"No Thought to God" April 27 Readings: 1 Samuel 13-14, Luke 17:20–37, Psalm 52, Proverbs 11:25-26

 

 Through the Bible in 2021

PRAYER REQUEST: If all goes well, I will be on my way today to Senegal, for the first time in 18 months. I will be participating in a men's conference and will be going into the villages to assess what has happened in the months since I was last there. 

Bible Readings:  1 Samuel 13-14, Luke 17:20–37, Psalm 52, Proverbs 11:25-26  

Daily Devotional: No Thought to God 

In Luke 17:20, the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was going to commence. Of course, they shared the common belief that the kingdom of God was the resurrection and expansion of the Old Testament Jewish theocracy. They were looking to figure out when Jesus was going to raise his army and get going chasing the Romans from Israel. 

Jesus made it clear to him that the kingdom he had come to build was not physical, political or military (that would come at his second appearing). Jesus was building a kingdom of the heart, a kingdom that was among them and within them. 

But then Jesus gave some indications about what life would be like in this world when the end did come when he came a second time to establish his earthly kingdom. He draws comparisons to two times in the past. 

First, he says that the last days would be "as it was in the days of Noah," in the days that Jesus the Son of Man would return. But it is interesting what Jesus focuses on. He does not talk about the extreme wickedness, immorality, and perversity that may have been going on before the flood came. Look at verse 27. 

They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 

They ate and drank. They got married. None of those things is a sin, is it? (I don't think that drunkenness is in view here when it says that they "drank.") We all have to eat and dehydration will kill you. Marrying and giving in marriage are good things, aren't they? 

What Jesus is saying here is that people went on about their lives without regard to their sin or their need for him. They just went about their lives as if there was no God to whom they would have to answer at the end of life. They went about their lives without regard as to what God wanted or what he commanded. They lived life without any concern for God. 

Jesus reinforced this principle when he talked about Lot and Sodom in verse 28. 

It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot: People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. 

Again, Jesus did not highlight the wickedness of Sodom. People ate and drank, they bought and sold, they planted their fields and built houses. Nothing wrong with any of that, is there? But like the people before the judgment of the flood, these people lived as if there was no God who would judge their sins. We know that God was about to pour out his wrath on the sins of Sodom, but these people just didn't care. 

In both of these instances, judgment was about to fall - cataclysmic judgment from God. A flood. Fire and brimstone. The end was near. But people just went on about their lives giving no concern as to the will and ways of God.

I have no idea when Jesus is coming again. But I do know this - the worst thing any of us can do is live our lives in disregard to the fact that Jesus is coming back and that we will give account to him. 

And isn't that pretty much the way people live today? Seek your own happiness without regard to God's will. Do what you want regardless of the teachings of the Word. Give no thought to Jesus, his gracious work, or what that sacrifice demands. 

There is a God in heaven who sent his Son to redeem us and his Spirit to indwell and empower us. To live in rebellion, ignorance, or defiance of that God is the ultimate folly. 

Father, may I live every day in recognition of who you are and what you have done for me. May I never ignore you or forget you. And I am thankful that when I stand before you it will be in the grace of your Son. 

Consider God's Word:

Which of the readings spoke most powerfully to you today?
Is the Spirit of God moving you to repent of something you are doing, to begin something new, or to change something about your life as a result of your readings? What?

Do you live your life with the constant expectation of God's activity - his power, grace and intervention?
Do you walk by faith instead of by sight?