But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
The Lord has just spoken of a tribulation like no other. Now He tells the disciples what follows the moment it ends. The lights in the sky fail, and the settled order of the heavens gives way. Two questions run through this verse. When does it happen? And are the darkened sun, moon and stars real events, or pictures of something else?
The word "immediately" ties this collapse to the tribulation just described. Writers hold that this tribulation is still ahead. One commentator compares how Matthew, Mark and Luke each report the Lord's words:
Notice how Matthew and Mark dwell on the troubles tied to the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. They tell us that no trouble like it had ever been known, and none like it would ever come after… They also speak of the Lord's coming as following close on those days of fierce trial (Matt. 24:29; Mark 13:24). Luke mentions neither those days nor the abomination of desolation. His gospel teaches plainly that a period of unmeasured length would come between Jerusalem's capture and the Lord's return (Luke 21:24).
One writer rejects a popular reading of the verse:
A popular view makes this verse the point where the Lord starts speaking about His own return. That destroys the force of "immediately after the tribulation of those days" and breaks the connection with the true transition to the last days in verse 15.
Many read the three lights by a pattern Scripture itself sets, starting in Genesis:
This is the symbolic language of prophecy. But how should we read it?… In Genesis the greater light, the lesser light and the stars rule the day and the night. Throughout Revelation and prophecy generally, the heavenly bodies stand for rule: the sun for supreme authority, the moon for reflected authority, while the stars represent the minor and lower vessels of rule. So verse 29 is a symbolic picture of all government being completely overturned as soon as Daniel's seventieth week ends.
Read that way, the verse says where human history is headed:
Supreme power, pictured by the sun, goes dark. Derived authority, pictured by the moon, stops having any influence. Subordinate authorities, likened to the stars, lose their place and power. This age, despite all that men boast about progress, will end in tribulation, confusion and anarchy like nothing before it.
Commentators differ on how far the symbolism goes. One points out that these words of the Lord do not lean on symbols the way Revelation does:
Still, the Lord does not use many symbols in this talk, as the book of Revelation does. So we think we must not rule out real upheavals in the heavenly bodies. We know the sun really did go dark when Jesus died. The darkness of that day will make the brightness of His shining forth stand out all the more, when He comes in the clouds with great power and glory.
The last clause reaches past the visible sky. One writer says what is certain about it:
It is clear that the whole stability of government will be shaken. The general sense is plain. God's hand and will touch not only the earth, but the sources of power: "I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."… The rulers and authorities in heavenly places stop acting as God's agents, and they shake under this great act, which hands that rule to the Son of man.
Some ask whether this shaking is the same event as Satan being thrown out of heaven in Revelation 12. One writer answers by looking at the timing:
In Revelation 12 Satan is cast down clearly before the last great tribulation. He is furious, because he knows he has only a short time… In the gospels, where the mark of time seems precise (Matt. 24, Mark 13), the shaking of the powers of the heavens comes after the tribulation… So, as events, the two have nothing to do with one another.
One writer marks off this coming from the church's hope:
Here in Matthew 24 there is no gathering of saints to Christ in heavenly glory. This is the coming of the Son of man, to whom all judgment is committed… While He is hidden, they are hidden too. When He appears, they appear too, having been caught up beforehand.
- Order — the sequence is fixed. Tribulation first, then the lights fail, then He comes in the clouds. The whole verse turns on "immediately after."
- Rule — in Scripture the sun, moon and stars stand for supreme, derived and subordinate authority. Their darkening pictures every level of government collapsing at once.
- Reach — the shaking reaches the sources of power, not just the earth: "I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."
- Reading — commentators differ on whether the darkness is only symbolic. Some point to the sun going dark when Jesus died as a reason to expect real upheavals too.
- Result — that darkness is the backdrop for His glory. His heavenly saints appear with Him, not after Him, because they were caught up beforehand.
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the land lament, and they shall see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
The disciples had asked what the sign of His coming would be, and here is the Lord's answer: a sign in heaven, mourning on earth, His own arrival on the clouds. But what is that sign, and who are the tribes that mourn?
Earlier in Matthew, religious leaders pressed Jesus for a sign from heaven. He refused them. One writer ties that refusal to this verse:
The Sadducees and the Pharisees together demanded a sign from heaven from Him. Their hatred of Him was strong enough to join two groups that could not stand each other. That sign the Lord did not and could not give. He could not make Himself acceptable to the world, or prove Himself on the world's terms... But in due time, though in a way they did not look for, a sign from heaven will be given to them. They asked for it (Matt. 16:1), and they shall have it (Matt. 24:29-30); but it will be a sign of coming judgment, a sign that the Son of Man is on His way from heaven in the clouds to carry out the vengeance that is written.
Commentators differ. Some argue the wording makes the coming itself the sign, and point to Mark and Luke:
The Lord had already taught them about the end of the age. Now He tells them that the sign of His coming will be the coming itself. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. In the phrase "sign of your coming," the coming is itself the sign. Mark and Luke give that same real coming of the Son of Man without calling it a sign.
Others identify the sign with the cloud of God's presence that marked Israel's history:
What is the sign of the Son of Man? We believe it will be the Shekinah cloud. A cloud covered Him when He stayed with Israel long ago. A cloud took Him out of His disciples' sight, and a cloud must bring Him back. At the bitter end of the great tribulation, when His faithful remnant is hard pressed on all sides... there will be seen, we believe, a bright and shining cloud in the heavens, a cloud from which fire shines out.
The word behind "tribes of the earth" can also be read "tribes of the land." The writer below quotes an older translation that chose "land":
"And then all the tribes of the land will lament." The context seems to favour "land" here rather than "earth"; the word can mean either. Such mourning is never linked with His coming to take us up to Himself.
Not every tear in that mourning is the same. One writer separates the wail of those who rejected Him from the grief of those delivered from unbelief:
They would see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. Then all the tribes of the land — the land of Israel, I think — will wail because of Him. These are the people who had rejected Him, and who now see Him returning in glory. The faithful share the nation's fate in a general way, but God has freed them from their unbelief. We know they will mourn in another way (Zech. 12:10-14), looking on the One whom they had pierced.
One writer marks this public scene off from Christ's coming for the Church:
This is not His coming as Bridegroom for the Church, but His public appearing with His saints, as Col. 3:4 speaks. All who were caught up earlier will come with Him on that solemn day.
Some read this coming as a figure of speech rather than a real arrival. One writer answers from the way Jesus speaks in the rest of the discourse:
Someone may ask, Why may we not take the phrase figuratively in Matt. 24:30 and literally in other parts of the discourse? Here is our reply. Our Lord uses that phrase ten or eleven times in this one discourse, and every time He means it literally. To suppose that He then used it once figuratively, in the same discourse, with no hint of a different sense, is to suppose Him speaking in a way calculated to deceive.
- Asked — Religious leaders demanded a sign from heaven, and Christ refused. Here He gives it — as a sign of coming judgment.
- Shown — Commentators differ on the sign. Some read it as the coming itself; others as the cloud of God's presence.
- Mourned — Two sounds, not one. Those who rejected Him wail; those freed from unbelief look on the One they pierced and grieve.
- Distinguished — This is not Christ coming for the Church. It is His public appearing, and His saints come with Him.
- Literal — Take the words as they stand, like the rest of the discourse: a real Man, in a real coming, in power and great glory.