Matthew 24:29-31, The Coming of the Son of Man
29 “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 heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, 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. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Comments
Jesus draws these words of celestial phenomena from Isaiah 13:10 and 34:4. The first describes the fall of Babylon and the second God’s judgment on all nations. We should not take these literally but metaphorically, knowing that God will judge. After this judgment, Jesus references Daniel 7:13-14, in which he, the Son of Man, will be given dominion over all things—a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.
The gathering of the elect refers to temporal judgment and the fall of political powers after the destruction of the temple. This refers not to the final judgment, as in the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds, but to the expansive growth of the church around the Mediterranean and beyond.
Prayer
Lord God almighty, open my heart and enlighten by the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that I may seek what is well-pleasing to thy will; direct my thoughts and affections to think and to do such things as may make me worthy to attain to thine unending joys in heaven; and so order my doings after thy commandments that I may be ever diligent to fulfil them, and be found meet to be of thee everlastingly rewarded.
(Bede, 675-735)
Comments