Days of Noah

How awful that day will be! No other will be like it …

[Jeremiah 30:7 – NIV]

The testimony of human history is plagued with disaster, calamity, war, and devastation. Millions have suffered and died at the hands of their fellow man, as mankind has proven to possess the relentless capacity to bring the worst out in each other.

Countless more have perished in the indiscriminate wake of natural disasters, whether earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, or floods, and even more still have fallen victim to disease, plague and famine.

In the 20th Century alone, we witnessed some of the worst atrocities known to man. Multiple world wars, the Holocaust, systematic genocide, and abortion on demand just to name a few.

But lest we forget that no matter how bad things have gotten in the past, we still are awaiting a Day to come that will be like no other — the Day of the LORD. As difficult as it is to fathom, the Bible says that a Day is coming that will make all of the collective catastrophes of human history pale in comparison.

It is almost impossible to conceive of a scenario that could be worse than what we already have seen and experienced, and yet the Scriptures are clear. The Day of the LORD will be unique is scope, intensity, devastation, and distress. Jesus Himself makes this abundantly clear.

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” 

[Matthew 24:21-22]

The Day of the LORD is a process of cataclysmic events that will end with the climatic and triumphant appearance of Jesus Christ. The Day of the LORD will be the greatest amalgamation and concentration of human wickedness, spiritual evil, satanic destruction, cosmic disintegration, natural disaster, and divine indignation that the world has ever seen.

The closest thing we have seen to the Day of the LORD was the global flood of Noah’s day, which is one of the primary templates to help us understand what is to come.

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

[Matthew 24:36-37]

The Height of Spiritual Rebellion

There was a supernatural rebellion and heavenly mutiny in the days of Noah that led to one of the grossest forms of corruption the world has ever seen. The sons of God (angelic beings) willfully abandoned their proper position of authority in the heavens and came down to earth in an attempt to corrupt the human race, destroy mankind, and eliminate the potential for the Messiah to be born through the “seed of the woman” [see Genesis 3:15, 6:1-5].

This spiritual rebellion introduced all forms of perversion to mankind, resulted in the acceleration of evil on the earth, and forced God to intervene with an extreme act of divine judgment. We should expect, therefore, the Day of the LORD to be preceded by an even greater supernatural rebellion and satanic manifestation, as in the person of the Antichrist.

The Depth of Human Depravity

In the days of Noah, the wickedness of mankind had passed the point of no return. Of all the people on the earth in that day (which some have estimated to be billions) only Noah and his family were in right relationship with God.

“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart … And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.'”

[Genesis 6:5-6, 12-13]

We can expect the Day of the LORD to be preceded by a comprehensive spirit of sinful rebellion, immorality, idolatry and violence on the earth. As Paul says …

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God …”

[2 Timothy 3:1-4]

The DAY of Divine Judgment

As in Noah’s Day, the LORD determined to make an end of all flesh and bring swift destruction on the ungodly through a global flood. No flesh survived, save Noah and those on the ark. The global flood again is perhaps the greatest Old Testament prefigurement of the coming Day of the LORD. What makes the Day of the LORD so great and dreadful is that it will be the complete outpouring and exhaustion of the righteous indignation of a Holy God upon the earth.

As the Apostle Peter says, the Day of the LORD will be like the flood of Noah’s da,y, yet God will use different means having promised never to flood the entire earth again. The Day of the LORD will be a Day of fire instead, as our God is an all-consuming fire!

“That by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”

[2 Peter 3:6-7]

While the flood of Noah’s day may be the closest thing we have ever seen to the Day of the LORD, we still have never seen a Day like it and never will again. It is a Day like no other because it will be the Day that God Himself come in all His glory and take the stage for all the world to see!

As we will see next time, it will be a Day characterized by a series of unmistakable signs in heaven and on the earth.