Matthew 24:37-41

In the study of the parable of the Fig Tree, we found that its teaching was echoed, not by another parable, but by

reference to a typical event in history, `As it was in the days of Noah'.

The book of Genesis gives a vivid picture of the days of Noah. Genesis 6 has been robbed of its significance by

the failure to see that `The sons of God' are not men but angels. Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Psalm 29:1; 89:6; Daniel 3:25

(see verse 28), use this title of angels. The Septuagint of Genesis 6:2 renders the words `sons of God' by `angels'.

Jude 6 makes it clear that some of the angels fell. What that fall involved is hinted in the same verse, `they left their

own oiketerion'. This word occurs again in 2 Corinthians 5:2 where it has reference to resurrection. Whether it

means there a resurrection body, or a heavenly abode, we are not at the moment prepared to say.

In Jude 7 further light is given; the sin of the angels was `in like manner' to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha.

Further, 1 Peter 3:20 and 2 Peter 2:5 link this fall with the days of Noah. The result of this unseemly irruption led

on to the corruption and violence that necessitated the Flood. `The giants', or as the Hebrew calls them, the

nephilim, were monsters, and had to be destroyed first by the Flood, and afterwards by the sword of Israel. The sons

of Anak were of the nephilim (Num. 13:33). The giant cities of Bashan, and the gigantic buildings still standing

from antiquity testify to their skill and strength.

`And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created ... but Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with

God' (Gen. 6:7-9).

Not only was Noah a second Enoch in that he `walked with God', but he, like Enoch, witnessed against the

ungodliness of the people, and `God took him' by means of the ark, as completely as He took Enoch by translation.

The words `perfect in his generations' should read `uncontaminated as to his pedigree'. God had preserved the line

from Adam through Noah from the awful Satanic attempt to prevent the coming Seed of the woman. But why all

this? How does this help our understanding of Matthew 24? Scripture gives no uncertain sound regarding the

activity of evil spirits and fallen angels during the time of the end. The apostle Paul tells us that `in the latter times

some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons' (1 Tim. 4:1). Spirit and

angelic interference are prominent in the book of the Revelation, for example, the unclean spirits, spirits of demons

who work miracles and who gather the kings of the earth to their destruction (Rev. 16:13,14). This passage is

immediately followed by the warning, `Behold, I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth', and so is linked still

more with Matthew 24. Parable, prophecy and type tell us of days that shall be `as the days of Noah'.

The record given in Genesis 6, 7 and 8 is full of instruction. We will draw attention to one point more, namely,

the marks of time:

Noah's age - 600 years (Gen. 7:6).

Forty days and nights the rain was upon the earth (Gen. 7:12).

The Ark rested in the seventh month (Gen. 8:4).

And on the 17th day of the month (Gen. 8:4).

The removal of the cover of the Ark was in the six hundred and FIRST year, in the FIRST month, the FIRST day

of the month (Gen. 8:13).

The 600 years of Noah's life seem to indicate the end of man, six being the number of man. It is considered by

many that the age of the world up to the coming again of Christ will be 6,000 years. The forty days and nights refer

to a period of judgment and testing. The resting of the ark in the seventh month typifies the millennium, the

thousand years, the `rest' (sabbatismos) that remaineth unto the people of God. The 17th of the seventh month is the

17th of Nisan, three days after Passover, bringing us to the typical day of resurrection. The threefold emphasis on

the word first in connection with the drying of the ground is very suggestive.