The Rejection of the King of the Jews (Matthew 24:1-2)

© 2011 Tony Garlanda

Team teaching the end of Matthew

Focusing on prophetic section: chapters 24 and 25

Mat. 24:1-2

Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”1

  1. External beauty and glory vs. internal corruption

  2. An important link in a chain of prophetic events of great concern to God about which the Bible has much to say

  3. The importance of context

    Insights lost, insights gained, misunderstanding avoided

The context of Matthew 24-25

  1. Matthew 24-25 in context of world history

    A historic pattern: rejection of God followed by discipline

    1. Adam and Eve: ejected from garden

    2. Mankind at Tower of Babel: dispersed by language

    3. Mankind at the flood: purged by water

    4. Israel at rejection of her King (the context of this passage)

    5. Mankind in our age: tribulation

    6. World at end of millennium: purged by fire from heaven

    7. Discipline is a double-edged sword: also postponement of blessing!

    8. Always a faithful, believing remnant

  2. The Jewish context of Matthew 24-25

    Critical to understand four 'P's: promise, purpose, perversion, postponement

    1. PROMISE of Davidic throne

      1. 2S. 7:12-16

        When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.

    2. PURPOSE of Davidic throne

      1. Representative rule of God
        1. Jer. 22:1-5

          Thus says the LORD: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates! Thus says the LORD: "Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David. But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself," says the LORD, "that this house shall become a desolation." ' "

      2. Expected to exhibit righteous dominion as originally entrusted to Adam (Gen. 1:26)
    3. PERVERSION of Davidic throne

      1. Solomon: civil war, the divided kingdom (930 B.C)2
        1. 1 Kings 11:11-13

          Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen."

      2. Northern kingdom falls to Assyria (722 B.C.) 3
      3. Southern kingdom of Judah, the Davidic line
        1. With the exception of a few righteous kings, the Davidic rule continued to decline
          1. Jeremiah and Ezekiel
            Prophets to the southern kingdom of Judah prior to its fall to Babylon, clarify what God is bringing about through the judgment of Nebuchadnezzar.
          2. Curse on kingly line (Jeremiah 22:24-30)

            "As I live," says the LORD, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear-the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans. So I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; and there you shall die. But to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return. Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol-A vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, And cast into a land which they do not know? O earth, earth, earth, Hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the LORD: 'Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.'"

          3. Judgment of the ruling Davidic scepter (Ezekiel 21:9-27)

            Son of man, prophesy and say, 'Thus says the LORD!' Say: 'A sword, a sword is sharpened And also polished! Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter, Polished to flash like lightning! Should we then make mirth? It despises the scepter of My Son, As it does all wood. . . . And what if the sword despises even the scepter? The scepter shall be no more," says the Lord GOD. . . . Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear-because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand. 'Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end, 'thus says the Lord GOD: "Remove the turban, and take off the crown; Nothing shall remain the same. Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted. Overthrown, overthrown, I will make it overthrown! It shall be no longer, Until He comes whose right it is, And I will give it to Him."'

        2. Southern kingdom falls to Babylon (586 B.C.)
        3. Thus begins the times of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24)
          1. Not to be confused with the “fullness of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:25).
          2. Aligned with the visions in the book of Daniel
            • Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, period spanned by the statue of metals (Dan. 2)
            • Daniel’s vision, period spanned by the beasts (Dan. 7)
            • Both begin with Babylon and end with Rome
          3. Characteristics of the times of the Gentiles
            1. Gentile dominion, control, influence over Israel
            2. Key: Davidic throne unoccupied - no king in the line of David ruling autonomously from Jerusalem
          4. No King's upon restoration from Babylon
            1. No kings thereafter in Matthew's genealogy (Mat. 1:1-16)
              • Only David referred to as king (twice) for emphasis as this is the establishment of the Davidic rule which we are on about (Mat. 1:6)
              • We recognize those after David and before the Babylonian captivity as kings: Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, . . . Ahaz . . . Hezekiah . . . Josiah . . . Jeconiah [wherein began the curse]
              • But do we ever see 'king' applied by the Holy Spirit to those afterward, even though they are in the line of David?
              • First ruler in the line of David upon return from Babylon is Zerubbabel, yet he is designated as a 'governor' (פַּחַת [paḥaṯ]) rather than a 'king' (מֶלֶך׃ [melek]) (Hag. 1:1)
              • Does the Holy Spirit ever designate any of the following as 'kings' in Scripture: Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob (Mat. 1:12-15)?
            2. No legitimate Davidic king in the intertestamental period 4
              • Remember the sequence of Daniel: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome
              • The return from Babylon under Medo-Persian Empire
              • Next was the Greek Empire: Alexander the Great and successors (B.C. 325)
                • Maccabean revolt in response to Antiochus IV Epiphanes (B.C. 167)
                • Hasmoneon dynasty
              • Roman rule when Judea came under the sway of Pompey (63 B.C.)
              • Herod at the birth of Jesus
    4. POSTPONEMENT of Davidic throne

      1. PROMISED (three samples of the promise of kingly rule from among many in the OT, one from the NT)
        1. Isaiah 9:6-7

          For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

        2. Zechariah 9:9-10

          Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be 'from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.'

