Mark 13:24-27-- The Merciful Will Rule the Earth

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

Jesus is in the midst of his prophecy about the time when the temple will be destroyed.  He has already stated that the main signs to look for when the temple is destroyed is an “abomination of desolation” where the sacrifices will cease, there will be an attempted genocide of God’s people and a king will come who will claim to be God.  Jesus now is speaking of a time after the “tribulation”, or after the attempted genocide.  He doesn’t say how long after, but there is a break in time from the tribulation to the final events he is narrating here.  

The final events will be threefold: 

A. The powers in heaven will be shaken.  Jesus speaks of different powers—the sun, the moon, the stars, and then “powers” in general.  In the ancient world, these heavenly bodies are not seen as astronomical features, but as personalities with authority to rule over certain regions (Genesis 1:16; Psalm 121:6).  Prophets of the past have spoken of the sun being darkened and the moon turning to blood, which does not speak of literal events, but of authorities in heaven being shifted, which is indicated by political shifts on earth (Isaiah 13:10-17; Ezekiel 32:1-8; Joel 2:31;Acts 2:1-21).  All of the description together speaks of authorities in heaven under God being changed—no matter how important they are.   This is a judgement, probably severe, of ruling nations and leaders.

B. The Son of Man will appear.   The Son of Man appearing in the clouds is a reference to Daniel 7:13-14 where a human-like figure would have the glory of God and would receive all the authority of the earth from God.  It is this passage where Jesus is drawing his “Son of Man” language, which says that he had intended to be the Christ all along, from the beginning of his ministry.  With him appearing before the earth, however, indicates that the knowledge of his authority wouldn’t just be known to the spirit world anymore, but to all the earth.  God's chosen ruler will now rule over the world.

C. The elect will be gathered.  The “elect” are all those who are of the people of God, specifically Jews.  God’s people are all over the earth, and the Son of Man will use his authority to command angels to pick them up and gather them together in one place.  This is Jesus’ only reference to a so-called “rapture”, which is more accurately called a “gathering”, and it happens just as the Son of Man is going to judge all the peoples, at his appearing. God's chosen ruler will rule a people of God's choosing.

The final day is not just arbitrary.  God doesn't just decide, "Well, I've had enough of these awful people. I'm done," and he starts wiping out all the world. Rather, the empires of the world, like Egypt and Babylon, have to prove that they are worthy of judgment before God acts.  The one act that guarantees God will act is to destroy the people of God: the poor who are merciful, the pure in heart who make peace in the world.  

And God's purpose is not simple destruction.  The world is not destroyed with nuclear weapons, or disasters that wipe out the population of earth.  Rather, God's judgment has a purpose: to take out the leaders and soldiers on earth who oppress and destroy God's merciful poor, and to replace them with His chosen ruler.  It is a simple power move: When the human powers destroy God's compassionate, then God will move in and replace them with the compassionate, the loving, the peacemaking.

If we want to be on the winning side, we need to choose to be compassionate and peacemaking now, even if that means personal sacrifice.  Especially if that means our reputations are ruined, and people begin attacking us.  If we endure in mercy, then God will give us an opportunity to live in the earth ruled by the compassionate.