He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them. When you hear of wars and disturbances, don’t be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won’t come immediately.”
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. It will turn out as a testimony for you. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake. And not a hair of your head will perish.
“By your endurance you will win your lives.
“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves; men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near.”
He told them a parable. “See the fig tree and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see it and know by your own selves that the summer is already near. Even so you also, when you see these things happening, know that God’s Kingdom is near. Most certainly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things are accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.
“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. For it will come like a snare on all those who dwell on the surface of all the earth. Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 13, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 35, 36 Using my Name.
Using my Name.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, 35, 36 8 And he said, Take heed that ye be…
8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
Ver. 8. See Mat 24:4-5, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29, 34 See Poole on "Mat 24:4-5", See Poole on "Mar…
See Poole on "Mat 24:4-5", See Poole on "Mar 13:5-6". This happened, and was abundantly fulfilled, before the destruction of Jerusalem, and probably will receive a further fulfilling in the latter end of the world. But before the destruction of Jerusalem it was, as Josephus assures us, fulfilled in many, particularly:
1. In one Theudas, whether the same mentioned by Gamaliel, Act 5:36, or some other of that name, is uncertain.
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2. An Egyptian sorcerer, mentioned Act 21:38.
3. One Dositheus, a Samaritan.
4. Another in the time of Festus’s government.
5. Simon Magus is also reckoned for one, Act 8:9. He boasted he was the great power of God. Others also reckon one Menander, a disciple of Simon Magus.
It is certain there were many who arrogated to themselves the name of the Messiah, to countenance their heading of a faction. There have also been many since the destruction of Jerusalem, and probably will be many more before the end of the world, 2Ti 4:3; 2Pe 2:1; 1Jo 2:18.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv8, 12, 20, 29, 34 Observe here, Christ does not gratify his disciples’ curiosity,…
Observe here, Christ does not gratify his disciples’ curiosity, but acquaints them with their present duty; namely, to watch against deceivers and seducers, who should have the impudence to affirm themselves to be Christs, saying, I am Christ: some Christs personal, or the Messiah; others Christs doctrinal, affirming their erroneous opinions to be Christ’s mind and doctrine: Take heed that ye be not deceived, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ.
Observe farther, the signs which our Saviour gives of Jerusalem’s approaching destruction, namely, the many broils and commotions, the civil disorders and dissensions, that should be found among the Jews immediately before: Ye shall hear of wars and commotions, and see fearful sights, and great signs from heaven. Josephus declares, that there appeared in the air chariots and horsemen skirmishing, and that a blazing star in fashion of a sword hung over the city for a year together.
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Hence learn, that war, pestilence, and famine, are judgments and calamities inflicted by God upon a sinful people for their contempt of Christ and gospel grace. Ye shall hear of war, famine, and pestilence.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv20, 29 Having given them an idea of the times for…
Having given them an idea of the times for about thirty-eight years next ensuing, he here comes to show them what all those things would issue in at last, namely, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the utter dispersion of the Jewish nation, which would be a little day of judgment, a type and figure of Christ's second coming, which was not so fully spoken of here as in the parallel place (Mt. 24), yet glanced at; for the destruction of Jerusalem would be as it were the destruction of the world to those whose hearts were bound up in it.
I. He tells them that they should see Jerusalem besieged, compassed with armies (Luk 21:20), the Roman armies; and, when they saw this, they might conclude that its desolation was nigh, for in this the siege would infallibly end, though it might be a long siege. Note, As in mercy, so in judgment, when God begins, he will make an end.
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II. He warns them, upon this signal given, to shift for their own safety (Luk 21:21): "Then let them that are in Judea quit the country and flee to the mountains; let them that are in the midst of it" (Of Jerusalem) "depart out, before the city be closely shut up, and" (as we say now) "before the trenches be opened; and let not them that are in the countries and villages about enter into the city, thinking to be safe there. Do you abandon a city and country which you see God has abandoned and given up to ruin. Come out of her, my people."
III. He foretels the terrible havoc that should be made of the Jewish nation (Luk 21:22): Those are the days of vengeance so often spoken of by the Old Testament prophets, which would complete the ruin of that provoking people. All their predictions must now be fulfilled, and the blood of all the Old Testament martyrs must now be required. All things that are written must be fulfilled at length. After days of patience long abused, there will come days of vengeance; for reprieves are not pardons. The greatness of that destruction is set forth, 1. By the inflicting cause of it. It is wrath upon this people, the wrath of God, that will kindle this devouring consuming fire. 2. By the particular terror it would be to women with child, and poor mothers that are nurses. Woe to them, not only because they are most subject to frights, and least able to shift for their own safety, but because it will be a very great torment to them to think of having borne and nursed children for the murderers. 3. By the general confusion that should be all the nation over. There shall be great distress in the land, for men will not know what course to take, nor how to help themselves.
IV. He describes the issue of the struggles between the Jews and the Romans, and what they will come to at last; in short, 1. Multitudes of them shall fall by the edge of the sword. It is computed that in those wars of the Jews there fell by the sword above eleven hundred thousand. And the siege of Jerusalem was, in effect, a military execution. 2. The rest shall be led away captive; not into one nations, as when they were conquered by the Chaldeans, which gave them an opportunity of keeping together, but into all nations, which made it impossible for them to correspond with each other, much less to incorporate. 3. Jerusalem itself was trodden down of the Gentiles. The Romans, when they had made themselves masters of it, laid it quite waste, as a rebellious and bad city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and therefore hateful to them.
V. He describes the great frights that people should generally be in. Many frightful sights shall be in the sun, moon, and stars, prodigies in the heavens, and here in this lower world, the sea and the waves roaring, with terrible storms and tempests, such as had not been known, and above the ordinary working of natural causes. The effect of this shall be universal confusion and consternation upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, Luk 21:25. Dr. Hammond understands by the nations the several governments or tetrarchies of the Jewish nation, Judea, Samaria, and Galilee; these shall be brought to the last extremity. Men's hearts shall fail them for fear (Luk 21:26), apopsuchontōn anthrōpōn - men being quite exanimated, dispirited, unsouled, dying away for fear. Thus those are killed all the day long by whom Christ's apostles were so (Rom 8:36), that is, they are all the day long in fear of being killed; sinking under that which lies upon them, and yet still trembling for fear of worse, and looking after those things which are coming upon the world. When judgment begins at the house of God, it will not end there; it shall be as if all the world were falling in pieces; and where can any be secure then? The powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then the pillars of the earth cannot but tremble. Thus shall the present Jewish policy, religion, laws, and government, be all entirely dissolved by a series of unparalleled calamities, attended with the utmost confusion. So Dr. Clarke. But our Saviour makes use of these figurative expressions because at the end of time they shall be literally accomplished, when the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their powers not only shaken, but broken, and the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up, Pe2 3:10, Pe2 3:12. As that day was all terror and destruction to the unbelieving Jews, so the great day will be to all unbelievers.
VI. He makes this to be a kind of appearing of the Son of man: Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory, Luk 21:27. The destruction of Jerusalem was in a particular manner an act of Christ's judgment, the judgment committed to the Son of man; his religion could never be thoroughly established but by the destruction of the temple, and the abolishing of the Levitical priesthood and economy, after which even the converted Jews, and many of the Gentiles too, were still hankering, till they were destroyed; so that it might justly be looked upon as a coming of the Son of man, in power and great glory, yet not visibly, but in the clouds; for in executing such judgments as these clouds and darkness are round about him. Now this was, 1. An evidence of the first coming of the Messiah; so some understand it. Then the unbelieving Jews shall be confined, when it is too late, that Jesus was the Messiah; those that would not see him coming in the power of his grace to save them shall be made to see him coming in the power of his wrath to destroy them; those that would not have him to reign over them shall have him to triumph over them. 2. It was an earnest of his second coming. Then in the terrors of that day they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, and all the terrors of the last day. They shall see a specimen of it, a faint resemblance of it. If this be so terrible, what will that be?
VII. He encourages all the faithful disciples in reference to the terrors of that day (Luk 21:28): "When these things begin to come to pass, when Jerusalem is besieged, and every thing is concurring to the destruction of the Jews, then do you look up, when others are looking down, look heavenward, in faith, hope, and prayer, and lift up your heads with cheerfulness and confidence, for your redemption draws night." 1. When Christ came to destroy the Jews, he came to redeem the Christians that were persecuted and oppressed by them; then had the churches rest. 2. When he comes to judge the world at the last day, he will redeem all that are his, from all their grievances. And the foresight of that day is as pleasant to all good Christians as it is terrible to the wicked and ungodly. Their death itself is so; when they see that day approaching, they can lift up their heads with joy, knowing that their redemption draws nigh, their removal to their Redeemer.
