Matt 24:37; “But as the days of
Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.”
So, according to the new Noah movie that
was released; eight people never made it on the ark, angels encrusted in rock
roamed the earth, an energy infused snake skin from the garden was passed down
the generations of Seth as a ‘birthright’ and Methuselah had a sword that could
create a fiery tidal wave. All of this ridiculous silver screen action brought
me back to the words of Christ concerning Noah and his generation. Our Lord
said this; “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of
the Son of Man be.” So what did the “days of Noah” look like? I have listed four
things from the scriptures for our consideration.
1.) A POPULATION BOOM
Gen 6:1; “Now it came to pass when men began to
multiply on the face of the earth.”
There evidently was a big population
boom in Noah’s day. The earth at that time was starting to be filled with
mankind. I do not know how many people roamed the earth but I do find our
current population trends interesting. Here is a list of the years mankind hit
certain population milestones:
- 1 Billion 1804
- 2 Billion 1927
- 3 Billion 1960
- 4 Billion 1974
- 5 Billion 1987
- 6 Billion 1999
- 7 Billion 2011
Are we having our very own population boom?
2.) A SEXUAL BIZARRENESS
Gen 6:4; “There were giants on the earth in those
days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men
and they bore children to them.”
Now, I don’t pretend to understand the
details or ramifications of this verse, but one thing I do know is that there was something bizarre going on. The context of this passage of scripture does not
lend itself to “happy families”. Sexually something was amiss here. But when we
put the microscope on our generation, we find that we also have a generation
that is full of sexual sin. Here as some horrify facts:
- Pornography is a $57 Billion industry.
- Child pornography is a $3 Billion a year industry.
- There are 4.2 million pornography websites.
- Gnutella (a child pornography site) has 116,000 request DAILY!!!
- 53% of “Promise Keeper” men have viewed pornography in the last week alone.
- 9.4 million women access adult websites each month
- To date: 17 states have legalized same-sex marriage in the US
Does our generation suffer from its own sexual bizarreness?
3.) EVIL IMAGINATIONS
Gen 6:5; “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil continually.”
This topic of evil imaginations seems to
surround us these days and the young amongst us are being targeted on a more
frequent basis. For instance; I was recently in a toy store with my kids and as
they looked around I scanned the shelves to see what was “new”. To my horror I
saw a stand of Voodoo dolls. One of the dolls was even in the form of a devil
and consequently was named “devil”. On its tag it said, “To watch over you and
keep you from harm.” WHAT!?!?!?! There was a whole collection for a child to
collect. I was already alarmed at how the adult-embracing of zombie themed movies and ghoulish retelling of children's stories on TV has
resulted in toy firms manufacturing dolls based on monsters and zombies for
children to play with. I certainly was not comforted by this new doll.
Are the Evil Imaginations of men
everywhere we look: Movie screens, TV shows, Posters etc…?
4.) VIOLENCE
Gen
6:11; “The earth also was corrupt before God,
and the earth was filled with violence”.
In a very similar way to the evil
imaginations of mankind, violence has been glorified in our times; primarily
through the prism of entertainment. Movies that promote gratuitous violence,
songs that brag about killings and "sports" that are dragging us back
into the gladiatorial area are common place. In our times we seek to be
entertained so much that we are but a whisker away from the "Give them
bread and circuses" culture of the Roman Empire. Our desire to be
entertained, coupled with the natural darkness of our own hearts creates a
perfect environment for violence to be prevalent in our societies. With the
average 18 year old being exposed to thousands of murders through various
mediums and crime stats in the US like these:
- 1.2 millions violent crimes a year.
- 15,000 homicides a year.
- 760,000 aggravated assaults a year.
- 84,000 rape cases a year.
Are we perilously close to a culture of violence that resembles
the days of Noah?
So as I sat in that movie theater and
watched a pathetic rendition of a biblical character being portrayed, I asked
myself: If the coming of the Son of Man is
likened unto the days of Noah, how close are we to seeing Him descend from
Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of
God?
