Luke 17:28, commentary and pictures

In the days of Lot people went on with ordinary eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building until Lot went out of Sodom, and on that very day fire fell from heaven and destroyed them all. Together with the days of Noah this pictures the revealing of the Son of man, when the end will come suddenly upon a world absorbed in business and pleasure as a thief and a snare upon the unready. Eating and drinking and trading and planting and building are not wrong in themselves but are a blessing within temperance and the fear of God, and the sin is carrying what is lawful to excess until it violates God's laws and wastes strength and means entrusted for eternity. That indulgence benumbed moral sensibility so that sin did not appear sinful and base passion ruled, bringing general corruption with impurity and violence and selfish oppression and transgression of God's law. Therefore the call is to watch and pray and work and be ready without delay, refusing to let lawful pursuits crowd out God and eternal life, but remaining distinct and connected with God while warning was still given.

Words and Historical Setting

In the days of Lot people ate, drank, bought, sold, planted and built, carrying on ordinary daily life and business and farming and work right up until Lot left Sodom. These everyday pursuits continued despite approaching judgment, with no heed to it, in careless absorption in common pursuits. The list stands together with the days of Noah as the pattern for the day when the Son of man is revealed, showing that the people of the world today stand before God just as those former generations did in spite of all done for them. A warning message from God had been given and then rejected, as when Noah prepared the ark and warned of the flood for one hundred and twenty years.

On the very day Lot went out of Sodom fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all, so sudden destruction followed ordinary routine. The end came upon a people preoccupied with common life and indifferent to warning, absorbed in ordinary life until sudden destruction fell on them. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed, exactly the same.

The days of Lot were the days of Sodom and Gomorrah in the time of Abraham and Lot, when wickedness had become very great through disobedience and transgression of the law of God. It was a time of corruption in Sodom when workers of iniquity through Satan's deceptive power obtained sympathy and admiration and constantly led others to rebellion, the same as in Noah's day. Ordinary life could continue while a society disregarded God's law and approached destruction, with wickedness nearing its limit before the Lord completes its destruction. God in mercy destroyed the corrupt dwellers in Sodom, as in mercy to the world He blotted out its wicked inhabitants in Noah's time, because the wicked were incurable with character fixed in revolt and no disposition to submit to divine authority.

Parallel to Last Days

Together with the days of Noah, the days of Lot picture the days when the Son of man is revealed at the second coming. In Lot's time ordinary eating and drinking and business and farming and building went on until Lot left Sodom, and the same absorbed everyday life continues until the day of revealing when sudden destruction by fire destroys all. The world today stands before God just as those former generations did in spite of all done for them, with no heed to coming judgment after a warning message from God has been given and rejected as when Noah prepared the ark and warned of the flood for one hundred and twenty years. Worldly ease and carnal security can leave people unprepared, for as Sodom was destroyed on the day Lot left, destruction will come when the Son of man is revealed.

As at Sodom, the end will come suddenly while life appears normal and people are absorbed in business and pleasure. Final destruction will fall upon a people preoccupied with common life and indifferent to warning, as fire and brimstone rained from heaven and destroyed them all the very day Lot went out of Sodom. It comes as a thief in the night to all who are not watching and praying and working also, and as a snare upon the unready, so ordinary prosperity does not mean safety. Those who have resisted the Spirit step by step until spiritual blindness replaces light misconstrue and ridicule the most solemn words of Scripture and reject all reproof and counsel, yet continue on unaware. The great necessity is to be watchful and prayerful, to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and work out salvation with fear and trembling, because peril comes when men in responsibility do not understand their own defects of character yet carry an officiousness that blinds judgment as to the work to be done.

Even after probation closes and the investigative judgment ends with every destiny decided for life or death, the righteous and the wicked will still live on earth in mortal state planting and building and eating and drinking, all unconscious that the final irrevocable decision has been pronounced in the sanctuary above. Probation is ended a short time before the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven, yet outward life keeps its usual round and familiar routines keep people occupied and unaware that mercy’s offer is finally withdrawn. As before the Flood after Noah entered the ark when God shut him in and shut the ungodly out but for seven days the people knowing not that their doom was fixed continued their careless pleasure-loving life and mocked warnings of judgment, so the decisive hour marking the fixing of every man’s destiny comes silently unnoticed as the midnight thief at the coming of the Son of man. The crisis steals gradually on while the sun still shines and the heavens still declare God’s glory, yet probation’s hour is fast closing and every case is about to be eternally decided, and normal life continuing does not mean there is still ample time.

The world has now reached that condition and the time to which the testimony applies, when people are wholly absorbed in ordinary daily life and business and pleasure while corrupt, just as in the days of Lot, and sudden destruction follows. The withdrawal of God’s Spirit is marked by sickness, disasters at sea and on land, fires, floods, and earthquakes, and by increasing death and destruction, crime, and violence with no safe place for those without God’s protection, showing the warning is being fulfilled. That time is marked by growing darkness, widespread errors and deceptions, great apostasy, hollow religious formalism, sensualism, and weakened faith in the Bible, showing the world becoming ripe for destruction before God’s judgments consume sin and sinners, and for God’s people a time of trial, grief, and persecution for the truth. Eating and drinking, planting and building, buying and selling, marrying, contending for the highest place, and crowding to theaters, horse-races and gambling-hells with the highest excitement go on because Satan sees his time is short and has set all his agents at work to deceive, delude, occupy and entrance men until the day of probation ends and the door of mercy is forever shut, leaving sorrow no human help can heal, and the meaning of these words is becoming clearer than yet seen.

Lawful Things Carried to Excess

Eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building and marrying are not wrong in themselves, for eating and drinking sustain life and are a blessing when kept within the bounds of temperance, and providing for necessities is a duty. Such pursuits are safe only when done in the fear of God and with the eternal world in view, by earnest, self-denying, diligent work rather than indolence. The warning is not against proper business or daily life, but against indulgence and excess in lawful things that crowd out concern for eternal life and shut the mind to eternal matters. When appetite and its gratification consume thought and time and make eternal interests neglected, ordinary activities become spiritually dangerous.

The sin is carrying what is lawful to excess, for that excess is intemperance. That intemperance is a violation of the laws God established, making the whole being suffer and bringing breakdown, suffering and decay. Intemperance in eating and drinking is now increasing and so marked that God will not always tolerate it. When appetite and worldly concerns consume thought and time they harm body and mind and strengthen selfish, animal impulses, leaving people vulnerable to further sin and divine judgment.

Making eating and drinking paramount and carrying them to gluttony and drunkenness through perverted appetite, with excess in food, drink and dress, wastes the time, money and strength entrusted by God. Such overeating and excessive drinking corrupt and damage the whole person, harming body and health, unbalancing the mind, and strengthening animal propensities and selfish impulses. That indulgence benumbed moral sensibility and enfeebled moral powers so that sin did not appear sinful, let base passions control the mind, made crimes seem a delight to be tolerated, rooted out good principles and impulses, and brought general corruption, disease and blasphemy against God. Weakened in moral judgment in this condition, people cannot present the body as a living sacrifice, and their course can become crime and bring condemnation with sudden destruction at the revelation of the Son of man as on the day Lot went out of Sodom.

Corruption and Moral Effects

Indulgence in eating and drinking in the days of Lot was carried to gluttony and drunkenness and made paramount through perverted appetite, while buying, selling, planting and building went on until judgment came. That excess benumbed moral sensibility and dulled the moral sense, enfeebled the moral powers so that sin did not appear sinful, and weakened moral judgment so that sin and crime seemed harmless and acceptable. Base passions were allowed to control the mind, crimes came to seem a delight to be tolerated, and good principles and impulses were rooted out until general corruption brought blasphemy and contempt against God. Christ set this forward as the condition that will exist when the Son of man is revealed, when the indulgent world absorbed in daily life will meet sudden destruction as Sodom did the same day Lot went out.

Lot's time was the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, when wickedness had become very great through disobedience and transgression of God's law, marked by widespread impurity and licentiousness. That included sexual immorality, violence and crime and revelry, selfish accumulation and exploitation of the poor, and rejection of God and His law. Disregard for God is shown in setting aside the Sabbath, which turns people from awareness of His power and love, and it has grown because parents have not taught children to reverence His law and because the church has taken the world into fellowship and assimilated to its customs and vanities instead of separating from them. Sodom's practices that brought destruction by fire parallel the old world's sins that brought destruction by water, and ordinary eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building before the fire show how daily concerns distract from eternal realities while judgment approaches.

