Eat, Drink, And Rise Up To Play?

"Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, 'Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'” Exodus 32:1 This is a passage that can speak of the Rapture in a sense. Moses had gone away, telling the people to wait for him until he comes back. In like manner, Jesus has gone up to heaven promising he will come back and telling us to wait for him. After awhile - the people started wondering where Moses was because he had been gone a long time. Finally, they decided he must not be coming back and they made a golden calf to worship and follow, and forgot about Moses, going on to "eat and drink ...and play." "Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Exodus 32:6 When Moses finally did come back he was enraged at what they had done. He was so angry that he made them grind the golden calf to powder, scattered it on the waters and made them drink it. When judgment fell later, thousands died. Today, many have forgotten about the promised coming of the Lord and they've just gone on "to eat and drink, and rise up to play." And because the Lord has not come after a long period of time many join the scoffers and forget about him saying, "yeah, right, we've heard that for years but he hasn't come. Let's just go our way, eat and drink and be merry" ...unaware that judgment is coming. "...scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'” 2 Peter 3:3-4 The Lord gave us signs to watch for that we might know that the prophesied last-days Tribulation is approaching, and by that we will know we're in the general time-frame of his coming because the Rapture precedes the Tribulation. Among those signs he told us that conditions in general will be like the conditions in the days of Noah, when the population of the entire earth was destroyed because of their great wickedness. "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 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, AND DID NOT KNOW UNTIL THE FLOOD CAME AND TOOK THEM ALL AWAY, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:37-39 Brothers and sisters, let us not think that the coming of the Lord just isn't going to happen because we've heard about it for a long time. Let us not be among the scoffers who get tired of hearing it and who just forget about it and focus their lives instead on "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage." Let us not stop watching for him, going about our daily lives as though he weren't coming back. Let our faith not go dull. For surely, SURELY, he WILL come, very suddenly, and only those who are ready will be taken by him. "Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." Matthew 24:40-42 If we continue to wait for him, watching, being ready, then that attitude will motivate us to stay pure and to live our lives accordingly. "And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure." 1 John 3:3