VIII. Here is one word of prediction that looks further than the destruction of the Jewish nation, which is not easily understood; we have it in Luk 21:24 : Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 1. Some understand it of what is past; so Dr. Hammond. The Gentiles, who have conquered Jerusalem, shall keep possession of it, and it shall be purely Gentile, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, till a great part of the Gentile world shall have become Christian, and then after Jerusalem shall have been rebuilt by Adrian the emperor, with an exclusion of all the Jews from it, many of the Jews shall turn Christians, shall join with the Gentile Christians, to set up a church in Jerusalem, which shall flourish there for a long time. 2. Others understand it of what is yet to come; so Dr. Whitby. Jerusalem shall be possessed by the Gentiles, of one sort or other, for the most part, till the time come when the nations that yet remain infidels shall embrace the Christian faith, when the kingdoms of this world shall become Christ's kingdoms, and then all the Jews shall be converted. Jerusalem shall be inhabited by them, and neither they nor their city any longer trodden down by the Gentiles.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv8–31 And he said, take heed that ye be not…
And he said, take heed that ye be not deceived,.... With false Christs, and false prophets:
for many shall come in my name; making use of his name, taking it to them; not that they would pretend they were sent by him, but that they were he himself:
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saying, I am Christ; so the Syriac and Persic versions supply as we do:
and the time draweth near; not that such will come, but when come, they will say, that the time of the deliverance of the Jewish nation from the Roman yoke is at hand:
go ye not therefore after them; do not be their disciples, or follow them where they would lead you; for nothing but destruction will be the consequence of it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36 I am the Christ; and the time is near…
I am the Christ; and the time is near - When I will deliver you from all your enemies. They are the words of the seducers.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36 Verse 8. Many shall come in my name] Usurping…
Verse 8. Many shall come in my name] Usurping my name: calling themselves the Messiah. See Mt 24:5. Concerning this prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, and its literal accomplishment, see the notes on Mt 24:1-42.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 20, 24, 25, 27, 29, 34 Luk 21:11. Fearful sights and great signs shall there…
Luk 21:11. Fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven — Of these, Josephus has given us a particular account, Bell., Luk 7:12. “There was a comet in the form of a fiery sword, which for a year together did hang over the city. Before the first revolt and war, the people being gathered together to the feast of unleavened bread, on the 8th of April, at the 9th hour of the night, there was as much light about the altar and temple as if it had been bright day. This remained half an hour. At the same festival, the inner gate of the temple on the east side, being of massy brass, which required at least twenty men to shut it, was seen at midnight to open of its own accord. Not long after the feast-days, on the 21st of May, before the sun set, were seen in the air chariots and armies in battle array, passing along in the clouds and investing the city. And upon the feast of pentecost, at night, the priests, going into the inner temple to attend their wonted service, said, they first felt the place to move and tremble: after that they heard a voice which said, Let us depart hence. But that which was most wonderful of all, one Jesus, the son of Ananus, of the common people, four years before the war began, when the city flourished in peace and riches, coming to the celebration of the feast of tabernacles at Jerusalem, suddenly began to cry out thus: A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against men and women newly married, a voice against all this people. And thus crying, day and night, he went about all the streets of the city.” Josephus adds, “that he was scourged by some of the nobility, but, without speaking a word for himself, he persevered crying as before; that he was carried before Albinus, the Roman general, who caused him to be beaten till his bones appeared. But that he neither entreated nor wept, but, as well as he could, framing a weeping voice, he cried at every stroke, Wo, wo to Jerusalem:” that he went on thus crying, chiefly upon holydays, for the space of seven years and five months, till in the time of the siege, beholding what he had foretold, he ceased. And that then, once again going about the city, on the wall, “he cried with a loud voice, Wo, wo to the city, temple, and people; and lastly he said, Wo also to myself. Which words were no sooner uttered, than a stone thrown out of an engine smote him, and so he yielded up the ghost, lamenting them all.” See note on Isa 66:6.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv8, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 26, 27 In my name. They shall not say that they…
In my name. They shall not say that they belong to me, or that I sent them: but they shall take to themselves my name, viz. Christ, or Messias, which title is incommunicable to any but myself. In effect, in less than two centuries, there appeared many false Christs and impostors, who pretended to be the one that was to come, the desired of nations. (Calmet) --- Perhaps this prophecy is yet to be more expressly fulfilled before the dissolution of the world. Many pious and learned Christians suppose this passage to refer to the time of Antichrist. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v25 Second Part (Luk_21:25-36)
Second Part (Luk_21:25-36)
(Parallel to Mat_24:29-41; Mar_13:24-37.)
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25And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars [in sun and moon and stars]; and upon the earth distress [anxiety] of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring [nations in perplexity concerning a roaring of sea and waves7]; 26Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven [the heavens] shall be shaken. 27And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory28[great power and glory]. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. 29And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; 30When they now shoot forth [have put forth], ye see and know [seeing it ye know] of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. 31So likewise ye, when ye see these things come [coming] to pass, knowye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. 32Verily I say unto you, This generationshall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. 33Heaven and earth shall pass away; but mywords shall not pass away. 34And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [or, revelling], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. 35For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36Watch ye therefore,8 and pray always [ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ], that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass [are coming], and to stand before the Son of man.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_21:25. And there shall be signs.—The Saviour does not now turn back again to the point of time of the destruction of Jerusalem, but He states what shall take place after the καιροὶ ἐθνῶν shall have been fulfilled. The consecutiveness of this delineation is plainly enough indicated by the καί of Luke, and it is purely arbitrary to assert (De Wette) that the Evangelist avoids the εὐθέως of Matthew because he wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem. The variation is simply connected with the freer form of the redaction of this discourse of our Lord in Luke, to which it is at the same time to be ascribed that he, since he writes for the Gentile Christians, does not speak of the flight on the Sabbath, of the shortening of these days, and of the false Jewish prophets, while he also does not so particularly specialize further σημεῖα, as is done by Matthew and Mark. As respects, moreover, the signs themselves, there is as little reason (Starke) to understand by the sun Antichrist, by the moon and the stars antichristian teachers, as (Besser and others) without any proof to understand the stars metaphorically of mighty princes, and the roaring sea of the tumult of nations. Other views we find given by Lange on the parallel in Matthew. Why do we not rather simply believe our Lord at His word, that His παρουσία will be accompanied with cosmic revolutions, whose actual course can be as little calculated as their possibility can be denied a priori? It was known even from the Old Testament that fearful signs in the realm of nature would herald the day of the Lord, see, e. g., Jer_4:23; Joe_2:30, &c. Commonly such delineations are ascribed to the poetry of prophecy, and certainly it would betray little taste and little intimacy with the style of the Holy Scriptures if one upon such dicta would build a definite theory as to the future destiny of the heavenly bodies. But, on the other hand, we learn even by the extension which natural science has gained in our days to recognize the limitation of human science even, in this sphere, and the genuine cosmologian and theologian will be modest enough not here too rashly to take the word “impossible” upon his lips. We are wanting in any fixed hermeneutic rule to determine proprio marte what is here to be understood literally and what tropically; only the event will determine where in this case lie the boundaries between imagination and reality.
On the earth anxiety of nations.—This allusion to the profound anxiety which shall fill the human world, is peculiar to Luke. The same thought is further developed, Rev_6:12-15, and has in itself psychological probability, without here supposing believers to be entirely excluded. As in the animal world important alterations in the atmosphere are instinctively perceived, as often an inexplicable presentiment of a terrible calamity, whose breaking in is feared, makes even the most courageous pale with terror; so does our Lord give us to expect that an obscure presentiment of great events shortly before His Parusia will weigh like heavy Alps on many a heart. Luke speaks of ἀπορία ή̓χους (see notes on the text) as an indication of that to which the anxiety and perplexity of the nations has relation. The roaring of the sea and waves, that is, reminds even those who do not live in expectation of the coming of the Son of Man, of terrible things, nevertheless, which are about to come upon the earth, while their evil conscience testifies to them that they have the worst to expect therefrom. The allegorical expositors of Scripture here only understand again the sea of nations, apparently because they find it a little apocryphal that the ocean, at the approach of the mortal hour of this visible creation, should roar somewhat more heavily than wont. We, for our part, find the physical signs in the sea not more improbable than those in the moon and the stars
Luk_21:26. Men’s hearts failing them for fear, ἀποψύχειν, that is, not only grow rigid (De Wette) or fall into swooning, but, as Hesychius interprets = ἀποπνευματίζεσθαι. What even now not unfrequently happens by a very high degree of heat, anxiety, or sorrow, that the tension of the moment has the loss of life as a consequence, will then especially no longer be classed among the rare casualties; no wonder, since even the powers of heaven shall be shaken, “perhaps the sustaining and working forces of the heavenly system, with their influences for the earth, so that the Lord finally comprehending all together, means to say, ‘Everything together shall give way and finally fall to pieces, 2Pe_3:10-12. ” Stier. According to De Wette, this phrase from Matthew, forsooth, limps behind, but an exegesis which does not feel that just by this terrible word the sufficient explanation of the just-portrayed anxiety is given, appears itself not to stand upon a wholly good footing.
Luk_21:27. And then.—Here also, as in Matthew and Mark, the personal coming of the Messiah at the very time when the whole visible creation threatens to sink into a chaos. According to Matthew, there is finally seen first the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, afterwards Himself. According to Mark and Luke, on the other hand, the appearance of the Messiah upon the clouds—Mark in the plural, Luke in the singular—is immediately beheld, while these two are silent as to the σημεῖον. For the principal views as to the latter, see Lange on Mat_24:30. It may be very well supposed that the cloud of light itself which bears Him and the glory which surrounds Him might be this σημεῖον. Compare the assurance of the angels at the Ascension, which Luke alone has preserved to us, Act_1:11, that the Lord shall come again even so (οὑ̔τως) as (ὅν τρόπον, i. e., ἐν νεφέλη, Luk_21:9) they had seen Him go towards heaven. The mention of the appearance and activity of the angels at the last day, we find only in Matthew and Mark ad loc. [and in almost all the passages in the first three Gospels in which our Lord refers to the day of judgment.—C. C. S.] On the other hand, Luke lays emphasis on the practical side of the matter, the expectation and joy with which the disciples of our Lord, who are conceived as then still living upon the earth, shall behold the approach of these things. This again is genuinely Pauline, comp. Rom_8:19-23.
