What was it like in the days of Noah? Before that question is answered, we must put it into context, and here is that setting – {{Matthew 24:37 “The coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah, 38 for as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away – so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”}}
The Lord’s Olivet Discourse is entirely set in the Tribulation and the Second Coming, and what happens immediately after. I have argued that frequently, and if people can’t see that, then I can’t help it. In verse 37, the coming is the Second Coming, not the Rapture, so what does that then tell us? The Lord makes the parallel, which is, His coming will be like the coming of the flood. Both are connected with judgment and a new order.
The flood was the greatest catastrophe to hit mankind since creation, and the Second Coming will be the greatest catastrophe to hit mankind since the flood. The two climaxes go hand in hand. The connection is so close, and the NASB uses “just like.” This is all about the wrath of God on sin, nothing whatever to do with the Rapture. With that established, what are the details we know about the days of Noah?
- From Matthew, they were eating and drinking and marrying, so what does that mean? Only one thing, they continued in life with no regard to the future, no heeding the warnings of God, and probably mocked Noah (the believer). In the Tribulation, they will persecute the preachers and blaspheme God’s servants.
- It says they did not understand until the tragedy overwhelmed them. The flood was the judgment, so after the Rapture, the Tribulation judgment will fall on the earth. In Noah’s time, they did not understand. Our world is so sinful, it too won’t understand when the Tribulation judgments arrive. What they will not really understand is that great climax coming, which is the Second Coming along with Armageddon, for every nation has its army and troops in Israel, summoned there by the three frog spirits in Revelation 16. That is when final destruction falls on the world.
- We have a verse from Genesis that tells of something so bad that we will never see the like of it again, not even in the Tribulation – {{Genesis 6:5 “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”}} Great wickedness on the earth, yes, we will have that in the Tribulation, and the makings of it are here now. However, the part, {{“every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,”}} I don’t think will ever happen again. It is hard to conceive of that, that the entire thought process of the human mind and nature was continually evil without exception. Not even one “good” thought.
- Consider these verses from {{Genesis 6:11 “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence, 12 and God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me for the earth is filled with violence because of them, and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.'”}}
I know others have written on the wickedness that is taking over the world, but consider how it was in Noah’s day. As I read those verses, the thought I get is that violence was just everywhere. It is as if the world was saturated in violence. Today we have the satanic Putin, Islamic violence frequently, and civil wars around parts of the world, but I do not think the world is overwhelmed by violence as it was in Noah’s time.
However, let us remember that the days of Noah apply to the Tribulation, not to our current world. Of course, we may see the beginnings of this like a lot of things, as if they have hatched and are starting to find legs. Once the Church is raptured and the Holy Spirit goes, then I expect there will be an onrush of violence as men and evil will be unrestrained, and then in the Tribulation, it will be like the days of Noah regarding violence.
There we have it, just a glimpse of what it was like in Noah’s day. The days of Noah ended in the flood judgment; the days of man’s wickedness will end in the Second Coming. The Lord Jesus used the words “the coming of the Son of Man” to equate with the Flood.
His 2nd Coming Armageddon judgment will break over this world like a flood. The gathering clouds (that must have happened at Noah’s time) to herald something ominous can be compared with the gathering clouds of the great destruction, such as this ominous example – {{Revelation 16:18 “and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.”}}
There is one verse I want to come back to, one I have spoken on before, but I feel it is not often understood. This is the verse – {{Matthew 24:39 “and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away – so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”}}
Who were taken away? Well, they were ALL taken away. Those who did not understand, because they were evil continually. They were taken away in judgment.
Now look at these two verses that follow straight on and look at how the verse begins – {{Matthew 24:40 “THEN there shall be two men in the field – one will be taken and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill – one will be taken, and one will be left.”}}
Verses 40 and 41 are tied into verse 39. Based on verse 39, that can mean ONLY that those who are taken away are taken away in judgment. They are the unrighteous ones. And who are left? Well, I will ask you a question, who were left alive in Noah’s time? It was the righteous ones, and they inherited the cleansed earth, the redeemed ones of the Lord.
So shall it be at the end of the Second Coming. The wicked are taken away, judged, and the righteous ones are left to inherit the cleansed earth under the reign of the King Messiah in the Millennial Kingdom. It is so simple that I wonder how people can’t see it. Second Coming, not Rapture.
PRECIOUS LESSONS FOR US
There is a great lesson in the ark for Christians. Enoch was taken up from the world before the judgment came (albeit some time before), but he walked with God and was removed. Some time afterward, the judgment came. Enoch is a type of the rapture.
Now a question – Did Noah go through the judgment? The answer is important. No, he did not go through the judgment. He was lifted up above it. He was secure, totally safe in the ark. Noah was raised from the earth, and the judgment raged below. It was the ark that separated Noah from judgment.
