The Scriptures teach a simple prophetic framework that encourages us to fulfill the Great Commission: to make disciples of all nations in this age. We’re making incremental progress toward the goal of discovering that framework. Our starting point is the Olivet Discourse, where a simple, understandable conversation occurs. Jesus says that no stone in the temple would remain intact (Matt 24:1–2). In response, the disciples ask when this event would occur and the signs that would precede it.
I will use a well-established principle to explain Jesus’ response: the author’s (or speaker’s) subject must govern our interpretation of the individual elements in a passage. In the Olivet Discourse, the issue Jesus has in mind is the temple’s fall, and we must interpret his reply to the disciples’ questions considering that fact.
Earlier I said that the Lord answers the sign question first (Matt 24:4–31). I will divide his signs into three groups: (1) preliminary signs (Matt 24:4–14), (2) a later sign (Matt 24:15–26), and (3) immediate signs that pertain to the temple’s fall (Matt 24:27–31).
I call the first set of signs preliminary because Jesus said they would not mean the temple was about to fall, ending the Mosaic age. He said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matt 24:6).
Jesus makes an obvious progression as he gives these preliminary signs, first listing general signs, then mentioning specific ones that would affect the disciples and their ministry. His four general signs are (1) religious deceivers, (2) social unrest, (3) physical disturbances, and (4) prophetic birth pains. The first three signs could occur in any generation without fulfilling specific prophecies. However, in this context, they combine to form the messianic “birth pains” the prophets had described in ancient times.
My last post described the first two of these general signs; here, I will look at the other two.
Physical Disturbances
Jesus lists physical disturbances—natural upheavals with the potential to damage human life—as his third preliminary sign: “And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matt 24:7b).1
Some modern prophecy teachers (with their existing prophetic frameworks in hand) seem preoccupied—I could almost say obsessed—with current events of this type. They use seismological statistics to undergird their belief that earthquakes characterize our era to an unprecedented degree. Other data seem to support their teaching that disasters are more frequent today than ever. But these teachers ignore the Lord was not talking about our day; he was listing events that would define the period before the temple’s destruction, not those that would happen two millennia later.
Both Scripture and history verify the Lord’s words concerning these phenomena. Luke mentions famines in the book of Acts: “And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth [i.e., famine] throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar” (Acts 11:28). Earthquakes occurred in Crete and other cities in Asia, and even in Rome.
These physical disturbances confirm the accuracy of Jesus’ prediction in its historical context. Jesus told the disciples that such events would occur during their years of ministry, but they would not introduce the climactic end of the age—the temple’s fall.
Prophetic Birth Pains
As a summary statement, Jesus says these preliminary signs would be “the beginning of the birth pains” (Matt 24:8 ESV). The prophets used this imagery to depict God’s judgment of Israel’s enemies. Isaiah, for example, used it to describe God’s judgment of Babylon: “They will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; they will be amazed at one another; their faces will be like flames” (Isa 13:8).
Jeremiah applied it to two other nations: “The mighty men’s hearts in Moab on that day shall be like the heart of a woman in birth pangs” (Jer 48:41), and “The heart of the mighty men of Edom in that day shall be like the heart of a woman in birth pangs” (Jer 49:22).
The prophets also used this imagery to describe God’s past judgments of Israel. Isaiah said, “As a woman with child is in pain and cries out in her pangs, when she draws near the time of her delivery, so have we been in Your sight, O LORD” (Isa 26:17). Jeremiah said, “Anguish has taken hold of us, pain as of a woman in labor” (Jer 6:24; see Jer 4:31and Mic 4:9–10).
This sign points to the Great Commission. The Jews believed messianic birth pains would come just before the new age arrived and that, in it, the nations would come to serve the true God. Further, they knew their previous sufferings had not produced this result. Isaiah, for example, mourned Israel’s inability to achieve this outcome: “We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen” (Isa 26:18).
Israel’s previous sufferings did not result in a world full of God-worshiping nations. Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, is telling the disciples about Israel’s final travail before the temple’s fall. During the following age—the time of Jesus’ parousia (presence)—the church would succeed where Israel had failed. She would “make disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19).
Conclusion
In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus answers the disciples’ question about the sign of the temple’s fall. His list of general signs that would not signify the end includes religious deceivers, social unrest, and physical disturbances. These signs were precursors, leading to the critical event. As that event grew near, Israel’s birth pains would intensify.
Israel’s labor would bring blessings to the nations. The prophet Isaiah had described this process long before Jesus’ generation:
Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children. Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the Lord. “Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God. “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed; on her sides shall you be carried, and be dandled on her knees. (Isa 66:7–12)
Jesus brought forth a holy nation through His death, burial, and resurrection in AD 30 (cf. 1 Pet 2:9), but Israel’s birth pains occurred later, in the “great tribulation” before the temple fell in AD 70 (cf. Matt 24:21). So, Israel “gave birth before her pain came.” Those pains ended the Mosaic age. God now extends glory to the Gentiles in the messianic age through obedience to the Great Commission (cf. Matt 28:18–20).
Footnotes
- The image in this post is A Depiction of the Great Lisbon Earthquake, author unknown. The file is here and is in the public domain (PD-US).
