To the words: “There will be two in the village...” (Matthew 24:40)

Have you heard that “there will be two in the village: one will be eaten, and the other will be left: two grinding in millstones: one will be eaten, and one will be left” (Matthew 24:40-41). Two on the roof... and so on. Those standing on the roof are people at the height of honor: judges, rulers, kings, rulers. There is a righteous judge, and there is an unjust judge; and the righteous is taken out of the fire, but the unrighteous is abandoned. And those in the countryside, that is, in this world, are farmers, people uneducated and insignificant in birth and wealth, glorified and not glorified, and some righteous and others unrighteous. And the righteous are eaten, and the unrighteous are left in the fire. The grinders are the whole multitude of wives, and in particular the souls who accepted the yoke of slavery and ended their lives in weakness. For there are righteous and unrighteous women, and righteous and unrighteous servants. There are also weak righteous ones, such as Job and Lazarus, and also unrighteous ones, such as Cain and Gehazi. Therefore he says: “there will be two on the bed” (Luke 17:34), signifying their weakness. The righteous are captured, and the unrighteous are abandoned. As the righteous are caught, let Paul say this: “he who lives” in the Lord will be “caught up in the clouds... in the air, and... always with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). How are the unrighteous abandoned? The angels will “gather the elect... from the four winds” (Matthew 24:31), and they will burn the wicked with “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12). Do not assume that the unquenchable fire of torment will come from wood, and that it will be kindled by some overseers, as the idle talkers among the people think. But look towards Sodom, and look at the oven where there is no wood. Imagine the petrification of your wife, and marvel at the fiery punishment. Lot and his wife and two daughters were together then, but Lot and his daughters were not destroyed by fire, and the wife did not escape the fiery punishment. God's judgment left everyone to their own lot. So it is at the Court. The righteous are caught, like Lot, and the unrighteous are abandoned, like his wife. You might be interested in: