The Sign of His Coming, Matthew 24:23-31

 

I want to review some of that material today as we look at this. I'm going to go through seven part seven questions. First of all, we'll have a review, looking at the connection, Matthew 24, 23 to 31 with the previous context, verses 13 to 22. Then were going to look at verses 23 to 26 and asked the question: what is the significant significance about the warning of the rise of false messiahs and false prophets in these four verses? Following that we'll ask the question: how is the coming of the Son of Man described? We look at verses 27 and 29. Verse 28 is a strange verse, so were going to take it separately and ask: what does this mean about the carcass and the eagles gathering? We will look at the term "tribes of the earth" (I think it should be translated "tribes of the land"). How do they respond and what is the significance of that verse? And then the last verse what is meant by the gathering by the angels? And then what should our response be in terms of what we learn from this passage?

 

What is the connection of Matthew 24:23-31 with the previous context? Part of that involves these parables that are coming up with the parable of the fig tree, 32-35. How do we interpret that and what's its connection within the passage? It is really important for proper interpretation to understand that. Then we have another parable right at the end of the chapter—who then is a faithful and wise servant? What is the significance of that parable?

 

Then we have another parable, the parable of the wise and foolish virgins at the beginning of chapter 25, and then the parable of the talents. And all of those relate to judgments that come at the end of the Tribulation as well as rewards. This is not the easiest section, there are disagreements between a number of dispensationalists, those who are pre-millennial pre-Tribulational; all do not see I die on a lot of this. I think this is due primarily to some hermeneutical inconsistencies which I'll point out as we get into the latter part of the chapter of this chapter begins. 

 

Jesus had announced that the house of Israel, that is, the temple would be left to them desolate. He announces that judgment is coming on Israel because of the fact that the religious leadership, the specifically the Pharisees have rejected him as the Messiah. We studied this in chapter 23 with the seven statements—"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"; very clear. He is addressing them as unbelievers who have rejected his offer of the Messiah and so He announces that the temple will be destroyed.

 

That was the second temple. It was a second stage of the second temple, the temple of the Herodian renovation of the temple; and that would be fulfilled in AD 70, and the disciples as they look at the beautiful glorious Temple, which was considered to be the eighth wonder of the ancient world asked two questions: "Tell us first of all, when will these things be in second, what will be the sign of your coming and the end of your age". It's one revelation; it's one sign, which were looking at this morning. 

 

Just a reminder: Jesus is talking to them as Jews about Jewish prophecies, specifically the kingdom. The kingdom is a literal geophysical kingdom that will be initiated on the earth by the arrival of the Messiah. He's come once to offer the kingdom, and it was rejected; when He comes a second time He will establish His kingdom.  So the Olivet discourse therefore is addressed to the disciples as Jews representing Israel and it is the last thing that He says in his earthly ministry about Israel and God's plan for Israel in the future. 

 

Therefore, nothing in the Olivet discourse is about church age believers or has direct application to church age believers, but it certainly has implications for us in understanding God and His faithfulness and the importance of judgment.

 

All living church age believers will be raptured and taken to heaven before the beginning of the Tribulation, so we will not be here on the earth. The timeframe for this period is what is described as Daniel's 70th week in Daniel chapter 9, and it is also referred to as the time of Jacob's trouble in Jeremiah 30 verse seven. In that in that chronological outline, Daniel 9:24-27, we have in the Hebrew is the phrase "70 periods of seven". That's been translated as weeks, but it's actually 70 periods of seven years, which turns out to be 490 years; 483 years have already been fulfilled, and that last seven-year period is the period that comes at the end immediately preceding the coming of the Messiah to establish His kingdom. 

 

It will begin according to Daniel chapter nine when the prince who is to come will sign a peace treaty or contract or covenant with Israel, guaranteeing their peace, and so they are at peace for the first 3 1/2 years. But in the world there are judgments that are coming about. In our study of Revelation we saw that the seal judgments and then the trumpet judgments take place in that first half. It's described in Matthew 24:8 as the beginning of labor pains, and then in verse six Jesus says, "But the end is not yet." What marks the middle of the seven-year period is the desecration of the temple. 

 

How many of y'all have thought about this. Let me ask you a question. What kind of temple is this? It's an apostate temple? Can you desecrate an apostate temple? Obviously you can. The antichrist will commit blasphemy there. 

 

The reason I pointed that out is I've heard some people say when I have talked about the importance of Israel, even in the Tribulation period, and the return of Jews to the land, they say, "But they are returning in apostasy; it has no significance. Well, if the fact that there in apostasy has no significance. Then the temple being upon apostate temple would have no significance, but the apostate temple can still be desecrated so therefore an apostate temple has significance. That means that the return of an apostate people to the land has significance. That's little logic you can work through later on. 

 

So the apostate temple, the third temple, will be desecrated and God will bring judgment. As a result of that, the second half of the Tribulation is described as a period of increased labor pains or increased birth pains. And Jesus says in verse 14, "Then the end will come." 

 

What we see is the first 3-1/2 years are the beginning of sorrows. In the second 3-1/2 years of Daniel's 70th week, you have increased persecution of the Jews, especially Jewish Christians, after the Antichrist breaks the covenant. That's described in verses 9-14. Then in verse 15 there is a warning to Jewish believers. Why Jewish believers? Because unbelievers aren't going to care what Jesus says; they're not going to respond to it. When Jesus says to flee, they are going say, who cares? Who is Jesus? He was just another prophet, at best. So Jewish Christians in Judea are to immediately flee when they see the Abomination of Desolation. They are not to stop, they are to get out of town immediately, if not sooner. 

 

This Abomination of Desolation is described in Daniel 9:26 and 27, specifically in verse 27, where it says, "in the middle of the week". Here we are in this verse, "In the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering". He stops what he has allowed. Under his authority the Jews have been able to carry on their daily sacrifices and offerings in this apostate temple that they have erected, putting it back under the Mosaic law, and then the text says, "on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate". So there's going to be a series of these blasphemous desecration's of the temple, and he will make the temple desolate. He creates this great blasphemy. 

 

What does that involve? In Daniel 11:31 this terminology appears again. He defiles the sanctuary, he takes away the daily sacrifices—remember these are apostate so he can still defile it—and he places there the Abomination of Desolation, which is going to be first himself to be worshiped as God, and then he replaces himself with a statue or idol of himself to be worshiped. Daniel 11:36, "He will exalt and magnify himself above every god, he will speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished." Remember, Jeremiah said this is the time of Jacob's wrath. Until God determines the end he will be allowed to carry on his blasphemy. 

 

Second Thessalonians 2:3, 4 "Let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come unless the falling away É" I believe that word in the Greek, APOSTASIA, normally translated "apostasy", in a number of uses and various forms also means "departure". I think that if the Rapture is a signless event, then  world-wide apostasy is not a sign of the soon coming of the Lord. It is the departure that comes first, the Rapture and the man of sin is revealed, so we don't see the Antichrist until after the Rapture. He is called "the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God". He will then erect a statue of himself, and will be worshiped. This is what is described in Revelation 13:4, 5. "They worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast." That's Satan". So they're not only worshiping the beast, they know that behind the beast is the power of Satan. "They worshiped the dragon that gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast who is able to make war with him?" And the way the questions are phrased, it is no one; no one is like him; no one can depose him; no one can defeat him.

 

"É and he was given É", passive voice means God permissibly allows him to carry out his arrogant plans "É a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months." Now 42 months is 3-1/2 years.

 

At the end of the previous section covered, verse 22 we read, "but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened". That is, those days of the Tribulation. There are some who think that what that means is that maybe the Lord will come back before the 3-1/2 years are over with. That's not what that is saying.  What that means is that God could have allowed this to go on longer then 3-1/2 years, or 42 months or 1260 days, but if it had gone on another 45 days or another two months or three months, then every human being would have been killed all of Israel would have been killed. So God limited the extent of the damage during the Tribulation. So he is only given 42 months, each month having 30 days because it's a lunar month. It's not a solar month; it is not a calendar like we have. The Jewish calendar was a calendar of 360 days, not 365, and 40 days. So we have 42 months times 30 days; that is 1260 days. 

 

Now, in Daniel 12:11 we read "from that time"—That is, the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away and the Abomination of Desolation is set up—there shall be 1290 days. That's 30 days longer, a month longer. 

 

A lot of people have questioned: What, what's the difference? Why all of a sudden do we have this in? But this will chart together from the Abomination of Desolation, which is halfway through the Tribulation, to the second coming, according to Revelation 12:6. It is 1260 days where God protects Israel in the wilderness. That works out to 3-1/2 years, or 42 months. In Daniel 12:11 there are 1290 days from the setting up of the Abomination of Desolation, until the end and there are a couple of different ways that this is explained; it's not explained in the text. 