The same condition returns before the Son of man is revealed, with ordinary worldly life continuing while mercy is disregarded, people absorbed in business and pleasure forgetting God and the future life in spiritual backsliding and lack of readiness. That last age is marked by hollow religious formalism, apostasy, sensualism, weakened faith in the Bible, growing darkness with widespread errors and deceptions, and for God's people a time of trial, grief and persecution for the truth. Uncontrolled indulgence with disease and degradation returns with greater intensity, and ignorance of proper care of the body brings wretchedness, deformity and disease, while unrestrained appetite is evil and hope of eternal life requires bringing appetites and passions under God's will. Rejecting the message of salvation brings ruin, the wicked become incurable with character fixed in revolt and no disposition to submit, and they will finally be consumed with sin in mercy to the universe when the world ripe for destruction meets God's judgments.

Warning and Present Application

Warning had been given, as when one hundred and twenty years were spent preparing the ark while everyday eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building went on without heed to coming judgment, and the same careless absorption marks the time just before the Son of man is revealed when sudden destruction falls as fire and brimstone fell on Sodom the same day Lot went out. Many did not turn to the Lord, some mocked those who responded, and pleasure and disregard for warning continued amid ordinary pursuits until destruction came suddenly, showing that apparent normality does not mean judgment is far off. People persisted in wickedness and defiance with no fear of God's commands, choosing their own desires despite truth and warning, and God finally punishes persistent rejection of grace after long forbearance, while repentance and obedience still offer mercy and shelter. That resistance proceeds step by step until spiritual blindness replaces light, misconstruing and ridiculing the most solemn words of Scripture and rejecting all reproof and counsel, yet continuing unaware and preoccupied with common life until final destruction comes suddenly.

The verse therefore calls for readiness for Christ's coming and preparation of the soul in harmony with the principles and laws of God's kingdom, since ordinary life can continue while people are unprepared and the day of the Lord comes suddenly as in Lot's time. Watching and praying and working are required, for the day comes as a thief in the night to all who are not watching, and readiness cannot be put off until the last moment because probation may end while pursuits continue. Those who have the light must walk in the footsteps of Jesus, work out salvation with fear and trembling, stay connected with God and share light, and be distinct and separate, because even professed children of God can follow the same worldly pattern of being absorbed in business and pleasure until the day comes unawares. Those with great spiritual light who refuse to live by it face greater judgment, as warned to Chorazin and Bethsaida, with judgment more tolerable for Sodom.

Ordinary pursuits are not wrong in themselves, for eating and drinking sustain life and providing temporal wants is lawful, but they are safe only when done in the fear of God and with the eternal world in view, and extremes must also be avoided. The danger is giving daily concerns so much attention that preparation for eternal life and the question of salvation are neglected, carrying lawful things to excess until they fill the mind and crowd out God and noble thoughts. That preoccupation brings carnal security, spiritual sleep, backsliding, and a false sense of security amid pleasure, business, luxury, contention for the highest place, crowding to theaters and horse-races and gambling-hells with excitement, vanity, pride, and selfish indulgence, leaving people unprepared for sudden destruction and dying without preparation for eternity. It includes uniting carelessly in marriage with the corrupt without prayerful consideration or true love, pursuing inventions that turn from God's purposes, and joining dishonest grasping conduct, while the crisis steals gradually on with sun still shining and heavens still declaring glory though probation's hour is fast closing and every case is about to be eternally decided, because Satan sees his time is short and has set all his agents at work to deceive, delude, occupy and entrance men until the door of mercy is forever shut, leaving sorrow no human help can heal.

Large cities are like Sodom in wickedness, and the present world alongside Lot's days is in moral danger and coarseness with polluted atmosphere, where passions stimulated by games and racing and intemperance lead to lethargy, corruption, and moral prostration. In such an unexpected hour fire and brimstone will be rained from heaven upon these cities, each visited in proportion to its sins, and the ruin of San Francisco proves the necessity of getting out. God's people must therefore locate miles away from the large cities and seek a rural location where agricultural and other industries can be carried on, and must not establish schools or institutions or business interests in the cities, nor build large expensive dwellings like worldlings, nor regard the destruction of a city as a light affair nor build homes again in that same destroyed city. The cities must still hear the warning with whole-souled zeal while the day lasts, and the likeness to Sodom calls for greater refinement, elevation, delicacy, modesty and reserve in thought, association, words, deportment and conduct between men and women, guarding against commonness and careless conduct that threaten youth, young men and women just reaching manhood and womanhood, and men and women of mature years, with Christian physicians to guard speech and preserve modesty before patients.