Like The Days of Noah
Extinction-Level Event
These are the records of the generations of Noah. (Genesis 6:9)
Before early Christians were allowed to undergo immersion into the faith and become disciples of Jesus, they were required to "learn how God punished the wicked by water and fire and glorified the righteous in each gen-eration" (Apostolic Constitutions 7.39). In other words, they were required to learn the story of Noah's flood and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. That's because those stories teach us about the end of days.
Yeshua said, "Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man" (Luke 17:26). He went on to remind His disciples about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:
It was the same as happened in the days of Lot... on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:28-30)
The Apostle Peter says that the story of the flood of Noah and the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are supposed to serve us as warnings to "those who would live ungodly lives thereafter." In other words, something like that could happen again:
[God] did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter. (2 Peter 2:5-6)
Peter also states that Noah was "a preacher of righteousness." What does that mean? It means that Noah was concerned for his generation. He was concerned about others, not just his own salvation or the fulfillment of the prophecy.
The story of the biblical flood is an extinction-level event. If not for the fact that Noah found tavor in God's eyes, all of humanity would surely have perished. It would have been the end of the human race. After the flood, the LORD set His rainbow in the sky as a sign of a covenant that He made with all life on earth, a promise that He would never again flood the entire planet. Ever since then, the human race has not gone extinct. So far. But the fine print on the contract is a little troubling. The Torah says that God promised not to extinguish all life on planet Earth by flooding the world with water, yet, there are many other ways to extinguish all life on earth.
Extinction is a reality for every living species. Just like it is appointed for man once to die, every biological species also has an inevitable end. The fossil record testifies that 99.9 percent of all animal species have gone extinct, which is to say, almost every type of creature that once existed on the planet no longer does. It's part of the problem with being mortal and made from the stuff of the material world. Nothing in this world lasts forever.
Just as death is inevitable for man, extinction is ultimately inevitable for the human species, for every species, and eventually, for all life on earth. If nothing else gets us, the sun will run out of fuel and expand to such a size that it almost engulfs us in its circumference before collapsing into a cold dwarf star and flickering out. (Don't panic. Most estimates say we have about four or five billion years of fuel left before that happens, which is, literally, all the time in the world. Cf. Isaiah 30:26; Malachi 3:19 [4:1]; Revelation 16:8) Then there's always a meteor strike. Every so often, we read in the news about a near miss of some giant space rock. A big enough meteor could do the trick. Other scenarios include a change in the earth's atmosphere, a disruption of the food chain, a new pandemic, or thermonuclear war. There are currently about 14,000 active nuclear warheads in the world, all of them pointed somewhere at someone.
In the days of Noah, life on earth experienced a mass extinction. To avoid a complete and total extinction event that would have ended all land-based animal life on earth, the LORD instructed Noah to take two of every living creature into the ark, and seven of every clean animal. This means that God provided a way to preserve His creatures. But not all of them.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
A Salvation Ready to Be Revealed
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)
God saved the human species from the last extinction-level event through a single man: righteous Noah. He will save the human species from the ultimate extinction-level event through a single man: Yeshua the Messiah.
The Apostle Peter encourages his readers to look forward to "a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" that will transcend the inevitable extinction of the human species. He speaks of "a living hope" and an imperishable, undefiled, and unfading inheritance guaranteed by heaven for disciples of Yeshua:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Master Yeshua the Messiah, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (I Peter 1:3-5)
The as-yet-unrevealed salvation is a major concept in the Bible. It's closely connected to the idea of the Day of the LORD (Yom HaShem, ?? Di), the future time predicted by the prophets when God will directly intervene in human history, reveal His glory, redeem His people, punish the wicked, and reward the righteous. It divides all of history and time into two distinct periods: this current age (olam hazeh, in D?iy) and the age to come (olam haba, ạn Dạiy).
Compare that idea to Noah's flood. The great flood divided human history into two distinct ages: before the flood and after the flood. The antediluvian world that existed before the forty-day deluge corresponds to this current age (Olam Hazeh). The new world into which Noah, his family, and all the animals on the ark disembarked corresponds to the age to come (Olam Haba).
