IX.-Sundry Points
1. That “the elect” of Matthew 24 are not “the elect” of the church, will be recognized by those readers who have grasped the truth that the whole of Matthew 24 from verse 3 to verse 44 applies to the post-church period. It is, however, not only in that chapter that the remnant are referred to as “elect"; scattered intimations of this characteristic may be found as early as Isaiah: “It shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem” (chap. iv. 3). “I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect (plural) shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there” (lxv. 9). So Daniel, speaking of the time of “the great tribulation": “At that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the book” (xii. 1). The Revelation—as previously quoted—shows the remnant to be definitely numbered, and individually sealed for God (vii. 1-8); and it will be remembered that Paul, when dealing with the casting away of Israel, and the subject of a remnant, says, “God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:2).
2. The carcass and the eagles.— “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matthew 24:28). For the understanding of this it is necessary to observe, that though included in one verse, there are here two distinct figures of two distinct events, which are not identical even in point of time. In prophecy there is nothing more usual than the announcement in close conjunction of events quite distinct, and sometimes far separated as to time. An eminent case is that of Isaiah 61:2, where two clauses of the same sentence link events which are near two thousand years apart: “To proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God.” The Lord Jesus stated that the first part of this—the proclamation of the acceptable year of the Lord—was fulfilled in His first advent; and in the reading of the scripture He stopped at that point, closed the book and returned it to the minister (Luke 4:19, 20). The second part of the sentence— “the day of vengeance” —He had not then come to proclaim; that awaits His second advent.
In our text the lightning as a vivid figure of the coming of the Son of man needs no explanation; but absurd and very objectionable interpretations have been proffered of the parable of the carcass and the eagles. There need, however, be no great difficulty, for the meaning is comparatively plain. A carcass, with vultures crowding to prey upon it, is manifestly nothing very pure or lovely. The carcass is a figure of the dead and putrifying nation of Israel; and scripture shows that the nations will gather to prey upon Israel, and these are aptly figured in the eagles or vultures. Old Testament prophecies are abundant and graphic in their portrayal of this feature of the last days. In Zechariah this future attack of the nations is given, “Behold the day of Jehovah cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken,” etc. (14:1-3). Again in Isaiah: “Woe to the multitude of many peoples, which make a noise like a noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters” (17:12). Then as to the effect upon Israel:
“They shall be left together unto the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the earth: and the birds of prey shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them” (18:6). Details cannot here be set out, but this attack of the ungodly nations is in scripture a large event of the last days, which, while permitted as a judgment on the apostate mass of Israel, will yet be checked by the Lord in the interests of the pious remnant. The reader who may consult the scriptures quoted, will recognize these two elements of the great event in question.
3. The sign of the Son of man in heaven.— “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the nations of the earth (or, land) mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). The disciples had asked, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?” The Lord had already instructed them about the end of the age; now He tells them that the sign of His coming will be the coming itself, for they should see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The expression, “sign of thy coming,” is the genitive of definition, for Mark and Luke give the substantial coming of the Son of man without referring to it as a sign.
4. The angels and the trumpet.— “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, and from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:31). Whatever in that day may have been done by man, as a political measure, in placing Jews in the Holy Land, and though that people may have autonomy under their own false king, the antichrist, yet the scattered condition of Israel under the sentence of Jehovah remains. But when the Lord comes, He will, by the instrumentality of angels, gather His elect from the most distant parts of the earth. How beautiful will it be to the despised, persecuted, and oppressed remnant, to suddenly find that they are the objects of inquiry and succor by the angels of the Lord! Romance cannot show such a brilliant reversal of position—yesterday, thought not fit to live; now, the quest of Jehovah's angels! How good has it ever been and ever will be, to be faithful to God in the face of a corrupt and unbelieving world.
5. Angelic activity is prominent at the appearing of Christ.—All the angels will then attend upon the Son of man (Matthew 25:31), and will act both in blessing, as we have just seen, and also in judgment. The Son of man will send His angels to gather together His elect; but likewise; the Son of man will “send his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41). Isaiah alludes to this gathering of the remnant, and to the great trumpet whose sound will reach them in the distant places of the earth— “And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship Jehovah in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (27:12, 13). Many may have sent ambassadors by the sea to this nation (Isaiah 18:2), ignoring the divine displeasure which rests upon it. With this movement Jehovah has no sympathy, as shown in an earlier chapter. Man places unrepentant Jews in the land, where they become the persecutors of the godly, and they themselves ultimately the prey of vultures—the other nations. Jehovah then stands quite aloof; but now has come His time. The Son of man comes in His glory and sends His angels, not to the case-hardened Jews, but to the faithful and godly remnant amongst them, who shall be saved and delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book (Daniel 12:1). The blowing of the trumpet is mentioned in Isaiah 18:3 in connection with the same subject. The result of the assemblages of Jews in ungodliness is shown in ver. 6; but an ensign is lifted up and a trumpet blown, and in ver. 7 the remnant is brought as an offering to Jehovah of hosts. The blowing of a trumpet may of course be symbolical of the loud joyful message which will summon the remnant to mount Zion.
6. One shall be taken and the other left.—In describing the judgment at the coming of the Son of man, the Lord says, “Then two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left” (Matthew 24:40, 41). At a first glance some have thought that this was like the rapture of the church, but it is exactly the converse. At the rapture the saints are caught away, and the world is left to proceed in its course. But when the Lord comes to the judgment of the living upon the earth, the taking away is in judgment, and the righteous are left to pass into blessing upon the earth at the millennium. This is plain from the parallel passage in Luke 21. There, speaking of the same judgment, the Lord states that “as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth"; and the disciples are exhorted to watch and pray that they “may be accounted worthy” —not to be caught away into heaven, but— “to stand before the Son of man"; that is, when He comes to the earth and the wicked are taken away in judgment. The judgment, however, is strictly discriminatory, wholly different from what takes place in the slaughter and sack of cities after conquest. Whether men in the field, or women at domestic operations, one is taken and another left. Sudden it may be, but it is judicial.
[E. J. T.]
(To be continued)