Immediate Signs: Lightning — Part 1

Let’s pause for a moment to reorient ourselves, especially regarding the overall theme of this blog series—the Great Commission and prophecy. 

Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse, foretells the temple’s fall (Matt 24:1–2). The disciples, in response, ask for signs of that event (Matt 24:3). Jesus gives preliminary signs (Matt 24:4–14) and a sign more closely associated with the temple’s end—the “great tribulation” (Matt 24:15–26). These signs include the disciples preaching the “gospel of the kingdom … in all the world as a witness to all the nations” (Matt 24:14).

Now, Jesus gives the signs that would occur immediately after the tribulation and that would pertain directly to the temple’s destruction:

As the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels [or, messengers, YLT] with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matt 24:27–31)

These signs include God’s messengers gathering the elect. How would they do that? By obeying the Great Commission which he would give them less than seven weeks after the Olivet Discourse: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). We will discuss this gathering of the elect later. Here, I want to emphasize that Jesus’ signs point in that direction. After the temple falls, the church’s job would be to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19).

This group of signs completes two literary trends Jesus wove into his answer to the disciples’ sign question. The first trend regards a move from general to specific geographic areas in which the signs would occur. He began with signs that would occur throughout the Roman Empire (e.g., earthquakes, Matt 24:7). He then gave a sign that related to the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem (i.e., the “great tribulation,” Matt 24:21). Now, Jesus’ signs focus on the Temple Mount.

The second trend is from literal to figurative language. At first, the Lord uses unadorned prose for his preliminary signs but uses hyperbole for the “great tribulation.” Now, in the immediate signs, Jesus employs apocalyptic images to dramatize the temple’s fall. Both trends make these immediate signs an impressive capstone for Jesus’ list and bring attention to the temple itself.

Matthew’s arrangement of the signs in Jesus’ grand finale creates a chiasm:

A. Lightning: heavenly sign of danger (Matt 24:27). 

B. Vultures: earthly sign of carnage (Matt 24:28)

C. Cosmic collapse: disintegration of a universe (Matt 24:29). 

C.’ Son of Man in heaven: appearance of a universe (Matt 24:30a, c)

B.’ Mourning tribes: earthly sign of sorrow (Matt 24:30b)

A.’ Angelic gathering: heavenly sign of safety (Matt 24:31)

The signs in the outer couplet (A-A’) would occur in the atmospheric regions: lightning flashes would announce an approaching storm; angelic messengers would go “from one end of heaven to the other” bringing the elect to safety. The middle couplet (B-B’) draws attention to earthbound events: vultures feast, and tribes mourn because of what has happened. The inner couplet (C-C’) transcends the earth and its atmosphere: the entire universe collapses, and then the Son of Man appears.

We should not press these images too far toward physicality; their chief purpose is to elevate the importance of what they describe, not to provide visible characteristics. But prophetic images, especially those depicting catastrophes, often contain kernels of tangible reality that connect the images to the actual world. Embellishments around this tangible core produce the desired effect. I will mention some instances of these kernels as I discuss these signs.

Thankfully, the sign figures Jesus uses for the temple’s destruction come from the Old Testament Scriptures: some from passages about God’s previous judgments of Israel, others from descriptions of his judgments of other nations. None of these prophetic images appear for the first time in the Olivet Discourse, a fact that suggests the disciples understood the signs Jesus is giving; the prophets’ previous use of these images had prepared the way for Jesus to connect them to the temple’s fall.

If we can join the disciples in recognizing the role of these powerful images, we can test how well their presence in the Olivet Discourse fits within the prophetic model we have discovered.

Lightning

Jesus begins his last group of signs with lightning imagery: “For as the lightning doth come forth from the east, and doth appear unto the west, so shall be also the presence (Gk. parousia) of the Son of Man” (Matt 24:27 YLT). This vivid and well-established simile¹ is a sign of God’s presence as he judges his enemies—it suggests he uses the heavens to assist him in his works of devastation. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus is using lightning to describe his presence (Gk. parousia) at the temple’s destruction. He has just finished describing the presence and activities of false prophets during the “great tribulation” (Matt 24:23–26). Now, Jesus is saying, “The presence of the Son of Man” will bring a sudden and obvious, lightning-like end to these deceivers.

Let’s look at some Old Testament passages that use lightning as a simile for judgment. These selections create a precedent for this image and prepare the way for a more extensive discussion of the visibility of these signs later.

David and Saul

David wrote a “song, on the day when the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul” (2 Sam 22:1). He said God heard his prayer for help: 

Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because He was angry.… He bowed the heavens also, and came down.… He sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning bolts, and He vanquished them. (2 Sam 22:8–10, 15; see also Ps 18:6–9, 13)

David acknowledged God’s presence in this deliverance and used lightning as a metaphor to describe it, but neither God’s presence nor the lightning was a visible physical reality. David “saw” both through the events he experienced as God delivered him.

Egypt

David wrote another psalm in which he praised God for delivering Israel from Egyptian bondage:

You have with Your arm redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You, they were afraid; the depths also trembled. The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; Your arrows also flashed about. The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; the lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea, Your path in the great waters, and Your footsteps were not known. You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (Ps 77:15–20)

God was present in judgment, and, as a result, “the earth trembled and shook.” Lightning again serves as an appropriate symbol of God’s judgment of Egypt and the deliverance of Israel. God led his people—the waters saw him—yet God left no footprints in the sand because his “footsteps were not known.” God led Israel to safety indirectly through human agents—he led his “people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” Israel could “see” the lightning, discern God’s judgment-presence, and observe his leadership, but not directly with their natural eyes.

Israel and Babylon

In Ezekiel, God used lightning imagery to describe a future (to Ezekiel) judgment of Jerusalem, saying, 

Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, preach against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel; and say to the land of Israel, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you.’” (Ezek 21:2–3)

A few verses later, God showed that this was no ordinary sword—it was his lightning sword:

And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, prophesy and say, thus says the Lord, say: ‘A sword, a sword is sharpened and also polished, sharpened for slaughter, polished to flash like lightning!’” (Ezek 21:8–10 ESV)

God revealed that this instrument of death was “the sword of the king of Babylon” (Ezek 21:19).

God said he would personally fight against Israel: “I … will draw My sword.” Yet, when this judgment came, none of the Israelites saw God’s presence; instead, they saw his agent—the marauding army of Babylon.

As Jesus gives the Olivet Discourse, this judgment of Jerusalem is in the distant past. Still, He uses the same lightning image to describe God’s future (to him) judgment of Jerusalem. The parousia (presence) of the Son of Man would attend the judgment of the temple, and it would be like lightning. Yet the Jews would not see his presence directly; they would see him indirectly through his agent—the Roman army.

Conclusion

The disciples would announce to the nations that God was about to destroy the temple and bring an end to the Mosaic age. This would simultaneously complete the inauguration of the messianic age, during which the Lord’s disciples would preach the Great Commission.

Jesus uses powerful but common images, including lightning, to describe this monumental age change. 

In our next post, we plan to examine more Old Testament passages that use this figure. After that, we will examine the other literary devices the Lord uses to draw attention to the temple’s demise. 

1. Ethelbert W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible Explained and Illustrated (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 732.