A laymans commentary on Matthew 24. Chapter Two, verses 3 - 6. When shall these things be - a common question these days.

 Chapter two.

Tell us when these things shall be, or evidence of the end of the age.

Matthew 24:3 “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

Anyone who has spent time looking at the disciples' lives knows that they had a very Jewish mindset, so it is necessary for your understanding to consider this when trying to grasp Jesus's response to them. Jesus had a direct connection to the Father (and so do we as believers) therefore what He is saying is clear and concise.

“And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

The question may well be two questions. In conversation and observation, the Christian community seems to confuse Christ's return for His bride with His final return to the earth.

• “On the day of His return, He will touch down on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, and on that day, He will come prepared for war.”
  Zechariah 14:3-4

• “When He comes for His bride, He will meet them in the air and does not touch down.”
  1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

An aspect of Jesus's response to their question can be seen in Matthew 24:4,5.

Matthew 24:4,5 “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”

Why would he say that?

Just a partial list off Wikipedia gives the names of 32 people that have taken that role. Some I recognize. Think about the ridiculousness of something like this. An example would be David Koresh. His teachings included his self-proclaimed authority to propagate children with the wives of men involved in the cult. That would not happen!

• This idea of someone coming in the name of Jesus becomes enormously important if you realize that Islam has it’s own version of Jesus.

Allah has some similar properties. The following is from Wikipedia about the Islamic Jesus.

• The belief that Jesus is a prophet is required in Islam.

• He is the son of Mary, not God (Allah).

• According to the Qur’an, Jesus, although appearing to have been crucified, was not killed by crucifixion or by any other means; instead, "Allah raised him unto Himself."

• Jesus is considered a Muslim (i.e., one who submits to the will of Allah), as he preached that his followers should adopt the "straight path" as commanded by Allah. (In other words, all must become Islamic and follow Sharia.)

• To aid in his ministry to the Jewish people, the Muslim Jesus was given the ability to perform miracles (such as healing the blind, bringing dead people back to life, calling fire down from the heavens, and causing it to rain where there has been none), all by the permission of Allah rather than of his own power.

• Muslims believe that 'Jesus' will return to earth near the Day of Judgment to restore justice and to defeat al-Masih ad-Dajjal ("the false messiah", known to the church as the Antichrist but to them it is our Jesus.) It's odd how they, too, have an understanding of the end-times pattern. The “false messiah” Islam looks for, is in direct opposition to Jesus Christ. They believe that the Antichrist is our Jesus. If you use the perspective that they serve the father of lies, then you might be able to comprehend why they are in opposition.)

• The Jesus of Islam will be a Jew. A priest of the lineage of Aaron, and therefore have access to the temple.

• He will defer to the Mahdi. (The Mahdi is their awaited savior. He is the 12^th or hidden imam, and several have already declared that the Mahdi is speaking through them. It is said that he will return on a white horse. This is the same white horse that we see in Revelation 19, and it is the only passage in our Christian bible that they believe is true.)

• He will be the enforcer of Sharia (the brutal set of rules that Islam uses to not only condemn outsiders but manipulate and control women within their religion.)

If all this is true, and there is someone who will take this role, then this makes all the sense in the world, and the ones that will be the primary targets of this deception will be the knowledgeable Jews. We happen to think of these as the religious of Israel.

Matthew 24:6 “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

The immediate context is: what will be the signs indicating your immediate return to the earth to rule as the Messiah we anticipated.

• Wars, we are surrounded by them.

Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are active war zones, but all those be-headings have become commonplace and boring, beside that, somebody powerful wants all this destruction, or it would not be happening. Syrian President Bashar even threatened Israel with a missile attack recently, to which Israel replied that they would flatten Damascus. The oddity here is that the prophecy tells us that Damascus will be utterly destroyed and uninhabitable; that can only happen if a nuclear weapon is used. The other news we are painfully aware of is the Ukraine. (The land of Gog)

Ezekiel 38:9-12 NASB: "You will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you." (10) 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan, (11) and you will say, 'I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will go against those who are at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates, (12) to capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world.'

Isaiah 17:1 LITV: “The burden of Damascus: Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruined heap.”

