<p>24:30&nbsp;<i>And then the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven</i>- Matthew began his Gospel with the same word and idea, speaking of the 'appearance' of the star which heralded the coming of the Son of Man (2:7). The Lord has just used the same word in speaking of how His coming would be as the lightning shines or appears in the sky (:27). This, along with the allusion to the star seen by the wise men, encourage us to think of this final &quot;sign of the Son of Man&quot; as a literal appearance in the sky, strengthening our suggestion that the signs in the sun, moon and stars in :29 are likewise to be interpreted literally. Jn. 1:5 perhaps puts all this in more spiritual terms by likening the Lord to a light shining s.w. &quot;appear&quot; in Jewish darkness, unperceived. Now is the day to perceive Him as He is, rather than too late at His return. These signs of the Lord's return will be in the sky for the world; the faithful will have already dropped all and fled, to Him, knowing He has come. How they will be called to go forth to meet Him isn't altogether clear, although 2 Pet. 1:19 uses the same word translated &quot;appear&quot; in speaking of how when the day of His coming dawns, i.e. begins, the day star will arise shining brightly in our hearts.&nbsp;</p><p>As noted earlier, it was exactly such a visible sign that the disciples and the Jews wanted in order to know Jesus was Messiah and that He had returned (see on :23). The Lord had explained at least twice that no such sign would be given. But now He is saying that all too late, such a sign would be given. For now, we are to believe without such signs written up in the sky. If &quot;the sign of the son of man&quot; which appears over Israel and leads the tribes of Israel to mourn in repentance is a literal vision of the Angel-cherubim, then this has a basis in Jacob seeing the Angelic vision in the time of his distress.</p><p><i>Then all the tribes of the earth</i>- &quot;Tribes&quot;,&nbsp;<i>phule</i>, is used exclusively of the tribes of Israel, until the references in Revelation to people of all nations, tribes and languages having representatives who were redeemed, being under the power of the beast etc. Even those references could be understood as referring to the tribes of Israel, along with the nations of the Gentile world. But &quot;the earth&quot; often refers to the land, of Israel. And the idea of tribes mourning is clearly referring to the prophecy of Zech. 12:10-14 that the tribes of Israel will mourn when they see the once crucified Christ, still with the marks in His body testifying to His crucifixion. Rev. 1:7 uses the same language. Israel will finally all repent when they see the sign of the Son of Man- and then, He will return literally and visibly in the clouds. The call of John the Baptist and the Lord's own preachers had been for Israel to &quot;mourn&quot; in repentance (11:17). This they had not done as intended, but they shall do so at His actual return. They who had laughed in this life will mourn then in rejection (Lk. 6:25; James 4:9); their repentance will be too late. Another possibility is that the impenitent amongst Israel will die in the final tribulation as outlined in Zech. 14, and these who mourn are those who repent and are accepted; for Zech. 12:14 adds the detail that the tribes who mourn will be those &quot;that remain&quot;, who are so the Hebrew means 'the remnant'. But see below on&nbsp;<i>They shall see.&nbsp;</i>&nbsp;</p><p><i>Shall mourn, and they shall see</i>- A play on words in the Greek:&nbsp;<i>kopsontai... opsontai</i>&nbsp;. The intention of this paronomasia is that Israel&rsquo;s repentant mourning is directly related to their seeing Him in the sense that His visible return only happens once they repent. When &ldquo;all the tribes of the earth / land mourn in repentance&hellip; then shall they see the Son of man coming&rdquo;. Some in Israel must repent before Christ returns. The Lord refers to this in speaking to the Jews who crucified Him: &quot;You shall see s.w. the Son of Man... coming in the clouds of Heaven&quot; (26:64). They would see that all too late, as part of the process of their condemnation- to realize it was all true, and it is too late to do anything about it. This is why the pronouns change from &ldquo;they&rdquo; here to &ldquo;you&rdquo; when talking again to the faithful disciples in :33. The Lord had earlier used the same idea, in saying that that group would only &quot;see&quot; Him again when they said &quot;Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord&quot; (Lk. 13:35). They would see that and say that all too late. The Lord's words clearly suggest they of that generation would see His return in glory. But His coming was delayed, and they did not. But they will at the last day, for they will be resurrected to face judgment and condemnation. The chronological issues need not worry us too much- i.e. when will they be resurrected, at precisely what point on the timeline of these events. The meaning of time will surely be collapsed around the Lord's return. This will be the final fulfilment of the prophecy that they shall look upon Him whom they pierced and mourn (Rev. 1:7; Jn. 19:37; &quot;look&quot; is s.w. &quot;see&quot; here in Mt. 24:30). The invitation of course is to look upon the crucified Christ now and mourn in repentance; for we shall have to do this one way or the other, either now in repentance, or too late in condemnation.</p><p>The foolish virgins want to go to buy oil; they make a foolish excuse, seeing the shops were evidently shut. These are those who mourn and wail when they see the sign of the Son of Man (Mt. 24:30,31 cp. Rev. 1:7). They want to hide from Him, as Adam and the rejected of Rev. 6:16. Then they compose themselves and go to meet Him, persuading themselves that they will be accepted by Him (because later they are surprised).