"But of that day and hour no one knows, not
even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. For the
coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in
those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the
ark, and they did not understand
until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of
Man be."
- Matthew 24:36- 39
With the
prohibition clearly stated against attempts to date-set, our Lord says that no
one knows the time of His return, not the angels, nor the Son, but only the
Father. But, what does this mean
in light of the fact that Matthew 24:4- 31 speaks concerning the tribulation
period that is seven 360-day years, divided at the midpoint by the abomination
of desolation? In other words,
alert believers in the tribulation should be able to know the exact day of the
second coming. I believe that
believers in the tribulation will indeed be able to know the day of Christ' s
return since Luke 21:28 says, " But when these things
begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your
redemption is drawing near." Also,
Matthew 24:34 is a time related statement saying that the generation that sees
" all these things," (i.e., the events of the seven-year tribulation) will not
pass away until Christ returns. So
what does Matthew 24:36 mean in light of these things?
No One Knows
In this passage
Jesus is referred to as " the Son."
When the New Testament uses terms like " the Son," or " the Son of Man,"
as occurs in the next verse, it stresses His humanity and the incarnation. This passage does not say, " that no man
will ever know. This He did not
say." [1] I agree with most commentators that
this passage is saying that in His incarnation as the Son of Man it was not
given to Him (or revealed to Him) the time of His return. I am sure that He knows the day and the
hour upon His return to heaven.
John MacArthur notes the following:
Therefore, even
on this last day before His arrest, the Son did not know the precise day and
hour He would return to earth at His second coming. During Christ' s incarnation, the Father alone exercised unrestricted
divine omniscience.[2]
Ed
Glasscock echoes this understanding: " The Lord did not attempt to display His
deity but rather, in contrast, emphasized His humanity. As an obedient servant in His humanity,
Jesus did not know the day or the hour of His return." [3]
Jesus is saying
that in essence He was not telling them at that time when He was
returning. However, this does not
mean that those at a future time would not be able to know when He was
returning. Yeager says: " The
thought of the context is that at the time that Jesus spoke this to His
disciples, and even yet now, at the current writing, nobody knows the day and
the hour." [4] It is not until after the rapture, when
one is in the tribulation that God' s prophetic clock will resume ticking. For believers living during that time
they will be able to know at least the day when Christ will return to planet
earth.
The Days of Noah
In the second
illustration following His Olivet Discourse (24:4- 31) Jesus announces a
parabolic comparison between His second coming and that of the days of Noah
(24:37). While not specifically
called one in the passage, it has the distinctives of a parabolic
comparison. " The coming of the Son
of Man will be just like the
days of Noah" (emphasis added).
Christ is making a comparison between His return (24:36) and the
antediluvian days of Noah.
First of all, the
passage says that the second coming of Christ will be just like the days of Noah. The word order in the original language reads as follows:
" For just as the days of Noah, in this way is the coming of the Son of
Man." The intensive particle " just
as" osper is a " marker of similarity between events and states." [5] When combined with the demonstrative
adverb " in this way" houtos, Christ is
saying that the days of Noah were exactly the same as will be the time of
Christ' s return.
Does this mean
that there is an extensive list of items that can be compared with the days of
Noah? I do not think so. There is a single primary point that
Christ emphasizes in each of the parables that He gives. In this one it is preparedness. " The likeness is seen in the suddenness
of the coming of the judgment and the unpreparedness of the world for it,"
declares Toussaint.[6] Daniel Harrington says, " The point of
the comparison between the days of Noah and the coming of the Son of Man is the
unexpectedness of the crisis. . . .
So unexpected was the flood that people did not recognize it until it
had already come upon them." [7]
On more than one
occasion the New Testament compares the second coming to the flood in Noah' s
days (Luke 17:26- 27; 2 Pet. 2:4- 11), as well as to other judgments such as the
days of Lot (Luke 17:28- 30). The
central point found in these passages is that unbelievers were not prepared for
God' s judgment. This is the intention
of Christ in this passage as well.