Luk_21:28. And when these things begin to come to pass.—There is not the least reason for understanding by τούτων exclusively what is last named, the coming of the Son of Man in His δόξα. This manifestation is in a certain sense the work of a moment, and when this shall have come to pass, then is the redemption of His own not only near (ἐγίζει), but really present. Rather are we to understand thereby all previous tokens, which are named Luk_21:25-26, and which must necessarily endure for some time (therefore also ἀρχομένων). These same events which the world shall gaze on with helpless terror, must be for believers an awakening voice to joyful hope and expectation, since these very ὠδῖνες prove that the birth-hour of their salvation comes with every moment nearer and nearer. The heads which hitherto had often been bowed under all manner of misery and persecution, must then be lifted up, comp. Rom_8:19; Jam_5:8.
Luk_21:29. And He spake to them a parable.—Here also, as in Luk_21:10, Luke appears as narrator, while with Matthew and Mark the tone of discourse continues undisturbed. The latter is internally more probable. The former is a new proof of the greater freedom of Luke’s redaction. Moreover, the mention of all the trees, with and beside the fig-tree, is peculiar to him. Perhaps our Lord speaks here especially of a fig-tree, because this had served Him so frequently as a type of the Israelitish people, Mar_11:12-14; Luk_13:6-9. But that He here also speaks of that symbolical fig-tree, in other words, that He designates the reviving Israel as a prophet of His near approach (Stier), appears to us quite as unproved as that the Lord means to allude to the amarum and venenatum quiddam in the sap of the fig-leaves, and adduces the incrementa malignitatis, as presages of His coming (Ebrard). In both cases the mention at least of all the trees would be quite incongruous, and we therefore consider it as better to assume that He spoke so especially of the fig-tree because He wished to designate it as a special kind of tree, in distinction from the others.
Luk_21:30. When they now put forth.—Designedly Luke expresses himself here somewhat less definitely than Matthew and Mark, because he does not intend to bring into prominence the specific peculiarity of the fig-tree, whose leaves develop themselves at the same time with the setting of the fruit, but only has in mind that which is common to all trees. With the various kinds of trees the putting forth of leaves is the token of approaching summer; whoever sees the one knows then of himself that the other is at hand.—Ἀφ̓ ἑαντῶν, “etiamsi nemo vos doceat.” Bengel.—The kingdom of God.—Here, of course, agreeably to the whole text, definitely apprehended as regnum gloriœ.
Luk_21:32. This generation shall not pass away.—For a statement of the different views with reference to the signification of ἡ γενεὰ αύ̓τη, see Lange, ad loc. The explanation that our Lord had in mind the generation then living is certainly the least artificial, while every other gives immediate occasion to the conjecture that it has arisen from the perplexity as to how to bring the prophecy into agreement with the fulfilment. It may be asked, however, whether the words έ̓ως ά̓ν πάντα γένηται cannot be understood in such a sense that they make the explanation of γενεά as designation of that generation at all events possible. By πάντα we have no longer to understand the destruction of Jerusalem in itself, which now already lies behind our Lord’s view, nor yet His παρουσία itself, for in the following verse there is again mention of a passing away of heaven and earth, but we have to understand the presages of His coming which He had just indicated symbolically, as, for instance, in the image of the putting forth of the leaves of the trees. These presages now occupy necessarily a certain period of time (ἀρχομένων, Luk_21:28, and γίνεσθαι, used of things of this sort, is an elastic idea, by which not only that which is momentary, but also that which is successive, is expressed). So must, therefore, the explanation be permitted, “until all things shall have begun to come to pass,” all things, that is, which are to serve as the previous signs of His coming; and this was really the case during the life of the contemporaries of our Lord, who in the destruction of Jerusalem saw the type of the approaching end of the world. He will therefore say: This generation shall not pass away without the beginning of the end of the world here foretold you having come to pass in the actual destruction of Jerusalem. Our Lord by no means says that everything which was to take place before the τέλος will be omnibus numeris absolutum atque ad finem perductum before a generation of men will have passed. The question cannot be merely what γίνεσθαι signifies in itself, but what it is to signify in this connection. An explanation of this verse, it is true, in which no difficulty at all remains, and every appearance of arbitrariness is avoided, we, alas, even at this day, are not acquainted with.
Luk_21:33. Heaven and earth shall pass away.—After the discourse has risen to this height, there would ensue a dreary anti-climax, if we would recognize in these words only a figurative designation of the destruction of the Jewish state. Our Lord points evidently to the destruction of the earthly economy, which shall be followed by the appearance of a new heaven and a new earth, 2Pe_3:8-14, and gives assurance therewith that even then, when an entirely new order of things shall have come in, His words, in particular the promises of His coming, then first fully understood and fulfilled, would not cease to remain words of life for all His own. “They will approve themselves as eternal in an eternal church, and that one of eschatological character.” Lange.
Luk_21:34. And take heed to yourselves.—The eschatological discourse in Matthew and Mark is concluded with a description of the unexpected coming of the Parusia, and a parabolic allusion to watchfulness, which we have already met with in Luke in a somewhat different form, chs. 12 and 17 Instead of this he has another conclusion, which, indeed, entitles us to inquire whether the Evangelist, in a freer form, has condensed the main substance of the admonitions given Mat_24:43-51, or whether our Lord on this occasion used these very words. However this may be, his rendering has so much the more value, as it in some measure takes the place of the missing parable of the Ten Virgins, which, according to Matthew, was delivered this same evening by our Lord, but has been passed over by Luke. With deep wisdom our Lord ends His eschatological discourse by leading His disciples back into their own hearts, since their view had involuntarily lost itself in the far future, and in thinking upon the universal historical character of the events here foretold, they might very easily lose out of mind in how strict a connection this Parusia stood with their personal salvation. With a faithful and earnest προσέχετε, He begins to use the expectation of His coming for their sanctification, as He had just before, Luk_21:28, applied it to their consolation. He warns them that their hearts be not burdened as by a spirit of deep sleep. This might come to pass through three things: κραιπάλῃ, heaviness and dizziness, such as drunkenness of yesterday gives, μέθῃ, drunkenness, which makes them for to-day unfit to reflect maturely upon their highest interests, and μερίμναις βιωτικαῖς, which would plague them for to-morrow, and impel them too strongly to labor for the meat that perisheth. The one, as well as the other, would be able to rob them of the clearness and sobriety of mind with which they should await the coming of their Lord. Not only should that which is entirely unlawful be avoided, but also that which is relatively lawful used with wisdom, in the consciousness that they in no case could reckon upon it for a long time; for the great day was to be, even for them, the servants of the Lord, an unexpected one, αῖφνίδιος ἐπιστῇ, comp. 1Th_5:3, while it would come upon other inhabitants of the earth, especially those who were living on in careless quiet, without fellowship with Christ, as a snare. The tertium comparationis lies as well in the unexpectedness as in the ruinousness of such snares as are commonly used for ravening beasts. Ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς καθημένους, here emphatic for a designation of quiet and comfortable sitting, comp. Amo_6:1-6, in which they, therefore, are taken at once, as soon as only the snare is thrown out upon them. See also Jer_25:29; Rev_18:7-8.
Luk_21:36. Watch ye … always.—Comp. Mar_13:37 : ἐν παντὶ καιρθ͂ may be referred quite as well to ἀγρυπνεῖτε as to δεόμενοι. The former is probable, on account of the antithesis, and the uncertainty of the Parusia in Luk_21:35, which requires an unremitting watch. Watching and praying are here also, as in Mat_26:41; 1Pe_4:7-8, joined together. Δεόμενοι,ἵνα,κ.τ.λ. indicates the frame of mind in which they must be found watching and waiting; καταξιωθῆτε, comp. Luk_20:35; 2Th_1:5, not “become worthy,” sensu morali, but to be accounted worthy, sensu forensi, digni habiti atque declarati, sc. a Deo. The word appears in the same sense Act_5:41.
