But in those days, after that distress, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give its light;
Jesus has just described a time of trouble like no other. Now He tells His disciples what follows it — the sky itself going dark. Is this a picture of something already past, or of something still ahead?
The verse fixes a point in time. These signs are not part of the trouble. They come after it — and what follows for Israel is deliverance.
The Jews must pass through a tribulation like no other (Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24). Only then does their deliverance come.
Some have applied the verse to Rome's destruction of Jerusalem, which the historian Josephus wrote about. But that event was the trouble itself, not what came after it.
Could that be called "immediately after the tribulation"? It was rather the crowning of Jewish sorrow, not the glorious reversal of their sufferings by a divine deliverance. Whatever wonders Josephus reports happened during the tribulation he records. The signs spoken of here, literal or figurative, are to follow "the tribulation of those days."
So far the trouble has come from the wickedness of men. Here God steps in.
Then the power of God comes in to cut short the wickedness of man and the tribulation as well. "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light." These may be figures of speech. But it is clear that God is the One who steps in with power. Man cannot do all that is meant, and neither can Satan. God alone can change or deal with the sources of power.
Commentators also read the lights in the sky as pictures of rule. Each one stands for a level of authority.
Supreme power, pictured by the sun, goes dark. Derived authority, pictured by the moon, loses all influence. Lesser authorities, pictured by the stars, lose their place and power. This present age, despite all the progress men boast about, will end in tribulation, confusion and anarchy like no other.
Commentators differ on what these lights stand for. One writer sees the sun as the light of God and the moon as Israel, which shines only with borrowed light.
The sun, the supreme source of light, goes dark. This shows that men's atheistic folly darkens the light of God. The moon giving no light pictures Israel sinking into such darkness that it bears no witness at all to the light of God. The moon's light is of course a reflection of the light of the sun, just as Israel ought to reflect God's glory in some measure.
Symbols and real events need not compete. One writer holds both, and points back to a day when the sun really did go dark.
Still, this speech of the Lord does not use symbols as freely as the book of Revelation does. So we should not rule out real upheavals among the heavenly bodies. We know, after all, that the sun really went dark when Jesus died. The darkness of that day will only make the brightness of His appearing stand out more, when He comes in the clouds with great power and glory.
Another writer reaches the same conclusion from the mixed language itself.
I have little doubt that the scene will be as mixed as the language. There will be real and terrible signs. Besides that, all existing powers will break up, and terror will fill every heart... But there will be more than a revolution. Every visible and organised power will be overturned and upset.
The darkness is not the destination. It clears the stage for Christ to appear and for a scattered people to be gathered in. Here one writer quotes the next two verses in an older translation.
"And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory; and then He will send His angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven." It is still the Jewish people, or rather the remnant of the nation, the elect of Israel.
The language is dramatic, so people have tried to pin it to events in the news. One writer lists the claims of a group that read the signs into an earthquake, a dark sky and a meteor shower.
The Lisbon earthquake, they said, was the fulfilment of Revelation 6:12. A darkening of the sun and moon twenty-five years later was the fulfilment of Mark 13:24. And a great meteor shower on 13 November 1833 was, as Mrs. White casually tells us, "the last of the signs... which were promised by the Saviour as tokens of His second advent."
- After — The signs come after the tribulation. They are not part of it. That one word rules out the fall of Jerusalem.
- God — The One who steps in here is not man and not Satan. Only God can deal with the sources of power.
- Lights — Sun, moon and stars picture the highest power, the borrowed power and the lesser powers. All fail at once.
- Both — Symbol and real upheaval need not compete. The scene may be as mixed as the language.
- Then — The darkness sets off the brightness of the Son of Man. He comes in clouds and gathers His elect from the four winds.
and the stars of heaven shall be falling down, and the powers which are in the heavens shall be shaken;
The falling stars and shaken powers come at a fixed point in the Lord's outline. They follow the great distress He has just described, and they come just before the Son of Man appears in clouds. Much of the language is picture language, but the power behind the upheaval is God's own.
One writer stresses that the scale of the upheaval rules out any human or even satanic author:
Then the power of God steps in to cut short both the wickedness of man and the tribulation… The language may be figurative, but one thing is clear: God is the One who steps in with power. Man cannot do all that is meant here, and neither can Satan. God alone can change or deal with the sources of power… The sense is plain, even though the words are pictures. They show a total revolution and overthrow of governing powers.
Why these three lights, and in that order? One writer reads them as ranks of government, from the top down.
"In those days", after the great tribulation among the Jews, all settled authority among the nations will be overthrown. The order God set up for governing the world will fall into confusion. The sun pictures supreme power, and it is darkened. The moon pictures borrowed authority, and it loses all influence. The stars picture lesser authorities, and they lose their place and power. This age, for all the progress men boast of, will end in tribulation, confusion and anarchy such as the world has never seen.
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture language. Some say we should not rule out real physical upheaval. They point to a darkness the world has already seen:
Still, the Lord does not use symbols here as freely as the book of Revelation does. So we think we should not rule out real upheavals in the heavenly bodies. We know that the sun was truly darkened when Jesus died. The darkness of that coming day will make the brightness of His appearing stand out all the more, when He comes in the clouds with great power and glory.
Another writer reads each light as a picture of a spiritual state:
The moon giving no light pictures Israel brought into such darkness that it gives no witness at all to the light of God. The moon's light is only a reflection of the sun's light, and Israel ought to reflect God's glory in some measure. The stars of heaven falling means that people who once claimed to recognise the authority of heaven turn away and give it up for a mind set on earthly things.
The last clause reaches past the sky to the powers behind it. Why does God shake heaven at all, when the rebellion is on earth?
The answer to that question is this: the heavens are the seat of Satan's power. He is called "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 2:2), and under him are "the rulers," "the authorities," "the cosmic powers over this present darkness" and "the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). From that seat of power in the heavens he directs much of the evil that fills the earth. God is going to judge not only the sin and the evil that fill the earth below, but also the satanic powers above, which direct it all.
Is this shaking the same event as Satan's fall in Revelation 12? One writer says no. The reason is timing:
In Revelation 12 Satan is thrown down before the last great tribulation, in great rage, because he knows he has only a short time… In the Gospels, where the timing is stated exactly (Matthew 24, Mark 13), the shaking of the powers of the heavens comes after the tribulation.
The verb matters. The powers are shaken, not abolished. The shaking is in what men see, not in what God has lost.
The powers of heaven being shaken reminds us of Daniel's words, "Heaven rules" (Dan. 4:26). This may involve some striking physical signs. But does it not point to a deeper lesson — that man's rebellion has grown so hard and settled that heaven's authority is shaken? It is not removed. It is shaken only in men's eyes, for very soon the Lord Himself will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on the ungodly (2 Thess. 1:7-8).
So where does that leave the believer, when every visible support collapses?
Now, should the Christian be alarmed and downhearted? Certainly not! He receives "a kingdom that cannot be shaken"… By faith we have already come to a place of blessed realities.
- Shaken by God. The overthrow is too vast for man or Satan to cause; God alone reaches the sources of power.
- Shaken in order. Sun, moon and stars fall in rank: supreme power, borrowed authority, then lesser powers. All settled authority ends in confusion.
- Shaken above. God shakes heaven too, because heaven is where Satan's power sits. He judges the direction as well as the deeds.
- Shaken, not removed. Heaven still rules; the tremor is in men's eyes, and it ends with the Lord revealed.
- Shaken, but not you. Believers receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken, so falling stars are a signal, not a threat.