Luke 17:27, commentary and pictures

They ate and drank and married in the ordinary round of daily life until the day Noah entered the ark, and then the flood came and destroyed them all. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the day when the Son of man is revealed at His second coming in the clouds with power and great glory. Eating, drinking, marrying, buying, selling, planting and building are lawful in themselves, but the sin was making them the supreme objects of life to serve selfish desire until they shut the mind against eternal life and left people unready. God warned the old world through Noah as preacher of righteousness and offered pardon and safety to all who would repent, believe and obey, but they mocked and resisted until the door was shut and mercy ended. So now probation is fast closing and every case is about to be eternally decided, and constant readiness is essential by watching, praying, practicing temperance, and standing separate from the world lest worldly cares catch the unprepared.

Ordinary Life Before Flood

People went on with ordinary daily life — eating, drinking, marrying wives and being given in marriage — until the day Noah entered the ark, and then the flood came and destroyed them all. Their ordinary activities continued despite Noah's warning of coming judgment, and this same condition of being occupied with daily life until judgment comes will continue in the world today until the day when the Son of man is revealed at His second coming. The pattern warns that people may ignore God's warnings until judgment comes, so constant readiness and inner preparation are essential because the end comes suddenly while outward life goes on as usual. The worldly, self-pleasing principles that controlled that generation controlled people in Christ's time, leaven cities and villages today, and will still control people when He is revealed.

God warned the old world through Noah as preacher of righteousness of His purpose to cleanse the earth by flood, provided the ark as a refuge, and offered pardon, safety and shelter to all who would accept the warning and turn from sin by repenting, believing and obeying His word. God's Spirit urged them to believe and obey, warnings continued for many years despite wickedness, sin spreading and disregard of God, yet their wicked hearts resisted His counsel and love. Only a few responded at first while others laughed, mocked and dismissed the warning, but their routine, unbelief and mockery could not prevent its fulfillment when judgment came. Continued rejection ended the time of mercy when Noah and his family entered and God shut the door, and Noah and his family alone were saved while those outside were destroyed, representing the few who will be saved when the Son of man is revealed.

The building of the ark on dry land drew people from every direction to see it while warnings continued despite the wickedness, and then the flood destroyed the people who had been warned. Jesus' reference treats Noah as a real person and the flood as a historical event, presenting the character of that generation as a pattern for the present age before Christ appears in heaven. Human nature apart from God's Spirit remains the same, and Noah preserved his integrity despite the world's opposition.

Last Days Like Noah

Luke 17:27 is part of Christ's picture of the last days, which He compared with the days of Noah and the days of Lot, and as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in the days of the Son of man and in the day when He is revealed at His second coming in the clouds with power and great glory. The people of the world today stand before God just as the inhabitants of Noah's world did, keeping on with ordinary eating, drinking, and marrying until the end, exactly as that generation did until Noah entered the ark and the flood destroyed them all. Their ordinary life continued despite Noah's warning of coming judgment, and the worldly, self-pleasing principles that controlled them controlled people in Christ's time and now leaven the cities and villages of today, and will still control people in the day when the Son of man is revealed. This same condition will continue until the same sudden destruction comes, for even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

The end comes suddenly and unexpectedly, like a thief in the night and like a snare, while outward life goes on as usual and people remain absorbed in worldly pleasures and feel secure even when sin and corruption fill the world, failing to prepare for coming judgment. The sun still shines its round and the heavens still declare God's glory while the crisis steals gradually on, while men pursue their usual course of eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, buying and selling, issuing publications, jostling for the highest place, and seeking pleasure in theaters, horse races, gambling hells and passionate games with the highest excitement prevailing. People lived in God's house on His provision without thanks, mindful only of eating and drinking and marrying, wholly engrossed in business and buying and selling, at ease and full of amusement, while constantly working in opposition to their Creator, and farmers, merchants, lawyers and tradesmen absorbed in business will be taken unprepared when the day of the Lord comes upon them as a snare, like a prowling thief approaching with stealthy tread. Those who refuse to serve God will recognize the danger only when it is too late, for the coming of the Son of man will bring judgment, not a gradual conversion of the world.

Probation is fast closing, every case is about to be eternally decided with a heaven to win and a hell to shun, though few believe this deeply enough to show it in their actions. People will continue ordinary activities while the crisis approaches, unaware that the time for decision is nearly over, like the people in Noah's day who remained occupied with daily life until judgment came. Life can appear to proceed as usual while the time of judgment approaches, until probation closes and the door of mercy is forever shut as it was at the ark, and then an unparalleled time of trouble will begin in which each person must stand before God individually. Satan knows his time is short and sets all his agents at work to deceive, delude, occupy and entrance men until the day of probation ends.

Withdrawal of God's Spirit and widespread disasters by sea and land, fire, floods, and earthquakes signal that the end of earth's history is near and Christ's warning is being fulfilled, and the world is becoming as it was in Noah's days. Events already taking place show this end-time sign, whose warning reaches beyond what has yet been recognized, and increasing violence, crime, wretchedness, disease and strange conditions, especially in cities like San Francisco and Oakland, prove the Lord's coming is near and are to be proclaimed as warning. In Noah's day eating and drinking had become the aim of life, and gluttony and intemperance helped produce great moral depravity, and now ordinary pursuits such as eating and drinking become selfish indulgence and excess, while violence and wrongdoing mark the time and call people to prepare for the Lord's second coming.

The days of Lot give the same pattern, for eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building continued until Lot went out of Sodom, and fire and brimstone destroyed them all, as water destroyed the old world. Like the dwellers in Sodom on the morning the sun rose for the last time on the cities of the plain, people will be eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, eagerly planning business or pleasure in godless riot, while the messenger of God is derided for his fears and warnings, and they will be awakened only when it is too late, when the wrath of God is poured out without mixture of mercy. That state of being wholly engrossed in the things of this life and in gratification of desire made that people ripe for vengeance, and the same condition existed in Sodom before its destruction, so to enter the same path is dangerous and presumptuous and leads to ruin. The days of Noah and Lot together are a picture of the widespread iniquity of the last days, with corrupt practices bringing judgment by water upon the old world just as Sodom's practices brought judgment by fire.

Lawful Things Turned Excessive

Eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, with planting, building, buying and selling, are lawful in themselves and not sinful when they sustain life and fulfill duty without excess. Marriage itself was instituted by God in giving Eve to Adam, and all His laws fit human nature, so eating and drinking without excess fulfills duty and is not sinful. The warning is therefore not against proper business or ordinary activity, but against indulgence and carrying lawful things to excess. When done in the fear of God such activities are safe, but the marriages of Noah's days showed professed believers forming alliances with corrupt people and marrying without discernment, prayer, and true love as motive.

The sin was perverting what was lawful by making eating, drinking, marrying and other temporal pursuits the supreme objects of life to serve selfish desire and self-gratification. Ordinary and lawful concerns were allowed to fill the mind to the exclusion of God and noble thoughts, putting heaven out of mind and neglecting eternal concerns. Carried to excess they shut the mind against eternal life, corrupted the imagination, and made men slaves led and controlled by Satan in worship of selfish indulgence and merry-making. That absorption in worldly life left people unready for an hour they did not expect, even while they had received great light and favor and so incurred greater guilt in judgment.

Appetite ruled the people, and gluttony and drunkenness were their prevailing sins leading to other crimes. Indulgence in food, alcohol and tobacco, with lustful and base appetites, overcame reason and conscience and perverted the whole being. It enfeebled moral powers so that sin did not appear sinful, weakened health and spiritual growth, and led to base passions, violence, crime and general corruption when desires and passions were crossed. This shows that God tests fallen people on appetite just where He tested man before the fall in Eden, and that indulgence of appetite is among the most flagrant sins causing the greatest human woe, for which He washed the world from moral pollution by the Flood. Christ's followers are therefore to practice temperance, treat marriage as a sacred responsibility rather than a careless self-centered choice bringing misery and dishonor to God, and not sacrifice health or spiritual growth to appetite.

Along with eating, drinking and marrying went planting and building, buying and selling, issuing publications, jostling for the highest place, and crowding in highest excitement to theaters, horse races, gambling hells and passionate games for supremacy. Outward normality continued while the crisis advanced and probation was nearly over, with people eagerly planning business or pleasure in godless riot. Selfishness ruled with a passion to accumulate possessions and retain power, the rich as Satan's co-partners robbing the poor by buying up wheat and goods and charging whatever prices they desired, until the robbed and injured became exasperated and selfishness and violence, wickedness and cruelty filled the world.

Reckless Marriage Warned Against

The marrying and giving in marriage in the verse warns that marriage can be pursued recklessly without consulting God, when human feeling, desire and passion bear down everything before them. When appetite and passion rule mind and conscience and self-centered, careless choice is made without seeking God, the result is untold misery and dishonor to God. The marriage vow does not make lustful conduct acceptable, nor the bed holy and sanctified when it is unsanctified by disregard of God. That condition is an all-absorbing infatuation over courtship and marriage in which youth and even older men and women act as if bewitched, as if taken by satanic power, making courtship and marriage the all-absorbing theme and forming most indiscreet marriages. In Noah's day lightness and frivolity over eating, drinking and especially marrying degenerated into debasing sins, where inclination and passion ruled over reason, self was made into God, knowledge of God was nearly obliterated by selfish indulgence of corrupt passions, and God's wrath came in dreadful destruction by the flood to rid the earth of contaminating influence, and as it was then so it is in the days of the Son of man, requiring a decided change.

The marriages of Noah's days were marked by professed believers forming alliances with corrupt people and marrying without discernment, and they were safe only when done in the fear of God with prayerful consideration and true love as motive rather than as a thoughtless choice. Christians who marry unbelievers, placing impulse and self-gratification above God's counsel and marrying with reckless disregard for God's requirements, repeat those marriages before the flood. Before the flood people were especially absorbed in marriage in their ordinary eating, drinking and marrying until Noah entered the ark and the flood destroyed them, and Christ makes such marriage practices a sign of conditions before His second coming. Intense worldliness and self-gratification in marrying with the same reckless disregard are signs of that last time.

The time before the flood is a pattern for the world before the Son of man is revealed, when corruption and sin were widespread and the present world is rapidly approaching a like condition. That corruption included disregard of God's institutions established in Eden, especially the Sabbath and marriage, with adultery as a grievous and prevalent sin. Destruction came in a world corrupt with sin and disregard for God, and marriages pursued without seeking God's will, to gratify lust rather than honor God, are among the sins that bring judgment in the last days as the same corruptions exist now. Society was corrupted by selfishness, unlawful desires, pride, disregard for God and His law, violence, and disregard for marriage and property rights, using gifts for selfish ends and pursuing sinful pleasure, while people corrupted one another by beholding evil until God swept them away by the flood, and the same corrupting principles are at work in large cities in the present day with moral danger between men and women. The world's customs and moral influences drew people away from God so that courtship and marriage could become part of that corrupting influence, and marriages driven by lust without regard for God will bring judgment as water judged the old world and fire judged Sodom.

Being in one another's society, paying attention to each other, flirting and courting leading to marrying and giving in marriage is the main engrossment of worldlings in this time. Seeing no harm in it shows lack of spiritual discernment, for it is not harmless but belongs to a low cast of morality that does not meet the high standard of God's law and gratifies low, sensual propensities. Lives engaged in it are tarnished and tarnish others by example, even when covered with fair outward morality and pretense of piety. Genuine Christians will not follow that worldly example but will come out from all these things and be separate, keeping the strictest rules of prudence and watchful reserve and putting up bars and guarding every point in the association of young men and young women in colleges, sanitariums, publishing offices and missions, because lack of reserve demoralizes those institutions. Worldly festivities including dancing belong to that sign of ordinary eating, drinking and marriage continuing until Noah entered the ark, as devotion to Satan rather than service to God before the Son of man comes. When people are heedless of God and the sacredness of marriage, disregard for divine and human law turns the marriage relation into a farce, seen in miserable and broken marriages.

Corruption Then and Now

Noah's time pictures the last days, for wickedness, spiritual decline, unbelief, moral impurity, violence, crime, cruelty, selfishness, pride, unlawful desires and sexual corruption filled the earth and corrupted it, and the present world is rapidly approaching and repeating that same condition when the Son of man is revealed. That corruption included disregard of God's law and rebellion against it, disregard of God's institutions established in Eden especially the Sabbath and marriage, disregard of marriage and property rights, and adultery as a grievous prevalent sin. People persisted in following their own desires despite light and advantages given them, defying grace, corrupting one another by beholding evil, until God swept them away by the flood when Noah and his family entered the ark and those outside were destroyed. The judgment that came because the world was filled with wickedness warns of what will happen when He is revealed.

The worldly, self-pleasing principles that controlled Noah's generation controlled people in Christ's time and now leaven the cities and villages of today, and will still control people in the day when the Son of man is revealed. Those same evil and corrupting principles are at work in large cities in the present day, where people are corrupted by beholding evil. Present violence and crime, especially in cities, show the danger amid worsening wickedness while many ignore warnings and judgments, and make removal from the cities urgent.

