Matthew 24:30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the
tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds
of heaven with power and great glory.
A better Translation would be. Then
the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. Christ
proceeds to use the same figurative style, language to describe the destruction
of Jerusalem and the temple in such a remarkable instance of divine vengeance that
it was a signal Christ was ruling and reigning in heaven in power and glory.
Jesus speaking about Israel earlier
said, But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him,
saying, ‘We will not have this man
to reign over us.’ (Luke 19:14)
This Psalm is prophetic in nature,
referring to a promise the Lord had made to David through the prophet Nathan years
before. The promise had involved the establishment of a permanent king who would
sit down on the throne of David forever. This King would be a descendant of David.
"The LORD has sworn to David,
A truth from which He will not turn back; 'Of the fruit of your body I will set
upon your throne." (Psalm 132:11).
The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was a signal Christ was indeed
ruling and reigning in heaven in power and glory on David’s throne.
Matthew 24:30 And
then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming
on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. We find these words in
our best commentary in Revelation 1:7, were John freely borrows his words from the prediction of Zechariah 12:10-11 “And I will
pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace
and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn
for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one
grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem,
like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
“They who pierced Him,” obviously are the Jews (John 19:37). And the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The
Greek word mourning
[kopsontai] refers to the act of beating one’s breast
as an act of acknowledgment that Christ is the true Messiah.
The expression "all the tribes of the earth" sounds global. But it is certainly not. There is also a sharp
contrast with "the tribes of Israel" Revelation 7:4 "Then I heard
the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel." This is a direct allusion to the Jewish tribal system.
In many
places, of scripture tribes [phylai])
specifically denotes the Jewish tribes. Matthew 19:28 So
Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, that in the
regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have
followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel. (See also Luke 22:30; Acts
13:21; Romans 11:1; Philippians 3:5; James 1:1; Revelation 5:5; Revelation
21:12).
Matthew
24:31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from
one end of heaven to the other.
Trumpet (shofar) here is used to announce the gathering. The term "gather" is used in several places of
Scripture and describes an agricultural activity associated with harvest at the
end of the age. John the Baptist thus
opened his ministry saying that the Messiah would "gather" the wheat into
his barn, but the chaff he would burn up with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:13)
Christ declares that
He Himself is the sower in Matthew 13:24-30 Another parable He put forth to
them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in
his field; "but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the
wheat and went his way. "But when the grain had sprouted and produced a
crop, then the tares also appeared. "So the servants of the owner came and
said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it
have tares?' "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said
to him, 'Do you want us then to go and (gather them up)?' "But he said,
'No, lest while you gather up the (tares you also uproot the wheat) with them.
'Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will
say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in
bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn”. (Emphasis added)
Jesus reveals some additional crucial information
here. "He said to them, ‘AN ENEMY HAS DONE THIS. Who sows the bad seed?
Satan sows the bad seed. In the Middle East when a farmer wanted to destroy
another farmer’s field he wound place tares in among the wheat.
The enemy in the parable is Satan. In opposition
to Jesus, Satan tries to destroy the work of Christ by placing tares “false
believers” among the wheat “true believers.” Speaking of these tares that were planted in
God’s field you may also remember Jesus
saying, to the Jews who believed they were God’s elect because they were
fleshy descendants of Abraham. "You are of YOUR FATHER THE DEVIL. (John
8:44) For Satan to plant his seed in
the same field as God’s wheat was an out-right disrespect to God the sower.
It is important to note that the servants were
told to let the tares grow until the time of harvest. But why were the servants
told “not to uproot the tares” when the servants ask God should they gather up the
tares? Why is that so important you may
be wondering? Suppose the servants had taken it upon themselves to “remove the
tares from the wheat?” The answer is when a tare is young, it looks just like
the wheat. It is not easy to tell the difference between the wheat, and tares.
Wheat looks like a thick-bladed grass when it is young and green. Tares look
like a native rye grass.
To the non-farmers, knowing this difference
wouldn't be so easy to decipher. Distinguishing one from another in the early
stages of growth is nearly impossible. In truth they look the same with the
naked eye. From a distance and even close up, they looks like wheat. Thus when
you try to separate the tares from the wheat you end up destroying some of the
wheat as will.
As the plants mature, the roots of the weed and tares
intertwine and become almost inseparable. Yet separating them is necessary.
Unless the weed and tares are removed, the flour made from the wheat will be
ruined by the tares which are both bitter and mildly toxic. The tares choke the
life out of the wheat. This is what the Jewish leader were doing to the people
by adding laws on top of laws on top of laws.
The
usual solution is the harvest which spread them on a flat surface, like a
“threshing floor “and then remove the tares, which by this stage are a
different color than the wheat. So the tares, can be separated from the wheat
only at the proper time, of harvest.
All this happened during Jesus
contemporary generation.
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