In Genesis chapter six, God reveals his plan to Noah. He will destroy the evil that has multiplied upon the earth and wipe out every living thing. It’s hard to grasp the fact that the whole world had turned evil and violent. Really? Everyone? Were all the people on earth corrupt and violent? It’s hard to comprehend that evil had spread like yeast and permeated every life. How could this happen? I’ve watched TV from the 1950s up to today and you can see the trend toward evil. Chewing gum was the thing that the Beaver got in trouble for in school in the 1950s. Today, it’s mass shootings in schools. Couples slept in separate twin beds in sitcoms in the 1950s. Today, sex, both in and out of marriage, is a primary theme in most shows. Homosexuality was never discussed and when it was it was exposed as evil. but now it has to have a presence in just about every show in some way and there are even major prime-time shows starring homosexuals about homosexual issues. They are presented to the world in a positive light. Those who oppose the practice as evil are the bigoted idiots who must be silenced and “canceled” in every way possible. The schools seem to be wanting to promote transgender ideas at an early age. Boys who think they are girls want to compete in girls’ sports and it’s allowed! Whereas sex is an accepted subject in our schools, prayer, and God are shut out. The bible and the ten commandments are not allowed in the classrooms and some are trying to exclude them from every aspect of our daily lives. The secular world wants to go on without God or any mention of God. They do not want any puritan ethics to cramp their style.
Jesus told us that his return would come at a time that was similar to the days of Noah. Jesus said in Luke 17:26-27 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 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.” We might think that this is just innocently living their lives, but I’m convinced that in our vernacular it is more like “partying.” They eat their fill! They drink themselves drunk, they have sex with whoever they want! Jesus did not stop with the comparison of the end times being like it was in the days of Noah. He goes on to say it will be like the days of Sodom. In verses 28-30 Jesus continues speaking and says, “Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”
Noah still had room in his life for God. And in Genesis 6:18, God makes a deal with him, “But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” Yes, the whole world will be destroyed, but not you, Noah. I “establish” my covenant. I promise you will find deliverance from the destruction to come in the Ark that you will prepare because you will believe me. It is by “faith” as the writer of Hebrews says that Noah built the ark and he and his family were saved. Just as in Noah’s day so too is it in our day. It is by God’s grace we are saved by faith. We have God’s promise of salvation as we enter our “ark”, Jesus Christ, by faith. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”