OUR WATCHFULNESS TAKES GREATER URGENCY

Only a Few Survive

The parallel between Noah's day and our day does not end with the badness of the people and their destruction. As there were Flood survivors, so there will be those who survive the end of the present system of things.  The Flood survivors were meek ones who did not live as the people in general did.  They heeded the divine warning and kept separate from the wicked world  of that time.  "Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah," states the Bible.  "[Noah] proved himself faultless among his contemporaries."  (Genesis 6:8, 9) Out of all mankind, one family, "a few people, that is, eight souls, were carried safely through the water."  (1 Peter 3:20) And to them Jehovah God gave a mandate saying:  "Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth." -Genesis 9:1.

God's Word assures us that "a great crowd" will "come out of the great tribulation."  (Revelation 7:9, 14)  How many will there be in the great crowd?  Jesus himself said:  "Narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it."  (Matthew 7:13, 14) Compared  to the billions living on earth now, the survivors of the upcoming tribulation will be few. But they may well have a privilege  similar to that given to the Flood survivors.  The survivors may for a time be able to have offspring as a part of the new earthly society. -Isaiah 65:23.

Next time: "Keep on the Watch"

The Watchtower, 2003