But when ye see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that its desolation is drawn nigh.
Jesus had just said the temple would be pulled down. The disciples asked when this would happen, and what sign would come first. Luke records this answer: an army around the city. Anyone could see that sign, and see it in time to escape.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all record this discourse. Only Luke names an army around the city. That detail ties the words to an event in history, not to the distant future.
Only Luke has this. So he speaks of armies surrounding the city, which was true then. He does not speak, as Matthew and Mark do, of the abomination of desolation, which can only be proved true in its closing agony. The siege our Lord describes, with all that came out of it, cannot be a future event. What follows it is the humiliating hold on the Jewish capital by one nation after another, until the allotted seasons of Gentile supremacy end.
This is the direct answer to what the disciples asked.
This is the clear reply to the only part of the disciples' question that Luke records. Jerusalem surrounded by armies was to be the sign that its desolation was near.
Many readers treat this verse and Matthew's warning about "the abomination of desolation" as the same event. Commentators place the two at different points in Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks.
When they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, they could know that its desolation was near. This is still a very different thing from the "abomination of desolation" that Matthew and Mark speak of. That one is tied to the middle of the last week of Daniel, while this one comes between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week of the same chapter: "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Dan. 9:26). There is no excuse at all for confusing two things so different, when the gap between them is stated so clearly.
Some critics have read Luke as merging the two events. Kelly answers that Luke is the very writer who keeps them apart.
Schmiedel claims that Luke himself, in his own mind, treated Titus's desolation of Jerusalem as the same thing as Daniel's "abomination." That only shows how little that critic understands the plan of Old Testament prophecy. As the Expositor points out, it is typical of Luke that he kept the two apart.
A sign is only useful if people can see it and act on it. These people did.
Nothing can be simpler. The prediction is exact. The directions match exactly what the Christians living in the city did when Titus's army approached Jerusalem. There is no call to special haste, and in fact there was no occasion for special haste. Every reader knows what followed. The Christians, warned by this prophecy, left the city. The city was destroyed, and its people were either killed or carried off into slavery.
Where they went is on record.
The Christians, remembering the Lord's warning, left Jerusalem together before the siege closed in. They travelled to Pella, a village beyond the Jordan. There they stayed until Hadrian allowed them to return to the ruins of their ancient city.
The destruction was not an end in itself. It opened a long stretch of history that has not yet closed.
Then those who believed the words of Jesus did flee to the mountains, and so escaped the horrors of the siege. Then began the "days of vengeance" for the Jew. They will not stop until everything foretold has come true. Then started the long captivity, which has continued and will continue, with Jerusalem under the feet of the nations, until the times of the Gentiles end. Those times began when God raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who took the throne from the last king of David's line. They will end with the crushing of Gentile rule at the appearing of Christ.
This judgment had a cause. The commentators trace it back to the blood the city had shed.
Upon the guilty city, stained with the blood of the prophets, and now to be stained with that of their glorious King also, days of vengeance were coming.
- Sign — Luke alone reports armies around the city. Matthew and Mark report the abomination of desolation. The sign given here was one ordinary people could see with their own eyes.
- Sequence — Daniel 9:26 places the city's destruction between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. The abomination belongs to the middle of the last week. That gap keeps the two events apart.
- Sparing — Those who believed the warning left for Pella and lived. The warning came early enough that they needed no panic, only obedience.
- Sentence — Those who stayed were killed or carried off into slavery. The "days of vengeance" fell on a city stained with the blood of the prophets and of its King.
- Stretch — What the siege began still runs on. Jerusalem is trodden down through the times of the Gentiles, which started with Nebuchadnezzar and end only when Christ appears.
Then let those who are in Judaea flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of it depart out, and those who are in the country not enter into it;
Armies around Jerusalem were the signal. This verse is the order that follows: three groups of people, each told which way to move.
Commentators tie this warning to a dated event, not to the end of the world. The signal Luke gives is not the one Matthew gives.
Here the Lord Jesus gives us a very direct and immediate picture of the destruction of Jerusalem, which was then close at hand. Matthew passes by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. He fixes attention on what will take place at the end of the age... He says, "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." He does not say "the abomination of desolation" — not a word about that here, for it belongs to the last days only.
Why the mountains? One writer points to the hills that ring the city. The same writer notes that the tone here is calmer than Matthew's parallel warning.
Is it surprising that danger in Jerusalem at two different dates should have the same way of escape? The ring of mountains around the city makes that way especially fitting. The directions, however, in the two cases are not the same, though similar. In Luke there is a command that those in Judea were to go to the mountains, and that those in the country were not to enter in. Yet there is no note of alarming urgency here. In Matthew we find one, at the setting up of the abomination of desolation. There, delay of even an instant is forbidden.
The two passages sound alike, so readers mix them up. Kelly traces a common misreading back to that mix-up.
The effort to apply the abomination of desolation to the Romans under Titus, or to the Pope, is utterly vain. The first of these probably comes from confusing Matthew 24:15 with Luke 21:21. Luke alone brings in the Roman siege and captivity, since he alone deals with the times of the Gentiles.
The order here is to run, not to stand firm. The reason is what God was doing to that city.
The days of vengeance fell on Jerusalem, when the Lord's murderers were destroyed and their city burnt. In that smaller case there was no question of suffering as a privilege. It was a retributive dealing of God. So the Lord told those who listened to His words to escape as soon as they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies.
The warning was not just words on a page. Some people acted on it, and there is a record of where they went.
This unhappy people had plenty of time to be warned. If they had listened to the voice of their Messiah, they could have been saved... Obeying this command, the Christians left Jerusalem and settled at Pella. So they escaped the doom about to fall on this guilty people.
Pella lies in the Jordan valley, not in the hills. Some critics say Luke reshaped the prophecy to fit events already past. Kelly answers that this mismatch points the other way.
"Flee to the mountains." Wellhausen, like others, says Luke brought the prophecy "up to date." But these words support a date before AD 70, because the actual flight was to Pella, in the Jordan valley.
A warning is useless to anyone who does not believe the person giving it. Darby presses that point.
What was the use of the Lord warning the disciples in advance to flee in such and such circumstances? It would be no use if they did not understand what He was speaking about, and did not believe His word beforehand. It was exactly this knowledge and this faith that set them apart from all their unbelieving countrymen.
- Sign. The marker in Luke is armies around Jerusalem, not the abomination of desolation. Matthew leaves that out, and it ties this verse to the Roman siege.
- Order. Three groups get three instructions: leave Judea for the hills, get out of the city, stay out of the city — no route back in.
- Pace. There is no note of alarming urgency here. The flight that allows no delay belongs to Matthew.
- Escape. These were days of God's retribution on the city. So the godly were to get clear, not to stay and suffer. Those who obeyed settled at Pella and lived.
- Faith. The warning only helped those who believed it in advance. That faith was the one thing that set them apart.
for these are days of avenging, that all the things that are written may be accomplished.
Jesus is telling His disciples what is about to fall on Jerusalem. He gives the coming siege a name: days of vengeance. Two questions follow. Which siege did He mean? And which written words did it fulfill?
