by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
As we saw from the previous discussion, Matthew 24:4-8 is backed up by the parallel accounts in Mark 13:5-8 and Luke 21:8-11. The Lord foretold that there would be false messiahs; wars and rumors of war between nations and kingdoms; and famines and earthquakes in some places. He also tells the disciples that these things must come first and the end does not come immediately. Things get worse before the redemption with the coming of the Messiah. Hence, the metaphor of beginning of childbirth/labor pains.
According to my ESV Study Bible, Matthew 24:4-5, as it speaks of the appearing of those claiming to be the Messiah, leading people astray, echoes Jeremiah 29:8-9. The prophet Jeremiah utters the word of the LORD to his people that these “prophets and diviners” were telling lies and false prophecies when they were denying that God would allow the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. They deceived so many, who ultimately perished at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar’s hordes. The Lord Jesus was reminding his disciples of this foreshadowing event.
The Jewish rabbis spoke of suffering preceding the coming of the Messiah as “birth pains” according to my NIV Study Bible and ESV Study Bible. This stems from its use by the Old Testament (OT) prophets as a metaphor when describing terrible suffering of judgment and war, in general. This is referred to in Matthew 24:6-8, as it warns about wars, famines and earthquakes in various locations; and using precisely the same metaphor of childbirth/labor pains. One prominent source is Isaiah 13:6-9 in the prophet’s prophecy against Babylon with its people being terrified, in panic, overcome by pain and anguish, writhing like a “woman in labor” (see esp. 13:8; see also Isaiah 26:17-19, 42:14; Jeremiah 4:31, 6:22-25, esp. 6:24; Micah 4:9-10).
At this point, the theme of the beginning of birth pains is in stark focus. This focus continues in Matthew 24:9-14. But before discussing these following verses, we can already discern another parallel regarding the sequence of eschatological events given by our Lord in his Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:4-8 (also in Mark 13:5-8 and Luke 21:8-11). This sequence of eschatological events seems to have a parallel in Revelation 6 and Zechariah 6.
More than 10 years ago, in February 2013, I was able to attend an YSRAPHIL seminar in Makati featuring Pastor Jeffrey J. Harrison. His seminar was about his new 2012 book, The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John – Using the Bible to Interpret the Bible, ISBN-13: 978-1470036966, ISBN-10: 1470036967. Pastor Harrison is a graduate of Princeton University, with 2 Masters degrees from Oral Roberts University and studied at the Jerusalem University College in Jerusalem, Israel. He studied and taught in Israel for 3 years before becoming a missionary in Asia for more than a decade. He himself translated the Book of Revelation from the Greek and holds copyrights for his translations © 1992, 2000. He taught how early Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus understood the Book of Revelation by using the Bible to interpret it. I was just beginning my formal graduate education in Biblical Hebrew and had not yet taken up Biblical Greek at that time but I found the seminar (and the book which I purchased) to be very enlightening and enriching.
In his book and seminar, Pastor Harrison laid out in tabular format the verses of Revelation 6 alongside those of Matthew 24 and Luke 11; the very passages in the Olivet Discourse we are now taking up. I will add the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Pastor Harrison’s take on Zechariah 6 for my part. We will concentrate first on the sequence of eschatological events laid out in the Olivet Discourse, primarily from Matthew 24 and also its scriptural parallels.
On the theme of beginning of childbirth/labor pains, the first mentioned event in the sequence is about False Christs (and false prophets):
Matthew Mark Luke Revelation Zechariah
24:4-5, 13:5-6, 21:8 6:1-2 6:1-2
24:23-24 13:21-23.
The second event in the sequence is about Wars and rumors of wars:
Matthew Mark Luke Revelation Zechariah
24:6-7 13:7-8 21:9-10 6:3-4 6:2.
The third event in the sequence is about Earthquakes, Famines (and Plagues):
Matthew Mark Luke Revelation Zechariah
24:7-8 13:8 21:11 6:5-8 6:3.
We have already seen the parallels in Matthew 24:4-8, Mark 13:5-8 and Luke 21:8-11. We need to discuss in greater detail the entries for Revelation and Zechariah and how they match up with the Gospel accounts of the sequence of eschatological events in the Lord’s Olivet Discourse.
We will continue next week.
God bless us all.