Day 476: They who hesitate . . . - Luke 17 vs 31-37
31-32 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot's wife. 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
34-35 I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” Luke 17:31- 37 English Standard Version
This section began with a question from the Pharisees asking Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. Jesus replied by saying it wouldn’t come with the fanfare of earthly kingdoms because God's kingdom is established in people's hearts rather than in countries. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a starting point. In fact, it goes back to the days of the Old Testament when a king named Nebuchadnezzar had a strange dream of a giant statue made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and even clay, which shattered when it’s feet were struck by a stone cut from a mountain, but not by human hands.
God's servant, Daniel, was enabled by God to explain the dream as representing various great kingdoms of the world, including the iron and clay mixture of the Roman empire which Daniel said would be made up of various rulers. And then Daniel said: “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever.” (Daniel 2:44)
I agree with Bible teachers who say that Daniel was prophesying there the Kingdom of Messiah. And this Kingdom would, as it were, come to power in the days of the Roman Empire. And that's what happened. Jesus came into the world and made the perfect sacrifice by which sinners could be saved and brought into the Kingdom of God. And then God showed very clearly that the Old Covenant had expired. He used the Romans to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, just as Jesus had said would happen.
So I suggest that the main meaning of today's verses in Luke refers to Christ's coming in power to show that God's Kingdom had arrived. The warning He gave about not hesitating applied to Christians in Jerusalem in AD 70 when they saw things happening that reminded them of Jesus' words about the destruction of the city and it’s temple. And many of them did flee the city before it met it's terrible fate. The reference to vultures around a corpse fits in with the state Jerusalem was left in after it's devastation.
A popular theme in many novels and films some Christians have made over the last fifty years would say that vs 34-35 must surely be talking about 'the rapture'. That's the English word used for Christians who are lifted up to meet the Lord as He returns. ( 1 Thessalonians 4 :17 ) There’s a sense in which that is true because Christians who are alive on the day Jesus returns will be taken up to accompany Christ on His return, and their bodies will be wonderfully changed to be suitable for eternity. The coming of Christ in power when Jerusalem was destroyed is an example of what His final return in glory will be like. So how would you say vs 32 fits in with all this?
I would say that, in the case of Jerusalem, those who lingered in the city trying to save themselves and their possessions ended up losing their lives. Whereas those who heeded Jesus' warning and fled the city without possessions, actually saved their lives. But that is true of eternal life as well. Those who hesitate to repent of sin and give up all for Jesus are doomed to lose eternal life. But those who take up the cross of self denial in order to follow Jesus will inherit eternal life. Oh let us not be like the wife of Lot who was hesitant about fleeing the city that was doomed to destruction. Let us run even now and enter God's Kingdom by faith in Christ Jesus.