We
ended the last study looking at Matthew 24:36-39, as Jesus compared
what the times would be like when He comes back as the Messiah that
the Jews long for.
Most
Bibles title this section “No
one knows the day or the hour,”
it immediately references Noah and how the flood shocked everyone on
Earth.
So, let’s
set aside assumptions for a moment and try to figure out what Noah
said or did that would potentially eliminate the ability of these
“people” to argue that they did not know what was coming.
Now, seeing as they had never seen or experienced rain, I might give them some grace for their lack of
understanding about something as tactile as rain.
I can
work off another assumption: Noah explained that the water would also
come gushing out of the earth. You cannot convince me they did not
drink or collect water from underground springs.
To
initiate a response, we have to start with this truth:
We
were told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
“...
but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;” 2
Peter 2:5 NKJV
Let’s
camp here for a moment.
Preacher
is
the Greek word kērux from G2784, meaning a
herald
of
divine truth. So, with
this information, I
recognize that Noah
was a messenger of divine truth.
Some will
say something stupid like that
might have been true for Noah, but not for me.
I am not adept with the parameters of philosophy, but I know enough to understand that a
statement like this is an unsound and quickly challenged judgment because the one espousing it cannot substantiate what they are saying with truth in their
argument.
Consider
that for 99 years and a few days, Noah could not substantiate his
claim either, but
that did not stop him from building this enormous vessel.
When the
flood came, God affirmed His support for Noah and his claims;
thereby, God corroborated Noah’s claim that rain, sufficient
to cover the highest peaks of the earth and wipe out everything that
breathed air,
was coming. I might add that a logical assumption would be that Noah
pointed to the ark as the only method of salvation, a type of Christ.
If I can
be direct, righteousness
has
always been a troublesome word for me.
Why?
Because
righteousness, as espoused by religion, has
always had works
attached
to it.
For
example suppose you are doing Bible study to meet
someone else’s demands, (typically associated some
organizational and religious standard.) In that case, you are doing
works to meet a demand to live in a particular manner so that God may
find you acceptable.
Do
you realize that God loved you enough to send His Son Jesus to earth
so that He would be slaughtered to purchase your life back to
Himself?
In doing
this, He reacquired us all back into His legal possession. (But don’t
worry—you don’t have to go with Him if you don’t want to, and
many are choosing that path.) Having realized that this is the
situation, all I can think about anymore is how soon you will find
me, wrapping my arms around at least one leg and weeping for joy.
Righteousness
- this
is the Greek word dikaiosunē. Thayer's
definition explains that: "1) in a broad sense, it is the state
of him who is as he ought to be,
righteous,
and the condition acceptable to God.
1a) the
doctrine concerning the way in which man may attain a state approved
of God."
Since
Jesus directed the small crowd to consider the days in which Noah
lived, let’s add one last thing.
- Before
the command to build the ark, we
have little that tells us how Noah lived his life.
Note
to self:
We
can assume things all day long, but that is a useless endeavor unless
there is some from of evidence to validate such assumptions.
One such piece of evidence provides a provocative lineage.
Adam –
Seth – Enosh – Kenan – Mahalalel– Jared– Enoch–
Methuselah– Lamech– (this is where it gets interesting)
“Lamech
lived
one hundred and eighty-two years and became the father of a son. Now
he
called his name Noah,
saying, “This
one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands
arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed.”
Genesis
5:28-29NAS95
Adam
walked with God.
We can
assume that Eve also walked with God, but not as Adam did because of
her action with the fruit. (Admittedly, this is an assumption, but a
good one.)
This
following assertion is NOT an assumption, but few will read and pay
attention to the details involved with God putting humans on earth.
Day
is
the Hebrew word yôm.
It
is from an unused root meaning to be
hot;
a day(as
the warm
hours),
whether literally (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the
next), or
figuratively (a
space of time defined by an associated term),
(often used adverbially): -age.
Pay
attention to the word age. In
the Greek, this is eon, meaning
an
indeterminate time frame.
So, if you choose to argue for the idea that what we see here is a strict
24-hour time period, then perhaps you can tell me what brand of watch
God used.
In
Genesis 1
verse 23, we see the arrival of the fifth day. Carry this
forward to Genesis 1:26-28, and we see God speaking to others and
saying,
“Then
God
said, "Let
Us
make
man in Our
image,
according to Our likeness; and
let them rule
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the
cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth." God
created man in His own image; in the image of God, He created him;
male and female, He created them.
God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish
of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing
that moves on the earth.”
Genesis
1:26-28
NAS95
Let that
information hang there for a moment.
Next, God
decreed a seventh day and rested, which moves us into Genesis
chapter two and, though not kept
track of, the eighth day and beyond.
Another
logical assumption we must resolve is,
"how
do we explain when Adam showed up?"
