The End Times (Part IV)

Looking at Mark 13:24-25 we read this, “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”    Jesus is now talking about the days immediately preceding His return.  This prophesy is also repeated in Isaiah and also parallels what would happen when the 6th seal is broken in Revelation 6. 

Look at how Revelation 6:12 lays this out, “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth… Then the kings of the earth and the great ones… called out to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

All this is in keeping with what Jesus said in Mark 13:19, this tribulation period would be unlike anything the world has ever faced.  And here in Revelation we see that there would be no one, even the greatest and most powerful people on earth who will be able to stand before Christ on that dreadful day.

Lets take what I would call a hermeneutical rabbit trail here.  Hermeneutics is the interpretation of the Bible.  It is important when looking at some of these prophecies to keep something in mind when trying to understand them.  In fact I would like to lay three difficulties when interpreting these kind prophecies in Scripture.

1.      The apocryphal language

The Bible has several styles of language that include historical narrative, wisdom literature, poetry, and prophecy that is often filled with symbolic and allegorical language.  For example, in the book of Revelation we find various numbers, colors, animals and objects that represent things and are not to be taken always literally, but alluding to things that we can dicipher when looking at the broader context. 

Part of Jesus’ teaching here in Mark 13 is apocryphal language.  You will also find this kind of language in Zachariah, Daniel, Ezekiel and other books.  The point is this, we have to be careful not to read too much into these symbols and always go back to the point that the word of God is making in the context of the passage and then look at how those symbols are used within the context of the book and the Bible as a whole. 

2.     The multiple fulfillment of prophecy

This prophesy of the sun being darkened in Mark 13 is also repeated in Joel 3:9.  The Apostle Peter quotes from Joel in his first sermon when describing what happened at the 9th hour when Jesus died on the cross.  Many believe that Joel’s prophesy here has more than one possible fulfillment, one on the day Jesus died and one when He returns, which we find in Mark 13 and Revelation 6.

The Abomination of Desolation is another one.  When Daniel talks about it, most commentators believe He is talking not only about the very end of time before Jesus comes, but also when a gentile ruler Antiochus profaned the temple with pig’s blood in 176 BC and when Rome desecrated the temple area when destroying Jerusalem in 70 AD. 

Even in Mark 13, when Jesus prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem  in 70 AD, within a few sentences He also taught about the church age and then 7 year period called the tribulation.  Here even in Jesus' prophecies we have the the possibility of more than one fulfillment and period of time. 

3.      Prophesies are often not in chronological order

In the book of Revelation 6th seal is followed by one more seal and then 7 trumpets and 7 bowls of wrath.  Sometimes it seems chronological, other times they seem to be parallel events.  When you read Ezekiel and Daniel, many of the prophecies are clearly not linearly placed, which was an acceptable way that Hebrew literature put things.

Here is my conclusion on this, we need to always look at the bigger picture when trying to interpret prophesy, and not get lost in the weeds.  Here in Mark 13, the big picture is God’s judgment upon earth, Christ’s return and God’s call upon our lives to live our lives in such a way that He could come back anytime.   The application in keeping with the entire chapter is that our hearts would be "on guard" and that we would spiritual be "awake."