Jesus Teaching Disciples on the Mount of Olivesby GrahamWeir
13:4Mark 13:4
Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?
The question was asked privately, alone, by Peter and James and John and Andrew, as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, after He had foretold the overthrow of the temple that not one stone would remain upon another. They asked when the foretold destruction of the temple would happen and what sign would show that all these predicted things were about to be fulfilled. In its fuller form the question also asks for the sign of His coming and of the end of the world.
Jesus does not answer by treating the destruction of Jerusalem and the great day of His coming separately, but mingles the description of the two events, in mercy because the disciples could not have endured the future as He beheld it, leaving them to study out the meaning for themselves. When His answer refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, His prophetic words reach beyond that event to the final conflagration when the Lord rises out of His place to punish the world for iniquity and the earth discloses her blood and no more covers her slain. The foretelling of the signs of the times given in answer was not for the disciples present only, but to instruct those who would afterward believe who live in the last scenes of this earth's history, to help them prepare for the great conflict.
At this age of the world God's people must discern those foretold signs and reach a higher standard. The warning of coming destruction given in answer to the question applies to cities marked by extreme sin.
The question was asked privately, alone, by Peter and James and John and Andrew, as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, after He had foretold the overthrow of the temple that not one stone would remain upon another. They asked when the foretold destruction of the temple would happen and what sign would show that all these predicted things were about to be fulfilled. In its fuller form the question also asks for the sign of His coming and of the end of the world.
Jesus does not answer by treating the destruction of Jerusalem and the great day of His coming separately, but mingles the description of the two events, in mercy because the disciples could not have endured the future as He beheld it, leaving them to study out the meaning for themselves. When His answer refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, His prophetic words reach beyond that event to the final conflagration when the Lord rises out of His place to punish the world for iniquity and the earth discloses her blood and no more covers her slain. The foretelling of the signs of the times given in answer was not for the disciples present only, but to instruct those who would afterward believe who live in the last scenes of this earth's history, to help them prepare for the great conflict.
At this age of the world God's people must discern those foretold signs and reach a higher standard. The warning of coming destruction given in answer to the question applies to cities marked by extreme sin.