Days of Noah

^“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;  and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24:37-39, NIV 1984)

My Musings – It appears from this text that by and large mankind will ignore the “birth pains” as they did Noah’s preaching.  Life will go on pretty much the way it always has with people “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.”.  Despite the recent hype of the end of the world, they “knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came.” 

One striking characteristic about the days of Noah that Jesus did not explicitly mention (but may have been implicitly implied) was the state of the world at the time of the end: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5, NIV 1984).  Think about it and let that comment sink in – “every…only…all.”

Are we moving towards a similar society, where every inclination, is only evil, all the time? Is this the future of our “civilized” world? Are we approaching the point where God’s patience is wearing thin? “God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.'” (Genesis 6:12–14, NIV).

God is indeed patient, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come…the heavens will disappear…the elements will be destroyed…the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” (2 Peter 3:9–10, NIV 1984). For this reason, we must “make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.” (2 Peter 3:14, NIV 1984).

My Advice – The end of all mankind may or may not be near. But the end of us as individuals could come unexpectedly at any time. When He calls, there is only one way to appear before Him “spotless, blameless and at peace with Him.” Do you know His Son, because He is the only way.