55 What "Before the Son of Man Comes" Means (Matthew 10:23)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. This is the 55th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew, and today we'll look at only one verse, Matthew chapter 10, verse 23. Lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast, or you can find them by going directly to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 5.5. Glad to have you along. Well, we are still in chapter 10 of Matthew. Matthew records a major teaching of Jesus five times in his gospel, and we're looking at the second major teaching. Jesus has called together the 12 and he is sending them out in pairs to minister on his behalf. We know from Luke that many other disciples followed Jesus, but on this occasion, Jesus is sending only the twelve, the ones that he will choose and eventually commission to be his apostles. Matthew has shown us that Jesus has been preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and he has been healing of all kinds of diseases and afflictions, and the twelve are now going out to do the same thing on his behalf. For this journey, he's sending them only into Jewish territory, and this is an important first step in their training to be apostles. They don't know it yet, but ultimately Jesus is going to leave and send them out into the world as his representatives, and this journey is kind of a dress rehearsal. As we talked about last week, Jesus deliberately makes this journey harder for them. He tells them not to stock up on the provisions they need, but instead to rely on the hospitality of those they meet in the towns along the way. And he also warns them that many people are going to hate and reject them. He's crafting an experience that's going to be difficult. He tells them he's sending them out like sheep among wolves with a message that is so divisive it will break even the bonds of family. As we talked about last time, Jesus makes it harder, and he does so for their sakes. He wants to teach them something. He wants them to learn what it means to proclaim the name of Jesus, which is a name many people hate, because ultimately as his representatives, they are going to have a very difficult task in front of them, and he's preparing them for that task. Well, last week we ended without talking about Matthew 10 23. Let me read it for you. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Well, this is a really tough verse. DA Carson calls it one of the most difficult verses in the New Testament canon, and there is a lot of debate about exactly what's going on here. At first glance, this verse doesn't seem very hard to understand. The problem comes when you try to figure out what Jesus means by the coming of the Son of Man, and what does that have to do with sending out his apostles? Well, the coming of the Son of Man opens the door to all kinds of eschatological debates about the second coming. Is he talking about the second coming here? If so, what does that have to do with this sending of the twelve? If he's not talking about the second coming, then what is he talking about? Many forests have died to generate the paper for the books that have been written about this issue. In this little podcast, I am not going to settle the debate for you. This will be an introductory overview. I am not an expert on eschatology nor on this verse. My first pastor, Ray Steadman, used to jokingly say that he was a panmillennialist, meaning he thinks it's all going to pan out in the end. Well, I agree with him. The end of history is going to unfold as God wants it to unfold. In my limited understanding, I don't think God has explained all that very clearly or precisely. We can speculate with the evidence we have, but at this point, I don't know that anyone's perspective is entirely right. I am just going to give you a surface overview of the debate, just enough so that we can try to put this verse in context. I'm not going to settle all the debate, but I do want to at least get your feet wet so you can understand the issues. Well, here's the verse again. For truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Well, let's start with this phrase before the Son of Man comes. I'm going to give you five options for how this can be understood. It's hard to say if there is a minority or majority view because there are so many options. It feels like everyone's in the minority. There's just a whole bunch of views, and so none of them gather enough support to call themselves the majority, at least in my limited reading. So here's option one. Some people take this phrase very literally as until I come and catch up with you in your journeys. So in this understanding, Jesus is sending the twelve out on this journey and he intends to follow them and overlap them on their travels. And he's telling them that they won't reach all the towns of Israel before he catches up to them and they resume traveling together. So his point, they would say, is something like you'd better hurry, your task will be cut short, you don't have that much time, you only have the time until you leave, and when I catch up to you. Well that's a possible interpretation, and it does avoid all the eschatology issues. But as far as I can tell, we don't have any other evidence that Jesus intended to catch up on with them. Plus, he's sending them out in pairs. Presumably those pairs are headed to different towns in different directions, so I don't see how he could catch up to all of them. Here's option two. Some think this phrase refers to the resurrection when Jesus is revealed in glory as the Messiah. And in this view, Jesus is saying, Your task will be cut short because my earthly ministry is going to end. I'm going to Jerusalem where I will be crucified, but three days later I will be resurrected, and God will confirm that I am the Messiah by resurrecting me from the dead. So your task is going to be cut short