Mount Olivet Discourse -
Part 7
by Paul George
Sign of the Son of Man
The disciples of Jesus ask Him, " Tell us, when will these
things be, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of
the end of the age?" This passage answers the question about
the sign of Christ’s coming.
The sign and His coming are separate events. Based upon what
has preceded this verse, we know that the stage for His
dramatic return begins in verse 29 with a shaking of the
sun, moon and stars. This produces a blackout of the sky
preparing the way for the appearance of the sign of the Son
of Man, followed by the response of human mourning and fear,
resulting in the second coming of Christ. This sequence of
events will unfold in Jerusalem, even though they will have
a global impact. The sign of the Son of Man will be some
form of the manifestation of the Shekinah Glory. The
Shekinah Glory is the visible manifestation of the presence
of God, often showing up in the form of a cloud, light,
fire, or combinations of these. The Hebrew word Shekinah
does not appear in the biblical text. The Jewish rabbis
coined this extra-biblical expression called the "Shekinah
Glory," in order to distinguish those biblical passages
where they believe that a physical glory cloud or light was
present when the Hebrew word for "glory" was used. Shekinah
is a form of a Hebrew word that literally means, "he caused
to dwell," signifying that when God’s glory appeared in this
way it was a Divine visitation of the presence or dwelling
of God in the glory cloud.
The first part of Matthew 24:30 looks back to Zechariah
12:10. However, it is important to notice that in Zechariah
the mourning of 12:10 is explained by the verses that
follow. It is a repentant lamentation by Israel because it
results in the purification of the nation (Zechariah 13:1).
Rather than prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem, it is
predicting the opposite. "And it will come about in that day
that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come
against Jerusalem" (Zechariah 12:9). This is the tenor of
Zechariah 12:1-8. It looks ahead to God's future deliverance
of Israel when enemies will again surround Jerusalem. "In
that day" is prophetic of a time of deliverance of Israel,
not judgment. It is clear that the context of Zechariah is a
mourning that results in cleansing and deliverance for
Israel. Whatever the sign of the Son of Man is, it results
in the national repentance of Israel. This parallels
perfectly what Paul says in Romans 11:25-27. This
explanation of Matthew 24:30a sets the stage for the
understanding of the last half of the verse.
In the vision of Daniel 7:13 the Son of Man came up to the
Ancient of Days to receive the dominion to rule. However,
the Hebrew verb has no idea of direction; it simply means to
arrive or to reach. This specific verb is only used in
Daniel where it may refer to something reaching up as
Nebuchadnezzar's greatness did in Daniel 4:22. It has no
intrinsic sense of direction. Nor does the following
preposition indicate direction in itself. The construction
simply means the Son of Man approached the Ancient of Days.
However, even if it describes the Son of Man coming up to
the Ancient of Days, it only looks at the bestowment of
authority.
In summary, Matthew 24:30 describe a visible appearance of
the sign of the Son of Man, the repentance of Israel and the
triumphant return of Christ to reign on planet earth and all
the tribes of the earth will mourn because they will see the
undeniable sign of the returning Christ. Most importantly,
the verse goes on to say, "they will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory."
This has to be a reference to the visible, bodily, physical
return of Jesus Christ to planet earth; this did not happen
in a.d. 70. This cannot refer to a symbolic, naturalistic
interpretation that somehow Jesus returned in conjunction
with the Roman army in the first century. Jesus said, “they
will see the Son of Man."
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