Luke's account describes armies surrounding the city. Matthew and Mark record a different sign. Commentators use Daniel's prophecy to place this siege in time.
Days of vengeance were coming on the guilty city, stained with the blood of the prophets and now to be stained with the blood of their glorious King as well. When they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, they could know that its desolation was near. That is a very different thing from the "abomination of desolation" that Matthew and Mark speak of. That sign belongs to the middle of the last week of Daniel, while this one falls between the sixty-ninth and seventieth in the same chapter: "and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Dan. 9:26). There is no excuse for confusing things so different, when Scripture states the interval between them so plainly.
Luke's Gospel uses one word for God's merciful visits to His people. The word in this verse is a different one.
Luke 7:16 — "Visited." Compare 1:68 and 19:44, where it also means a merciful visitation. The word for "visitation" in the sense of vengeance is ekdikēsis, as in Luke 21:22.
The blow did not fall at once after the death of the Messiah. Commentators stress the long patience that came first.
I need not stay to tell you how completely this solemn prediction came true. Jerusalem fell soon afterwards. God, in patient grace, waited a little; He did not destroy it the day after the death of His Son. No — for sixty years He waited on His rebellious people, who first rejected their Messiah and then resisted the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51-52). At length He sent out His edict.
The Lord did not announce something new. He said the pages already written would be filled out, and history supplies the measure of it.
Everyone knows how terrible these days of vengeance were. Josephus gives the number of those killed in the siege as 1,000,000, and those carried away captive as 97,000. The complete fulfilment of our Lord's words is a matter of common history.
This verse gives the reason for a set of instructions. Those who believed Jesus obeyed them and got out in time.
The prediction is exact. When Titus's army approached Jerusalem, the Christians living in the city followed exactly these directions. This passage calls for no special haste, and in fact none was needed. Every reader knows the rest. The Christians, warned by this prophecy, left the city. The city was destroyed, and its people were either killed or carried into slavery.
Commentators differ on the scope. Some read the phrase as covering the siege of AD 70 and its immediate aftermath. Others hear in the plural "days" a long age that is still running.
This day of vengeance on Israel as a nation extends, in a sense, right through these present "times of the Gentiles." The crisis in the latter day gives its character to the whole period. They are all "days of vengeance," as the Lord calls them here. Yet a special season and visitation is still to come at the close — "the day of vengeance," as the prophet calls it (Isa. 34; Isa. 63).
Earlier in the same Gospel, Jesus read from Isaiah aloud and stopped short.
He ends His reading with the words "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." He closed the book in the middle of a sentence, because Isaiah adds "and the day of vengeance of our God." In this way He separated the two events very pointedly... But the day of vengeance had not yet come. Old Testament Scripture gave no sign that the preaching of grace would run for a long time before the day of vengeance came. Yet it has now continued for nearly 2000 years.
- Written first. Nothing in AD 70 came as a surprise. The siege carried out what Scripture had already written, including Daniel 9:26.
- Written, then warned. The written words let Jesus give exact instructions: see the armies, leave the city. Those who trusted Him acted in time.
- Written, then fulfilled. The word vengeance here is not the merciful visiting of Luke 1, 7 and 19. It is a different word for a different visit, and the casualty figures show how exactly it came.
- Written, then delayed. The full day of vengeance is real but still held back. Jesus closed Isaiah's scroll before that line, and the year of God's favor has run ever since.
- Written, and still running. The days of vengeance run on through the times of the Gentiles, and a special visitation still waits at the close.
But woe to them that are with child and to them who give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress upon the land and wrath upon this people.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of [the] nations until [the] times of [the] nations be fulfilled.
Jesus stood near the temple in its final days. He told His hearers what was coming on the city that had rejected Him: the sword, exile, and long centuries under foreign rule. One sentence covers it all, and it ends with a word that sets a limit — "until."
Three Gospels record this prophecy. This part of it belongs to Luke alone.
Luke 21:20-24 holds truth that is not in Matthew or Mark. It plainly predicts the coming destruction of Jerusalem, and the great distress that would fall on the land and on this people. Only Luke says they would be led captive into all the nations. Only Luke gives the remarkable sentence, still in force, that Gentiles would trample Jerusalem until their appointed times are complete... This fits the plan of the third Gospel, which leaves out the abomination of desolation and the tribulation like no other, both so prominent in the two Gospels before it. From verse 25 on, Luke joins the other two writers in describing the time of the end.
The words landed on real events. Roman armies under Titus took the city, and captivity followed.
This came true in what happened to the Jews when Titus took the city and "this people" went into captivity for the second time... And so it happened. For many centuries Gentiles have trampled Jerusalem. One national power after another was to hold the holy city. It is still so: the trampling goes on, because the seasons given to the Gentiles are not yet complete.
The phrase "the times of the Gentiles" is not in the book of Daniel. It is the Lord's own expression, and He does not date its start from His own rejection.
The expression "the times of the Gentiles" is not found in the book of Daniel. It is a New Testament phrase, and only our Lord used it... Now, the times of the Gentiles did not begin when Jerusalem rejected the Lord who came from heaven. Our Lord does not say they were brought in then. They started with the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar. The glory of the Lord departed from Jerusalem.
That start marks a transfer of authority.
God was patient with Israel for a long time. Then He set the house of David aside and sent it into captivity. He handed the power to govern for Him to the Gentiles, and the times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar... Three other empires followed Babylon, and the times of the Gentiles still go on, under one form of government after another. They will run on until God, in His own time, gives supremacy in the earth back to His ancient people.
The Gentiles are the nations other than Israel. The phrase is about who is on top and who is underneath.
"The times of the Gentiles" points to Gentiles on top and Israel pressed down. He is looking ahead over this whole age. In verse 24 He calls the whole age "the times of the Gentiles" — the Gentiles rule, and Israel has no land or inheritance in the earth.
Commentators differ over how the modern State of Israel fits this. Some read the Jewish return as a sign that Gentile control is loosening and "the times of the Gentiles are nearly over" (A. J. Pollock). Others point to the nation's long suffering since it rejected its Messiah, and say that holding the city today settles nothing, because another trampling is still to come.
Because they rejected and crucified their Messiah, the Jewish nation has suffered centuries of being "trampled underfoot by the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24). At the present time the Jews have possession of Jerusalem. A nation of Israel exists, and it makes its mark on world affairs. They are there in unbelief. Their troubles are not over yet, and the city will again be overrun by the Gentiles: "they will trample the holy city for forty-two months" (Rev. 11:2).
God never leaves His judgement on Israel open-ended.
Whenever God speaks in His Word about judgement on Israel, He always sets a limit to it with an "until." So Romans 11:25 tells us that "a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." Luke 21:24 sets the same kind of limit for Jerusalem... "The fullness of the Gentiles" means the present Christian company. "The times of the Gentiles" means the period when the Gentiles hold power, which started with Nebuchadnezzar some six centuries before Christ.
The next verses say what happens when that limit runs out.
"Immediately after the tribulation," when the times of the Gentiles close, the Son of Man will come in person. We know these times are still running: the Gentiles still trample Jerusalem. But that trampling will end, and the Lord will come to deliver Israel.
- Cause. God took government from the house of David and handed it to Nebuchadnezzar. The "times of the Gentiles" began there, not at the cross.