To escape all these things, πάντα ταῦτα, here, as in Luk_21:32, especially of the premonitions of the Parusia considered exclusively on their terrifying side; for to escape the Parusia itself (which is first alluded to in the immediately following expression) is indeed for friend and foe impossible. He escapes τὰ μέλλοντα, who is not carried away by persecutions, brought to apostasy by misleaders, or robbed of courage by trial. (The genuineness of ταῦτα is doubtful; it is rejected by Tischendorf and accepted by De Wette; it has little influence on the sense, since, at all events, our Lord means no other future things than these of which He had just spoken.) On the other hand, they must desire above all things to appear before the Son of Man, σταθῆναι έ̓μπροσθεν, κ.τ.λ. It may, indeed, signify, “to pass the trial,” as in Rom_14:4, but at the end of this discourse it is very probable that our Lord will designate therewith something higher: the fearless appearance, the composed standing before His throne, in order to view Him, to serve Him, and to glorify Him. “The ἐπισυναγωγή of believers is meant, and this, as it appears, of the living, because as a condition the escaping of all the tribulations is named, 1Th_4:17; 2Th_2:1; Mat_24:31.” De Wette. This σταθῆναι is, therefore, not only the beginning, but also the substance, of the highest happiness, the opposite of which is portrayed, Psa_1:5; Nah_1:6; Rev_6:16-17.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is of high significance that our Lord ends His prophetical office, immediately before His last suffering, with such an eschatological discourse. The course which our Saviour’s teaching has taken during His public life, shows the type of the natural course of development of Christian dogmatics. As He had appeared with the preaching of faith and conversion, so ought at all times the practical questions to come first. But as He did not leave the earth without having also disclosed the secrets of the future, so a Dogmatics which, in reference to the έ̓σχατα, takes an indifferent or sceptical position, is in itself imperfect, and like a mutilated torso. It lies in the nature of the case that Christian eschatology, the more the course of time advances, must become less and less an unimportant appendix, and more and more a locus primaries of Christian doctrine.
2. Whoever asserts that the expectation of a personal, visible, glorious return, which shall put a decisive end to the present condition of things, belongs only to Jewish dreamings, which one from a Christian spiritualistic position may look down upon with a certain lofty disparagement, is here contradicted by our Lord in the most decided manner.
3. What our Lord here announces in reference to the termination of the history of the world is only drawn in strong and broad lines. It is no picture that already contains all the traits of the image of the future complete, but a sketch with which the more detailed painting is outlined, which afterwards could be elaborated by the hand of the apostles. He who believes in the unity of the Spirit in our Lord and His first witnesses, cannot be hindered from seeking in the Apostolic Epistles, or in the Revelation, for the answer to many questions which this eschatological discourse leaves yet remaining for us. Not easily will any one be able to show in this last a conception for which the fundamental thought is not more or less contained in this eschatological discourse, and which, therefore, might not be named, with entire justice, a further explanation and completion of the same. So is the Pauline doctrine of the restoration of Israel only the development of the germ which we find here, Luk_21:24; so is the Apocalyptical image of the convulsions of the realm of nature which shall accompany the coming of the Lord, only the development of the eschatological foundation thoughts already given here. The eschatology of the apostles is related to that of our Lord as the nobly unfolding plant to the bud swelling with sap; not as the subsequently clouded sun to its earlier brilliancy.
4. “The soul works on the body, and there is no member or part of the body that does not feel with the soul. So shall the Lord that shall come work upon all creatures, and they shall not be able to withdraw themselves from His working. Even before His visible appearance will the creatures become aware that the time of His coming is at hand. The lifeless creation, that bends itself without opposition to His almighty will, and men, who can oppose themselves with their impotent will to His almighty will,—both shall be seized with the terrors that hasten on before His appearance. The heaven and the sea, and on earth men, shall have forebodings of that which is to come. There rests upon the prophesyings of our Lord concerning the end,—threatening as they are, terrible as they sound,—nevertheless an obscurity by which their terrible impression is augmented. They wait for their literal and most striking interpretation, for their fulfilment. Before this comes, God’s hand itself has veiled them in a twilight which yields to no human endeavor; but when the fulfilment comes, man shall not only clearly know how fully it fits the prophecy, but also how the prophecy fits the fulfilment,—how they shall, as it were, exactly cover one another.” Löhe.
5. Although, our Lord in this eschatological discourse does not speak expressly of His Divine nature and dignity, it contains so powerful and incomparable a self-testimony of Christ, that it is utterly impossible not to ascribe to Him who so speaks a superhuman character. Nothing is to be compared with the quiet majesty of that word: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” Scoffers think exactly the opposite—namely, that heaven and earth shall remain; the words of our Lord, on the other hand, be forgotten and exposed as lies, 2Pe_3:3 seq.—Yet our Lord, who apparently delays the promise, will not rest until it is all fulfilled. Patiens quia œternus.
6. The eschatological discourse is also remarkable on this account, that it shows that a connection according to the intent of our Lord exists and must exist between πίστις and γνῶσις. The example of the apostles and the teaching of the Master show anew: there cannot possibly be any talk of γνῶσις so long as no πίστισ precedes it. Non intelligere ut credas, sed credere ut intelligas. Where faith however is living, it feels to a certain extent the necessity of also knowing the secrets of the future. Our Lord satisfies this need, so far as the receptivity of His people permits Him, and while the σημεῖα of His coming are only images of terror and riddles to the unbelieving, believers are at the same time the γνωστικοί, who know what these things denote, and whither they tend. Their faith has, therefore, become a knowing; but, on the other hand also, this knowing, which is still very limited and only in part, leads again to faith, and must end in ever firmer faith, hope, and waiting. Per fidem ad intellectum, per intellectum ad firmiorem fidem.
7. The eschatological discourse of our Lord may be considered as a type of a fitting and edifying treatment of future things for all preachers. Let us consider well how closely this doctrine of His coheres also with the prophetic words of Scripture; how the chief strokes of the picture are placed in a clear light, while points of a subordinate importance remain veiled in an unprejudicial obscurity; how He, above all, delivers this teaching not for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity, but uses it directly for the admonition, for the consolation, and for the sanctification of His own. It admits of no doubt that had the impending end of the history of the world been always written of and spoken of in this way, much less offence would have been taken, and also much less offence would have been given.
8. It is not impossible that our Lord on this occasion uttered the so-called unwritten expression of which Justin Martyr, in Tryph. Luke 47, makes mention with the simple words: διὸ καὶ ὁ ἡμέτερος Κύριος Ἰ. Χρ. εῖ̓πεν and which has all the internal traces of genuineness: “In that in which I shall find you, therein will I judge you.”
9. Compare on this Pericope the Dies irœ.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The visible creation must perish before the heaven and the new earth appear.—The joy of the world perishes often before the end of the world.—If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?—The day of Christ at once a day of terror and of glory.—The different temper in which men go towards and look towards this day: 1. While unbelief yet mocks, faith mourns; 2. while unbelief fears, faith hopes; 3. while unbelief despairs, faith triumphs.—The ordinary laws of nature are abolished when the kingdom of Christ celebrates its highest triumphs.—The coming of the Son of Man: 1. Seen by all eyes; 2. surrounded by heavenly glory; 3. greeted by the redeemed with joy.—Even nature prophesies of the approaching summer of the kingdom of God.—How much the Christian, by attentive observation of the kingdom of nature and of grace, can know of himself.—The knowledge of the hour which has struck in God’s kingdom: 1. Its grounds; 2. its degree; 3. its limits.—The contemporaries of our Lord, even in their lifetime, witnesses: 1. Of the most glorious event; 2. of the most terrible event, that ever the earth has see.—What is perishable and what remains.—Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away: 1. The sublimity; 2. the truth; 3. the comfort; 4. the serious depth, of this utterance.—What the word of our Lord shall continue for His people, even after the end of the world.—What is the greatest danger to which the disciple of the Lord is exposed at the approach of the day of His coming?—He that is full of wine cannot be full of the Holy Spirit, Eph_5:18.—The day of the Lord comes unawares;—woe to the man whom it finds wholly unprepared !—How the best preparation for the coming of the Lord consists: 1. In watchfulness; 2. in activity; 3. in thoughtfulness.—They who sit down in selfishness and carelessness, will be not less surprised by the end than they that pass the night at their wine.—Watching and praying must we await the Lord’s coming.—Nothing higher can the praying Christian desire than: 1. To escape the destruction that lights upon others; and 2. to stand with all His people before the Son of Man.
Starke:—They that have not feared God in their life, shall melt away for terror in the end.—Many weighty things have already come to pass on earth, but the weightiest is yet to be looked for.—Quesnel:—Whoever has despised Jesus in His humility, will see Him against his will in His majesty.—There comes at last a time when we shall be redeemed from all that is a burden to us, 2Ti_4:18.—The earthly-minded regard the spring as the most convenient time for their lust and desire, but true Christians as a type of the glory and resurrection of the children of God.—The summer a beautiful image of eternal blessedness.—God does not let the race of the ungodly perish till all is come to pass, which serves as the proof of His righteousness, and for their punishment.—True Christians who seek that which is above in heaven are as the birds of the heaven who, because they are not on earth, have nothing to fear from the nets of the fowler.—Brentius:—Because man does not know his time, he must learn wisely to accommodate himself to the time.—It is God alone that can make us worthy and ready for the enjoyment of His everlasting glory.—Watching and praying men ever keep together.