because my time here on earth is coming to an end. Now some people, not everyone, but some people who hold this view support it by appealing to Daniel seven, verses thirteen and fourteen. This is a vision of the Messiah. Most everyone agrees that Daniel seven is a vision of the Messiah coming before God and receiving his kingdom as he is given dominion over everything. And there we see I saw the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Now most everyone agrees that this is a vision of the Messiah receiving his kingdom. When Jesus refers to himself as Son of Man, he is referring to this event and using this phrase as a title for the Messiah. Many people see this as a vision of the second coming, but some people say this vision does not refer to the second coming, but the end of his first coming. So they would see this as an event that happens after the cross and resurrection and marks the initial receiving of his role. So they would say Daniel's vision of the coming of Jesus in the clouds to receive a kingdom is the resurrected Jesus leaving earth and ascending to the Father in heaven. Daniel's just seeing the event from the other side of the clouds after the resurrection and the ascension. Jesus has his kingdom now, they would argue, but like us, is waiting for the day when God fully and completely establishes his rule over the new heavens and the new earth. Now a lot of people disagree with that understanding of Daniel, but you can still argue that Matthew means the resurrection without appealing to Daniel's support. This view has some merit too, but I think there's another that's more persuasive. This is option three. Some people take this phrase, the coming of the Son of Man, to be the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So in this view, Jesus is saying, Your task of going to the cities of Israel will be cut short because the Messiah is going to come in wrath and cast Israel out of the land through the destruction of the temple at the hands of the Romans. And this is a very common view. Maybe the majority, it's hard to say there is a majority. It does make a lot of sense. The apostles are only going to have so much time before another exile begins because God is going to cast out the people in wrath. The obvious problem, however, is nowhere else in Scripture is the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD referred to as the coming of the Son of Man. It would be helpful if we had such evidence, but we don't. However, this could be the one and only use of this phrase in this way. There's a whole school of thought that sees all the passages which refer to the second coming as actually referring to events in our past, and they would advocate for this view. Option four. Some people take this phrase, the coming of the Son of Man, as referring to the second coming, an event that is still in our future. One day Jesus will return and fully establish his rule over all creation. And Jesus is saying, your task of going to town to town and proclaiming the gospel is going to be cut short because one day I'm going to return to establish my rule over creation. The obvious problem is the length of time between when Jesus said this and the second coming. Your time will be cut short because you'll only have about 2,000 plus years in which to do it doesn't seem to be very short. Option five, and this is the one that makes the most sense to me at this point in my studies, but I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn more. Option five, others think that Jesus is referring to the second coming, an event in our future, but he is using a different kind of logic than what I gave you in option four. All of the other views make the assumption that Jesus is saying, your task will be cut short because I am coming back in some way, shape, or form. So the task of walking through the cities of Israel will be shortened because the Son of Man will come. And the argument there is the coming of the Son of Man is an event that is going to stop the task of going from town to town to the cities of Israel. Well, that's not the only way to view this logic. Jesus is telling them to go and proclaim the kingdom of God is at hand. The disciples might expect, as I have argued, that this will be a triumphant victory tour as the people of Israel rally around the long-awaited Messiah. And as this groundswell of admiration emerges, they will sweep out Rome and usher in the kingdom of God under the Messiah. That's what they might be expecting, but that's not the plan. Instead, this journey is going to be hard. They are going to be persecuted. They will have to flee for their lives. This is not a victory tour. They are messengers with a message many do not want to hear. And Jesus is saying, keep moving, flee from the hostile towns and move on to the next. Keep evangelizing because Israel's time to hear the good news is short. The apostles are not going to finish their task. He's not saying your task of preaching the gospel to the cities of Israel will be cut short by my second coming. He's saying during the time before my second coming, however long that may be, one of your tasks is to go throughout Israel proclaiming the kingdom, but you need to know the time for this ministry is short. Whenever a town rejects you, flee and go to the next. Get as much done as you can before they try to kill you, but this is not a task you will be able to finish. And he doesn't explain why, but as we look back at what he said so far and compare that to history, we can see that it's because the Jews will largely reject the message of the gospel and the ministry is going to turn to the Gentiles. The Romans are going to bring God's judgment on Israel in 70 AD. And at this time, their task is not to successfully gather all the children of Israel. Their task will be to begin the process of proclaiming the gospel to the children of Israel, but they are largely going to reject it. Now Jesus is being somewhat cryptic. They might assume the Son of Man will come soon, like in their lifetimes. He doesn't explain that here. He doesn't explain that after the ministry to the Jews is cut short, there's going to be a long extended period of ministry to the Gentiles. But as we look at history, we can see that's what happened. Now that's the view in a nutshell. You probably have lots of questions. Let me see if I can explain it in a bit more detail and give you a bit more explanation. I probably won't answer all your questions, but hopefully I can get you a little bit farther down the road of understanding. Let me read the verse one more time. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Let's go back to the opening phrase of this verse. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. In my humble good for nothing opinion, I think this phrase often gets lost in the debate. Most all sides of in the debate understand this phrase to be something like keep moving, keep going from town to town, and get to as many towns as you can because you're not going to have time to get to all of them. And that is certainly a possible interpretation. But it seems to me that there's more going on. This verse is talking about persecution. Sometimes when you go into a town, they're going to persecute you. People will be so hostile to the message you're proclaiming that they're going to try to kill you. And when that happens, run, flee, leave that city and go to another one. It's worthwhile to think about that phrase and where it's coming from. What kind of advice is this? And why would Jesus say this phrase at all? Perhaps he's afraid they will panic and stop ministering at all. Perhaps he's afraid that when the persecution starts, they will come running back to Jesus and say, Oops, sorry, we don't want to be your apostles anymore. This is just too hard. And he's encouraging them, don't give up, just go on to the next town. Or perhaps he's saying, whenever they pursue you and persecute you, don't let them catch you, don't let them stop you, don't let them arrest you and throw you in jail so you can't complete your mission. Flee instead. Those are two options, neither of which persuade me. They don't sound like the kind of thing Jesus would be saying in this context. Here's a third option that I think makes more sense. Jesus could be saying something like this I have sent you to tell the people of Israel to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But many are going to reject you. They're not going to repent. They are going to turn hostile instead and try to persecute you. When that happens, you might think your task is to stay and keep trying to find a way to convince them to repent. You might think it's your job to continue to witness to them even if they treat you harshly. I'm telling you that's not what I want you to do. If they turn against you, don't stay and keep arguing. Instead, flee to the next town. Which brings us to the next phrase. The ESV translates it, for truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A more literal translation is you will not complete or finish the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes. So you're not complete or finish. Of course, the question then is, what does it mean to complete or finish the cities of Israel? And most translators and people in this debate have decided that completing the cities of Israel means completing their journey. To complete or to finish the cities of Israel is to travel to each and every one of them and proclaim the gospel in the allotted time period. And that is a plausible interpretation. It's a very natural reading of the text. You preach in city A, finish your proclamation, you go to city B and you repeat, and then you keep moving because you're not going to have time to get all the way to Z. But there's another way to take this word complete. There is more than one way to complete your mission. You can complete your mission by getting through all the towns of Israel, but you can also complete your mission by reaching everyone such that they repent. If everyone in the town repented, you can be said to have completed or finished your task so you can move on. Now you might think your job is to stay until everyone repents, even if they turn hostile, but I'm telling you move on. Your task is not to stay and endure their abuse and keep trying to find a way to persuade them to repent. You might think your job is to bring all the cities of Israel to the desired goal of repentance, but that is not what's going to happen. That's not the task. If they reject you and seek to harm you, flee to the next town. I'm not sending you out with the expectation that everyone is going to repent when they hear your message and that you will complete your mission in that way. Jesus could very well be saying something like that. You will not succeed in gathering all the towns of Israel in repentance. I'm warning you in advance, the task of calling all the children of Israel is going to remain uncompleted. It will mostly be a failed mission at this point. If one town rejects you, don't stay and try to fix it, escape, and move on, even though the job of repentance is not done. Well, that brings us to this last phrase, until the Son of Man comes, or some translations have before. And let's talk about this word, before, until. It could be translated up till the time of. And let's think about the possible ways to take this phrase and how those possibilities change what Jesus is saying. Most of the interpretations of this verse understand this little word until or before to be implying a deadline. I will not do X before the deadline of Y. For example, I will not be able to finish my homework before dinner. Dinner is the deadline. I won't be able to complete the task of doing my homework before the deadline of dinner arrives. And from my reading, that's