"Where The Body Is, There Too Will The Vultures Gather."

"As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be on the day the Son of Man comes.  In those days people ate and drank and got married; but on the day Noah entered the ark, the flood came and destroyed them all.  So, it was in the days of Lot: people ate and drank, and bought and sold, and planted and built; but on the day Lot left Sodom, GOD made fire and sulfur rain down from heaven, which destroyed them all.  So will it be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.

On that day, if you are on the rooftop, don't go down into the house to get your belongings; and if you happen to be in the fields, do not turn back.  Remember Lot's wife!  Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever gives his life will be born again.

I tell you, though two men are sharing the same bed, it might happen that one will be taken, and the other left; though two women are grinding meal together, one might be taken and the other left.

Then they asked JESUS, 'Where will this take place, LORD?  And HE answered, 'Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.'" - Luke 17:26-37  

(Then come the words of JESUS concerning the end of Jerusalem and HIS second coming [Mark 13:14].  We should not speak about the end of the world in every time of anxiety.  JESUS gives us two comparisons: the lightning which is seen everywhere and the vultures which gather without fail wherever there is a corpse.  In the same way, everyone, without fail, will be aware of CHRIST's return.

Yet HIS return will catch off guard those who are not expecting it [just as in the days of Noah].  Judgment will separate the elect from the condemned--nothing separated them in daily life--from two people working side by side, one will be taken, the other left behind.

In Matthew 24:17 the reference to someone outside his house is connected with the end of Jerusalem, and here it means it will be necessary to escape quickly.  In the present text this has another meaning: when the end of the world comes it will be too late to worry about saving one's life or possessions.

Where will this take place? foolish question as in Luke 17:20, because the LORD will not come to take HIS people to a geographic location.  On that day, the good will be taken into the presence of GOD as infallibly as vultures gather around a corpse.)

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