Matthew 24:38, commentary and pictures

Christ's words describe ordinary daily and family life going on as usual until Noah entered the ark, with people knowing nothing until the Flood took them away. Eating and drinking and marrying are lawful in themselves, for God abundantly provided for physical wants and Himself instituted marriage. The sin was taking His gifts without gratitude and making them the chief aims of life, carried to excess and perversion to minister to selfish appetite and passion. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of man be, when He comes the second time not as Sin-bearer but as Sin-punisher. That likeness is a warning to take heed, watch and pray, and be ready at all times, for He comes in an hour not thought, and the same careless, corrupt state now exists proving the great day is at hand.

Discourse Setting and Wording

Jesus spoke these words seated on the Mount of Olives in answer to the question about the sign of His coming and the end of the world. That discourse blends the destruction of Jerusalem as a type of the final destruction of the world by fire with His second coming at the end, covering important events from His first advent to His second and in brief the whole Christian dispensation. It was given both for the disciples who heard it and for those living in earth's final days, to give instruction to later believers, help them prepare for the great conflict, and call for discerning the signs of the times and reaching a higher standard.

The comparison treats Noah as a literal person and the Flood as a historical event, affirming Genesis as inspired Scripture, with human nature apart from God's Spirit the same then as now. Enoch was shown both the world's destruction by the Flood and the great events connected with the second coming and the end of the world.

The saying describes ordinary daily and family life continuing without interruption until the day Noah entered the ark, with eating and drinking, marrying and arranging marriages, and by extension planting, building, buying, and selling. Those pursuits went on while people failed to recognize approaching judgment, knowing nothing until the Flood came and swept them all away, and so shall the coming of the Son of man be, with people likewise occupied and unprepared when judgment arrives. Of that day and hour no one knows, not men nor angels but the Father only, so all must take heed and watch and pray lest the master coming suddenly find them sleeping.

Eating, drinking, trading, marrying and being given in marriage are lawful privileges of life, safe when done in the fear of God and with reference to the eternal world. They are not sinful in themselves, for God gave the fruits of the earth in great abundance to supply physical wants and Himself instituted marriage in giving Eve to Adam as a sacred institution. Even across all classes these necessities marked life before the Flood without being sin in themselves.

Their sin consisted in taking these gifts without gratitude to the Giver and debasing themselves by indulging appetite without restraint and perverting marriage to serve passion and selfish desire. Lawful pleasures and necessities were made the chief aims of life, carried to excess until habits weakened mind and spirituality and strengthened lower desires, with harmful foods, gluttony, drunkenness, and intemperance engrossing people so completely that they forgot God. That misuse of blessing for self-gratification, indulgence, and worldly pursuit left them ignoring warning and unprepared for destruction, and illustrates the condition of the world before the coming of the Son of man.

Corruption Before the Flood

The verse describes a world that had turned away from God, refused to do His holy will, discarded heaven's principles and made His law null and void. Its people sought not the counsel of their Creator nor cared to do His will, but followed unholy imagination and perverted ideas of their own hearts continually. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually, thoughts only of sinful pleasure and indulgence. That inward apostasy is why human nature unrenewed by grace is unchanged, and why the same state must exist again before the second coming.

That evil mind corrupted all flesh, so that all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. Violence filled the land, with crime, murder, bloodshed, war, robbery, oppression, impurity, licentiousness, lustful practice, dissipation, gambling, betting and horse-racing, untamable passions and defiance. Men measured manhood by money and wealth rather than integrity, bent on getting rich and serving mammon while making God and righteousness secondary. Until at last God declared the end of all flesh had come and commanded the building of an ark of gopher wood to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life, washing the moral pollution of the earth away by water.

Against that corruption Noah faithfully bore God's warning through a 120-year probation, calling to repentance, reformation of bad habits and righteous character, and refuge in the ark. He kept building the ark on dry land in a world that had only dew to moisten the ground and had never seen heavy rain, with the year of the flood made known to him so he could know when to build and warn. For a time Enoch joined his testimony, Christ with His angels labored to produce a better state, and helpers and carpenters assisted and some were for a time converted. The ark itself stood as warning and invitation, and its message had influence for a time, yet those touched did not stay converted.

