As it was in the days of NOAH

Luke 17:26 "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 "They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 "Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 "but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 "Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

Jesus says, "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man." What does this mean? What features of the days of Noah would be comparable to life today? Let me make three suggestions.

I. Life before the FLOOD was ADVANCED.

A. The population was large – How many people were on the world during the time of Noah? Genesis 6:1 says that "men began to multiply," which speaks of a population growth, perhaps a population explosion. If we take only the data given us in Genesis four and five we have 10 generations between Adam and Noah. Some Bible scholars suggest that there may have been more generations because the word "son" may refer to a grandson and thereby skip a generation or two. They suggest that we could have had 15 generations or maybe 20. But the text itself only mentions 10 generations. And when you add all the numbers up as to how old Adam was when Seth was born (130), and how old Seth was when his son Enosh was born (105), etc., you come to the conclusion that the flood occurred in the 1656^th year after creation. According to some, the flood may have come 2000 years or 3000 years after creation, but it definitely wasn’t 100,000 years or a million or a billion years. In other words, the Bible doesn’t give us much time between creation and the flood. Let’s take the smallest number possible and ask how many people could be born in that time – 1656 years. Calculating back that many years from today would put us at the year 348 AD. This was the time of the Roman empire shortly after Christians were granted freedom of worship under Constantine I who ruled from 312 to 336. Think of how large the population on earth could grow from 350 AD until now.

Add to your calculations the fact that people back then were stronger and lived longer, and undoubtedly had more children. Enoch, for example had a son named Methuselah when he was 65, and it says that Noah was 500 when he had Shem, Ham and Japheth. So people may have had more than the standard 2.4 children. A woman today normally has about 20 to 30 years in which to bear children. Back then, they may have had 200 or 300 years to bear children.

For each of the 10 generations from Adam and Noah, it says that they had a child at a certain age, and then it says they lived x number of years "and begat sons and daughters" (5:3-4) – "sons" and "daughters" – plural. This means that every one of those families had at least 5 children, two sons and two daughters plus the child named. How many children would be born on the 10^th generation if each family had only 6 children? Eric Sauer says, "with an average of only six children per family, by the time Cain was only 400 years old he would have had far more than 100,000 descendants" (The Dawn of World Redemption, 67). But, let’s say each family had an average of 12 children. The 10^th generation would produce 20 million children alone. And with 18 children, the 10^th generation would be three quarters of a billion, and with 20 children, the 10^th generation alone would produce 2 billion children in addition to all the mothers and fathers and relatives who were still alive. Thus it is very possible in 10 generations to have a large population.

But how many children did people have before the flood? Josephus (in a footnote, p. 27) says that an old tradition states that Adam and Eve had 33 sons and 23 daughters, and that Lamech, who was the 5^th generation after Cain, had 77 children by two wives, Zilla and Ada. Think of those numbers! With an average of 50 children per family, the 10^th generation alone would produce 700 billion children!

Add to this the climatic conditions, which apparently were wonderful all over the earth, the plentiful food supplies, since it was a world of virgin soil and unlimited riches, and you have the most ideal conditions for the rapid growth of population. Thus a population equal to today, of 6 billion people would be no problem whatsoever in 1656 years.

Obviously this is all speculation. We don’t know. But I’m saying this to emphasize that life back then wasn’t a couple of hundred people living in caves around the Mediterranean sea. I believe that the entire earth was populated with people, and that there is a very good chance that the population was as large as it is now.

B. Technology was growing – how primitive were people back then? We are so affected by the evolutionary doctrine that it’s hard to envision anything but half-monkey humans running around. The evolutionist pictures early humans as slow and clumsy. Here’s a typical statement by Willis Mason West, in his book, Early Progress, "the first men were more helpless than the lowest savages in the world today. They had neither fire nor light, no tools or weapons except their hands, and chance clubs or stones. We do not know a great deal about the earliest steps upward, towards civilization, but they must have been very slow" (quoted in Rehwinkel, The Flood, 41).

Notice that statement, "they must have been very slow." Why? Because that’s the only picture that fits West’s evolutionary theology. And West speaks with authority, as if he has seen these people, or had collections of fossils from their time period. In reality, his conclusion is based on his evolutionary doctrine. Actually the only reliable and accurate record of the most ancient historical events we have is in the Bible. It’s too bad that most modern evolutionary historians dismiss the evidence in the Bible as being worthless.

The Bible records that Adam was pretty smart. He gave names to all the cattle, the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. And apparently the names he gave were not just random names, but developed out of insight into the nature of the creatures he named. That says something about his vocabulary as well as his memory to get all these names catalogued in his brain.

Genesis 4:17 says that Cain built a city after the name of his son Enoch. Primitive people do not build cities. They live in caves. Notice verses 19 and following: "Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah. 20 And Adah bore Jabal. He was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. 22 And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron."

So we have people building and living in cities. We have cattlemen and ranchers, living in tents as nomads, children of Jabal. We have musicians, creating and playing the harp and flute, children of Jubal. We have inventors and master craftsmen in brass and iron as well as teachers of those who work these metals. Such craftsmen presuppose the mining of these minerals, as well as a knowledge of smelting and purifying them and of molding and shaping them into useful instruments, tools and weapons.

Then in verses 23-24 we have Lamach giving to his wives a song or poem he had composed, glorifying his deed. Notice what he is happy about: Then Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, Even a young man for hurting me. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold." He is singing a song to his wives about murder!

Cavemen are not into farming, industries, arts, inventions, music, poetry and things like that. The fact is – these were not cavemen. This was civilization of a very high order.

Add to that – Noah. Noah built a boat. Think about that. What does it take to build a boat 500 feet long? Well it takes a good understanding of math, a considerable quantity of good tools (they didn’t build the ark with flint stones and sharp rocks), as well as quite advanced understanding of engineering, blueprinting and ship building. Noah wasn’t a shipbuilder. He was a preacher. But the technology was available so that this preacher could build an enormous ship in his back yard, so to speak. Does that say anything? How many other individuals in history have ever built a boat that large? NONE.

And how large was the ark? We may find out this summer as a joint U.S._Turkish team of 10 explorers plans to make the arduous trek up Turkey's tallest mountain, at 17,820 feet, from July 15 to August 15, with the hopes of getting a glimpse of what they think is Noah’s ark, still encased in ice. Last summer was a hot summer in Europe and these explorers hope that more of the ice has melted so that the ark will be exposed enough to enter it.

God instructed Noah to make the boat 300 cubits long. A cubit can range anywhere from 17 inches to 24 inches. Using the larger cubit, the ark could have actually been about 600 feet long. But let’s take the shorter measurement, making it about 450 feet long. How large a boat is that? With a flat bottom boat, shaped like a giant casket, it would displace about 40,000 tons. For purposes of comparison, the Titanic displaced 46,000 tons. We are talking about a ship so huge that no nation in history has ever constructed anything approaching its size until the 19^th century, 150 years ago. And those modern ships have been built out of steel, not wood, which in my judgment is a easier project. Noah was not a nation; he was one man who built this boat (with help of course) in his back yard. Do you see why there is much evidence that civilization before the flood was extremely highly advanced?

By the way, think of the significance of finding the ark this summer and taking pictures to bring back for the world to see. Think of what that discovery would mean to the theory of uniformitarianism. Here is a huge boat that is 16,000 feet up on the side of a mountain. The first thing it would say is that no one could have built it up there because it is 5000 feet above the tree line. Who would carry all that wood 5000 feet up a mountain to built a boat? The unanswerable question would be, "how did it get there?" There is only one way it could get there, and that way would be rejected by almost every evolutionist in the world. It had to float there. That may not sound like much until you realize that a statement like that means that the water on the earth had to be 16,000 feet deep. We had to have a flood of water covering our earth at least 16,000 feet deep! Think of the striking nature of that statement!

Luke 17:26 "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 "They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 "Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 "but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 "Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

The emphasis of life is on "eating," "drinking," "sex," and "marriage," and in verse 28, "they bought," "they sold," "they planted," "they built." Here were prosperous people who didn’t have to worry about scratching out a living. They had it mastered and could focus on the "finer" things of life. Genesis 6 makes this statement:

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

A. The good boys and the bad girls.

In verse two there is something unusual going on between the sons of God and the daughters of men. Some people think that sons of God are angels who cohabit with earth women and have unusual children. I tend to think that the title refers to the godly line of people that developed out of Seth’s children (Gen 4:26). The followers of God suddenly develop this notion that earth women were more beautiful and more desirable than women who loved God. So they went after them, and, as it says, they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

Whether these are angels or humans doesn’t matter that much. The point is that a group of people who had some spiritual relationship with God came up with the bright idea that they would be better off chasing after unbelieving girls. All of a sudden, their spiritual condition, or their lack of any spiritual interest didn’t bother the sons of God, and they took – all that they chose. Apparently they could have all that they wanted and they took all they chose. I picture it as sort of a free for all, a marital carnival. "Step right up and pick out your earth girl, move over here and examine the male hulks on display today." As a result, families were ruined, children were corrupted growing up in that kind of environment, worship of God was traded for sexual pleasure. It all blended together in one confused mix, which brought about the final drop in mankind’s spiritual condition.

