In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife.  Lk. 17:31, 32

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  Phil. 3:13, 14

     Dear Friends,

     Two years into the famine (Gen. 45:6), God promises Jacob and his household, through Joseph, that ALL the good of the “land of Egypt” is for their benefit and use:

Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.  (Gen. 45:20)

 This was amid the severe famine that was present in Canaan and Egypt. They were commanded to NOT take thought for their “stuff” in their homeland, Canaan. The Hebrew word for “stuff” points to instruments, or vessels, and more specifically, those of the tabernacle, the house of the LORD:

All the vessels of the tabernacle in all the service thereof…. (Ex. 27:19; see also Jer. 27:21)

     In Luke 17, we have a similar command – do NOT return to the house for one’s “stuff.” The Greek for “stuff” is also rendered “goods” and “vessels”:

Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. (Mt 12:29)

Like the Hebrew word, “stuff” in the Gr. Language refers to people, or, “vessels” of the “great house”:

But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. (2Ti 2:20)

     There are two teachings here we can readily see. The first is that in this our time, our primary concern is not for those of the “great house,” the “vessels of the tabernacle.” The Gospel must go outward, being shouted unto the world, not inward, unto the “den of thieves.” The GOOD of ALL the land of Egypt belongs to the true believers of this our time. That is, the chosen vessels of God are out here, in Egypt, a like figure with Babylon. The second teaching is that as we compare Lk. 17 to Mt. 24:18 & Mk. 13: 16, the “stuff” also has to do with covering, or clothing:

Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. (Mt.  24:18)

And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment. (Mk. 13:16) 

In other words, those of us who have fled Mystery Babylon, the adulterous woman, have fled “naked,” without the “garment” of covering. Remember that this is exactly that which Joseph did:

And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. (Gen. 39:12) 

But! this does not mean we have cast off the splendid covering of Christ, a Lamb without blemish and without spot. Rather, it means that the true believers are no longer identified with the abominable outward façade, the “whited-ness” of the graveyard, the “coverings of tapestry…fine linen of Egypt” that adorns the bed of adultery (Prov. 7:16), the bed of the “woman with the attire of a harlot” (Prov. 7:10). This covering we ought not desire at all. After all, as God’s judgment comes upon the harlot, her garment actually becomes “motheaten”:

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. (Jas 5:2)

Is this not why God teaches that the beauty of the woman who typifies all true believers in 1 Peter 3 is found in her “hidden man,” rather than in her “apparel” (garment)?:

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. (1 Pet. 3:3, 4)