Eating and Drinking
Lack of
preparedness is reinforced by the examples that our Lord cites. The Greek word used here for " eating" trogo is not the word normally used. It means, " to bite or chew food, eat (audibly), of animals . . . chew, nibble,
munch." [8] It is only used six times in the Greek
New Testament, the other five uses are all found in John, usually of eating
Christ' s flesh. The normal New
Testament Greek word for " eating," which is used in the parallel passage (Luke
17:27), is esthio. It occurs 158 times in the Greek New
Testament and means, " to take something in through the mouth, usually solids,
but also liquids, eat." [9] What' s the point? The point appears to be " implying
luxurious living." [10] The unprepared of that day will be so
absorbed in pleasing themselves, or said another way, chomping on food, that
they miss the fact that they are living in extraordinary times that would
justify the abandoning the normal routines of life. Alfred Plummer also
explains as follows:
The
special point of the analogy is not that the generation that was swept away by
the Flood was exceptionally wicked; none of the occupations mentioned are
sinful; but that it was so absorbed in its worldly pursuits that it paid no
attention to solemn warnings.
Instead of saying: " It is
certain to come; therefore we must make preparation and be always on the
watch," they said: " No one knows
when it will come; therefore there is no need to trouble oneself about it
yet. Others matters are much more
urgent." [11]
The events that
Christ had just described (the tribulation in 24:4- 31) should evoke concern
about God' s plan for history. instead, the unbelievers want to continue their
own pursuits of their daily routines.
Robert Govett explains: " The love of the world is displayed by men' s
being given over to eating and drinking.
Had they believed the message of wrath just about to come, they would
have fasted and wept." [12] A desire for the status quo is a
manifestation of unpreparedness.
Marrying and Giving in
Marriage
While eating and
drinking relates to daily unpreparedness, marrying and giving in marriage
illustrates unpreparedness concerning one' s long-range perspective. Marriage, while certainly an
institution ordained of God is good in-and-of itself, the point here is that
one should not be engaged in long-ranged planning while unprepared for
impending judgment. Meyer tells us
that it is " descriptive of a mode of life without concern, and without any
foreboding of an impending catastrophe." [13] Just as it would make no sense to plan
marriage in the days of Noah leading up to the Flood, if one was unprepared to
face God' s judgment, in the same way, it makes no sense to plan for marriage in
the face of the events of the tribulation that will lead up to the second
coming.
In the days of
Noah, Noah had been preaching concerning the coming judgment of God (2 Pet.
2:5), yet no one, other than Noah' s family paid attention to his message. Instead, they went about business as
usual, ignoring the warnings of God' s Word. Govett captures the sense well in the following:
Hence
these pursuits are spoken of, not as evil in themselves, but as they
practically give the lie to the warnings of God. These are only reasonable, so long as the present scene is
to go on as it is. The
accumulating property, when both life, property, and posterity are to be
destroyed, is folly.[14]
These
practices by the unprepared ceased " the day that Noah
entered the ark," just as they will in the future when Christ returns.
They Did Not
Understand
Perhaps the most
sobering statement in this passage is that " they did
not understand." They did not put
two and two together, Jesus said, " until
the flood came and took them all away."
Jesus then said, " so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." Here we have a similar construction
that we saw in verse 37, which is the " marker
of similarity between events and states." [15]
Not
only should similarities be noted, but it is also important to see contrasts as
well. It is important to note that
the rejecters of God' s Word, who " did not understand," in verse 39 is
juxtaposed with the admonition to believers in verse 33, which says, " even so
you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the
door." The Greek verb ginosko is used in both passages and
translated " recognize" in verse 33 and " understand" in verse 39. This Greek word has the meaning in
these contexts of " to grasp the significance or meaning of something, understand,
comprehend." [16] The difference between the one who
understands and the one who does not is based upon who accepts God' s Word and
who does not.
Actually,
verse 39 does say that they the unbelievers did come to understand these
things. However, their
understanding did not come until the flood came and took them all away. This is one of the many things that separate believers from
unbelievers. Believers accept
God' s Word before an event occurs because they trust Him and His prophetic
word. On the other hand, an
unbeliever has to be shown these things through experience, in this case a very
bad experience. What about
you? Do you trust God and His Word
because He says it, or are you one who has to be shown things from
experience? There is a big
difference between the two. Maranatha!
(To
Be Continued . . .)