 

Some people suggest that the 30 days will come at the beginning. This is stated by Dr. Walvoord in his commentary on Daniel in the Bible knowledge commentary. He says some people put it at the beginning, that this may include the preparation for putting this idol in the in the temple. But most of the explanations I've read is that the 30 days comes at the end, after the Lord returns. There's sort of a cleaning up mopping up operation, including the timeframe for the campaign of Armageddon, and that that 30 days would be part of that. There is also another statement in the very next verse in Daniel 12. Daniel 12:12 that says that there will be 1335 days. That's 45 days beyond Daniel 12:11. So what many people believe is that the first 30 days our time of judgments: the time of judgments on the surviving Gentiles, the time of judgments on the surviving Jews. Those are some of the judgments will study at the end of Matthew 24 and into Matthew 25, and then the next 45 days are the times of rewards and blessings that are put into place before the millennial kingdom actually kicks off.

 

Then we saw in Matthew 24:17 to 18 the urgency of their departure once the Jewish believers in Israel see the Abomination of Desolation. They are not to do anything. They're not to go to their bank account, they're not to go home and grab their go bag. If there on the rooftop they aren't even to go down into their house and grab their gun, they are to immediately leave. Why? If you think about this and what is going on, the Antichrist has established himself in power  and is now taking this enormous step to be worshiped as God, and to take His place in the holy of holies. He has a great organizational ability. His Gestapo and his SS troops are all in place to immediately go out. They have their printouts, their orders to arrest and to perhaps kill every Jewish Christian in Judea, and of course, Jerusalem would be included in that. And so what the Lord is ordering here is, as soon as you know this, as soon as you hear this, don't stop and do anything. Just leave everything behind. Don't go get a coat, don't grab your gun. Just leave and trust me to protect you and provide for you if you're out in the field. If you're in the backyard or you're out in your vineyard and your working don't go back to get clothes. Don't go back, just leave from there; you don't have time, because the 'Gestapo' could be at your door by the time you get there.

 

And you need to pray because it will be calamitous if you're pregnant or in ill health, and it will make it even more difficult for you to make the journey into the wilderness into the mountains, the hill country of Judea. So woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. Not that there something wrong with this. Anything of this type would just make it more difficult for them to flee and to leave Judea and head into the wilderness.

 

And then he says, "And pray that your flight may not be in the winter or on the Sabbath". I think this is a prayer that God intends to answer. They should pray for this, knowing that this would come because this is what Jesus tells them. "I have warned you about this and so you are prepared". So they are to pray, and God intends to answer this, and in that way He will again provide some protection for them.

 

Looking at these verses, specifically the ones that are talking about where those in Judea are supposed to flee, this tells us something about how the Bible is supposed to be interpreted. I have not spent much time teaching about how amillennialists interpret this, or how pretorists interpret this. These are people who do not believe these events are in the future but they're either totally symbolic or they were fulfilled in the judgment of AD 70. But nevertheless, there are certain elements within the instructions here that they take literally, so this is an example of what literal interpretation means. Judea means Judea in verse 16, "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains". It is very precise there. It is not talking about those who are in Samaria, or those who are in Galilee. Certainly not talking about those who are in Texas or New York or London or Paris. So Judea means Judea, not Houston, London, New York or wherever you live. It is specifically to Jewish believers in Judea. This would include Judea and Jerusalem. "To the mountains" doesn't mean to the hill country of Texas, it doesn't mean to the Rocky Mountains or to the Cascades or to the Blue Ridge Mountains or anywhere else. It is to flee to the southern hill country of Judea and across into the area of Jordan today in the area around Petra and Bozrah.

 

There's an immediate danger of arrest, and that means to flee immediately. They are to trust God to provide for them, and God has given them a historical precedent for that. This happened in the wilderness wanderings, which lasted for 40 years that are described in an Exodus and in numbers and in Leviticus. In Deuteronomy 29:5 God said, "And I have led you 40 years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you and your sandals have not worn out on your feet." I'm always amazed by that verse. There, God miraculously provided them with food and with water and their clothing didn't wear out. And this will be true in a much shorter period of 3-1/2 years where God is going to protect those surviving Jewish believers who follow his command to leave immediately.  He will protect them. He will provide them with clothes, water and food, everything that they need. That's why they don't need to go back home and grab their go bags. They are to trust in the Lord. 

 

Nehemiah reiterated this in Nehemiah 9:21. "Forty years you sustained them (he is speaking to God in prayer) in the wilderness. They lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell". There's an implication there for every believer in every dispensation, but especially true of those who are believers in the church age who are in Christ; and that is that statement, "they lacked nothing". God has provided us with everything we need. It is just that so often we think that we need other things in order to be happy, and we focus on all of these details of life and forget that we are on a mission. We are on a mission to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in our life, and He gives us that which we need to sustain us in this life to complete the mission that he has given us.

