In Luke 17:26-30, the Lord Jesus gives His disciples some instruction about the future condition of this world at the time when He would come in judgment. In these verses, He refers to both the time of Noah and the time of Lot. Although Noah lived only about 500 years before Lot, yet it seems that the moral condition of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot was much the same as the state of the world in Noah’s day. After only a few hundred years, it seems that the awful judgment of the flood had been forgotten, and men had once again turned to their wicked ways.
What is significant in the description of Sodom and Gomorrah is that “they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded” (vs. 28). We know that God had confounded the language of mankind when they attempted to build the tower of Babel after the flood and that this resulted in the formation of city-states and nations. But trade, commerce and pleasure went on. Ezekiel describes its moral state in solemn words: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me” (Ezek. 16:49-50). Another has described Sodom’s natural beauty and luxury at the time of her judgment:
“Think of Sodom at the time of her judgment. She is situated like a garden with security, beauty and fertility. From the north a lake-cooled breeze caresses the city and its people. Shepherds graze their flocks and bed them down on the hillsides for the night. The air in this land of the olive and the vine is filled with perfume from the perpetual blossoming of flowers throughout the year. The fair city revels in the profusion of everything that nature and art can produce. But God is left out” (The Last Night of Sodom and Christendom, C. E. Lunden).
The Proliferation of Building Today
On a recent trip that included several major cities in this world, I was struck by the amount of building that was going on. Everywhere I looked in those cities, there seemed to be cranes projecting into the sky, building more and more skyscrapers. Many of these buildings were quite innovative in their design, as if to make them stand out from what had been built previously. While there is nothing inherently wrong in building something attractive, yet it all seems to exhibit the spirit of Sodom, where God was left out.
In some parts of the world, entities like tornadoes and earthquakes, as well as floods and wildfires, have devastated what man has built. At the time of my writing this, Turkey and Syria are suffering greatly from recent, strong earthquakes that killed over 50,000 people and brought down many buildings. Yet in all this, there is generally the cry, “We will build again, and even better than before.” The possibility that God may be speaking to all of us through these tragic events is seldom considered.
Cain — The Originator of Building
The nucleus of all this began long before either Lot or Noah lived, for Cain was the originator of the world-system that was perpetuated by those in Noah’s time and by those in Sodom. After Cain had murdered his brother Abel, we read that “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden ... and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch” (Gen. 4:16-17). Cain and his family then went on to surround themselves with everything that might make them as happy and comfortable as possible in a world spoiled by sin, but leaving God out. That same world-system exists to this day; the outward trappings have changed, but the spirit is the same.
Man’s ability to build greater and more beautiful buildings has increased rapidly in the last 100 years, as technology has evolved and electricity and other forms of power have become more available. With the gradual but definite giving up of God in nations that once honored Him, at least in an outward way, there has been a resurgence of human pride and a desire to take over this world for man’s glory. Yes, there are disturbing warning signs that all is not well, and the recent COVID pandemic, along with the war in the Ukraine that followed it, have caused widespread distress and fear. Yet man continues on his course, feeling that somehow everything will be all right.
The Restraint of God
The believer who knows the Word of God knows where it will all end, for the Lord will not put up with all this indefinitely. In Noah’s day He could say, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man” (Gen. 6:3), and at that time God put a definite time limit of 120 years on man’s sinful course. God has not given us such a definite date in this dispensation of grace, for the Christian’s hope is the Lord’s coming for us, not for a day of judgment. But God will judge this world, and there is a time when all of man’s boasted building, trade and commerce will be brought down. At the end of the Great Tribulation, we read that “the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air ... and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great ... and the cities of the nations fell” (Rev. 16:17-19). All of man’s building will be brought to nothing, as God brings down judgment upon this world. It is noteworthy that the greatest judgment will fall upon those who have enjoyed the greatest light.
As believers, we must live and move in a world of pride, building, and all of man’s boasted progress. Some of us may work in those beautiful and impressive buildings, and doubtless they are functional and pleasant to work in. This is all well and good, for we must live and earn our living in the world as it is, just as our Lord recognized Herod’s temple as God’s house, even though those who had charge of it did not honor the Lord. For this reason, He could also predict the time when there would “not be left one stone upon another” (Luke 21:6).
Our service today is to be a testimony to this world and to urge people to “flee from the wrath to come.” But in doing this, let us remember that our lives must agree with our testimony. Otherwise we may be like Lot, who “seemed as one that mocked” when he warned his sons-in-law of coming judgment. We must be seen to be living in the light of eternity, and not merely for time.
W. J. Prost