- Course. Empire has followed empire ever since, with Jerusalem passing from one national power to the next.
- Confirmation. Titus fulfilled the first half of the verse exactly: sword, captivity, and scattering into all nations.
- Contrast. Luke alone records this Roman siege; Matthew and Mark pass over it and go straight to the final crisis.
- Close. "Until" is the mercy in the sentence. God has measured Gentile rule, and it ends when the Son of Man comes.
And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity [at] the roar of the sea and rolling waves,
The Lord has spoken of Jerusalem trampled by the nations; now He widens the view to the sky itself. Two questions follow: when do these signs come, and are they events in the heavens or pictures of something else?
The Lord had already spoken of the siege and capture of Jerusalem by Roman armies. That came true. What verse 25 describes has not. One commentator makes the small word "and" the hinge, and compares it to a famous break in Isaiah.
"And there will be signs," that is, of the revealing of Christ's presence. The "and" introduces a separate account. It works like a special use of the Hebrew conjunction. Isaiah 61:2 gives one of the most striking examples of this in the Old Testament. The Lord used that passage on the occasion described in Luke 4:16-19. He stopped before the words "and the day of vengeance." … In passages that look disjointed like this, a long stretch of time may come between the events. So it is here, between verses 24 and 25.
The same writer marks the change of subject. Nothing earlier in the chapter hinted at trouble in the heavens.
There was not a word of all this when He spoke of the siege and capture of the city under Titus. The domination of the nations is not over yet. When it ends, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and distress of nations.
Do these signs happen in the sky, or do they stand for something else? Commentators differ. One holds both at once:
There seems good reason to believe that these signs are physical. Yet matching signs appear in the political world too, as the book of Revelation shows. At such a time God's mercy multiplies His calls to men to give heed to what He is doing. Nature seems to share in human sorrow, and that appearance gives whatever support there is to the fables of astrology. In this way man twists the goodness of God into his own ruin.
Another writer takes the words as pictures. His clue is the roaring sea at the end of the verse.
Then the passage reveals the state of things at the close of the rule of the Gentile nations — signs in sun, moon, and stars; on earth, distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. That last phrase makes me think the words are figures here, though there may also be real signs in the sky.
The verse also names the roaring sea. One writer says who the sea stands for, and finds the same restlessness in today's news.
"The sea and the waves" mean the peoples. We read in Isaiah 57:20, "But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt." How true this is! A glance at the newspaper is enough to prove it. … "The sun, moon and stars" mean the rulers of the nations. … Then every form of government is overthrown, with complete confusion resulting. Men are preparing for this now. They are refusing to be ruled.
Verse 25 pairs distress with perplexity. One writer names the cause of the confusion, and why the fixes never hold.
Man's sin and folly have created the confusion, but man is not able to clear it up. No difficulty is ever really settled. Politicians and others manage from time to time to put a patch on here and a patch on there. For the moment things look reasonable. Then come outbreaks that are more serious and more widespread.
Luke records something the other Gospels leave out: what these terrors do inside people. One writer sees God's hand even in that unrest.
Luke alone mentions the moral signs of men's anguish, despite the deceits and false claims of that day. No doubt there will be strong delusion, and people will believe what is false. But that is the very reason there is no rest and no contentment. Only the grace and truth of God in Christ can give peaceful enjoyment with a good conscience. So God will know how to trouble men's dreams and to break up Satan's ease.
Terrible times have looked like this before. One history tells of an age of famine and plague, when strange sights in the sky made people think the prophecy had come.
These words describe that time well, but the prophecy was far from fulfilled. Our Lord goes straight on to say: "And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."
- Gap. The "and" of verse 25 can span a long stretch of time, just as Isaiah 61:2 does; Jerusalem's fall is past, these signs are not.
- Signs. Are the sun, moon and stars really shaken, or do they stand for rulers? Commentators differ, and some hold both.
- Sea. The roaring sea pictures the peoples in restless revolt, refusing to be governed.
- Perplexity. The trouble comes with no answer. Man made the confusion, and man cannot cure it.
- Test. One proof settles it: the Son of Man seen coming in a cloud. Until then, alarming times are not the fulfilment.
men ready to die through fear and expectation of what is coming on the habitable earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
In this verse the Lord describes a state of mind, not an event. He tells His disciples what people will feel while the world around them falls apart. Two questions press: when does this happen, and what are "the powers of the heavens" that get shaken?
Commentators place this verse long after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. It comes at the close of the long period when Gentile powers rule. The earlier part of the chapter deals with the siege; verse 25 opens a new scene.
Next, He introduces the last days. There was not a word of all this when He spoke of the siege and capture of the city under Titus. After the rule of the Gentiles is over — and it clearly is not yet — there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and distress of nations.
Luke's account reaches past the outward signs into what people will think and feel. That knowledge has a purpose.
Luke alone has preserved this: what people will be feeling and thinking in that terrible time when the Lord's return in power is close at hand... He who foresees future events also knows beforehand what His creatures will then be feeling and thinking. So there can be a prophetic ministry to meet the need of God's people at that time — the Psalms are full of this — as well as a prophetic description of the thoughts of others at that time.
People in that day will not lack things to believe. Belief will not give them rest.
It is Luke only who mentions the moral signs of men's anguish despite the deceits and pretensions of that day. No doubt there will be strong delusion and the belief of falsehood. But for this very reason there is no rest or contentment. Only the grace and truth of God in Christ can give peaceful enjoyment with a good conscience. So God will know how to trouble men's dreams and to break up Satan's ease.
The terror is not about what has already struck. It is about what is on the way.
People were astounded because they could not see the end. They trembled as they were dragged along toward some unknown, terrible conclusion. For principles were at work, in ways they did not understand, dragging them along whether they wanted it or not.
An older translation reads "ready to die through fear" — fainting that goes as far as collapse.
The stated reason for the panic is the last clause of the verse. One writer explains the phrase in a short parenthesis.
for the powers of heaven — the sources of the way things stand on earth — will be shaken.
God Himself does the shaking.
This is the moment when God is going to shake the heavens as well as the earth, as Haggai predicted. Only the things that cannot be shaken will remain. All will lead up to the public appearing of the Son of Man in power and great glory.
One writer says the moment itself has not yet come, though its principle already shows. He hears confidence and dread in the same generation.
Progress, success, the long run of a new development of human nature — this is the language of those who mock at the Lord's coming. Yet beneath it all, what fears for the future are gripping and weighing down the heart! I use the word "principles" because I do not believe that the moment the Lord speaks of has come yet. But the shadow of coming events falls on the heart. Blessed are those who belong to another world!
The very next verses tell believers to do the reverse of what this verse describes. Fainting hearts and lifted heads face the same events.
For them it means a final redemption, when all creation will be set free from its bondage to decay. That being so, the first signs of His advent are to fill us with glad anticipation. We are to "look up," for the next movement that really counts is to come from the right hand of God, where He sits. We are to "lift up our heads," the opposite of hanging them down in depression or fear. The very things that frighten the world are to fill the believer with the optimism of holy expectation.
- Shaken — God shakes the sources of authority above the earth. Only what cannot be shaken survives.
