“But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:36).
Most prophecy commentaries point out the obvious parallels of an unsuspecting populace and complete moral decay of Noah’s day with our modern condition. Of course, that’s true; our moral decay is unprecedented in modern times, and judgment from God is the farthest thing from secular expectation. But there’s one thing these commentators ignore or completely miss. There was only one righteous man on the entire earth in Noah’s day, and that man was Noah. (Genesis 6:9, 7:1). And that righteous man knew beforehand what was about to come upon the earth and precisely when it was going to happen.
After many years of God’s direction, Noah completed the ark which God had told him to build as protection from the devastating flood He would use to judge and purge evil humanity from the earth. As it neared the time for God to act, He told Noah to enter the ark with his family and the animals God sent to preserve. He then told Noah: “For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights…” (Genesis 7:4). Noah was not in the dark so that this day would come as a “thief in the night”. He was given precise guidance as to the timing by God Himself. The righteous on the earth (even if it was only one man) was expectant, fully aware of what God was doing, and when He was about to do it.
Now let’s consider today. Are there any righteous on the earth? Yes! The Church of Jesus Christ is considered by God to be righteous because of Jesus’s sacrifice. If we’re in Christ, we’re righteous, not because of anything we did, but what He did. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). If we are to consider Jesus’s comparison of the time just before His coming to the days of Noah as accurate, we should assume that the righteous of our day will similarly, just as Noah did, know ahead of time when all the events leading up to and including His coming will take place. God’s people are not in the dark so that this day will overtake them as a “thief in the night”. (1 Thessalonians 5:4)
Noah was righteous in his day. Those in Christ are righteous in our day. As we draw nearer to God’s judgement of evil on this earth and the redemption of His saints, the righteous will know with increasing accuracy the timing of His return to set up His kingdom. “Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to His servants…” (Amos 3:7). Stay tuned in to God’s prophetic Word. God has and will be sharing amazing things with His saints.
Maranatha, Jim