 

So often we get our eyes on the details. We get our eyes on people; we get our eyes on things; we get our eyes on circumstances. Our happiness and our joy is based on that relationship with God, and He provides everything. We lack nothing. The New Testament tells us that God is given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. He has given us what we need and we need to trust in His provision and not be like the Jews in the wilderness and say, well I wish I had the leaks and garlic's of Egypt. I wish I had new close. I wish I had designer clothes, or whatever it may be. In the terms of the details of life we lack nothing, because God is the one who provides for us.

 

And then we saw that they would flee into the wilderness where, according to Revelation 12:6, there is a place prepared by God, so that she would be nourished for 1260 days. There's that number again. That's not going to be shortened; that number is short. That's the shortened number. In Micah 2:12: they will go to a place will be gathered like sheep in the fold. The Hebrew word is bozrah, which means sheepfold, and this is near Petra in the southern part of Jordan that we see today. And God is going to sustain her, as we saw last week in Revelation 12:14. The two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman—that represents Israel—in order that she may fly into the wilderness to her place were she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time. That is 3-1/2 years. That same imagery of an eagle sustaining and protecting Israel in the Old Testament is found in Deuteronomy 32:10, 11. And then the last part in Matthew 24:21, "for then there will be great tribulation". 

 

Now if you listen to some theologians—and I think that Dr. Walvoord, as much as our respective scholarship and much that he did, took this as a technical term. In the Greek there's not a an article with either the adjective or the noun. Now that's not necessary, as we know in Greek, that definiteness can be inherent within a noun. We see that in British English which will talk about going to university or going to hospital. They leave off the definite article because it's inherent in the noun. But in Greek the uniqueness of something can also be the focus of leaving the article off. It's a qualitative sense, and that's the same thing that is said of Jesus' deity in John 1:1 when it says, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God". "God" is anartharous, it doesn't have an article with it, and it's emphasizing the quality of Jesus as being fully God.

 

That's what I believe is being said here. The phrase "great tribulation" is used in two places, here and in Revelation chapter 7, which talks about this great host of martyrs. The only judgments mentioned to that point are the seal judgments. So if you take this as the second half, which is what Dr. Walvoord did, then you end up doing what he did, taking the seal judgments the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments, and putting all of them into the second half. I think Dr. chafer did that as well. I don't know anybody today who holds that view, but you will still run across that with some people. I think another part of what contributed to that error was the idea that there would be peace during the first 3-1/2 years. The peace treaty that the antichrist entered into with Israel gave Israel peace, not the rest of the world. That's why they heard about wars and rumors of wars, but Israel was at peace. 

 

So the idea of a great tribulation was that there was a beginning of sorrows, beginning of tribulation and of adversity in the first three and half years, and then it went into high gear and intensified in the second half. That is what Jesus is saying. "Then there will be an intensified adversity such as has not been seen since the beginning of the world until this time, no nor ever shall be".

 

In Matthew 24:22, "Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake", that is, 'the choice of one's sake', "those days will be shortened," and this is referring in this context to tribulation saints, specifically Jewish believers, for their sake. 

 

These days will be shortened. Otherwise, instead of going 1260 days, they went 1290 days or 1335 days, then all of the Jews would be killed, all of mankind would be destroyed. So by stopping at 1260 days it prevents the total annihilation of the human race. And so the 1260 days represents that shortened time. 

 

We asked the question, what's the significance of the warning about the rise of false messiahs and false prophets. That starts in verse 23 and goes through verse 26. Then Jesus says, "then". That is, as He has used the word then all the way through this section. He is talking about, "Then", following the previous events that He has talked about. That is, then after the Abomination of Desolation during this period of the second half of the Tribulation. "If anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ". I think this will make more sense to us. If we go with the original that meaning of Christos is the Messiah. "Look, here is the Messiah, or there, don't believe it". 

 

What's going on here? Jesus explains in verse 24: "For false messiahs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect". That is the choice one's. "See, I told you beforehand". All of this is a warning to those Tribulation believers who survived to protect them during the horrors that are described back in verses 9 through 14.

