Luke 17: 20-37
Who Are The Good Guys And Who Are The Bad Guys?
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” 22 Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23 And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them. 24 For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day. 25 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife. 33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. 36 Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”
The Pharisees are aware of our Lord Jesus’ continual teaching concerning the coming of the Kingdom of God and approach Him to ask Him when it is coming. But their problem is that they are looking for the wrong thing. It is their view that the Messiah, once He has come, will in some way overturn the Romans, and will then establish Israel as a free, independent nation whose influence will reach out to the world, with them in overall authority. Thus they are looking for the establishment of a physical kingdom on earth of a type like other kingdoms. They have failed to recognize that much of what the prophets had promised could not in fact be fulfilled in a physical kingdom, and that The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ had come bringing something better, the everlasting Kingdom promised by the prophets.
We will see that in His reply, our Wonderful Sovereign Lord Jesus will bring out firstly that the Kingdom of God is already here and is being entered by those who believe in Him and follow Him, and secondly that the finalization of that Kingly Rule will take place when He comes in glory. Thus they can be sure that any Messiah who comes in any other way is false.
20 Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; 21 nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”
In the book of Joel chapter 2 we read this, “28 “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. 29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD. 32 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the remnant whom the LORD calls.”
There has always been an expectation that the kingdom of God would come with cosmic signs. Such expectation was rooted in Scripture like the one we read in the book of Joel. So, the Pharisees were hunting at this idea when they asked our Lord Jesus their question on this subject.
The Pharisees pressed our Holy Master and Greater Brother as to when the Kingdom of God over the world was coming and our Lord Jesus declares that it is already there among them. The statement ‘within you’ may also be translated ‘in your midst’. He wants them to recognize that it is not something that will be established in outward form, with a king, and courtiers, and an army, and a judicial authority. No one will be able to point and say, ‘look here it is’ or ‘there it is’. For it is not visible in that way. Rather it is being built up as the hearts of men are being changed. Those who are looking to the King and are already submitting to His Rule have already entered. Those who turn from Him and reject His message and do not submit to His authority remain outside the Kingdom of God. So the Kingly Rule of God is now within the community of Israel, invisibly but effectively. But not all Israel is a part of it.
Yet there is a sense in which it is visible. Our Lord Jesus could say to His disciples, ‘Heal the sick and say that the Kingdom of God is come near to you’. It had come near in their being there preaching in the cities, and in their manifesting divine power there. But it would not be with an outwardly constituted authority. It would be apparent to all who recognized that God was at work among them through the power of our Magnificent King Jesus.
22 Then He said to the disciples, “The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
Our Lord Jesus needed to get across to His disciples and urgent and important fact. He wanted them to understand that while the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s was there among them as He had just declared, it did not mean that He would continue to be permanently among them as He now was. There was to be a break in ‘the days of the Son of Man’.
As prophesied in the book of Daniel chapter 7 we find out that He was to be taken from among them, for His days among them would cease. – “13 “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.
14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.
Soon they would look around and would not see Him. ‘His days’ among them will then no longer be enjoyed. Normality will have been disrupted. And thus in the future there were to be many days when they would long to see Him, and He would not be there.
This warning was necessary. The disciples were already building up the picture in their own mind of His soon coming triumph. They probably believed that by means of His extraordinary powers, of which they had only had a glimpse, He would shortly act in order to establish His Kingly Rule, after which they would then take up their places seated at His side and sharing His authority. But if they thought like that their confidence would soon be shattered. For it would not happen. So He wanted them to recognize that those ideas were not based on a sound foundation. Rather they must realize that days of uncertainly lay ahead, days of trial, days when they will find things difficult to understand, days when the Son of Man has been taken from among them and they will long for the days when He had been among them. They would long for the outward manifestation of His Rule by His presence among them and would not see it.
Please note the statement ‘The days will come’. It refers to uncertain future times some time in the distance. The days of the Son of Man will shortly be compared with ‘the days of Noah’ and ‘the days of Lot’. In both the latter cases everyday affairs like eating and drinking were carrying on, and then suddenly all came to a climactic end. And ‘the days’ took place before the climactic end. It will be like this with the days of the Son of Man. Here He was eating and drinking with them, but the days will end equally climactically, first in His suffering which is spoken about in verse 25 and then in His glorious appearing which verse 24 lists. And in between those two events would be days when they looked back and longed for the days of the Son of Man that they had enjoyed, and they would look forward to the day of the Son of Man that was coming. And hopefully it would spur them on. But those days could never be retraced.
For what they will miss is Him. They would never forget the days that they had spent with Him, and their hearts would delight in that day when once more they would see Him face to face, but meanwhile they would have to go on. And the grave danger was that in their desire to have Him again they might fall prey to a false Messiah. So let them remember His words now, that no Messiah who appears on earth can be the true Messiah, for when He does return it will be unmistakable. It will not be as a Messiah on earth. It will be like the transfiguration a hundred times over.
23 And they will say to you, ‘Look here!’ or ‘Look there!’ Do not go after them or follow them.
Our Majestic Holy Ruler is telling His disciples and by the way, so are we, to not be deceived by any who claim to be reintroducing those days and claiming that they are again setting up ‘the days of the Messiah’ in this physical world. For when He does return it will not be ‘here’ or ‘there’. Thus such people must not be heeded. Any earthly claimants to Messiah ship are to be rejected out of hand, for the final conclusion to the days of the Son of Man will not be introduced in that way. It will not be something earthly. In the chiasmus this warning is the central point. Central to all, He is saying that He is warning them not to be taken in by false claimants to Messiah ship, and that it is a warning that must be heeded. They must recognize that what is now in mind in the future is not some small earthly series of events, but God’s mighty working from Heaven.
This fact is a no brainer. There is never going to be another Messiah showing up. The only One and True Messiah is our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is how He Is coming back.
24 For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.
When He comes He will be revealed in splendor and glory in the same way as the lightning lights up the whole heavens. There will be no mistaking it. Every eye will see Him. The splendor and glory of His appearing will be manifested to all.
25 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
But He must first suffer on earth. That He is unquestionably speaking of Himself now comes out. For He now declares that before that glorious appearing must come the times of suffering. For He Himself must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. First He must be manifested in suffering and then He will be manifested in glory. So this is the way in which the days of the Son of Man must end, in the Day of suffering that will culminate in the Day of glory. And for the disciples, in between the suffering and the glory, will be the days of longing for the days of the Son of Man, both past and future.
26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
What happened in ‘the days of Noah?’ They ate, they drank, they married, and they were given in marriage. In other words life seemed to be going on as normal. They continued blissfully unaware of Noah’s activities in their midst. They ignored both his building of the Ark which condemned the world and the proclamation of his word among them. Our Holy Adoni Yahweh was not a part of their lives. They did not think of Him. They were complacent in their sin. And then Noah entered into the Ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Have you ever wondered why our Wonderful Holy Spirit listed this statement, ‘They married, they were given in marriage.’ I have read that the last part of this verse should read, ‘They married, and they got out of marriage’. The divorce rate is around 70 percent today. What is even more startling is that divorce among Christians are about the same percentage. Do you see the fit here of us truly being in the last days as our Lord and Savior is teaching here?
28 Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
A second example is now given, the days of Lot, which is ‘in the same way’, thus again being compared with the days of the Son of man. They ate and they drank, they participated in all the activities which made up their lives, firmly establishing themselves in the world, but when Lot was taken out of Sodom fire and brimstone came down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife.
The first illustration of the urgency of these days is to picture it in terms of escaping from catastrophe without looking back. Then there will be no time in which to go down and pack, there will be no time to return to the city from the countryside. All will happen immediately. The point is not the giving of advice on what to do, but in order to indicate the speed at which all will happen. There will simply not be time for anything. And there is also the suggestion that they were not to have their hearts set on earthly things to which their thoughts would instinctively turn when they recognized that the end of all things had come, as Lot’s wife did with Sodom. It is not a question of logical thinking; it is a question of what will spring into their minds at such a catastrophic moment.
33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
So two examples of those whose eyes are to be fixed on God in verse 31 are followed by the example of the one whose eyes were fixed on sin in verse 32, and in this verse the two are contrasted. Furthermore these examples, which are very much in terms already applied to the disciples, emphasize the continuity between the disciples and those who will be alive in the ultimate day of Christ’s return. For between the Day of suffering and the Day of glory such tests may come again and again. In these three warnings we can see His instructions, not only for the time of the end, but also as those which are to be followed throughout the whole preceding period as they make themselves ready for that Day.
34 I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left.
By the way, a lot of bible teachers use these verses as part of their description of a ‘Rapture’. I do not believe this. My understanding is that these verses are referring to our Blessed Holy Lord Jesus’ 2nd Coming.
We now have a final statement of the climactic events which will take place, and typically of Luke, one refers to men and one to women. They equally participate in both blessing and judgment.
The first example is of two men, probably father and son, or two brothers, sharing a mattress, which was a common feature of those days when shared warmth could be important and space was lacking. They would, however, each be covered by their own cloaks. On that night one would be taken and the other left.
35 Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left.
The same picture is now applied to women grinding in the mill together, the one turning the stone, the other pouring in the grain. Very often this would be mother and daughter, or two sisters. But the one will be taken and the other left. No more vivid picture could be given of the ‘invisibility’ of the Kingdom of God, for no one, apart from the individuals, and they might be wrong, could be sure who is a citizen of the Kingdom of God and who was not.
36 Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.” 37 And they answered and said to Him, “Where, Lord?” So He said to them, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.”
So, who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Some see the question as referring to those that are left. Those who are ‘Left Behind’. But it is difficult to see why that was a problem. They were left where they were. The puzzle was as to what happened to those who were taken.
Let’s see if you come up with the answer yourselves? The clues are obvious. When the flood came who was taken and who was left behind? All the people living in the world were taken. It was not a mysterious ‘taking’. They were all taken out of this world by being killed? There was no spiritual exit. This people died in the flood. The ones left behind alive were Noah and his family. Right?
Now, what about the end of the world, who are the ones taken. The bad guys not the church. The verse 37 should read ‘vultures’ not eagles. Where do vultures gather? Over dead bodies? The ones ‘Left Behind’ are the one our Lord has ready for the Millennium.
So, now stop and think for yourselves. Do you want to be the ones taken or the ones left behind?
.