The root of the problem was "sensual," the sons of God were attracted by the daughters of men, wanted them, and took what they wanted. Thus the downfall was not through the elimination of the godly line, the sons of God, but through the assimilation of them. They weren’t killed by the bad guys; they were seduced by the available women.

May I say a word to the young people? Don’t think that your choice of a mate is incidental. It can make or break your future. Who you choose says something about your walk with God, your commitment to His guidance in your life, and your future service for God. When you try to serve God with a wife or husband who is an unbeliever or not interested in spiritual things, you will find total frustration. It just doesn’t work. You may say to yourself at the moment, "yeah, but these unbelieving guys or unbelieving girls are so cool, they are so with it, they are so beautiful, and besides their parents have money." Yeah, but wait until you get married and want to serve the Lord. It will be like trying to run down the road with a Volkswagon strapped to your back. You can’t. "But this is the most handsome hulk I have ever met. If I don’t marry him now, I’m going to be an old maid the rest of my life." Yeah, but being an old maid is heaven compared to being married to that handsome hulk that doesn’t care about Jesus Christ.

And when you are dating him or her, that is not the best time to witness to them and suggest that he or she get saved so you can get married. Why? Any guy who really wants to marry a girl will become "religious" to do it. He can become any religion you want him to become if he is really attracted to you. This means that if he all of a sudden "gets saved" so he can get married to you, it may not mean much, because it will be hard to tell whether his conversion is genuine. The only way to tell his true spiritual condition is to see him when he is not connected to you, when you have no influence over him. Be careful. The marriage you create is your own – your own blessing, your own curse. Pray. Ask God for wisdom, commit yourself to follow Him fully, and plead with Him to lead you and to protect you from getting linked to the wrong one. And pray for your mate-to-be that God will prepare that person for his/her future with you.

B. Powerful people.

4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

The word "giants" is the word nephillim which comes from the word "to fall" or "to fall upon," meaning that these people fell upon victims, tyrannized others by force. It refers to tyrants like Saddam Hussein who developed enough personal power over people to be able to abuse them. We also have the phrase at the end of verse 4, "men of renown." This is the word "famous," "great," "important." The children of these sons of God who came into the daughters of men became famous, they were known, not for their love for God, but for their sin. These were people who gloried in their sinful acts and became famous for it. Perhaps a better word to use would be the word "notorious." These were the pre-flood Al Capones, the Jeffrey Dahlmers the Courtney Loves, the Osama ben Ladens of their day. They amassed great power that they could exercise for their own evil purposes.

Lamach not only sinned but boasted in his sin, as if what he was doing was the ultimate of happiness. It was GOOD. He had killed a younger man who had hurt him (Gen 4:23-24). He had taught him a lesson. There was a progression here from the act of sin to the act of delighting in the sin. Thus he waxed poetic about his murderous act. That was the "progress" of Cain’s family. It began with the murder of Abel and ends in Lamach with the praise of murder (Sauer, 69).

That’s what was happening in Genesis six – people becoming famous for their excited, happy, proud display of their SIN. It doesn’t sound a whole lot different than today, does it? Lamach could be on TV today, or perhaps he would write a book that would be made into a movie. Life before the flood had its big names, and most of them were notorious for their evil rather than for their good.

5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

A. Universal evil. The population increase coupled with the technological development, and the growth of entertainment, was accompanied by an increase in darkness. The entire human race was sinking into a well where all the light and life around them was disappearing into a darkness that led to one thing – mud. The interest of every person seemed to be more and more concentrated on one thing – evil – so that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The word "intent" in this verse is the word "device," "plan," or "motive." It’s a word that means "to form," or "to shape," describing a deliberate, cognitive, choice to do evil (Stigers on Genesis, 99-100). It pictures a person formulating his/her BEST plans, developing what s/he considers BEAUTIFUL. And what is that is created? EVIL. The whole population had turned its God-given creative ability into the production of evil. As a result, the world is described as "corrupt" and "full of violence" (Gen 6:11, 13). Murder by one famous person or ten notorious sinners has spread like yeast, and infected others, until it becomes a part of society itself. Society became murderous.

