Now for another quick Greek lesson. The Greek word [GE] which appears in Matthew 24:30, is used for the earth entire OR to a specific land. Often when the Bible speaks of THE land, it is with reference to the holy land. Jesus is speaking of the mourning of the tribes of Israel, not people in the distant future who would be living in eastern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, or the Americas. So Matthew 24:30 is the direct answer to the disciples' question! Which brings us to the eighth of our list of eight events or circumstances that would come upon THAT generation. Namely that the Son of Man will…
8. Send forth his angels. Insight from the original language of the holy writings helps us again. In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, John is instructed to send letters to the ANGELS [Greek AGGELOS singular form] of seven churches. Were those letters, written by a man on earth, going to any of those those mighty spirit creatures like Gabriel whose place is heaven? Per Luke 7:17-24 John the baptizer sends two of his disciples (human beings) to ask Jesus if He is really the coming One. In verse 24, the two disciples are designated [AGGELOS]. In Luke 9:52 Jesus Himself sends human [AGGELOS] to a Samaritan village. James 2:25 refers to how Rahab hid the two [AGGELOS] spies and sent them out. Those two angels were human beings as well. The angels of the seven churches are their ministers; their messengers who bring messages from the word of God.
So how do we identify the human angels, the messengers whom Jesus sent out after He came on the clouds (judging the Jewish nation by the agency of the Roman legions)? Some were those Galilean fisherman whom Jesus called to become fishers of men. One was a former persecutor of Christians from Tarsus. Another of those angels, by the name of Philip, was sent to a queen's treasurer heading back to his Ethiopian homeland. After sharing the good news of the kingdom, Philip "&hellipfound himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea" (Acts 8:40).
How do they gather God's elect and what trumpet gives a loud call? At this point in our survey of eschatology, it should be increasingly apparent that if we don't have a good handle on the types and images of the Old Testament we are susceptible to getting off track in understanding the Olivet Discourse and for that matter most of the New Testament, especially the book of Revelation. Consider what we read in Leviticus 25:8-10 (emphases added).
"You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan."
That passage foreshadowed at least three things. The day of atonement of course typified that greater atoning day when the Lamb was sacrificed once for all on a Roman cross. Second, that earthly trumpet spoke of the glorious Trumpet of trumpets, heaven's Gospel. Human angels sound it forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is by that Gospel "net" that they gather a great catch of "fish" – the elect who hear, believe, and confess (Romans 10:10). And third, what a Jubilee of jubilees! Those who believe are, by the Son, made free indeed; and not with mere liberty from earthly debt and a return to an earthly home, but liberty from the bondage of sin and the assurance of inheriting an eternal home!
The Gospel is a mighty Jubilee trumpet blowing by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven (1 Peter 1:12). It had been heard throughout the ancient OIKOUMENE within decades of Pentecost. Like a spreading flame (hat tip to F. F. Bruce) it continued to be heard in more and more places down through the centuries, and it is still sounding forth throughout the earth, advancing His Messianic kingdom 'til Jesus reigns "wher'er the sun doth his successive journeys run!" So the sending forth of Christ's messengers [AGGELOS] BEGAN in the past, but has never ceased. Gospel messengers, fishers of men, are using the great dragnet of the Gospel to bring in God's elect, and will do so until the end of THIS age!
"Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.' " (Luke 24:45-47)
The Fig Tree (vss. 1-35) Vs. The Thief (vss. 36ff)
Per Matthew 24:32, Jesus exhorts us to learn from the fig tree. What do we learn? Consider: it looked bad for Abraham when he was on the verge of sacrificing Isaac the very son of promise, but God provided a substitute. Joseph thought he was "toast" when he was sold into slavery and then thrown into prison, but God turned things around wondrously for him. Daniel's prospects were bleak when he was thrown in the lion's den. Mordecai and Esther thought their whole nation was doomed when wicked Haman's plans almost succeeded, and those watching the crucifixion of Jesus were profoundly dejected until later, when they came to understand that His death meant life for His people.
Even so, although dread judgment is immediately ahead as the pre-Messianic age ends, after that is the summer of the Messianic kingdom. So let hope abound, not only because reversals are the way of Lord in general (cf. Genesis 50:20), but because the fig tree parable is intended to make us expect times of blessing and victory ahead! Cf. Song 2:10-13.
And what characterizes Jesus' predictions in Matthew's record of the Olivet discourse, through vs. 35? Signs…indicators of what was to come. He was telling His audience what to look for in days ahead: wars and rumors of wars, increased lawlessness, betrayals, false prophets and finally the abomination of desolation and great tribulation. Jesus assures His hearers that it all is coming upon THAT generation. Nothin' but a bird! He summed it all up with the parable of fig tree, the progress of which from tender shoot to fruit bearing is observable.
But in verse 36, there is a major "gear shift." Now Jesus DOES speak about the distant future, when He DOES come back to earth personally and visibly. (At the time, i.e. during His earthly life) not even He knew the day or the hour. Moreover, there will be no signs presaging it. While the world is eating and drinking, marrying – i.e. while it's "business as usual" – THAT day will come upon them unawares as the great flood did upon Noah's generation. That day will come like a burglar in the night.
Here is an observation from Scripture supporting the "partial preterist" view which this study has been articulating. In texts such as Acts 2:17, Hebrews 1:2, and James 5:3 the inspired writers speak of the last days, plural. And they speak of them as being the days in which they were living. They lived in the last days of the pre-Messianic age. Those days are long past. But in the Gospel of John chapter 6 (see vs. 39, 40, 44, and 54) the same Jesus Who spoke the Olivet Discourse spoke of the last day, singular, when He resurrects both the righteous and the wicked (John 5:28,29). That day is yet to come.
The next pericope (passage) of Scripture to be considered in this survey of eschatology is from the book of Daniel. Go to A Survey of Eschatology, Part Nine