Matthew 24:23-28 The vultures gather
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 13, 2019 Matthew 24:23-28
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Jesus knows that He will come a second time in the clouds of glory. He told this to the high priest at one of His trials. “Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven'” (Matthew 26:64). Jesus was about to finish His earthly ministry, so He was beginning to tell His disciples about the next time He would physically come to earth. He would not be sneaky. He would not go to the out of the way places like He had during His time with the disciples. Instead, the next time He would come in a blaze of glory as lightning brightens the sky. There would be no wilderness or inner rooms. Jesus was very clear about this in the Bible, yet Satan has convinced the majority of Christians of the very opposite. How can they read the total Bible and believe a lie?
(Understanding the Text) What does it mean “Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather?” Guzik says “For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together: This is a difficult statement. It was probably a figure of speech with the idea, ‘when judgment is ripe, it will surely come.’” Some translations say eagles rather than vultures. Clark says “For wheresoever the carcass is – Πτωμα, the dead carcass. The Jewish nation, which was morally and judicially dead. There will the eagles – The Roman armies, called so partly from their strength and fierceness, and partly from the figure of these animals which was always wrought on their ensigns, or even in brass, placed on the tops of their ensign-staves. It is remarkable that the Roman fury pursued these wretched men wheresoever they were found. They were a dead carcass doomed to be devoured; and the Roman eagles were the commissioned devourers. See the pitiful account in Josephus, War, b. vii. c. 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, and 11.” Thus, Clark is applying the carcass to the Jewish nation while Guzik says the saying refers to judgment in general. In the context, I think Guzik is more correct. Ellicott discounts Clarks theory and says “What the enigmatic proverb (if indeed it be enigmatic) means, is that wherever life is gone, wherever a church or nation is decaying and putrescent, there to the end of time will God’s ministers of vengeance, the vultures that do their work of destruction, and so leave room for new forms of life by sweeping off that which was “ready to vanish away” (comp. Hebrews 8:13 for the phrase and thought), assuredly be found. What the disciples should witness in the fall of Jerusalem would repeat itself scores of times in the world’s history, and be fulfilled on the largest scale at the end of all things. The words of Isaiah (Isaiah 46:11) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 39:4), in which the “ravenous bird” is a symbol of the nations who do the work of destruction to which God sends them, illustrate the meaning of the generalised law which is here asserted” From <https://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/24-28.htm> . I don’t think he has it right either. I think maybe this signifies judgment and the death of the wicked at Jesus’ second coming. He is saying that there will be no secret. There will be death and life, destruction and transformation. However, I could be wrong, in which case I would go with the idea that this was a sure thing.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that I need to understand prophecy better so that I can explain why I believe the way I do. Right now, I know enough to be sure myself, but not enough to teach it. My second application is that Jesus had total confidence in His knowledge of the future. I need to have total confidence in Jesus’ knowledge of the future also. Lord, give me understanding and confidence in Your word about the future. Help me to face the problems that will come with confidence and humility, relying on You alone in order to overcome my trials.