Observation: As Jesus concludes his passage about the timing of the 'end times', he compares it to Noah and the flood. People were "carrying on as usual, having a good time," ignorant of the impending event. Jesus uses that to describe how people won't know the timing of his second coming.
However, Jesus isn't just saying that the even will arrive like the flood did ... suddenly and unexpectedly. He is more directly saying that people will be behaving as they did "in times like Noah's". And what were those times like? "God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways." (Genesis 6:12) That is the immediate context right before "So God said to Noah ...". Earth was full of corruption and sin. Specifically, people had corrupted their own ways. They were not just acting in sin toward each other, but they were corrupting themselves. The people were doing things that harmed their very own lives, corrupting their very own 'image of God' through acts that undermined their own created nature.
These were the times of Noah, and they describe the time when Jesus will return.
Application: As we can read the budding of leaves on a tree and know that the winter is ending, so may the Church today read the signs of the times and be prepared.
Prayer: Lord, I am prepared, and hopefully working as you would have me do. I hope I do better at that every day, being a proper servant. May this be said of your entire Church, whether your arrival be now, soon, or still in the distant future. Amen.
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