People Feasting Before Noah's Closed ArkBible World
17:26Luke 17:26
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
As it was in the days of Noah so it will be in the days of the Son of man, and that likeness is the picture of the last days before he is revealed at his second coming in power and great glory. In Noah's time people went on with ordinary eating and drinking and marrying until he entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all, and so ordinary life with buying and selling and planting and building will go on until the Son of man comes, even as it was when Lot went out of Sodom and fire destroyed all left behind. That time is marked by great wickedness and intense worldliness, where lawful things become sin when made supreme and carried to excess until appetite governs conscience, marriage becomes a snare of lust and unholy union, selfish gain robs the poor, and God and his law are disregarded amid increasing deception. Judgment then comes suddenly and unexpectedly upon the absorbed and unprepared, as the flood came at God's appointed time, so probation steals to its close while life seems unchanged until every case is eternally decided and the wicked are destroyed not by water but by fire. It is therefore a solemn warning that the end is near, calling all to watch and pray and prepare to meet the coming King, to be temperate and distinct from the world, and to make known the last message of mercy while thousands still perish unwarned.
Direct Comparison Stated
The days of the Son of man will be just as it was in the days of Noah, and that likeness is the picture of the last days. The comparison warns that the closing scenes of earth's history will resemble Noah's time. Conditions at the coming of the Son of man will resemble the days of Noah in that people will carry on ordinary activities while remaining impenitent and unbelieving, and the great majority will be unprepared for Christ's second advent as the people of the old world were before the flood. The people of the world today stand before God exactly as the inhabitants of Noah's world did, in spite of all that has been done for them. The cities and villages of today are leavened with the same principles that prevailed in the time of Christ.
In Noah's time people carried on ordinary eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage until Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all, and so ordinary life will continue until the Son of man comes. Life before the Son of man is revealed will resemble life in Noah's days in that people will go on with ordinary activities until judgment comes suddenly and destroys the unprepared. Ordinary life continued in Noah's time until Noah entered the ark and the flood destroyed the people, and Christ's revelation at his second coming will likewise bring destruction upon those who are unprepared. People will go on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until sudden destruction comes, as they did until Noah entered the ark. Ordinary worldly activities and pleasures can continue until the Son of man comes, as they did before the flood, and worldly festivities including dancing fulfill a sign of that time and can display allegiance to Satan rather than service to God. Conditions before the flood are a sign of the end, with people continuing ordinary activities such as eating, drinking, planting, building, and marrying until the Son of man comes amid ordinary life, and the world becoming like it was in Noah's days.
Beside Noah, the days of Lot are set alongside the days of the Son of man. In the days of Lot people ate, drank, bought, sold, planted and built until Lot went out of Sodom and fire and brimstone from heaven rained down and destroyed them all, and even thus it will be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. As in the days of Noah and Lot, people may carry on ordinary life while sin and corruption prevail, unaware of the coming judgment, and when the Son of man is revealed destruction will come suddenly, leaving those who traded spiritual inheritance for sinful pleasure to realize too late what they have lost. A world absorbed in ordinary life will face sudden destruction when it soon meets God over his broken law. God gave Noah a warning message that the earth was to be destroyed by a flood and gave him directions to prepare an ark into which all who desired to be saved might enter, and the immense boat standing on dry ground was evidence of Noah's faith.
For one hundred and twenty years Noah warned the people of the coming flood, but they laughed him to scorn and went on eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage until Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. God had warned the inhabitants of the old world that he purposed to cleanse the earth of its impurity, but they laughed that warning to scorn as a superstitious prediction and mocked Noah's warning of a coming flood. The days of the Son of man mean the time when he is revealed at his second coming, and his revelation will bring destruction upon the unprepared. That coming will be in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, after warning as God warned the antediluvian world through Noah the preacher of righteousness that he would cleanse the earth of moral impurity by a flood, and as Lot warned his family of the destruction of Sodom, and as he now sends messages declaring the end of all things is at hand.
The coming day of the Lord will arrive unexpectedly like a thief in the night to those not watching, praying and working. Those who have the light must follow Jesus and work out their salvation with fear and trembling. As in Noah's days, people will continue ordinary routines and pursue pleasure and worldly aims while Christ's coming and the closing of probation draw near, with the crisis coming gradually and unexpectedly like a thief while probation is closing and each person's case will soon be decided forever. People will live in God's house on his provision yet be unthankful and unmindful of his goodness, working in opposition to their Creator, eating, drinking, marrying, buying and selling, wholly engrossed in business and amusement, farmers, merchants, lawyers and tradesmen at ease and indifferent, most not heeding but laughing to scorn, mocking, and counting the warning superstition and enthusiasm, then destruction falling suddenly on the unprepared as the flood came when Noah entered the ark and as destruction came on Sodom, the day of the Lord coming upon them as a snare, as a prowling thief comes with stealthy tread when men are absorbed.
The days of Noah prefigure the age before the Son of man appears in the clouds of heaven, for human nature without the influence of God's Spirit is the same in both times. Noah is treated as a real person, the flood as a historical fact, and the character of Noah's generation as a description of the future age. That reference affirms Genesis and the Old Testament as inspired Scripture, inseparable from the New Testament.
Noah's Warning History
God gave Noah a warning message that the earth would be destroyed by a flood, gave him directions to prepare an ark into which all who desired to be saved might enter, and provided a way of escape through repentance and reform. That probation lasted one hundred and twenty years, during which the ark stood as a public warning amid prevailing wickedness while the invitation to repent, turn from sin, overcome bad habits, form righteous character, and find refuge continued. The immense boat standing on dry land was evidence of Noah's faith, and as preacher of righteousness he preached more earnestly as scorn increased. The people laughed him to scorn as a crazy fanatic, mocked the warning as superstition and enthusiasm, and went on in disobedience and decided opposition to God's will though they had a plain thus saith the Lord to guide them.
Their unbelief and ridicule did not prevent the foretold event or their ruin. In the same way dismissing the warning of Christ's coming because false teachers set failed dates and discredit the true warning will not prevent its fulfillment. God's Spirit strove to lead that generation to faith and obedience, but their wicked hearts rejected counsel and resisted love. By step-by-step resistance spiritual blindness took the place of light, until evidence became questioning and doubt, every appeal became meaningless, every word was misconstrued, the most solemn warnings were laughed at, the entreaties of the Spirit were despised, and truth was no more truth to them as they followed step by step in the footsteps of Satan.
Only Noah and his family, eight people, were saved, showing the saved will be few. God distinguished the obedient from the disobedient by the standard of His law. When the ark was finished and the animals were housed two and two, He shut believers in by an invisible hand, then gave one week with no rain as a final test that fully revealed unbelief in mockery. Then steady rain fell in torrents until every living being outside the ark perished in sin and reaped the fruit of disobedience. As people ignored warnings before the flood and did not turn to the Lord, with the ark standing as a public warning amid wickedness, so persistent resistance to God's warnings leaves people unprepared when judgment comes suddenly.
Last Days Moral State
The last days repeat the condition of Noah, when wickedness was great and every thought continually evil, marked by rebellion, violence, bloodshed, crime, cruelty, sexual corruption, spiritual decline, unbelief and pollution, and that likeness is the picture of the time of the Son of man. War, bloodshed and wicked deeds fill the world as they did then, with violence and corruption of soul and body, godlessness, opposition to God and following of evil desires, rushing toward retribution. The world before the first appearing also serves as a picture of the world before the return.
Intense worldliness marks that time, when people are absorbed in eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, busy with ordinary business and pleasure while forgetting God, heaven and the future life, blind to the signs and unready for the appearing. They make these pursuits the supreme objects of life, go on with self-indulgent routines, neglect serious matters, fail to recognize the nearness of the end, and continue until probation ends, with iniquity abounding, love growing cold, and only a few living as children of the day. The crisis and close of probation steal gradually upon them while outward life goes on as usual, the sun shining and the heavens declaring glory, yet every case nearing eternal decision.
Eating, drinking, marrying, trading, planting, building, buying and selling are not sinful in themselves, and marriage was instituted by God in giving Eve to Adam, with all His laws marvelously adapted to human nature, so proper business and fulfillment of duty are lawful when not carried to excess. They become sin when made supreme, pursued to excess, filling the mind, displacing love for God, crowding out eternity and concern for eternal life, leaving people unready in an hour they think not, with heaven and God put out of mind and without repentance. The sin was in perverting what was lawful and corrupting gifts to minister to selfish desires, with indulgence making imaginations altogether corrupt, enslaved and led by Satan, worshipping selfish indulgence in eating, drinking and merry-making, and resorting to violence and crime if desires were crossed.
Appetite governs mind and conscience through overindulgence in eating and drinking, gluttony, intoxicating drink, liquor, tobacco and drugs, feasting and merriment alongside want, until reason and moral judgment are overpowered and sin is not recognized. Such indulgence dulls spiritual life, corrupts the whole person, brings bondage to harmful habits and worldly customs, displaces reason and moral considerations by blind passion, and leads to base passion, violence and blasphemy. Followers are therefore to be temperate, practice self-control, and not sacrifice health or spiritual growth to appetite.
Marriage becomes a sign and snare through intense infatuation where courtship and marriage are the all-absorbing theme, with lightness and frivolity degenerating into debasing sins where inclination and passion bear sway over reason, self becomes God, and selfish indulgence nearly obliterates knowledge of God. Youth and even older persons act as if bewitched and possessed by satanic power, forming most indiscreet marriages without consulting God, without prayer or true love, driven by lust and passion bearing down everything until the die is cast in untold misery, dishonoring God and leaving the marriage bed unsanctified and unholy. The record of unholy marriages and divorces, marrying without regard for God's requirements such as believers joining with the corrupt and unbelievers, and treating marriage as display amid uncertainty and danger, repeats the pre-Flood absorption and warns to seek the Lord while He may be found.
Selfishness prevails in accumulation and retention of power, with men of the world buying up wheat and goods to force the needy to buy at whatever prices they desire, money-hoarders becoming Satan's co-partners in robbing the poor, while the poorer classes feel it keenly, become exasperated, and stubborn resistance, violence, wickedness and cruelty of man over fellow man follow. Building great edifices and palaces with entrusted means instead of honoring God repeats that conduct, with men accountable as stewards of earth's fruitfulness, the heavens and reason, against God's design that brotherhood be considered and entrusted capital be traded to turn men from sin to righteousness. All classes are wholly engrossed in business, amusement, vanity and pleasure-seeking, farmers, merchants, lawyers and tradesmen at ease and indifferent, merchants still buying and selling, publications issuing, men jostling for highest place, pleasure-lovers crowding theaters, horse races and gambling hells with highest excitement, without gratitude or concern for the needy.
People disregard God and His law, including the Sabbath blessed and made holy at creation and the marriage institution, live unthankful on His provision yet work against their Creator, put heaven out of mind and will not repent. Having step by step resisted the Spirit until spiritual blindness takes the place of light, they refuse last calls to repent, despise entreaties, laugh at solemn warnings, misconstrue every word, follow Satan step by step until truth is no more truth to them and Christ is rejected, insulting the Spirit against conscience and choosing the wrong side until palsied in will. They follow human theories and inventions, while Satanic delusions, errors, heresies and deceptions increase, Satan close beside to misapply and pervert the word, seeking to deceive transgressors of the law and, if possible, the very elect, even appearing himself.
That depraved condition exists now and is fulfilled in present troubles, with the Spirit withdrawing and judgments beginning, including sickness, disasters at sea and land, destruction by fire and floods, earthquakes in various places, troublous times, intense conflict, strikes, thefts, bold robberies, murders and daily taking of human life, men possessed by demons killing men, women and little children, pride, selfishness, covetousness, and calamities from wrong eating and drinking. These common occurrences mark that threatened judgments are permitted to do their work and plagues already beginning, showing wickedness nearing its limit, lawlessness and corruption as signs that revelation is near and the day of the Lord soon to come. Coming calamities serve as warnings to prepare, yet even expositors do not take in the situation.
Even in that degenerate, polluted age full of temptation reaching the senses to corrupt the mind, God will have a people zealous of good works who stand firm amid pollution, proof against every temptation by holding fast to divine strength. So united to God and angels that corrupting influences cannot move them, as if they do not see or hear, they fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life, not in self-confidence but by joining weakness and ignorance to Christ's strength and wisdom. Even youth can have principles so firm that Satan's strongest temptations cannot draw them from allegiance, as Samuel remained untainted and spotless in close connection with Heaven while surrounded by Eli's sons and a sin-fascinated Israel.
Sudden Certain Judgment
Judgment will fall suddenly and unexpectedly upon those absorbed in ordinary life and unprepared, coming like a snare and like a prowling thief while claims of peace and safety lull them into security, so that they know not until destruction overtakes them. As in Noah’s time ordinary eating, drinking, marrying and daily business continued until Noah entered the ark and the flood suddenly destroyed them, so carelessness and indifference in the days of the Son of man will leave people heedless of warning until judgment comes. Widespread wickedness and worldly pleasure will continue without preparation for the appearing, the warning will be met with disbelief and ridicule, yet that unbelief will not prevent its fulfillment.
As the flood came at God’s appointed time when Noah entered the ark and destroyed the unrepentant who dismissed warning and trusted that judgment was impossible, so the revelation of the Son of man brings inescapable judgment that destroys the wicked who remain unmindful of God and work against their Creator. That coming destruction will not be by water but by fire, as Sodom was overthrown by fire from heaven, and as God swept away all living except those sheltered in the ark so sentence will come upon a world that disregards His law and exalts human theories. Before that coming God sends warning of coming judgment, while Satan seeks to deceive, especially by leading transgressors of the law.
The crisis and close of probation steal gradually upon the world while outward life goes on as usual, the sun still shining in its course and the heavens still declaring glory, with men still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, merchants still buying and selling, publications still issuing, men jostling for the highest place, and pleasure-lovers still crowding theaters, horse-races and gambling-hells in highest excitement. At that very time probation’s hour is fast closing and every case is about to be eternally decided, until the day of probation shall be ended and the door of mercy be forever shut. People are choosing sides while absorbed in pleasure and daily business rather than ready for the appearing, and the pattern includes a prior period of warning before probation closes as in the one hundred and twenty years before the flood when only eight were saved.
The day and hour are unknown, yet severe judgments come place after place before His return, the final decision is near, and people are choosing sides even while many close eyes and ears because they do not want to know. Abundant opportunity is given to know the coming is near, but those who spend life in self-gratification instead of sacrifice will not know because they refuse to see and hear. That refusal will not delay the warned judgment, which comes suddenly from place to place.
God bore long in mercy with a probation of one hundred and twenty years, Noah preaching more earnestly as scorn increased, distinguishing the obedient from the disobedient by the standard of His law, shutting believers in by an invisible hand, giving one rainless week as a final test that revealed unbelief in mockery, then sending steady rain until every living being outside perished. So in the last days, when men exceed the limits of grace and become indifferent to the law, God interferes in wrath to vindicate the honor of His law, repress unrighteousness, limit human life, and prevent transgressors from spoiling one another by continual disobedience and defiance, while He saves the obedient. As wickedness led to destruction by the flood, the final destruction of those who reject grace will be a just act of mercy toward the universe.
