The Very Day
I was driving past some new house construction the other day and I had the thought, If I knew that the Lord were coming today or this month I wouldn't waste my time on building something temporal like this. It's going to burn. Even metal and stone are going to burn someday (2 Pet 3:10,12). I wouldn't be involved in road construction or planting a crop for the fall. Yet Jesus said this is exactly what happened in the days of Noah and the days of Lot, ordinary life events going on right up to the very day of judgment. He also said it would be just like that in the day that He comes for His people.
26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17)
That day will be time of mundane, even boring, routine for many. It will be a day of relative normal for many. Houses will be built. Roads will be resurfaced. Fields of corn and soybeans will be planted, like always, looking forward to the fall harvest. Ordinary life will be seen in many places. (Things may not be so ordinary for Christians and Jews.) Obviously, some will see war and famine and such things, like always, but many will see the daily and annual routine carry on as it has the past many years.
There will not be a “decompression” season, before Jesus comes, to any great degree. (If we are obeying the Lord's command to watch, that day might be somewhat startling but not shocking.) There will not be any 2 minute warning. God will not say, Alright, this time I really mean it. Things will continue in a relatively normal manner until that very day. I mean, literally the very day (Luke 17:30).
There is something else that will be in operation on that very day. I mean, literally on that very day. While that very day contains a relatively routine day for many (non-believers), that same literal day will also include something else.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matt 24)
War in heaven accompanies the beginning of the Day of the Lord (Matt 24:29, Rev 6:13, 12:7-9).
Wait! I thought Jesus said that things will be normal up to the day of His return.
These days, the days of Noah and specifically of Lot, are the template for the day that Jesus returns for His people. The same day, the very day has routine and something as dramatic as “fire and brimstone”.
Things are not routine for anyone immediately before the Lord's Second Coming to the earth. At that event the entire planet is in ruins. Ordinary would not describe the global scene before the coming of Jesus on a white horse (Rev 19:11) but it is promised by Jesus up to just a few hours before His coming for His people. Peter promises ordinary before His first coming (2 Pet 3:3,4). Obviously, he is not talking about a cataclysmic scene which would take place before His subsequent coming.
Note: There may be several “Comings” of the Lord, His birth, a certain class of raptures or resurrections, the gathering of the Believers, getting covered in blood at a battle with Edom, and then fighting a last battle. This latter coming is commonly known as The Second Coming.
Note: When I say “relatively” ordinary I am speaking comparatively. Before the Lord's coming there will be troubles. The six seals set things up for what must come at the end of all things. There will be talk of wars in many places and increased persecution. But all this is compared to Satan and his messengers being shaken out of the heavens and the abyss being opened up on earth. Therefore, I used the word “relatively” ordinary days.
We can expect to see something on the very day that the Lord comes for His people. Relative normal days for many up til noon (or whatever moment it may be at any particular point on the planet) and then an afternoon of fear, panic, running, screaming, and hiding on the very same day.
How can I escape the insanity of that day? Take what Jesus said seriously.
Oct. 3, 2025