What is going on?

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all." Luke 17.26f

Does it seem like the end of the world? Probably not if you live in the UK - unless you are a die-hard, England-supporting, cricket fan. But you might feel differently if you were a government employee in Afghanistan, or a political activist in Burma, or a citizen of the south-west of Haiti. Or indeed if you are apt to worry about the Coronavirus pandemic, not to mention global warming.

On the whole, human-beings have a strange capacity to keep going. And so the world lurches from crisis to crisis, finding ways around our problems and obstacles. Which sounds commendable, impressive even. But what if it means we are missing something - of the deepest significance? On several occasions in the Bible people are warned that their way of life has reached epidemic levels of sinfulness, such as to bring God's judgment upon them. Yet they take no notice...

In case you think I am being a prophet of doom, let me assure you that I am not relishing the thought of universal, or even simply widespread, destruction. I am wondering though. Because the Bible also promises the return of Jesus, which will bring redemption as well as justice. It will bring about that happy consequence in a way we never imagined and it too will sneak under the radar in its arriving. So shall we be like the compatriots of Noah and Lot, plodding on in ignorance, or like the watchmen of Israel (eg Ezekiel 33.7), ready and waiting?