The Secret Codes in Matthew: Examining Israel’s Messiah, Part 19: Matthew 24-25, by Kevin M. Williams

From Pneuma Review Spring 2005

Does Messiah pay taxes? Journey through the Gospel to the Hebrews with Kevin Williams and find out.

The Olivet Discourse can be compared to a fine painting by one of the masters. That might sound odd, but everyone can look at the same piece of artwork from very different perspectives with opinions that range from matters of personal taste to the highly educated evaluation of each individual brush stroke. Eschatology is much the same.

With so many end-time theories and theologies from which to formulate an opinion, this portion of Scripture can be very polarizing. When you consider the views on how the end times will unfold: from pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, pre-wrath, and post tribulation theories, as well as amillennial doctrines—the palette is loaded with numerous hues and tones. Many love God’s Masterpiece—His picture of the last days—but everyone does not appreciate it equally or from a singular perspective.

This series, The Secret Codes in Matthew, operates on the premise that Matthew’s gospel was written as evidence to the Jewish people that Yeshua (Jesus) was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. It is with that continuing premise in mind that Matthew 24 is examined, attempting to understand Yeshua’s words as his contemporaries did.

How the rapture will or will not occur, or in the preterists’ case “already occurred” will not be discussed here, but rather will be left to others. For this author, how things unfold are keenly interesting but minimally important. The crux of the life of a disciple is to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness,” to “love the lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37),¹ and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), all of which—of course—are timeless principles established millennia before in the Old Testament. Being occupied means that when the events of Matthew 24 arrive—whatever your theological bent—you will be found faithful.

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And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many” (Matthew 24:4-5).

It is interesting to note that some of our Christian brethren 500 years ago—in the throes of the Reformation—viewed this passage thusly: “The Church will have a continual conflict with infinite miseries and offences, and furthermore, with false prophets, until the day of victory and triumph comes.”² Indeed, with 1,500 years behind them already, these commentators—already in the thick of polarizing change that shook the foundations of Europe—were experiencing the truths of some of Yeshua’s prophecies in Matthew 24 on a daily basis.

The personal commandment inferred here cannot be overlooked, “See to it that no one misleads you” (emphasis mine). This is the collective “you,” once again demonstrating that God is as concerned with His community as He is with individuals. These words have sense of urgency and authority about them.

Certainly Yeshua’s warning had immediacy. By 135 of the Common Era, Rabbi Akiva would proclaim Bar Kochbah the “messiah,” and the final rebellion against Rome would be waged and soundly defeated, forcing the entire region to no longer be known as Israel or Judea, as it had been for centuries, but as Palestine.

Bar Kochbah was not the last, however. False messiahs continued to plague the Jewish community throughout every age:

Most leaders of messianic movements are known as false messiahs. The most important of these were David Alroy in the 12^th century; David Reubeni in the 16^th century; Shabbetai Tzevi in the 17^th century; and Jacob Frank in the 18^th century. It is important to note that some of the so-called false messiahs had the support of the great intellects and spirits of their day. Shabbetai Tzevi was accepted enthusiastically by scholars, rich men, and poor men alike.³

People of all ethnicity have a pandemic propensity to put their trust in people, particularly people who tell them what they want to hear. This, in its own right, may be one of the evidences of Yeshua’s messiahship. He was almost always caught telling the truth, whether it was popular opinion or not. This approach does not typically build one up in the eyes of the masses, nor does it win popularity contests or elections. The truth is often the last thing with which most people are willing to contend. Yeshua did not “play to the crowd” as a Roman Procurator might. In fact, it was because He spoke the truth contrary to the Pharisees and Sadducees which ultimately lead to his trial, conviction, and execution.

For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs (Matthew 24:5-8).

This concept of “birth pangs” was not a phrase coined by Yeshua, rather He was speaking directly into one of the hot topics of the day, just as we might regarding a news event today.

In his book The Messiah Texts: Jewish Legends of Three Thousand Years,⁴ Raphael Patai dedicates chapter eleven to “The Pangs of the Times.” In the set up to the chapter, Patia writes, “Once the idea became entrenched that the coming of the Messiah will be preceded by greatly increased suffering, and that even the beginnings of the Messianic era itself will be an age of great trials and tribulations, apocalyptic fantasy went to work with a vengeance on elaborating in gruesome detail what would happen at the onset of the days of the Messiah.”⁵

The examples he lists from before Yeshua’s birth and contemporary to his life and the life of the apostles are quite remarkable. While there are variations, the theme is remarkably similar to the Olivet Discourse. Yeshua may not have invented the terms of the last days as much as confirmed what the Holy Spirit had already placed on the hearts of many of Israel’s scribes and prophets.

