A separating day:
The Day of the Lord, is to be a separating day. “two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.”
At the time of Noah, there was also a separating day, one family went into the Ark and got spared, all the others were destroyed.
What hideous crimes were they doing to warrant such action?
Jesus tells us that they were eating, and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.
Surely these are necessary, and acceptable things?
Luke gives us more of a clue as to what is going on here. He is talking about how Christ must suffer, and be rejected, and then he says: “Just as it was in the days of Noah...” (Luke 17:25)
They were rejecting God, and living their lives for themselves.
Here we are living in a cultured society, and virtually everyone would consider themselves to be quite good really.
But anybody who eats, drinks, marries, and lives for themselves, and rejects God is under His judgement.
The only safe place is to be in the Ark, in Christ, so that the flood waters of the anger of God won’t touch us.
There was no safe place then, when the whole earth was flooded, not a corner was spared.
The only survivors were in the Ark.
The Ark represents our only place of safety, and we need to flee to Christ, to be in Him, to avoid the coming judgement.
In Matthew it says: “and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came...” (Matthew 24:39)
Well, they would have heard Noah preaching, but they didn’t believe, it wasn’t real to them, so they knew nothing about what would happen.
That is why Jesus often says: “He who has ears, let him hear!”
How many times do we read the Bible, or we hear a sermon, and it goes into us, but it does remain in our heart?
There were many people who heard Christ’s powerful preaching. Think about it, He is the Word of God, and yet they didn’t hear His message, they didn’t understand so that they could be saved.
How we need to pray: “Lord help me by Your Spirit to listen, help me to understand, help the people I talk to, to understand, and to be saved.”
When the gospel is proclaimed in the presence of unbelievers, and it is preached faithfully, wisely, and in it’s entirety, then that word will be a dividing one.
Like it or not, God says there are only two types of human being.
The first are those who obey Jesus Christ, and who trust in Him, this group God calls the righteous.
The second group are those who don’t obey Him, and He calls them the wicked.
These two groups will be scattered throughout every society, class and nation.
The righteous and the wicked will be getting on with their everyday business, then suddenly, the righteous are taken from the earth.
There is no need for a believer in the lowest of the low jobs, to worry that they might get missed, because the poor of this world can be rich in faith, and be heirs of the Kingdom.
A struggling Christian need not worry, if their hope is in Christ, because He will not lose His grip, and He will lift them to safety, to be with Him forever.
Vulture image: thanks to Serif ARTGallery CD
Jesus image: thanks to GSP 100,000 clipart CD.
© 2003 Bible Explained part of www.seeking-god.co.uk