In case you haven't noticed Israel has been proactive in assassinations and bombings in and near Damascus and the airport there. If this were a baseball game we are in the last inning of the game. The end will be come soon.

A look at the book of Micah, chapter 1 verses 2-4.

Occasionally some bible reference comes from the speaker and I feel like I got left behind because I realize I know so little about the person or the subject matter; Micah is one of those books.
To be honest, there is also a little touch of vindictiveness when I open a book like Micah for I immediately see the connection between this authors words and end times events. Considering that my former pastor told me, on the premise of Godly wisdom, not to study or speak about end times events for five years (and yes, he was serious.) It just makes me chuckle to read a book like Micah, which is laden with Eschatology - end times events and the study thereof. And yes, I am an Eschatologist; I am passionate about it and look continuously for a crack in the door so that I can teach about this time frame that the disciple Peter, speaking as a prophet, said was upon us, merely because the Holy Spirit had fallen on the sons and daughters of Jerusalem, on that Pentecost day.

I covered the first verse in the overview on Micah, but since we are all about context let's add it in here once again.

Micah 1:1 MKJV  The Word of Jehovah that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

The break between verses one and two, in the NASB, indicate:

The Coming Destruction.

Micah 1:2

Micah 1:2 NASB Hear, O peoples, all of you; Listen, O earth and all it contains, And let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, The Lord from His holy temple.

While this version of the NASB seems clear enough, the Complete Jewish Bible states God's position with some attitude.

CJB Listen, peoples, all of you! Pay attention, earth, and everything in it! Adonai Elohim will witness against you, Adonai, from his holy temple

As I mentioned before, God is talking to Samaria and Jerusalem. Both of these were the capital cities of the split kingdom – Israel in the North, and Judah in the South. Don't think for a second that one was better than the other; they were both infused with horrific problems, lousy leadership, and idolatry.

But, verse 2 extends the retribution far beyond Jerusalem and Samaria when it says,

“Listen, peoples, all of you! Pay attention, earth, and everything in it!”

However, in the overview we were told that Micah was very specific about whom he was talking; so let's try to sort this out.

• Earth and all it contains. Currently, it contains me, and a lot of other people. A vast majority of those people fall under the category of “the nations” or gentiles. So let's talk about me for a moment (just playing with words.) Having given my life over to Jesus Christ as a child, my love for the Father has only become more vibrant and more profound, but let's assume that buys me nothing outside of “being in Christ.” This being in Christ, which is monumental in itself, makes me a part of the body of Christ - the church. The Church is excluded from the category called the nations when it comes to Eschatology. As a follower of Christ, I have been grafted into the rootstock, Israel (God's people.) This all happened in the spiritual realm, a portion of which makes up the identity of every believer.
  • Being the body of Christ, and, therefore the Church, comes out 1Corinthians 12; particularly verses 12-27
  • This grafting of the believer into the vine/root stock comes from Romans 11:17;
  • And trying to understand who or what you are, will force you to go to several locations in the Bible to get a firm answer.

Here we have God, creating what seems to be a single entity, man, in his own image.

This new creation is given a somewhat generic term 'âdâm which covers both man and mankind, but to add to your confusion, the verse itself indicates He created them male and female. When I look up the words male and female; female is the Hebrew word n^eqêbâh. The word is pronounced nek-ay-baw', and means female (from the sexual form): - woman. Some might see this as a roadblock to understanding, not because there is a distinct male and female assignment, but because we are trying to make sense of it all as we attempt to figure out where the physical body came into play, and therefore, us.

At this point in the creation timeline, 'âdâm does not have a body, and yet mankind, if you will, has been made in the image of God. There is an explanation, and it comes as we see Jesus responding to the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus told her, God is a spirit, and they who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. John 4:24.

[As a side note: We waste far too much time trying to picture God in some form that matches our nationality and color of skin, when in reality, God, who is a spirit, is probably more closely related to nuclear fission - bursting with color and energy.]

So, where then did we get this physical representation we call man?

