Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
The worker toiling in the field has laid aside the outer garment in the heat of the day and is commanded not to turn back even for that when the sign for flight appears. That sign was the idolatrous Roman standards set up on holy ground outside the walls, calling for instant unhesitating flight from all Judea as well as Jerusalem because destruction for rejecting the Messiah would come suddenly and swiftly. Those who believed obeyed forty years later when Jerusalem was destroyed, and none of them perished in its ruin. That ruin was only a partial fulfillment and a type of the final ruin of the world by fire, so the warning was given also with more direct application to those living in the last scenes of earth's history. The same urgency leaves no time to turn back for possessions or even clothing when the final crisis requiring flight arrives, when households must leave the cities for the mountains as fast as possible without entering the house for luggage, since the coming is sudden and at hand.
Words and Historical Setting
The garment in view is the outer garment laid aside while toiling in the heat of the day in the fields or vineyards, which the worker in the field is forbidden to turn back to take. The prohibition belongs to the sign for fleeing Judea, which demands instant and unhesitating flight throughout Judea as well as in Jerusalem itself. The dreaded hour comes suddenly and swiftly, so that even a moment's hesitation or brief delay to return for clothing brings one into the general destruction. That sign is the setting up of the idolatrous Roman standards upon holy ground extending some furlongs outside the city walls, heralding destruction upon apostate Israel for rejecting and crucifying the Messiah. The warning was to be heeded forty years later when Jerusalem was destroyed, when those who believed obeyed it and none of them perished in the city's destruction.
Prophecy Spanning Two Judgments
Matthew 24:18 belongs to the Olivet answer about the signs of the coming and the end of the world, which joins the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming together in one discourse. That discourse briefly covers the whole dispensation and the history of the world and the church between the first and second advents, providing the framework for that history through to final redemption. That history includes the destruction of Jerusalem, persecution by earthly powers, and signs in the heavens. It foretells the trials His followers would face from His departure until His return, including the suffering and loss of home and possessions endured by Christians in the early centuries.
The overthrow of Jerusalem received only a partial fulfillment in the ruin of the city. That ruin was a symbol and type of the final ruin and destruction of the world by fire that shall overwhelm the world. The prophetic words therefore reach beyond Jerusalem to the final judgment and were given also for those living in the last scenes of earth's history, with a more direct application to the last days.
In Matthew 24 and 25 the verse stands within the description of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and sending His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather the elect. That coming is unexpected as in the days of Noah before the flood when people ate and drank and knew not until taken away, and its day and hour no man and no angel knows but the Father only. Watchfulness and readiness at every hour are therefore required. The faithful and wise servant found giving meat in due season is blessed with rulership over all goods, while the evil servant who says his lord delays and smites his fellow servants and feasts with the drunken is cut asunder and appointed with hypocrites to weeping and gnashing of teeth. This portrays the condition of the church at the coming and arouses earnest zeal in the true believer.
Its predicted events serve as waymarks showing that the prophecy will come to pass. Their present fulfillment shows that the coming is at hand. The verse thus points to the threshold of great and solemn events now present and to a crisis before the world such as has never been witnessed. God's kingdom rules over all, and the program of coming events is in the hands of the Maker who holds the destiny of nations and the concerns of the church in His own charge. The predictions are to be studied and brought to the attention of all, and ministers and teachers are to present them to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence, because their truths decide eternal destiny and call the church to arouse as the unmistakable fulfillment is seen.
The context shows that the creation Sabbath was still to be observed after the crucifixion.
Urgent Warning for Today
The predictions of the chapter are fulfilling in the present time and show that the coming is at hand. They are to be studied and discerned as signs of the times, brought to the attention of all, and explained by ministers and teachers to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence. Their truths decide eternal destiny and call the church to arouse as the unmistakable fulfillment is seen. They show the dangers facing God's people and their need to reach a higher standard, and the fulfillment of the signs awakens responsibility to act without hesitation.
The chapter outlines what is to come upon the world, now applying amid the perils of the last days, including calamities and punishment facing wicked cities that reject God's commandments and warnings. Those perishing in sin must be warned with the last message of mercy, because the end is near and no human power can withstand God's judgments. That work requires investing money entrusted by the Lord to advance it, including sustaining gospel work in New York City, rather than spending it in self-gratification to eternal loss. Earthly things trusted as the chief good and worldly riches gained for self crumble into dust, while eternal riches are obtained only through self-denial and sacrifice of earthly riches, through much tribulation and constant warfare without laying down weapons until rest is bidden, and by giving all to secure an inheritance enduring through all eternity.
The urgency leaves no time to turn back for possessions or even clothing when the crisis requiring flight arrives, as part of the signs and warning about events preceding the return. The warning is applied to a coming crisis when families should be ready to leave the cities for the mountains as fast as possible rather than delay for belongings. The one in the field must not return back for clothes, just as the one on the housetop must not go down through the house for luggage or enter the house for anything, because there will be no chance at all to pack up goods. Therefore accumulating a great amount of goods will not pay.
Wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes in divers places before the day of the Lord mean the judgments of God are in the world and the time to flee is right ahead, only a little way off. The coming is sudden, and the time is short in which what is before the world is known but when it will come and what may break forth cannot be told. All must therefore be ready by humbling themselves day by day and imparting to others the light given them.
