“Just as it was in the days of Noah,
so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage
up to the day Noah entered the ark.
Then the flood came and destroyed them all.”
(Luke 17:26–27)
“As It Was in the Days of Noah” (Luke 17:26–27)
“Just as it was in the days of Noah,
so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage
up to the day Noah entered the ark.
Then the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:26–27)
We’ve all heard the story of Noah’s flood at least once.
Some say Noah spent one hundred years building the ark,
and others say it took about one hundred twenty.
I honestly don’t know the exact number.
But either way, he built that massive ship for an incredibly long time,
and I’m sure people around him thought he had completely lost his mind.
Why would they think that?
Many scholars say that before the flood,
people of that era didn’t know what rain was.
Water had never fallen from the sky.
Genesis 2 describes it like this:
“The Lord God had not sent rain on the earth…
but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” (Gen. 2:5–6)
Some believe that instead of rain falling from above,
the earth itself provided moisture through a rising mist.
So now you can understand—at least a little—
why Noah must have looked insane.
Imagine a man building a gigantic ark for more than a hundred years,
saying water would fall from the sky
and cover the entire earth.
Of course people thought he was crazy.
Truly.
What Scripture Means When It Calls Noah “Righteous”
The Bible says Noah was a righteous man.
But what does “righteous” really look like?
Would a righteous person hear God’s warning
and quietly secure salvation only for himself or his family?
I don’t think so.
Noah must have spoken to many people.
He must have warned them about God’s coming judgment.
He must have said, “It will happen soon. We need to prepare.”
But how did people respond?
The Bible says they ignored God
and lived in continual evil.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart
was only evil all the time.
The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth,
and His heart was deeply troubled.” (Gen. 6:5–6)
People mocked Noah.
They laughed, cursed, dismissed, and perhaps even hindered him.
They lived however they wanted—
chasing pleasure, satisfying their desires,
focused only on their own lives.
Right up until the moment Noah and his family entered the ark,
they were eating, drinking, marrying—
living ordinary days with no awareness of what was coming.
Noah’s Generation as a Mirror for Ours
Noah’s story is a mirror for our own time.
Jesus promised clearly in Scripture
that He will return,
and that a day of judgment will surely come.
But today, people don’t care about God’s existence.
They don’t care about judgment.
Their entire energy goes into chasing their dreams,
their passions,
their personal pursuits.
The same thing is happening now.
If we speak about what we believe,
people may call us crazy.
“Jesus risen?
Returning on the clouds?
Angels filling the sky,
trumpets shaking the heavens?”
No matter how vivid our imagination is,
most people won’t understand it.
“The day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire,
and the elements will melt in the heat.” (2 Pet. 3:12)
Heavens burning?
We’ve never seen such a sight.
Just as Noah’s generation had never seen a flood.
But Jesus said He will surely return.
And the day of judgment is certain.
We already know this.
Faithfully Living Out Our Mission as We Wait
So as we remember Noah’s flood,
let us faithfully carry out the mission God has entrusted to us.
Let us wait for Jesus, who promised He will come again.
I bless you in the name of Jesus.