- Feared — the shaking is still ahead, not past. People collapse under dread of a future they cannot see or stop.
- Recorded — Luke alone preserves what people will feel, not just the signs in the sky.
- Foreshadowed — the moment itself is still future. Its principle already shows: loud confidence in progress, deep fear underneath.
- Reversed — the same events that make the world faint are the believer's signal. Look up and lift your head: redemption is near.
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
The Lord has been describing a world in terror — distress of nations, people fainting with fear, the powers of heaven shaken. Then comes a sight, and with it three questions: when is this "then," who are the "they," and why does He come as Son of Man?
The Lord has already spoken of the city's capture and of the long period of Gentile rule after it. This verse belongs to the end of that period, not to the siege long ago.
Next, He introduces the last days. "And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars." There was not a word of all this when He spoke of the siege and capture of the city under Titus. The Gentile domination is clearly not over yet. After it ends, there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and distress of nations. People will faint with fear, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory — not when the Romans took the city long ago, but in the future crisis, when God gives these astonishing signs in heaven and on earth.
The Lord does not say "you will see." One writer takes the roaring sea as a picture rather than a bare event, and marks the change of pronoun.
The sea and the waves roaring — that expression shows, I think, that the words are figurative, though there may be portents too. And then they (not "you," but they, these proud, rebellious Gentiles) will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud.
Clouds appear all through Christ's going and coming. Scripture is careful about the small words it uses with them.
Christ is nowhere said to come with the clouds to gather His own. On the contrary, they go up in the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:17). These are the royal carriages provided to carry us from earth to meet the Lord. The cloud of old was the well-known symbol of Jehovah's presence with His people (Exodus 13:21; 40:34-38; Luke 9:35). But notice, Christ is not only said to come in the clouds (Mark 13:26), but with them (Revelation 1:7), and on them (Matthew 24:30). The clouds that attend His coming are symbols of His majesty (Psalm 18:9-12). He sits on them as on His throne (Matthew 24:30). He ascended in a cloud (Acts 1:9), and will come in a cloud (Luke 21:27).
The title matters. It explains both why men treated Him with contempt and why judgment belongs to Him.
It is as Son of Man that the Lord Jesus will sit on the throne. No doubt He will show His divine knowledge in judging. But, as He says plainly, the Father has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is Son of Man. As Son of God He gives life; as Son of Man He will judge. How solemn! Had He been only Son of God, who would have dared to despise Him? It was His grace, then, in becoming man to save men that exposed Him to contempt in His path of lowly obedience and suffering in love. If they insulted Him in His work of grace, how will it be when He executes judgment, and this as Son of Man?
Scripture uses two words for the Lord's return. They do not cover the same ground.
The "coming" of the Lord means His presence, in contrast with His absence. It is a wide word. It reaches from what many of us call the "rapture" of the saints, to be "forever with the Lord," on through the interval that follows, until His appearing with His saints in glory. The word "coming" (parousia) takes in both thoughts. The "appearing" (epiphaneia) is the shining out of His coming, when He will be displayed in glory to the world. That word "coming" is often used for this event, the "appearing"; but this last word is never used for the "coming."
The same sight will not mean the same thing to everyone.
God will know how to trouble people's dreams and to break up Satan's ease. Their horror will reach its height at the sight of the rejected Lord, the Son of Man, coming in a cloud with power and glory. But there will be those on earth then — disciples tested by the evils of that day. For them, even the beginning of these troubles and the signs of change for the world will be the sure herald of deliverance.
- Then. The moment is still future. It comes after Gentile rule ends. The Lord said nothing of these signs when He described the siege under Titus.
- They. Not "you" but "they." The proud, rebellious nations will see Him come, not the disciples in front of Him.
- In a cloud. He went up in a cloud and returns in one. Scripture also says with the clouds and on them. They are symbols of His majesty, and long before they marked God's presence with His people.
- Son of Man. He judges under the very name in which He was despised; as Son of God He gives life, as Son of Man He executes judgment.
- Two reactions. The same sight brings horror to those who rejected Him. To tested believers it is the sure sign that deliverance is coming.
But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws nigh.
Jesus is describing the end of the age: nations in terror, and the Son of man coming in a cloud. At that very point He turns to His own with a command that reverses everything — "straighten up and raise your heads," or, as older translations put it, "look up and lift up your heads."
Roman armies did destroy Jerusalem, and some read the whole chapter that way. But one writer argues that this verse cannot belong to that event:
As though to rule out any chance of reading all this as the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, our Lord says, "when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near." He clearly distinguishes between "these things," which mark the close of the days of vengeance, and the other things which were to mark their beginning. The destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans was surely no sign of approaching redemption!
The same events mean opposite things for two groups of people on the same earth:
God will know how to trouble men's dreams and to break up Satan's ease. Their horror will reach its peak at the sight of the rejected Lord, the Son of man, coming in a cloud with power and glory. But there will be others on earth then, disciples tried by the evils of that day. For them, even the beginning of these troubles and the signs of change for the world will be the sure herald of deliverance.
The Lord gives them a direction to look and a posture to hold:
We are to "look up," for the next movement that really counts is to come from the right hand of God, where He sits. We are to "lift up our heads," the opposite of hanging them down in depression or fear. The very things that frighten the world are to fill the believer with the confidence of holy expectation.
Heads droop for reasons every believer knows:
Much can make the head droop and the heart wither a little now: the power of temptation, sorrow of various kinds, seeing sin all around. But once the head is lifted up at the day of redemption, it is lifted up for ever.
One writer reads "your redemption" against the background of Israel's jubilee, the fiftieth year:
It is nothing but the work of the Lamb of God that can lead to any joy or deliverance among us. The precious blood is all our title. And so the jubilee and redemption are connected. When the Lord here says, "Your redemption draws near," He was looking out to this jubilee of Israel and the earth. The jubilee was God's redemption of His land and people. Suppose no kinsman could be found who was able or willing to do this beforehand. Then God Himself, in the fiftieth year, would use both His rights and His resources on behalf of His oppressed land and enslaved people.
So the coming of the Son of man is good news, not only terror:
The earth's destruction is not what is meant here. What is meant is the blessing that comes after the end of the age, when God ends the time of man's wickedness and misery and trouble and suffering. The coming of the Son of man is never linked with the end of the world in that sense. It is linked with the close of Satan's misrule and the shining out of the kingdom of God.
One writer sees two applications in the verse — one for Israel, one for us now:
Verse 28 can have its application both to the believing remnant of Israel in the time of the tribulation and to ourselves now. For the first application, their redemption will be the freeing power of the Son of Man. He will set Israel free from her ages of bondage. In the second case (taking place earlier) our redemption will be of our bodies at the Rapture (Rom. 8:23).
One writer draws out what such looking does to a life:
When you see these things, do not be disturbed, look up, do not look down, for your redemption draws near. I do not deny that dark times are coming. But may this only make us look up like Stephen, and see the glory that is also coming! This would separate us from all that is contrary to the purity, holiness, and love of the Lord Jesus.
- Begin — the signal is the beginning of the final signs, not the Roman siege. That older disaster announced no redemption at all.
