Just like Noah...

In the same vein as my blog from yesterday, I gained some new insight on Matthew 24: 37-42.  My sister, Sandra, told me she'd been listening to David Jeremiah on the radio and he was teaching on Noah.  Just to give you a quick review, these verses in Matthew are saying that just as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when Jesus comes again.   Dr. Jeremiah made the point that these verses aren't talking about how EVIL the days were (which always came to my mind when I thought about Noah's day because of the description in Genesis 6.).  People were eating, drinking and marrying.  These verses are saying people were oblivious.  They were busy with life.  They weren't paying attention. They were preoccupied with themselves and their desires.  Noah was preaching but no one was listening...and I mean no one.

Do you feel oblvious sometimes? I can be posting away on Facebook, commenting on friends' photos, wasting an hour or two and then I see a post about 500,000 Christians in Iraq being forced from their homes--having to leave their country, convert to Islam, or be killed.  Or I see that Israel has been bombed 160 times in one day.  I'm upset because I'm so detached, so preoccupied to even know what's going on.  I'm all wrapped up in my comfort and pleasure and don't even know my brothers and sisters around the world are in trouble!  It's like I have spiritual ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and can only focus on my desires.   Thankfully, the Holy Spirit uses those moments to tell me to WAKE UP!  BE ALERT!!  The rest of those verses in Matthew 24 say that "the people of Noah's day didn't know or understand until the floods came and swept them away."  

II Timothy 3 reiterates that in the last days people will be focused on themselves.  They'll love pleasure and vain amusements more than God.  They will be lovers of self.  I don't think we can afford the luxury of being oblivious or of being selfish.  

The people who were preoccupied with themselves in Noah's day weren't believers.   Noah was the only righteous man alive so God chose to save the human race through him.  Noah spent approximately 100 years building the ark...and preaching to people who didn't want to hear.  That's some prolonged focus and alertness.  That's perseverance.  That's pressing through with great intention and obedience.  I think he's the example we need to follow in a day full of overwhelming distraction.