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The day of Noah and the day of Lot by Jean-Louis Coraboeuf "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed" (Luke 17:26-30). The Hebrew name Noah means 'rest', 'quiet'. Noah was a just man of integrity who walked with God, which is why he found grace in His eyes (Genesis 6:8-9). So God made a covenant with him and asked him to build an ark in order to save him and his family. Noah did what the Lord had commanded him. God then had him enter the ark and 7 days later the waters of the flood came upon the earth (Genesis 7:1,4,9,10). Those who have made a covenant with God and walk with Him will enter into the Ark on the Day of Christ. In the same way, the Bride will be raptured before the wrath of God comes upon the earth, that is, at the time of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. That is why Noah was called by Peter "herald of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5), for by his faith he made known the righteousness of God to the world (Hebrew 11:7). Because he had no father, Lot followed his uncle Abraham when the latter left Haran in Mesopotamia to come to Canaan and then to Egypt… Following a shepherds' quarrel, Abraham and Lot separated, and Lot saw that the Jordan Valley where Sodom and Gomorrah were, was like the garden of the Lord (Genesis 13:7,10). Lot preferred the city and the valley for they were very much like Egypt, which he was familiar with (Genesis 13:1). However, God was to judge these cities whose sin was at its height. But thanks to Abraham's intercession, God sent His angels to look for Lot before causing the wicked to perish. It is in this way that accompanied by his family, Lot left the city subject to divine judgement and went to take refuge in another city (Genesis 19:15,22,26). The Hebrew name Lot means 'veil'. Lot represents the one who has accepted Jesus Christ into his life, but who continues to live out his relationship with God through an intermediary, that is, without a personal relationship with Him. There is a 'veil' between the Lord and him. But a day will come when the Bride will be raptured for the wedding of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-8). Then those who have not prepared themselves and will not have had a personal relationship with God will remain on the earth during the 7 years of the tribulations. These tribulations will be great, for the Bride, which retrained the man of sin – the son of perdition –, will have been raptured (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8). At the seventh trumpet of God's judgement, Jesus Christ will return to earth with His Bride. The rest of the Church will then be taken off to be with Him, and the wicked will be removed from the earth to be cast into hell. He will rule over the earth by using His Word as a rod of iron (Isaiah 11:4 and Apocalypse 19:11-16) and will reign over the earth for a thousand years. |