- Look — look up, not down. The next move that counts comes from where Christ now sits.
- Lift — temptation and sorrow bend the head now; the day of redemption lifts it for ever.
- Redemption — a jubilee word. God Himself steps in for an enslaved land and people, and the Lamb's blood is the whole title.
- Result — the sights that terrify the world lift the believer. That hope separates the heart from all that is unlike Christ.
And he spoke a parable to them Behold the fig-tree and all the trees;
Near the end of His last public teaching, Jesus speaks of wars, distress among the nations, and the Son of Man coming in a cloud. Then He points to something ordinary — a tree in leaf. The picture asks two questions: which tree, and what season is it announcing?
Commentators read the fig tree as a picture of Israel. One writer ties the verse to the nation's calling and its failure:
Sweetness and good fruit are what marked the fig tree in Jotham's parable. God chose Israel as a nation, out of all the nations, to bear fruit for Him. Luke 21:29 shows it: "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees." The fig tree is set apart from the rest. We see Israel's failure to answer all God's goodness when our Lord cursed the barren fig tree. This was the only miracle our Lord performed that did not bring blessing. It tells us that while grace and blessing are what God delights in, judgment must still find its place, for God is righteous and must uphold His name.
The other Gospels stop at the fig tree. Luke alone adds the wider phrase:
He gives a parable, but not of the fig tree only: that would not suit the largeness of Luke's scope. "Look at the fig tree and all the trees." Here is the difference between Luke and the others. It is not that his Gospel lacks the Jewish part. It is that he brings in all the Gentiles as well. How perfect it all is! Luke writes for the Gentiles, so he gives not only the fig tree found in Matthew, but the Gentile trees found nowhere else. That one tree clearly applies to the Jews as a nation; the other figure, "all the trees," adds the rest, so as to be universal.
These trees are not nations in general. They are the ones whose history is bound up with Israel's:
At the same time as Israel reappears in world politics, many of the powers Israel dealt with in the past will appear again... If the fig tree is Israel, "all the trees" stand for the powers that have to do with her. All must take up their positions to play the part assigned to them in the last scenes.
The cursed fig tree withered. In this parable the same tree comes back to life:
The Jew was God's fig tree, set on earth to bear fruit and to be a witness. He withered because he was barren. One day he will be broken in heart and will turn to the Lord. The branch becomes tender and puts out leaves in the power of a renewed life. Then the summer, the harvest, the end is near — at the doors.
One writer sees the fig tree already shooting, and names the season it points to:
They were scattered, as Luke told us they would be, and now they are gathering in the land again. The fig tree is shooting... The trees do seem to be putting out their leaves. The summer surely is already near; and there is no summer apart from the Kingdom of God.
Commentators differ over the timing. Some read the budding of a future day only. Then, one writer says, "the appearance of the godly remnant in the middle of the nation of Israel, which has turned away from God, will signal the near approach of the time of blessing for the nation" (Hamilton Smith). Others hold the future reading and still allow a present one:
The mark of the fig tree is that fruit and leaves are there together. As soon as the branch becomes tender, the fruit is found. It is a rapid development. This is the lesson here. Israel's blessing, new life, fruit and glory will quickly be realised in those end days... There is another application: that we now see Israel like a budding fig tree, with signs of new national life. Taken as a sign of the times, this is certainly not wrong. It tells us of the nearness of the end.
- Tree — The fig tree is Israel, chosen among the nations to bear fruit for God, and judged when it bore none.
- Trees — Luke alone adds "all the trees." The sign widens to the Gentile powers bound up with Israel. Each must take its place before the last scenes.
- Bud — The withered tree buds again. The sign is a nation broken in heart, turning to the Lord in new life.
- Summer — In the fig tree, fruit comes with the leaves; the buds announce the season, and there is no summer apart from the kingdom of God.
- Sight — The Lord points to what anyone can see. Commentators differ on whether the budding is wholly future or already visible. They agree on what it means: the end is near.
when they already sprout, ye know of your own selves, [on] looking [at them], that already the summer is near.
The Lord has just spoken of signs in the sun, moon and stars, and of the Son of Man coming in a cloud. Then He turns to something ordinary: a tree in spring. What do these trees stand for? And how does anyone "see for yourselves and know" that something is close?
Luke's version of the parable is wider than the others. One commentator ties this to the scope of Luke's Gospel, which keeps the nations in view alongside Israel:
He gives a parable, but not of the fig tree only: that would not suit the largeness of Luke's scope. "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees." Here is the difference between Luke and the others. His Gospel does not drop the Jewish portion; in addition, he brings in all the Gentiles. This evangelist for the Gentiles gives not only the fig tree which is in Matthew, but also the Gentile trees, which no other Gospel mentions. That one tree plainly applies to the Jews as a nation; the other figure ("all the trees") adds the rest, so that it becomes universal.
Nobody needs training to tell that spring has turned. The buds do the announcing:
The leaves on the fig tree, the Lord tells us in Matthew 24:32, give notice that summer is near; and so, He says, the things which He had been describing would give notice, when they came to pass, that the kingdom was near.
A tree in leaf is not yet a tree in fruit. One writer keeps the two apart:
The fig tree is no longer barren; for the Son of Man received, and the new covenant with Him, will change everything. These are early days; and we hear of no more than the branch becoming tender and putting out leaves. The time of fruit will come; but as yet they only know that summer is near.
What is the summer? One commentator answers, and adds how sure the Lord's word is:
The parable of the fig tree applies to the Jewish remnant of returned captives in the land. They were scattered, as Luke told us they would be. Now they are gathering there again; the fig tree is shooting. But Luke adds "and all the trees": in which we are apparently to see, in keeping with Luke's character, the revival of the nations making up Daniel's empires... Certainly the trees seem to be putting out their leaves. The summer surely is already near; and there is no summer apart from the Kingdom of God. Again we see, as in Matthew, how fast it will at last come on. The generation that sees the beginning will see the end. And here the Lord solemnly affirms that His word cannot change: though heaven and earth pass away, this will not.
So what if the trees are budding now? Another writer applies the sign to our own day and sets the events in order:
Even before the Rapture we see the beginning of the signs of the Lord's coming in glory, which will be later than the Rapture. For Israel has once again become a nation possessing her own land. The nations around her were for years almost unheard of and of little account. Now they have become militant and are pressing to the front for recognition. This great resurgence of national ambition tells us that the kingdom of God is near. If the millennial kingdom is near, the coming of the Lord for the Church (the Rapture) is at least seven years nearer.
Commentators differ on whether today's stirring among the Jewish people is the budding itself or only its first hint. One writer calls it the start of a sign that will be plain later, and a sign for those left after the Church is gone:
The first prominent sign is the one given in the "parable of the fig tree." This tree is an emblem of Israel, and the putting out of leaves may well point to a national revival of that people... Before Israel's false king appears, while the branch is still tender, there is a putting out of leaves, and this is a sign to the remnant. The movement called "Zionism," already begun among the Jews, feeble, undefined and tentative as it is, may be the start of what, after the church is gone, will become the putting out of the leaves of the fig tree.