When the flood came only Noah's family was ready, only eight persons out of the immense multitude believed, obeyed and were saved. The vast multitude rejected, mocked, derided and made sport of Noah and the ark, and their unbelief did not prevent the ruin that followed. The learned, honored and influential trusted nature's constancy and human wisdom, chose the broad road because the narrow way was incompatible with dishonesty, avarice, pride and iniquity, and were opposed to saving truth and fascinated with lying fables. Even the remarkable evidence of dumb animals quietly entering two and two under invisible leadership failed to impress them, though it briefly awakened fear. They put away rising fear with boisterous merriment and deeds of violence, and association with unbelievers drew back some who had believed into amusement and display.

After Noah entered, God shut him in and shut the ungodly out, fixing their doom while they knew it not. For seven days, one whole week, no rain fell, and the doomed continued careless, pleasure-loving ordinary life, mocking and deriding warnings of judgment. With sun shining in glory and earth clad in almost Eden beauty they drove fear away, unaware the final decision had been made and mercy had ended. Then rain began gently at first and increased in power until every living thing on earth was destroyed, while the ark rode safely upon the waters preserving the faithful and the mockers drowned beholding it.

Likeness to Last Days

As in Noah's days, so will be the coming and revelation of the Son of man, and the verse shows the condition of the world when He comes the second time. He comes then not as Sin-bearer but as Sin-punisher, to bring sudden destruction upon the absorbed majority who go on eating and drinking and marrying and knowing nothing until swept away, in an age ripe for destruction with violence filling the land as before the Flood, and His judgment then is by fire rather than by water. Ordinary life went on to the day Noah entered the ark while wickedness was great and every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually, because men turned from Jehovah, refused His holy will, and followed unholy imagination and perverted ideas until destroyed for wickedness, and the same way today with betting, horse-racing, gambling, dissipation, lustful practice and untamable passion presents no signs of millennial glory. Because that end is coming the gospel standard must be lifted higher and still higher with warning given to the world, with workers carefully trained and educated to do justice to the work and all foolishness, levity and frivolity put away, that people be occupied no longer unprepared and unaware until judgment arrives but watchful and ready.

The parallel rules out a temporal millennium of a thousand years in which all prepare for eternity, and rules out a prior worldwide conversion and triumph of the church. Sin, violence and crime will not be removed from the earth before His coming, for eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage went on while all flesh had corrupted his way, until God declared He would bring a flood of waters to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life and commanded Noah to make an ark of gopher wood. The last days are instead dark and perilous, with the church far from God and the world marked by crime and violence, the earth again filled with wickedness, moral pollution and violence through dissipation, untamable passions, and bank failures ruining thousands of families and leaving widows and orphans to starve. Human lawmakers who frame and enforce laws are themselves transgressors of God's law, and while corruption grows they make and enforce laws to uphold the first day of the week, which God gave as a common working day.

His coming steals gradually upon a world that looks outwardly ordinary while probation is fast closing and every case is about to be eternally decided. The sun still keeps its usual round and the heavens still declare the glory of God, yet the signs of the times are ominous, the Spirit of God is withdrawing, and calamity follows calamity by sea and land. Men are still eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, with merchants still buying and selling and publications still multiplying, with men jostling for the highest place and crowding with highest excitement to theaters, horse-races and gambling hells. Satan sees his time is short and has set all his agencies at work that men may be deceived, deluded, occupied and entranced until probation ends, every case is eternally decided, and the door of mercy is forever shut, while men rapidly range themselves under the banner they have chosen, those waiting and watching and working for the Lord's appearing and those falling into line under the first great apostate, though few believe with heart and soul that there is a hell to shun and a heaven to win. Even after God shut Noah in and shut the ungodly out, the doomed for seven days remained unaware their doom was fixed and carried on careless, pleasure-loving life mocking warnings of judgment, a picture that the decisive hour near the coming of the Son of man will come silently and unnoticed while people still pursue daily business and pleasure without knowing the final decision has been made and mercy has ended.

Of that day and hour no man knows, not even the angels of heaven, but the Father only, so all must take heed and watch and pray because no one knows when the time is, lest the master coming suddenly at evening or midnight or cockcrowing or morning find them sleeping. As before the Flood they knew not until the Flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of man be, and people at the end will likewise be unaware and taken by surprise in an hour not thought and not expected. Its approach can nevertheless be known from signs, for the prophecy in Matthew 24 about signs preceding His second coming is fulfilled now in daily earthquakes, sinking ships with loss of life, destructive floods, burning of costly buildings pronounced fireproof, and the plagues of God coming upon the world as admonitions speaking with loud voice that His coming draws near and the end of all things is at hand. The inhabitants of the antediluvian world knew not the time in which they were living, absorbed in common life, and the inhabitants of the world today likewise know not that they are living in the last days because they do not choose to know, accustomed to widespread evil and failing to heed warning from pulpit and press by voice and pen that proclaims the law of God done away. To disregard warning and neglect to know is fatal, as ignorance from refusing to know was fatal to them, and those who know the truth are to impart light like Noah, lifting the voice in warning, watching to be ready, being a faithful and wise servant giving meat in due season who will be blessed and made ruler over all goods when the Lord comes, and not the evil servant who says in his heart my lord delays his coming and begins to smite fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken, who will be cut asunder and appointed his portion with the hypocrites with weeping and gnashing of teeth when the lord comes in a day and hour not looked for.

Noah was preserved in the ark that God had prepared for him in the days of the great deluge while judgment destroyed the wicked, and the saints will likewise be preserved amid the earth's final convulsions. Just before the Son of man appears in the clouds of heaven everything in nature will be convulsed, lightning from heaven uniting with fire in the earth to make mountains burn like a furnace and pour floods of lava over villages and cities, with molten rock thrown into the water, mighty earthquakes, and great destruction of human life, and God will be the refuge of His believing ones in those days of destruction and calamity. This expectation of His revelation and return stands with the seventh-day Sabbath, which God established at creation by resting on the seventh day, blessing it and setting it apart as holy, to be kept as a lasting memorial that He created heaven and earth and as a sign that He is the Lord who sanctifies His people.

Prophecy Fulfilled Today

The prophecies of Matthew 24 are to be studied and brought before all, for what was foretold in eating and drinking and marrying until Noah entered the ark is being fulfilled today and proves the great day of the Lord is at hand. The same careless and corrupt condition that ripened the antediluvian world for destruction by water now exists, especially in the cities, with violence filling the land and the world absorbed in ordinary life knowing nothing until sudden destruction takes them away. That fulfillment means the close of earth's history is come, when the Son of man comes the second time not as Sin-bearer but as Sin-punisher, soon to come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. It is truth of eternal importance deciding destiny, calling the church to arouse, lift the gospel standard higher and still higher, give the warning to high and low in highways and byways, train workers to do justice to the work, and put away foolishness, levity and frivolity. Daily earthquakes, sinking ships with loss of life, destructive floods, fires, the burning of costly buildings pronounced fireproof, and the plagues of God upon the world speak with a loud voice that His coming draws near and the end of all things is at hand, yet many who long expected Him remain in listless indifference and dangerous need of awakening to watch.

Present signs leave no place for a temporal millennium of a thousand years in which all prepare for eternity, for the world today follows the same way as Noah's day and presents no signs of millennial glory. Transgressors of God's law fill the earth with wickedness and violence through betting, horse-racing, gambling, dissipation, lustful practice and untamable passion, through bribery, fraud, robbery and murder, through divorce, oppression of the poor by money-hoarders, through amusements, distress of nations, labor-capital strife, unions and confederacies, and through Sunday-law agitation. The prevailing spirit is a passion to accumulate possessions and retain power, measuring manhood by money and wealth rather than integrity, making God and righteousness secondary and serving mammon, with selfish men buying up wheat and goods so the needy must buy at whatever price is set. That hoarding makes the money-hoarder Satan's co-partner in robbing the poor, keenly felt by the poorer classes and provoking resistance, exasperation, selfishness, violence, wickedness and cruelty of man over fellow man, while human inventive power is trained to put in operation the most powerful machinery to wound and kill, and those without God's protection find safety in no place or position. Against this God designed the brotherhood of the human family to be considered, with entrusted capital, facilities, opportunities and privileges invested to turn men from sin to righteousness and to recognize their value as fallen but purchased and ransomed by Christ's life, abiding by simple truth even in poverty, bearing the cross, giving God glory for success, and remembering earthly treasures will soon be no more.

