YET SEVEN DAYS
June 29, 2004. Updated August 20, 2008

In just a very short time, in May 2011, the world will observe its 7000-year anniversary since the world-wide destruction of the flood of Noah's Day. It occurred in 4990 BC, and since there was no year zero between BC years and AD years, 7000 years from that time falls on 2011.

God was grieved with the continual wickedness of mankind prior to the flood. Thus, He purposed to destroy everything with the breath of life from off the face of the earth:

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. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 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 repents me that I have made them. Genesis 6:5-7

That is, all were to be destroyed except for Noah, Noah's family, and 2 or 7 of each animal in order to propagate the lines of mankind and the animals afterward. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, meaning that he was one of God's elect that God planned to save. So God spared Noah and his family, along with the representative animals, in the ark while destroying everyone else.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6:8

And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. Genesis 7:1-3

Interestingly, God told Noah 7 days prior to the flood that He was about to bring the rain:

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him....And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. Genesis 7:4-5, 10

By God's grace, Noah knew to get his family and the animals safely on the ark, while the rest of mankind and the beasts remained outside, prepared for the coming judgment of destruction for their wickedness.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth....And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. Genesis 6: 11-13,17-18

And so the flood came and God did as He said He would do, beginning on the 17th day of the 2nd month (which relates to May 21st of our present-day calendar):

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened....And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that [were] under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. Genesis 7:11,17-23

The ark in which Noah, his family and the animals where spared from God's judgment represented Christ, in whom the believers find refuge from God's wrath. Those who are not in the ark, those not found in Christ, shall die an eternal death. Thus, the flood was a great picture or figure of the final destruction to come upon all the wicked at the end of the world, where creation and the unsaved of the world will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. The believers, on the other hand, have found their refuge safely in Him by God's grace.

Christ Himself likened the days of Noah with the days prior to His return in judgment:

But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 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, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matthew 24:37-39

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Luke 17:26-27

Destruction will come as a snare and a surprise for all the unsaved of the world, just as the flood of Noah's Day was a horrible snare upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of the world at that time.

And take heed to yourselves, 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. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. Luke 21:34-36

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; and shall begin to beat the men-servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for [him], and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. Luke 12:45-46

Another passage that relates the flood to end of the world is found in 2 Peter 2:

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly....The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 2 Peter 2:4-5,9

Indeed, the terms "waters," "the deeps," "waves" and so on, like the flood, are sometimes used as word-pictures in the Bible describing God's wrath:

I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Selah....Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off. They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together. Psalm 88:4-7,16-17

Again, when Jonah was swallowed by a great fish in the sea, he prayed:

And said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, [and] thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, [even] to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars [was] about me forever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. Jonah 2:2-6

Now, the Bible does say that God will not actually destroy the world again with a worldwide flood:

And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. Genesis 9:11-15

Spiritually, this is a portrait of the covenant of grace whereby God is saving a people for Himself through the atonement of Christ whereby He will not destroy them for their sins. Nevertheless, the present earth and heavens are reserved for destruction by fire in which the elements -- the earth and the works therein shall be burned with fervent heat. And God does equate the flood of Noah's Day with this destruction by fire at the end of the world:

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men....But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. 2 Peter 3:5-7,10-13

So, the judgment of the flood is altogether related to the destruction by fire of this creation at the end of time inasmuch as they both relate to the wrath of God.

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. Mark 9:43-44

For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receives the mark of his name. Revelation 14:10-11

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:15

But those who find grace in God's sight, like Noah and his family, those who are saved according to His good pleasure, will be spared -- spared by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who was the atonement and propitiation for their sins. Thus, the coming destruction of the world will be the time of salvation for the true believer whose sins have been covered by Christ. It will be the time when the believers receive their glorified spiritual bodies and begin to reign with Christ in heaven forevermore, while the unsaved are cast into the furnace of fire. (In fact, while this is beyond the scope of this article, both water and fire are symbols of salvation for the true believer while they are symbols of judgment for the unsaved -- just as the flood of Noah's Day and the end of the world itself will be salvation for the elect of God but eternal destruction for the unsaved. Moreover, the Gospel, God's Word itself, is intimately associated with these symbols as it brings eternal life to the elect and total annihilation for the unsaved.)

Now, here we are, less than 3 years prior to the 7000th anniversary of the flood. Could this be significant?

In the Bible, we find a couple of places where a day is substituted for or equated with a year. One such place is where God made the Israelites wander in the wilderness forty years for their rebellion against Him, each year representing a day in which they searched out the land:

And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. Numbers 14:33-34

In another instance, the prophet Ezekiel was to lay on one side for 390 days and on the other for 40 days, each day representing a year for the iniquity of Israel and Judah:

For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. Ezekiel 4:5-6

Then, we also find that a day is likened to 1000 years in the Bible:

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter 3:8

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4

In fact, 2 Peter 3:8 (above) is quoted in the context of the flood and the coming destruction of the world by fire! And in this passage, there are those who scoff at the idea of Christ's return as if Judgment Day will never come, willingly suppressing the knowledge that God once destroyed the world by water long ago -- while God assures His elect (the beloved) of this one thing, that 1000 years is as a day and a day as 1000 years to the Lord:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And 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. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 2 Peter 3:3-8

So God assures His people that just as He destroyed the world in Noah's day with the worldwide flood, so He will destroy the entire creation by fire on the last day. And He tells us that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

So when God originally told Noah He would bring the flood upon the earth in 7 days, as we saw earlier, He is also saying in a figurative sense that the final destruction upon the world (which the flood represents) will come 7000 years later. Yet 7 days (7000 years) and God will bring the flood (final destruction) upon the earth.

Interestingly, the evidence from the Scriptures is that the visible church, with all of its apostasy and man-centered theology, is now under the wrath of God, which is the precursor to Christ's coming on the clouds of heaven. (II Thessalonians 2:1-12). See the related articles on DaysOfVengeance.com with Scripture references pertaining to this issue.

For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God? I Peter 4:17

For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread [the grapes], against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come [even] to the ends of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them [that are] wicked to the sword, says the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from [one] end of the earth even unto the [other] end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. Jeremiah 25:29-33

We also see the signal sin of homosexuality having come far out of the closet, another indicator that the earth is ripe for judgment.

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. Romans 1:26-27

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah occurred as a result of the prevalence of this particular sin:

And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing [them] rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, [even] the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where [are] the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly....And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring [them] out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD has sent us to destroy it....Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. Genesis 19:1-7,12-13,24-25

And this again is an illustration of the character of the world prior to its final destruction:

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;....And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 2 Peter 2:4,6-9

And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Jude 6-7

In fact, the wicked and bizarre character of the world in general is described very well in Romans 1:

And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. Romans 1:28-32

There are other evidences that go beyond the scope of this article. For example, a careful study of the biblical calendar reveals that God frequently causes events to come to pass after very specific time periods. For example, Jacob, who was the beginning of Israel in that his name was changed to Israel, was born exactly 2000 years before Christ. King David ascended the throne exactly 1000 years after that time. Moses' life was divided into three (equal) 40-year periods. The Israelites were in Egypt exactly 430 years to the very day, and so on.

And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:41

The Israelites were then in the wilderness for exactly 40 years to the day before entering the land of Canaan. These are just a few examples among very many in the Bible.

What about you? Are you covered by the blood of Christ so that you will escape the second death, the lake of fire? Or are you heading for a rendezvous with God at the total destruction of this present creation along with all of the unsaved of the world who will remain? At this late hour, it is still the day of salvation that you might plead to God for mercy before it is too late.