Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
In response to post #110.
Matt 10:23 refers to the coming of the Son of Man before the apostles are able to go through the cities of Israel preaching the gospel. The sense I get from this chapter is that the Lord is telling the apostles to be urgent because they will run out of time.
All the commentaries on this passage see this expression "the coming of the Son of Man" as a point that needs quite a bit of consideration. Obviously you are immediately reminded of the Lord Jesus coming in the Clouds at the end of the age.
However, in Matt 24 the Lord is very clear that many things will happen and "the end is not yet" and He also tells us that we will preach the gospel throughout the entire world and to all the nations and then the end will come.
It is an erroneous practice to interpret the Bible based on a single verse.
So, you have to reconcile both Matt 10 which is very clear that the apostles will run out of time prior to the "coming of the Son of Man" and will not be able to go through all the cities of Israel before that point. And on the other hand there will be wars, rumors of wars, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and this is only the beginning of tribulation, the end is not yet. Instead, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the entire world and to all the nations. Only then will "the end come". There is no suggestion in Matt 24 that it will be the apostles preaching to all the nations, rather it is "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached".
So regardless of how appealing it is to suggest that Matt 10 is referring to "the end of the age" we know it isn't. Instead if we look at Luke 21 there is a very strong correlation between these two portions that suggest it is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. This destruction of the temple is also spelled out in Matt 24. This also corresponds with the historical record. During the ministry of the apostles the Jews were scattered abroad, both Peter and James refer to this.
So then Matt 10, Matt 24, Luke 21, and the historical record all fit very nicely together leaving us one last question. What does this term "the coming of the Son of Man" refer to?
In my opinion Hosea 13 is instructive here.
v.5 "besides me there is no savior" however Israel has forgotten Him.
v. 9 "it is thy destruction O Israel that you are against Me, your help".
They rejected Jesus as savior, and that is to their destruction. He reminds us that He gave us King Saul in His anger and then took him away in His wrath. Israel's rejecting God and demanding to have a king set over them was a prefigure of their rejection of Jesus Christ as their savior and king.
v. 14 "I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death: O death, where are thy plagues? O Sheol, where is thy destruction?"
This is the redemptive work of Jesus, only He can save them, and yet they rejected this and chose "Cesar to be their king". And Hosea says "the sorrows of a travailing woman will come upon him, he is an unwise son".
Finally an "east wind will come". If you live in Israel and east wind would be coming from across the Middle East, a hot, dry wind, a drought. We saw this, Israel as a nation dried up. "the breath of Jehovah coming up from the wilderness" that this will be the judgement of God because they rebelled. The conclusion of this chapter in Hosea is clearly referring to an army destroying the land "fall by the sword", "ripped up" and "dashed in pieces".
I think this prophecy is very well aligned to this period in time from the Lord's crucifixion to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Therefore "The breath of Jehovah coming up" would be equivalent to "the coming of the Son of Man".
|