Doomsday

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

DOOMSDAY

Luke 17:26-29

26 "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

NIV

Jesus reminds his disciples of two times in history when the wrath of God was poured out on all those who refused to listen to his messenger. Noah was God’s appointed messenger all the time he was building the ark. He proclaimed the pending doom that was going to come, if the people did not repent. But of course we know the people simply made fun of Noah and refused his message. The same happened during the time of Lot. Although it is not clearly stated Lot proclaimed the word of God to the people of Sodom, he was a righteous man, who God determined to save from the wrath he was going to pour out on that city. Both these examples Jesus uses to tell his disciples how it will be when he returns for his followers. There are going to be people who could care less about him, refuse any message about him, and simply go about living their lives in any manner they so desire. The warning is still for us today. Although we eat and drink and get married, we buy and sell and plant and build, we who believe also live with the awareness of Jesus in our lives. It does not appear Jesus means for us not to live within the context of daily living, which is to just sit around doing nothing but having church, so to speak. We do need to eat and drink, we do need to buy and sell, conducting some sort of business that is, and some believers may well be farmers or construction people. Our daily lives need to be lived in the human condition but at the same time we cannot be like those who refuse to accept Jesus, and believe only in their own abilities to gain their desires, living just for self-gratification. We need to constantly be in tune with the Holy Spirit, growing in the knowledge and love of God, knowing Jesus is our righteousness and that he is the only way to the Father. If we are not careful though we can get entrapped by the ways of human thinking, even from those who appear to be spiritual. There is one source of truth, the word of God, and we have it available to us. This is our truth, our guide to finding Jesus and eternal life. Let us not be distracted by life, as all those in the past who were destroyed by their distractions instead of being focused on God. There is a doomsday coming for the world. God showed us the safety of the cross with the ark of Noah, and he also showed us our escape route through the example of Lot, sending a messenger to tell him to get out of town. Jesus is our ark, and our escape route from the coming doomsday.