Immediately after the tribulation of those days
That is, immediately after the distress the Jews would be in
through the siege of Jerusalem, and the calamities attending it;
just upon the destruction of that city, and the temple in it,
with the whole nation of the Jews, shall the following things
come to pass; and therefore cannot be referred to the last
judgment, or what should befall the church, or world, a little
before that time, or should be accomplished in the whole
intermediate time, between the destruction of Jerusalem, and the
last judgment: for all that is said to account for such a sense,
as that it was usual with the prophets to speak of judgments afar
off as near; and that the apostles often speak of the coming of
Christ, the last judgment, and the end of the world, as just at
hand; and that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, will
not answer to the word "immediately", or show that that should be
understood of two thousand years after: besides, all the
following things were to be fulfilled before that present
generation, in which Christ lived, passed away, ( Matthew
24:34 ) and therefore must be understood of things that
should directly, and immediately take place upon, or at the
destruction of the city and temple. Shall the sun be
darkened:
not in a literal but in a figurative sense; and is to be
understood not of the religion of the Jewish church; nor of the
knowledge of the law among them, and the decrease of it; nor of
the Gospel being obscured by heretics and false teachers; nor of
the temple of Jerusalem, senses which are given into by one or
another; but of the Shekinah, or the divine presence in the
temple. The glory of God, who is a sun and a shield, filled the
tabernacle, when it was reared up; and so it did the temple, when
it was built and dedicated; in the most holy place, Jehovah took
up his residence; here was the symbol of his presence, the mercy
seat, and the two cherubim over it: and though God had for some
time departed from this people, and a voice was heard in the
temple before its destruction, saying, "let us go hence"; yet the
token of the divine presence remained till the utter destruction
of it; and then this sun was wholly darkened, and there was not
so much as the outward symbol of it: and the moon shall not
give her light;
which also is to be explained in a figurative and metaphorical
sense; and refers not to the Roman empire, which quickly began to
diminish; nor to the city of Jerusalem; nor to the civil polity
of the nation; but to the ceremonial law, the moon, the church is
said to have under her feet, ( Revelation
12:1 ) so called because the observance of new moons was one
part of it, and the Jewish festivals were regulated by the moon;
and especially, because like the moon, it was variable and
changeable. Now, though this, in right, was abolished at the
death of Christ, and ceased to give any true light, when he, the
substance, was come; yet was kept up by the Jews, as long as
their temple was standing; but when that was destroyed, the daily
sacrifice, in fact, ceased, and so it has ever since; the Jews
esteeming it unlawful to offer sacrifice in a strange land, or
upon any other altar than that of Jerusalem; and are to this day
without a sacrifice, and without an ephod: and the stars
shall fall from heaven;
which phrase, as it elsewhere intends the doctors of the church,
and preachers falling off from purity of doctrine and
conversation; so here it designs the Jewish Rabbins and doctors,
who departed from the word of God, and set up their traditions
above it, fell into vain and senseless interpretations of it, and
into debates about things contained in their Talmud; the
foundation of which began to be laid immediately upon their
dispersion into other countries: and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken;
meaning all the ordinances of the legal dispensation; which
shaking, and even removing of them, were foretold by ( Haggai 2:6 ) and
explained by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ( Hebrews
12:26 Hebrews
12:27 ) whereby room and way were made for Gospel ordinances
to take place, and be established; which shall not be shaken, so
as to be removed, but remain till the second coming of Christ.
The Jews themselves are sensible, and make heavy complaints of
the great declensions and alterations among them, since the
destruction of the temple; for after having taken notice of the
death of several of their doctors, who died a little before, or
after that; and that upon their death ceased the honour of the
law, the splendour of wisdom, and the glory of the priesthood,
they add F7;
``from the time that the temple was destroyed, the wise men, and sons of nobles, were put to shame, and they covered their heads; liberal men were reduced to poverty; and men of violence and calumny prevailed; and there were none that expounded, or inquired, or asked. R. Elezer the great, said, from the time the sanctuary were destroyed, the wise men began to be like Scribes, and the Scribes like to the Chazans, (or sextons that looked after the synagogues,) and the Chazans like to the common people, and the common people grew worse and worse, and there were none that inquired and asked;''that is, of the wise men there were no scholars, or very few that studied in the law.
F7 Misn. Sotah, c. 9. sect. 15.