13 All humans who don’t know God are empty-headed by nature. In spite of the good things that can be seen, they were somehow unable to know the one who truly is. Though they were fascinated by what he had made, they were unable to recognize the maker of everything. ² Instead, they thought that all these things—fire or wind or quickly moving air or a constellation of stars or rippling water or the sky’s bright lights that govern the world—were all gods.

³ They should have known that all these things—which they took to be gods and delighted in—were much less beautiful than the one who rules them all. The creator of beauty itself created them. ⁴ Those who fear the power and might of created things should know how much more powerful than these things is the one who fashioned them. ⁵ These people could have perceived something of the one who created all things as they thought about the power and beauty of the things that were created. ⁶ It is for this reason that they’re not without guilt.

Yet perhaps we shouldn’t blame them too much. They may have gone astray while they were looking for God, wanting to find him. ⁷ They spend a lot of time exploring his works. Something about their appearance leads them to wonder, for the things that they see are indeed wonderful. ⁸ Even so, these persons aren’t excused. ⁹ After all, if they were indeed able to know so much that they could speculate about space and time, how is it that they weren’t able to discover the ruler of space and time more quickly?

Psalm 19

For the music leader. A psalm of David.

²⁶ “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be during the days of the Human One.^{[a] 27} People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ Likewise in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰  That’s the way it will be on the day the Human One^[b] is revealed. ³¹ On that day, those on the roof, whose possessions are in the house, shouldn’t come down to grab them. Likewise, those in the field shouldn’t turn back. ³² Remember Lot’s wife! ³³ Whoever tries to preserve their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life will preserve it. ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two people will be in the same bed: one will be taken and the other left. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left.”^[c]

³⁷ The disciples asked, “Where, Lord?”

Jesus said, “The vultures gather wherever there’s a dead body.”