Those who have traded spiritual inheritance for sinful pleasure and used present time for self-gratification will realize too late what they have lost when the Son of man is revealed and destruction comes suddenly amid prevailing sin and corruption. Their plea that they did not know the coming was near will not be accepted, because they closed eyes that they might not see and stopped ears that they might not hear, and came up to judgment unprepared. Feasting and merriment will continue alongside sorrow and want until the end comes, and then the wicked will reap what they have sown, even corruption.
Call to Watchful Readiness
The likeness to Noah's day is a solemn warning that the end is near and calls for preparation for the coming of the Son of man, for ordinary life will go on unready until judgment comes suddenly. That coming day of the Lord will arrive unexpectedly like a thief in the night to all who are not watching and praying and working, so those who have the light must follow Jesus and work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. The warning must not be dismissed as remote or treated as an idle tale, but calls each person to examine present condition, obtain fitness for salvation, and be ready for a place in the kingdom of glory. God sees the heart's surrender, gives power to overcome, and knows each person's sincerity, working through preaching to impress hearts and placing helpful opportunities in the way when needed.
Christ's followers are to be temperate and practice self-control in eating and drinking rather than sacrifice health and spiritual growth to appetite. Before the Flood appetite and passion overpowered reason and conscience, with indulgence including gluttony and intoxicating drink dulling spiritual life, and that condition will recur in the days of the Son of man while spiritual interests are neglected. Excessive eating and drinking is itself a sign of the last days, and in this age likened to Noah's time temperance in all things is necessary, a lesson parents are to teach themselves and their children in preparing for heaven.
God's people must be distinct from the world and separate more and more from its worldliness and pride, coming out and touching not the unclean that they may be received. They are not to expend entrusted means as the old world did, nor persist in doing what should not be done until destruction comes, but to obey God's requirements including the holy seventh-day Sabbath, live differently from a self-gratifying earthly-minded generation, and purify the soul by living according to truth despite great light and advantage. In a degenerate polluted age full of temptation to the senses, God will have a people zealous of good works who stand firm by divine strength so united to God and angels that corrupting influences cannot move them, as youth with firm principle can remain untainted like Samuel amid Eli's sons. For the last days bring the same incurable verdict as the flood and Sodom, with people insulting the Spirit against conscience, freely choosing the wrong side and becoming spiritually palsied in will because they will not submit.
This time of moral danger like Noah and Sodom requires greater refinement in thought, relationships, words and conduct. The likeness marks great danger for youth and for men and women newly adult and mature, calling for barriers of reserve between men and women and elevated delicacy in words and deportment, especially in physicians whose coarseness or careful speech is read by every patient in actions and conversation. Those who have received grace and truth must make it known as living epistles, for as Noah gave a warning message before the Flood that was disbelieved while people ate and drank and planted and built and married until taken away, so it will be when the Son of man is revealed. The last message of mercy to a fallen world must now be proclaimed, since troublous times are fulfilled in conflict, strikes, thefts, murders, demonic violence, pride, selfishness, covetousness and calamities, judgments are being permitted and plagues beginning, yet even expositors do not take in the situation, thousands perish unwarned, and many workers with power from on high are needed for house-to-house opening of the Scriptures with sanitariums as lights in darkness.
Fathers and mothers must awake to responsibility, prepare themselves and children for heaven, teach temperance, and work to bring all to Jesus while feeling the peril of the last days. Infatuation for pleasure opens the door to Satan's temptations with great temptations through associations especially to youth, so there is necessity of withdrawing from the city and giving youth physical and mental culture, lest parents by their own course encourage rebellion in children. Society before the flood used God's gifts and strength for selfish ends, unlawful appetite, pride, sinful pleasure, violence, and disregard for God and law, marriage and property rights, becoming corrupted by beholding evil until the flood ended wickedness, and the same principles prevail now especially in large cities surrounding young people. Increasing violence and ruin threaten cities such as Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Oakland, courtship and marriage fixation with sentimentalism share in the corrupt influence, and parents may fail to see what children secretly do.
Believers must show faith in life, turning from sin and living out profession, for judgment will ask not what profession was made but what was done for Christ and what fruit was borne to His glory. Mockery and dismissal of warning because false teachers set failed dates will not prevent fulfillment, as ridicule did not prevent the flood or ruin despite 120 years of opportunity to repent through changed life, and widespread unbelief will likewise meet Christ's coming. Those who believe and obey can find pardon and shelter, but persistent refusal closes eyes and stops ears from wanting to know though abundant opportunity is given, the plea of ignorance will not be accepted, and at last the Spirit's impressions will no longer move the heart. People must guard against being consumed by appetite, cares, feasting, pleasure and conformity to the world, lest crowded hearts keep out the last-days warning and the day overtake them unprepared as those who knew not until swept away. As in Noah's time many will pursue ordinary activities until probation ends, with selfishness shaping even professed followers, iniquity abounding and love growing cold, while only a few live as children of the day, and ordinary eating without gratitude or concern for the poor and needy warns to use time preparing for heaven and learning to praise God.