In academic circles, this view of the end times is called apocalypticism because the book of Revelation (also called the Apocalypse of John) so clearly depicts it. Apocalypticism does not mean catastrophes and natural disas-ters; it refers to the type of eschatology (end-times belief) that anticipates the coming Day of the LORD, the conclusion of this current age, and the beginning of a new one:
Jewish Apocalypticism = Belief in the coming Day of the LORD, the conclusion of this current age, and the beginning of a new one.
The Jewish apocalyptic worldview of the coming Day of the LORD is the key idea informing the entire New Testament, Yeshua's kingdom message, the gospel, and the significance of the Messiah. But somehow, many New Testament readers and teachers completely miss it.
Without the Jewish apocalyptic worldview informing our reading, the New Testament will not make much sense. Apocalypticism is like the key that unlocks the door. The New Testament does not spell it out explicitly on every page because it was already well understood by the New Testament's original readers. That's because religious Jews in Judea and Galilee lived and breathed the Scriptures. They were also familiar with non-canonical apocalyptic texts like the book of Enoch.
Since apocalypticism was already a common Jewish worldview in the days of the apostles, the New Testament writers never took the time to introduce it. Every book of the New Testament takes off assuming that the reader is already familiar with the concept. The book of Revelation and the epistles of Peter and Jude are among the most apocalyptic books in the New Testament. It's entirely fair to say that all of the teaching of Yeshua and the entire New Testament falls in line with the same apocalyptic worldview in anticipation of the imminent Day of the LORD. The whole New Testament is about the end times, not just the book of Revelation.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
A Rundown of Apocalyptic Eschatology
Unfortunately, believers today struggle to make sense of the Bible because they lack this basic information. What was common knowledge to the original readers of the New Testament books is today poorly understood, if understood at all, even by most Bible scholars. To get the broad picture of the Day of the LORD as it was understood and taught by Jewish people in the days of the apostles, it helps to read the apocalyptic literature that they left behind. It's also important to know how they understood the prophecies of the Tanach (i.e., the Old Testament). Here's a quick rundown of the major features and broad outlines of early Jewish apocalypticism.
I. This current age will conclude when God pulls back the curtain that covers reality. He will enter the world in a grand theophany (appearance of a deity) that reveals His existence.
The grand theophany will happen in conjunction with or through the agency of the Davidic Messiah King, also called the Son of Man, His representative on earth.
The Messiah will defeat the enemies of Israel in a world war called Gog and Magog.
The Messiah will gather the exiles and the lost tribes of Israel back to the promised land.
God will resurrect the righteous, including the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Messiah will rebuild Jerusalem and the Holy Temple.
The Messiah will establish the Messianic Kingdom, uniting all Israel under a single monarchy.
The Messiah will subjugate the nations and administer His kingdom in justice and righteousness from His throne in the holy city, Jerusalem.
The Messiah will usher in a utopian era of world peace, universal revelation, and miraculous fertility characterized by abundance.
The heavenly court will convene to judge the living and the dead.
God will judge the wicked by consigning them to the fire of Gehenna and outer darkness.
He will reward the righteous with the delights of the paradisical World to Come and New Jerusalem.
Those are the broad outlines of first-century Jewish and apostolic expectations about the Day of the LORD, although not necessarily in that order. Truly, there is no single timeline or established sequence of these events. Instead, these twelve elements are all like snapshots or short clips and brief scenes of the Day of the LORD. The prophets, the apocalypses, the apostles, and the sages of Israel present them in no particular order. They string them together like scenes from a motion picture, plucked from context and spliced together out of sequence, to create movie trailers for the coming attractions. Like a good movie trailer, the prophecies of the Bible communicate the gist of the narrative and reveal some of the more spectacular scenes, but they don't tell the whole story or present those scenes in a linear sequence.
These broad Jewish apocalyptic expectations of the future are exactly what Peter means when he speaks of "a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." That is to say, ready to be revealed in the Day of the LORD. Indeed, "the LORD knows how to rescue the godly from [trials], and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment" (2 Peter 2:9).
Like Noah in the days of the flood, the Messiah offers salvation from the coming day of wrath. "[God] did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah ... when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly" (2 Peter 2:5).
Peter says that the eight survivors who "were brought safely through the water" correspond to the disciples of Yeshua who have repented and immersed into His name for the forgiveness of sins, "not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience." They will be rescued "through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah" by entering into an imperishable, undefiled, unfading resurrection like His, and that is the "salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Peter I:3-5, 3:20-21).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Like the Days of Noah
Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. (Genesis 6:1I-12)
Yeshua said, "Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man" (Luke 17:26). The term "in the days of the Son of Man" refers to the days of the Messiah: the end of this current age, the Day of the LORD, and the coming kingdom.
In the days of Noah, people were addicted to violence and immorality. "All flesh had corrupted their way." They were on a collision course with God's justice. For them, the Day of the LORD loomed ahead in the form of a cataclysmic global flood, but they did not know it. Instead, they carried on with ordinary life:
They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:27)
Not that there's anything wrong with eating, drinking, and getting mar-ried. That's the normal stuff of ordinary life. What else should they have been doing?
Well, for one thing, they should have been repenting!
The flood didn't have to happen, and Noah knew it. He obeyed God's command to build an ark and gather the animals, but he didn't give up on the possibility that he could save the world by persuading people to repent. So long as "the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark" (I Peter 3:20), there was still time to appeal the heavenly court's decision against humanity. During those days, Noah labored as a "preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5), trying to persuade his generation to turn from their sinful ways. Peter's disciple Clement of Rome says, "Noah preached repentance, and as many as listened to him were saved" (I Clement 7:6). "Noah, being found faithful, preached regeneration to the world through his ministry" (I Clement 9:4).
For a whole one hundred and twenty years, Noah planted cedars and cut them down (for the construction of the ark). When they asked him, "Why are you doing this?", he replied, "The Master of the universe has warned me that He will bring a flood on the world." (Genesis Rabbah 30:7)
Noah took fifty-two years to make the ark so that they would repent of their ways. But they did not repent. (Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer 23)
Despite Noah's efforts to warn his generation about the coming day of judgment, they refused to listen. They did not repent. "By [this testimony, Noah] condemned the world" (Hebrews II:7).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Making Excuses
Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed it behind him. (Genesis 7:16)
Yeshua warned His generation that "the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah" to urge them to repent (Matthew 24:37). He knew that, due to the distractions of life's mundane affairs, such as "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage," the people of His generation were in danger of ignoring His warnings about impending judgment. They were so busy with ordinary life that they did not heed His good-news mes-sage, "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17, 24:38).
He told a parable to illustrate the point. Once there was a king who invited his wealthy subjects to a lavish banquet. The noblemen eagerly sent back their rsvps to the king. When the day of the banquet came, however, they began to make excuses:
The first one said to him, "I have bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused." Another one said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused." Another one said, "I have married a wife, and for that reason I cannot come." (Luke 14:18-20)
In the parable, the king's subjects represent the people of Yeshua's gen-eration. They all received an invitation to the Messianic Era proclaimed by John the Immerser, Yeshua, and His disciples. They expressed initial enthusiasm about the prospect. But when it came down to it, they did not follow through with repentance. They prioritized the business of ordinary life above the kingdom. They did not seek first the kingdom. They did not repent. When the hour came, they found themselves outside a closed door (cf. Genesis 7:16 and Matthew 25:10).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
All Aboard the Ark
Repentance under the name of Yeshua is like a ticket to get aboard the ark before the door closes and the rains begin to fall. Simon Peter says that "eight persons, were brought safely through the water" in the ark (I Peter 3:20). He doesn't mention the animals, but they were saved, too. The LORD told Noah to gather into the ark pairs of every living species.
Ferocious predators and dangerous beasts came to Noah and conducted themselves under his care as if they were tame, domesticated animals. The predators did not attack the herds and flocks of clean animals. They dwelt peacefully, side-by-side, aboard the ark. Somehow, all of them had sufficient food and drink for the duration. These miracles foreshadow the future Messianic Era when "the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion ... also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox" (Isaiah II:6-7). We will take a closer look at this prophecy in future lessons.
The ark carried those saved from the flood from one age to the next. The Messianic Era will carry those who are saved from this current world (Olam Hazeh) into the World to Come (Olam Haba). So long as they have the ticket.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
What is Repentance?
Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made; and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. (Genesis 8:6-7)
What if the people of Noah's generation did repent? Suppose that Noah succeeded in starting a big revival, inspiring people to renounce violence, robbery, and immorality. Imagine that the people who heard Noah believed him and followed his instructions. If they appealed to God for mercy and forgiveness and proved their sincerity by turning away from evil, would God have flooded the world anyway?
We translate the Hebrew word teshuvah (nawn) as repentance, but it's important to know that the word literally means "return." In the context of the Bible, it means to return to God by changing direction. To put it simply, the imperative "repent" means, "Cease to do evil and learn to do good!"
Let's take a look at the way that the Prophet Isaiah summarizes the concept:
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (Isaiah I:I6-17)
In contrast to the Hebrew word teshuvah, the Greek word most often translated as "repentance" in the New Testament is metanoia (METávoia), which means "change of mind." That makes it sound like New Testament repentance is all about changing your mind but not necessarily your behavior. The Jewish writers of the Greek New Testament had to translate Hebrew ideas into the Greek language. They used the word metanoia as a close Greek approximation for the Hebrew concept of teshuvah, but it's not sufficient to exegete the New Testament from the Greek alone. It's also necessary to remember the Jewish and Hebrew terminology behind the Greek translation. In this case, we are talking about a change in behavior, not just a change of mind or theological conviction or belief.
Teshuvah = Repentance. To turn around. To stop sinning and turn back to God.
Here's the process: recognize the sin, confess it before God, renounce it, make amends for it if possible, and resolve not to repeat the offense. That's real repentance. God promises that, if we repent, He will forgive the sin. The Prophet Isaiah said that if the people of Judah would repent, God would completely forgive them:
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool." (Isaiah I: 18)
The Prophet Isaiah promised the people of his generation, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." He also warned them, "If you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword" (Isaiah I:19-20 ESV). King Hezekiah chose to eat rather than to be eaten. He took heed of Isaiah's warnings. The king repented. The people in his kingdom repented. When the day of trouble came, Judah and Jerusalem were saved (Isaiah 37; 2 Chronicles 29-32; Jeremiah 26:18-20).
Noah offered the people of his generation the same choice. They chose to ignore him. They were not saved. Their drowned corpses littered the earth and became carrion. Birds ate them. That's why the raven did not return to the ark.
Yeshua offered His generation the same choice. He brought them a message of good news and bad news:
THe GOOD News: If they were willing and obedient, they could enter the Messianic Era and eat at the banquet of the righteous.
THE BAD News: If they refused His offer and continued in wick-edness, they would be eaten: "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather" (Matthew 24:28).
The horrific massacres of the war with Rome that engulfed the Jewish people of Yeshua's generation fulfilled His ominous predictions. The historian Josephus was an eyewitness during the siege of Jerusalem. He said, "They left the dead bodies to rot under the sun" (Jewish War 4:383/vi.3). The people of the generation became food for the vultures.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Left Behind
At the time of the coming of the Messiah, a husband and wife will be in the same bed. One will be taken, the other left behind. Two men will be at work together in the same field. One will be taken, the other left behind. Two women will be turning the stone mill to grind flour. One will be taken, the other left behind:
Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. (Matthew 24:40-41)
I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left. There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left. (Luke 17:34-35)
The first-century apocryphal book called Apocalypse of Zephaniah preserves another close parallel. Unfortunately, we no longer have the full text of the book, but in this brief fragment, the Prophet Zephaniah is caught up to heaven in an apocalyptic rapture. As he ascends, he looks back at Jerusalem and is astonished to be able to see ordinary scenes of daily life transpiring in vivid detail. His vision quickly zooms out, and he sees the whole planet hanging in space:
Then I went with the angel of the LORD, and he lifted me up above my city. Yet before my eyes, there was nothing — no form, no substance. Then I saw two men walking side by side along a road, speaking with one another. I also saw two women at a millstone, grinding together and talking as they worked. And again I saw two people lying upon a bed, each engaged with the other in their shared intentions ... Then I looked and beheld: the entire inhabited world was hanging like a single drop of water, suspended from a bucket as it rises from a well. (Apocalypse of Zephaniah)
The pairs of Jerusalemites engaged in ordinary life represent the righteous and the wicked-one of each. When the Day of the LORD comes, they will be separated from one another to receive their respective reward and punishment. Apocalypse of Zephaniah goes on to narrate the Day of the LORD with a judgment scene involving books, thrones, and angelic scribes.
