Articles
Jesus' Figures of Speech - 9
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” (Mt 24:29)
Matthew 24 has always been difficult to understand, and a main reason for that is the language of 24:29-31. I believe Bible students stumble over them because they interpret them literally when they are figurative. The darkening of heavenly bodies is the opposite picture of the final end of the universe, regarding which Peter says all will be burned up (2 Pet 3:10). That suggests enormous amounts of light.
In Mt 24 Jesus has been speaking of the fall of Jerusalem. The city’s destruction in A.D. 70 would be an emphatic act of divine judgment wherein a political dynasty of the past thousand years would cease, i.e., be darkened.
Similar imagery is used of the fall of Babylon (Is 13:10-13) and Egypt (Ezk 32:7-8) as God’s anger is poured out against nations that opposed Him. This is not the language of final judgment but divine wrath against ungodly political powers (we will examine 24:30-31 in future articles).