As it was in the days of Noah so it will be in the days of the Son of man, and that likeness is the picture of the last days before he is revealed at his second coming in power and great glory. In Noah's time people went on with ordinary eating and drinking and marrying until he entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all, and so ordinary life with buying and selling and planting and building will go on until the Son of man comes, even as it was when Lot went out of Sodom and fire destroyed all left behind. That time is marked by great wickedness and intense worldliness, where lawful things become sin when made supreme and carried to excess until appetite governs conscience, marriage becomes a snare of lust and unholy union, selfish gain robs the poor, and God and his law are disregarded amid increasing deception. Judgment then comes suddenly and unexpectedly upon the absorbed and unprepared, as the flood came at God's appointed time, so probation steals to its close while life seems unchanged until every case is eternally decided and the wicked are destroyed not by water but by fire. It is therefore a solemn warning that the end is near, calling all to watch and pray and prepare to meet the coming King, to be temperate and distinct from the world, and to make known the last message of mercy while thousands still perish unwarned.
Direct Comparison Stated
The days of the Son of man will be just as it was in the days of Noah, and that likeness is the picture of the last days. The comparison warns that the closing scenes of earth's history will resemble Noah's time. Conditions at the coming of the Son of man will resemble the days of Noah in that people will carry on ordinary activities while remaining impenitent and unbelieving, and the great majority will be unprepared for Christ's second advent as the people of the old world were before the flood. The people of the world today stand before God exactly as the inhabitants of Noah's world did, in spite of all that has been done for them. The cities and villages of today are leavened with the same principles that prevailed in the time of Christ.
In Noah's time people carried on ordinary eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage until Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all, and so ordinary life will continue until the Son of man comes. Life before the Son of man is revealed will resemble life in Noah's days in that people will go on with ordinary activities until judgment comes suddenly and destroys the unprepared. Ordinary life continued in Noah's time until Noah entered the ark and the flood destroyed the people, and Christ's revelation at his second coming will likewise bring destruction upon those who are unprepared. People will go on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until sudden destruction comes, as they did until Noah entered the ark. Ordinary worldly activities and pleasures can continue until the Son of man comes, as they did before the flood, and worldly festivities including dancing fulfill a sign of that time and can display allegiance to Satan rather than service to God. Conditions before the flood are a sign of the end, with people continuing ordinary activities such as eating, drinking, planting, building, and marrying until the Son of man comes amid ordinary life, and the world becoming like it was in Noah's days.
Beside Noah, the days of Lot are set alongside the days of the Son of man. In the days of Lot people ate, drank, bought, sold, planted and built until Lot went out of Sodom and fire and brimstone from heaven rained down and destroyed them all, and even thus it will be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. As in the days of Noah and Lot, people may carry on ordinary life while sin and corruption prevail, unaware of the coming judgment, and when the Son of man is revealed destruction will come suddenly, leaving those who traded spiritual inheritance for sinful pleasure to realize too late what they have lost. A world absorbed in ordinary life will face sudden destruction when it soon meets God over his broken law. God gave Noah a warning message that the earth was to be destroyed by a flood and gave him directions to prepare an ark into which all who desired to be saved might enter, and the immense boat standing on dry ground was evidence of Noah's faith.
For one hundred and twenty years Noah warned the people of the coming flood, but they laughed him to scorn and went on eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage until Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. God had warned the inhabitants of the old world that he purposed to cleanse the earth of its impurity, but they laughed that warning to scorn as a superstitious prediction and mocked Noah's warning of a coming flood. The days of the Son of man mean the time when he is revealed at his second coming, and his revelation will bring destruction upon the unprepared. That coming will be in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, after warning as God warned the antediluvian world through Noah the preacher of righteousness that he would cleanse the earth of moral impurity by a flood, and as Lot warned his family of the destruction of Sodom, and as he now sends messages declaring the end of all things is at hand.
The coming day of the Lord will arrive unexpectedly like a thief in the night to those not watching, praying and working. Those who have the light must follow Jesus and work out their salvation with fear and trembling. As in Noah's days, people will continue ordinary routines and pursue pleasure and worldly aims while Christ's coming and the closing of probation draw near, with the crisis coming gradually and unexpectedly like a thief while probation is closing and each person's case will soon be decided forever. People will live in God's house on his provision yet be unthankful and unmindful of his goodness, working in opposition to their Creator, eating, drinking, marrying, buying and selling, wholly engrossed in business and amusement, farmers, merchants, lawyers and tradesmen at ease and indifferent, most not heeding but laughing to scorn, mocking, and counting the warning superstition and enthusiasm, then destruction falling suddenly on the unprepared as the flood came when Noah entered the ark and as destruction came on Sodom, the day of the Lord coming upon them as a snare, as a prowling thief comes with stealthy tread when men are absorbed.
The days of Noah prefigure the age before the Son of man appears in the clouds of heaven, for human nature without the influence of God's Spirit is the same in both times. Noah is treated as a real person, the flood as a historical fact, and the character of Noah's generation as a description of the future age. That reference affirms Genesis and the Old Testament as inspired Scripture, inseparable from the New Testament.
