Monday, April 18, 2005

Why I Want to Be Left Behind!

Many of us know the lyrics to the song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”:

A man and wife asleep in bed

She hears a noise and turns her head he’s gone

I wish we’d all been ready

Two men walking up a hill

One disappears and one’s left standing still

I wish we’d all been ready

…There’s no time to change your mind

The Son has come and you’ve been left behind

(Larry Norman wrote the song in 1969. DC Talk revived it on their 1996 album Jesus Freak.)

The lyrics are based on Matthew 24:40-42:

Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.

Now Greg Koukl offers the wise counsel to Never Read a Bible Verse—instead, he says, read Bible paragraphs. The other bit of advice I would offer is: Interrogate the Text. Don’t be a passive reader. Rather, ask questions of the text. Discern the terms and discover the arguments.

The most obvious question we should ask for this text is:

“What does it mean to be taken, and what does it mean to be left? Which one is good, and which one is bad?”

Let’s look at the verse immediately prior to vv. 40-42. Verses 37-39 read as follows:

As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Simple observations: Being “swept away” is bad, for it is being swept away unto judgment.

Now let’s read the verses immediately following vv. 40-42. Verses 43-51 read as follows:

42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Simple observations: The obedient servant is allowed to say and is put in charge of the master’s possessions. The wicked servant is put out with the hypocrites in a place of punishment.

The conclusion, I would submit, is obvious. We should desire to be left behind. The “one who is taken” is not being caught up in the rapture of the Lord—rather, he is being swept away to judgment and to hell!

That's why I say with confidence: I want to be left behind--to worship, to serve, and to reign with our Lord Jesus Christ in the new heavens and the new earth. Maranatha!