Then two shall be in the field, one is taken and one is left;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
two [women] grinding at the mill, one is taken and one is left.
Two women are at the same mill, doing the same work, and in a moment they are separated for ever. Everything in the verse turns on one question: taken for what?
The mill here is not a factory. It is a household tool, worked by hand, usually by a woman.
In the East these are usually small, with every family having its own mill. A woman, or sometimes two, sit at the mill turning the upper stone, casting in the grain now and then through a hole in it.
The two women are as close as two people can be. Closeness saves neither of them.
And so our Lord adds here a word that touched not only the Jewish system, but the condition and doom of the whole world. He lets us know that in that night two would be in one bed; one taken, and the other left. So two women at the mill; for here we are not dealing with human judgments. God will then judge the living. So it makes no difference what the relationship, the job, or the sex is, or whether people are indoors or outdoors. There can be no shelter and no exception.
To modern ears "taken" sounds like rescue. The example the Lord gives just before points the other way.
First, take Noah and the flood. We can freely admit the application to the coming of the Lord that He Himself makes (Matt. 24:37-41). "One will be taken and one left." But we must handle such things carefully: "taken" how, and for what? Those whom resurrection takes out from among the dead are saints and taken for glory. At the rapture of the living saints, it is the same. In Noah's time, "the flood came and took them all away;" those taken are the judged and not the saved.
Noah's case shows which of the two women is better off.
We have the illustration of Noah and the flood. The world before the flood was TAKEN for judgment. Noah was LEFT for blessing. Those before the flood were not "taken home or received," but drowned. Noah was not left "alone, left unprotected," but found in a renewed earth.
Many read the verse as a picture of believers being caught up. Commentators here read it the other way round.
At a first glance some have thought that this was like the rapture of the church, but it is exactly the reverse. At the rapture the saints are caught away, and the world is left to go on its course. But when the Lord comes to judge the living on the earth, the taking away is in judgment. The righteous are left to pass into blessing on the earth at the millennium.
Does that mean the Lord never takes the saved one? Commentators answer with a careful distinction.
It will be true, of course, that two people may be together when the Lord comes for His own, one saved and one unsaved. He will then take the saved and leave the other. But everywhere in Scripture where the phrase is used, it is one taken by judgment, and the other left for millennial blessing.
Wars and disasters take whoever happens to be standing there. This will not.
But this judgment, sudden and unexpected as it may be, will be sure and discriminating. The eye of God will discern those that are His. They may be in exactly the same circumstances as those who are not. Two men may be in the same field, two women at the same mill; judgment will leave the one unharmed, and take the other. To the heart that was really watching and waiting for Him He would come as a deliverer from all the power of evil. The disciples were to watch; they did not know at what hour their Lord would come.
The choice of illustration tells you which group of God's people the Lord has in view.
If heavenly saints had been in question, Enoch would be the fitting Old Testament picture. But the Lord meant saints who are not caught up, saints carried through the waters of judgment. So He rightly chose Noah as the pattern for the remnant who will be on the earth.
- Taken. In Noah's day the flood took people away in judgment. So here too the one taken is the one judged, not the one rescued.
- Left. The one left behind is left for blessing on the earth, as Noah was left in a renewed world.
- Sorted. This is not a blind disaster. God's eye picks out His own from people in the very same place.
- Unsheltered. No tie, no job, no place and no closeness to another person can shelter you. Two women at one mill; two different ends.
- Watching. For the heart that is watching for Him, that same coming is deliverance. So His disciples are told to keep watch.