Matthew Chapter 24

Question: Is there a distinction between Noah and Lot? Noah was plainly shut in the Ark before the rain ever started, but Lot was leaving Sodom as the fire and brimstone were occurring, so wouldn’t Lot picture the Great Company?

Answer: Yes. And Lot’s wife pictures the Second Death class because she looked back; that is, she was sorry she had left Sodom and longed to return. The antitype would be the consecrated who regret having taken that stand and thus turn aside or away from their consecration. When we make our decision for the Lord, we are not to turn back. Consecration is a reasonable service. Once the hand is put to the plow, we must leave it there. Consecration is a contract unto death.

Sodom and Gomorrah picture, respectively, Catholicism and Protestantism—or Babylon as a whole. We know they picture a nominally religious class because of the following:

1. Rev 11:8 mentions Egypt and Sodom. “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.” The account is telling about the situation or interplay between Christendom and God’s true people that occurred during part of the Gospel Age. The two witnesses (the Old and New Testaments) suffered mistreatment much as Jesus did, and also the Church, for 3 1/2 “years.” That is to say the Bible was kept in sackcloth and ashes for 1,260 years, Jesus was crucified at the end of his 3 1/2-year ministry, and the Church was persecuted for 1,260 years by spiritual “Sodom”—the nominal Christian element.

2. In Isa 1:10 God likened natural Israel to Sodom because they were sick from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet. In Old Testament times the Israelite’s were the nominal people of God. However, the Book of Revelation speaks of Sodom and Egypt from the Gospel Age standpoint, for there has been a nominal equivalent in the Gospel Age. Both Israel in Old Testament times and the nominal Gospel Age Christian elements are spiritually compared to Sodom in the days of Lot (viz. nominal fleshly Israel and nominal spiritual Israel, the professing church today).

Lot’s fleeing in Luke 17 is a parallel to Matt 24:20, “Pray that your flight be not in the winter [time] of the Sabbath day” (paraphrase). The flight of Lot is quite different from that of Abraham. Abraham witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah from afar off—that is, from above, looking down. He looked down and saw Sodom being destroyed.

Matthew 24 and Luke 17 do not emphasize the sinful conditions that prevail. The activities are eating, drinking (not drunkenness), marrying, planting, building, etc. In Luke 21:34 where Jesus said to “take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares,” he was speaking of the innocent things of life. The Christian should be more awake and aware of the urgency of the times.

Comment: Abraham desired Lot to be saved, and yet Lot lingered and held back. Lot is an appropriate type of the Great Company.

Reply: Lot was practically pulled out of Sodom. The two angels hurried him out of the city.

Luke 17:33 reads, “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”

This is a very strong verse coming right after the allusion to the Great Company and the Second Death class. Those consecrated who remain after the Church goes off the scene will witness the fall of Babylon. Those still in the system will come out as Babylon collapses. Verse 33 is directed primarily to the Lot class, who must realize that they are consecrated to the Lord and that flesh and blood cannot inherit even a secondary place in the Kingdom of God. They must die and be changed to get spirit nature. Not just the Little Flock but all those who have dedicated (consecrated) their lives to the Lord will realize that the time is coming when they will terminate their course on earth. They should not anticipate living through the Time of Trouble.

Therefore, those who unduly seek to preserve their lives in that sense will lose all life in the final analysis. Prudence (on the part of the consecrated) will be very dangerous at that time. The consecrated remaining should expect a change and realize that they are like the scapegoat class in the wild wilderness condition. If they make strenuous efforts to preserve their lives, it will show that the spirit of their consecration is not thorough. Those who seek to save their lives (and thus lose them) will remain dead—they will have no resurrection.

We will continue this line of thought with our next post.