The De-Creation of Old Covenant Israel Text: Mark 13:24-27
Introduction: Learning to Read the Signs
We live in an age that is absolutely addicted to newspaper eschatology. Christians, who should know better, spend their time trying to map current events in the Middle East onto the book of Revelation, looking for barcodes on the back of their heads, and generally treating the prophetic portions of Scripture like a crystal ball for predicting the end of the world. But this is a profound misreading of what the Bible is doing. When Jesus speaks prophetically, He is not giving us fodder for sensationalist novels; He is giving us the theological meaning of history. He is teaching us how to interpret our times in light of His finished work.
The Olivet Discourse, found here in Mark 13 and in its parallels in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, is one of the most abused sections of the entire Bible. The confusion arises because we fail to do two basic things. First, we fail to let the Bible interpret the Bible. The language Jesus uses here is not new. It is shot through with Old Testament imagery and quotation. If we want to know what it means for the sun to be darkened and the stars to fall, we must go back to the prophets and see how they used that language. Second, we fail to listen to Jesus' own explicit time constraints. He has just told His disciples that the Temple, that glorious edifice, would be thrown down, not one stone left upon another. They ask Him when this will be, and He answers them. And at the end of this discourse, He says, "Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place" (Mark 13:30). "This generation" means the generation He was speaking to. All these things, therefore, had to find their fulfillment in their lifetimes, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
So when we come to these verses, we are not reading about the end of the space-time universe. We are reading about the end of an age, the end of the Old Covenant world, centered on the Temple in Jerusalem. This was a world-shattering event, a cosmic collapse, and so Jesus describes it in cosmic collapse language. This is the language of "de-creation," the judicial undoing of a covenant world that had rejected its King.
The Text
“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 THAT ARE IN THE HEAVENS will be shaken. And then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory. And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.”
(Mark 13:24-27 LSB)
Cosmic Collapse as Covenant Judgment (vv. 24-25)
We begin with the celestial fireworks:
“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 THAT ARE IN THE HEAVENS will be shaken.” (Mark 13:24-25)
Now, if you are a twenty-first-century literalist, you read this and think of asteroid belts and solar flares. But if you are a first-century Jew steeped in the Old Testament, you hear something entirely different. This is the standard, prophetic language for the fall of a nation or a great political power. This is what the prophets said when God brought a pagan empire to its knees. It is the language of political upheaval, of a kingdom collapsing.
Consider Isaiah's prophecy against Babylon: "For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light" (Isaiah 13:10). Was Isaiah predicting the literal implosion of the sun when Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians? Of course not. He was saying that for Babylon, the lights were going out. Their world was ending. Their political firmament was being dismantled.
Or look at Isaiah's prophecy against Edom: "All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine" (Isaiah 34:4). This is apocalyptic language for national judgment. Ezekiel uses the same imagery for the fall of Egypt (Ezekiel 32:7-8). The "sun, moon, and stars" in this prophetic vocabulary are the ruling authorities, the powers that be, the structures of a given society. When God judges a nation, He shakes their heavens. He topples their rulers. He brings their world to an end.
So what is Jesus saying here? He is taking this well-established prophetic language and applying it to Jerusalem and the Temple-centric world of Old Covenant Israel. "After that tribulation," the great tribulation of the Roman-Jewish war from A.D. 66 to 70, the entire religious and political structure of Israel would be dismantled. The sun of the high priesthood would be darkened. The moon of the Sanhedrin would cease to give its reflected light. The stars, the various leaders and principalities of the Jewish nation, would fall from their positions of authority. The "powers in the heavens" refer to this entire spiritual and political architecture. This was not the end of the world, but it was the end of their world, and in a way that was far more significant than the fall of Babylon or Edom, because this was the end of the Old Covenant age itself.
The Coming of the Son of Man (v. 26)
Next, Jesus describes His own coming in judgment and vindication.
“And then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN CLOUDS with great power and glory.” (Mark 13:26 LSB)
Again, our carnal minds immediately picture Jesus floating down from the sky to land on the Mount of Olives. But we must let Scripture interpret Scripture. The primary reference here is Daniel 7. "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him" (Daniel 7:13). Notice the direction of travel. The Son of Man on the clouds is not coming down to earth. He is going up to the Ancient of Days in heaven to receive His kingdom, authority, and glory.
This is a scene of heavenly enthronement. Jesus' ascension was the beginning of this fulfillment. He ascended to the right hand of the Father and was given all authority in heaven and on earth. The "coming in clouds," therefore, is not a reference to the Second Coming at the end of history, but rather to His coming in judgment against apostate Jerusalem. The clouds are a common Old Testament symbol of divine judgment (Psalm 18:10-12; Isaiah 19:1). When the Romans surrounded Jerusalem, when the Temple was burned, when the sacrificial system ground to a halt, the world saw the effects of Christ's heavenly rule. They saw that He had been vindicated over the very men who had condemned Him. He had told the high priest Caiaphas, "You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). Caiaphas and that generation saw it. They saw it in the utter destruction of their city and their covenant world. It was a visible manifestation of His invisible authority.
The Gathering of the New Israel (v. 27)
The result of this judgment is not just destruction, but salvation and the formation of a new people.
“And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.” (Mark 13:27 LSB)
With the Old Covenant structures removed, the way is now fully open for the New Covenant to flourish. The "angels" here are best understood as "messengers," which is the primary meaning of the Greek word angelos. Who are Christ's messengers? They are His preachers, His evangelists, His apostles. With the destruction of the Temple, the gospel was untethered from its Jewish swaddling clothes and went out into all the world.
This is the Great Commission in its prophetic fulfillment. The judgment on Jerusalem was the catalyst for the explosion of the Christian faith across the Roman Empire and beyond. The "elect" are gathered, not by being physically levitated into the air, but by hearing the gospel and being brought into the new covenant community, the Church. The Church is the new Temple, the new Israel. This gathering is from the "four winds," a universalizing expression. The gospel is for every tribe, tongue, and nation.
The old Israel was gathered geographically to Jerusalem. The new Israel, the Church, is gathered spiritually into Christ. The destruction of the old temple of stone made way for the building of the new temple of living stones (1 Peter 2:5). This verse, then, is a prophecy of the success of the gospel in the apostolic age. Paul could say just a few years before these events that the gospel "was preached to every creature under heaven" (Colossians 1:23). This is hyperbolic language, of course, but it shows the immense scope and success of this "gathering." The fall of Jerusalem was the definitive sign that God's kingdom had moved on, and the messengers were now gathering a new people from every corner of the earth.
Conclusion: Vindicated and Commissioned
So what does this ancient prophecy mean for us? It means everything. It means that Jesus is Lord. The events of A.D. 70 were the public, historical, undeniable vindication of everything Jesus claimed. He was the true prophet. He was the true King. He was the Son of Man to whom all authority had been given. The collapse of the old world was the irrefutable proof that the new world had dawned.
Because He was vindicated, we are not left with a failed prophet or a delayed kingdom. We are living in the midst of that kingdom now. His reign is not some future hope; it is a present reality. He is ruling from heaven, putting all His enemies under His feet, and He will continue to do so until the final enemy, death itself, is destroyed at His final return (1 Cor. 15:25-26).
And because His kingdom is a present reality, our commission is a present reality. The gathering of the elect did not stop in the first century. The messengers are still being sent out. The gospel is still the power of God unto salvation. The destruction of that old, exclusive system in Jerusalem was what opened the door for the gospel to create a new, global humanity. We are the fruit of that gathering. And we are now the ones sent out as messengers, as angels, to continue that work, gathering the elect from the four winds, until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.