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#16.
The Days of Noah (Matt. 24: 37-41).
pp. 116 - 120
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. Gen. 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, Psa. 29: 1, 89: 6, Dan. 3: 25 (see verse 28),
use this title of angels. The LXX of Gen. 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
II Cor. 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, I Pet. 3: 20 and II Pet. 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 Nephilin (Numbers 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 Matt. 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" (I 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 Matt. 24: Parable, prophecy and type tell us of days that shall be "as the
days of Noah."