The worker toiling in the field has laid aside the outer garment in the heat of the day and is commanded not to turn back even for that when the sign for flight appears. That sign was the idolatrous Roman standards set up on holy ground outside the walls, calling for instant unhesitating flight from all Judea as well as Jerusalem because destruction for rejecting the Messiah would come suddenly and swiftly. Those who believed obeyed forty years later when Jerusalem was destroyed, and none of them perished in its ruin. That ruin was only a partial fulfillment and a type of the final ruin of the world by fire, so the warning was given also with more direct application to those living in the last scenes of earth's history. The same urgency leaves no time to turn back for possessions or even clothing when the final crisis requiring flight arrives, when households must leave the cities for the mountains as fast as possible without entering the house for luggage, since the coming is sudden and at hand.
Words and Historical Setting
The garment in view is the outer garment laid aside while toiling in the heat of the day in the fields or vineyards, which the worker in the field is forbidden to turn back to take. The prohibition belongs to the sign for fleeing Judea, which demands instant and unhesitating flight throughout Judea as well as in Jerusalem itself. The dreaded hour comes suddenly and swiftly, so that even a moment's hesitation or brief delay to return for clothing brings one into the general destruction. That sign is the setting up of the idolatrous Roman standards upon holy ground extending some furlongs outside the city walls, heralding destruction upon apostate Israel for rejecting and crucifying the Messiah. The warning was to be heeded forty years later when Jerusalem was destroyed, when those who believed obeyed it and none of them perished in the city's destruction.
Prophecy Spanning Two Judgments
Matthew 24:18 belongs to the Olivet answer about the signs of the coming and the end of the world, which joins the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming together in one discourse. That discourse briefly covers the whole dispensation and the history of the world and the church between the first and second advents, providing the framework for that history through to final redemption. That history includes the destruction of Jerusalem, persecution by earthly powers, and signs in the heavens. It foretells the trials His followers would face from His departure until His return, including the suffering and loss of home and possessions endured by Christians in the early centuries.
The overthrow of Jerusalem received only a partial fulfillment in the ruin of the city. That ruin was a symbol and type of the final ruin and destruction of the world by fire that shall overwhelm the world. The prophetic words therefore reach beyond Jerusalem to the final judgment and were given also for those living in the last scenes of earth's history, with a more direct application to the last days.
In Matthew 24 and 25 the verse stands within the description of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory and sending His angels with a great sound of a trumpet to gather the elect. That coming is unexpected as in the days of Noah before the flood when people ate and drank and knew not until taken away, and its day and hour no man and no angel knows but the Father only. Watchfulness and readiness at every hour are therefore required. The faithful and wise servant found giving meat in due season is blessed with rulership over all goods, while the evil servant who says his lord delays and smites his fellow servants and feasts with the drunken is cut asunder and appointed with hypocrites to weeping and gnashing of teeth. This portrays the condition of the church at the coming and arouses earnest zeal in the true believer.
Its predicted events serve as waymarks showing that the prophecy will come to pass. Their present fulfillment shows that the coming is at hand. The verse thus points to the threshold of great and solemn events now present and to a crisis before the world such as has never been witnessed. God's kingdom rules over all, and the program of coming events is in the hands of the Maker who holds the destiny of nations and the concerns of the church in His own charge. The predictions are to be studied and brought to the attention of all, and ministers and teachers are to present them to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence, because their truths decide eternal destiny and call the church to arouse as the unmistakable fulfillment is seen.
The context shows that the creation Sabbath was still to be observed after the crucifixion.
Urgent Warning for Today
The predictions of the chapter are fulfilling in the present time and show that the coming is at hand. They are to be studied and discerned as signs of the times, brought to the attention of all, and explained by ministers and teachers to those they instruct, leaving matters of lesser consequence. Their truths decide eternal destiny and call the church to arouse as the unmistakable fulfillment is seen. They show the dangers facing God's people and their need to reach a higher standard, and the fulfillment of the signs awakens responsibility to act without hesitation.
The chapter outlines what is to come upon the world, now applying amid the perils of the last days, including calamities and punishment facing wicked cities that reject God's commandments and warnings. Those perishing in sin must be warned with the last message of mercy, because the end is near and no human power can withstand God's judgments. That work requires investing money entrusted by the Lord to advance it, including sustaining gospel work in New York City, rather than spending it in self-gratification to eternal loss. Earthly things trusted as the chief good and worldly riches gained for self crumble into dust, while eternal riches are obtained only through self-denial and sacrifice of earthly riches, through much tribulation and constant warfare without laying down weapons until rest is bidden, and by giving all to secure an inheritance enduring through all eternity.
The urgency leaves no time to turn back for possessions or even clothing when the crisis requiring flight arrives, as part of the signs and warning about events preceding the return. The warning is applied to a coming crisis when families should be ready to leave the cities for the mountains as fast as possible rather than delay for belongings. The one in the field must not return back for clothes, just as the one on the housetop must not go down through the house for luggage or enter the house for anything, because there will be no chance at all to pack up goods. Therefore accumulating a great amount of goods will not pay.
Wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes in divers places before the day of the Lord mean the judgments of God are in the world and the time to flee is right ahead, only a little way off. The coming is sudden, and the time is short in which what is before the world is known but when it will come and what may break forth cannot be told. All must therefore be ready by humbling themselves day by day and imparting to others the light given them.