The Days of Noah (Matthew 24:36-39)
We also find the statement that no man knows the day or hour in Matthew 24:36-69:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Here we are reminded that we can learn something about the end of the world by looking at the Flood. The implication here is that everyone is going about their business as usual, as if destruction is not about to come.
Remember that the population of the earth was much smaller back in Noah’s day, probably about one million people. Also, the continents had not yet been divided so the world was not as segregated as it is today. Noah spent 120 years building the ark (Genesis 6:3). Given that God describes Noah as a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), we can be sure that he didn’t quietly work for 120 years on the ark and never warn anyone of the judgment that was going to come.
All through Scripture we read of God warning people of the destruction that was about to befall them. Think of Moses warning Pharaoh, Isaiah warning Israel, Jeremiah warning Judah, and Jonah warning Nineveh. We know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8), which means we can know something about how He will behave in the future by looking at how He has behaved in the past. Based on the patterns we see in the Bible, we know that Noah was warning the world of impending destruction. How does the world react to these warnings? With the exception of Nineveh, those who are warned have always ignored the warnings.
Returning to our passage in Matthew chapter 24, God tells us that the world will not know the day of His coming, just as it was in the days of Noah. This can’t be teaching that no one will have the information about when His coming will occur because that’s not how it was in Noah’s day. At the very least, Noah and his family knew the exact day when the Flood would occur. This brings up another point…