Luke 17:20-2720And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. 22And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. 23And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. 24For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. 25But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. 26And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:20‑27)
Yet those men wanted Jesus to tell them the time for His rule to begin. He told them God’s Kingdom would not be with the display, as they expected, and they need not be looking for the King; He said, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you,” within their midst, for He, the King, stood with them. Still they did not believe Him.
Afterward, Jesus told the disciples that when He, “the Son of man,” came to rule, His coming would be “as lighing,” which goes instantly across the whole sky, and seen by all. His words show that His coming will be a time of judgment for all them who do not believe God. And the people who will live then, will be like the people long ago who did not believe God would send the flood over the earth. Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noe (Noah), so shall it be in the days of the Son of man: they ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, till the day Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.”
Noah was the only man not doing wickedly when God said He must send the flood on the earth. God told him to prepare the great ship, called “the ark,” because ark means a safe place. Noah did not doubt God’s words, but began to build the big ship, which was large enough to hold many people, and he told them of the flood.
People of that time lived many years longer than now, and they had a long time to decide. But they did not believe God’s words about a flood, and kept on their plans the same as before, and did not prepare to go in the ark.
But on the day God had set, the rain began and the springs were opened, and soon the dry land was covered. Then people knew the flood had come. But it was too late to enter the safe place, for Noah could not let them in. God had shut the door.
Some now say the flood is “just a story,” but the disciples did not doubt it a real event. Peter wrote that ‘Noah was a preacher of righteousness,’ what was right for God; and he wrote that God was “long suffering, waiting’ for those people to believe (1 Pet. 3:2020Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20); 2 Pet. 2:55And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2 Peter 2:5)).
The Lord Jesus knew the flood was true, He said, “The flood came and destroyed then all.” He is now the Ark of safety fron God’s judgment, which must someday be on all wickedness.
ML 09/23/1945