Noah's Warning History
God gave Noah a warning message that the earth would be destroyed by a flood, gave him directions to prepare an ark into which all who desired to be saved might enter, and provided a way of escape through repentance and reform. That probation lasted one hundred and twenty years, during which the ark stood as a public warning amid prevailing wickedness while the invitation to repent, turn from sin, overcome bad habits, form righteous character, and find refuge continued. The immense boat standing on dry land was evidence of Noah's faith, and as preacher of righteousness he preached more earnestly as scorn increased. The people laughed him to scorn as a crazy fanatic, mocked the warning as superstition and enthusiasm, and went on in disobedience and decided opposition to God's will though they had a plain thus saith the Lord to guide them.
Their unbelief and ridicule did not prevent the foretold event or their ruin. In the same way dismissing the warning of Christ's coming because false teachers set failed dates and discredit the true warning will not prevent its fulfillment. God's Spirit strove to lead that generation to faith and obedience, but their wicked hearts rejected counsel and resisted love. By step-by-step resistance spiritual blindness took the place of light, until evidence became questioning and doubt, every appeal became meaningless, every word was misconstrued, the most solemn warnings were laughed at, the entreaties of the Spirit were despised, and truth was no more truth to them as they followed step by step in the footsteps of Satan.
Only Noah and his family, eight people, were saved, showing the saved will be few. God distinguished the obedient from the disobedient by the standard of His law. When the ark was finished and the animals were housed two and two, He shut believers in by an invisible hand, then gave one week with no rain as a final test that fully revealed unbelief in mockery. Then steady rain fell in torrents until every living being outside the ark perished in sin and reaped the fruit of disobedience. As people ignored warnings before the flood and did not turn to the Lord, with the ark standing as a public warning amid wickedness, so persistent resistance to God's warnings leaves people unprepared when judgment comes suddenly.
Last Days Moral State
The last days repeat the condition of Noah, when wickedness was great and every thought continually evil, marked by rebellion, violence, bloodshed, crime, cruelty, sexual corruption, spiritual decline, unbelief and pollution, and that likeness is the picture of the time of the Son of man. War, bloodshed and wicked deeds fill the world as they did then, with violence and corruption of soul and body, godlessness, opposition to God and following of evil desires, rushing toward retribution. The world before the first appearing also serves as a picture of the world before the return.
Intense worldliness marks that time, when people are absorbed in eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, busy with ordinary business and pleasure while forgetting God, heaven and the future life, blind to the signs and unready for the appearing. They make these pursuits the supreme objects of life, go on with self-indulgent routines, neglect serious matters, fail to recognize the nearness of the end, and continue until probation ends, with iniquity abounding, love growing cold, and only a few living as children of the day. The crisis and close of probation steal gradually upon them while outward life goes on as usual, the sun shining and the heavens declaring glory, yet every case nearing eternal decision.
Eating, drinking, marrying, trading, planting, building, buying and selling are not sinful in themselves, and marriage was instituted by God in giving Eve to Adam, with all His laws marvelously adapted to human nature, so proper business and fulfillment of duty are lawful when not carried to excess. They become sin when made supreme, pursued to excess, filling the mind, displacing love for God, crowding out eternity and concern for eternal life, leaving people unready in an hour they think not, with heaven and God put out of mind and without repentance. The sin was in perverting what was lawful and corrupting gifts to minister to selfish desires, with indulgence making imaginations altogether corrupt, enslaved and led by Satan, worshipping selfish indulgence in eating, drinking and merry-making, and resorting to violence and crime if desires were crossed.
Appetite governs mind and conscience through overindulgence in eating and drinking, gluttony, intoxicating drink, liquor, tobacco and drugs, feasting and merriment alongside want, until reason and moral judgment are overpowered and sin is not recognized. Such indulgence dulls spiritual life, corrupts the whole person, brings bondage to harmful habits and worldly customs, displaces reason and moral considerations by blind passion, and leads to base passion, violence and blasphemy. Followers are therefore to be temperate, practice self-control, and not sacrifice health or spiritual growth to appetite.
Marriage becomes a sign and snare through intense infatuation where courtship and marriage are the all-absorbing theme, with lightness and frivolity degenerating into debasing sins where inclination and passion bear sway over reason, self becomes God, and selfish indulgence nearly obliterates knowledge of God. Youth and even older persons act as if bewitched and possessed by satanic power, forming most indiscreet marriages without consulting God, without prayer or true love, driven by lust and passion bearing down everything until the die is cast in untold misery, dishonoring God and leaving the marriage bed unsanctified and unholy. The record of unholy marriages and divorces, marrying without regard for God's requirements such as believers joining with the corrupt and unbelievers, and treating marriage as display amid uncertainty and danger, repeats the pre-Flood absorption and warns to seek the Lord while He may be found.
