One Will Be Taken and the Other Left

I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” (Luke 17:34-37)

Jesus had already spoken of His second coming as Messiah in which He told us not to follow the world when they say, “Look, there!” or “Look, here!” But there’s yet another event that will happen before that Day of the Lord and that’s what is often referred to as the rapture.

The Word Rapture

Interestingly enough, the word “rapture” never appears in the Bible, but similarly to how the word “trinity” doesn’t appear in the Bible either, the written context is in the Bible.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, it says, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

It’s that phrase “caught up” that describes the event of the rapture. The Greek word, harpazo, means to snatch or take away; and in the Latin translation, the verb rapturo is where we, as English speakers, got the word “rapture”.

Paul mentioned in the letter to the Thessalonians that what he was telling them was a word from the Lord. Jesus, here in the Luke account, already shared about the event of the rapture briefly, and Paul was simply expounding on it as he was directed to by the Lord. The heart behind it is the same with Jesus as with Paul – so that we wouldn’t be ignorant about it, just as Paul had mentioned a couple verses earlier in that chapter, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers…” (1 Thessalonians 4:13a)

One Taken, The Other Left

Now, by the meaning of the word for “caught up” is a snatching, it’s obvious that the event of the rapture will be a super quick one; but Jesus gave us even more insight and details with His examples.

Jesus said that in that night, one would be taken out of the bed and the other left. Yet at the same time, two women will be grinding and one taken and the other left. Women would not be grinding their wheat, olives, etc. in the night, because that is a daytime job. So, it is implied that the example of the women is working during the day and the example of the couple in bed is at night. With these specific examples that Jesus gave us, it gives us specific insight to the fact that the rapture is going to be a worldwide event that takes place quickly.

Where, Lord?

Now, nothing like the rapture has ever happened before, and the disciples heard what Jesus said and wanted more information about it. That is totally understandable, wanting to understand an event that to our human minds seems impossible. It’s such a large-scale event, to happen worldwide, and a super quick one at that – it seems logical that His disciples wanted to have as good a grasp on it as they could.

But Jesus didn’t tell answer them exactly the way they were probably wanting, He instead used a poetic, almost proverb type response when He said, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” Jesus wasn’t trying to give them a non-answer, but He did often speak in parables and such and this is similar in that regard. Jesus is basically saying that when the time comes when judgement is ripe, that is where judgement will happen, and we’ll see the signs.

David Guzik, a pastor and Bible commentator, said it well - “We may say this with some confidence: The Bible describes certain political, economic, spiritual, social, and military characteristics regarding what the world will be like before His return. It is fair to say that the conditions exist today, and the stage is set.”

We live in the end times. We see the signs. Jesus is coming soon!

How To Respond

Just in looking at these few verses, there doesn’t appear to be a clear way that we’re supposed to respond to this…so we need to look back and forward a little for our application.

The last verse before this, Jesus prefaced His words here with, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” And as we move next week into Luke 18, the first verse says, “And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”

Jesus bookended these verses on the rapture with a clear message – Love God even over your own life, pray without ceasing, and don’t lose heart. This life is hard, and the enemy is using the world in his efforts to distract us from setting our minds on the things above.

And yet, we aren’t told to do anything on our own. Remember these things…

• We love because God first loved us.
• We can pray without ceasing because Christ tore the veil and the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us.
• We can choose to not lose heart because we know what Jesus has already accomplished.

As we wait for that glorious day to arrive, when those of us followers of Jesus who remain alive here will be caught up with our Savior; I’ll leave you with this encouragement and comfort from our Redeemer Himself from John 16:33 - “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”