Verse 27
For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west; so shall be the coming of the Son of man. Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
It has been pointed out that Vespasian and Titus were returning from a campaign in the east against Rome's perennial foes, the Parthians, when they decided, on the way back to Rome, to make an end of rebellious Jerusalem. Thus, the destroying power came from the east to the west, although it is said that Titus actually launched his attack from the western side of the city.[11] Whether this should be considered mere coincidence or not, it is a remarkable fact. Of course, the primary meaning of the prophecy would apply to the sensational, worldwide, glorious revelation of Christ at his second coming.
Regarding the carcass and the gathering of the eagles, dogmatism may be out of place, but it seems clear enough that the Jewish state was the carcass. Having rejected Christ and planning at that very moment to accomplish his murder, and standing ready to persecute to death his disciples, Israel no longer possessed any right to exist as a separate and chosen people. It had been forfeited. Judaism was morally dead, corrupted and reprobate at the very center and head of their polity. She was not only morally dead but judicially dead also, Christ having pronounced her doom and sentenced her to destruction. A carcass was an appropriate symbol. The eagles? Strangely enough, eagles were the invariable decorations of the Roman standards, under which the veteran legions of Titus gathered to press the siege of the city. Although some scholars, such as Plummer, reject this passage as a reference to the Roman legions,[12] one must nevertheless confess that the analogy is there.
Extending the figure to its ultimate fulfillment at the end of the age, when the world itself will have become morally dead and when her day of grace has ended, God will also overwhelm it with destruction.
[11] Encyclopedia Brittanica (1962 edition), Vol. 13, p. 7.
[12] Alfred Plummer, Commentary on Matthew (London: Elliot Stock, 1909), p. 365.
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