We can’t say we weren’t warned! Jesus warned us! In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said that one of the signs of the last days would be “as in the days of Noah”. This is recorded in Luke 17. Let’s pray…
Almighty God, Merciful Father, Jesus, Name above all names, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thank You, Lord, that we can meet in person or using today’s technology. Open our eyes, minds, and hearts to see and understand the wonderful truths in Your Word. Break open your Word within us until revelation light shines out! Those with open hearts are given insight into your plans. (Psalm 119:130 TPT) We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Revelation 19:10 has an interesting ending…
“The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” NKJV
“For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus.” NLT
“For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.” NIV
See, Jesus wanted us to know and understand Bible Prophecy — the Signs of the Times. Why else would almost 30% of the Bible be prophetic?
Let’s look at Luke 17…
The Coming of the Kingdom
20 One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”
Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. 21 You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”
22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it. 23 People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t go out and follow them. 24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes. 25 But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation.
[As in the Days of Noah and Lot]
26 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 27 In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the field must not return home. 32 Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! 33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it….
Luke 17:20-32 NLT
“Instead of addressing the when (timing) of His coming, Jesus instead focuses on the signs leading up to His eventual return.”
Jeff Kinley, As in the Days of Noah (affiliate link)
The World in the Days of Noah…
Let’s recap our story so far… God created a beautiful earth — a utopia — for man and woman (Genesis 1-2) and they screwed it up by giving in to temptation. So, God cursed everybody including Satan (Genesis 3).
A World Gone Wrong
Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. 2 The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”
4 In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.
5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. 7 And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” 8 But Noah found favor with the Lord.
Genesis 6:1-8 NLT
Author Jeff Kinley has some interesting theories and observations of what pre-flood life was like in his book, As in the Days of Noah (affiliate link)…
- The earth’s pre-flood population potentially could have been between 7-10 billion people.
- “Every thought. Only evil. Continually.” (v5) Next to God’s perfection, everyone falls short.
- “Sexual appetite is a natural narcotic.”
- “We are a planet of hopeless addicts”.
- “Total depravity on parade.”
- “Noah’s earth was one giant orgy.”
- “In an ironic twist, the only way God could save humanity was to destroy people and begin again.”
Question: What current events do you see now that fall into these categories?
Who were the Sons of God?
There is much speculation among Biblical scholars and theologians as to who exactly these “sons of God” were.
- In Hebrew: bene Elohim — used elsewhere to describe supernatural beings or angels.
- Possibly demonic entities.
- Demons were marrying mortal women.
Jude wrote…
6 And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment.
Jude 6 NLT
Paul wrote…
12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 NLT
Who was Noah?
Noah’s lineage is in Genesis 5. There were 8 generations between Adam and Noah, but there was one guy, Enoch, Noah’s great, grandfather, who found favor with God, as did Noah because of their righteousness. Notice how old they were when they died.
- Adam (903)
- Seth (912)
- Enosh (905)
- Kenan (901)
- Mahalalel (895)
- Jared (962)
- Enoch: “When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 Enoch lived 365 years, 24 walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.” Genesis 5:21-24 NLT
- That was the first rapture!
- Methuselah (969) — the oldest man in the Bible! His name means “when he is gone, it shall be sent” or “his death shall bring it.”
- Lamech (777), became the father of Noah when he was 182 years old.
- Noah was 600 years old when the flood began, the year Methuselah died.
Along came these fallen angels and they had an eye for the pretty women on earth. They seduced them and had supernatural children, the Nephilim, who were giants. They were also evil. Enoch wrote all about them. If you’re interested in learning the historical account of the days of Noah before the flood, check out the Book of Enoch here. (This is extra-Biblical as it’s not considered inspired by God).
The Ark Encounter
The Flood showed us that…
- God, while patient, will not tolerate sin forever.
- There is a limit to what He will allow.
- His is a just and righteous judgment.
- Noah’s world was corrupt and too far gone — beyond redemption.
- The people deserved God’s wrath.
- Mankind was as evil and as lost as it could ever be.
- The human heart is fallible.
- Left on our own, we struggle with sin.
- Even after the Flood, humans didn’t automatically live righteous lives.
