Matthew 24:16-31 – Great Tribulation, Lightning, and Clouds Filled with Glory

Historically, Matthew 24 has been read as a passage about the return of Jesus and the end times, and perhaps, that is the best way to read this chapter. However, this current study of Matthew is taking the approach of reading Matthew’s Gospel through the lens of the Lord’s Prayer. This is not to deny the reality that Matthew 24 is prophetic, but scripture presents many facets, and the one we are currently studying is how Matthew 24 helps us better pray “deliver us from evil” and “yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.”

As such, whether read as prophecy or as an aid to help us pray, Matthew 24 should be read in a single sitting, not broken up into many smaller pieces, and read over a period of weeks as I have done over the last few posts. But, since we don’t live in an ideal world, and my comments on each passage tend to be somewhat lengthy, I have presented Matthew 24 in smaller pieces. I would recommend reading the entire chapter before embarking on the path of reading this post. In the event, however, you don’t have the time to reread the entire chapter just now, allow the following brief overview of Matthew 24 and my posts to bring you up to speed.

• In Matthew 24:1-2, Jesus told the disciples that the temple will be destroyed.
• In Matthew 24:3, the disciples asked when the temple will be destroyed, when Jesus will return, and when the end of the age will come.
• In Matthew 24:4-8, Jesus describes the beginning of the birth pains for these events will include false prophets, wars, famines, and earthquakes.
• In Matthew 24:9-14, Jesus says that the end will come after many tribulations, an increase in lawlessness, and the gospel has been preached throughout the whole world.
• In Matthew 24:15-16, Jesus says that the abomination of desolation is the key event signaling the end, and when seen, his followers should run away.

Now, in Matthew 24:17-31, Jesus gives more detail regarding the end times, his return, and the need for his followers to flee the coming destruction. Jesus begins by saying,

17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 19 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 20 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.

Matthew 24:17-20

When we read this in the light of the temple’s destruction, we see Jesus warning his followers against returning to their homes in Jerusalem, even for a short while to collect their valuables. Hopefully, this warning has conjured up memories of a previous time when God warned his followers to flee the coming destruction. In Genesis, we read,

15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”

Genesis 19:15-17

Sodom was in the path of the Lord’s imminent judgment and Lot was warned against returning to Sodom to save any of his possessions, and he was told to not look back. Most of us probably know, however, that Lot’s wife did not obey the Lord’s warning: she looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt. Jesus did not warn his disciples to flee because they would be turned into a pillar of salt, rather he warned his followers that when God’s judgment is at hand, they need to flee if they hope to escape the coming doom. It seems to me that this brings us to our first encounter with how this passage helps us better pray the Lord’s Prayer. We may, indeed, pray for deliverance from evil, but it does no good to pray for the Father’s hand of protection if we are not willing to heed his call and flee the presence of evil.

There will be a time of false prophets, wars, famines, earthquakes, tribulation, and increasing lawlessness, but Jesus doesn’t tell his disciples to flee from those, rather Jesus tells his disciples to continue spreading the gospel of the kingdom throughout the whole world until the very end. The children of God are called to endure a difficult time for which Jesus never says how long it will last. While these words are prophetic, Jesus wasn’t speaking them so that his disciples could figure out when everything would happen. Jesus spoke about the signs leading to his coming and the end times words as a way to encourage perseverance in his followers. Paul pens a very similar description of the end times to his protege Timothy.

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

II Timothy 3:1-5

Following this description of the end times, Paul encourages Timothy to remain steadfast, to endure, and to continue preaching the Word. Paul, like Jesus, called his followers to continue living and preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven through times of tribulation. But, as we read last week, there is a time when we must run to the hills. When the sign of the end of times occurs — the abomination of desolation — Jesus tells us to flee, because, after that event (whatever it might be), the following will occur,

