While on earth, Jesus had been teaching and preaching the Kingdom of God to his disciples. However, to put things in proper perspective, Jesus’s message of “sorrows” was coming on the heels of him letting his disciples know that He would soon suffer and die at the hand of the Jews something the disciples were deeply troubled by, yet unable to fully comprehend. (Mark 8:31;9:31-32; Luke 9:44-45) On top of this, their eyes were not yet open to see the desolate state of Israel.
Jesus, whom they believed was the Messiah, had said he would come into his kingdom, a kingdom that would never end. The disciples yearned for that kingdom. But now the time had come for them to learn what the future held for them following Jesus’s death.
Undoubtedly, facing the thought of His death, the disciples experienced great anxiety, yet their acceptance seems to be reflected in their questions about the “sorrows.” In each parallel passage, the first question the disciples asked was “when shall these be? (Matthew 24:3; Mark 13:4; Luke 21:7) Next, they asked about the signs. Note how their questions varied according to each gospel:
“What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew)
“What shall be the sign when all these [things] (beginning of sorrows) shall be fulfilled?” (Mark)
“What sign will there be when these [things] (beginnings of sorrows) shall come to pass?”
The great misconception among many has been that the disciples were concerned about the end of time, when in actuality their focus was on the end of the age–in their lifetime, in their generation. Some confusion may arise in Matthew where the Greek word, ion is usually translated “world.” However, ion would be better translated “age” here and elsewhere in the Bible.
Furthermore, it helps to take into account the distinction between the two Greek verbs that are used in Mark and Luke. In Mark, sunteleisthai is translated “fulfilled,” indicating the disciples wanted to know what sign would indicate the conclusion of “all these” (the beginning of sorrows), while in Luke, ginesthai is translated “come to pass,” indicating they wanted to know the sign when “these” (the beginnings of sorrows) were occurring–nothing about the end of the physical world.
Understanding the Signs
The disciples who had become accustomed to Jesus’ teachings, would have understood that Jeus was using figurative language to describe the signs, all related to “sorrows.” The signs were spiritual in nature, as “sorrows” indicate spiritual conflict. Certainly, there have always been actual famines, earthquakes, pestilences, and troubles–large and small scale–just as there have been actual wars and rumors of wars of some kind or another throughout world history. For this reason alone, Jesus would not have been speaking about literal disasters.
God’s use of metaphors are common throughout scripture. The only way to define their meaning is to diligently search all scripture to discover its spiritual applicatiojn.
The following is what I discovered:
“Famines”
For God’s spiritual definition of “famine,” I refer to a verse in the book of Amos: “I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord’ (Amos 8:11). Here God describes “famine” as an inability to hear the Word of God. Just as people faint and perish physically without food and water, people faint and perish spiritually without the Word of God. One leads to physical death, the other spiritual death.
However, there is something peculiar here. Unlike in Amos where “famine” is in the singular form, God uses the plural form in the New Testament. With this, it seems that rather than it signifying a spiritual condition, but in the New Testament “famines” is a metaphor for people themselves, those who lack nourishment from the Word. Simply, “famines” are the people who perish spiritually.
“Pestilences”
We normally think of “pestilences” as harmful infectious diseases. So you may think it unlikely “pestilences” would be a metaphor to signify the believers of the Gospel. However, I get the idea it does from the book of Acts.
“Pestilences,” from the Greek word, loimon occurs just three times in the Bible: Matthew, Mark and Acts. From the book of Acts, we learn its figurative definition. When the high priest and elders had brought the apostle Paul as their prisoner to Felix, the Roman governor, to accuse him of sedition, they said, “For we have found this man a pestilent [fellow]…”Why did they call the Apostle Paul “pestilent”? The end of the verse may explain: “…a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes “(Acts 24:5).
Indeed, the Apostle Paul, like all the disciples, had been a “pestilence,” but not as the Jewish leaders accused him. The apostles never rebelled against Roman authority. They did however, go against the Jewish lawgivers after receiving power from God to preach the Gospel. This means any time the believers resisted and challenged the false religious teachings of others, they became “pestilences” to them.
Note the contrast. On one hand, “Famines” indicate the unsaved who perish from lack of receiving the truth of the Gospel, while on the other hand, “pestilences” are the true believers who plague the unsaved by spreading the Gospel.
“Troubles”
Jesus uses the Greek word, tarachai to describe “troubles” as sorrows. Interestingly, this Greek word appears only twice in the Bible. By noting how it is used in the second instance is key to understanding its metaphoric meaning. That is, “troubles” is what God uses metaphorically as the act of the Holy Spirit drawing a person to salvation. It is “trouble” in a sense when a person becomes disturbed by their own sins and becomes aware of their need for salvation, then seeks to become right with God.
The clue that brought me to this conclusion is in John’s gospel, the one other place this word is found: “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosever then first after the troubling <tarachai> of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had” (Jn 5:4).
I see all indications of salvation in this passage. Note the key words: “angels,” the messengers or Spirit of God; “season,” the gospel age; “water,” the baptism of the Holy Spirit; “whosoever,” anyone who believes; “whole,” reconciled with God; “disease,” our sins to be cleansed–all identify with work of the Holy Spirit.
So, becoming “whole” from disease signified a person becoming a true believer after being disturbed or “troubled” by the message of the Gospel.
“Earthquakes” and “Great Earthquakes”
Another metaphor that Jesus uses as a sign were “earthquakes.” It is translated from the Greek word, seismoi meaning to quake or shake. When things are shaken, they fall. Parabolically speaking, the nation of Israel fell from heaven. Hence, when God shook Israel (“in divers places”) he separated the believers from the non believers. This type of shaking is alluded to in Hebrews 12:26-28.
Therefore, in the aftermath of the earthquakes (the beginning of sorrows) in the days of the Apostles, most Israelites rejected the Gospel and became subject to God’s wrath, while a remnant became Christians.
I believe we are currently living in the post church age and in the aftermath of the great earthquakes. The “great earthquakes in divers places” has shaken and destroyed the church in our day, just as the “earthquakes” had shaken the house of Israel during the Apostalic age. Each time the shaking was a spiritual separation of the non believers from the believers.
CONCLUSION:
Jesus describes three time periods of sorrows in these parallel passages: In Matthew, it is the beginning (singular) of sorrows; in Mark, it is the beginnings (plural) of sorrows, and in Luke, where the word, “sorrows” is not mentioned, this would be the “ending” of sorrows. In all cases, it is a mistake to believe that Jesus was describing literal disasters as signs of the “sorrows.” Using the Bible as its own interpreter, I was able to unlock the metaphorical and spiritual meaning of the signs.