Because time has passed many say His coming is delayed and the impenitent see no cause for alarm though the event was long foretold, yet delay is not failure. God in wonderful long forbearance holds back because the work for the wicked is not yet done, giving sinners time to repent as part of His great plan, though the world in madness gives Him little thanks. Judgment will surely come, and the long-suffering God will do His work with just and accurate discrimination. The present time is also as Sodom and as the days of Lot, and as the time of Christ's first appearing when light was rejected to ruin, with moral corruption endangering youth, those reaching manhood and womanhood, and those of mature years, with midnight darkness of error, heresy, delusion, apostasy, deception and persecution, with Satan come down in great power and working with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, with human beings confederated with satanic agencies to make void God's law, with worldly business, sports, fashions, amusements and unprofitable reading diverting minds and spoiling judgment, and with violence, reveling and drunkenness filling the world and leavening the professed churches. On the very verge of the time of trouble the third angel's message must therefore not be smothered but swell into a loud cry until the whole earth is lightened with glory, requiring decided presentation of sanctifying present truth and united wise cooperation of laborers with God, with one another, and with the angel flying in the midst of heaven in harmony with the two former angels, advancing into new territories while sustaining pure principle, carrying the startling advent truths with power into large cities like Greater New York where many honest souls will feel conviction, and shining as God's light through the night of trial, weeping and persecution.

As in Noah's time the young are trained to love excitement, glorify themselves, and follow the evil desires of their hearts, and this way of life leads to depravity, cruelty, violence and crime.

Warning to Watch Ready

The verse is a warning to take heed and to watch and pray at all times, because the coming of the Son of man will be just as the days before the Flood were, when people kept on with ordinary eating and drinking and marrying until Noah entered the ark and knew nothing until the Flood came and took them all away. Of that day and hour no man knows, not even the angels of heaven, but the Father only, so no one knows when the time is, whether at evening or midnight or cockcrowing or morning, and all must watch lest the master coming suddenly find them sleeping. The same state that existed in Noah's time exists now, while from pulpit and press the proclamation goes forth that God's law is done away, and people accustomed to widespread evil continue daily life with signs and warnings unheeded until the day comes upon them unexpectedly. Therefore the call is to be ready because the Son of man comes in an hour not thought and as a thief, to be a faithful and wise servant giving meat in due season who will be blessed and made ruler over all goods at His coming, and not the evil servant who says my lord delays his coming and smites fellow servants and eats and drinks with the drunken, who will be cut asunder and appointed his portion with the hypocrites with weeping and gnashing of teeth when his lord comes in a day and hour not looked for. Those who know the truth are to impart the light like Noah and to give the message that prepares the world, lifting the voice in warning that the end of all things is at hand and arousing earnest zeal.

As Noah was given warning and built the ark to warn his generation of approaching doom, so the world before Christ's coming is to be warned of its approaching doom and offered refuge in Christ. Noah's preaching warned and tested and proved the people before the waters destroyed them, and in the same way God's truth for the last days warns and tests and proves the world and decides destiny as people turn from transgression to obedience to all His commandments. Publications carrying that message help people see the truth and turn from transgression to obedience to God's law, and must still be proclaimed even when rejected amid widespread wickedness and violence. As Noah faithfully warned while mocked and derided and made sport of, and when rain descended he and his family had entered the ark and God had shut them in and the ark rode safely preserving them while mockers drowned beholding it, so the people of God who have faithfully warned the world of coming wrath will be delivered and will not be suffered to be destroyed by the wicked, and those who mocked the idea of the saints going up will witness God's care and behold their glorious deliverance when they refuse to bow to the decree of the beast or receive his mark and expect translation.

Unbelief did not prevent the Flood or the ruin that followed, though Noah's generation had 120 years to repent, turn from sin, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters, and find safety in the ark, but mocked the warning and refused the invitation. Human claims and the laws of nature cannot prevent God's word from being fulfilled, and the Flood's coming despite unbelief shows that dismissal of prophecy, mockery of warners, and absorption in affairs will not stop the end. Their lack of belief did not prevent judgment, just as unbelief will not prevent Christ's certain return though mocked and delayed, and disbelief while going about ordinary life stresses the urgency of responding before judgment comes. Noah's faithfulness in warning that generation is therefore the pattern for faithfully presenting God's last message even when people scoff, with each person standing accountable for his own response.