- Two trees. The fig tree stands for Israel as a nation. Luke alone adds "all the trees," so the sign takes in the Gentile nations too.
- Budding. Leaves are a beginning, not a harvest. A tender, shooting branch says only that summer is near; the time of fruit is still ahead.
- Summer. The season the buds announce is the kingdom of God; there is no summer apart from it.
- Self-evident. You need no expert. Just as leaves give notice that summer is near, the events the Lord listed give notice that the kingdom is near.
- Nearer still. If the kingdom of God is near, the Lord's coming for His own is nearer still — at least seven years nearer.
So also *ye*, when ye see these things take place, know that the kingdom of God is near.
Jesus points to something anyone can read. Leaves on a tree tell you summer is near. In the same way, certain events tell you God's kingdom is near. But which events does He mean? And how can a kingdom that had already come still be called near?
Matthew's version of this parable keeps to one tree. Luke adds all the trees, and commentators see design in the difference.
Here is an instance of how exact Scripture is, even in its figures. Who but God could have thought of giving only the fig tree in Matthew, which speaks of Israel? In Luke we get the fig tree and all the trees, for there the Gentiles get mixed up in the troubles of Israel.
If the trees stand for peoples, then their "sprouting" is the sign to watch.
So we have every right to expect signs of life in Israel, and in the nations she has special dealings with. These signs come before the Saviour comes to earth to set up the visible kingdom of God. That great event is near, for no one can deny that remarkable movements are going on among these peoples.
The kingdom of God had already begun in a hidden form long before Jerusalem fell. So the nearness Jesus speaks of has to mean something else.
Now in what sense could the kingdom of God be near when Jerusalem fell? In its mysterious state, the state it exists in now, the kingdom of God had already come long before Jerusalem was destroyed. In that sense no one could call it near at hand then. But once these signs of Christ's second coming begin, the kingdom in its open display of millennial glory will be near at hand.
Commentators call that open display millennial glory — the time when Christ reigns over the earth. The difference is not in the kingdom itself, but in what people can see of it, and in what evil is still allowed to do.
Is it not clear, then, that the kingdom of God is coming in a sense different from what people look for and talk about? Its approach is real now to faith, but we do not see it. Then it will be manifest, and it will put down everything that sets itself against God. The yoke of evil will be broken then, which it is not now.
Commentators note that this verse can cover more than one crisis. The destruction of Jerusalem answered it in part. The full answer is still ahead.
So the Holy Spirit records here an expression which may apply to both: "you know that the kingdom of God is near." I have no doubt this had a certain accomplishment in the complete suppression of the Jewish order, but not its fulfilment. The coming of the Son of Man, after the signs of verses 25 and 26, will establish the kingdom of God.
The scale of the trouble settles the question. It is not confined to one city.
When they see these things happening, they are to conclude that the kingdom of God is near. He had spoken of the final, worldwide trouble for the whole inhabited earth, not just of what has happened to the Jews. The things seen here were signs, like the budding of the trees. So the kingdom of God plainly comes at the coming of the King, when the Lord God Almighty takes His great power and reigns.
Some writers see the budding in events already visible. From that they draw a further conclusion about the Lord's coming for the Church.
For Israel has once again become a nation possessing her own land. Other nations around her, for years almost unheard of and of little importance, have become militant and are pressing forward for recognition. This great resurgence of national ambition tells us that the kingdom of God is near. If the millennial kingdom is near, the coming of the Lord for the Church is at least seven years nearer.
- Sign. The fig tree pictures Israel as a nation. Luke adds "all the trees", which brings in the Gentile nations mixed up with her troubles.
- Season. Sprouting leaves say summer, and nobody has to explain it. Stirrings of national life in Israel and the peoples around her say God's kingdom is close.
- Kingdom. What draws near is not the hidden kingdom already here. It is the kingdom on open display, when the King comes and puts down every rival power.
- Scale. Verse 31 follows a worldwide trouble, not one city's fall. Commentators treat the fall of Jerusalem as a partial, early answer only.
- Watch. Read the season for yourself. If the summer of His open reign is near, everything that comes before it is nearer still.
Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall in no wise pass away until all come to pass.
The Lord seals His prophecy with a solemn promise about "this generation." People have argued over the words for centuries. Do they tie everything He has just said to the lifetime of the crowd in front of Him? Or does that word mean something else?
The strongest clue is where the sentence stands. It does not follow the warning about armies surrounding Jerusalem. It comes much later: after the trampling of the city, after the times of the Gentiles (the nations other than Israel) have run out, and after the Son of Man comes in a cloud.
When does the phrase "this generation" come in? After the Son of Man has already come in power and glory — not when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies. That is an important point to help in determining its true meaning. If "this generation" really meant a man's lifetime, such a place in the prophecy would not fit... So "this generation," if taken as a stretch of time, must cover eighteen centuries at the least.
Luke's account settles it. Only he records the long trampling of Jerusalem before the end. So no one can squeeze the same saying in Matthew and Mark into a single lifetime.
Few have weighed how fully Luke 21:32 settles the real meaning of those much-debated words... As long as people read them only in the light of Matthew 24 and Mark 13, there was room for doubt... So the clause seems to be meant in its full, unlimited strength. Luke has placed it where it makes every other application impossible.
Much of the difficulty sits in two words: "all" and "generation." How far does "all" reach? And must "generation" mean the years between a father and his son?
The word "all" must include everything mentioned in the verses before, and the close of the times of the Gentiles is one of these. So He cannot mean by "this generation" the people who were then alive. The times of the Gentiles have not yet run out, so the generation the Lord speaks of has not yet passed. It is the race, the nation, of the Jews that He names. The Greek word here translated "generation" is translated "nation" in other places. In Philippians 2:15 older translations read "a crooked and perverse nation"... Parkhurst notes that "generation" is also used for people of like quality and character, even when they are not of one place or age. We also have "the generation of the upright," "the generation of those that seek Him," "the generation of His wrath."
Read that way, the Lord is describing a moral character, not a calendar. He means the people who refused Him, and He says what will replace them.
Its force is moral. It is not exactly the nation of Israel, but that Christ-rejecting race who refused their Messiah then and refuse Him still. This will go on till all these solemn threats of judgment are accomplished... The Lord does not say that this generation will not pass away until the temple falls or the city is taken. He says, until all is fulfilled... He declares that this generation will not pass away till then. Only then will grace form a new generation, the generation to come.
Where these writers say "until all is fulfilled," the ESV reads "until all has taken place."
If the promise holds, the survival of the Jewish people is no accident of history. It is visible proof of the Lord's word. Nations far more powerful have vanished into other peoples.
They have come through troubles like no other people, and heavy discipline under the holy hand of God. They have borne the hatred and persecution of the boastful Gentile, east and west. Still they remain. Where is Moab? Where Edom, Assyria, Babylon? People may dig up the ruins of their palaces and fortresses. But as nations they are dead and gone... These words guarantee that Israel stays a distinct people to the end, until the whole prophetic word is fulfilled.
The fall of Jerusalem began what the Lord described. It did not finish it. And the same passage keeps that fall and His coming apart.
