Matthew 24

Matthew 24:1

Ye devour widows’ houses. Devour their property under holy pretenses.

Matthew 24:2

Ye compass sea and land. Spare no effort. To make one proselyte. Induce Gentiles to become circumcised and to keep the Jewish religion. This is the sense in which “proselyte” was then always used. Twofold more the child of hell. Usually the proselytes of such teachers went to even more sectarian extremes than their teachers.

Matthew 24:3

[Ye] blind guides. Blind, because they closed their eyes, yet professing to be leaders. Swear by the temple. A common oath among the Jews. Swear by the gold of the temple. In their foolish distinctions they regarded this as a binding oath. If the gold had any sacredness, it was because the temple, God’s house, made it so.

Matthew 24:5

Swear by the altar. That of the temple, the only altar known in Israel. Sweareth by the gift. The offering placed on the altar.

Matthew 24:8

Swear by the temple. Oaths that did they not call binding, Jesus traces to God himself. Compare Matthew 5:35. The meaning is that all oaths are by God. There are no distinctions.

Matthew 24:10

Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin. Insignificant garden herbs. The Jews were bidden to pay tithes of the fruits of the field and of trees (Leviticus 27:30). The Pharisees were scrupulous in paying tithes of garden herbs that were almost valueless, but neglected much more important duties.

Matthew 24:11

Strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. A forcible image of those who are very conscientious over small, and careless of great, matters.

Matthew 24:12

Ye make clean the outside, etc. The figure is plain. Its application rebukes scrupulous care of outside forms, while neglecting to have the heart pure.

Matthew 24:14

For ye are like unto whitewashed sepulchres. It is stated that on the 15th of the month of Adair, before the Passover, the Jews whitewashed all the spots where graves were situated. This was done both to beautify them and to mark the spots as to prevent any one from passing over them, which would occasion Levitical defilement. For this practice, they cited Numbers 19:16 Ezekiel 39:15. This custom gave the basis for the Savior’s figure. In plain view of the Savior and his hearers, as they stood in the temple court, could be seen the whitened tombs along the western slope of Olivet, some of which are still seen to this day. Beautiful outward, but are within full of dead [men’s] bones. A powerful figure to show forth the contrast between the sanctimonious professions of the Pharisees and their unholy lives.

Matthew 24:15

Ye also outwardly appear righteous. It was only in appearance and profession.

Matthew 24:16

Ye build the tombs of the prophets, etc. They honored the prophets and saints by building monuments to them, instead of following their teaching, or imitating their lives. Even Herod the Great, a monster of wickedness, rebuilt the tomb of David.

Matthew 24:18

Wherefore ye be witnesses, etc. They demonstrated by their hostility to Christ, by their plots and false charges, and would soon show by their murder of the Lord, that they had just the same spirit as their fathers who slew Isaiah, persecuted Jeremiah, and shed the blood of Zacharias between the altar and the temple. They were therefore their spiritual children as well as their descendants. It adds to the vividness of this denunciation that from the temple area where they were standing the crest of Olivet rose distinctly at the distance of half a mile, and upon it were clearly visible the white sepulchers of the prophets which they had built, among them the tomb of Zacharias, who is named just below as slain between “the temple and the altar” (Matthew 23:35).

Matthew 24:19

Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. The language of prophecy as well as irony and invective; as if he had said: Fill the measure of the guilt of your fathers to the brim. Crucify the Holy One and thus fill up the cup of iniquity.

Matthew 24:20

[Ye] generations of vipers, how can ye escape? etc. Brood of vipers, full of venom, deadly as serpent, treacherous as the lurking serpent. So John had called them nearly four years before (Matthew 3:7).

Matthew 24:21

Behold, I send unto you, etc. In Lu 11:49 is a passage much like this. The men sent were inspired apostles and evangelists. By giving the Jews still further opportunities after the sin of the cross, the guilt of those continued to reject the crucified Lord was aggravated. Prophets. Inspired teachers, like the apostles, Philip, Stephen, etc. Wise men. Faithful, devout and learned, but uninspired preachers. Scribes. Usually, those who copy and teach the wisdom of others, but I suppose also embracing those who wrote the New Testament Scriptures. [Some] of them ye shall kill and crucify. Literally fulfilled in the next few years.

