(Chap. 24:32-41.)
THE Lord having answered the disciples’ questions, at least two of them, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age?” now gives two illustrations, one of a fig tree, and the other of the facts that occurred at the end of the antediluvian age, in the days of Noah.
In the parable of the fig tree, the Lord reminds them of summer being not far off when leaves begin to shoot forth. This was a fact appreciable to the senses. It was a matter of sight: “when ye shall see these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” (10:32, 33.) These things would occur sufficiently plain, to assure them of the near coming of the Lord to Israel. They were therefore to watch the progress of events, and mark the signs of the times. This was what their questions involved as to “the sign” of His coming, and of “the end of the age,” when Israel should say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. The people of Israel had been accustomed to look for signs, and they often had them. It was their mistake when Jesus came, and still is, for we are told that “the Jews require a sign.” “We,” on the contrary, “walk by faith, not by sight,” and know it to be our fitting posture to “wait for God’s Son from heaven,” as those who are in Him, and already seated in Him in heavenly places. The remnant of Israel who come upon the scene after we are gone will doubtless understand, when they see these events occurring, that their redemption draweth nigh.
The Lord also assures them that this generation―the race of Jews―will still be in existence, will not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled. And it is remarkable, while some tribes of the earth have passed away, and become wholly untraceable, yet the Jews remain a manifestly distinct race unto this day. That the Lord in thus speaking did not mean that the identical people then living on the earth would be in existence until the fulfillment of this prophecy is very clear, for proof of which we need only call attention to the 12Th chapter. There when speaking of the unclean spirit, and showing Israel’s future, when the spirit of idolatry would return, and take to itself seven other spirits more wicked than itself―referring to the Antichrist―He adds, “Even so shall it be unto this wicked generation.” This shows that our Lord applies the phrase “this generation” to those who do not come upon the scene for at least 1800 years after. It leaves no doubt that our Lord did not speak of “this generation” as actually referring to persons then alive, but to the Jews as a race, who, notwithstanding all the chastisements and scattering in unbelief, should still, in God’s wondrous mercy, be preserved as a distinct people, until all these predictions should have their accomplishment. The word of the Lord, however, is infallible; the strongest and most lasting thing in God’s created universe will change, but God’s truth remains the same. Our Lord insisted on this, and that too in connection with these prophecies: He said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (verse 35.)
The other illustration is the days of Noe; and our Lord prefaces it by referring to the ignorance that all are left in as to the precise time when He will be revealed from heaven. While the intelligent might gather general instruction as events became fulfilled, the day and hour were not revealed, not even to angels, though they would accompany the Lord in this public manifestation. “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (verse 36.) As to the world, the day will come upon it as a thief in the night; so sudden and unexpected will it be. They will be rather priding themselves on their attainments; “for when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.” It was like this in Noah’s time. They heeded not the preacher’s testimony. The building of the ark seemed only a strange incident in the world’s history. They attended unmoved to their daily pursuits, necessary duties, and matters of present comfort, or they might have been simply matters of business. Still they were deaf to God’s testimony. They hearkened not to His word. They perceived not God’s ways. They were therefore in culpable ignorance. “They knew not,” and they wished to be ignorant. Like many now, they did not care to know God’s mind. They are willingly ignorant. Hence it must be that the day of the Lord will come upon them as a thief in the night. The Lord will be entirely unexpected by them. Hence the Lord likens His coming from heaven in power and great glory to judge the living and dead, to the judgment of the antediluvians. “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (vv. 37-39.) They knew when it was too late. When the flood came, and Noe was safe in the ark, then they knew, but not before. So shall also the coming of the Son of man be! How very solemn is the parallel! Men attending to the necessaries, and comforts, and business of life, and yet so refusing God’s testimony as to be ignorant of the fact that Jesus is soon coming from heaven to judge the world in righteousness. But so it is. We see exactly this condition of things, and indifferentism, with all its sad, yet, it may be, quiet accompaniments, becoming more and more mature. Not indifferentism to religious things, but carelessness as to God’s testimony for the times―unconcerned, it may be, as to the fact that Christ is quickly about to arise from that throne on which He is now seated, and coming in flaming fire to execute judgment on the ungodly. Instead, then, of Christ finding the world converted, it is positively taught here by our Lord Himself, that He will find it in antediluvian ignorance and unbelief, the measure of iniquity full, and ripe for the outpouring of divine judgment.
The subject here, as I have endeavored to show, not being the Lord coming for us, but with us, to execute judgment on the living, and to bless a people in the earth, as in Noah’s days; the judgment of the flood is used by our Lord as a suitable and striking illustration: “as the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” There is therefore no allusion to the translation of Enoch, who was removed from the scene altogether before the judgment came. But our Lord having thus stamped the days of Noah as a type of His coming in flaming fire to judge, nothing can be plainer than that Enoch illustrates the translation of the heavenly saints to meet the Lord in the air, and that the silence about him is exactly in keeping with the instruction of the chapter. And what is still more striking, we get the separation that took place in Noah’s day specially referred to here, which we know will precisely correspond with what the Lord will do when He comes in the clouds of heaven with His saints. As in the flood it was the wicked He took away, and brought His elect through the judgment into blessing on the earth; so the Lord will take the wicked away—cut them off in judgment, and cause the blessed ones to go into the millennial earth. “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left.” (vv. 40, 41.) It is the Lord introducing the promised time of blessing in the earth, taking the bad away, casting out them which do iniquity, and leaving a blessed people in the earth. When the Lord comes for us, the action is precisely opposite. Like Enoch, the blessed ones will be taken away―translated―caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and the wicked left behind for judgment. Ours is indeed a blessed hope.