Selfishness prevails in accumulation and retention of power, with men of the world buying up wheat and goods to force the needy to buy at whatever prices they desire, money-hoarders becoming Satan's co-partners in robbing the poor, while the poorer classes feel it keenly, become exasperated, and stubborn resistance, violence, wickedness and cruelty of man over fellow man follow. Building great edifices and palaces with entrusted means instead of honoring God repeats that conduct, with men accountable as stewards of earth's fruitfulness, the heavens and reason, against God's design that brotherhood be considered and entrusted capital be traded to turn men from sin to righteousness. All classes are wholly engrossed in business, amusement, vanity and pleasure-seeking, farmers, merchants, lawyers and tradesmen at ease and indifferent, merchants still buying and selling, publications issuing, men jostling for highest place, pleasure-lovers crowding theaters, horse races and gambling hells with highest excitement, without gratitude or concern for the needy.
People disregard God and His law, including the Sabbath blessed and made holy at creation and the marriage institution, live unthankful on His provision yet work against their Creator, put heaven out of mind and will not repent. Having step by step resisted the Spirit until spiritual blindness takes the place of light, they refuse last calls to repent, despise entreaties, laugh at solemn warnings, misconstrue every word, follow Satan step by step until truth is no more truth to them and Christ is rejected, insulting the Spirit against conscience and choosing the wrong side until palsied in will. They follow human theories and inventions, while Satanic delusions, errors, heresies and deceptions increase, Satan close beside to misapply and pervert the word, seeking to deceive transgressors of the law and, if possible, the very elect, even appearing himself.
That depraved condition exists now and is fulfilled in present troubles, with the Spirit withdrawing and judgments beginning, including sickness, disasters at sea and land, destruction by fire and floods, earthquakes in various places, troublous times, intense conflict, strikes, thefts, bold robberies, murders and daily taking of human life, men possessed by demons killing men, women and little children, pride, selfishness, covetousness, and calamities from wrong eating and drinking. These common occurrences mark that threatened judgments are permitted to do their work and plagues already beginning, showing wickedness nearing its limit, lawlessness and corruption as signs that revelation is near and the day of the Lord soon to come. Coming calamities serve as warnings to prepare, yet even expositors do not take in the situation.
Even in that degenerate, polluted age full of temptation reaching the senses to corrupt the mind, God will have a people zealous of good works who stand firm amid pollution, proof against every temptation by holding fast to divine strength. So united to God and angels that corrupting influences cannot move them, as if they do not see or hear, they fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life, not in self-confidence but by joining weakness and ignorance to Christ's strength and wisdom. Even youth can have principles so firm that Satan's strongest temptations cannot draw them from allegiance, as Samuel remained untainted and spotless in close connection with Heaven while surrounded by Eli's sons and a sin-fascinated Israel.
Sudden Certain Judgment
Judgment will fall suddenly and unexpectedly upon those absorbed in ordinary life and unprepared, coming like a snare and like a prowling thief while claims of peace and safety lull them into security, so that they know not until destruction overtakes them. As in Noah’s time ordinary eating, drinking, marrying and daily business continued until Noah entered the ark and the flood suddenly destroyed them, so carelessness and indifference in the days of the Son of man will leave people heedless of warning until judgment comes. Widespread wickedness and worldly pleasure will continue without preparation for the appearing, the warning will be met with disbelief and ridicule, yet that unbelief will not prevent its fulfillment.
As the flood came at God’s appointed time when Noah entered the ark and destroyed the unrepentant who dismissed warning and trusted that judgment was impossible, so the revelation of the Son of man brings inescapable judgment that destroys the wicked who remain unmindful of God and work against their Creator. That coming destruction will not be by water but by fire, as Sodom was overthrown by fire from heaven, and as God swept away all living except those sheltered in the ark so sentence will come upon a world that disregards His law and exalts human theories. Before that coming God sends warning of coming judgment, while Satan seeks to deceive, especially by leading transgressors of the law.
The crisis and close of probation steal gradually upon the world while outward life goes on as usual, the sun still shining in its course and the heavens still declaring glory, with men still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, merchants still buying and selling, publications still issuing, men jostling for the highest place, and pleasure-lovers still crowding theaters, horse-races and gambling-hells in highest excitement. At that very time probation’s hour is fast closing and every case is about to be eternally decided, until the day of probation shall be ended and the door of mercy be forever shut. People are choosing sides while absorbed in pleasure and daily business rather than ready for the appearing, and the pattern includes a prior period of warning before probation closes as in the one hundred and twenty years before the flood when only eight were saved.
The day and hour are unknown, yet severe judgments come place after place before His return, the final decision is near, and people are choosing sides even while many close eyes and ears because they do not want to know. Abundant opportunity is given to know the coming is near, but those who spend life in self-gratification instead of sacrifice will not know because they refuse to see and hear. That refusal will not delay the warned judgment, which comes suddenly from place to place.
God bore long in mercy with a probation of one hundred and twenty years, Noah preaching more earnestly as scorn increased, distinguishing the obedient from the disobedient by the standard of His law, shutting believers in by an invisible hand, giving one rainless week as a final test that revealed unbelief in mockery, then sending steady rain until every living being outside perished. So in the last days, when men exceed the limits of grace and become indifferent to the law, God interferes in wrath to vindicate the honor of His law, repress unrighteousness, limit human life, and prevent transgressors from spoiling one another by continual disobedience and defiance, while He saves the obedient. As wickedness led to destruction by the flood, the final destruction of those who reject grace will be a just act of mercy toward the universe.
