(Mat 24:37-38), “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  (38)  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,”

In Part I of this series of devotions on the Days of Noah, entitled “The Heart of Man,” we compared the sins of Noah’s day with the sins of today, to see if any change had occurred. The first comparison was of the condition of the heart of man in Noah’s day to the condition of man’s heart today.

The comparison proved that the heart of unregenerated man today is still desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9); and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually (Gen. 6:5); and that it begins at youth (Gen. 8:21), even in conception, as King David said, (Psa 51:5) “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

Now we will look at the Grace and Longsuffering of God towards men, (Gen.6:3) “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”

Because of the sinfulness of men, there has been striving (contending, pleading) between God and man to bring man back to his rightful state. The sinfulness of man, and the hardening of his heart, have depleted the lifespan of man over the centuries. Man, in the beginning, had an average lifespan of six hundred to a thousand years, which was normal – however, as sin progressed, the average lifespan has been reduced to three score and ten years. (See Gen. 5; 6:3; Psalms 90:10.)

After all that man had done to destroy himself and the earth, God still was gracious and longsuffering:

(Gen 6:5) “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

(Gen 6:11-12) “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. (12) And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.”

God had become fed up with the evil and corruptness of mankind upon the earth, and therefore announced judgment:

(Gen. 6:7) “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” (See Gen. 6:13.)

There was a man upon the earth who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, a just man, perfect in his generation, who walked with God, a preacher of righteousness, whose name was Noah (2 Peter 2:5). It was through Noah that God gave instruction to build an ark by which he, his family, and a certain number of animals would be spared the judgment of God (Gen. 6:14-22; 7:1-5).

For an hundred and twenty years, God was longsuffering with man while the ark was being built.  Also in those years of building, Noah preached the coming of God’s Judgment by way of a flood. But, what was the response of the people to this message of warning?

(Mat 24:38-39) “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,  (39)  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

They totally ignored the message and the messenger, continuing to live life as they pleased, until it was too late.

Now what about today? Righteous men of God are blowing the trumpet every Sunday, and every day of the week, with a message from God to repent. What is our response? It is no different from those of Noah’s day. We are eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage – as if a day of judgment is not approaching.

(2 Pe 3:9) “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Noah preached for an hundred and twenty years that a flood was coming; and the people of his day probably called him crazy and foolish, being that such had never happened before. When the Parousia, or Second Coming, of Christ is preached, people ignore the message.

But the Word of God tells us in (1 Cor. 1:21) that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. How many believed the foolishness of Noah’s preaching in his day? The Word of God says eight souls were saved (1 Peter 2:5).

Is there a difference between these two worlds? Man is still born with a depraved nature. Every imagination of the thought of his heart is still evil continually, as long as man is unregenerated by the Spirit of God. And man, in his totally depraved nature, is still rejecting the Message and it Messenger. This is a heartbreaking situation.