Matthew 24:37-43
One Taken and One Left
Prepared by Dr. John E. Marshall
Matt. 24:37 (Holman ) As the days of Noah were, so the coming of the
Son of Man will be.
Our Lord believed the flood was an actual, historical event people were expected to be ready for. Noah preached righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). There were no justifiable excuses in his day for being unprepared for what God was about to do in directly interrupting human history with judgment. Sadly, people in Noah's day felt his preaching and his ark were foolishness.
Since the listeners were guilty of ignoring Noah's preaching, they could not blame their doom on God. No one can. He has always aggressively pursued sinners to rescue them. However bad the times become, God will, as He did in Noah's day, have a witness speaking on His behalf to win sinners.
In the end, only Noah's family members were saved—wait! Did I say "only"? Let me say instead, in the end all his family members were saved—Amen! What a precious gift. Many pray the same for their own families.
Matt. 24:38-39a For in those days before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah boarded the ark. They didn't know until the flood came and swept them all away.
Noah's day was a time of ultimate wickedness, but the unspeakable sins of that era were not the trait Jesus referred to when He compared the flood to His Second Coming. Instead, He called attention to the fact people were living their ordinary lives. As the end of time approaches, things will, on a global scale, grow generally worse (Matthew 24:21) and generally better (Matthew 24:14) at the same time. On a personal scale, everyday life for most will generally be going on as normal.
This should not surprise us. The only way the Second Coming could happen at an unexpected time is for it to occur as life is going on as usual.
When Jesus comes, most people will be thinking about everything else. They will be so totally absorbed in earthly things, in the normal routines of life, that they will be unmindful of their duty toward God.
Jesus was warning us "never to become so immersed in time that we forget eternity" (Barclay). Forgetting life's most important details can never be justified. It is a serious evil. The nations that will be turned into Hell are those that forget God (PS 9:7). General disregard for God can be as bad as particular cases here and there of belligerent in-your-face irreligion. Societal neglect of Jesus may be more condemning to a nation than specific sins. Screaming against religion may not be as damaging as yawning at it.
Eating, drinking, and marrying were well and good, but the people should have also been listening to Noah, hearing God's word, repenting of sin, praying, and seeking the Lord. Not only were the people not expecting the Flood; they couldn't have cared less.
They were living as if God did not exist. They for sure did not believe He would judge and punish them. Unfortunately, those who will not know these things by faith will know them by experience. A day of judgment is never put off by not thinking about it. Ignoring it does not do away with it.
Noah's listeners, to the last minute, were totally oblivious. People rarely think about the eternity they are on the brink of. The lost question of Noah's day and ours is; "What must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). By not asking it, people bring on themselves their own condemnation. Many people lose their lives by accident, but no one ever loses their spirit by accident.
Matt. 24:39b-41 So this is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be: then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and one left.
Note the finality, as in Noah's day. When God closed the door of the Ark, those on the inside were protected; those on the outside were rejected. One of these two options will happen to each individual when the world ends, or when we die.
Either way, ordinary life will be interrupted. The end will be abrupt; spiritual conditions will freeze in time, with no chance to reconsider.
At the end, as now, people will generally look alike on the outside. Only God can know the secrets of the heart. In our text, Jesus depicted two chores usually done together with family members or close friends.
Dad, son, brothers, and male friends worked fields side by side. Mom, daughter, sisters, and female friends ground at the mill together. A lower millstone, usually about 12 inches in diameter, sat on the ground. An upper stone was turned by a peg near the outer edge. Sitting opposite each other, two people helped turn the upper stone, using their free hand to put grain in.
It would be hard to construct situations where people appeared more alike on the outside. And yet, the inner difference between them was as vast as Heaven and Hell itself. One served God; another served self. One's heart was filled with worship; another's filled with stuff and trivia. One's heart was light, the other's dark. One went to Paradise, the other entered Perdition.
Matt. 24:42-43 Therefore be alert, since you don't know what day your
Lord is coming. But know this: If the homeowner had
known what time the thief was coming, he would have
stayed alert and not let his house be broken into.
Be alert. Stay awake. Don't be caught off guard, as was a homeowner who, careless about household security, suffered a break-in. He slept when he should have been awake, reminding us people spiritually asleep will lose what they desperately needed to keep, but were careless about protecting.
"Be alert" is good counsel for a time like ours, when "the religion of multitudes is a sleepy religion" (Maclaren). Paul wrote, "We must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be serious" (1 Thessalonians 5:6).
Terrible things can happen to believers who let themselves spiritually doze off. While spiritually asleep, Solomon was seduced by 1000 women; David murdered Uriah; Moses angrily struck the rock twice; Peter cowardly denied, and Judas betrayed, our Lord. Never think it can't happen to you. Even Paul was concerned about himself. "I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified" (1 Corinthians 9:27). Never presume; stay spiritually alert.
Suetonius, Rome's famous biographer, said Julius Caesar never told his soldiers in advance when they would break camp. He felt this suspense kept them ready to move quickly. Even so Jesus wants us ready at any moment for His return. All we have to keep us watching is a few chapters in a printed book, yet we trust the Book because we know its Author.
Jesus is coming. He promised. Behind His long-lasting patience in not coming yet is power waiting to be exercised in His coming someday. Behind His woos are woes.
We must live in the delicate balance of now/then and here/there. We must keep these in tandem. Most become overly absorbed in this life; some spend so much time on heavenly things that they are of little earthly good.
We can learn a good lesson from farmers in planting season. My dad was a cotton farmer. He plowed with mules. He made a straight furrow by constantly fixing his eyes on a distant mark that kept his path straight. He made a deep furrow by occasionally glancing down to the ground beneath him to make sure the plow was well embedded in the soil. Live looking up. Watch the sky. Also live looking around. Hear and heed the Bible. Be alert.
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