One person does count

Luke 17:22-37

Jesus is having this talk with His disciples, it’s about what we call the future, but Jesus gives two examples of what you and I call the past, the days of Noah and the days of Lot.  I am assuming this audience has an understanding of both Noah and Lot, but I just watched a video of a man showing the college students of Maryland University a picture of Ronald Regan the 40^th President of the United States of America, and most of them had no clue who he was, so maybe my assumptions are misguided.

This is what we know about Noah’s first 500 years, not one thing, but we know his great grandfather was Enoch, and Scripture tells us he walked with God, pleased God, and witnessed for God.  He was the father of Methuselah at the age of 65 and walked with God for 365 years and in Genesis 5:24, we are told the following: “Enoch walked with God; then he was not there because God took him.”  Now Methuselah was 187 years old when he fathered Lamech, and we know that Methuselah lived on planet earth till the age of 969 years and unlike his dad, he died.  Now Lamech was 182 years when he fathered a son and named him Noah, and this is where the story begins about Noah in Genesis 5:32, he is 500 years old and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 

You may be wondering what the culture was like in those days, and this is what my Thompson Study Bible says on page 1553 and it is titled “The condition of Society in this time.”  “Noah lived in a desperately corrupt age, when men had become so universally depraved that the Lord determined to destroy the race, Genesis 6:1-7.  In the midst of this moral darkness, Noah’s life shone with righteousness, Genesis 6:8-9.  Often the message is sent by our enemy the evil one and by the world powers under his control, that one person does not count, but that is a lie from hell, Noah’s righteousness changed the course of history, and yet he became a laughingstock before all but his family with the task God gave him to save the world, it’s a great story even if you are one of those who does not believe it.  By the way, you’re in great company, only his family got on the boat, all the rest, and a lot of people died the day of the flood.  God gives very clear information look at these details in Genesis 7:11-12, “In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”

Have you wondered what the godless believers, who scoffed at his work, were doing the day of the flood, we have these words from Jesus; “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”  (Matthew 24:37-39)

The pagan world has no understanding of God’s desire that they look to Him and bow their knee so they do not perish but come to repentance.  The apostle Peter makes clear in 2 Peter 3:10 what is coming.  And this word is for all who are looking for His soon coming: “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”  Tomorrow we will look at the other person Jesus is talking about, Lot’s time and what was happening then.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice