‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, nor even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark.
And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man’.
One of the first lessons of life is the imperative need of food and drink. A baby cry’s when it needs feeding, our physical bodies need food and drink. No sane person disputes the vitality of food and drink.
The western world has known an abundance of both food and drink in the last two centuries as the benefits of the industrial revolution have been harnessed.
Yet in the current climate of pandemic many are afraid of a temporary scarcity of both.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but his words will always be proved to be true.
‘Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds’.
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his the span of life?
If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Instead seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom’
(Luke Ch 12 v22-32)
These words spoken by Jesus, will never pass away! Not in tribulation, not in earthquakes in various places nor in famine.
Famine impacts food supplies. And Jesus has not promised that there will never be famine. Rather he has given a personal assurance that the Father is fully aware of all events and eventualities that will happen to us and that in the midst of these events we are to trust in his unique ability as creator and provider.
When Jesus says do not be anxious, it is a more secure word than all events on earth that we hear and see & also in the heavens, those things yet to come and those things beyond are current ability to perceive and understand.
Jesus concentrated a very significant amount of his teaching towards the end of his life on the truth that he will be returning. And that we will have to give account for are stewardship. Jesus was conscious that many of those following him in the current day and days to come would be tempted to come off the boil and into luke warmness due to complacency regarding his return.
To concentrate the hearts and minds of his audience he refers to another historical event that has an irrevocable element to it, so that people would not miss the boat.
‘Until the day when Noah entered the ark’
The poor labour all day, in an attempt to feed themselves and their family and friends. The poor are not planning vacations nor retirement schemes.
The rich may not work for food but rather fulfillment and status, but the rich will dine on fillet Steak, Caviar and Goji berries. And the rich will plan to order in Dom Perignon Champagne for the birthday celebrations.
Much of life, due to its imperative nature, revolves around food and drink. Eating and drinking are great comforts
What else is there in life? Marrying and giving in marriage. It is with great interest to hear celebrities with great wealth who may be in biblically unlawful wedlock who affirm the void filled by surrogate children. Marriage even when it is contrary to nature still cant eliminate the need for family and all that entails.
Some quotes from one such:
“I’ve learned that the simplest things in life, like having a minute with them, are worth more than any painting, any photograph, any house or hit record,
Before we had the children we just had our lives and we would spend money because we didn’t have anything else to focus on.”
They are the greatest thing in our lives
“I’ve learned that a parent’s capacity for love is endless. When another child is born, our depth of love just grows deeper and wider, so it was very emotional.”
It was an “easy decision” to retire. “I just never thought that fatherhood could bring me so much joy, and I came to fatherhood late in the day, but it’s been one of the miracles of my life,” he said. “It seems to me something happens in my life every now and then which propels me to a different stage. This is a different stage and it’s probably the most wonderful stage.”
Even when corrupted as in Noahs day, their are dimensions to human life that can’t be escaped.
Eating, drinking and marrying, they are essentially the bedrock of human life. Life does ultimately revolve around these things.
However, in this context Jesus introduces a dimension to life which can not be ignored. It is a greater need than eating and drinking, even of marrying and having children.
The angels in heaven, nor the Son, know the day and hour of the culmination of are age.
But the Father does.
Jesus the Son, Jesus the Son of Man & God. He does not know that day or hour.
This focuses are attention to the work of Calvary and the words that shall not pass away spoken there. ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they do’, ‘Why have you forsaken me’, ‘It is Finished’ & ‘Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit’.
As the Son he did not know this, but he knew who did. As we consider this we recognize that Sonship and a right relationship with the Father are far deeper and greater needs than eating, drinking and married life
Deep within humanity their is a latent and dormant need for God as are Father, and as in the days of Noah we must enter the Son to be assured of approval from the Father when that great day is upon us.
Quotes by the same individual concerning his Father:
“It’s crazy, but I just wanted his approval,” “I’m still trying to prove to him that what I do is fine – and he’s been dead for almost 30 years.”
Strikingly, however, the star harbours no resentment, describing his father as a “product of his time” – uptight, emotionally stunted and trapped in an unhappy marriage.
“Although he didn’t really come to the shows or write me a letter to say, ‘well done’, I don’t think he knew how to,” he explains.
Jesus speaks from eternity into eternity. Fallen man cannot circumnavigate the words spoken by the Son of man, and he is the Son of Man due to a promise committed to the Father of the faith, Abraham. Who interceded and prayed for Sodom, having lifted up his hand to the Lord, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth.
God made this man a covenant promise, who would not be compromised by threats or riches. He is the continued reason that God promised Noah that he would not destroy the entire earth again by a global flood.
He also represents a Father who has promised to bless us as we trust in all of his provisions.
Abrahams legacy was secured for himself, his family and unto all generations and nations by his obedience and trust in the Word of God that shall not pass away.
Luke Ch 11 v13
In the parable of the ten virgins, we note that the Lord said to the five who had not been ready to greet him, that he did not know them. The oil was only an illustration, their hearts had not really been planning for his return, despite ticking so many good boxes. The five who had prepared and planned intentionally for his return had been known unto him. In their hearts they had a response that was known to him.
In the parable of the talents it is of great interest that Jesus states ‘Take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents’.
Isn’t that incredible. The man who had been given five talents and used them well, obtaining five more, is now referred to as possessing ten talents.
All the talents came from the Lord, and the stipulation is that the servants kept that which had been gained! Thus, to everyone who has will more be given. To all who confess that God has given mankind a great gift through the sacrifice and death of Jesus Christ, that is a springboard for him to add too in your life.
So the wicked servant was slothful, as he did not even allow the interest that comes from investing his confession of having been the recipient of a very generous talent to do its own job. Just a confession before your fellow man of faith in the atoning lamb of sacrifice is enough for this great truth to gain interest in others hearts.
He may have felt inadequate compared to the others, but his giving back of the talent without having done anything with it other than hide it was a misrepresentation of the absolute willingness of God to overflow through this talent and bless others through him.
God is not oblique, and he only expects a response to that which he has already given. The wicked servant had changed the character of God, and so he was judged by his own words and verdict. God is the only one who has scattered the seed, but he has called mankind to be part and parcel of his work upon the earth.
The wicked servant akin to the five virgins who had no oil did not know the Lord, ‘I knew you to be a hard man’. The hardness was his own heart and its unwillingness to be given the free gift of salvation from the seed: the provided sacrifice.
‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
Before home will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd spares the sheep from the goats.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’.
Again in this parable it is the same repeated truth. The goats had not known the Shepherd, and they had not used what he had given them. A hungry heart for a smile or a thirsty person in desperate need of hearing a tune carrying the notes of Gods Joy. Simply sharing the melody of heavens harmony that another maybe encouraged.
Blessed by the Father, through the gift and talents of the Son, a secured place in eternity that the gates of hell shall not prevail again, though the heavens and earth be shaken.
This kingdom has been prepared for those who respond to the greatest gift a man or women could ever recieve, free entry through his sacrifice alone. God who has made all things and shared all things, even his beloved Son, demands that this one talent is not hidden but is set upon a hill, so that others may claim their place around his throne.
When the Son of Man comes. Jesus is specific in his use of this title, Jesus wants mankind to be assured that his coming has incorporated them. The Father has sown this seed of incorporation and blessing, since before time began, the fall and sickness and death came from the lie that he was a hard taskmaster who had withheld a good thing.
His return will reveal the preparations of God, their is no greater thing to pursue than preparing aright for that great day, and God is giving opportunity through global events for us to focus on his return.
Last week my final thoughts when writing had been on Romans Ch 8, as the whole of creation groans for the manifestation of the sons of God,. And how it matters not how good or bad you have been, God speaking that sinners will enter his covenant before the religious. 5 who have sinned may enter the ark, if they have ABC’D in.
Note:
Encouraged by the stillness of God, and the certainty of his glorious throne. Of the riches being internal ones.
On Monday, I had an eye test in town for multifocal lenses. A well travelled road in the cycle of life.
On my way home I purchased a ticket from central station, and decided to see if a friend was in a place he often frequents. He was not, but returning to the platform I instantly saw a married African couple who I inwardly knew were Christians just by an inner witness.
As I approached them, I saw that the man had a book in his hand, so I was hoping it would present the initial conversation. It was an autobiography of Derek Prince, a book I have read and very much enjoyed.
Once I knew they were from Nigeria and that the man had facial scars familiar to me from a preacher I travelled to Nigeria to hear, I mentioned this preacher. He knew him very well, and has preached many times for him and vice versa.
His wife stated that this mans ministry is what had made a pivotal turning point in her Christian life, as it had been a struggle beforehand.
I mentioned a testimony from my mothers life, concerning being given Oswald Chambers daily devotional book, ‘My Utmost For His Highest’, the week before moving to London and living next door to his only daughter Kathleen.
Well, this man has read his entire works and it was Oswald Chambers who cemented his own walk with God in his formative years in the Anglican ministry. He is now the Bishop of the Lokoja region.
His name is Emmanuel, having been given that name in covenant by his Father a priest, who interceded for more children after a gap in childbearing. He pledged this child unto God, if God gave him another Son. And what a returned talent he is.
What has so blessed me about encountering this man of God, is his humility and the love he has shown me, a true shepherd.
As I have thought over this encounter, it struck me that I was the only person of the 7.7 billion people on this planet who could have shared with him and his wife these two given talents, as neither of my brothers have been to Nigeria.
eternalrays 