On the Pericope:—Fuchs:—Concerning the return of Christ and the hour of death: 1. For the ungodly, terrible; 2. for believers, joyful.—Lift up your heads: 1. In good days, and thank the Lord; 2. in evil days, and trust the Lord; 3. in the last days, and be joyful in hope.—Herberger:—Concerning the last Advent of Jesus and the flower-buds of the last day.—Otho:—The last judgment.—Fresenius:—The redemption of Jesus Christ in its different aspects: 1. The procuring of salvation; 2. the preparation of salvation; 3. the complete revelation of salvation.—Ahlfeld:—Behold the King cometh to thee in might and glory.—Couard:—Christian-mindedness in evil times.—Souchon:—The comfort and admonition of Christ’s prophecy of His coming.—Stier:—The day of the Lord’s return: 1. How; and 2. whereto it is placed before our eyes.—Ranke:—How we have to receive our Lord’s prophecy of His coming again: 1. With deep reverence; 2. with great joy; 3. with holy seriousness.—Rautenberg:—The course of the gospel among the terrors of the time.—Gaupp:—The coming again of our Lord a strong incitement to a godly life, for: 1. It awakens the spirit to a living hope; 2. it inspires in all believing hearts sweet comfort even in the dreariest condition of the kingdom of God; 3. it admonishes most deeply to become worthy, by prayer and watchfulness, to stand before the Son of Man.—Cl. Harms:—The setting forth of the coming of our Lord is seasonably done even in the Advent season: 1. It awakens sleepers; 2. shakes the presumptuous; 3. helps the wavering to a decision; 4. strengthens the weak in faith.—Kraussold:—The coming of our Lord at the end of days: 1. A coming to judgment, and moreover; 2. a terrible and glorious; 3. an undoubtedly certain, coming, and therefore; 4. a coming for which we should perseveringly wait in joyful faith.—Staudt:—How believers demean themselves at the coming of Christ: 1. As attentive observers of the tokens of this coming; 2. as joyful spectators of these mutations in the world; 3. as those delivered out of all judgments.—Dr. A. Bomhard:—The established heart of the believing Christian.—B. Steger:—Of the joyful and blessed freedom of the perfectly righteous.
Footnotes:
[7]Luk_21:25.—According to the reading of Tischendorf, [Lachmann, Meyer, Tregelles, Alford,] ἐν ἀπορία ἤχους [instead of ἠχούσης, Recepta], which is sufficiently supported by A., B., [Cod. Sin.,] C., L., M., [R.,] X., Cursives, [Vulgate, Syriac,] &c.
[8]Luk_21:36.—With Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Tregelles, Alford,] we read δέ instead of the οῦ̓ν of the Recepta, according to B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] Itala.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 18, 20, 23, 24, 25, 28, 32, 34, 36 the time--of the Kingdom, in its full glory.
the time--of the Kingdom, in its full glory.
go . . . not . . . after them--"I come not so very soon" (Th2 2:1-2) [STIER].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 13, 15, 18, 20, 24, 25, 26, 28, 32 8. The time draweth near—It must not be understood…
8. The time draweth near—It must not be understood that our Lord here prophesies that the false Christs would assume to be Messiah returned to judgment. They could only claim that the Messiah’s kingdom was alone to be set up on earth; and the time of that event was, indeed, drawing near.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 8-27. Signs of the End.
8-27. Signs of the End.
8. Take heed that ye be not deceived] A danger incurred even by the elect. Mat_24:24. The moral key-notes of this great Discourse of the Last. Things (Eschatology) are Beware! Watch ! Endurel Pray!
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for many shall come in my name] “Even now are there many antichrists,” 1Jn_2:18. the time draweth near] Rather, the crisis has approached.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36 (8) Saying, I am Christ.—Literally, I am. The italics…
(8) Saying, I am Christ.—Literally, I am. The italics show that the word “Christ” is an interpolation. The sentence is better left in the vagueness of the original, or with only a pronoun as the predicate, I am He. The use of the words in Joh_1:21; Joh_8:58, may be referred to as showing that they had become significant even without a predicate.
The time draweth near.—Better, the season has come near.
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Go ye not therefore . . .—The better MSS. omit the last words.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 36 Vers. 8-19. The apparent signs which (could show themselves,…
Vers. 8-19. The apparent signs which (could show themselves, but which must not be mistaken for the true signs immediately preceding the catastrophe.
Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ. Many of these pretenders appeared in the lifetime of the apostles. Josephus mentions several of these impostors ("Ant.," 20:8 "Bell. Jud:," 2:13. Theudas, one of these pretenders, is referred to in Act_21:38 (see, too, Josephus, "Ant.," 20:5. Simon Magus announced that he was Messiah. His riyal Dositheus, his disciple Menander, advanced similar pretences. Mr. Greswell (quoted by Dean Manse, "Speaker"s Commentary," on Mat_24:5) has called attention to the remarkable fact that, while many of these false Messiahs appeared in the interval between the Lord"s ascension and the Jewish war, there is no evidence that any one arose claiming this title before the beginning of his ministry. It was necessary, he infers, that the true Christ should first appear and be rejected by the great body of the nation, before they were judicially given over to the delusions of the false Christs.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv29, 34, 36 Behold the fig-tree and all the trees
Luk_21:29-33
Behold the fig-tree and all the trees
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The parable of the fig-tree
I.
TEACHING OF THE PARABLE.
1. Shows course and sequence of events as certain and necessary as the processes of nature. All is in progress. Be sure of the issue. Be alive to the tokens of its approach.
2. The incongruity of the comparison is its instruction. Its purpose to fix attention not on an end, but on a beginning; not on what going, but on what coming; not on tokens of dissolution, but on hidden life stirring beneath, after last storm to break out into the kingdom of God.
II. USE OF ITS TEACHING.
1. See that it belongs to you.
2. Live under the sense of what is coming. You need it--
(1) To prevent this present world from absorbing you.
(2) To prevent it from depressing you. (Canon T. D. Bernard.)
The big clock
Do you know that God has a big clock, bigger than any one you have ever seen, bigger indeed than Big Ben at Westminster. But this big clock does not make any noise, you can never hear it ticking; and it does not strike, but yet it goes on, year after year, year after year, marking the time. What do you think is the face of this clock? It is the earth; the fields and meadows and hedgerows in every part of the world--that is the face of this clock. And what do you think are the figures upon this dial? They are flowers and birds and leaves. Gods big clock does not tick, but it lives; it does not strike the hours, only some flowers open out or die away when the hour has come. Isnt that what Jesus meant when He said, Look at the fig-tree and all the trees; they are beginning now to put out buds. Very well; you know by that that this is spring-time, and by that you know that summer is coming near. The buds tell what oclock it is by the time of year. When you were learning to tell the time on the face of the clock on the mantel-shelf, how did you begin? Was it not by first learning the quarters? When the long hand was half-way down on the right, you knew it was a quarter past; when it was half-way up on the left, you knew it was a quarter-to; and when it was down between these, you knew it was half-past; and when it was up between them you knew the clock was going to strike the hour. Well, just as there are four quarters in our clocks so there are four quarters in this big clock we are speaking about. The first quarter is springtime, half-past is summer, quarter-to is autumn, and when winter comes the year is ended. When you look at the trees and flowers you can pretty well tell what oclock it is by the year. But standing between the quarters of the clock there are other figures. How many of these are there altogether? Twelve, are there not? And how many months are there in a year? You know--twelve. So, you see, this clock has got all the figures, and, what is stranger still, it marks all the figures by flowers and fruits; for there are different flowers that come out every month of the year. If a smart boy were to keep his eyes about him, and understood things as he walked in the country, when he found certain trees beginning to bud and certain flowers beginning to peep up, he would say, This must be the month of January; for these always come out in January. Later on, if he saw some others, he would say, This must be February; for these always come out in February. And so through all the year, if he was clever, he would find the flowers and trees telling him what month it was. But there is something stranger still about this clock of Gods; and you must remember it, so that from time to time during the year you may learn to use your eyes and notice what God is doing in the fields. It is this: Gods clock tells the hours of the day as well as the months of the year. The months are the twelve figures; but you know that between the twelve figures there are the little minutes, and these minutes are made up of moments. Now the minutes in Gods big clock are days, and the moments are hours, and the clock tells them all. What then can be the meaning of this big clock? Surely it is to tell us that time is passing. Does it not plainly say that if we do not grow right in the springtime of our life, we shall not be able, when the summer comes, to go back to the springtime and mend what has been wrong? You would not like to grow up wicked, would you? Then learn to grow as the flowers grow. How is that? By always looking at the sun, and taking its light, and following it, for the flowers follow the sun with their heads, and so they become beautiful. Do you the same with Jesus--follow Him with your hearts. (J. R. Howatt.)
