Luke 17:37

THE CARCASS AND THE EAGLES

Luke 17:37. “And responding, they say to Him, Where, Lord? And He said to them, Where the carcass is, there the eagles will also be gathered.” This statement is momentously significant. Humanity has always been a failure, every dispensation winding up with tremendous calamities Eden, with the fall; the Antediluvian, with the flood; the Patriarchal, with slavery, the desolating plagues, the death of the first-born, and the drowning of Pharaoh's army. Now, the awful doom o? Judaism is hastening and her destruction ripening. Jesus sees the Roman armies coming to obliterate the nation and annihilate the Jewish polity. Judaism at that time, both political and ecclesiastical, was well comparable to an old carcass, full of diseases, rotten, odoriferous, and already seeming up the birds of prey. The vulture belongs to the eagle species, mad is here really meant, as the bird of all others most voracious of carrion. It would be an exceedingly superficial view of these prophecies that would restrict them to their merely preliminary fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem; whereas you see plainly that the great moment is our Lord's second coming, which did not take place at that time. He began this discourse by reminding His disciples of His speedy death, resurrection, ascension, and utter removal from the earth, and their subsequent anxiety “to see one of the days of the Son of man.” Hence you observe the emphasis laid on His personal coming throughout, and at the same time the warning He gives them in reference to the signs which would precede the destruction of Jerusalem, posting them lest they be led astray with reference to His coming, and at the same time assuring them that His personal return to the earth will be so distinctly marked that no one can possibly be mistaken, as “every eye shall see Him.” Now, we know that this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, neither the rapture of the saints nor the gathering of the eagles, except in a preliminary sense at the termination of preceding dispensations.

“I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool; His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fire stream issued, and came forth from before Him; a thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him� I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:9-14.)

This is a clear and unmistakable prophecy setting forth the glorious pre- millennial coming of the Lord, preceded by the Ancient of Days i. e., the Father who has nobody, and is consequently invisible, but will come, and, as you here see, shake every monarch from his throne, both political and ecclesiastical, thus clearing the way for the coronation of His Son, according to His promise, “Sit Thou on My right hand, until I may make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” Do you not see in the above quotation from Daniel, that when the Father comes to “cast down the thrones,” He will be accompanied by innumerable hosts of angels? Quite legitimate is the conclusion that these are angels of vengeance i. e., destroying angels executive of the just retribution which the righteous government will inflict upon the usurpers of earth when the awful castigatory wars of Armageddon, so prominent in the prophecies, shall vacate every human throne for the coronation of the Son, as you see in verse 14, King of kings and Lord of lords, to reign forever. Hence these destroying angels are symbolized by the eagles, that will devour the old, corrupt, and debauched body of the Gentile dispensation, both political and ecclesiastical, thus literally verifying the “great tribulation.”