Then the LORD said to Noah, ‘Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.’

– Genesis 7:1

The Bible paints a picture of the days prior to Noah’s flood as one of a generation lost.

In a world filled with wickedness, only Noah was left to follow God. If the flood was the judgment for evil, and Enoch was translated before the wrath of God came upon earth, who does Noah represent in the Matthew 24 timeline?

We often forget Jesus first came to the people of Israel, His chosen and beloved nation.

He answered and said, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

– Matthew 15:24

But the house of Israel rejected their Savior, and so He turned to the Gentiles.

He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.

– John 1:11-12

For the last 2,000 years, we have been living in the age of grace.

The doors of heaven flung wide open to all, Jew or Gentile, to escape the judgment to come and enjoy eternity with God.

But those doors will close one day soon. Remember the Scripture in Genesis in which God warned His Spirit will not pursue mankind forever? There is an end to His patience when evil has overtaken society and all who will hear His call have responded.

Noah and his family represent those who are saved during the coming judgment on earth by fire. They symbolize the nation of Israel, who will be brought to belief the Messiah Jesus Christ, along with those who accept Him as Savior during the seven years of trial upon the earth. They will be carried through a time of terrible suffering to the deliverance of their souls.

The rest of humanity who reject Him will be destroyed in the tribulation of those days and face an eternal judgment.

In the well-known and often-debated passages of Matthew 24, Jesus responds to the question, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” In answer, Christ addresses the events just preceding His Second Coming of Christ in all His glory, the coming about which John prophesied in Revelation 19:11-21. In Matthew 24, Jesus is addressing the nation of Israel, those believers converted during the seven years of tribulation, and an unbelieving world. The Bride of Christ will already be gone, translated like Enoch to heaven.

The reference regarding “one will be taken and one will be left” in Matthew 24:40-41 is, in context, relating to being taken in judgment and is not a reference to the Rapture.

The Biblical account of Noah’s Flood gives us a startlingly graphic picture of what is coming at the end of the age. Its message is urgent and sobering. God will cleanse His creation and make all things new. He will bind up wickedness and destroy the wicked. He has waited a long time for that day, but He won’t wait forever.

Where are you in this place in time? What do you believe?