“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
My Notes
What Does Matthew 24:37 Mean?
Jesus compares the days preceding His return to the days of Noah: people were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage—normal activities, routine life—right up until the flood arrived and "took them all away." The comparison isn't between Noah's era and some especially wicked future. It's between the normalcy of daily life and the sudden interruption of divine judgment.
The activities listed—eating, drinking, marrying—aren't sinful. They're ordinary. That's the point: the people of Noah's day weren't doing anything dramatically wrong in these activities. They were living normal lives. The problem wasn't the activities. It was the obliviousness—the complete absence of awareness that judgment was approaching while life continued as usual.
The phrase "knew not until the flood came" is the terrifying detail: they didn't know. Not because they weren't warned (Noah preached). Not because the signs weren't there (the ark was being built in plain view). They didn't know because they refused to factor God's warning into their calculations. Normal life became the anesthetic that numbed them to approaching catastrophe.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Are you living in 'days of Noah' normalcy—going through routine without awareness that God's timeline might interrupt your plans?
- 2.What would it look like to live each day with the awareness that Jesus' return could happen at any moment?
- 3.The danger wasn't wickedness but obliviousness. How do you stay spiritually alert during the monotony of ordinary life?
- 4.If the flood came during normal activities, what 'normal' in your life might be masking a lack of spiritual preparedness?
Devotional
Eating. Drinking. Getting married. Normal life. Ordinary routine. Right up until the flood came and took them all away. Jesus compares His return to Noah's flood—and the point isn't the wickedness. It's the normalcy. People were just living their lives. And then everything changed. Instantly.
The days of Noah weren't characterized by dramatic, obvious evil in Jesus' description. They were characterized by obliviousness—people going through the motions of daily life without any awareness that judgment was approaching. They ate. They drank. They planned weddings. They made normal, reasonable, everyday plans. And they had zero awareness that the world they were planning for was about to be destroyed.
This is the most sobering kind of warning because it doesn't require dramatic wickedness to be in danger. You don't have to be a notorious sinner to be caught off guard. You just have to be normal. Just routine. Just living your life without factoring in the reality that God's timeline and yours might not match. The danger isn't in the activities. It's in the obliviousness.
Are you living as if tomorrow is guaranteed? Making plans that assume the current normal will continue indefinitely? Investing in a future that may not arrive the way you expect? The people of Noah's day weren't evil for eating and drinking. They were foolish for assuming the eating and drinking would continue without interruption. Jesus says His coming will be equally sudden and equally unexpected for the unprepared. Live with awareness. Don't let normal become an anesthetic.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
For as in the days that were before the flood,.... Not all the days before the flood, from the creation of the world;…
Noe - The Greek way of writing “Noah.” See Gen. 6–9. The coming of the Son of man would be as it was in the days of…
Noe This, the Greek form of the name, appears in E. V., Luk 17:26; "Noah" is read in the other passages where the name…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture