The Vultures and the Carcass Scripture: Luke 17:37 (Matthew 24:28) 37 And they said to him, Where, Lord? He said to them, Where the body is, there the eagles (also translated vultures) will be gathered together. Reflection:- What can nature teach us about the judgments of God? Jesus quoted a familiar proverb to his audience: Where the body is, there the eagles (or vultures) will be gathered together. Eagles, like vultures, are attracted to carrion. The Book of Job describes the eagle spying out its prey from afar (Job 39:29). Whats the point of this analogy? Its inevitable that a thing will happen when the necessary conditions are fulfilled. The return of the Lord is certain, but the time is unknown. The Lords judgment comes swiftly and often unexpectedly. Jesus warns his listeners to not be caught off guard when that day arrives (see Luke 17:26-37). It will surely come in Gods good time! Those whose hope is firmly anchored in heaven will not be disappointed when Gods judgment comes. They rejoice even now that they will see the Lord in his glory! Is your hope firmly placed in God and his kingdom? Matthew 24:28 Excerpt from John Gills exposition For wheresoever the carcass is Not Christ, as he is held forth in the Gospel, crucified and slain, through whose death is the savour of life, and by whom salvation is, and to whom sensible sinners flock, encouraged by the ministry of the word; and much less Christ considered as risen, exalted, and coming in great glory to judgment, to whom the word carcass will by no means agree, and but very poorly under the former consideration: but the people of the Jews are designed by it, in their fallen, deplorable, miserable, and lifeless state, who were like to the body of a man, or any other creature, struck dead with lightning from heaven; being destroyed by the breath of the mouth, and brightness of the coming of the son of man, like lightning, just as antichrist will be at the last day: there will the eagles be gathered together: not particular believers here, or all the saints at the day of judgment; though these may be, as they are, compared to eagles for many things; as their swiftness in flying to Christ, their sagacity and the sharpness of their spiritual sight, soaring on high, and renewing their spiritual strength and youth: but here the Roman armies are intended, whose ensigns were eagles; and the eagle still is, to this day, the ensign of the Roman empire: formerly other creatures, with the eagle, were used for ensigns; but C. Marius, in his second consulship, banished them, and appropriated the eagle only to the legions: nor was it a single eagle that was carried before the army, but every legion had an eagle went before it, made of gold or silver, and carried upon the top of a spear and the sense of this passage is this, that wherever the Jews were, whether at Jerusalem, where the body and carcass of them was, in a most forlorn and desperate condition; or in any other parts of the country, the Roman eagles, or legions, would find them out, and make an utter destruction of them. The Persic version, contrary to others, and to all copies, renders it vultures. Though this creature is of the same nature with the eagle, with respect to feeding on carcasses: what vulture shall have this carcass? It has a very sharp sight, and quick smell, and will, by both, discern carcasses at almost incredible distance: it will diligently watch a man that is near death; and will follow armies going to battle, as historians relate and it is the eagle which is of the vulture kind, as Aristotle observes, that takes up dead bodies, and carries them to its nest. And Pliny says, it is that sort of eagles only which does so; and some have affirmed that eagles will by no means touch dead carcasses: but this is contrary not only to this passage of Scripture, but to others; particularly to ( Job 39:30 ) her young ones also suck up blood, and where the slain are, there is she: an expression much the same with this in the text, and to which it seems to refer; see also ( Proverbs 30:17 ) . says, both the passage in Job, and this in Matthew, are to be understood of vultures; he doubtless means the eagles that are of the vulture kind, the Gypaeetos, or vulture eagle. There is one kind of eagles, naturalists say F5, will not feed on flesh, which is called the bird of Jupiter; but, in common, the eagle is represented as a very rapacious creature, seizing, and feeding upon the flesh of hares, fawns, geese and the rather this creature is designed here; since, of all birds, this is the only one that is not hurt with lightning F6, and so can immediately seize carcasses killed thereby; to which there seems to be an allusion here, by comparing it with the preceding verse: however, the Persic version, though it is literally a proper one, yet from the several things observed, it is not to be overlooked and slighted. FURTHER READING GO TO John Gills link m.biblestudytools/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/matthew-24-28.html
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 22:55:27 +0000
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