Matthew 24:37 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Matthew 24:37

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Christ’s comments about the days of Noah are made to emphasise what he has said in verse 36 – no one knows the day and the hour in which the Son of man will appear. That day will come as a complete surprise to those living at the time. The people of Noah’s day had dismissed him as an eccentric with a message which did not need to be taken seriously. They did not interfere with the building of the ark, but neither did they attach any importance to it, or to what he said. He issued warnings and they sounded alarming, but why worry about something which was so unlikely, something which had never been seen before in all recorded history? How could a flood come that covered the earth? Where was all the water? Yes, he backed up his message by his life’s work and he evidently believed it himself, but what business did he have to trouble other people about these things? He warned men and women about their lifestyles and their sin, and he said that there was a God in heaven who hated sin and would punish it, but where was the evidence that this God even existed, and that he would ever act? So they carried on their lives indifferent to what Noah said. They ate and they drank; they got married and they gave their daughters in marriage. These things were not evil in themselves (and no doubt Christ could have named many evil things that they did do) but that is the point. They carried on their lives as if there was no God, no accountability for human beings, no judgment to come. They were safe to live as they liked, and they gave no thought to how they lived. But when the day came that God had determined to send the flood, it came suddenly. They were trapped in their unbelief with no escape. The door of the ark was closed and they could do nothing to get inside. Perhaps they didn’t want to get in to begin with. The rains had started, but the full extent of their danger did not immediately appear to them. Soon however they saw what was happening, and too late they desperately tried to enter the ark. But God had shut the door, and it could not be opened. Perhaps they banged on the side of the ark, and pleaded with Noah to let them in, but he could do nothing to help them. It is this hopeless situation that Christ draws attention to. ‘Take heed to yourselves,’ says the Lord, ‘lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. ³⁵ For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth (Luke 21:34-35)

Application

The flood is a historic event, but is also a dreadful scene to make us think, to help us imagine what it is to have failed to respond to God’s warning. Of course Christ speaks of these things because he wants us to respond. He wants us to take these warnings seriously and to escape the final judgment. He is sympathetic to our predicament, even though we are guilty and entirely deserving of what is about to come. The first thing that happens in the heart of someone who is going to seek the Lord is a sense of their danger and the need to act decisively. We are comfortable with our sinful lifestyles, and can see no danger in continuing with them. We think we can afford to ignore the gospel, and to bolster ourselves in that point of view to are ready to ridicule the message and the messengers, saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation’ (2 Peter 3:4). That attitude is a snare. It lulls us to sleep and allows us to subdue any sense of alarm in us. But a sense of alarm would, in this situation, be our greatest friend.

The preacher’s task is not to understate the danger men and women are in. That danger is great, and needs to be expressed in solemn terms. He knows that many will push away the message, but he must ignore that and continue to stress the urgency, whether people will listen or not. Certainly, he wants people to respond, but if they will not he has discharged his duty, and they are responsible for their own destruction.

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Matthew 24:37 Commentary and Bible Study