Fulfilment began at the destruction or treading down of Jerusalem — its desolation, vengeance and so on — and it continues still. A far fuller fulfilment comes at the close, before the coming of the Son of Man... Note also that this passage rules out applying "the coming of the Son of Man" to the destruction of Jerusalem. The long treading down has already come before it.
- Placement. The saying comes after the times of the Gentiles and the Son of Man's coming. It cannot mean the lifetime of the people listening.
- Meaning. "Generation" here is moral, not a stretch of time. The same word is translated "nation," and Scripture speaks of the generation of the upright and of those who seek Him.
- Scope. The Lord did not promise survival until the temple fell, but until all is fulfilled. Only then does grace form a new generation.
- Evidence. Moab, Edom, Assyria and Babylon are gone. Israel remains a distinct people — the prophecy still walking about in the open.
- Timing. Fulfilment began when Jerusalem fell, and a fuller one is still ahead. So never treat the fall of the city and the coming of the Son of Man as one event.
The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away.
Jesus has just pointed the disciples to the sprouting fig tree as a sign that the kingdom of God is near. Then He rests the whole prophecy on something more lasting than the world it describes. Why measure His words against the end of heaven and earth? And what does that leave standing for anyone who trusts Him?
This is not a stray saying about the Bible in general. It seals the prophecy Jesus has just given and guarantees that every part of it will happen.
Christ has attached a very solemn warning to this prophecy: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." No doubt this applies to all His words. But He said it about this particular prophecy. So let us come to it with full regard for the warning the Lord has set over this scripture to protect it. The globe we walk on will pass away. The heavens will go like a scroll rolled up. But not one syllable of what the Lord Jesus said here will fail to come true.
The first half of the verse points to a real event. One writer places it at a fixed point, far beyond the events of the chapter.
Verse 33 goes far beyond the kingdom. It reaches to the passing away of heaven and earth at the time of the Great White Throne, some 1000 years later (Rev. 20:11). The words of the Lord Jesus will never pass away.
On any other lips this claim would be absurd.
"Heaven and earth will pass away" — and the voice is that of the Lord and Maker of heaven and earth — "but my words will not pass away."
His words carry this weight for a second reason too: where they came from.
We are told that the "words" He spoke, He received from the Father. He was so perfect as Man in His dependence on the Father that He said, "The Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment — what to say and what to speak." Again we read, "For he whom God has sent utters the words of God." So nothing could be more truly from God than the words He spoke. It is no wonder, then, that He should say, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
One writer traces the contrast back to the difference between what God made and what God did in His Son.
This is the mystery the Lord has before Him when He says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Creation could be removed. Redemption — the work of the Word — cannot be moved, because the living God has joined Himself to it. And so the prophet, speaking to Jesus the Son, says, "Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain." All things that are made may be shaken (Heb. 12:27), for God Himself is not joined to them; He is not their foundation.
If the verse is true, then a person's faith rests on better ground than the ground under his feet.
Is this not exceedingly sweet for us to think about! The child of God knows he has a foundation for his faith more stable than heaven or earth. The Lord speaks of His own words; the word of the Lord endures forever. However much people may try to detract from the word of God, by His grace may we hold fast all God has given to us. Here it is the Lord's own words, but the whole word of God has a divine character.
That firm ground matters for anyone unsure whether God has forgiven them.
You know you have sinned and want your sins forgiven, and you are asking, How am I to know that they are forgiven? On what ground? I do not know any trustworthy ground except God's holy word, and having this, you need not fear all the powers of Satan. There is no power in this world, or under this world, which can destroy the imperishable word of God.
- Sanction. The verse is a seal stamped on the prophecy Jesus has just given — every syllable of it will be fulfilled.
- Speaker. The one announcing the end of heaven and earth is their Maker, speaking words He received from the Father.
- Timing. The passing of heaven and earth is a real, dated event, placed at the Great White Throne, long after the kingdom comes.
- Contrast. Creation can be removed; redemption cannot, because God has joined Himself to it.
- Ground. So faith rests on something firmer than the planet, and on that word a person can know his sins are forgiven.
But take heed to yourselves lest possibly your hearts be laden with surfeiting and drinking and cares of life, and that day come upon you suddenly unawares;
After a long prophecy about wars, Jerusalem, and the Son of Man coming in a cloud, the Lord turns from events to the heart of the listener. Two questions follow: what weighs a heart down, and whose day arrives like a trap?
One writer notes that the things named here are not scandals. They are daily necessities pushed out of proportion:
Verse 34 is negative. It deals with the most common hindrances to a walk with God — the undue emphasis put on eating and drinking, and the cares of this life. How easily we slip into a state that seeks only to satisfy our own appetites, while matters of intense, eternal importance are left knocking at the door! Of course eating and drinking are necessary, but is it that for which we live? Should the cares of this life, the many details of living, so occupy us that we are loaded down with them?
The danger goes further than distraction. A heavy heart sinks into the world, and that day falls on people who have put down roots here:
He then tells them that, as people living on earth, they must be watchful. Their own hearts could be weighed down with things that would sink them into this world — the very world in which they were to be witnesses. For that day would come as a snare upon all those who had their dwelling here, who were rooted here.
Drunkenness here reaches wider than the glass. One writer finds the same numbing power in things the world calls respectable, even admirable:
We know the intoxicating power of this world's schemes and operations. We know how the human heart gets swept away, as if on the surface of a fast current, when such things come before it. Schemes of improvement, commercial operations, political movements — yes, and popular religious movements too — all of these produce on the human mind an effect like the one Nabal's wine produced.
A heart can be loaded from two directions. Dread of world events hides the coming day just as pleasure does:
No doubt those three verses — 34, 35, 36 — have special application to believers who will be on earth just before His appearing. But they have a great voice for the believer today. Many pleasures surround us, and we may easily become overloaded with too much of them. On the other hand, there were never more and greater dangers on the horizon. Our hearts may be loaded with dread, so that we lose sight of the day that is coming. We can be so taken up with the doings of dictators and the progress of world movements that the coming of the Lord fades from our minds.
Some read this whole chapter as fulfilled when Rome destroyed Jerusalem. The worldwide reach named in the next verse rules that out:
How could the destruction of Jerusalem come "as a snare on all who dwell on the face of the whole earth"? No; it is of His own actual, personal return, at the close of the times of the Gentiles, that our Lord speaks.
That day is described as a trap because it is a surprise to those it falls on. Commentators draw a sharp line between that arrival and the way the Lord comes for His own:
His day will surprise all who dwell on the face of the whole earth like a thief in the night. But He meets His heavenly ones with quite other thoughts, for in mind and spirit they are already in the place He comes from.
If the danger is a dulled heart, the cure is soberness. It means more than staying away from drink:
"Sober" means that quietness and seriousness of mind, that solemn feeling, which the Spirit of God produces in the hearts of those who take in the character of the approaching end of all things. On the other side, it is a mind freed from the intoxicating influences of this scene. It shows itself in the absence of all flippancy, and in the reverence that comes from walking before God with a sense of how short the present time is, and of the coming judgments. Notice, too, that the Lord, just as Peter does, presses constant prayer upon His disciples.
- The weight. Not scandalous sin, but food, drink and daily worries filling the space that belongs to what lasts forever.