 

Matthew 24:26 NASB ÒSo if they say to you, ÔBehold, He is in the wilderness,Õ do not go out, {or,} ÔBehold, He is in the inner rooms,Õ do not believe {them.}"

 

Tommy Ice wrote a thing was 38 or 39 part series of articles on the Olivet discourse a few years ago. Actually, that lasted a few years, you have 38 parts in your coming out six times a year when you do the math, that probably took six years for him to write all those articles just did a tremendous job of research.

 

But he concludes here, "As events unfold during the second half of the tribulation, the Antichrist, that is the beast of Revelation attempts to entice the elect Jewish remnant out of their wilderness hiding by saying that the Messiah is clandestinely in Jerusalem. Thus, they should come and see Him. However, Jesus is warned his disciples in advance not to listen to such propaganda." Remember, the objective of Satan and the objective of the Antichrist is to destroy all the Jews in the whole world, and every Jewish believer. So when they escape, and he's not able to follow them and God prevents him from being able to destroy them, he is going to try to entice them out of hiding, and there's going to be a tremendous propaganda machine that the Messiah has come, He's here in Jerusalem. Come and see Him. It is to try to get them to come out of their hiding place and Bozrah, but this will not be effective because Christ has warned them.

 

Things that we should observe here: The terms Christ, that is Messiah, or false Christ that is the false prophet, and false prophets, are all oriented to Judaism.  We don't have a problem in the New Testament with false messiahs and false prophets. Read from Romans to Jude and you won't see warnings to the church about false messiahs and false prophets. Those are Jewish terms. What you will see in the New Testament is warnings about false teachers. So this tells us that this is specifically Jewish in its orientation. 

 

The second thing that we see here is that they're going to be performing great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. There are two views here, one is that these miracles are sleight-of-hand miracles; they're like David Copperfield type illusions that will deceive people. I don't believe that's true.  I believe in Deuteronomy chapter 13 when God warned Israel about false prophets. They will come and they will perform miracles, and even if they heal people, assuming that they can genuinely heal people and generally perform miracles, if they tell you to do something other than what my Word has told you, don't believe them, because I have allowed them to come in order to test you and see if you will believe my word over your experience. And this is what will happen in the end times. They will have these miracles, and people will be deceived. They will say they must be from God because they performed a miracle.  But this is not true. They are going to be genuine miracles; that's why they're called great signs and wonders to deceive.

 

In Second Thessalonians 2:9-10 we read "the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all the power signs and lying wonders". They are genuine miracles, but they're attesting a deception. That's why they're called lying wonders, "and with all unrighteous deception among those who perished because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved".

 

And then in Revelation 13:13-15 talking about the false prophet that will come, there will be many as we see in this passage, false messiahs and false prophets. There will be one Antichrist and one false prophet who lead them all. But in verse 13 we read, "He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men". And if you remember, in Exodus that the magicians of Pharaoh could duplicate the first four or five miracles that Moses performed in order to deceive people. It's the same kind of thing. It's a genuine miracle. It's just a testing a fraudulent individual.

 

Revelation 13:14 NASB "And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth [a term in Revelation for unbelievers] to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life".

 

He comes back to life. He makes an image to him. This all happens right at the midpoint of the tribulation.

 

Revelation 13:15 NASB "And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed".

 

He is going to create this idol, which is going to be more than artificial intelligence. He's going to bring it to life, to look like a living being. He's going to be a breath to the image of the beast, "that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed". This is the significance of the warning third question. 

 

Third question: How's the coming of the Son of Man described? This is amazing. We can't imagine this. Just listen to what happens. 

 

Matthew 24:27 NASB ÒFor just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be".

 

It says here there is going to be this brilliant lightning that is going to be global. Everyone will see it, it will be a brilliant flash of light that will be piercing, and it will be piercing the darkness. 

 

Matthew 24:29 NASB ÒBut immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken".

 

This is often parallel to several passages in Scripture describing the end of the Tribulation period. Note the timing there as it's coming to the end and the Lord is about to return. It's like the earth will be in pitch-black darkness. Think of the fear on people's minds how panicky they will be. The moon will not give it's light, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And in the midst of that, this darkness, as people think it is about to end and human history will end and the planet will explode, and that pitch-black darkness like we've never seen, there will be this brilliant lightning that will flash from east to west as the Lord penetrates it with his Shekinah glory and separates the darkness, and enters into human into human history into the atmosphere and descends in to Israel. 

 

This is what happens. As the kingdom appears it does so brilliantly, explosively, and so that everybody sees it and no one can miss it. There is a parallel to this that's often misunderstood, and that's found in Luke 17:20, 21. Jesus is in a confrontation with the Pharisees and "when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them and said the kingdom of God does not come with observation." That's the new King James, a fairly decent translation. "É nor will they say, see, hear or see there", and then he says to the Pharisees a statement often misunderstood, "for the kingdom of God is within you". That's a bad translation. Psychologist have said, see there's a little bit of God in everyone. That's not what this is saying.