          Of particular significance since this is the very prophecy which Jesus arranges to fulfill during His presentation to Israel as King (Matthew 21:5).

        3. Mystery of inter-advent Church-age hidden between verses
          • First portion of each passage (birth, presentation as King of Israel) fulfilled in His first coming
          • Second portion of each passage (upon throne of David, worldwide peace, dominion from sea to sea) not yet fulfilled
        4. Dan. 9:24-27
          1. Context: Daniel in Babylon (the first of the Gentile kingdoms) while Jerusalem and temple lie in ruins
          2. Praying for restoration predicted by Jeremiah (Dan. 9:2 cf. Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10)
          3. Promise of restoration, but then another destruction (Dan. 9:25-26)!

            Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

            Thus is illustrated the utter futility of living in disobedience to God! All the work of rebuilding under Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and the subsequent restoration by Herod would eventually be for naught!

            1. Thus we come upon the words of Jesus in the Matthew passage before us:
              • Mark records that a disciple was remarking on the wonder of the temple with its impressive buildings and elaborate layout (Mark 13:1)
              • Jewish historian Josephus on destruction by Rome at the hands of Titus during the reign of Vespasian (A.D. 70): “Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, . . . [the] wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison; as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.”5
        5. Luke 1:31-33

          And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

      2. PRESENTED
        1. Jesus arranges prophetic fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9 (Mat. 21)
          1. Luke 19:37-44

            Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

      3. POSTPONED
        1. Potential for fulfillment
          1. Bona fide (that is, "good faith") offer - initially sent only to Israel (Mat. 10:5-6; 15:24)
          2. Daniel 2 and 7 - time for possession of kingdom associated with the fourth Gentile power, Rome (Dan. 2:34,45; 7:22)
        2. No king but Caesar
          1. John 19:14-15

            Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Behold your King!" But they cried out, "Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"

          2. John 19:19-22

            Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'He said, "I am the King of the Jews."'" Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

          3. Take Note! The Jews willingly choose Caesar over Jesus: submitting to Gentile dominion!
          4. The potential end of the times of the Gentiles, which began with the Babylonian captivity, is now delayed (Luke 21:20-24)!

            But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

        3. Acts 1:6-7

          Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.

Application

  1. Understanding Matthew 24-25

  2. Understanding the implications of the rejection of God's rule

    1. Rejection of God's rule by the Gentile nations

      1. Humanism
        1. Rejecting God's kingdom for man's kingdom
        2. The great humanist hope and prayer:

          The imagined god, who art in heaven, cursed be thy memory, our kingdom come, our will be done, on earth, since there is no heaven . . .

        3. The culmination of humanism, the best the nations can produce at the end of the Times of the Gentiles, evaluated by God as “the Beast”
    2. Rejection of God's rule by Israel

      1. Davidic kingdom predicated on Israel's response6
        1. Matthew 23:37-39

          O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'

        2. Acts 3:12-21

          So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: "Men of Israel, . . . the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. . . . Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."

  3. The prophetic significance and Satanic purpose of anti-Semitism

    1. Satan motivating the world (and church) to oppose Israel

      1. If the Church at large can be a significant tool in the hands of Satan to persecute Israel, then Jews and Jesus will remain apart.
    2. The continued importance of Jewish evangelism 7


Endnotes:

1.NKJV, Mat. 24:1-2
2.“In the interests of simplicity the date 930 is being used for the division of the kingdom instead of the dual symbol 931/30. It should be noted, however, that the year 931 might have been equally appropriate or even more accurate than 930, depending on the season of the year when Jeroboam's rebellion took place.” Ref-0839, 79
3.“Shalmaneser V (726�722), thereupon laid siege to the Israelite capital of Samaria. Before the fall of the city had been fully consummated a new leader had seized the reins of power. He was Sharrukin II or Sargon II (721�705), whose new regime was inaugurated by the fall of the city.” Ref-0633, s.v. Assyria
4.Ref-1126
5.Ref-0411, Wars 7.1-3
6.See also Lev. 26:40-45; Hos. 5:15.
7.Acts 1:8; 2:39; 3:26; 10:36; 13:5,14,46; 17:2,17; 18:4-6,19; 28:28; Rom. 1:16; 2:9-10


Sources:

NKJVUnless designated otherwise, all Scripture references are from the New King James Version, copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Ref-0411Josephus, F., & Whiston, W. (1996, c1987). The works of Josephus : Complete and unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson.
Ref-0633Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
Ref-0839Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1983). ISBN:0-8254-3825-Xb.
Ref-1126Ironside, H. A., The Four Hundred Silent Years (from Malachi to Matthew) (New York: Loizeaux Brothers, 1914).


Links Mentioned Above
a - See https://spiritandtruth.org/id/tg.htm.
b - See http://www.bestbookdeal.com/book/compare/0-8254-3825-X.