21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Matthew 24:21-22

Jesus calls this tribulation “great.” This is not just any old sort of tribulation, as described in Matthew 24:9, but this is a “great” tribulation. It is, in the Greek language, a megas tribulation; a tribulation greater than any other in the history of the world, so great that if it were not cut short by the hand of God, every human being on the face of the earth would die. “But for the sake of the elect” God chooses to cut the megas tribulation short, but now we have an interesting question, don’t we: who are the elect? In the Old Testament, the elect were the Jews, but in the New Testament, the term “elect” expands to include even the Gentiles; essentially, anyone who chooses to follow God. (If you question this, take a look at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians where he explains that the Gentiles were also predestined before the foundation of the earth.) The elect, therefore, are any who God has chosen to be his disciples, but we must not forget that God’s part of that choice is also accompanied by our part of that choice. God never chooses those who reject him, and those who choose God are never rejected by God, and God always chooses those who choose him and he always rejects those who reject him. The elect are those chosen by God who have also chosen him. God, therefore, cuts short the megas tribulation for the sake of the elect who are on earth during that time. But this also means that the elect are subject to the troubles of both the regular tribulation preceding the megas tribulation as well as the megas tribulation itself. If you are wondering, yes, this is another good reason to pray “deliver us from evil” and to pray for the coming of the Father’s eternally glorious and powerful kingdom.

Jesus continued his warnings and described a particular evil that will exist during the megas tribulation. He said,

23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

Matthew 24:23-26

As much as we must be on our guard and pray for the Father’s deliverance from the act of believing in false prophets, so also must those alive during the megas tribulation pray for deliverance. Jesus wants his followers to know that his return will not occur in secret, as many false Christs will claim. They will even do powerful signs — miracles, healings, and more — but Jesus warns that they are not to be trusted. Jesus’s next coming will not be something to question. Jesus said,

27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Matthew 24:27

The occurrence of lightning leaves no doubts. If only for a second, lightning illuminates the entire night sky with blinding light; it is instantaneous, it is definitive, and it is thunderous; there is no question as to its identity. The coming of the Son of Man — of Jesus — will be the same. It will be instantaneous — not drawn out over years and years — it will be definitive, and it will be thunderous. While those living during the time of the megas tribulation will be praying for deliverance from evil, they will also be praying for the coming of the Father’s kingdom, and thus, the king who will usher in the end of the age. Jesus’s response to his disciples in Matthew 24 began with him describing the “beginning of the birth pains” (Matt. 24:8). Birth pains always lead to the birth of something, and in this case, birth pains lead to the emergence of the Father’s kingdom on earth which is initiated when the king of that kingdom appears as lighting from the east shines to the west. We pray for deliverance from evil in our day and we pray for the soon appearance of the Father’s kingdom, but we can also be praying for those followers of Jesus living during the day of the megas tribulation that they will be protected from evil and live to see the coming king.

Then, to emphasize what he just said, Jesus said something that seemed to be a bit odd. He said,

28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.

Matthew 24:28

This was, I believe, Jesus’s way of saying that his second coming will be obvious. We might more easily understand Jesus’s meaning by looking at the phrase, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Look for the smoke if you want to know where the fire is. Look for the vultures if you want to know where the body is. Look for the clearly obvious signs if you want to know where the Son of Man is. The disciples asked about Jesus’s coming, and Jesus told them there would be trials, tribulations, an abomination of desolation, and a megas tribulation. In a word, he told them that his second coming would be obvious. Matthew 24 is Jesus’s way of offering comfort and encouragement to his followers who are worried about the future. There will be trouble, but the end will be obvious, he only asks that we not fall away, but persevere to the end. Jesus then added this,

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.

Matthew 24:29-31

Against the darkness of a failing universe and the darkness of fallen humanity whose iniquity is now complete (read Gen. 15:16), comes the bright light of the Son of Man. In the words of Daniel,

13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14  And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:13-14

Our knowledge of this time is, at best, ambiguous; we know some things but others we don’t. We know that Jesus’s second coming is certain, but we don’t know when it will be, only the Father knows that (Matt. 24:36). We know we live in a time filled with false prophets and wars and earthquakes and tribulations and increasing lawlessness, but we don’t know how close we are to the end times. We know what it means to desecrate the holy, but we don’t know when that will occur.

There are some things, however, we do know for certain and without ambiguity. We know we should pray for deliverance from evil: the evil passions that rule in our hearts, the works of Satan, and the evil words of false prophets. We know we should pray for the coming of the Father’s eternally powerful and glorious kingdom: in our hearts, in the world around us, and on that day when the Son of Man comes in the clouds to receive his kingdom. And we know that until the day when the abomination of desolation comes, we must proclaim the gospel of the coming kingdom of heaven, the only power that can deliver us from any evil.

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