November, 2005
by: Jack Hughes
Jesus, in Lk. 17:26-27, speaking of the days preceding His second coming said, “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage…” Verse 28, goes on to say, “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building.” Then again, speaking of both of these days in vs. 30, Jesus says, “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.” The question we need to ask ourselves is, “Just the same as what?” Does Jesus want us to know that before his coming people will be eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting and building ie., going on with the normal routine of life? Or does he want us to know that the days of Noah and Sodom were characterized by normal routines of life and something else?
When we look at the story of Noah in the book of Genesis and we search for a description of what men were like at that time we are given this description in Gen. 6:5, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” A few verses later in vs. 11 we read, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.” Peter, in II Pet. 2:5 describes the people of Noah’s time as “the world of the ungodly.” We can therefore conclude that the phrase “The days of Noah” is a reference to people going through the normal routines of life in great wickedness.
What about “the days of Lot”? We can go to Genesis to find the answer to this question too. The Lord, in Gen. 18:20 says, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave.”
The men of Sodom were so wicked that they wanted to have sexual relations with the angels who came to rescue Lot (Gen. 19:5). Peter in II Pet. 2:7 says Lot was “oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men” and in vs. 8 Peter goes on to tell us that Lot’s righteous soul was “tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.” Jude in Jude 7 says the men of Sodom “indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh” a reference to homosexual behavior. Like the days of Noah, the days of Sodom and Gomorrah were characterized by men going about the daily affairs of life in great wickedness. This is what Jesus is referring to in Lk. 17:30 when He says, “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”
Paul in II Tim. 3:1-7 describes the last days with these words, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Then Paul sums up in vs. 13, “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” It seems that Paul was watching the news in our day. Our society, like the times of Noah and Sodom, are characterized by people going through the normal routines of life while living in great wickedness.
When you read the newspaper or read a news magazine it seems that the wicked are winning, prospering, flourishing, getting away with murder — literally! The world is becoming increasingly anti–God and anti–Christ. The founding fathers of our country would have been outraged by the practices of our culture and yet history has been rewritten and reinterpreted by ungodly men who argue that our constitution gives men the right to do evil. Prayer has been banned from the public schools. The Ten Commandments have been removed from the courthouses of the nation even though our law system is based on those very commandments. Evolution is being taught as fact, the family is disintegrating, the number of abortions being performed every day are legion, sexual promiscuity, pornography, violence, stealing, lying, and murder are so common that people have become indifferent to them.
I recently was sent a news article from a newspaper in Britain which said that a recent study in the Journal of Religion and Society has shown that belief in and worship of God increases murder, sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy, abortion, and suicide. It claimed that belief in God and specifically creationism rather than evolution is harmful not helpful to society! (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1798944,00.html) Now Christians are being blamed for all the ills of society.
What is a Christian to do about this? How are we to respond? What keeps us from anger, despair, and hopelessness about our future? When the wicked prosper and the righteous are oppressed, what does God want you to do?
One of the most comforting truths to meditate on when the world seems to be falling apart is God’s absolute sovereignty. God is in perfect control of all things. Nothing ever happens without His consent. God made the earth perfect and man perfect and yet they have continued to rebel. And so God allows evil and sin to exist, but only for a time and only according to His perfect plan. Jeremiah in Lam. 3:36-38 says, “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?” But no matter how wicked the world gets, remember that God is in control.
Isaiah in Isa. 40:15-17 pens the words of God and says, “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.” Then in vss. 21-25 Isaiah goes on to say, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. ‘To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?’ says the Holy One.”
The Scriptures are full of texts reminding us of God’s absolute and complete sovereignty. This is why we need to be reading the Bible as it will encourage us when the world goes bad and life gets hard. God is sovereign and nothing happens which is outside of His perfect plan.
As we previously read from Luke, II Timothy, II Peter, and Jude the Bible predicts that things will get worse before Christ’s return. Jesus, describing the events immediately preceding His second coming, said there would be false Christs, wars, rumors of wars, famines, and earthquakes. He said these would merely be the “birth pangs” (Mt. 24:8). He goes on to describe persecution, apostasy, betrayal, hate, false prophets, lawlessness, and people’s love growing cold. But He prefaces all of this with “See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place” (Mt. 24:6). Then Jesus goes on to explain the events of the tribulation and again gives us a motivation for not being anxious in Mt. 24:25 where He says, “Behold, I have told you in advance.”
Before God brought judgment upon Judah the Lord said this through Isaiah in Isa. 44:7-8, “Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place. Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.” Two chapters later in Isa. 46:10-11 God describes himself as, “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.”
Do you see why all of this is a comfort for believers in times when the wicked prosper? Not only is God sovereign, but He has planned the end from the beginning. When the wicked prosper it is part of His plan to show the evilness of sin, along with His patience, mercy, grace and compassion on those who do evil. Sure God could wipe them all out, but many of these people are family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Every day evil men are allowed to exist is another day they are given to repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ. But even when we can’t figure out why God allows the wicked to prosper, we can draw comfort knowing it is all part of His plan.
We looked at this in the last Calvary Review so I am not going to go into it in detail. But one of the benefits Christians receive from having the wicked prosper, from persecution, from trial and tribulation is it makes them long for heaven. You find a Christian healthy, wealthy, and living in the lap of luxury, you usually find a Christian who likes their earthly home, who doesn’t want to die and be with the Lord, who doesn’t want to see Jesus come back real soon. This kind of attitude reveals not a love of the Lord, but a love of the world. But, when the wicked prosper, when we lose our freedoms, when we suffer persecutions, when, like Lot, our “righteous soul is tormented day after day”, it makes us long for home. It makes us long for Christ. It makes us long for the second coming. It makes us long for heaven. It causes us to despise this sin cursed world and anticipate the coming of Christ for His Saints. So keep looking for the “blessed hope” (Tit. 2:13), “have your eyes fixed on the things above” (Col. 3:1-2).
Finally, we are to comfort ourselves when the wicked prosper by remembering that judgment is coming. All sin will be punished. No one will escape the just consequences of their sin except those who place their faith in Jesus Christ. We read from Lk. 17 earlier about the time of Noah. What I left out was the last part of Jesus’ statement in vs. 27, where it says they were eating, drinking, and marrying, “until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” Jesus says the same thing in vs. 29 after speaking about Sodom and Gomorrah, “but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.” Isaiah gives us the same comfort in Isa. 40:10-11“Behold, the Lord God will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” Peter after discussing many of the things we have already looked at in this Calvary Review gives this encouragement to those suffering under the weight of an ungodly society, “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (II Pet. 2:9).
When you see the world falling apart remember God is sovereign, it has been predicted that things will get worse before they get better at Christ’s coming. Keep your mind fixed on the things above, and know that judgment is coming and no one will escape judgment except those who know Jesus Christ.
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