The Fire in Matthew 25

I received the following question from a visitor to this site:

In Matthew, Jesus speaks about the judgment of the nations. Whoever “treats Israel well” will be placed at God’s right hand. No resurrection has preceded this. Yet reference is made to the punishment in Revelation 20 – the lake of fire – by comparing it with the fact that “the goats” end up in the fire together with Satan and his cohorts. Still, in my opinion, this must be a different judgment, because no resurrection has preceded it. How exactly should this be understood?

Answer

This concerns the gathering of the nations in Jerusalem before the thousand years (Revelation 19:19–21). By then, “the Son of Mankind” (Ben Adam) has taken His place on “the throne of His glory” (Matthew 25:31). Those who have not treated the least of His brothers well (> brothers according to the flesh = Israelites) are consigned to the fire prepared for the devil and his messengers (Matthew 25:41). By his messengers (angels), we should understand the wild beast and the false prophet. Of these three, we read that they will be cast into the lake of fire and sulfur (Revelation 19:20; 20:10). This judgment will take place in the region that once burned with fire and sulfur: the area around the Dead Sea (Genesis 19:24, 28). It is in this region that the “goats,” that is, the unwilling nations, will also perish.

The judgment in Matthew 25 runs parallel to what we find at the end of Revelation 19. There too, the nations are gathered, and there too we find the end of “the wild beast and the false prophet.” In the same breath, it says: “And the rest were killed with the blade” (> the goats) (Revelation 19:21).

We also read about this judgment in Joel 3:1 and 2:

1 For, behold, in those days, And in that time, When I shall reverse the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also convene all the nations And bring them down to the Vale of Jehoshaphat (= YHWH judges). And I will enter into judgment with them there concerning My people, And My allotment, Israel, whom they disperse among the nations, And My land which they apportion.

Notice the sequence: the restoration of Israel, the gathering of all the nations in “the land,” and a judgment “on account of My people” (cf. “the least of My brothers”).

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