Contrary to popular teachings, you do not want to be the one "taken." You want to be the one "left behind." Just as the flood came and took people away in the days of Noah, and just as fire and brimstone fell on the people of Sodom in the days of Lot, being "taken away" refers to people taken for judgment:
The disciples asked Him, "Where [will they be taken], Master?" He answered, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered." (Luke 17:37)
The first-century apocalypse of 4 Ezra also uses the term "left behind" to refer to the remnant of Israel who survives the time of tribulation. In the text, Ezra the scribe sees a vision of the travails of the Day of the LORD and declares, "How terrible it will be for those who are left behind in those days, but how much more so for those who are not left behind!" Then the angel, showing him the vision, explains:
Here is the meaning of those who are left behind: The one who survives the dangers of that time has been preserved because of his righteousness. Those who fall into danger are people who had good deeds and faith in the Almighty. So understand this: those who are left alive are more blessed than those who have died. (4 Ezra 13:22-24)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Noah and Jonah
Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land. (Genesis 8:8)
Noah warned the people to repent. He prophesied to them, "One hundred and twenty years, and God is going to flood the planet." If the people of Noah's generation had heeded his message, God might have relented.
Imagine it. One hundred and twenty years go by, and nothing happens. Noah sits in his giant boat with all his animals, and not a drop of rain falls from the sky for forty days and forty nights. He might feel abashed, like Jonah did when, after forty days and forty nights, God did not destroy Nineveh as he had predicted.
The Bible says that any would-be prophet who makes a prediction that does not come to pass is a false prophet. "If the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him" (Deuteronomy 18:22). We are not to pay attention to such a prophet. In ancient Israel, a false prophet could be put to death (Deuteronomy 18:20). But then there's the story of Jonah.
Like Noah sending out the dove from the ark to look for dry land, God sent a prophet named Dove to the Assyrian city of Nineveh to look for repentance. (The Hebrew name Jonah [Yonah, nai] means dove.) Jonah prophesied to the people of Assyria, "Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4). The citizens of Nineveh heard the message and repented. They said, "Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish?" (Jonah 3:9). From the king on his throne to the common Assyrian in the street, they all repented. They put on sackcloth and undertook a fast from food and water. Even the livestock of the city fasted and wore sackcloth. The people earnestly called on God for mercy. Each person repented "from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands" (Jonah 3:8).
After forty days, the city was not overthrown. "When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10). Jonah complained, "I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity" (Jonah 4:2).
From this story, we learn that repentance can overturn a heavenly pun-ishment. Prophecy is not set in stone with only one potential outcome. The sages explain that the outcome of every prophecy is contingent on the reaction of the people warned by the prophecy. Every oracle of doom and prediction of divine punishment carries this contingency. God might relent if the people repent. A harsh verdict can be appealed, and the heavenly court of appeals is always open. The prophets prophesied primarily to give the people an opportunity to repent and avert the coming disaster. The LORD told Ezekiel how prophecy works:
When I say to the wicked, "O wicked man, you shall surely die," ... you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way ... I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:8-II)
Yeshua said that His job was to be the Jonah of His generation, who called the people to repentance before the day of wrath:
This generation is a wicked generation; it seeks for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. (Luke 1I:29-30)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Fallen Ones
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. (Genesis 6:4)
In the days of Noah, the LORD purposed "to destroy all flesh" from under heaven because "all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth" (Genesis 6:12). The sages explain that this corruption refers to sexual immorality, particularly the hybrid race of the Nephilim. Like tares sown among the wheat, the Nephilim corrupted the human race (Matthew 13:36-43). "The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart" (Genesis 6:6).
