Below is a commentary from chapter sixteen, Rapture Passages in Matthew, from my manuscript, Waiting for the Day and Hour.
Matthew 24:37-39
“But as the days of Noe, so also
shall be the coming of the Son of man. For as they were in the days which were
before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until
the day on which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew not till the flood
came and took all away; thus also shall be the coming of the Son of man.”
Jesus continued to prophecy about
the day and hour when the rapture of the body of Christ will happen. As the
world moves towards the rapture, society will resemble the days of Noah (Matt. 24:37).
John Darby used the Greek transliteration of Noah’s name in his Bible, Noe. Νῶε
(Nóe) is pronounced No'-eh in English. In Hebrew, Noah’s name is נֹחַ (Nōaḥ).
It is pronounced No'ach in English. Noah’s name means, at rest. As I wrote
above, in Chapter Eleven, I discussed the time leading up to the rapture as
being similar to the days of Noah.
The thing that caused God to
command Noah to build the ark was that the people filled the earth with
violence (Gen. 6:13-14). When God said that he would bring קֵץ כָּל־בָּשָׂר (katz
khal-beeshaar) “the end of all flesh” (Masoretic Text), he was not only
referring to humans. He was also referring to the Nephilim (Gen. 6:4a). As you
have read, the Nephilim (giants) were the progeny of the בְנֵי־הָאֱלֹהִים (bani-haelohim)
“sons of God,” the angels of God (Gen. 6:2a). The bani-haelohim lusted after earthly
women and produced offspring with them (Gen. 6:2, 4b). The offspring were גִּבּוֹר
(gibôr) strongmen (Gen. 6:4c). The Nephilim were half-human, half-angel beings.
They were powerful demonic beings. It was the Nephilim who were the main
instigators of the violence on the earth. The Testament of Naphtali[1] records
that it was because of the Watchers' (angels) offspring that God flooded the
earth.[2] This
is why God had to destroy all flesh. When Jesus prophesied that as the rapture
gets near, the world would be like in Noah’s time, he meant that the earth
would not only be filled with violence, but also the offspring of angels would
be among the earth’s population.
When God destroyed the Nephilim in
Noah’s day, they made a resurgence. Moses wrote that the Nephilim would return
after the Great Flood. They populated the earth before the Great Flood וְגַם
אַחֲרֵי (vegam achri) “and also later” (Gen. 6:4b, MT). In my commentary on Matthew
22:29-30, I provided Scripture verses of the places and tribes where the
Nephilim made a resurgence. I also wrote that the Nephilim, or the Rephaim, will
be the endtimes ἰσχυρός (ischyros) “mighty men” during the 7-year Tribulation
(Rev. 19:18). These ischyros are the same strong men (gibôr) that Moses wrote
about and whom Jesus referred to when he asked the Pharisees how they could plunder
an ischyros’ (strong man’s) house unless he binds him first (Matt. 12:29; Mk.
3:27; Lk. 11:21-22). His statement revealed that the Nephilim were part of the
population during his day. The proof is in Jesus’ lesson to the Pharisees on Βεελζεβοὺλ
ἄρχοντι τῶν δαιμονίων (Veelzevoúl árchonti tón daimoníon) “Beelzebub, prince of
demons” (Matt. 12:24, mGNT). Jesus healed a man who was possessed by one or
more spirits of dead gibôr (Matt. 12:22). After that, he was accused of performing
this miracle by the power of Beelzebub. So, Jesus informs the Pharisees that Satan
and his angels are united—Satan does not cast out spirits of dead gibôr (Matt. 12:25-26).
It is then that he makes the analogy between the spirits of dead gibôr and
living Nephilim, or Rehpaim, dwelling in their cities. He associated the strong
man (ischyros) with Satan and his angels. The Pharisees knew giants were living
among them, and because of their strength, they accumulated other people’s
possessions by intimidation and brute force. For someone to plunder their ill-gotten
possessions, they would have to subdue the ischyros first. I also wrote in
chapter eleven that Nephilim have been spotted all over the world, even by
explorers over many centuries.
Jesus proceeded to say that in the
pre-Flood days the people were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage” (Matt. 24:38). His statement is not as innocent as it sounds in most
English Bibles. The people, both men and Nephilim, were τρώγοντες καὶ πίνοντες (trógontes
kaí pínontes) “eating and drinking.” A moderate view of this phrase would
suggest Jesus meant they ate and drank to stay alive, and be strong and
healthy. But if you combine it with the next phrase, “marrying and giving in
marriage,” you will see what Jesus meant. The English phrase “marrying and
giving in marriage” reads in the Morphological Greek New Testament and the
Greek Interlinear Bible as: γαμοῦντες καὶ γαμίζοντες (gamoúntes kaí gamízontes)
“fornicating and fornicating.” In the Textus Receptus, it reads: γαμοῦντες καὶ
ἐκγαμίζοντες (gamoúntes kaí ekgamízontes) “those who marry and those who
divorce.” The Textus Receptus translation suggests an epidemic of marrying and
divorcing. Getting married and then quickly divorcing was likely as common as
changing bedsheets. The Greek texts I quoted imply that fornication was without
restraint and widespread.
English translations make “marrying
and giving in marriage” sound like the young were being married and their
parents were giving them their blessing. But Jesus was suggesting something
different. He taught that when a man divorces his wife, he forces her to become
an adulterous (Matt. 5:32a). Anyone who marries a woman who has been divorced is
guilty of adultery (Matt. 5:32b). However, Jesus pardoned the wife and the man
who she gets remarried to if her initial husband was fornicating with other
people. Jesus also taught that if a man divorces his wife and remarries someone
else, he commits adultery (Matt. 19:9). However, a pardon is granted if his
wife is fornicating with other people. Therefore, in Noah’s day, the people,
both humans, and Nephilim, were gamoúntes kaí gamízontes (fornicating and
fornicating). This would suggest that the men went from woman to woman, and the
women went from man to man, committing fornication. Both were guilty of
fornication. Associated with this sexual immorality was trógontes kaí pínontes (eating
and drinking). Eating and drinking in the partying or reveling sense. Gluttony
was the norm. Society participated in and caroused in wicked sexual pleasures before
the Great Flood. It was this way right up to the day Noah entered the ark. The
generation that witnessed Israel’s renewed statehood has increasingly become
like the days of Noah. As every decade has passed, immorality and impurity have
increased.
Jesus reaffirms that when he
comes for the church society will be living like they were in the days of Noah
(Matt. 24:39). And just as the people in Noah’s time were dumbfound when the
flood came and drowned them all, the people in the days leading up to the
rapture will be shocked when the body of Christ suddenly vanishes in front of them (1 Thess. 4:17).
Picture:
Free for use under the Pixabay
Content License
[1]
The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Testament of Naphtali
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-testament-of-naphtali
[2]
The Testament of Naphtali - Chapter 3:5
https://www.thefirmament.org/scripture/testaments/testament-of-naphtali/
(Accessed 7/25/2025)
No comments:
Post a Comment