Matthew 24:22

That upon you may come all the righteous blood. Thus would they fill the measure full and become guilty of all the righteous blood shed by the whole army of martyrs. The blood of Zacharias. The reference is probably 2 Chronicles 24:20. He was slain in the court of the house of the Lord by the people, and died exclaiming, “The Lord look upon this and require it” (2 Chronicles 24:22). He was the son of Jehoiada. The Siniatic manuscript omits “Barachias” in this place, and the error is supposed to have crept in from the mistake of some early copyist who confused this Zacharias with Zechariah the prophet, who was the son of Barachias.

Matthew 24:23

All these things shall come upon this generation. As the Amorites were spared until “their iniquity was full” (Genesis 15:16), so the iniquity of Israel was allowed to accumulate from age to age, till in that generation it came to the full, and the collected vengeance of justice broke at once upon it. So it is often in the destruction of a nation. The French Revolution of 1793 is another example.

Matthew 24:24

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets. The intense feeling that spoke in this utterance comes out first in the redoubling of the word Jerusalem; next in the picture of the sins of the city which he draws–a city so wicked that it was not content with rejecting the messengers of God, but even slew them. I know of nothing more touching than this apostrophe. How often would I have gathered thy children. Not only had the city been warned again and again by the prophets, but the Lord had visited it at least six or seven times, and had for months taught in its streets. Nor did his solicitude end with the cross. His long suffering, patience and love are shown by his charge in the commission to the apostles: “To preach repentance and remission in his name among all nations, ‘beginning at Jerusalem’” (Lu 24:47). Ye would not! “Would not” explains the cause of the rejection of the gospel. It is not because God in Christ is not ready: he “would gather” them. It is not because men cannot come, but because they will not come. Christ wished that salvation of Jerusalem; his will was for them to be saved: he sought to influence their wills to make a choice of salvation, but they “would not”. So God still “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9), but there are many “who will not come to Christ that they might have life” (John 5:40). While God wills the salvation of men, he does not destroy free agency by coercing the human will, but says: “Whosoever will, let him come” (Revelation 22:17).

Matthew 24:25

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. This was the consequence of refusing to come to Christ. The temple is the house meant. God will abandon it and leave it desolate. He will no longer accept its worship.

Matthew 24:26

Ye shall not see me henceforth. This seems to imply that the temple shall be deserted when he leaves it. With his departure the presence of God departs. He was the Lord of the temple. Till ye shall say. These were his last words in the temple precincts, but they do not shut out all hope. Even yet when the Jews shall join in the hosannahs of those who, on the Sunday before, had sung his praises, and cry, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21:9), they may be permitted to behold their Messiah. Many have seen in this passage a promise of the final conversion of Israel. Zechariah 12:10 Romans 11:26 2 Corinthians 3:15 seem to favor the same view. When Christ abandoned the temple in Jerusalem, it was only fit for the destroyer. If we should drive him out of his spiritual temple, the church, it would be left as dead as the body without the spirit.

Matthew 24:28

The Judgments on the Jewish Nation SUMMARY OF MATTHEW 24: The Temple to Be Utterly Destroyed. The Questions Asked on the Mount of Olives. Wars and Rumors of Wars Predicted. False Prophets and Christs. The Sign for Flight from Jerusalem. The Great Tribulation. How the Son of Man Shall Come. The Sun Darkened. The Coming of the Son of Man. This Generation. The Time of Christ’s Coming Unknown. Injunction to Be Always in Readiness. And Jesus . . . departed from the temple. Immediately after the discourse in which he pronounced the woes upon the scribes and Pharisees, upon the temple and Jerusalem. This remarkable chapter is not one upon which commentators are agreed, and the conclusions that I have reached on the points of difference will not be found identical with those of any other writer. I believe, however, that they will be found harmonious with the Scripture. Compare Mr 13:1-37 Lu 21:5-36. His disciples came to [him] to shew him the buildings of the temple. He had just foreshadowed its destruction. With this in mind they point out its splendor, especially the amazing stones used in its construction. Compare Mr 13:1 Lu 21:5. The temple had been rebuilt in great splendor by Herod, and was not fully completed until about thirty years after the Savior’s crucifixion.

Matthew 24:29

There shall not be left, etc. Other great temples are in ruins, but their ruins indicate their former splendor. The Parthenon, the Acropolis, the temples of Karnak, Luxor, and Baalbec are examples; but to find even the foundations of the Jewish temple it is necessary to dig beneath the modern city. It has entirely disappeared from the face of the earth, and a Mohammedan mosque stands on the spot where it stood.

