<p>17:26 <i>And as it was in the days of Noah, even so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man</i>- See on 2 Pet. 2:5-8. &ldquo;The days&rdquo; are parallel with &ldquo;the coming&rdquo; of the Lord. The scenario outlined elsewhere is of the Lord &lsquo;coming&rsquo; for the faithful, them consciously choosing to go to meet Him, and then their &lsquo;coming&rsquo; along with Him in judgment upon the unfaithful and Israel&rsquo;s immediate enemies. Therefore a period of time is made parallel with the Lord&rsquo;s &ldquo;coming&rdquo;. The &quot;days of Noah&quot; may refer to the way in which God told Noah of the flood, but in Gen. 7:1,4 told him that now there were &quot;yet seven days&quot; until the flood actually came, and he must now enter the ark. The gathering of the animals was done within those seven days (Gen. 7:1-3). In this lies the similarity with the last days. We know the outline picture- that judgment will come, and there are reasons and signs of that. But only a few days before judgment breaks will the faithful be invited to go to meet the Lord, to enter the ark. And in that period the Gospel will be spread to all nations, the last final appeal will be made. Just as Noah filled the huge ark, which could have saved so many people, with any animal willing to agree to come on board. The shutting of the door of the ark would then directly correspond with Mt. 25:10; Lk. 13:25: &quot;The door was shut&quot;. Just as desperate people would've knocked on the shut door of the ark, so the unfaithful will knock on the door which the Lord has now closed. In this life we can knock on the closed door, recognizing our condemnation- and it will be opened (Lk. 11:7; Rev. 3:8). But after the Lord has 'come' in the sense of inviting us into the ark, to go forth and meet Him, the door will be shut.</p><p>Perhaps those seven days were a period of feasting in the world around Noah, just as there will be a brief period of hedonistic prosperity in the world before Christ's coming, perhaps because of some international agreement which offers prosperity to the entire planet in return for some nominal acceptance of false religion Islam?. We note the period of &quot;seven days&quot; used for funeral celebrations (Gen. 50:10; 1 Sam. 31:13), wedding celebrations (Jud. 14:12,17) and general feasting (Esther 1:5; Job 1). The people around Noah were doing this right up until the last day of the seven days. Passover, a clear type of the final deliverance of God's people at the Lord's second coming, required a similar seven days preparation period (Ex. 12:19; 13:6) followed by a &quot;day of the Lord&quot;, the actual feast, and &quot;a solemn assembly&quot; (Neh. 8:18). Indeed, the feasts of Yahweh all required a seven day period (Lev. 23), and each of them was in some way typical of the second coming.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>A number of passages describe the AD70 judgments of Israel in terms of the flood; which suggests that they also have reference to the last days:<br />- 2 Peter 3 is a clear example, describing the destruction of the Jewish system in AD70 as being by fire as opposed to water used in Noah's time. Yet the chapter also has reference, e.g. through its links with the new Heavens and earth of Is. 65, with the destruction of the present age at the Lord's return.<br />- Nahum 1 describes the coming judgements on Israel in terms of mountains and hills splitting, and there being a great flood; all Genesis flood language.<br />- Dan. 9:26 describes the Romans in AD70 destroying &quot;the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood&quot;, the LXX implying with a sudden flood, as in Noah's time.<br />- Is. 54:9 describes the judgments on Israel being &quot;as the waters of Noah&quot;. The end of the flood, the end of Israel's judgments, therefore typifies the second coming.<br />- In the light of this the Lord's parable about the man building on sand whose house was destroyed when the heavy rain came (Mt. 7:25,27) must have primary reference (as so many of the parables do) to the judgement on the Jewish house in AD70. Those who built on sand as a result of not hearing Christ's words were the Jews- also described as shoddy builders in Mt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet. 2:7; Mic. 3:10; Jer. 22:13.<br />- The flood waters were upon the earth for 5 months. The siege of Jerusalem in AD70 lasted for the same period, coming after 3 years of the Roman campaign against Israel which started in AD67. The three and a half year suffering of Israel which culminated in AD70 may well point forward to a similar period in the last days; in which case the flood would typify the final months of that period, during which the judgments will be poured out most intensely. The five month tribulation of Rev. 9:10 may also have some relevance here.</p><p>Thus the state of Israel in AD70 was typified by the world of Noah's time, which therefore looks forward also to the last days, in the light of the evident connections between that period and our last days which are made in 2 Pet. 3 and the Olivet prophecy.</p>