Question: What do you think the people watching Noah build the Ark thought?
The Days of Lot
There’s no need to rehash the whole story of Sodom and Gomorrah — the first “Sin City” and its neighbors. But here’s the part that Jesus mentioned…
15 At dawn the next morning the angels became insistent. “Hurry,” they said to Lot. “Take your wife and your two daughters who are here. Get out right now, or you will be swept away in the destruction of the city!”
16 When Lot still hesitated, the angels seized his hand and the hands of his wife and two daughters and rushed them to safety outside the city, for the Lord was merciful. 17 When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, “Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
18 “Oh no, my lord!” Lot begged. 19 “You have been so gracious to me and saved my life, and you have shown such great kindness. But I cannot go to the mountains. Disaster would catch up to me there, and I would soon die. 20 See, there is a small village nearby. Please let me go there instead; don’t you see how small it is? Then my life will be saved.”
21 “All right,” the angel said, “I will grant your request. I will not destroy the little village. 22 But hurry! Escape to it, for I can do nothing until you arrive there.” (This explains why that village was known as Zoar, which means “little place.”)
23 Lot reached the village just as the sun was rising over the horizon. 24 Then the Lord rained down fire and burning sulfur from the sky on Sodom and Gomorrah. 25 He utterly destroyed them, along with the other cities and villages of the plain, wiping out all the people and every bit of vegetation. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:15-26 NLT (emphasis mine)
Jude wrote…
7 And don’t forget Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, which were filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion. Those cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God’s judgment.
Jude 7 NLT
Remember what Jesus said…
32 Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! 33 If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.
Luke 17:32-33 NLT
Question: What does that last verse mean to you?
Here’s a great proverb…
“When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability.”
Proverbs 28:2 NLT
A great quote from a great man…
If God doesn’t judge America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Billy Graham
Psalm 33:12 NLTWhat joy for the nation whose God is the Lord.
For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17
Not just freedom, but peace, joy, and hope!
Jesus is our Ark! Jesus is our HOPE!
And His name will be the hope of all the world.
Matthew 12:21 NLT
The Prophecy Pros: Hope: Emotions of Eschatology
Do You Have this Hope?
Paul wrote…
God’s Anger at Sin
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 22 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. 25 They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Romans 1:18-32 NLT
“For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way. Then the man of lawlessness will be revealed, but the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by the splendor of his coming.”
2 Thessalonians 2:7-8 NLT
“The one who is holding it back” is the Holy Spirit living in all the born-again believers. The moment we’re gone in the Rapture, lawlessness will abound. We’ll discuss the Antichrist in a future lesson.
Into the Text
I know it may not always feel like it, but God, through the power of the Holy Spirit and His church, is actively holding back evil in our day. Some days it may be hard to imagine our world getting any worse when we see the evil that already exists in it. But Satan is not free to do as he wills. God is still God, He is still in control, and He is actively working in ways we don’t even know about right now. Amazingly, God has chosen us, His imperfect church, and the work He is doing through us to be one of His most powerful weapons in pushing back the darkness in this world. We can all think of the many defects of the church, but we shouldn’t underestimate the healing impact the body of Christ has on the world today.
By His incredible grace, God is restraining much evil in this world. When God takes away His restraining power in the “Last Days,” evil will multiply in unimaginable ways. However, this increase of evil will be for only a short time.
These “Last Days” verses are not to scare you about the future. These are meant to help you understand the “whys” of the events that are allowed and, when these events start to take place, to help you understand that in the end, good prevails. Jesus will triumph over the “lawless one,” and His power will display His glory. Satan will never win. Do not lose heart when you see lawlessness increase and the present days getting darker and darker. A new day always emerges from the darkness of night.
Prayer
Come, Lord Jesus, Come: Day 4 • Devotional
Dear Lord, thank You for how You are restraining evil in our world. Thank You for the reminder that the presence of the church in our world matters. Help us to be united around Your Word and empowered by Your love. Help us to be Your hands and feet to a hurting world. Protect us and our families during these days and help us to be bold and brave, always bringing You glory. Until that day, “Come, Lord Jesus, come.” Amen.