“Hear what I divulge to thee, so shall it come to pass: the first [is] great distress; the second, conflagration of many cities; the third, destruction and pestilence of animals; the fourth, hunger of the whole world and of its people; the fifth, destruction among its rulers, [and] destruction by earthquake and the sword; the sixth, multiplication of hail and snow; the seventh, the wild beasts will be their grave; the eighth, hunger and pestilence will alternate with their destruction; the ninth, punishment by the sword and flight in distress the tenth, thunder and voices and destructive earthquake …

“Then I will sound the trumpet out of the air, and will send mine Elect One [i.e. the Messiah], having in him all my power, one measure [of each of my attributes]; and this one shall summon my despised people from the nations, and I will burn with fire those who have insulted them and who have ruled over them in this Age.”⁶

This example from the Apocalypse of Abraham has a familiar ring for many Christian readers as much of it is found in the Olivet Discourse. For Raphael Patai, the New Testament age Hebrews, and Yeshua, these events were known as birth pangs, and have regularly been part of human existence in one degree or another.

“And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).

It is easy to forget that when the Bible speaks of “lawlessness” it does not merely refer to civil disobedience. Within the Scripture, there is only one divinely ordained code of “Law” and “lawlessness” is the breaking of that “Law.”

Within the framework of the Old Testament and the audience Yeshua addressed, “Law” is the Torah, though it is a misnomer to think that “torah” means a list of cold and unfeeling laws on stone. It does not. Literally Torah means God’s “teaching” or “instruction.” The modern idea that “Law” is a set of do’s and don’ts, which when practiced automatically induce legalism and abrogate the saving work of the cross, is a gross misunderstanding.

One needs look no further for proof than the verse itself. What happens when “lawlessness is increased?” Yeshua says that love grows cold. On what commandments hang the whole of the Torah and the Prophets? Love God and love your neighbor. When love grows cold, the love of God and fellow man wanes resulting in a lawless society (the breaking of God’s instructions); a lawlessness that rejects the two very instructions upon which the whole of the Law and Prophets hinge.

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come” (Matthew 24:14).

Contrasting of the “gospel of the kingdom” with the modern Evangelical preaching of “the gospel” has been discussed earlier studies and will not be reiterated here overmuch. Yeshua and His disciples were not introducing of a “new” religion that would one day be called “Christianity” (neither was it an accreditation of any given branch of Judaism). The good news of the kingdom of God was as old as the Exodus from Egypt, when God established His kingdom in the wilderness, and later led His people into the Holy Land.

The “gospel of the kingdom” was not new theology to the Hebrews sitting there with Yeshua on the Mount of Olives. What was new, or perhaps better said “re-newed,” was the mission that this “gospel of the kingdom” would be preached to the whole world. That had been Israel’s Great Commission, later reiterated to the disciples in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” Into what were they to be made disciples? They were to be imitators of Yeshua—certainly—and likewise they were all to seek “the kingdom of God.”

For just as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be (Matthew 24:27).

The idiom “Son of Man” had a two-fold definition. It could very easily mean an average, every day person walking on the street, but it could also carry a much greater and specific implication—the Messiah.

In part, Yeshua’s use of the phrase “Son of Man” would help keep Him from the long arm of the Pharisees who sought to kill Him. To proclaim oneself the “messiah” was considered a blasphemous crime worthy of capital punishment. The title “son of man” however, was far more ambiguous and problematic to make stick in a religious trial.

When Yeshua identified Himself with the “Son of Man,” particularly in relation to the use of this phrase in the book of Daniel, He kept himself free of a trial (for now) while still getting His message across to the people.

There was no doubt that Yeshua’s audience understood the intention. By this time the “Son of Man” was equal in definition to the “Son of God,” principles well established in the extra biblical texts such as Enoch 105:2, 4 Ezra 7:28-29 and the War Scroll of the Dead Sea (4Q385).

One of the titles of the Messiah, based on Daniel 7:13-14, where the text has “bar-enosh” (Aramaic). “Bar-enosh,” like the Hebrew ben-adam, can also mean “son of man,” “typical man,” “one schooled to be a man,” or simply “man.” Yeshua is all of these; the Messiah, a typical (ideal) man, and one schooled both in heaven and on earth to be a man. Yeshua refers to himself by this title frequently, stressing his full identification with the human condition as taught in Romans 5:12-21 …⁷

Yeshua is drawing the conclusions for the audience, the Jewish men, women and children sitting at his feet, that He is the Son of Man—the Messiah of Israel.

… and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).

After quoting many prophecies out of the Hebrew Scriptures, Yeshua sums up with a statement that has the same tone as the quote above from the Apocalypse of Abraham. There would be no question in the audience’s mind that this “Son of Man” was no ordinary man, but the Messiah. The manifestation of Matthew’s testimony to the Jewish people is right before them.

The point is driven home even further in the context of “then all the tribes of the earth will mourn.” Yeshua hints at the words of another prophet of Israel, Zechariah: “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem . . .” (Zechariah 12:10-11, italics mine).

Yeshua is leaving little doubt as to His mission and His identity—for those with ears to hear.

Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near even so you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place” (Matthew 24:33-34).

Once again, like so many other rabbis of His time, the Great Rabbi teaches using a parable. The fig tree was euphemistically used for the people of Israel, so it would seem that Yeshua is saying that when Israel puts forth spiritual leaves—on its way to becoming fruitful for the kingdom again—then the end of the age is near.

For some, it is believed that as the political entity of Israel became a nation in 1948, that may have signaled the beginning of the fig tree retuning to life and the nearness of Yeshua’s return (for the Christian, and the arrival of the Messiah for the first time for much of today’s Orthodox Jewry).

The Messiah’s statement that “this generation will not pass away until all these things take place,” has confounded some students of the Bible. A biblical generation was considered forty years. For some today, Yeshua’s inference means that none of those seated there on the Mount of Olives would die before all of the trials and tribulations of which He spoke had come to pass. This interpretation is one of the foundations of the preterists’ view.

On the timeline, that works out to right around the time when the Temple was destroyed. The Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, and in particular to the Temple Mount, and all manner of abominations occurred. But Israel as a whole would not suffer the full wrath of Rome until Emperor Hadrian in 135, nearly one hundred years after the Olivet Discourse, well after the passing of the “generation.”

The Greek word genea has definitions beyond the limitation of “generation.” It can be indicative of a people or nation, in which case Yeshua may have been implying that the Jewish people as a whole would not pass away until all that was prophesied had come to pass. That certainly fits within the overall context of the entirety of Scripture, and Jeremiah 31 in particular.

Genea also can mean “an age” as in a epoch or season, in which case Yeshua may have been implying—in harmony with the message of the Olivet Discourse—that this current age of “messiahism” would not conclude until “the end” when the Olam HaBa (the messianic kingdom age to come) would descend upon all mankind.

That all the events of Matthew chapter 24 would come to pass within that generation’s lifetime seems unlikely by virtue of an unsuitable translation of genea’s intent, and not in harmony with the overall context of the Olivet Discourse and the entirety of the Bible.

Regardless, the Messiah finishes chapter 24 as we began this article. Little depends on the season or even the signs of the times. The days in which we live may be interesting and a topic of conversation and vivid debate, but they are of little consequence if our lives are forfeit. “For this reason you be ready too, for the Son of Man is coming …” (Matthew 24:44).

Eschatological events will unfold as they will, in perfect accord with God’s most noble plan. Ours is not to worry about such things, and certainly we should not to allow division to come into the Body of Christ over such a trivial issue. Our calling is to “be ready,” in and out of season for “of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24:36). Summarized as the 1930s Radio Bible Class host, M.R. DeHaan often said, “Perhaps today.”

This theme of “be ready” carries on through the parables of chapter 25, where example after example is given of being ready for the “bridegroom,” the “master,” and the “King.” Each parable contains important lessons all their own regarding trust, works, and taking care of our fellow man as if he or she were Yeshua. However, the entirety of the message ties directly back to being ready and living life today—right now—avoiding frivolous matters and endless debates, but in accord with God’s will.

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In our next examination of Matthew, we look at chapter 26, the Last Supper and its overarching relationship with Passover.

Notes:

¹ Unless otherwise noted, the New American Standard Bible is used with permission.

² Geneva Bible Commentary 1586.

⁵ ibid. p.95

⁶ ibid. p.96