Friday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on November 17, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 24:36-42 (NKJV)
24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”
Devotion
Jesus warns that His Second Coming will be sudden and unexpected. He compares it to the days before the Flood. Yet it is not as though the Flood came as a complete surprise. Noah did not keep God’s plan a secret. St. Peter calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5). Noah had been publicly preaching Law and Gospel for centuries before the Flood. But the rest of mankind ignored his preaching and continued to sinfully indulge in earthly pleasures.
So it is today. Even though we do not know the specific hour, it is not as though Christ’s plan to return at the end of the world is a secret. It has always been part of the Church’s public creed: “From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” God has continued to send preachers of righteousness to warn people of the approaching Judgment. But most men are concerned only with earthly pleasure and mock the idea of Christ’s return. May God separate us from those mockers by giving us His Holy Spirit so that we receive the preaching of His Word in repentance and faith. Then we will be prepared for our deliverance from this world, just as Noah and his family were.
Collect: Almighty God, we beseech Thee, show Thy mercy unto Thy humble servants, that we who put no trust in our own merits may not be dealt with after the severity of Thy judgment, but according to Thy mercy; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