</p><p><i>The Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven</i>&nbsp;- Dan. 7:14. The language of clouds and then Angels (:31) is reminiscent of the Lord&rsquo;s ascension, at which the Angels promised His return &ldquo;in like manner&rdquo;; and the same language is used of His return in Acts 1:7. This precludes any invisible &lsquo;coming&rsquo; in AD70. Rather than thinking that the Lord somehow &lsquo;came&rsquo; in AD70 in some metaphorical manner, I would suggest that the literal language is such that we can only conclude that His literal return has been delayed. Otherwise we end up forcing the obviously literal into the metaphorical.</p><p>The moment of the second coming (:27&nbsp;<i>parousia</i>) is likened to a flash of lightning and the beginning of rain at the time of Noah's flood.&nbsp;&nbsp; This makes any application of&nbsp;<i>parousia</i>&nbsp;to the prolonged series of events in A.D. 69/70 at least tenuous when compared to the obvious application to the moment of the second coming.&nbsp;&nbsp; There are many links between Mt. 24,25 and 1 Thess. 4,5 which have been tabulated by several expositors. According to these connections, the Lord's 'parousia' mentioned in Mt. 24 is interpreted by Paul as referring to the literal second coming (Mt. 24:30,31 = 1 Thess. 4:15,16). In view of all this, it is desirable to interpret the 'coming' of the Lord in Mt. 24 as referring to the literal presence of Christ at His return, although this is not to rule out any primary reference to the events of A.D. 70.&nbsp;Indeed I would argue that since&nbsp;<i>parousia</i>&nbsp;means a literal presence, it&rsquo;s not the case that the prophecy received a primary fulfilment in AD70; rather is it that the literal return of Christ was intended then, but was rescheduled. At best, the&nbsp;<i>parousia</i>&nbsp;element of the predictions had no partial fulfilment in AD70. The flow of the prophecy is indicated by the repetition of words like &quot;then&quot; : &quot;<i>Then</i>&nbsp;shall they deliver you up...&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;shall many be offended...&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;shall the end come...&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;let them which be in Judea...&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;shall be great tribulation...&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;if any man shall say unto you, Here is Christ...&nbsp;<i>immediately after the tribulation of those days</i>&nbsp;(&quot;in<i> those days</i>, after that tribulation&quot;, Mk. 13:24)...&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;shall appear the sign of the Son of man...&nbsp;<i>then</i>&nbsp;shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of man coming&quot; (Mt. 24). There is no suggestion here of any break in application, from AD70 to the last days. If the reference to Christ coming in glory with the Angels is accepted as referring to the last days, but the earlier verses of the prophecy to AD70 alone, we have to find the point where Christ breaks from AD70 to the last days. And I would suggest such a point cannot be found.</p><p><i>&quot;</i>In the clouds&quot; clearly alludes to His ascension in clouds, and the promise that He would return &quot;in like manner&quot; (Acts 1:11), presumably meaning in clouds to the same Mount of Olives. Again we are invited to understand these as literal clouds, just as the signs in the heavenly bodies of :29 are likewise to be understood. At His coming, the figurative will pass away and planet earth and those who dwell upon it will be faced with the ultimate reality- the personal, literal coming of God's Son to earth.</p><p><i>With power and great glory</i>- The very words used by the Lord in the model prayer of 6:13 concerning the power and glory of the Kingdom of God. The coming of the Lord to establish the Kingdom is clearly yet future and did not occur in AD70. This is the time when &ldquo;the Son of Man shall come in the glory s.w. of His Father with His angels, and then shall He repay every man according to his deeds&rdquo; (16:27; 25:31). Likewise, this is &ldquo;the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory s.w., and you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel&rdquo; (19:28). Such a judgment and coming with Angels never occurred in AD70. John&rsquo;s equivalent of this is to emphasize that in essence, the believers behold Christ&rsquo;s glory now, insofar as they perceive the wonder and moral pinnacle of His achievement for us on the cross (Jn. 17:24). Col. 3:4 teaches that &ldquo;When Christ who is our life i.e. our basis of resurrection shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory&rdquo;. His coming in glory will be ours, in that we will have been snatched away to meet with Him and will come with Him to Zion. And yet the next verse speaks as if now, at this point, the Angels are sent to gather the elect. But these chronological discrepancies are no real issue for the believer if we accept that the meaning of time must be changed around the time of Christ&rsquo;s coming, as must the meaning of space if Einstein&rsquo;s theory of relativity is correct. This would explain all practical concerns about space and time issues relating to the day of judgment. Another window on the apparent chronological discrepancies is the consideration that there are various possible potential scenarios, which will work out according to the speed and nature of the spiritual response of both natural and spiritual Israel.</p>