- The root. A heart weighed down has settled here, and that day falls like a trap on those who make the earth their home.
- The two loads. Pleasure dulls, and dread crushes — both make the coming day disappear from view.
- The day. Its reach over the whole earth marks it as the Lord's personal return, not the fall of Jerusalem. It catches the world by surprise, but He meets His own with other thoughts.
- The lift. Soberness is a mind freed from this world's pull, and constant prayer keeps it there.
for as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth.
Jesus widens His warning far beyond Jerusalem. The day He speaks of comes as a snare and falls on people everywhere — which raises two questions: what day is this, and who gets caught?
The day comes as a trap, and a trap only works while nobody sees it:
Snares to be effective must be hidden. It is useless to set a net where a bird can see it; in the same way the hook in fishing is always concealed. The baits that Satan uses are things that men like. They may not always be moral evils in themselves — riches, honour, and the like. But they may end in the loss of the soul.
The bait is not scandal. It is normal life.
The words sound like plain geography. One commentator reads them instead as a description of character:
The special rejoicing is on the part of the dwellers on the earth, that is, the earthly-minded... In other words, to "dwell on the earth" is not a vague description of men. It expresses a moral condition.
This is not the moment when the Lord gathers His own. It is the day of the Lord falling on the ungodly world:
Our Lord Himself warned His hearers to take heed in case that day should come upon them unawares. In all these passages, as in 1 Thessalonians 5, it points to sudden and overwhelming judgments carried out on the wicked. Those judgments open the way for Christ to set up His earthly kingdom by power. The contrast is sharp. The descent of the Lord Jesus into the air was presented to the Thessalonian believers as the crown of all their hopes. This day of the Lord comes "as a thief in the night" on the whole world of the ungodly. In one case the Lord comes to gather His saints; in the other, to strike His enemies. And the saints are taught about the first, so that they may know for certain that they are exempt from the terrors of the second.
The snare closes on people who are fixed in place:
He then tells them that, as living on earth, they must be watchful. Their own hearts could grow heavy with things that would sink them into this world — the world in the middle of which they were to be witnesses. For that day would come as a snare upon all those who had their dwelling here, who were rooted here. They were to watch and pray, in order to escape all those things, and to stand in the presence of the Son of man.
Commentators differ on who the warning is for. One applies it to believers who will pass through the coming tribulation:
The warnings against carousing, drunkenness and the cares of this life apply directly to those going through the future tribulation. They are to watch and pray always. The aim is that they may be counted worthy to escape the things that threaten all around them, and at the end to stand before the Son of Man. At that time those believers will be kept through the tribulation, while the Church will be kept out of the hour of it (Rev. 3:10).
Another accepts that setting, and still presses the words on readers today:
No doubt those three verses, 34, 35, 36, have a special application to believers who will be on earth just before His appearing, but they have a great voice for the believer today. Pleasures of every kind surround us, and we may easily take on far too many of them. On the other hand, there were never more and greater dangers on the horizon. Our hearts may grow heavy with dread, so that we lose sight of the day that is coming.
- Hidden. A snare only works while nobody sees it. The bait is something people want, and often nothing wrong in itself.
- Settled. It catches the earthly-minded: people rooted here, who have made this world their home.
- Whole. It reaches the whole earth — sudden judgment on an ungodly world. It is not the Lord's coming to gather His own.
- Weighed. The way into the snare is a heart sunk by pleasure or by dread, until the day arrives with no warning.
- Watching. The way out is to watch and pray, to escape these things and stand before the Son of Man. That word fits believers in the coming crisis, and believers now.
Watch therefore, praying at every season, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things which are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
The Lord's warning about the last days closes with a duty, not a date: watch, pray, and stand. Two questions run through it. What escape does He promise here, and who must pray for it?
Commentators read the escape as rescue on earth, not removal to heaven:
The Lord gave His disciples what they needed then. He also gave it in the written word for similar times still to come. Still, though the principle is always true, verse 34 clearly applies to a day still to come on the earth. The privilege is to escape the judgments and stand before the Son of man. This again is earthly, not being caught up to heaven.
Another writer says plainly what that escape does and does not mean:
Those who pass through those days, and especially the suffering remnant of Israel, are called to watch and pray always. They are not called to pray that they may be taken out of the hour of trial. They are called to pray that they may escape the things that come to pass. To escape here means to come through the whole tribulation alive, "and stand before the Son of Man."
The title at the end of the verse belongs to His appearing in glory, not to the catching up of believers to heaven:
The Lord speaks of "the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (v. 27). The title "Son of Man" never refers to the rapture. It refers to His appearing in glory. The Lord is speaking of people who will pass through the tribulation on earth. If they are faithful, they will escape the snare of this antichrist and at last stand before the Son of Man.
Older translations read "accounted worthy" here, while the ESV follows another reading, "may have strength." One writer notes both, and takes the standing as a review, not a sentence:
"Praying … may be counted worthy" (or, on another reading, "may be strong") "… to stand (be set) before the Son of Man." … This is not a judgment in the sense of John 5:24. It is the occasion when our Lord gives out reward or loss to those of the House of God. He holds His first examination then, reviewing the life of each disciple.
Commentators differ here. Some read the standing as the survivor's place on earth before the returning Son of Man. This writer reads it as a review of each disciple's life.
Neither command works on its own:
Knowledge by itself is not power. We need to be kept in the dependent attitude of prayer, if we are to carry out the exhortations in practice. … Persevering in prayer means more than turning to God in some special need. It means a habit of depending on Him. … The Lord warned His disciples to watch and pray. It is useless to pray about a particular temptation, or snare, if at the same time we do not watch against it.
The verses just before name what makes the command urgent:
He then tells them that, since they live on earth, they must watch. Their own hearts could be weighed down by things that would sink them into this world — the very world in which they were to be His witnesses. For that day would come as a snare on all who had their home here, who were rooted here.
One writer puts the verse's first application in a future day, yet hears it speaking now. Two dangers pull at us: pleasure on one side, dread on the other:
No doubt those three verses, 34, 35, 36, apply in a special way to saints who will be on earth just before His appearing. But they have a great voice for the believer today. Pleasures of every kind surround us, and they may easily overload us. On the other hand, there were never more and greater dangers on the horizon. Dread may weigh our hearts down, so that we lose sight of the day that is coming. … Then we shall be wide awake, and ready to greet the Lord when He comes.
The Lord names the Person, but not the place. One writer sees room in that silence for something better than the hearers could have guessed:
They were to watch and pray, so as to escape all those things and to stand in the presence of the Son of man. … To be with Him, as those who have escaped from the earth, and to be among the 144,000 on Mount Zion, will be one fulfilment of this blessing. But the place is not named. So, if the people He was speaking to proved faithful, the hope His words awakened would reach something better still — His heavenly presence in the day of glory.
- Snare — that day springs as a trap on everyone rooted in this world.
- Watch — stay awake to the danger; praying about a snare you refuse to watch is no use.
- Pray — knowledge is not power; only dependence on God carries the command into practice.
- Escape — here it means coming through the trouble on earth alive, not being lifted off it.
- Stand — the goal is a Person, not a place: the Son of Man Himself, with the hope left open to something better.