<p>24:29&nbsp;<i>But immediately after the tribulation of those days</i>- The phrase&nbsp;<i>eutheos meta&nbsp;</i>doesn&rsquo;t necessarily have to mean &lsquo;and then, after that&rsquo;, in a chronological sense (although it can mean that). It could refer to things going on at the same time,&nbsp;<i>meta&nbsp;</i>the tribulation. The tribulation is that spoken of in :21 &ldquo;Then shall be great tribulation&rdquo;. Verses 22-28 are therefore a parenthesis, developing the theme that false Christs shall appear, but we should not be taken in by them because the Lord&rsquo;s coming will be literally visible and crystal clear to all. The &ldquo;tribulation&rdquo; will be &ldquo;immediately&rdquo; followed by the Lord&rsquo;s return. Yet the &ldquo;tribulation&rdquo; of :21 was clearly initially relevant to the destruction of the temple in AD70. There was a rescheduling of the Divine program, just as has happened so often in prophetic history, not least in the promised restoration of the Kingdom not happening after the 70 years in Babylon.</p><p>&ldquo;The tribulation&rdquo; is explained in Luke&rsquo;s record as being Jerusalem being &ldquo;trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled&rdquo; (Lk. 21:24). After this, in Luke&rsquo;s record, there are the signs in sun, moon and stars which Matthew&rsquo;s record also describes- as coming &ldquo;immediately&nbsp;<i>meta</i>&nbsp;the tribulation&rdquo;. The &quot;times of the Gentiles&quot; (Lk. 21:24) appear to refer to the time of Gentile domination of Jerusalem, and yet it is reapplied to refer to the time of Gentile opportunity to learn the Gospel, according to how Paul alludes to it in Rom. 11:25. And yet the application to Jerusalem&rsquo;s tribulation may remain true ultimately, in the very last days. For the allusion is to Zech. 12:3:&quot;In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people (i.e. all around Israel, as this often means):&nbsp; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it&quot;. The Septuagint renders the first phrase as &quot;a stone trodden down by the Gentiles&quot;, clearly alluded to by Jesus in His description of Jerusalem being captured by the Gentiles (Lk. 21:24).&nbsp;&nbsp; Those who are 'gathered together' against Jerusalem must be the Arabs, according to the Zechariah context. The rejected likewise will be burdened with a heavy stone (Mt. 18:6), showing that they will share the judgments of Israel's enemies. It may well be that the &quot;all&quot; which will be fulfilled in Lk. 21:32 is to be equated with &quot;the times of the Gentiles&quot; being fulfilled (Lk. 21:24). &quot;Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles&quot; for three and a half years, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 'Jebus', the old name for Jerusalem, means 'downtrodden'. This&nbsp;hints that the liberation of Jebus at the beginning of David's reign was seen by Christ as typical of the time when He would liberate Jerusalem from downtreading, at his return. This suggests that the times of Gentile domination of Jerusalem are to be ended by the establishment of the Kingdom at Christ's second coming; we are yet to see, therefore, a Gentile domination of Jerusalem before Christ's coming.</p><p>The Lord predicted that the final tribulation- which He says is that prophesied in Daniel- would be followed &ldquo;immediately&rdquo; by His return. The evil man who places the desolating abomination meets his end in war (Dan. 11:45)- just as the same individual does in Daniel 8:23. And this leads in to the resurrection and judgment at the Lord&rsquo;s return (Dan. 12:1,2). So the Lord&rsquo;s own interpretation of Daniel 11 leaves us with no doubt that the whole section about the abomination and the individual responsible for it applies to our last days. Any partial fulfilment it may have had in Antiochus Epiphanes, Nero or Titus only makes those men prototypes of the final abuser yet to come.&nbsp;</p><p>It is at this time,&nbsp;<i>after</i>&nbsp;the fall of Jerusalem, that we read of &ldquo;the sea and the waves roaring&rdquo; (Lk. 21:25). There are many prophecies in Jeremiah and Ezekiel of Babylon being at war with the Arab nations who supported her in the attack on Jerusalem, e.g. concerning Ammon (Ez. 21:20) and Tyre (Ez. 26:7).&nbsp;Ammon is mentioned as&nbsp;<i>escaping&nbsp;</i>out of the hand of the king of the North during his invasion of Israel and Jerusalem (Dan. 11:41).&nbsp; This shows that there will be much inter-semitic conflict both before and during Israel's prolonged desolation period. &quot;The sea and the waves roaring&quot; at the time of Israel's final suffering (Lk. 21:25) is a figure taken from Jer. 49:23 concerning the nations around Israel being like the troubled sea in their fighting with each other. However, the outstanding conflicts will be temporarily forgotten in the last days to concentrate on a combined push against Jerusalem.