It
was a sunny day here today, I saw the odd cloud float its way through the sky
until I lost site of it, but then the next one would come out of nowhere, the
sky looked so nice and blue after the few days of grey and darkness we have experienced.
I had some free time so I went for a short while to the garden park to sit and
fellowship with the Lord my God. I always appreciate the atmosphere in this
particular place, so I cherish every moment while I am there to sense the peace
and tranquility. I could hear different types of birds singing to each other,
it gave the air the sound of sweet music. It seemed that every person I saw in
the park had their dog with them, I felt out of place because I didn’t have one
of those furry little beasts to run after, and pick up their poop after them. I
saw a police car over in the distance with its roof lights flashing, it was
stopped blocking the cars just past the intersection, in the right lane going
north, on one of our city’s busiest streets. I thought the police may have
someone stopped giving them a ticket, what a place to stop them, at a busy
intersection; but when I left the park I saw the police were there to detour
traffic because there was an auto accident.
People
were out and about there business today, driving here and there, out shopping
buying essentials and non-essentials, stopping to grab bites of food at
restaurant patios; some were meeting with friends for lunch. I wonder what
plans people are making for this evening? Is it a night out with friends, or a
night home with the family? I wonder how many people had plans to get married
today.
Today
is like any other day in the populace of this city, and you know, Jesus said it
would be a day like today when he will come back to carry away those who follow
him. It will be like in the days of Noah, people meeting people for lunch,
having a laugh or two as they sip their beverages, people getting married;
basically doing what people do in the daily routines of life: “But as the days
of Noe [were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the
days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark” (Mt.24:37-38,
KJV). People were carrying on with their business in the days of Noah, living
life like people do, thinking that things will always be what they are familiar
with, even up until the day Noah was closed into the ark.
We
know the reason why the Lord sent the flood to destroy the inhabitants of the
earth at that time, it was because of how wicked his human creation had become:
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that]
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually”
(Gen.6:5, KJV), but Jesus did not mention the circumstance behind the flood. He
never mentioned how corrupt they had become, and by corrupt I am not referring
to the sin in their heart even though their hearts had become totally corrupt,
but I am referring to how their DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) was corrupted by
fallen angels, which created hybrid human beings called נָפִיל (nĕphiyl) {nephilim};
these were giant men (Gen.6:1-4). Jesus only described the kind of normal daily
living the people were occupied with when the door of the ark was shut, which
sounds pretty much like a day like today.
In
Luke’s Gospel he records that the coming of the Lord will be like in the days
of Noah, and he also adds that it will be similar like in the days of Lot — Abrahams
nephew and the son of Haran. Like the people in the days of Noah the people in
the days of Lot were eating and drinking too: “Likewise, even as it happened in
the days of Lot : they ate, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they built” (Lk.17:28, HNV). They were living
lives like all other societies, like the people in Noah’s day, doing the daily
functions of life, like having fun, working hard contributing to their economy,
and so on; right up to the very day fire and brimstone rained down on them: “In
the day that Lot went out from Sedom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky,
and destroyed them all” (Lk.17:29, HNV).
Just
as we know the reason why God sent the flood we also know the reason why God
sent destruction onto Sodom, it was because they were wicked and sinned greatly
against him (Gen.13:13; 18:20-21; 19:5-9), but again, Jesus does not mention the
reason why Sodom was destroyed, he only describes the kind of normal daily
living the people of Sodom were absorbed with the day fire and brimstone came
down into their city and destroyed all of its inhabitants; Jesus described a
day like today.
Do
not think that the world will be in upheaval and disaster on the day when Jesus
Christ comes back for the believer, at the day and hour of the rapture, for upheaval
and disaster describes the day when he comes back to redeem Israel at the
second coming. When the Lord comes back to carry away his followers it will be
like in the days of Noah and Lot , as he said;
there will be eating and drinking, people will be buying and selling, people will
be getting married on that day. It will be like the things I saw in the garden
park today, people walking their dogs, chasing after them, scooping up their
poop, accidents happening on our streets with cars banging into each other, and
so on. Jesus further describes what it will be like the day and hour when he
catches up his people showing that people will be working trying to make a
living: “Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and one will be
left; two women grinding at the mill, one will be taken and one will be left”
(Mt.24:40-41, HNV). If you can relate this to our modern era, people will be working
in the factory, some will be taken and others will be left, people will be
working in office buildings, some will be taken and others will be left.
Yes,
the coming of the Lord will be similar to a bright beautiful day like today,
try not to miss it.
(HNV) Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain
