To set the tone for Matthew Chapter 24, the lesson begins with Chapter 23, verses 13-39. In these verses, Jesus was pronouncing woes on the scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites and ends with what will happen to them. He is pointedly addressing them with use of the pronoun you (humeis -- pronounced: hoo-mice'- #5210; also used is humin -- pronounced: hoo-min' means ye, you, yourselves-#5213-Strong’s Numbers),

translated with ye in the KJV. The use of the pronoun you (also means yourselves) leaves no doubt that he was addressing a specific group that was present at the time of his speaking. Jesus blistered them with a scathing denunciation through the chapter and then in verse 33 he asks them a question: Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Note the words Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers in the address. Again, he was speaking to a specific group, a [ye, you understood] generation whom he called serpents and vipers. It is interesting that Jesus used the words serpents and vipers, which mean snake and a poisonous snake respectively. (Remember the serpent in the Garden.) Is it any wonder the Pharisees conspired to kill him? He compared them to the lying serpent in the Garden and also told them their father was the devil, John 4: 44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (Read John 8:39-44 for all the context)

In both Matthew 3:7 and Luke 3:7 we find the words of John the Baptist: But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  In Daniel (9:26-27; 11:31 and 12:11) there are references to abomination that makes desolate: In 11:31: And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And 12:11: And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. These three prophesies about a disaster, perpetrated by Antiochus, that would destroy the temple were fulfilled at later date, but before the time of Jesus according to Jewish history.  They are mentioned here to show that they couldn’t be for our time. Neither can they be the prophecy of 8:26-27 because Daniel was told to shut that vision up (and in Daniel 12:4ff he was told to shut up what he heard, which was the final and total destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70). At this point, there are five references made to an impending disaster that would descend upon the Jews: Daniel made three; John the Baptist made one; and Jesus made the other. He called it the damnation of hell. Jesus compared the coming destruction of Jerusalem to the fires that burned in Gehenna, the Jerusalem city dump where refuse burned to extinction.      

Then Jesus continued in Matthew 23:34: Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.  The words of Jesus will be fulfilled after the Day of Pentecost as will be seen when passages in Acts are examined. He then becomes very specific in his speech to scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites in verse 36: Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. To what generation is he directing his words? It is the very same generation that he addressed in verse 33: it is the same generation that John addressed in Matthew 3:7 and Luke 3:7: and though Daniel didn’t know the identity of those who would receive the wrath, they were the ones in Daniel’s vision of many years before. Furthermore, they would be some of the ones who would see the events that Jesus told John to write in Revelation. Jesus said in Matthew 23:38: Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. What house and whose would be desolate? It was the temple and they would have no protection from God’s wrath unless they repented, turned to Jesus and fled Jerusalem.

As we have discovered, the words this and this generation were directed to those present when Jesus spoke. The generation, which is of record, cannot be those in some distant future far removed from that time, since it was the Jews who rejected Jesus in spite of their having received the message of the prophets. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John1:11) Furthermore, the Gentiles (also Jews who became as Gentiles) had not yet come into the fold. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. (John 10:16) The Gentiles entering the fold is told in Acts Chapters 10:32-48 and 11:1-18 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. 11:1 And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.

© 12-10-2009 DEC

                            Part III will begin with Matthew Chapter 24.