Matthew 24:30

As he sat upon the mount of Olives. Passing out of the city, over the valley of Jehoshaphat, he and his disciples climbed the mount and sat down on its crest overlooking the city and temple bathed in the sunset. Tell us. The disciples, still thinking of what the Lord had said, ask three questions: (1) When shall these things be? That is, the overthrow of the temple. (2) What shall be the sign of the coming? And (3) of the end of the world? They supposed these events would be simultaneous–a mistake. To understand what follows we must keep in mind that he has three questions to answer, nor are the answers blended.

Matthew 24:31

Take heed that no man deceive you. By pretending to be Christ. As they yet believed that Christ would surely return to reign at Jerusalem, this admonition was needed.

Matthew 24:32

Come in my name. As the Messiah. We learn from Josephus that enthusiasts did come about the time of the end of Jerusalem, claiming to be sent of God. Bar-cocheba, “the son of the star”, appeared in A.D. 120. From time to time other deceivers have appeared.

Matthew 24:33

Ye shall hear of wars. The Jewish war began in A.D. 66, and ended five years after. During this period all the Roman empire was filled with commotion. Nero, the emperor, was overthrown by Galba; six months after, Galba was overthrown by Otho; a few months after, Otho was overthrown by Vitelius; a little later, he was overthrown by Vespasian. All of these but the last, who ascended the throne shortly before Jerusalem was destroyed, died violent deaths.

Matthew 24:34

Famines. The natural result of civil wars. Tacitus, the Roman historian, says of this period: ``It was full of calamities, horrible with battles, rent with seditions, savage in peace itself.’'

Matthew 24:36

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted. To persecution. Soon literally fulfilled in the Jewish persecutions. The awful persecution of Nero also soon followed. Ye shall be hated. Tacitus, describing Nero’s persecution begun in A.D. 64, says “the Christians were haters of mankind”.

Matthew 24:37

Then shall many be offended. Shall stumble and fall, rather than suffer for Christ. The half-hearted always do.

Matthew 24:38

Many false prophets. False teachers. Compare Galatians 1:7 1 John 2:12,18 4:1 2 Peter 2:1 1 Timothy 4:1. See also Josephus, Book VI, 5, sec. 3.

Matthew 24:39

Because iniquity shall abound, etc. Immorality eats out the heart of religion.

Matthew 24:40

He that shall endure unto the end, etc. The Christian Jews who endured to the end were saved by flight to Pella, beyond the Jordan, at the signal pointed out by the Lord. The principle is generally applicable.

Matthew 24:41

This gospel of the kingdom, etc. The gospel was preached throughout the Roman empire, “the world” of the New Testament, before A.D. 70. Then shall the end come. Of the Jewish state.

Matthew 24:42

When therefore ye see the abomination of desolation. This is the sign when Christians should flee from Jerusalem. See Daniel 9:27 11:31 12:11. Luke says, “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies” (Lu 21:20). This was, therefore, Christ’s explanation of the abomination of desolation. The Roman army, heathen, with heathen images and standards, ready to sacrifice to idols on the temple altar, working the desolation of Jerusalem and the temple, is what is meant. In the holy place. Mark says, “Where it ought not” (Mr 13:14); around “the holy city” (Matthew 4:5).

Matthew 24:43

Let them who are in Judea flee. For refuge.

Matthew 24:44

Let him which is on the housetop. The flat roofs were sleeping places. All must be done without a moment’s delay.

Matthew 24:46

Woe unto them that are with child. Because not fit for flight and the hardships that must be endured.

Matthew 24:47

Be not in the winter. Because the streams were then impassable torrents from the heavy rains and the weather cold and wet, hard on homeless people. Neither on the sabbath. Because then the gates of the city were closed, preventing departure. History tells us that the army of Cestius Gallus enclosed Jerusalem in A.D. 67, then deterred by its strength, retired to Caesarea. This was the signal for which the church waited, and it then fled beyond the Jordan.

Matthew 24:48

Great tribulation. The account given by Josephus, the Jewish historian who witnessed and recorded the war, is almost an echo of the predictions of Christ. Women ate their own children from starvation; the Jews within the city fought each other as well as the Roman army; on August 10, A.D. 70, the city was stormed and there was a universal massacre; 1,100,00 persons perished, and 100,000 survivors were sold into slavery.

Matthew 24:49

There should no flesh be saved. If such awful work should continue, it would exterminate the human race. For the elect’s sake. On their account, because there is salt to save the earth, and end shall be put to the awful work of death. The “elect” are the believers in Christ (Romans 11:5-7).

Matthew 24:50

Then. During this period of tribulation, give no heed to false prophets, false Christs, or to those who say Christ is here or there.