Matthew 24:30

As we continue our study of Matthew 24:30, I would like to finish “the sign” question in this post. So, today’s study will be somewhat longer than usual.


In response to the two questions from Yahshua’s apostles, Yahshua informed them that the following things that men today interpret as signs (which were really not signs, just predictions of coming things) were events that they needed not to be concerned.

Not false Christs and false prophets
Not wars and rumours of wars
Not nation rising against nation
Not kingdom against kingdom
Not famines
Not numerous earthquakes
Not tribulation and persecution
Not the stumbling of many regarding the faith
Not the increase of iniquity
Not love’s decline
Not the gospel being preached in the whole world

If none of those events were the sign of the consummation of the Hebrew age, but merely birth pains preceding the sign about which the disciples were asking, why should we concern ourselves with those things in our era in the 21st century, as some tend to do today? But even then, all of those happenings were to find their fulfillment in the apostles’ generation, in the 1st century AD, otherwise “they” (“you”) could not “see” them.

That to which Yahshua related at this point in His discussion was not the single sign that the apostles sought, but they were plural things (not signs) that would precede the sign. They asked what would be the sign and the time of the imminent destruction of the city and the temple. Therefore, we must seek for the specific single sign and the specific time to which Jesus referred in His response to their questions. And, while we do so, we cannot go beyond that specific generation and introduce concepts that were irrelevant to them. To do so would violate the principles of sound, contextual interpretation.


Therefore, the events that Yahshua presented at this point in His reply were not the specific sign for which the disciples were told to look. The specific sign and the specific time that were relevant to their generation were yet to be identified.

Mark 13 and Luke 21 are parallel accounts of this same event. Luke unmistakably tells of the sign.

“But when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that her desolation is at hand” [Luke 21:20].

This verse indicates a change of emphasis. Herein Yahshua addressed the apostles’ specific sign question and Luke recorded that He said to them, “…when you see.” Nothing that He said at that point was relevant to another generation or another place. What He said was definitely related to the generation of the four apostles and the fulfillment of the desolation of Jerusalem as He had prophesied earlier.



So, the answer to the disciple’s sign question was Jerusalem encompassed with armies, which Jesus said they would see. It was a singular answer and had no inference to any other event that would occur in their generation or in any other generation in the future. They asked for the sign and they received an answer that was relevant to the prophecy and to the generation in which that specific prophecy would be fulfilled, i.e. the 1st century AD.

It is important also to note that Yahshua was emphatic about this matter and said, when referring to Jerusalem ; “her desolation.” Jesus previously addressed the city in the feminine gender when He prophesied against her in Luke 19:41-44. He described her desolation in graphic detail.

“Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

We can be certain that Yahshua spoke directly to and about Jerusalem in the apostles’ generation because of Luke’s account. Compare that KJV reading to the following ASV reading:

“And when he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, If you had known in this your day, even you, the things which belong unto peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. 43 For the days (plural) shall come upon you, when your enemies shall cast up a bank about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side, 44 and shall dash you to the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another; because you knew not the time of your visitation.”


From the context, we can see that Yahshua not only answered the apostles’ specific sign question, He insisted that they regard that particular sign as the sign that they asked for because he said “when you see … then know.” Jesus said to the four apostles, “This is it. This is what you want to know. This is the answer to your question.” When the armies surround the city, you can be confident that you have the answer to your sign question. Know for sure that this is the one and only sign that you will see.

Throughout His reply to the four apostles, Yahshua never veered away from what He spoke of initially - the desolation of the city and the temple. He even addressed the city in a very loving, tearful way. Desolation of the city and the temple, though necessary, disturbed Yahshua and by revealing those things to the four, He would, if they were ever watchful, redeem them physically from being entangled in the abominable devastation that was about to befall that part of the Hebrew nation.

Luke was very emphatic about who should recognize the sign of which Yahshua spoke. Yahshua specifically said that those to whom He was talking at that time were the ones who should note those things and watch for their occurrence. He did not speak to or of anyone else. It was that generation that would witness all of the events that He revealed, including the specific sign, and they would succumb to their impact if they failed to heed His warnings and flee at the appropriate time. So, therein are the answers to the apostles’ time and sign questions - that generation in Jesus’ presence about 30 AD.

Jesus set out to answer the apostles’ questions and adds nothing more to the discourse. There were only the two questions to which they sought answers - the time question and the sign question. They asked nothing else and He introduced nothing else.

The Greek word for “end” that is used in Matthew 24:8, 14, is “telos” and means accomplishment or fulfillment. The only accomplishment or fulfillment of which the disciples wanted to know, and which was prophesied by Yahshua, was the accomplishment or fulfillment of the Hebrew era. That was the only “end” that concerned them and they wanted to know only the time and the sign that heralded its imminence