Ready or Not, Here He Comes

Mark 13: 24 – 27
There is so much in these four verses that I will have to edit myself diligently to condense it to a blog post. Here are the verses:

24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.

Jesus is talking about “those days”: the days at the end of the time of Tribulation. Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives with Peter, James, John and Andrew and they had asked him about the signs of the end of the age. After explaining several warnings signs he quotes from Isaiah 13:10 (the part about the sun and the stars).

I can’t imagine how scary this will be for people. The sun will be darkened. Picture the chaos and panic this will cause. No moon light . . . stars disappearing . . . cold, black terror. (This is visualized in Revelation 6: 12 – 14, too, and in Luke 21: 25 – 26 it says that people’s hearts will fail them.)

But then look. Even without light people will see Jesus returning. He will shine like the sun. In fact, when Jesus was transfigured, we read in Matthew 17:2 that his face shone like the sun, so I guess we won’t need that old star any more. (Read more in Zechariah 14: 6 – 7)

He is coming in clouds with great power and glory and He will send His angels out to gather the “elect”. This is very exciting for those who believe on Jesus, but terrifying for those who have not placed their trust in Him. Revelation 1: 7 says

7 “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.