Those who have traded spiritual inheritance for sinful pleasure and used present time for self-gratification will realize too late what they have lost when the Son of man is revealed and destruction comes suddenly amid prevailing sin and corruption. Their plea that they did not know the coming was near will not be accepted, because they closed eyes that they might not see and stopped ears that they might not hear, and came up to judgment unprepared. Feasting and merriment will continue alongside sorrow and want until the end comes, and then the wicked will reap what they have sown, even corruption.
Call to Watchful Readiness
The likeness to Noah's day is a solemn warning that the end is near and calls for preparation for the coming of the Son of man, for ordinary life will go on unready until judgment comes suddenly. That coming day of the Lord will arrive unexpectedly like a thief in the night to all who are not watching and praying and working, so those who have the light must follow Jesus and work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. The warning must not be dismissed as remote or treated as an idle tale, but calls each person to examine present condition, obtain fitness for salvation, and be ready for a place in the kingdom of glory. God sees the heart's surrender, gives power to overcome, and knows each person's sincerity, working through preaching to impress hearts and placing helpful opportunities in the way when needed.
Christ's followers are to be temperate and practice self-control in eating and drinking rather than sacrifice health and spiritual growth to appetite. Before the Flood appetite and passion overpowered reason and conscience, with indulgence including gluttony and intoxicating drink dulling spiritual life, and that condition will recur in the days of the Son of man while spiritual interests are neglected. Excessive eating and drinking is itself a sign of the last days, and in this age likened to Noah's time temperance in all things is necessary, a lesson parents are to teach themselves and their children in preparing for heaven.
God's people must be distinct from the world and separate more and more from its worldliness and pride, coming out and touching not the unclean that they may be received. They are not to expend entrusted means as the old world did, nor persist in doing what should not be done until destruction comes, but to obey God's requirements including the holy seventh-day Sabbath, live differently from a self-gratifying earthly-minded generation, and purify the soul by living according to truth despite great light and advantage. In a degenerate polluted age full of temptation to the senses, God will have a people zealous of good works who stand firm by divine strength so united to God and angels that corrupting influences cannot move them, as youth with firm principle can remain untainted like Samuel amid Eli's sons. For the last days bring the same incurable verdict as the flood and Sodom, with people insulting the Spirit against conscience, freely choosing the wrong side and becoming spiritually palsied in will because they will not submit.
This time of moral danger like Noah and Sodom requires greater refinement in thought, relationships, words and conduct. The likeness marks great danger for youth and for men and women newly adult and mature, calling for barriers of reserve between men and women and elevated delicacy in words and deportment, especially in physicians whose coarseness or careful speech is read by every patient in actions and conversation. Those who have received grace and truth must make it known as living epistles, for as Noah gave a warning message before the Flood that was disbelieved while people ate and drank and planted and built and married until taken away, so it will be when the Son of man is revealed. The last message of mercy to a fallen world must now be proclaimed, since troublous times are fulfilled in conflict, strikes, thefts, murders, demonic violence, pride, selfishness, covetousness and calamities, judgments are being permitted and plagues beginning, yet even expositors do not take in the situation, thousands perish unwarned, and many workers with power from on high are needed for house-to-house opening of the Scriptures with sanitariums as lights in darkness.
Fathers and mothers must awake to responsibility, prepare themselves and children for heaven, teach temperance, and work to bring all to Jesus while feeling the peril of the last days. Infatuation for pleasure opens the door to Satan's temptations with great temptations through associations especially to youth, so there is necessity of withdrawing from the city and giving youth physical and mental culture, lest parents by their own course encourage rebellion in children. Society before the flood used God's gifts and strength for selfish ends, unlawful appetite, pride, sinful pleasure, violence, and disregard for God and law, marriage and property rights, becoming corrupted by beholding evil until the flood ended wickedness, and the same principles prevail now especially in large cities surrounding young people. Increasing violence and ruin threaten cities such as Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Oakland, courtship and marriage fixation with sentimentalism share in the corrupt influence, and parents may fail to see what children secretly do.
Believers must show faith in life, turning from sin and living out profession, for judgment will ask not what profession was made but what was done for Christ and what fruit was borne to His glory. Mockery and dismissal of warning because false teachers set failed dates will not prevent fulfillment, as ridicule did not prevent the flood or ruin despite 120 years of opportunity to repent through changed life, and widespread unbelief will likewise meet Christ's coming. Those who believe and obey can find pardon and shelter, but persistent refusal closes eyes and stops ears from wanting to know though abundant opportunity is given, the plea of ignorance will not be accepted, and at last the Spirit's impressions will no longer move the heart. People must guard against being consumed by appetite, cares, feasting, pleasure and conformity to the world, lest crowded hearts keep out the last-days warning and the day overtake them unprepared as those who knew not until swept away. As in Noah's time many will pursue ordinary activities until probation ends, with selfishness shaping even professed followers, iniquity abounding and love growing cold, while only a few live as children of the day, and ordinary eating without gratitude or concern for the poor and needy warns to use time preparing for heaven and learning to praise God.