The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed. Some interpret this in the light of Joel 2:31; Joel 3:15; Matthew 24:29; Revelation 6:12, as pointing to that physical change, real or phenomenal, in the shining of the sun and moon, which is to be one of the antecedent signs of Christ's coming at the last day. But the expressions used suggest rather a contrast between the dazzling splendor of Christ's actual appearance and the normal brightness of sunlight and moonlight. The greater and lesser lights will "pale their ineffectual fires" before the incomparable brightness of the "Sun of Righteousness" (Malachi 4:2). When the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem. The spiritual Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem can alone be meant, since the earth is no more (verse 20). (On these, see Revelation 21:1-27; Revelation 22:1-21.) Before his ancients; or, his elders. Four and twenty elders, clothed in white raiment, with crowns of gold upon their heads, are represented in the Apocalypse as sitting round about the throne of God perpetually (Revelation 4:4), and worshipping God and the Lamb (Revelation 4:10; Revelation 5:8, Revelation 5:14).
HOMILETICS