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.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from [the one] extremity of [the] heavens to [the other] extremity of them.
Jesus has just described His own appearing in the clouds, seen by all the tribes of the earth. Verse 31 gives the first thing He does: a trumpet sounds, angels go out, and they gather a scattered people from every direction.
The trumpet is a summons, and it answers centuries of scattering. One writer explains what it stands for:
The trumpet speaks of clear, declared testimony, and the Jews, who have been scattered for so many centuries, will be awakened to return to their land. There are already some stirrings among the Jews toward this, and many have returned to the land. But by no means all of Judah has returned, and we do not even know where the ten tribes are. But God knows, and this great trumpet call of angels will bring them out and back to the land of promise.
The word "elect" runs through this chapter. It points to people God has chosen out of Israel:
The elect of this verse will be found among the Jews. In verse 31 there are others who are to be gathered together from the four winds. These are probably not only Jews, that is, men of the tribe of Judah, but also of the whole of Israel. They are elect, which means the sovereign mercy of God has chosen them.
Commentators differ on the emphasis. Some see the ten lost tribes of Israel as the main focus:
There will be a great awakening especially among the ten "lost tribes" of Israel. They will be brought out from the places where they were scattered, coming from every direction and from the greatest distances back to the land of promise. This will be a miraculous work of divine power.
Many read this verse as the moment the church is caught up to meet Christ. Note who is sent, and where the gathered ones end up:
Some have wrongly applied verse 31 to the rapture. At the rapture the Lord will not send His angels: He will come Himself for believers (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The trumpet will sound, but that clear call at the rapture is meant only for the saints of God, dead and living. In contrast, angels with the great sound of a trumpet are sent to gather the elect of Israel from every direction back to their promised land. This will happen at the end of the tribulation. Compare Isaiah 27:13. The feast of trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25) is a picture of this.
The scene stays on earth and looks ahead to Christ's coming reign:
This gathering of the elect looks to the blessing of the coming thousand-year reign. There is no mention of any rapture to heaven, or even of resurrection, for it is the gathering together of living people on earth. In chapter 16 the Lord had revealed that He was going to build His church. But its heavenly calling and destiny had not yet been revealed, so we must not read the church into verse 31.
The angels are called His. The One rejected as a man now commands them:
But there is more. Not only will those who are written in the book of God (Daniel 12:1) be delivered in Palestine. The Son of Man will also send His angels to gather together all the elect of Israel from the four corners of the earth, from one end of heaven to the other. For now the angels have become the servants of the One who inherits all the rights of man, according to the counsels of God.
The phrase "the four winds" points back to how Israel was scattered:
The mention of the four winds in connection with Israel is no difficulty; it is quite the reverse (see Zechariah 2:6). As the Lord had scattered and spread them abroad "as the four winds of the heavens," so now His chosen ones are to be gathered in.
The gathering reaches to the ends of the earth. No hiding place is too remote:
It is not only the remnant in Jerusalem who will be affected... Wherever they are found, not one will escape His eye, but all will be brought to share in the blessings of the kingdom which He comes to establish. As we read in Isaiah, "He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah 11:12).
Some hold that all this happened when Rome destroyed Jerusalem. The word "immediately" in verse 29 undoes that reading:
On the face of it, could this be said to be "immediately after the tribulation"? Or was it not the crowning of Jewish sorrow, rather than the glorious reversal of their sufferings by a divine deliverance? ... One greater than Titus is here; and an event is announced concerning that poor people which will change the face and condition of all nations.
- Sound — The trumpet is a clear, public testimony. It is the call that ends Israel's long scattering.
- Sender — The rejected Son of Man now commands the angels as His own servants, and they gather in the people the winds once scattered.
- Sought — The "elect" are God's chosen in Israel, taken by His sovereign mercy. Commentators differ on whether Judah or the ten lost tribes are the main focus.
- Sweep — From the four winds, one end of heaven to the other: not one of them escapes His eye.
- Setting — This is a gathering to a land, not a rapture to heaven. Angels come, not the Lord Himself, and this follows His appearing, with the coming kingdom in view.