Heaven and earth shall pass away
Heaven and earth shall pass away
It is something to startle us, and make us ask ourselves, if indeed such things can be; whether He is in earnest who says so, and whether the world which practises upon us by its looks as though it were eternal, is indeed such an imposter, and we who believe it, so foolish and so ignorant! Yet so it is. Now, it seems to some of you, I dare say, as to most men, that this is a great deal more astonishing than that anything so inconsiderable, materially considered, as a man, should pass away, as you see happen every day by death. It seems a pity to break to pieces so goodly a machine as heaven and earth, and uproot its adamantine basis. But if so, I think you are wrong. It seems to me nothing at all astonishing, that anything for which we have no longer a use should finally be thrown aside, or broken up, and the old materials put to some other purpose, be it an ordinary implement, or be it a world. It seems to me very reasonable and very likely in itself, that, in the infinite wisdom and power of God, one world should be ripened, so to say, out of another, as you see the fruit come out of the flower, and the flower out of the bud, so that the first shall decay before the higher one can be perfected. It is very reasonable that, as a mere manifestation of power, in order to show to his creatures the strength of His right hand, and the absolute independency of His will, God should dash in pieces, from time to time, or consume by the breath of His nostrils, what was made by His word, and stood only by His sufferance. Besides, in the elements out of which heaven and earth are made, there is no thought or feeling; they are brute, dead things; and are capable neither of pain nor pleasure. Whether they abide or not in the forms into which God has thrown them, it is the same to them; no harm is inflicted on them; they are as unconscious of change as they are impotent to feel or will. But, if heaven and earth must pass away, another consequence will follow, which is to every one of us of awful importance. If the earth, such as it now is, shall be utterly destroyed, manifest it is, that our present life, and cares, and pleasures, and occupations, all that men make their happiness of, will likewise he brought to an end. And this brings me to another point--and a reason for the passing away of the present world, which I have not yet mentioned, though it might easily occur to any thoughtful mind. It is a condemned world; sentence is passed upon it! And it is condemned, because it is guilty, and all over polluted! And do not wonder at this, for you know with what feelings we regard a chamber or a house in which a murder, or some abominable crime, has been committed; how we shrink from it and abhor it, and hate the sight of it, and should think it the greatest misery in the world, if we have any feelings worthy of man, to be compelled to take up our abode within it. A sort of guilt, as well as involuntary pollution, seems to attach to the very floors and senseless walls which have witnessed the crime, and have not fallen down or opened upon the wicked in the midst of their wickedness. And we should rejoice at seeing them pulled down to the ground, and the last memorial of the crime removed from our eyes! Well, so it is exactly in regard to the world in which we live, with all its majestic mechanism, its living forces, and all the ornaments which Gods hand has thrown round about it. It is stained with six thousand years of sin. And this brings us to another portion of the question. If heaven and earth shall pass away, shall anything succeed into their room, or shall that space which they occupied be utterly blank and desolate? The answer is, no. So to say, there shall rise two new worlds, or such a change as comes to the same thing, out of the ruins of it; even as out of the earth destroyed by the flood there sprung forth that in which we now dwell. There shall be the new heavens and new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, and the face of Gods countenance shineth for evermore--the habitation of those who have lived and died in the Lord. And on the other hand, the world, where the light is darkness, and the life is death, and the good is evil, and weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth are the voice thereof--even the habitation of the ungodly for ever and ever. And this gives you the true reason, dear brethren, why the judgment is now suspended, and sun and moon are shining, and night and day, and spring and harvest, come and go, and all things remain as at the beginning. It is that Gods last dispensation upon earth may have full room and time to display itself in all its combinations with human good and evil, before the voice from the throne shall proclaim that it is finished. It is that, in the sight of all His creatures, the patience and long-suffering of God, which leadeth to repentance, might have full space and opportunity in which to show themselves, and vindicate to the uttermost the exceeding forbearance of our heavenly Father even towards them that perish I It is that, year after year, His saints may be gathered in till, in the fulness of time, the flock which he has given to Christ shall have been called out of all nations and languages, and the Saviour be satisfied in the sight of His souls travail. (J. Garbett.)
My words shall not pass away
The words of Jesus permanent
I. The words of Jesus Christ, the words which He spoke for our direction, for our purification, for our comfort, for our redemption, have not passed, and shall not pass away. Our human intellect accepts them with reverence, and must ever retain them. Our human passions acknowledge their salutary power, and look up to them for perpetual control and guidance. Our human fears are soothed by them, and cannot let them go. Our human hopes are informed, elevated, and sanctified by them, and constantly resort to them for refuge, and lean upon them for rest. All our human affections have borrowed from them Divine light and warmth, and must reflect that light and warmth for ever.
II. Heaven and earth shall pass away. Giving to this sentence an individual application, we may feel that heaven and earth pass away from the sight of all of us. Fancies as brilliant as the blue vault above us, promises as fair, expectations and resolves as high, and possessions which we have deemed as firmly founded as the earth itself, have vanished, and will again vanish; and what is there left behind? The words of Christ are left, when the visions break, and the possessions disappear--words of patience, and courage, and comfort, always left for the strengthening of our hearts, if our hearts will hear and accept them. The words of Jesus arc the promises of God the Father to the souls of men. When eyes are growing dim, and the heart is ceasing to beat, and heaven and earth are passing away, as they surely will from all of us, what remains for the souls help and reliance but the words of Jesus, which are the promises of God?
III. And let us remember that the words of Jesus, attested as they arc by the Father who sent Him, permanent as time has proved them, true, and satisfying, and lasting as the human soul has found them, are not only the promises of God for mans hope and trust, but the law of God for mans final judgment. As such they will remain, when heaven and earth, in any and every sense, have passed away. The words of Christ, essentially permanent, and surviving all change, will meet our souls in the last day, and be pronounced upon them, for acquittal or for doom. And certain and necessary it is, that the sentence which will be adjudged unto us hereafter by those words, will be in strict accordance with the observance or the neglect with which we treated them here, before our present heaven and earth had passed away. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.)
The ineffaceable word
On one occasion when William Dawson, the Yorkshire Preacher, was giving out a hymn, he suddenly stopped and said: I was coming once through the town of Leeds, and saw a poor little halfwitted lad rubbing at a brass plate, trying to rub out the name; but the poor lad did not know that the harder he rubbed the brighter it shone. Now, friends, sing:--
Engraved as in eternal brass
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines.
Then, as though he saw the devil rubbing, he said:
Satan cannot rub it off--
His hand hath writ the Sacred Word
With an immortal pen.
The enduring words
An infidel in London had a wife who possessed a Bible which she regularly read; being annoyed at this, the man, who had frequently threatened to do so, threw the book upon the fire. This appears to have taken place at dinner-time. He then left home to go to his work, but soon returned to see if the last vestige of the volume had disappeared. The woman, who naturally felt distressed at her loss, said she thought it must be completely burned; but her husband stirred the ashes to see if such was the case, when he read what fastened itself upon his mind, and led to his conversion--Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away. The sister of this man was the wife of a London pastor; and just when the Bible was burning she was earnestly praying for her brothers conversion. (Sword and Trowel.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v34 34–36. Take heed to yourselves. The words here, but…
34–36. Take heed to yourselves. The words here, but not the ideas, are peculiar to Luke. See notes on Matt. 24:37–51.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv19–20 Mat 24:13. - Luk 21:19.
Matthew
TWO FORMS OF ONE SAYING
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Mat 24:13. - Luk 21:19.
These two sayings, different as they sound in our Version, are probably divergent representations of one original. The reasons for so supposing are manifold and obvious on a little consideration. In the first place, the two sayings occur in the Evangelists’ reports of the same prophecy and at the same point therein. In the second place, the verbal resemblance is much greater than appears in our Authorised Version, because the word rendered ‘patience’ in Luke is derived from that translated ‘endureth’ in Matthew; and the true connection between the two versions of the saying would have been more obvious if we had had a similar word in both, reading in the one ‘he that endureth,’ and in the other ‘in your endurance.’ In the third place, the difference between these two sayings presented in our Version, in that the one is a promise and the other a command, is due to an incorrect reading of St. Luke’s words. The Revised Version substitutes for the imperative ‘possess’ the promise ‘ye shall possess,’ and with that variation the two sayings are brought a good deal nearer each other. In both endurance is laid down as the condition, which in both is followed by a promise. Then, finally, there need be no difficulty in seeing that ‘possessing,’ or, more literally, ‘gaining your souls,’ is an exact equivalent of the other expression, ‘ye shall be saved.’ One cannot but remember our Lord’s solemn antithetical phrase about a man ‘losing his own soul.’ To ‘win one’s soul’ is to be saved; to be saved is to win one’s soul.
So I think I have made out my thesis that the two sayings are substantially one. They carry a great weight of warning, of exhortation, and of encouragement to us all. Let us try now to reap some of that harvest.
I. First, then, notice the view of our condition which underlies these sayings.
It is a sad and a somewhat stern one, but it is one to which, I think, most men’s hearts will respond, if they give themselves leisure to think; and if they ‘see life steadily, and see it whole.’ For howsoever many days are bright, and howsoever all days are good, yet, on the whole, ‘man is a soldier, and life is a fight.’ For some of us it is simple endurance; for all of us it has sometimes been agony; for all of us, always, it presents resistance to every kind of high and noble career, and especially to the Christian one. Easy-going optimists try to skim over these facts, but they are not to be so lightly set aside. You have only to look at the faces that you meet in the street to be very sure that it is always a grave and sometimes a bitter thing to live. And so our two texts presuppose that life on the whole demands endurance, whatever may be included in that great word.
Think of the inward resistance and outward hindrances to every lofty life. The scholar, the man of culture, the philanthropist-all who would live for anything else than the present, the low, and the sensual-find that there is a banded conspiracy, as it were, against them, and that they have to fight their way by continual antagonism, by continual persistence, as well as by continual endurance. Within, weakness, torpor, weariness, levity, inconstant wills, bright purposes clouding over, and all the cowardice and animalism of our nature war continually against the better, higher self. And without, there is a down-dragging, as persistent as the force of gravity, coming from the whole assemblage of external things that solicit, and would fain seduce us. The old legends used to tell us how, whensoever a knight set out upon any great and lofty quest, his path was beset on either side by voices, sometimes whispering seductions, and sometimes shrieking maledictions, but always seeking to withdraw him from his resolute march onwards to his goal. And every one of us, if we have taken on us the orders of any lofty chivalry, and especially if we have sworn ourselves knights of the Cross, have to meet the same antagonism. Then, too, there are golden apples rolled upon our path, seeking to draw us away from our steadfast endurance.
