Lighting and Flashes

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE

LIGHTING AND FLASHES

Luke 17:22-37

22 Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. 24 For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. 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. 30 "It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot's wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left." 37 "Where, Lord?" they asked. He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather." 

NIV

We could not break this into verse by verse, for it is a whole teaching from our Lord about what is to happen, yet there are jewels within that we can focus on within the whole. First, what Jesus said about many who will come looking like, or claiming to be the revelation of the truth, the Messiah, or some great leader, who can give life to people, but any man can only walk as a man and thus is just a man. Jesus is making the point that when he appears and shows up, the sky will be filled with lightning, with flashes that turn the night into the brightest of day, even brighter than the noon sun. bolts of lighting will be flashing back and forth across the sky, every eye will see him come in the Eastern sky for our redemption drawth nigh. Jesus is going to continue telling his disciples what how the world is going to be like, with no one looking for his return, but for now we understand not to look to any man, or to follow after some false claims bringing life, a better life, filled with good things, that God waits us to be rich, have all the goods of this world and all that bologna We see many of these silver-tongued purveyors of deception in the world, they are all over various form of media spreading their lies to gather followers for their own glory, fame, and fortune. But they are mere men, there is no lighting flashing around them or in the sky over them. They are just corrupt men, quite like the Pharisees were. There is only one who will fill the sky with lightning and flashes of light streaking across the sky, and His name is Jesus, the Son of the Living God, for He is the Light of the World, and In Him is life. He is the only true source of life so we will follow Jesus and no other. Yes, we need men to shepherd the people of God, but that shepherd should only lead them to green pastures, and to still waters and both of those are Jesus, the one coming with lightning and flashes.