We have
made huge assumptions about Genesis 1:26-28, but I can tell you now
that those assumptions are only correct if they are based in spirit.
While the
terminology may uphold your argument, explain
how God speaks to the “male and female He created and then calls the
creation him?
At some point after this verbal introduction we are
introduced to Adam in Genesis 2:7 but not to Eve until an
indeterminate time later
(a yôm.)
“Then
the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground,
and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living being.”
Genesis
2:7 NAS95
Some time
later.
“Then
the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to
cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying,
"From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the
day that you eat from it you will surely die."
Genesis
2:15-17NAS95
Did
you see Eve in that conversation?
Neither
did I.
So the
only instruction about the one tree that cannot be eaten from has
been given to Adam alone.
Your
assumption should be, how did she learn about the tree?
Where
is Eve?
She
has yet to be formed.
Now,
there is no denying that she has been a spiritual being with Jesus
and the Holy Spirit, but she has NOT been physical.
“The
man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to
every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper
suitable for him. So
the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;
then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.
The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from
the man, and brought her to the man.”
Genesis
2:20-22 NAS95
Until
Genesis chapter 3, nothing defines when or how Eve obtained
information about “the
tree.”
If
God did not tell Eve about the tree, then who did?
Having
handed dominion over to the man, Adam, it was his job to tell Eve.
This same principle applies when it comes to Cain and Abel.
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Genesis 1:26-28 NAS95
Rule is also translated as dominion. Within a marriage relationship it is NOT a very pretty word.
But ask yourself a question was man in a physical form in Genesis 1:26-28?
The answer is NO.
If this was the point at which Adam received the directive to rule over the earth, why wasn't Eve in compliance later on in the garden, where the talking serpent was?
Adam had
dominion over the earth, was the groundskeeper, and had the right to
touch any tree in any manner he deemed necessary. Specifically, his
instructions were, DO NOT EAT FROM IT, which for an indeterminate
amount of time was not a problem.
A wee
bit of a side trip, so let's get back to assumptions related to Noah.
If you do
the math, you will find that Adam was well beyond 600 years when
Enoch was born.
Since
the scriptures do not tell us, I will ask. Where did Enoch learn what
it was like to walk with God?
A logical
assumption would be Grandpa Adam.
Interesting,
why did no one else ask Adam what it was like?
Good
question. Maybe they did, but it did not strike them the way it
struck Enoch.
Enoch,
we are told, walked with God.
Here is a
logical assumption. Enoch did this for many years, but if the others
did the same thing, Enoch took it one step further; he believed and
trusted in God as no one had since Adam. Finally, we are told Enoch
walked with God and was no more.
What
does “was no more” mean?
I do not
know. The narrative about Enoch continues in the New Testament;
there, Enoch is referred to as a prophet and implies that he never
died.
This plays into Enoch being one of the prophets returning to
earth in the last days.
The logic behind that is that it
is appointed unto man to die once, and then the end comes for them.
This previous statement bothers many people because they fear death,
but consider the fact that the
human body comes with a “sin” damaged genetic strain.
We all have it. The only way to get past it, or bypass it, is to kill
the body.
Doesn’t the scripture teach us that we will all be tried
with fire?
It does; therefore, I am convinced that this body, as we
know it, will be burned at the Bema seat of Christ. Our soul, which
lives on forever, will be placed in a shell that looks a whole lot
like the one we are currently in, only better, say around 35 – 40
years old, when it worked well.
Enoch
produced Methuselah. Now stop here a moment.
What
do we know about Methuselah?
He was
the oldest man on earth. A feat, no doubt, but in the world in which
we live, I see no purpose for it. So, for God to point this out means
that Methuselah was a sign to this evil and violent world.
If you read the
post just before this one, then you would immediately have made a
connection with Hamas (violence) and Allah (corruption.) Methuselah
stood in the faces of those who were taken by the fallen angels and
corrupted.
Many have
said that Methuselah means—when he passes, it will come. The only
“it” we should make and associate with would be the
all-encompassing flood.
All of
the men named in that lineage, except for Noah, had other sons and
daughters, but we have NO information on any of them, and we have no
indication that any of them followed after God.
This forces us to
make huge assumptions about the women folk, and that is that they
were taken, at will, by the fallen angels, forced to have some form
of sexual relation, and Nephilim or, if it suits you, giants were
produced through this interaction.
So much for my introduction.
Almost
abruptly, Jesus moved on with this.
“Then
there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be
left. 41 "Two women will be grinding at the mill;
one will be taken, and one will be left. 42 "Therefore
be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”
Matthew
24:40-42
NAS95
Some will
read a passage like this and decide that it is nothing less than an
example of an unjust God, as He snatches some to eternal life while
others are left to burn up with the earth.