Besides the hindrances in every noble path, the hindrances within and the hindrances without, the weight of self and the drawing of earth, there come to us all-in various degrees no doubt, and in various shapes-but to all of us there come the burdens of sorrows and cares, and anxieties and trials. Wherever two or three are gathered together, even if they gather for a feast, there will be some of them who carry a sorrow which they know well will never be lifted off their shoulders and their hearts, until they lay down all their burdens at the grave’s mouth; and it is weary work to plod on the path of life with a weight that cannot be shifted, with a wound that can never be stanched.
Oh, brethren, rosy-coloured optimism is all a dream. The recognition of the good that is in the evil is the devout man’s talisman, but there is always need for the resistance and endurance which my texts prescribe. And the youngest of us, the gladdest of us, the least experienced of us, the most frivolous of us, if we will question our own hearts, will hear their Amen to the stern, sad view of the facts of earthly life which underlies this text.
Though it has many other aspects, the world seems to me sometimes to be like that pool at Jerusalem in the five porches of which lay, groaning under various diseases, but none of them without an ache, a great multitude of impotent folk, halt and blind. Astronomers tell us that one, at any rate, of the planets rolls on its orbit swathed in clouds and moisture. The world moves wrapped in a mist of tears. God only knows them all, but each heart knows its own bitterness and responds to the words, ‘Ye have need of patience.’
II. Now, secondly, mark the victorious temper.
That is referred to in the one saying by ‘he that endureth,’ and in the other ‘in your endurance.’ Now, it is very necessary for the understanding of many places in Scripture to remember that the notion either of patience or of endurance by no means exhausts the power of this noble Christian word. For these are passive virtues, and however excellent and needful they may be, they by no means sum up our duty in regard to the hindrances and sorrows, the burdens and weights, of which I have been trying to speak. For you know it is only ‘what cannot be cured’ that ‘must be endured,’ and even incurable things are not merely to be endured, but they ought to be utilised. It is not enough that we should build up a dam to keep the floods of sorrow and trial from overflowing our fields; we must turn the turbid waters into our sluices, and get them to drive our mills. It is not enough that we should screw ourselves up to lie unresistingly under the surgeon’s knife; though God knows that it is as much as we can manage sometimes, and we have to do as convicts under the lash do, get a bit of lead or a bullet into our mouths, and bite at it to keep ourselves from crying out. But that is not all our duty in regard to our trials and difficulties. There is required something more than passive endurance.
This noble word of my texts does mean a great deal more than that. It means active persistence as well as patient submission. It is not enough that we should stand and bear the pelting of the pitiless storm, unmurmuring and unbowed by it; but we are bound to go on our course, bearing up and steering right onwards. Persistent perseverance in the path that is marked out for us is especially the virtue that our Lord here enjoins. It is well to sit still unmurmuring; it is better to march on undiverted and unchecked. And when we are able to keep straight on in the path which is marked out for us, and especially in the path that leads us to God, notwithstanding all opposing voices, and all inward hindrances and reluctances; when we are able to go to our tasks of whatever sort they are and to do them, though our hearts are beating like sledge-hammers; when we say to ourselves, ‘It does not matter a bit whether I am sad or glad, fresh or wearied, helped or hindered by circumstances, this one thing I do,’ then we have come to understand and to practise the grace that our Master here enjoins. The endurance which wins the soul, and leads to salvation, is no mere passive submission, excellent and hard to attain as that often is; but it is brave perseverance in the face of all difficulties, and in spite of all enemies.
Mark how emphatically our Lord here makes the space within which that virtue has to be exercised conterminous with the whole duration of our lives. I need not discuss what ‘the end’ was in the original application of the words; that would take us too far afield. But this I desire to insist upon, that right on to the very close of life we are to expect the necessity of putting forth the exercise of the very same persistence by which the earlier stages of any noble career must necessarily be marked. In other departments of life there may be relaxation, as a man goes on through the years; but in the culture of our characters, and in the deepening of our faith, and in the drawing near to our God, there must be no cessation or diminution of earnestness and of effort right up to the close.
There are plenty of people, and I dare say that I address some of them now, who began their Christian career full of vigour and with a heat that was too hot to last. But, alas, in a year or two all the fervency was past, and they settled down into the average, easygoing, unprogressive Christian, who is a wet blanket to the devotion and work of a Christian church. I wonder how many of us would scarcely know our own former selves if we could see them. Christian people, to how many of us should the word be rung in our ears: ‘Ye did run well; what did hinder you’? The answer is-Myself.
But may I say that this emphatic ‘to the end’ has a special lesson for us older people, who, as natural strength abates and enthusiasm cools down, are apt to be but the shadows of our old selves in many things? But there should be fire within the mountain, though there may be snow on its crest. Many a ship has been lost on the harbour bar; and there is no excuse for the captain leaving the bridge, or the engineer coming up from the engine-room, stormy as the one position and stifling as the other may be, until the anchor is down, and the vessel is moored and quiet in the desired haven. The desert, with its wild beasts and its Bedouin, reaches right up to the city gates, and until we are within these we need to keep our hands on our sword-hilts and be ready for conflict. ‘He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.’
III. Lastly, note the crown which endurance wins.
Now, I need not spend or waste your time in mere verbal criticism, but I wish to point out that that word ‘soul’ in one of our two texts means both the soul and the life of which it is the seat; and also to remark that the being saved and the winning of the life or the soul has distinct application, in our Lord’s words, primarily to corporeal safety and preservation in the midst of dangers; and, still further, to note the emphatic ‘in your patience,’ as suggesting not only a future but a present acquisition of one’s own soul, or life, as the result of such persevering endurance and enduring perseverance. All which things being kept in view, I may expand the great promise that lies in my text, as follows:- First, by such persevering persistence in the Christian path, we gain ourselves. Self-surrender is self-possession. We never own ourselves till we have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that Lord who gives us back saints to ourselves. Self-control is self-possession. We do not own ourselves as long as it is possible for any weakness in flesh, sense, or spirit to gain dominion over us and hinder us from doing what we know to be right. We are not our own masters then. ‘Whilst they promise them liberty, they themselves are the bond-slaves of corruption.’ It is only when we have the bit well into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so that a finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly lords of the chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it.
And such self-control which is the winning of ourselves is, as I believe, thoroughly realised only when, by self-surrender of ourselves to Jesus Christ, we get His help to govern ourselves and so become lords of ourselves. Some little petty Rajah, up in the hills, in a quasi-independent State in India, is troubled by mutineers whom he cannot subdue; what does he do? He sends a message down to Lahore or Calcutta, and up come English troops that consolidate his dominion, and he rules securely, when he has consented to become a feudatory, and recognise his overlord. And so you and I, by continual repetition, in the face of self and sin, of our acts of self-surrender, bring Christ into the field; and then, when we have said, ‘Lord, take me; I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me’; and when we daily, in spite of hindrances, stand to the surrender and repeat the consecration, then ‘in our perseverance we acquire our souls.’
Again, such persistence wins even the bodily life, whether it preserves it or loses it. I have said that the words of our texts have an application to bodily preservation in the midst of the dreadful dangers of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. But so regarded they are a paradox. For hear how the Master introduces them: ‘Some of you shall they cause to be put to death, but there shall not a hair of your heads perish. In your perseverance ye shall win your lives.’ ‘Some of you they will put to death,’ but ye ‘shall win your lives,’-a paradox which can only be solved by experience. Whether this bodily life be preserved or lost, it is gained when it is used as a means of attaining the higher life of union with God. Many a martyr had the promise, ‘Not a hair of your head shall perish,’ fulfilled at the very moment when the falling axe shore his locks in twain, and severed his head from his body.
Finally, full salvation, the true possession of himself, and the acquisition of the life which really is life, comes to a man who perseveres to the end, and thus passes to the land where he will receive the recompense of the reward. The one moment the runner, with flushed cheek and forward swaying body, hot, with panting breath, and every muscle strained, is straining to the winning-post; and the next moment, in utter calm, he is wearing the crown.
‘To the end,’ and what a contrast the next moment will be! Brethren, may it be true of you and of me that ‘we are not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the winning of their souls!’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v25 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXIV. The Second…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXIV. The Second Coming of Christ].