The fate of those fallen angels and their offspring comprises the main storyline for a significant chunk of the early chapters of i Enoch. A band of angels called "the Watchers" -who are charged with custodial roles watching over humanity— enter a conspiracy (cf. Daniel 4:13, 17, 23). The leader of the band convinces 199 other Watchers like himself to descend from heaven, take human wives, and beget children by them. They descend to the top of Mount Hermon and take a solemn vow, binding themselves to the deed (I Enoch 8-6:6). Thus, they "indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh" (Jude 7). The early chapters of i Enoch are primarily concerned with the punishment of the Watchers and the hybrid race of giants they fathered, which are called the nefilim (D,'b}), i.e., the "fallen ones."
How could angels interbreed with humans? Angels are spirits. They don't have human bodies. As Yeshua Himself says, "They neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven" (Mark 12:25). One early rabbinic commentary explains that, in descending to earth, the angelic Watchers incarnated into a semblance of human bodies:
The angels are flaming fire, as it is said, "He makes his angels winds, His ministers are a flaming fire" (Psalm 104:4) ... but when they fell from heaven, from their holy place, their strength and stature became like that of human beings, and their covering was a clod of dust, as it is said, "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust" (Job 7:5). (Pirkei deRebbe Eliezer 22)
The women gave birth to the Nephilim, who grew to be giants-the equivalent of demigods. The giants ravaged the earth and consumed its resources. They committed all kinds of robbery and violence. They became cannibals, hunting and devouring human beings. Meanwhile, their divine fathers taught human beings the forbidden arts of warfare, metallurgy, jewelry making, cosmetics, homeopathy, enchantments, astrology, and reading of signs and omens. They utterly corrupted human beings until "the wickedness of man was great on the earth ... every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Chains
I asked the angel of peace who went with me, saying: "For whom are these chains being prepared?" And he said unto me: "These are being prepared for the hosts of Azazel." (I Enoch 54:4)
In the book of Enoch, God uses the flood to purge the earth of the hybrid race of Nephilim. He instructs His archangels Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael to enchain the Watchers and to imprison them in the Abyss. Meanwhile, the archangel Uriel is sent to Noah to instruct him to build the ark before the coming deluge. While Noah builds the ark, the angels fashion enormous chains in preparation for the judgment of the Watchers.
Before the rains begin to fall, the archangels bind the fallen angels in those chains and cast them into the Abyss. A variety of early Jewish sources tell fragments of the same story. The apocryphal Book of Jubilees describes how those fallen angels and evil spirits from Noah's time wait in the Abyss, still shackled in those chains, until the judgment day (ubilees 5:10).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Origin of the Demons
There is nothing in heaven or on earth, or in light or in darkness, or in Sheol or in the depth, or in the place of darkness (which is not judged); and all their judgments are ordained and written and engraved. In regard to all He will judge, the great according to his greatness, and the small according to his smallness, and each according to his way. (Jubilees 5:14-15)
The apocryphal Book of Jubilees says that, after the flood, the earth was haunted by the disembodied spirits of those who perished in the flood— namely, the spirit of the Nephilim. Noah saw how those evil spirits tempted, vexed, and tormented his children, so he asked God to remove them from the earth:
You, Lord, know how Your Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, behaved in my day. As for these spirits now alive-imprison them! Hold them fast in the place of condemnation so they do not destroy the children of Your servant, my God. These spirits are wicked, and they were created for destruction. Do not let them have authority over the spirits of the living - for You alone, O God, have the right to rule over all spirits. From this day onward, let them have no power over the sons of the righteous, now or ever again. Jubilees 10:5-7)
The LORD commanded His angels to bind the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim and imprison them with the Watchers, but the Satan arose and begged that he might take authority over a remnant of them and keep them with him to help him mislead the nations before the final day of judgment:
Lord, Creator, let a few of them remain with me. Let them obey my voice and carry out all that 1 command them. If none are left to serve me, I will not be able to carry out the purpose of my will among the sons of men. These spirits are meant to corrupt and mislead people before the time of judgment-for human wickedness is great. (Jubilees 10:8-9)
God consented to the request. He said, "Let one-tenth of them remain with him. The other nine parts shall descend into the place of condemna-tion." The remaining tenth left on earth are the demon spirits in service of Satan, assisting him as he misleads and deceives the nations. They fearfully await the day of judgment (Matthew 8:29).
