Preface: Is there not a day that goes by without horror being added upon horror in this land of ours. I would estimate that half of the visitors to these posts are from outside the United States....and I take that as indicating how we Americans simply do not want to face what we have become....but people outside our nation know even before I describe it....how terribly we have fallen as a nation. Has God begun to awaken our pulpits yet....for His glory? I don't know....but as the Scripture passages described below tell....we are to keep petitioning....each and every Lord's Day....from now until whenever....."Lord....have mercy on these pastors....and thereby upon us....and all only for Thy glory.....not ours!"
The setting is that Christians are severely vexed in this world....and desiring the Second Coming of Christ....(Luke 17:22)....for it will be...."Just as it was in the days of Noah..."....(Lk 17:26.) Remember...."Remember Lot's wife"....(Lk 17:32)....as Jesus warns His disciples...."Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it."....(Lk 17:33.) There's more in these short and succinct 18 verses concluding the 17th chapter....for Jesus warns that false messiahs will be all over the place but...."Do no go out or follow them"....(Lk 17:23.) Well....if ever there were...."days of Noah".....these are them....and if ever there were false messiahs....Donald Trump is one.
The first eight verses of the eighteenth chapter is what I wanted to highlight here in this post. Once again....remember....this immediately follows Jesus describing the time of His Second Coming....as there is a judge.....an unrighteous judge....(does that not describe the spirit dominating our judicial system today?)....."who neither feared God nor respected man"....(Lk 18:2)....and a widow who kept coming to him....pleading her case....and he kept ignoring her....but it got to the point that he heard her case only to get her out of his hair!
The message to us is that though this world today may indeed be as in the days of Noah....that we are to keep on petitioning God. This is why Jesus used the example of the unrighteous judge....for if even he will eventually bring justice to the continued petitions of one....how much more will our righteous God hear our continued petitions!
Verse eight of this eighteenth chapter of Luke concludes this short foray into His Second Coming.....(Remember....Luke's version of the Olivet Discourse comes three short chapters away)....when Jesus asks...."when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" Folks....this is very clear....at the time when Jesus returns....the Christian Faith will be in great disrepair....and that also....is exactly where we are today!