There is a great lesson for Christians. We will not be on earth when the judgment rages here. We will be lifted up above it, lifted up to Jesus in rapture, protected in the ark. Jesus is our Ark, the One who is our protection.
Think of the ark that sheltered Noah for a moment. It was the ark that was battered that went through the fiercest storm and did not fail and came out safely on the other side. Christ is the Ark who battled the storm of Calvary and was battered as the fierce judgment of sin raged against Him, as the wrath of God beat upon Him. But He never faltered and came out victoriously on the other side.
Christ is our Ark, our shelter from the storm. He is our Protector and our Saviour who went through the wrath of judgment for us but who holds us secure in Him. What a beautiful application and type that ark of Noah was.
THE PITCH INSIDE AND OUTSIDE
{{Genesis 6:14 “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood. You shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.”}}
The Hebrew word for “pitch” in the book of Genesis is the same as the word for atonement. Here is Strong’s reference to that – Strong’s Hebrew 3722: וְכָֽפַרְתָּ֥ (wə·ḵā·par·tā) to cover, purge, make an atonement, make reconciliation, cover over with pitch, to coat or cover with pitch, to cover over, pacify, propitiate, to cover over, atone for sin, make atonement, to cover over, atone for sin and persons by legal rites, to make atonement for, to be covered.
It is amazing that God introduces so early in the piece the truth of atonement. It is a covering, and in our case, a covering for sin. Here we have atonement in the face of judgment. What more could we ask for? That is so beautiful.
You will see as well that God required the ark to be pitched inside and outside. That is a double pitching, but it had such a deep meaning, for it was atonement inside and out. God looked at the ark (as if on the outside), and in the judgment, he saw atonement that preserved those inside. Noah looked at the inside, and he saw atonement. He knew judgment was not for him. It satisfied both God and man. The atonement through the precious blood of Christ has satisfied both God and man. God sees the atoning sacrifice of Christ that has covered our sins, and man sees the atonement Christ made and knows he is secure.
THE WINDOW IN THE ARK
{{Genesis 6:16 “You shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top and set the door of the ark in the side of it. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.”}}
Have you ever thought about the window in the ark that Noah was in? Well, God placed it so high up, not low. It was high up because while the storm raged on, Noah could only look up to see from where the storm came (to heaven as it were) and to know there was no storm for him. He was not permitted to look on the earth at the destruction and mayhem.
In the Tribulation, we are all sheltered in the Lord, our Ark, removed from the earth. We won’t look down at a sinful earth destroying itself. We will only look up to our Lord. In heaven, the whole focus is on the Lamb of God.
For many decades I have loved the writings of C H Macintosh, and I want to quote him on the matter of the window and the door:
We read in Genesis 7:1, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark”; and when he had taken his place there, we read, {{“the Lord shut him in.”}} Here, assuredly, was full and perfect security for all within. Jehovah kept the door, and no one could go in or out without him. There was both a window and a door to the ark. The Lord secured, with His own omnipotent hand, the door, and left Noah the window from which he might look upward to the place from whence all the judgment had emanated, and see that no judgment remained for him.
The saved family could only look upward, because the window was “above” (Genesis 6:16). They could not see the waters of judgment, nor the death and desolation which those waters had caused. God’s salvation – the “gopher wood,” stood between them and all these things. They had only to gaze upward into a cloudless heaven, the eternal dwelling-place of the One who had condemned the world, and saved them.
Nothing can more fully express the believer’s perfect security in Christ than those words, {{“the Lord shut him in.”}} Who could open what God had shut? None. The family of Noah was as safe as God could make them. There was no power, angelic, human, or diabolical, which could possibly burst open the door of the ark and let the waters in. That door was shut by the self-same hand that had opened the windows of heaven and broken up the fountains of the great deep.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for battling the storm of wrath for sin, and doing it for me. You are my precious ARK.
ONE FINAL POINT
I said that Noah and his family were left to inherit a cleansed earth. That was true, but the heart of man is always bent to wickedness. That will never change until Satan is cast into the lake of fire with his demonic hordes and there is a new heaven and earth where righteousness will dwell.
It was but a short time until sin appeared in Noah’s family, awful sin. And it has continued right down to our time, and it will, beyond our time. When Christ sets up His Millennial Kingdom in a cleansed earth, the “saved” of the tribulation will enter – those who are “the left” from Matthew 24:40-41. However, sin is still present in the old natures, and during the Millennium, some/many people will be of a rebellious spirit. At the end of the Millennium, Satan rounds up the malcontents, and they are destroyed as the Gog of Revelation 20.
There are such wonderful parallels from Noah, his time, his ark, and the actions.