Because that end is coming when the Son of man comes the second time not as Sin-bearer but as Sin-punisher, with the age ripe for destruction and violence filling the land, the gospel standard must be lifted higher and still higher and the warning given to the world. Believers must not follow the world but prepare life and character for Christ's return, for the great majority absorbed in ordinary eating and drinking and marrying will know nothing until sudden destruction takes them away. Ordinary activities became part of a life absorbed in worldly business, appetite, and pleasure, and settled refusal to heed warning left men unprepared until Noah entered the ark, warning that judgment will overtake the occupied and unready unexpectedly. Reform, self-denial, and freedom from intemperance are required, with all foolishness, levity, and frivolity put away, with sanitarium nurses and helpers carefully trained and educated to do justice to the work, with means used self-denyingly to warn the perishing and save souls, and with light shining amid moral darkness in sober, prayerful obedience to God's commands including the Sabbath in separation from worldly conformity.

Appetite Marriage Wealth Snares

Eating and drinking in the days before the Flood mean gluttony, drunkenness, and indulgence of perverted appetite carried to excess until lawful gifts become ruling lusts. Such excess dulls the moral sense so that sin does not appear sinful, inflames the passions, displaces reason, and wastes entrusted time, money, and strength. It brings disease and suffering upon men and women, fills the world with iniquity, and leads on to corruption, violence, blasphemy, and the evil practices that follow. What was ordinary eating and drinking became fashionable intemperance, a defining sin of the antediluvian world like that of Sodom, for which God destroyed it by water, and the same intemperance now marks the time before the coming of the Son of man. The sins of Noah's day exist in the present, and the warning calls for freedom from intemperance lest appetite obscure preparation for judgment.

Marrying and giving in marriage point to a perverted and defiled marriage relation, with divorce as its sign. Passion and impulse rule without restraint, producing hasty, prayerless, passion-ruled unions entered without the counsel of God, parents, or church, without careful consideration, without true love as motive, and as thoughtlessly as a business transaction. The condemned pattern is the sons of God forming alliances with the daughters of men, those professing to revere God associating with the corrupt of heart and marrying without discrimination whom they will, including alliances of believers with the corrupt, polygamy, and sensual indulgence. Lust rather than desire to honor God drives courtship and marriage, leading to impurity, immorality, and ruined usefulness, and this is one of Satan's special devices and a sign of the last days. As ordinary weddings happening now show the same pre-Flood condition continuing, the same careless and prayerless marrying done then is done in the present day by those with no depth of religious experience.

Absorption in worldly business, money-getting, pleasure, sports, fashions, and unprofitable reading blinds minds to eternal realities. Men rush on in the chase for gain and selfish indulgence as if there were no God, no heaven, and no hereafter, measuring manhood by money and wealth possessed rather than by integrity, making mammon a god and making God and His righteousness secondary. The prevailing spirit becomes a passion to accumulate possessions and retain power, with selfish men buying up wheat and goods so the needy must buy at whatever prices they desire, making the money-hoarder Satan's co-partner in robbing the poor and oppressing them. That oppression provokes stubborn resistance, exasperation, selfishness, violence, wickedness, and cruelty of man over fellow man, while even professed believers walk the broad road to ruin like Sodom, occupied with life, spending in self-gratification and seeking worldly riches that will crumble into dust and bring eternal loss. As the warning of the Flood was sent to startle men in wickedness and call them to repentance, so the message of Christ's soon coming is designed to arouse men from absorption in worldly things and to turn means into God's helping hand by investing in giving the last message of mercy and sustaining gospel work.

Reform is therefore required through self-denial and self-control, temperance in all things, and a clean, pure, healthful diet. Men and women must be taught line upon line and precept upon precept to see intemperance as the cause of disease and iniquity, to renounce debasing customs and practices, and to learn the way to life, peace, health, and the plan of redemption through Jesus who made and redeemed man. Health institutions exist to present those living principles of reform, and hygienic reform with health journals must have a prominent place in fitting a people for Christ's coming. For as selfishness, violence, and crime prevail at the close of earth's history from the same cause as in Noah's day — excessive indulgence of appetites and passions — preparation requires clear brains and bodies as free as possible from disease to restore God's image.