of desolation identified as the coming destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem; and the great and long tribulation that is cut short (thus preventing total annihilation of the Jewish people); the coming signs will make one look up to the sky, literally.
The verse seems to indicate that several phenomena happen at the same time. As such, a regular solar eclipse cannot be in view here. A regular lunar eclipse also cannot happen simultaneously as a solar eclipse; the earth, moon and the sun would have to be in an impossible astronomical configuration. And falling stars from the sky, while a natural phenomenon by itself, stretches one’s definition of “signs and wonders” when combined with what happens to the sun and the moon.
A parallel here is from Joel 2:30-31 where the prophet has the LORD promising to display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before Judgment Day. Could it be that these columns /billows of (rising) smoke will be the cause for the sun to be obscured or darkened? Or is it by some other cause?
To further make sure that his disciples (and we) realize clearly that these events are supernatural, the Lord adds that “the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” For this phrase, we can look to the Apostle Paul’s words summarizing the believers’ real enemies in Ephesians 6:12, where he states that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, powers, spiritual forces of darkness and wickedness in the heavenly places. Thus the Lord Jesus is saying his return signals the final, ultimate defeat of all spiritual forces of evil.
The next verse, Matthew 24:30 says that sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, presumably for everyone on earth to see. Could this be a cross, as some suggest? The verse then says all the (12 Jewish) tribes of the land (of Israel) will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming down on the clouds of heaven in all power and luminous splendor. The first part about the tribes mourning alludes to Zechariah 12:10 while the last points back to Daniel 7:13-14.
The context of Zechariah 12 is about the LORD God defending Jerusalem/Israel against the nations that attack it. This theme is found in verses 1-9. Then in verse 10 the flow of thought is abruptly changed when the LORD says a Spirit of grace and supplication is poured on the people living in Jerusalem by Him and then shockingly says this will cause the people to “look upon Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10 NASB). Checking all the Hebrew verbs and pronouns used makes one conclude that indeed, it is the LORD who pours out a Spirit of grace and supplication and it is the LORD who is pierced! But then continuing in the Hebrew, the pronoun is changed from “Me” to “Him” as the object of the people’s mourning and bitter weeping. There seems to be more than just a Trinitarian prophetic aspect to this. The prophet Zechariah prophesied this about 500 years before the time of our Lord Jesus.
Part of Zechariah 12:10 certainly resonates with a specific detail in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus; found only in John’s Gospel where a soldier pierces the Lord’s side with a spear (John 19:34). The Apostle likewise quotes the same Zechariah 12:10 verse regarding this (John 19:37).
It appears that upon the Lord’s return, the Jewish people will finally realize that it is the Messiah Jesus whom they have pierced and they will weep bitterly and mourn and repent and turn to the Lord. Perhaps then, will Paul’s words in Romans 11:26 come true: “and so all Israel will be saved.”
The last part of Matthew 24:30 easily parallels Daniel 7:13-14 where the supernatural Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven (a cloud-rider can only be supernatural/divine!) and was presented to the Ancient of Days (the LORD God). [All the world’s Cable, TV and streaming video stations will surely broadcast this event for the entire world to see via TV and the Internet.] To this Son of Man was given all dominion, power and glory and all peoples of the earth will serve Him. His kingdom will be everlasting and will not be destroyed (unlike the 4 earthly kingdoms of the beasts). As stated before, the Lord Jesus identifies himself as this prophesied divine Son of Man in these Daniel 7 verses.
Furthermore, for the lectionary reading this Sunday (Acts 1:6-14) note that the Greek actually says that the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven taken up into a cloud (Acts 1:9) when they were at the Mount of Olives. And Acts 1:11 says his disciples were still looking up when 2 men in white vestments (angels) told them that the Lord would return in the same way they saw him being taken up (in a cloud). Recall also that earlier, that at his Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; and Luke 9:28-36) another bright overshadowing cloud also figures prominently in the narrative. All these unmistakably point to the deity, the divine nature of the Lord Jesus as expressed in Daniel 7:13-14.
Matthew 24:31 concludes this section with the Son of Man dispatching his angels with a very audible trumpet blast to gather the saved/elect from all the ends of the world. According to my ESV Study Bible the trumpet call has been associated with the Messiah’s arrival by both Jewish (e.g., Isaiah 18:3; 27:13; Zechariah 9:14) and Christian writings (e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16).
We will continue next week to take a look at the parallels in Mark and Luke and Revelation.
God bless us all.