The line between professed Christians and worldlings is now scarcely discernible, for careless souls indifferent to warnings are caught unwary in Satan's net through natural, hereditary tendencies. The church stands on the world's ground in lawbreaking by taking the world into fellowship, giving affection to enemies of holiness, and preferring to copy the world's customs and vanities rather than separate from them. Even those who profess to belong to God can be consumed by eating, drinking, marrying and other pursuits, revealing selfishness and conformity to the world rather than readiness for judgment in the last moments of probation. This return to great wickedness through disobedience and transgression comes because parents have failed to teach children God's commandments and to teach them to reverence His law, and because religious teachers have failed to uphold God's law as the standard of character. The world has had great light and been greatly favored yet comes short of its responsibilities, so greater guilt rests upon it, seen also in wretchedness, deformity and disease through ignorance of proper care of the body.

People lived in God's house on His provision without thanks, mindful only of eating and drinking and marrying, wholly engrossed in business and buying and selling, at ease and full of amusement and self-indulgence. They forgot God and the future judgment, forgot their Maker, worked in opposition to their Creator in moral impurity and violence with every imagination of the heart only evil continually, and spent probationary time to please self instead of crucifying self by sacrifice to prepare to meet Christ. Multitudes do not regard life as serious but are selfishly engrossed in pleasure seeking, eating and sleeping and dressing and pursuing vanity, pride and indulgence, dying without thought of preparation for eternity. Their ordinary routines did not protect them, and to enter the same path of being wholly engrossed in this life and gratification of desire is dangerous and presumptuous and leads to ruin, as Sodom shows the same ripe condition for vengeance.

In mercy God blotted out the wicked inhabitants by the flood, declaring His verdict that workers of iniquity who by deceptive power obtained sympathy and admiration and led others to rebellion were incurable with no disposition to submit to divine authority, and it is so in our time. God does not forsake people until they forsake Him, but cherished sin and corruption bring His wrath, and when men forget God and serve themselves the fear of God is not before them and sin does not appear sinful while iniquity prevails under Satan the first transgressor. The wicked at the end will be destroyed not by water but by fire when He comes to punish the inhabitants of the earth for iniquity, as He destroyed Noah's generation by water and the corrupt dwellers in Sodom, and in mercy to the universe will finally destroy rejecters of His grace. Last-day sins like those of the old world, especially marriages driven by lust without regard for God, with minds employed on eating and drinking and marrying and heaven put out of mind, will bring that judgment.

The condition before Christ's first coming pictures the condition before His second coming, for the Jewish people were destroyed because they rejected heaven's message of salvation, warning those given great light and opportunity not to reject it to their ruin.

Warning Rejected Judgment Certain

God warned the old world through Noah as preacher of righteousness of His purpose to cleanse the earth of its impurity by a flood, calling them to repent, believe and obey, but they laughed the warning to scorn as a superstitious prediction and mocked Noah, resisting God's counsel and love. Only a few responded at first, while the rest went on with ordinary eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, wholly engrossed in business, buying and selling, at ease and full of amusement, in moral impurity and violence, until the day Noah entered the ark. Their unbelief, mockery and routine did not prevent fulfillment, for then the flood came and destroyed them all, and as it was then so it shall be also in the days of the Son of man when He comes in the clouds with power and great glory. The condition before His first coming, when the Jewish people were destroyed because they rejected heaven's message of salvation, serves as a picture of the condition before His second coming and warns those given great light not to reject it to their ruin.

Those who resist the Holy Spirit step by step until spiritual blindness takes the place of light will continue in the day when the Son of man is revealed in unbelief, envy and criticism, turning evidence into questioning and doubt and misconstruing every appeal. They laugh and ridicule the most solemn warnings of Scripture, despise reproof, counsel and entreaties of the Spirit, close their eyes that they might not see and stop their ears that they might not hear because they do not want to know, spending probationary time to please self instead of crucifying self by sacrifice to prepare to meet Christ. Their plea that they did not know His coming was near will not be accepted, because God gives abundant opportunity to know. Those set on their own will may be left without the Holy Spirit and to the destructive results of their own conflicts amid the strange conditions recalling the time before the Flood.