In the final judgment, all creatures and spirits will give an account before the judge. He will sentence the fallen angels and evil spirits for their crimes against humanity. "Do you not know that we will judge angels?" (I Corinthians 6:3).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Release from the Abyss
If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment. (2 Peter 2:4)
The Watchers and the spirits of the Nephilim imprisoned in the Abyss have a role to play in the end of days. For now, however, they remain incarcer-ated, chained up in the Abyss. The New Testament reminds us that God keeps the fallen Watchers "in eternal bonds under darkness" until the final judgment on the Day of the LORD:
Angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. (Jude 6-7)
Messiah went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah. (I Peter 3:19-20)
Their chief is an angel named Destruction: "His name in Hebrew is Abad-don, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon" (Revelation 9:II). When the day of judgment is at hand, Abaddon will be given a key to the Abyss. He will descend like a star falling from heaven. He will unlock the Abyss and release those imprisoned within it. He will lead an army of punishing spirits up out of the darkness like a mortal king at the head of his hosts (Revelation 9:1-10). From out of that same Abyss will rise "the beast" who makes war on the people of God (Revelation II:7). The dramatic return of the Watchers will endure for only a short season as this current age comes to an end.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Satan in Chains
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. (Revelation 20:1-3)
The story of the fall of the Watchers is easily conflated with the story of the fall of Satan, but let's try to keep them separated. They aren't the same. In the earliest Jewish traditions, the two stories speak of vying factions in the spiritual realm.
The Watchers were enticed by their admiration of human beings and their desire for human women. Human women did not entice Satan. He is the enticer, not the enticed. Jealousy of human beings and resentment against them motivated Satan's involvement with humanity. Satan hated the sons of Adam, but the Watchers loved us too much.
Both plot lines reach their conclusion in the end of days when both sets of villains get what's coming to them. In that day, the angels will bind the devil in the same type of chains and eternal bonds they used for the Watchers. An archangel will descend, "holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand." He will chain up the Satan and imprison him in the darkness below. He will close up the Abyss and seal it shut for another thousand years. During those years, the evil inclination in the heart of human beings will be subdued. For one thousand years, the lying tongue that inspires the nations to make war against Israel and the disciples of Yeshua will be silent.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The End will Come Like a Flood
The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. (Genesis 8:11)
The story of Noah's flood establishes the apocalyptic model at the beginning of the Torah (and the beginning of the whole Bible). Everything that comes after the story of Noah's flood occurs in the aftermath of that one time that God's wrath wiped out the whole population. The memory of the flood colors the rest of the Bible with existential anxiety and the expectation of a coming day of reckoning. If it happened before, it could happen again.
The apocalyptic worldview of Jewish eschatology predicts that the future Day of the LORD will bring another extinction-level event to planet Earth. This current age will reach its climactic conclusion on the Day of the LORD.
For the wicked, it will be "a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness" (Joel 2:2). "Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light, even gloom with no brightness in it?" (Amos 5:20).
In the days of Noah, the LORD intervened in human affairs by bringing them to a dramatic conclusion. From the time Cain killed his brother Abel until the flood came and swept them all away, He refrained from intervening. He allowed human beings to follow their own desires. He saw that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," but He did not intervene (Genesis 6:5). He regretted having made mankind, but He did not intervene until human wickedness reached a point of intolerable toxicity. Even then, He demonstrated His patience by first issuing a 120-year advance warning through Noah. "Surely the Lord GOD does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). When the day of God's intervention did finally come for Noah's generation, it brought an end to their world and the birth of a new one.
Yeshua said, "Just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man." In the simile, the world before the flood corresponds to this current age (Olam Hazeh). The flood corresponds to the wrath of God on the Day of the LORD. The people who perished in the flood correspond to the wicked in this current age who are destined for judgment. Righteous Noah, who "found favor in the eyes of the LORD" because he was blameless in his generation, corresponds to the godly who heed the warnings and prepare (Genesis 6:8-9). The new world Noah and his family discovered when they left the ark corresponds to the age to come (Olam Haba).
Yeshua's good-news message about the kingdom and the power of repentance prepares His disciples for the coming flood of the Day of the LORD:
Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. (Luke 6:47-48)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The End of Days, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.