 

Others have taken this as "the kingdom of God is in your presence," because the King was there. I think that ignores the context here. Jesus is talking about how the kingdom of God is going to come; it doesn't come gradually with observation as the New American Standard Bible translates it, "coming with signs to be observed". 

 

Now we just saw Matthew that there's going to be the sign of his coming, this lightning that's going to come from east to west. The word sign isn't in the original. It's just the word PARATERESIS, which indicates not that it will come gradually so that men can observe it, but it's the idea that it won't come in this low observable way, but it will come with this piercing immediate presence.

 

That takes his course to verse 28, which is the fourth question: What does that mean? ÒWherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."

 

Now this really pictures corpses that are scattered because of the devastation of the judgments, and that eagles—the word can also refer to vultures—will gather together where the corpses are. Tommy Figart wrote great work on "Matthew, the King of the King of heaven" says, "Taken literally means that whatever dead bodies are, there.  The AETOI, that is, eagles and vultures, will descend upon them. From a physical point of view the vast carnage will result in this very thing É" The main point is, this is the judgment, it's connected to what is described in Revelation 19:17 and 18, where John says, "Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid-heaven, ÒCome, assemble for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.Ó

 

In the massive destruction at the closing out of the judgments of Revelation there will be such devastation, so many dead, that the birds will gather to eat the dead. That's what verse 28 talks about.

 

Matthew 24:29 NASB  ÒBut immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken."

 

This is reminiscent of Joel 2:31 which describes the day of the Lord, that the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. There is also a description of this in Joel 3:15, which refers to a blackout that occurs just prior to the return of the Messiah. And so we see that all of this describes the lead up to this dramatic entry of Jesus Christ into the Earth's atmosphere as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 

 

And then in verse 30 we read of the entry of the Son of Man and the response of those in the land. Matthew 24:30 NASB ÒAnd then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory."

 

"É and then all the tribes". That's not talking about all the Gentiles, the Germans and the Scandinavians and the Russians and the Chinese and the Japanese. This phrase PHULE is almost always used to describe the 12 tribes of Israel. This is a Jewish context. Jesus comes not to the earth as a whole, as it were, but he goes to one geographical location in Israel—the tribes of the land. The word their GES in Greek can mean earth, or it can also refer to the land of Israel. 

 

So He comes to Israel and all the tribes the 12 tribes of the land will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This is predicted in Zechariah chapter 12:10-12, where God says, "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 great mourning in Jerusalem like the morning at hand at Ramon on the plain of Megiddo, and the land shall mourn every family by itself, the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves," etc.

 

This is echoed at the beginning of Revelation. In Revelation 1:7, "Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him.  And all the tribes É" Again that same language talking about Israel. "É of the land will mourn because of him. Even so, Amen." 

 

And then we come to the next-to-last question. What's the gathering by the angels? This is when God sends out his angels. 

 

Matthew 24:31 NASB ÒAnd He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other." This isn't the last trumpet; this isn't the trumpet of the Rapture; this is the trumpet that closes out the Tribulation period at the time of the second coming.

 

They will gather together his elect. If this was the Rapture we would get all these things that have to happen before the Rapture, we wouldn't be looking for the return of Jesus Christ. We would be looking for the Antichrist, we would be looking for the Tribulation, would be looking for all these other things because they would have to precede the coming of Jesus Christ. This isn't talking about the Rapture, which is a sign-less event; this is talking about the second coming. At that time, these angels will gather together his elect, that is, His choice ones from the four winds. I think in context what He is doing is bringing Israel, the remnant, those who survived, all of the Jewish believers back to Israel from one end of heaven to the other.

 

That takes us to our last question, which is, what should our response be? I will focuses on three basic observations. First of all we need to be reminded that God is in control of history. No matter what the devastations are, no matter what economic or military collapses there are, no matter what personal devastations there are, God is in control of history, and whatever happens, He does not lose control. He will accomplish his purposes. 

 

Second, He will fulfill his promises to Israel. He promised that He would give them the land; He will give them the land. He promised that He would restore them to the land; He will restore them to the land. Therefore, God will also be faithful to us in fulfilling his promises to us in every year. If God can provide the needs of the Israelites for 40 years in the wilderness, God can certainly take care of us for a short time on this earth.

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