&nbsp;But once this is captured, the old rivalries will suddenly violently surface, which is how God will destroy the invaders and save the righteous remnant who are still barely alive in the sewers and basements of Jerusalem. It seems that the beasts of Dan. 7 are only different aspects of the one great beast which finally emerges. Daniel sees them all come up together after the waves of the sea are troubled (Dan. 7:3), connecting with the Lord's description of the last day powers around Israel in the same way (Lk. 21:25).</p><p><i>The sun shall be darkened</i>- After the tribulation, as it was when Jesus died (Lk. 23:45 s.w.). Israel&rsquo;s tribulation will make them understand what He went through. The context has been the Lord&rsquo;s insistence that His coming will be obviously visible, like lightening in the sky, and the reference to &ldquo;the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven&rdquo; / the sky (:30) would suggest that a literal sign in the sky is what the Lord has in mind. The allusion to the crucifixion would also require a literal element of fulfilment. The additional information given in Rev. 8:12; 9:2 suggests that this darkening of sun and stars happens progressively, although that may be over a period of only a few literal days. There are reports of such signs being seen over Jerusalem in the lead up to AD70, the appearance of comets etc. However it seems to me that Josephus had access to the Olivet prophecy and some of the wording of his historical claims is so similar to the Lord&rsquo;s words that I personally doubt the degree of real fulfilment that was going on; rather do I suspect he was consciously alluding to the Lord&rsquo;s words and wishing to see them fulfilled in the history he was recording. That is not the same thing as AD70 actually fulfilling in detail the Olivet prophecy.</p><p><i>The sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light</i>- Joseph's dream clearly identifies these symbols as representing Israel. The passages which make this same identification are many: Gen. 37:9,10; 15:5; 22:17; Amos 8:8-10;&nbsp; Micah 3:6; Song of Solomon 6:10; Is. 24:23; Jer. 33:20-26; JoeI 2:10,30-32; 3:15; Acts 2:20; Rev. 6:12; 8:12; 12:1. Jer. 31:35,36 is likely the Old Testament passage the Lord specifically had in mind: &quot;Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of hosts is his name. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever&quot;. Only here do we find &quot;sun, moon, and stars&quot; combined with &quot;sea and waves roaring&quot; as in the Olivet prophecy in Luke 21.&nbsp; In Luke He spoke of &quot;On the earth distress of&nbsp;<i>nations&nbsp;</i>(Gentile nations causing distress in the earth / land of Israel) with perplexity&hellip; men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth (or land, of Israel)&rdquo;. The Greek word translated &quot;perplexity&quot; is used in the LXX concerning the final tribulation of Israel (Lev. 26:16; Dt. 28:22; Is. 5:30; 8:20 LXX).&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;Immediately after the tribulation... shall all the tribes of the earth (land- of Israel) mourn, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming&quot; (:29,30) is followed immediately by the fig tree parable. The chronology seems clear- a tribulation, repentance of Israel (note the allusions to the mourning of Zech.12 and 13), and then the second coming, with the fig tree parable about the repentance of Israel added as a footnote to this part of the prophecy.</p><p><i>And the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken</i>- The Greek phrase is used only elsewhere in Rev. 6:13. This vision is clearly an expansion upon the Olivet prophecy. There, the stars fall &ldquo;as a fig tree casts her unripe figs&rdquo;. This too is the language of the Olivet prophecy (24:32). The lack of spiritual maturity in Israel is related to the stars of Israel- see on&nbsp;<i>Sun... moon... stars</i> falling. The appearance of comets would certainly give the impression of falling stars, and I suggest that the main fulfilment will be in terms of things visibly seen in the sky, as hard proof to all the world that the Lord Jesus is returning.</p><p>The events of judgment day will be a &lsquo;shaking&rsquo; of the world, including the faithful (Lk. 6:48 the house built on the rock could not be &ldquo;shaken&rdquo;, s.w.). Heb. 12:26,27 surely allude here, saying that just as the earth shook when the old covenant was instituted, so the &ldquo;heavens&rdquo; would also be shaken. The suggestion of the context is that this day of shaking both heaven and earth was almost upon the readership- who were Hebrews, Jewish Christians.</p>