When Christ comes in the clouds (Matthew 24:30; Matthew 26:64; Mark 13:26; Mark 14:62; Revelation 1:7), is that the end
of it all?
Day 16
B. Hodge, Biblical Authority Ministries, June 4, 2020
A
number of times in the Old Testament, the Lord appeared in the clouds and led
the way or made statements from it (e.g., Exodus 24:14-18, Numbers 9:21, and
Matthew 17:5). In many cases, though, clouds and judgment often went hand in
hand.
A
few of these judgments in clouds are in Exodus 14:23-25; Daniel 7:13; Jeremiah 4:13; Joel 2:1-3; Numbers 12:5-10, Isaiah 19:1; and Ezekiel 38:9-13. Yet the
world did not end then. But it did put judgment to something or someone.
The
clouds are often representative of the dust (of armies), as well as the burning
and cloud of smoke (of fallen cities) as a testimony of the destruction – things that
can be seen in the distance. Some examples of this principle in Scripture are
Jeremiah 21:12, Judges 20:37-40, Genesis 19:28, Psalm 11:6, Isaiah 14:31,
Isaiah 34:10, Nahum 2:13, Joel 2:30, and Joshua 8:20. Consider this with
regards to Revelation 18:18.
When
the Lord came in judgment on the clouds, it was directed against the Jews/Jerusalem
and the Temple – which was utterly destroyed by the Roman army and left to burn
in A.D. 70. After all, they killed the Lord and rejected Him. And the Lord
enacted judgment after a remnant of them had come to know Christ. Matthew 27:25
have the Jews in unison calling for the death of Jesus saying:
And all the people
answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
The
blood of all the prophets that were pointing toward Christ was charged to that first century generation of Jews
(Luke 11:50-51). So this caps that the blood of the ultimate prophet, Jesus
Christ, was on them as well. They asked for it.
Note
the parallel here. The Jews killed the Son of God and then demanded that the
blood of Christ be on them and their
children. And when judgment came, it was reflected on them…and their
children. They essentially offered up their own sons (and daughters) to be
judged after killing the Son of God.
This
was truly the end of the age when the Temple was destroyed and Jerusalem left
desolate. The Mosaic sacrificial system was no more, thus the end of all the things to which the Jews were accustomed. With Christ’s sacrifice being
sufficient, it ended the [now] unnecessary sacrificial system and performed
duties associated with the sanctuary.
Read Luke 21:9-23 and 1 Peter 4:7.
