Luke 21:25 Commentary and Bible Study

While Matthew and Mark say that the sun will be darkened and the moon not give its light, the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken, Luke calls these phenomenon signs. This is in agreement with the creation account where God says of the lights in the firmament of heaven, ‘Let them be for signs’ (Genesis 1:14). At various deeply significant moments in the history of redemption there have been visible signs in the heaven, which man should have been ready to read. In delivering up the Amorites to Israel, God extended the day (Joshua 10:12-14); in giving a sign to Hezekiah that Jerusalem would be defended, God made the sun dial to return ten degrees. Christ’s birth was heralded by the star of Bethlehem, his atonement for sin was marked by darkness, and how appropriate it is that the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of this world should be accompanied by visible signs in the heavens. Those disturbances are entirely consistent with God’s purposes which placed the stars in the firmament to be a light for man, and to furnish him with all that he needed for this earthly life. Such titanic forces in the heavens were all originally tamed and contained by the Lord to do man good and not harm. But when he rebelled against his Creator and brought down God’s curse on himself and on the world created for his welfare, it was fitting that what was created for his good would be reconfigured to do him harm. Why should he continue to enjoy God’s favour and to read that favour still in the benevolence of the physical world towards him, when he had become a rebel against God? God warns before he strikes, and the disturbances of the heavenly lights before the end of the world are a fitting prelude to the final judgment. But they will also form part of that judgment. ‘And upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity.’ That seems to refer to the effect on mankind of the disturbances just listed. They will cause distress, not only because of what they presage, but because of the harm they do to man even in themselves. Normal life will be disrupted, and mankind will be perplexed about what to do. He will be forced to acknowledge how dependant he is on God for all that he has, and will realise how many things he has taken for granted. Only when the fabric of his earthly home is shaken and begins to be taken away, will he start to see how much he had been given, how little power he actually had to give himself a stable home to live in, and how little power his has to preserve his world intact. He who has denied his Creator and taken all that he has from the hand of God but without given any thanks to God; he will be forced to admit that he has taken for granted God’s good gifts before the end comes.And this will not just be a local phenomenon, but will affect nations – plural – presumably all nations. What is described here is a worldwide occurrence, from which none can escape by going to another country, or a different part of the world. There will be perplexity because it is beyond man’s power to put right what is breaking down. He has trusted in nature instead of the Lord, and when nature start to disintegrate before his eye, his terror knows no bounds. When human beings set up a false trust, the undermining of that trust is the worst thing they could possibly face.‘The sea and the waves roaring.’ Why is this picked out and mentioned specifically? Because it is an example of forces that are beyond man’s ability to control. The world is breaking up, and life cannot continue as before. The seas have always been a potentially hostile environment, and much effort has gone into subduing them, but when they unleash their full fury, even the greatest of ships are threatened. But what is described here goes even beyond this. If the seas roar, then trade by sea is brought to an end, and coastal regions are in danger of flood. But this is only a part of the collapse of physical world order.