The Lord next refers to the days of Noah: so should it be in His own days when He comes as the Son of man. It is no question either of receiving the church or of judging the dead, though the latter will follow at the end, as the former precedes. Here it is distinctly the judgment of the quick on the earth, a truth which has very generally passed out of the mind of Christendom. “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and destroyed all.” This cannot refer to any but those alive upon the earth surprised by the deluge. “Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.” There was progress in the world; civilization had advanced, but was it better morally? “But on that day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed all.” Men too easily forget that a judgment incomparably more comprehensive, but after the pattern of these two divine interventions, awaits the world, and more particularly that part of it which has been favored with the testimony of God. There can be no delusion more ruinous than the notion that because there is much good in the midst of Christendom its doom will not come. The Lord lingers in order to save souls. Such is His longsuffering and grace, but He is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness. When His own are gathered out, judgment will proceed so much the more sternly because His grace was seen, its fruits manifested, and His warnings given in vain. As it was then in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot, “even thus shall it be when the Son of man is revealed.” For the Lord speaks only of His revelation from heaven in the judgment of the world, not at all of translating the saints to be with Himself in the Father's house.
“In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not go down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.” (Ver. 31.) It is no question of the destruction of Jerusalem, any more than that of the final judgment; and it is absurd to apply it to death. But the mind of man is fertile in expedients to parry the blows of the truth. It is a testimony which keeps the advent of the Lord Jesus to judge the habitable world ever hanging over the heads of careless men.
“Remember Lot's wife.” This is a moral touch for those who might seem safer than others, but are not saved. It is peculiar to Luke and a most searching word for everyone whose face and heart are not steadily fixed on the Lord, for she was very near to Lot and seemed to have passed out of all reach of judgment. But her heart was in the city to which she looked back, and she heeded not the admonition of God's messengers, but in her destruction proved the truth of the word which she believed not. “Whoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whoever shall lose it shall preserve it.” There is no security any more than real happiness save in faith, and faith is ever obedient to the word of the Lord.
“I tell you, that night there shall be two [men] in one bed, the one shall be taken and the other let go. Two [women] shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken and the other let go.” Here again the proof is complete and palpable, that it is no question of the Romans dealing with Jerusalem and the Jews, for the conqueror made no such discrimination among the conquered, nor is it any other providential judgment executed by man, for he is incapable of thus distinguishing. But it is not so with the Son of man, who will thus judge between cattle and cattle whether among the Jews or among the Gentiles.
Judged by the witnesses, verse 36 would appear to have no sufficient authority in our Gospel, but seems plainly to have been imported from the Gospel of Matthew, where it finds its just place.
In verse 37, “They answered and said to him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, 'Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.’” The executors of God's judgment will not fail to find themselves where an object demands it in that day. Power and righteousness are then together, and a wisdom adequate even to that great occasion. It is the day of Jehovah for the world. The area of judgment is not limited to Judea as in Matt. 24 where a similar but stronger phrase appears, and indeed much in common between the two passages. That the Jews may be before the Lord here too as the prominent persons warned is very possible. It is always so where the dealings of God with man and the earth are found; for Israel is Jehovah's son, His firstborn. When the church or Christians are in view, it is not so; for there the distinctions of the Jew or Gentile disappear before Him whom we have put on, and in whom is neither Jew nor Greek. The attempt to apply the passages to the Lord's coming for us, or at least not to distinguish between this and His appearing for the judgment of man, Jew or Gentile, is, that people construe “the eagles” as the saints! from Ambrose and Chrysostom, &c., down to Luther, and Calvin, &c., and even to Burgon and Wordsworth in our days. They are still more perplexed as to “the body,” some taking it as “Christ!” others as the “church,” no less than “the eagles;” others as “the Lord's supper;” some as “the judgment;” others as “heaven;” and none really knowing anything rightly about the matter. Most moderns take “the eagles” as “the Romans,” and “the body” as Jerusalem and the Jews. This is nearer the truth, but inadequate when simply applied to the past. M. Henry thinks that the eagles may mean both “the saints” and “the Romans;” and Mr. Ryle thinks it very probable that all the interpretations hitherto proposed will prove at last incorrect! I have given not nearly all the opinions: but my readers will agree that I have given at least enough and that miserable comforters are they all, especially such as think that the truth remains to be discovered only at the second advent. There is not much living faith in such thoughts. What a descent from our Lord's promise, in John 16:13,13Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. (John 16:13) now fulfilled; “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth and he will shew you things to come.”