Immediately ( εὐθε ìως δε Ì, but immediately) after the tribulation of those days. The particle must not be disregarded, as it implies a caution with respect to the parousia. The Lord proceeds to announce some details of the final advent.
Taking the tribulation to be the single fact of the ruin of Jerusalem, with its accompanying horrors, some have explained the Lord's word "immediately after" by the foreshortening process of prophecy, which makes the distant future seem close to the obtruding present, or by the consideration that in God's view time does not exist: "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).
But the truth is, the tribulation (Matthew 24:21) only began with the fall of Jerusalem; that was its first and partial fulfilment; and, am St. Luke implies (Luke 21:23, Luke 21:24), it has been going on ever since, and is not yet finished.
The punishment of the Jews is still proceeding, Jerusalem is still trodden down by the Gentiles, wrath still lies upon the people, they are still dispersed over the world, and have been and are more or leas persecuted in many countries.
This state of things is to continue "till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" it is, then, "immediately after" this that the signs announced by the Lord shall be seen. He is, as we said above (see on verse 4), purposely indefinite, that the Church may learn to wait and watch for the return of the Saviour and Judge.
This state of expectatation is to be its normal condition. It had its effect on the primitive Church before she Jewish catastrophe. St. Peter (Acts 3:19-21) tells of the times of refreshing, when Jesus shall come, as possibly close at hand; St.
Paul more than once speaks in the same strain (1 Corinthians 1:7; Philippians 1:6, etc.), though he warns his converts not to omit ordinary duties in immediate expectation of the end (2 Thessalonians 2:2); St.
James (James 5:9) tells of the Judge standing before the door. And since then often has this belief cropped up at various stages of the world's history, showing that Christ's warning has sunk deep into Christian hearts, and produced the temper of mind which he purposed to raise.
Shall the sun be darkened, etc. There is no valid reason why the physical phenomena mentioned in this verso are not to be taken literally, even if we see also in them a spiritual significance. It is only reasonable to expect that the end of this world should be accompanied by stupendous changes in the realm of nature.
The sun was miraculously darkened when Jesus hung on the cross. What wonder if similar catastrophes signal his coming to judgment? The apostle's words point to a literal fulfilment (2 Peter 3:10, 2 Peter 3:12).
Our Lord's prediction echoes announcements often found in the Old Testament, which are not always to be considered metaphorical (see Isaiah 13:10; Ezekiel 32:7; Joel 2:30, Joel 2:31; Joel 3:15, Joel 3:16; Amos 8:9).
Anticipations of some of these terrible latter day signs occurred at Jerusalem, according to Josephus ('Bell. Jud.,' 6.5.3,4). Darkened … not give light. This is in accordance with Hebrew parallelism.
The next clause is constructed in the same way. Fall from heaven. The Lord may be speaking of the apparent effect of these convulsions of nature, in accordance with popular ideas, as we talk of the sun rising and setting; or he may thus term the obscuration or extinction of the light of the stars.
The powers of the heavens mean probably the heavenly bodies independent of the solar system, called elsewhere "the host of heaven" (Deuteronomy 4:19. etc.); or the phrase may signify (though the parallelism would not be so perfect) the forces and laws which control these bodies.
An interruption in the action of these powers would occasion the most awful catastrophes (see Haggai 3:6, which makes a similar announcement). We must notice the spiritual application of this prediction, as it has obtained a wide acceptance.
The words are sometimes taken in a bad sense. The sun is Satan, or Lucifer, who fell as lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18); "the powers of the heavens" are the hosts of the prince of the power of the air, "the spiritual wickednesses in high places;" the stars are all that exalt themselves, who shall be consumed and vanish at the brightness of the cross.
But more generally the luminaries are explained in a good sense. The sun is Christ or his truth, which shall be obscured in the last days; the moon is the Church, darkened by heresy and unbelief, and borrowing no light from its sun; the stars are they who once were foremost in the faith, but now shall fall from their steadfastness, or be unable to diffuse light, owing to the gross darkness and mistiness of those evil days.