So now the Lord sends messages of warning by Christ's ambassadors at the end of all things at hand, and some will receive them but others will not heed, just as Jerusalem rejected truth. Ministers teach His coming is spiritual or in the distant future, the message of His soon return is denounced as fanaticism or heresy, skepticism and science falsely so called undermine faith in the Bible, and multitudes striving to forget God eagerly accept fables to pursue self-indulgence undisturbed and say, Where is the promise of His coming. Like Lot's family who counted Lot's warning of Sodom's destruction a raving enthusiasm and fanatical enthusiasm, they will be found unprepared, and farmers, merchants, lawyers and tradesmen wholly absorbed in business and eagerly planning business or pleasure in godless riot will be taken unprepared when the day of the Lord comes upon them as a snare, like a prowling thief approaching with stealthy tread, awakened only when too late when wrath is poured out without mixture of mercy.

Yet pardon and shelter were offered to all who would repent and obey God's word, for God provided the ark as a refuge and offered pardon and safety to those who accepted the warning and turned from sin, though continued rejection ended the time of mercy when Noah and his family entered and God shut the door. Those who repent and obey can still receive pardon, shelter and refuge from the divine judgments coming again upon the world, while those who carry on without heed to the warning will be condemned.

Call to Watchful Readiness

Ordinary eating, drinking and marrying went on until Noah entered the ark and the flood suddenly destroyed them all, and so it will be in the days of the Son of man when He is revealed, so constant readiness and inward preparation are essential. People absorbed in worldly business, pleasure, cares, feasting and plans for gain feel secure while sin and corruption fill the world, yet the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly like a thief in the night to all who are not watching, praying and working. Those who have the light are to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, living with serious thought and earnest prayer rather than letting indulgence catch them unprepared. The danger is especially plain for men in positions of responsibility who do not understand their own defects of character and hold an officious spirit that blinds judgment in this time of peril, and for careless souls indifferent to warnings who are caught unwary in Satan's net through natural, hereditary tendencies. Unless watchful, people separate from the divine Teacher, fail to discern the Light of life, lose knowledge of the way of righteousness, and recognize danger only when too late.

Appetite and passion can rule mind and conscience until sin does not appear sinful, and Christ gives a most important lesson against making eating and drinking paramount and against indolence. Giving up to indulgence of appetite and eating and drinking to excess enfeebles moral powers, causes crimes to be winked at, lets base passions control the mind, roots out good principles and impulses amid blasphemy of God, and this condition of excess and moral numbness is the very condition that will exist at His second coming. His own life of earnest work, self-denial, diligence, perseverance, industry and economy is the opposite example, and His fast teaches that the only hope of eternal life is to bring appetite and passion under the will of God. Therefore His followers are to practice temperance, avoid excess and what leads to sin, hold unwavering moral principle, treat marriage as a sacred responsibility rather than a careless self-centered choice that brings misery and dishonors God, and refuse to sacrifice health and spiritual growth to appetite.

The history of a generation wholly engrossed in the things of this life and gratification of desire until judgment came warns that the world in the last days will be similarly preoccupied and forget its Maker, and to enter the same path is dangerous and presumptuous and leads to ruin. God's people must be distinct from the world and separate themselves more and more from that engrossment, refusing to spend entrusted means in indulgence of worldliness and pride. Instead they are to influence others toward higher motives and purer joys, live with serious thought and earnest prayer because divine judgments are again coming, and stand for righteousness though selfishness, violence and crime prevail as then. Readiness for heaven requires using present time to honor and praise God, including gratitude for food and care for the poor, suffering and needy, and taking full stand on the Lord's side.

Unless the preacher of godliness abides in Christ and receives nourishment from Him as the branch from the vine, he cannot help the sinner. There is need of a converted ministry that walks in the great light given, gives the warning, and lives the truth before those dying without preparation as a living testimony and example whom those with light will meet in the judgment. God sees each person's earnestness and sincerity, and when a heart surrenders He gives help and power to overcome and places opportunities for help in the path, so that preaching can affect hearts in ways that benefit them later. In walking in that light His people will see His salvation amid the wretchedness, deformity and disease that have come through ignorance of proper care of the body.

As in Noah's day and as in Sodom, the present time is full of moral danger in relations between men and women, exposing youth, young men and women, and mature men and women, and Christians need greater refinement in thought, relationships, speech and conduct. They must maintain the highest true refinement and delicacy and preserve barriers of reserve between men and women in thought, association, words and deportment. Youth trained to seek excitement and follow their own desires, like the people before the Flood, face resulting depravity, cruelty, violence and crime. Ordinary life continued until Noah entered the ark and then sudden destruction came, and Christ's coming will likewise find people amid worsening wickedness while many ignore warnings and judgments; present violence and crime, especially in cities, show the danger and make preparation speedy and removal from the cities urgent.