If you think this way, you
are merely displaying your foolishness and refusing to search the
scriptures for yourself.
The
context is wrapped up in Jesus talking to His Jewish disciples about
a specific time frame covering the last three and one-half years; after which, He returns as the warring Messiah.
We Gentiles foolishly
assume that He is talking to us, the church because it says one will
be taken and the other will be left. This has nothing to do with the
church, as we will have been taken up in the catching away of the
church. You can
call it the Rapture if you must.
The
commentator, Albert Barnes, wrote concerning the phrase “One
shall be taken” - “The
word “taken” may mean either to be taken away from the danger -
that is, rescued, as Lot was Luke_17:28-29,or
to be taken away “by death.” Probably the latter is the meaning.”
In his
Midwest style, Dr. J Vernon McGee tells us, “He still is not
talking about the Rapture. After all, what is our Lord talking about
here? "As the days of Noe were." Who
was taken away in the days of Noah?" They
knew not until the flood came and took them all away." They
perished in the Flood.”
If I were
to answer Dr. McGee's question, it would read like this: The
unrighteous
were
swept away in the flood narrative.
Applying
this to Jesus's conversation with His disciples, I can assume that
the unrighteous are captured or killed when He says, “one
shall be taken.”
That idea is alarming and confusing when you think about it, but it
is only so because, once again we incorrectly apply the scenario to
the church. Keep in mind that being religious does not make you
righteous.
The
people in the account that Jesus speaks of are similar to the people
that we witnessed assaulting Israel on October 7th of 2023, and, as
you well know, they slaughtered without regard. That day, there were
more than 1,200 deaths, not counting the wounded, and more than 240
people, including infants, that were taken captive. Since then, many
of those captives have been murdered while in captivity in Gaza.
Why
bring this up?
Because
savage
brutality, as
we have already witnessed, is precisely what those who are left after
the catching away of the church can expect to experience, and I think
that this attack will happen shortly after Israel goes to war with
Hezbollah in the North.
Several
Bible commentators referred to what life was like pertaining to Noah
and the flood, and life was merely routine. The populace, both then
and now, did not care about the zeal I felt or the need to heed my
calls to study; they did not believe what “the Watchmen” were
pointing out coming destruction, and therefore, as we see, one is
killed, and the other manages to escape with little more than their
life.
The time
of the end is finally upon us.
“Therefore,
be alert, because you don’t know on what day your Lord will
return.” Matthew
24:42 GW
Many
years ago, singer/songwriter James Taylor sang, “Keep-in
my eyes on the Holy Land.”
Something tells me that at some point in his life, he knew that
Israel would play a central role in end-time events.
Matthew
24:42 is another passage that people will throw in our faces when we
talk confidently about Jesus Christ’s soon return. The problem with
their logic is that they apply this to the church when it is talking
to the Jews; I am talking about context.
The Apostle Paul clearly
stated that we are not in the darkness.
“For
you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just
like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying,
“Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly
like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day
would overtake you like a thief; 5 for you are all sons
of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;”
1
Thessalonians 5:2-5 NAS95
Number
1. Paul
told them he did not have to teach this message to them once again.
Why
not? Because
he had already done a thorough job of teaching them. If you feel like
you are lacking, then invest some quality time in the Books of Daniel
and Revelation. Oh, there is more, but those two books are related to
each other and will answer many of your questions. A little wisdom:
ask the Holy Spirit to lead you and guide you into the truth about
what is to come.
Number
2. Sure,
Jesus is coming as a thief in the night, but only for those who are
not prepared and awaiting His return. Paul even explains that these
are some of the people who will be saying peace and safety. I used to
think that it was Israel alone that was saying peace and safety, but
several groups, like the UN and the World Economic Forum, have also
cried out for these things. Truth be known, these words do NOT mean
what you think they mean when they say them.
Number
3. Consider
those words that Paul is saying. If necessary, allow them to be
spoken deep into your heart. You are NOT in darkness; you are not a
part of the night if you belong to Christ, and the world will not
overtake you. This is not a secret society. Jesus wants you to
understand and then share this truth with others.
“But be
sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of
the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and
would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44
“For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is
coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”
Matthew
24:43-44NAS95
If
the context is exclusively about the Jewish community, then who would
be the head of the house?
The
rabbis, Pharisees, Jewish ruling council, and whoever else decides
what chapters and verses the attendees can and cannot read in the Old
Testament. Did you know that they tell the attendees to stay away
from the Book of Daniel and NOT to read Isaiah 53, why is that?
Because they do not want those who follow their teachings to find
Jesus, the Gentile Messiah. How foolish.
Are you
alert and ready? This has nothing to do with stockpiling food and
water but has everything to do with putting your hope and faith in
the one who gave Himself to redeem you back to Himself.