• That my own initial creation and pattern is from and of God.
• Since God is an eternal spirit, then so am I, but I have this body I have to drag with me everywhere I go.
• But, most everyone understands that there will be a judgment at some point (that happens at the end of the 1000 year reign,) and that some of humanity will be sent off to eternal fire with its torment. Sorry, even there, that eternal spirit never dies; it is, however, eternally separated from any access to the Father God. This punishment comes down to which master you chose to serve.

“O earth and all it contains” then, it is without a doubt, directed at the Jews and the nations.

Micah 1:3

Micah 1:3 MKJV  For behold, Jehovah is coming out of His place, and will come down and walk on the high places of the earth.

If I look at 1Kings 8, I can get a very Jewish understanding of where the Messiah lives.

1 Kings 8:38-39 ISV  whatever prayer or request is made, no matter whether it's made by a single man or by all of your people Israel, each praying out of his own hurting heart and anguish and stretching out his hands toward this Temple,  39)  then hear from heaven, the place where you reside, and forgive, repaying each person according to all of his ways, since you know their hearts—for you alone know the hearts of all human beings—

The follower of Christ also believes that the Messiah/Jesus will come from heaven.

Revelation 19:11 ISV  Then I saw heaven standing open, and there was a white horse! Its rider is named Faithful and True. He administers justice and wages war righteously.

Followed by the armies of heaven.
Revelation 19:14 ISV  The armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, follow him on white horses.

Isaiah chapter 2 spells out, in great detail, what will happen when Jehovah comes out of His place to finish this nonsense.

Isaiah 2:10-19 ISV  "Go into the rocks! Hide in the dust to escape the terror of the LORD and to escape the glory of his majesty!  11)  The haughty looks of mankind will be brought low, the lofty pride of human beings will be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted at that time.  12)  "For the LORD of the Heavenly Armies has reserved a time to oppose all who are proud and haughty, and the self-exalting—they will be humbled.  13)  He will take his stand against all the cedars of Lebanon, against the proud and self-exalting; and against all the oaks of Bashan;  14)  against all the high mountains, and against all the lofty hills;  15)  against every high tower, and against every fortified wall;  16)  against all the ships from Tarshish, and against all their impressive watercraft.  17)  "Humanity's haughtiness will be humbled, male arrogance will be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.  18)  Their idols will utterly vanish.  19)  "They will enter caverns in the rocks and holes in the ground, to escape the presence of the terror of the LORD, to escape the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to terrify the earth.

Micah 1:4

Micah 1:4 AMP And the mountains shall melt under Him and the valleys shall be cleft like wax before the fire like waters poured down a steep place.

Verse 4 is a continuation of thought from verse 3, so let's put them together.

For behold, the LORD is coming forth from His place. He will come down and tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under Him And the valleys will be split, Like wax before the fire, Like water poured down a steep place. Micah 1:3-4 NASB)

The obvious factor is that He will come, and He will stand upon the ground once again. Keep in mind that we are talking about Jesus here – the same Jesus that walked upon the earth and ascended into the heavens.

The idea that the mountains will melt is symbolic, but it is also literal in a sense.

The Hebrew word for melt is mâsas and means to liquefy. To put this in perspective San Francisco, California is built on landfill and backfill. When the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 struck, it was said that the land liquefied. The scientific terminology behind this process is called liquefaction, where the underlying sandy soils become saturated, in this case by the ocean water and literally shake apart, just as though they were liquid.

What might be taking place when Jesus touches down as Jeremiah describes?

Olive trees on the Mount. of Olives.

Zechariah14:1-4 NASB Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. 2) For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. 3) Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. 4)In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.

The prophet Nahum gives us another point of view.
Nahum1:5-6 NASB Mountains quake because of Him And the hills dissolve; Indeed the earth is upheaved by His presence, The world and all the inhabitants in it. 6) Who can stand before His indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire And the rocks are broken up by Him.

The Hebrew word for melt is mâsas and means to liquefy. To put this in perspective San Francisco, California is built on landfill and backfill. When the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 struck, it was said that the land liquefied. The scientific terminology behind this process is called liquefaction, where the underlying sandy soils become saturated, in this case by the ocean water and literally shake apart, just as though they were liquid.

Ezekiel tells us there will be a horrendous earthquake at this time.


 Ezekiel 38:19-20 NASB "In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20) "The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground.