Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 24:28

"Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." — Matthew 24:28 (ASV)

Wherever the carcass is — Two interpretations of this verse can be rejected with little risk of error. The first sees the “eagles” as the well-known symbols of the Roman legions’ strength and the “carcass” as the decayed and corrupted Judaism that those legions came to destroy. This interpretation, while true to an extent, is too narrow and localized for such a wide-ranging comparison.

The second is the strange, imaginative interpretation from many of the Church Fathers, which suggests the “carcass” is Christ Himself—crucified and slain—and the eagles are His true saints and servants who hasten to meet Him at His coming. Anyone who considers the purpose and outcome of vultures swooping down on the carrion they scent from afar will surely find this explanation both revolting and irrational.

Instead, what the enigmatic proverb means (if indeed it is enigmatic) is that wherever life is gone, and wherever a church or nation is decaying and putrid, God’s ministers of vengeance will be found. These are the vultures that carry out His work of destruction, clearing away what was ready to vanish away (compare to Hebrews 8:13 for this phrase and thought) to make room for new forms of life.

What the disciples would witness in the fall of Jerusalem would repeat itself countless times throughout world history, ultimately being fulfilled on the largest scale at the end of all things. The words of Isaiah 46:11 and Ezekiel 39:4, where the “ravenous bird” symbolizes the nations that carry out the work of destruction to which God sends them, illustrate the meaning of the general principle asserted here.