Usually for sin to spread and become a part of society, people have to invent a story, a national story that justifies the wrong activity. We do this in America. Why do you think we would tolerate the killing of 40 million of our children in abortion mills? Because we have made up this story of a mother’s "choice." We are sweet people and we want everyone in the world to possess the freedom to make a choice. And so we are "granting" that privilege to every mother, whether she is capable of making a wise decision or not, whether she is under the pressure of idiots who run abortion mills or not, whether she is in contact with parents who love her or not. We want her to have the privilege of choice even if it negatively affects her for the rest of her life. It is the story of mothers being given a choice that "justifies" the gruesome business of murder. No thought is given to the fact that mothers-to-be had the "choice" of abstinence before they ever became pregnant. No thought is given to the psychological effect of the abortion event on the mother. We wipe away all the conflicting data with this nice story about "choice."

B. Absence of light. Don’t miss the point here. Genesis six is not talking about how powerful sin has become, and the appearance of a new brand of aggressive evil. No, to the contrary, Genesis six is talking about the disappearance of the light. The truth is that darkness cannot grow unless light disappears. The extent and depth of the darkness always depends on the amount of light. You can have deep, deep darkness and a candle, one lit match can eliminate the darkness.

On the other hand, you cannot permanently eliminate darkness. Darkness is always ready to appear when the light goes out. Evil will never be "eliminated" (until Jesus Christ ends the story at the final judgment). But what could be "eliminated" is the light, the "sons of God." And how will they be eliminated? In this case, not by killing them off, but by seducing them.

The fact is that darkness HAS NO POWER in the presence of light. It can grumble, rumble, threaten, but just the creation of a little light, just the striking of a match sends the darkness away. The tragedy in Genesis six lay not the greater power of darkness, but the greater impotence of the light. It was not the victorious march of evil, but the retreat of the sons of God.

Our responsibility is not to condemn the darkness, or scold the darkness for being darkness, and write books about the horror of the darkness. Our responsibility is to SHINE for Jesus! That’s the key. In reality evil possesses no more power and authority than darkness does. Christ said, "on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Why not? Because the gates of hell are darkness, and the disappearance of darkness, the temporary defeat of darkness simply depends on a little light. Thus any time darkness takes over it’s always because light fails. Our mission then, is not in "fighting" and "defeating" the darkness as much as it is in maintaining the LIGHT.

Jesus said, "you are the light of the world." Light to banish the darkness in the world is not going to come from the government, or from the TV, or the internet. It’s going to come as people meet you and say, "why is she so different? There’s something there that I haven’t seen before."

Yesterday I married my niece Josie to a man named Roland. Friday night, at the rehearsal dinner Roland gave a testimony of the effect Josie’s parents have had on him. His mother had died when he was 15, his dad was incapacitated with Parkinsons disease at the age of 44, so he found his teenage years quite difficult. He described what it was like to repeatedly come to Josie’s house, meet her mother and experience her mother’s love for him. He said that she treated him with "respect," even though he had some rough edges, she fed him and welcomed and accepted him as one of the family. Then he concluded, "I’ve changed; and I’ve changed because I have met a mother who loves me."

You are the light of the world. That light comes through your LOVE for others in the respect you grant them, in the sacrifices you make for them. That light comes through your HOLINESS, in the passion you demonstrate to do things the right way. That light comes through your TESTIMONY of the change Christ has brought into your life. You are the light of the world. Only a Christian, only one who knows Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, can be a light. There are not other lights.

Thus the judgment of God came upon the earth not because the children of Cain were bad. They had been bad all along. The flood came because the sons of Seth, the line of godly young people were attracted by the beauty of the line of Cain and went after them instead after God’s glory. The same tragedy is going to mark the age when Christ comes back. There will be an increase of evil and violence in the world, but the cause of the increase will be the disappearance of those who follow Christ with all their hearts, the putting out of the light. Do you realize how rare, and precious your walk with God is? Don’t let Satan put blow your light out. SHINE for Jesus!

06/06/04, BBC am