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The chapter ends with the Lord's lament over Jerusalem. The tragedy of the city had
reduced the Lord to tears (Luke 19: 41) and here again He shows His love for the city of
His choice. "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing" (Matt. 23: 37). The depth of
love and feeling is wonderfully expressed here, "I would", I longed to gather and protect
you, but "ye would not", you were not willing for this to happen. This contradiction has
been enacted thousands of times since this date, always ending with loss and tragedy, as
it must do if God's will is resisted and set aside. This is a wonderful example of the One
Who is God and at the same time truly human, with the exception of sin.
The Lord Jesus said sorrowfully, "Look, your house is left to you desolate". At the
beginning of this Gospel the Temple was God's house. Now, because of their apostasy it
was just their house, without God's presence.
He finishes by saying that they would not see Him again until they could say "blessed
is He Who comes in the name of the Lord" (Psa. 118: 26). So, in spite of all the sorrow
and rejection, they had a future which is based on His Second Coming and this time,
when they see Him, they will truly repent and accept Him (Zech. 12: 8-14; Rev. 1: 7).
The prophecy concerning the end of the age.
There is no doubt that in the prophetic Scriptures the 24th chapter of Matthew is of
great importance. If this chapter is wrongly interpreted, confusion is bound to occur as
regards future events in this age.
Many modern expositors have difficulties with this chapter and this is largely because
they misinterpret the kingdom of heaven, fail to identify it with the great Messianic
kingdom prophesied in the O.T., confuse it with the church and then spiritualize its
teaching to fit their ideas. They spiritualize all obvious meaning out of the plain Greek,
with the result that we have just a spiritual coming of Christ, Who administers only
spiritual matters in a spiritual kingdom. This is a travesty of what the Bible teaches on
this great subject.
The truth given in this chapter resulted from the disciples drawing the Lord's attention
to the magnificent Temple of Herod the Great (Matt. 24: 1; Mark 13: 1). It was not
even yet complete and they had already spent forty-six years in re-building it (John.ii.20).
It was doubtless one of the most wonderful buildings of the ancient world and made a
dazzling sight.
The Lord's reply was startling in the extreme:
"Do you see all these things?" He asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will
be left on another; every one will be thrown down" (24: 2, N.I.V.).
The stones were of polished marble and the thought that the whole building would be
reduced to rubble and its beauty destroyed was almost unbelievable, as was the idea that
God would allow such a thing to happen to His house.