Jesus, who is unmistakably speaking about the fall of the Temple and the events that will surround that fall, goes on, saying “Immediately after the suffering,” or persecution, as it can also be translated, “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 heaven will be shaken” (24:29). With this, Jesus is quoting from Isaiah, primarily the thirteenth chapter (with allusions to the thirty-fourth chapter of Isaiah and the second chapter of Joel). Beginning in verse nine of that chapter, we read “Look, the Lord’s day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners. Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations no longer give out their light; the sun is darkened as soon as it rises, and the moon does not shine. I will punish the world for its evil, and wicked people for their sin. I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants… So I will shake the heavens, and the earth will shake looks from its foundation, because of the fury of the Lord who commands armies, in the day He vents His raging anger” (13:9-11.13).
In this passage, as is the case in much of the work that bears the name, Isaiah is employing apocalyptic imagery. That is, he is not being literal, but rather, he is using language that will serve to inform all who hear that the events to come are going to be world-shaking, earth shattering happenings. With this established, we realize that Jesus is using such language, which, for what it’s worth, is the same type of language in use in the book of Revelation, which is also known as “The Apocalypse.” Without digressing into that discussion, we note that the very name of that work informs us that apocalyptic, non-literal language is being used. Remaining focused on Isaiah, and taking in the context for what is on offer in the middle of that chapter, we see that the preface to what has been written is “This is a message about Babylon that God revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz” (13:1). In reference to Babylon, God revealed to Isaiah that “I have given orders to My chosen soldiers; I have summoned the warriors through whom I will vent my anger, my boasting, arrogant ones” (13:3). God’s soldiers and warriors are the Babylonians, and His anger is going to be vented against Judah, Jerusalem, and the Temple. Those that experience God’s angry judgment, as far as Isaiah is concerned, are God’s very people. When Judah is overrun, Jerusalem is ravaged, and the Temple is destroyed, it will be as if the stars, the sun, and the moon have ceased to give their light. It will be as if the foundations of the earth have crumbled.
In the thirteenth verse, we note that Isaiah speaks of both the heavens and the earth, which we will hear Jesus doing, quite importantly for our purposes, in just a short while. This judgment from God, of course, came to pass. Babylon did conquer Judah, destroy Jerusalem and its Temple, and carry many off into captivity. We also know, quite obviously, that the stars, sun, and moon did not actually cease to give light and that the earth did not fall from its foundations. When we read this, and as we consider that Jesus’ hearers will understand the reference to Isaiah and to Babylon (and the judgment that God brought upon His people through Babylon) that He is making, we know that these images are not to be taken literally. This reminds us that we are not to take them literally when Jesus says them either. It is the judgment of God and the earthly happenings that such judgment portends that are to be taken literally.
Jesus, like Isaiah, is employing apocalyptic imagery, vesting His words with the weight that He believes is due them, and doing it by utilizing the familiar words of one of Israel’s great prophets---words that came to pass and, owing to the fact that Israel had been in subjection to a foreign power and therefore under God’s continued judgment from that point on, served to define Israel’s existence to that very day. Naturally, if we have disabused ourselves of the notion that Jesus is somehow speaking about the end of the world, and have positioned ourselves as responsible hearers of His words and readers of the text, then we do not fall into that trap. What we do hear Jesus saying, as He continues to speak unswervingly about the Temple, and as He builds upon the words and actions of judgment against the Temple and its regime that were delivered in the wake of His triumphal entry, is that the Temple is corrupt and that God is going to bring judgment against it. God did it with the Babylonians, and now, given the situation then in existence, it is obvious that it is Rome that is going to perform the role of Babylon.
Jesus then goes on to link this judging event to the Son of Man’s coming to the Ancient of Days, adding “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven,” or the sky, “ and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (24:30). Once again, Jesus references Daniel seven, combining the time of the fall of the Temple with the time when the Son of Man receives His kingdom. So when will the Son of Man receive His kingdom and all power and authority? When the Temple falls. When will the Temple fall? When the Son of Man receives His kingdom and all power and authority. By now, because we are squarely focused on the Temple and are also hearing things correctly, as first-century Jews that are inhabiting the narrative, we are able to successfully resist the temptation to see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven as a movement to earth, and instead, rightly understand it as the movement of an event in the heavenly realm.
No comments:
Post a Comment