“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.”
My Notes
What Does Luke 17:27 Mean?
Jesus describes the days before Noah's flood: eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage. Normal activities. Ordinary life. Nothing sinful in the list itself. They were doing what humans do — until the day Noah entered the ark. And the flood came. And destroyed them all.
The point isn't that eating and marrying are wrong. It's that ordinary life continued with zero awareness that judgment was imminent. The normalcy was the problem. Not because normalcy is bad, but because it bred obliviousness. They were so absorbed in the daily routine that they didn't notice what was coming.
"Until the day" — there was a specific day. A deadline. A cutoff point. Before that day, the door of the ark was open. After it closed, the flood came. The transition from normal to cataclysmic was one day. And they missed it because they were too busy eating.
Reflection Questions
- 1.How does the normalcy of the pre-flood activities (eating, drinking, marrying) challenge your own sense of 'everything is fine'?
- 2.What does it look like to live with awareness of Christ's return without becoming paranoid or detached from ordinary life?
- 3.Where is your daily routine making you deaf to something God is trying to show you?
- 4.How do you balance planning for the future (weddings, meals, normal life) with readiness for the 'day'?
Devotional
They ate. They drank. They married. They planned weddings. And then the flood came and destroyed them all.
Jesus isn't describing wicked behavior. He's describing normal behavior. That's what makes this so unsettling. The people who were destroyed by the flood weren't committing spectacular sins in that moment. They were eating dinner. Planning weddings. Living life.
The problem wasn't what they were doing. It was what they weren't noticing. The normalcy was so thick, so consuming, so all-encompassing that they couldn't see the water rising. Noah was building an ark. They were setting tables. Both happened in the same world, at the same time. One was paying attention. The others weren't.
Jesus uses this as a picture of His return: ordinary life, ordinary activities, and then — suddenly — everything changes. The Son of Man comes like the flood came: on a specific day, with a specific deadline, while most people are absorbed in the ordinary.
The danger isn't that your life is ordinary. It's that the ordinary makes you deaf to the extraordinary. The daily routine is so loud that the approaching footsteps are inaudible. The eating and drinking are so engaging that the ark goes unnoticed.
Are you living with awareness? Not paranoia — awareness. The kind that can eat dinner and plan a wedding while still watching the horizon. The kind that knows there's a day coming and lives in light of it.
They ate until the day. Don't let the eating make you forget the day.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot,.... When he lived in Sodom, and before, and at the time of the destruction…
They did eat, they drank, etc. - They spent their whole lives in reference to this world; and made no sort of provision…
We have here a discourse of Christ's concerning the kingdom of God, that is, the kingdom of the Messiah, which was now…
They did eat, they drank Rather, They were eating, they were drinking retaining the imperfects of the original.
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture