Mark 13:8 Commentary and Bible Study

‘For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.’ That probably means that ethnic nation will rise against ethnic nation, and empire will rise against empire, but that's a supposition. That is, of course, exactly what was happening in the world of old, as the prophet Daniel predicted. The Medo-Persians rose up against the Babylonians and overthrew them, and then the Greeks overthrew the Babylonians, and then the Romans overthrew the Greeks. ‘And there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles.’ That will happen throughout time. But listen: ‘These are the beginning of sorrows’, just the beginning. They will go on, and they will be especially prevalent – is the implication – in the last days, because we are a world under judgment and a human race that has spurned the help and the blessing of God. So these troubles will be there and they will persist for a long, long time. The Greek word translated there ‘sorrows’ occurs only four times in the Greek New Testament and the meaning of the word is ‘birth pangs’, ‘birth pains’. What an interesting term! Famines, and various troubles, earthquakes. These are the beginning of the birth pangs: the universe struggling and striving as the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans, for liberty, for the return of Christ (Romans 8:19-22), and they will be much more prominent at the end. These things are the beginning of labour pains. The world is going somewhere. Eventually there is going to be the final upheaval and the coming of Christ and the new order will be brought to birth, but all the troubles are just the beginnings of these things. The wise will treat them as warnings and repent of their sins.