CXIV. THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. aMATT. XXIV. 29-51; bMARK XIII. 24-37; cLUKE XXI. 25-36.
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b24 But in those days, aimmediately after the bthat atribulation of those days. [Since the coming of Christ did not follow close upon the destruction of Jerusalem, the word "immediately" used by Matthew is somewhat puzzling. There are, however, three ways in which it may be explained: 1. That Jesus reckons the time after his own divine, and not after our human, fashion. Viewing the word in this light, the passage at 2Pe_3:4-9 may almost be regarded as an inspired comment with reference to this passage. 2. The terrible judgment upon Jerusalem and the corresponding terror of the judgment day have between them no intervening season of judgment in any way worthy to be compared to either of them. The two periods, therefore, stand with regard to each other in immediate connection. 3. The tribulation which came upon the Jewish people merely began with the destruction of Jerusalem, other woes followed at once, and, coming down through all the centuries of wandering and dispersion, they were yet unfulfilled and incomplete. See Deu_28:58-68] the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall { bshall be falling from heaven, aand the powers of [629] { bthat are in the heavens shall be shaken. [The language is that of the ancient prophets. See Amo_8:9, Joe_2:30, Joe_2:31, Eze_32:7, Eze_32:8. Compare also Rev_6:12-14. Some regard the language as metaphorical, indicating the eclipse of nations and the downfall of rulers, but there are many similar passages of Scripture which constrain us to regard the language here as literal rather than figurative. See 2Pe_3:10, Heb_1:12, Rev_20:11.] c25 And there shall be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the billows [We can conceive of nothing which would produce greater mental distress or perplexity than changes in the position or condition of the heavenly bodies. Such changes will be followed by corresponding commotions on our planet, as, for instance, great tidal waves and vast agitation in the ocean]; 26 men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. a30 and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven [The coming and the sign are the same thing. The word "sign" is used in connection with the coming of Christ to indicate that the nature of the coming (that is, the manner of its manifestations) will be fully commensurate with the importance of the event. His first coming in the manger was not so]: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn [The coming will occasion universal mourning in the unprepared, and apparently the majority of people will be in that condition. The term "all" is not, however, to be construed as including all individuals-- 1Th_4:15-17], b26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in aon the clouds cin a cloud aof heaven bwith great power aand great glory. b27 And then shall he send forth the ahis angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one of heaven to the other. bfrom the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. [To the Jews the trumpet would naturally be [630] associated with the assembling of the people, for silver trumpets were used to call Israel together ( Num_10:1-4, Exo_19:13, Exo_19:16, Exo_19:19, Psa_81:3-5). We are not told why angels are used on this occasion, but they appear to be employed in all the great operations of Providence ( Mat_13:41). The phrases "four winds," etc., indicate that the angelic search shall extend over the entire globe. The language is that which was then used when one desired to indicate the whole earth. It is based upon the idea which then prevailed that the earth is flat, and that it extends outward in one vast plain until it meets and is circumscribed by the overarching heavens.] c28 But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads; because your redemption draweth nigh. [The preliminary death-throes of this present physical universe, which will strike terror to the souls of those who have limited themselves to material hopes, will be to the Christian a reassuring sign, since he looks for a new heaven and a new earth.] 29 And he spake to them a parable: a32 Now from the fig tree learn her parable: when her branch is now become tender, and putteth forth its leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh; cBehold the fig tree, and all the trees: 30 when they now shoot forth, ye see it and know of your own selves that the summer is now nigh. 31 Even so ye also, when ye see aall cthese things coming to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh. aknow ye that he is nigh, even at the doors. [As the change of the season in the natural world has its preliminary signs, so the change of conditions in the spiritual realm has its premonitory symptoms. When men see the symptoms which Jesus has described, they will recognize that changes are coming as to the nature of which they can only guess. But the Christian is informed that these changes indicate the coming of the Son of God--a change from a worse to a better season.] 34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, buntil all things be accomplished. [Commentators differ widely as to the import of these words. Godet is so perplexed by them that he thinks [631] they refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, and have been misplaced by the Evangelist. Cook straddles the difficulty by giving a dual significance to all that our Lord has said concerning his coming, so that our Lord in one narrative speaks figuratively of a coming in the power of his kingdom before, during, and right after the destruction of Jerusalem, and literally of his final coming at the end of the world. But this perplexing expression under this theory refers exclusively to the figurative and not to the literal sense of the passage. The simplest solution of the matter is to take the word "generation" to mean the Jewish family or race--and the word does mean race or family-- Luk_16:8. Thus interpreted, the passage becomes a prophecy that the Jewish people shall be preserved as such until the coming of Christ. The marvelous and almost miraculous preservation of the racial individuality of the Jews, though dispersed among all nations, might well become the subject of prophecy, especially when Jesus had just spoken of an event which threatened their very extermination.] 31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. [The disciples had regarded the temple as so permanent that they found it hard to conceive that Christ's words could be fulfilled with regard to it; but he assures them that his predictions and prophecies are the stable and imperishable things. That even the more permanent structure of the heavens is not so abiding as his utterances.] a36 But of that day and bor that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in aof heaven, neither the Son, bbut the Father. aonly. [These words indicate the profound secrecy in which God has concealed the hour of judgment. It is concealed from all people, that each generation may live in expectation of its fulfillment, and we are to watch for the signs, though we may not fully know the times. They also indicate that either by reason of his assumption of our human nature, or by a voluntary act on his part, the knowledge of Jesus became in some respects circumscribed. They also suggest that it is not only idle, but also presumptuous, for men to strive to find out by mathematical calculation and expositions of [632] prophecy that which the Son of God did not know.] 37 And as i were the days of Noah, so shall be the coming of the Son of man. 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 39 and they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. [See Psa_1:5, Mal_3:2.] b33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. 34 It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch. [Under the figure of the householder and the thief, Jesus appealed to the sense of danger. Under the figure of the servant he appealed to the sense of duty, and under this figure of the porter he appealed to the sense of loyalty. The porter's desire to honor his lord was to make him so vigilant that he would open the door at once upon his lord's appearing.] 35 Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning [The night was then divided into four watches. See p. 322. Jesus may here refer either to the duration of the world or to the life of the individual. He divides either period into four sections, in accordance with the night watches which were so fully associated with watchfulness]; 36; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. 37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. [This warning message was not for the apostles alone, but for all disciples.]
[FFG 629-634]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv8, 20, 24, 27, 28 And he said
And he said
See note on the Olivet discourse. (See Scofield "Mat 24:3").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv8, 12, 20, 25, 28, 34 Tokens of the end:
Tokens of the end:
v. 8. And He said, Take heed that ye be not deceived; for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near; go ye not therefore after them.
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v. 9. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified; for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
v. 10. Then said He unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
v. 11. and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
It is a characteristic of prophecy that there is rarely an exact division of time according to human standards, for there is no time before the eternal, omniscient God. Whether things will happen a thousand years hence or within a few years does not influence the Lord’s time. For all things before Him are happening and taking place in the great present. And so in this case the Lord speaks of the two impending catastrophes, the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, in almost the same breath, connecting them in such a way that the signs foretelling the one must be taken in a measure to refer to the other also. The Lord’s first warning is against deception. In the days before the calamity which wiped out Jerusalem, false Christs arose, and in the name of the true Christ, the Messiah, at that. Deceivers of that kind appeared often in the decades after Christ’s ascension, and always did they find people willing to listen to them and to cast their fortunes with that of the fraudulent impersonator. Even so the false Christs and false prophets of our days are multiplying with great rapidity; in Eddyism, in Russellism, in Dowieism, and in scores of minor sects they arise to deceive the people of God. Their call and promise invariably is: Here is Christ; here is the full truth; the time is near. They have even, repeatedly, fixed the date of Christ’s coming to Judgment. But the believers should pay no attention to them nor follow after them as their disciples, for they are deceivers. As in the days before the destruction of Jerusalem there were wars and uprisings throughout the Roman Empire, but especially in Palestine, so the terrible World War of these last days and the uprisings throughout the world are speaking a strong language to them that heed. As in those days people rose against people and kingdom against kingdom, making it necessary for the Roman legions to be on the move continually, so, while the world stands, neither the most rosy nor the most practical dreams of diplomats will succeed in eliminating war. At the very moment when they are shouting peace with a voice calculated to drown opposition, they are trying to hide the selfishness of their plans which will plunge the world into further wars. As there were great earthquakes in many parts of the world in those days, in Asia Minor, in Italy, in Syria, so the recent terrible catastrophes in Italy, in Alaska, in Java, in Central America have filled the world with horrified astonishment. As great famines and pestilences visited various countries, especially Palestine, in those days, so the pestilence which recently swept the world and even now baffles science in certain of its aspects, and so the famines that have been reported from large areas of Europe and Asia, are God’s reminders of the end. As there were terrifying phenomena and fearful portents from heaven in those days, some of which are told by Josephus, so the science of astronomy is unable to account for many things out in the universe today and will be utterly helpless before the manifestations of the last great day.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 23, 25, 27, 29, 32, 34, 36 Then he said to them
Then he said to them
"Then Jesus said to his disciples." Since this is a continuation of Jesus speaking from the previous verse, some languages may prefer not to say "Then he said to them."
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Nation will rise against nation
Here "nation" is a metonym for the people of the nation, and "rise against" is a metonym for attack. The word "nation" represents nations in general, not one particular nation. AT: "The people of one nation will attack the people of other nations" or "The people of some nations will attack the people of other nations" (See: Metonymy and Generic Noun Phrases)
Nation
This refers to ethnic groups of people rather than to countries.
kingdom against kingdom
The words "will rise" are understood from the previous phrase and mean attack. AT: "kingdom will rise against kingdom" or "the people of some kingdoms will attack the people of other kingdoms" (See: Ellipsis and Metonymy and Generic Noun Phrases)
in various places famines and plagues
The words "there will be" are understood from the previous phrase. AT: "there will be famines and plagues in many places" or "there will be times of hunger and diseases in different places" (See: Ellipsis)
terrifying events
"events that terrify people" or "events that cause people to be very afraid"
translationWords
nation
kingdom
famine
plague
sign
heaven
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36 21:8-11 Jesus foretold events that are often misinterpreted as…
21:8-11 Jesus foretold events that are often misinterpreted as signs of the end, such as the appearance of false messiahs, wars, earthquakes, famines, and severe persecution, but Jesus said that the end won’t follow immediately.
21:8 claiming, ‘I am the Messiah’: See study note on Mark 13:5-6.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.