the most common interpretation of this passage. You will not be able to finish traveling through all the cities of Israel before the deadline, which is the coming of the Son of Man, and then people differ what that deadline means. We talked about how it might be the resurrection, the destruction of Jerusalem, or the second coming. Since I think Jesus is referring to the second coming, I don't think he's picturing this phrase as a deadline because we've missed it by over 2,000 years. There's another possibility, and that is you will not do X during the span of time before Y. For example, until the day I die, I will never like you. Eating liver. The day I die is not a deadline. I could live to be a thousand and I will never like eating liver. I don't need more time. Time isn't going to help. I'm saying during the entire period of time while I'm alive, I am not going to like eating liver. In this case, Jesus would be saying, in the entire span of time before the Son of Man comes, you are not going to complete your mission. I know that you might be expecting that all of Israel is going to repent and believe and rejoice that the Messiah is here, but that's not going to happen even during the entire span of time before the second coming. In the entire span of time before the Son of Man comes, the mission of seeing all Israel repent will not be completed. When the Son of Man comes, your mission will still be incomplete. So I'm sending you out with the expectation that you will not succeed now in calling all of Israel to repentance. I think that option makes a lot more sense, but there's one more way we could refine it just a little bit further. And I like this refinement. I like this last possibility. And that is I will not do X until Y, and then I will. An example would be, I will not be able to drive alone until I get my driver's license. That is, up until the time I get my license, I will not be able to drive alone. I have to have another driver with me. But then once I get my license, things will change and I will be able to drive alone. If we take that phrase this way, Jesus is saying, your mission will only be completed when the Son of Man comes. I know that you might be expecting that all the cities of Israel are going to repent, but that's not going to happen now. Before the second coming, most of them are not going to repent and believe. That mission of seeing all Israel repent is only going to be completed when the Son of Man comes. When the second coming happens, whenever that is, then and only then will all of Israel repent and believe. I think that makes the most sense at this point in my studies. Because if I'm understanding the Old Testament correctly, which actually is a really big if, I think Scripture teaches that at the end of this age, God will pour out his spirit on the Jewish people such that virtually all of them living at the time will believe. The disciples' current mission to Israel is going to fail and remain uncompleted in the sense that they are not going to all repent and believe. It is only when Jesus returns that their mission will finally succeed and the Jewish people in large, large numbers are going to repent and believe. I think, again, that's a big if, but I think the Old Testament promises a day in our future when God will pour out His Spirit on the Jewish people, so that in large numbers, virtually the entire nation will repent and believe, and then the second coming will happen. And I think Jesus is saying, now is not that time. Your mission now is not the restoration of Israel. That's going to happen later. Right now, they're mostly going to reject you. And when they reject you, don't stay and try to fix it, just flee to the next town. If I'm right about this, which is a big if, but again, this is not really my view. I didn't make this up. Other scholars who are more gifted than me have figured this out. But if this view is right, Jesus is speaking quite cryptically, and I don't know how much the twelve would have understood at that moment. I think that understanding would grow on them and develop as they complete this journey and then experience the cross and the resurrection, but at the moment he speaks, I'm not sure how much they would have understood. Also, if this view is right, it makes me wonder if this language about the cities of Israel is meant to echo the prophets. Israel was given the promised land and they spread out into their cities, and if they remained faithful to the covenant, they would have remained in those cities in peace and protection under God. But they were faithless, they broke the covenant, and God brought judgment upon them through the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and this is described as their cities were captured and destroyed. In response, the prophets spoke of a time when God would bring them together and restore them from captivity. And one of the ways the prophets described this is that their cities would be rebuilt. Let me just give you a couple of examples. This is Amos nine, eleven through fifteen. In that day I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen, and repair its branches, and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name, declares the Lord who does this. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed. The mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them, they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God. So the fallen booth of David is the kingship of David which is gone now in judgment, but in the future God will restore the kingship of David, which is to say, He will send the Messiah, the Davidic king, and at that time they will be restored to their cities and they will be planted on the land. So part of the promise of the coming of the Messiah is described as this restoring Israel to her cities and establishing her in the land. We see a similar promise in Ezekiel thirty six verses four through ten. Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the words of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, the ravines and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the deserted cities, which have become prey and derision to the rest of the nations all around. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, surely I have spoken in my hot jealousy against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who gave my land to themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, that they might make its pasture lands a prey. Therefore, prophesy concerning the land of Israel and say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and the valleys, thus says the Lord God, behold I have spoken in my jealous wrath, because you have suffered the reproach of the nations, therefore, thus says the Lord God, I swear that the nations that are all around you shall themselves suffer reproach, but you, O mountains of Israel, shall shoot forth from your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown, and I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel, all of it, the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places rebuilt. Again we see these promises of the restoration of Israel described as the cities being inhabited once more. And let me give you one more example. This is Jeremiah thirty one, twenty one through twenty four. Set up road markers for yourself, make yourself guideposts, consider well the highway, the road by which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth, a woman encircles a man. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their fortunes. The Lord bless you, O habitation of righteousness, O holy hill, and Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmer and those who wander with their flocks. And then follows the famous New Covenant passage where God says He will write the law in their hearts. So this magnificent promise of restoration includes spiritual renewal such that they will never rebel and face judgment again. And you could argue that the restoration to the land is a metaphorical way of describing that and not a physical act. That's certainly possible. I'm really not sure if it's meant to be a physical, literal restoration to the land, or this is all metaphorical talk about how we will be restored to fellowship with God. But in either case, we see this language of restoring the cities of Israel, and that restoration finds its completion in the second coming. When Jesus speaks these words to his disciples, Israel is back in the land, but they're not free. They are under Roman rule. They are back in their cities, but the spiritual restoration promised in Jeremiah and Ezekiel has not yet happened. When the disciples go out on this mission, they may be expecting, well, now is the time that we're going to see this spiritual restoration. We're back in the land, we've got that part of the promise. Now's the time, now must be it, because the Messiah is here when we see all that spiritual restoration. And Jesus is warning them, no, now is not that time. It is not yet the time for that true spiritual restoration. Completing the cities of Israel is not language that's familiar to us, but it would have been familiar to the apostles. And it's possible that Jesus means to call to mind the promises of restoration to the cities of Israel that are found in the Old Testament and warn them, this is not the task I'm sending you out on. On this journey, and in their future journeys after he leaves, they're going to find persecution and hostility. The day of that great spiritual restoration is not going to happen until the second coming. Those promises will be fulfilled, but not yet. All right, let me try to sum all this up and put it all together. At this point, here's what I understand Jesus to be saying. And of course I may be wrong. I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn and study more. This is a very difficult verse. There are lots of interpretive possibilities. I have only really scratched the surface of all these views, and I hold them very loosely because, you know, there's just so much more to learn. But right now, this is my best guess. I think Jesus is saying something like this I'm sending you out with the mission of proclaiming the gospel and calling Israel to repentance. You will not be able to complete that mission as Israel is not going to repent yet. Now is not the time for that full spiritual restoration of Israel. Instead, you will often find hostility and persecution. When that happens, leave and go to the next town. I know you will not be able to complete that mission now and that all of Israel is not going to repent and believe. In fact, that kind of restoration is not going to happen during the entire time while I am gone. Except for a remnant, Israel will not hear your message, and they will not respond in faith and repentance. Only at the end, when I return in the second coming, will this mission to Israel ultimately and finally be complete? Only then will they hear and repent. Now, as I said, this is one of those passages where there are lots of interpretive forks in the road. Sincere, Bible-believing Christians will take various and different forks and understand this verse differently. This is not a verse we want to kick anyone out of the kingdom over, and we should all recognize that it is difficult, and we may be the ones who have branched down the wrong interpretive fork. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all the episodes in this series on my website, wednesdayintheword.com. There is no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe to it, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen, and most importantly, tell a friend what you learned. And if you can, tell them where you learned it. You can find all his music and CDs at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.