By C. Eldon McNabb

This is as the waters of Noah unto Me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Isaiah 54:1-10).

The volume of the Holy Scriptures is large, and tells us of many people, greater and lesser. We read of the Bible heroes, and those who worked with them. We also read of great and noble world leaders who God blessed and favored, such as Abimelech King of Gerar, because of the integrity of his heart; and Cyrus the Persian, of whom God said, “He is my shepherd.”

In Hebrews 11, seventeen men and women of faith are mentioned by name, as well as thousands of others, all of whom he simply did not have time to mention. He spoke particularly of the first five of those which he mentioned by name: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, saying, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

In the case of Abraham, the writer states plainly that he was promised the land where he was living as a stranger, and that his offspring would become a great and populous nation. That promise was partly fulfilled, in its natural sense, when God supplied a substitute for Isaac upon Mount Moriah, and when Joshua led the children of Israel to the victorious conquest of that land (Joshua 23:14). However, Paul said in Romans 9:13, “The promise that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.” So the promises were not ultimately about the people to whom they were given. The real intent of those promises was about the people who were to be born again by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

In 1 Peter 1:11,12, Peter agreed, saying that the prophets of old were “Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost, sent down from Heaven.”

Time would fail me to cover all of the other four mentioned above, although all five of them need to be covered in detail. For this thesis, I want to at least take the time and space to deal with what is said here about Noah; especially in the light Matthew 24:37-47. For there Jesus declared Noah to be the great sign of the end of the Grace Age, just as in Matt. 12:39 and Matt. 16:4, He declared that Jonah was the great sign of its beginning.

If we will be quick to believe the words of Jesus, Peter and Paul concerning Noah, perhaps we can understand some of the events which must occur just before the return of our Lord and King.

Listen to Hebrews 11:7, where Paul said, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” He showed us here that, at the end of this age, God is going to work a great deliverance on behalf of His house, for the glory of His name in the whole earth.

Peter revealed a little more about the prophetic intent of the work of Noah, saying, “Jesus went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:18-20). The wickedness of man was great in the earth, both of the descendants of Cain and Seth alike, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The same condition exists in the world today, including multiplied thousands of believers who have become “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”

Again Peter said, “God spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:4-9). We can easily see that it was all a warning to this generation, that we should “save ourselves from this untoward generation.”

Multitudes of “the sons of God” (the descendants of Seth) perished in the flood. Peter made it clear that the reason they perished therein was their disobedience. God endured their disobedience with much longsuffering, but finally He sent the flood upon them. Oh yes, God brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, but God’s disobedient children perished with them.

In His wrath, God washed away an ungodly world with the flood, but in his mercy, He considered those “disobedient children” who had not heard the preaching of Noah, and sent Jesus to “Preach to those spirits in prison” as His body lay in the tomb. Many of them believed Jesus, and were justified by His blood. As the prophet said, “By the blood of Jesus’ covenant God has sent forth His prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water” (Zech. 9:9-11). And again it is written, “Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive” (Eph. 4:8). Likewise, some of those Christians, who will perish when the dragon turns his wrath against the remnant of the seed of “the woman,” will ultimately be counted worthy of eternal life.

Luke quoted Jesus in this fashion. “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man.” The work of preparation for the saving of “the woman,” from the flood which is to be cast out of the mouth of the dragon, is not a work of one day or two. God began to give us signs of the approach of those days of that Son of Man in 1892-1893, when and the Duryea brothers began to make automobiles in Springfield, Massachusetts.

When he saw that the sons of God (Seth’s descendants) had begun to lust after the daughters of men (Cain’s descendants), and marry them, He said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh (Just as were the descendants of Cain): yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” In this statement, God is telling us that there will be an hundred and twenty years of signs and wonders to warn us to prepare for the coming of Jesus. Then, in Nahum 2:1-5, He shows us that He will send a man called “He that Dasheth in Pieces,” and that “The chariots (automobiles) shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation (for the coming of the Lord). The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broadways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.” For about an hundred and eleven years now, the automobile has been one of the great signs which God has given us that the coming of Jesus is near. The account given by Matthew and Luke differ a little, but we can readily see that Jesus is telling us that He is going to send a “Preacher of Righteousness,” in our time, to save those who will believe, from the flood which is soon to be cast out of the mouth of the dragon. When we consider Rev. 2:26,27, with these passages, it is even more clear.

In Matthew 24, Jesus continued, “For before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And they knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” It is the group of Christians indicated here which is referred to as the five foolish virgins in Matthew 25. (That parable is indeed a continuation of the narrative which began in Matthew 24:37.) When those foolish virgins were finally ready to go, the door was already shut, as it was with the ark in Noah’s day. And so shall it be when the Christians are called to go in to the wedding. God will surely send a man to fulfill the allegory of Noah, the call to go out to meet the Bridegroom will be made, and the wise will follow “Noah” into the place of safety before the door is shut.

What is it that this “Noah” will build which will save us from the coming flood of persecution against all those who have the breath of eternal life in Christ Jesus? The prophecies are clear. In speaking of this time in Daniel 2, God tells us that a stone will be hewn out of “The mountain” which shall smite the image in its feet. In verse forty-four, Daniel interpreted for us the meaning of that stone, saying, “In the days of these kings shall the God of Heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” God will begin this kingdom by taking a small group of believers out of what He calls Church, and make them into a nation.

We can readily see that it is in this way that God will fulfill the promise to Abraham, when He told him, “I will make thee a great nation.” Those believers who wake up, and come to this “Noah” (He that dasheth in pieces, of Nahum 2 and Rev. 2:26-27), shall be formed into a great nation, upon whom God will manifest His glory to the world. The throne shall be established, the house shall be saved, and the Bridegroom shall come, raise the righteous dead, and we shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Then shall the Bridegroom take unto Himself His bride.

When Jesus shall come forth from that wedding, sitting upon the throne, in all of His glory in that Kingdom, the nations shall tremble, and they shall be broken to pieces, and restructured according to His will, as Jesus sets forth upon a thousand years of just and righteous rulership of this world. To God be the glory! AMEN!