9. What point did Jesus make, as recorded at Matthew 24:36?

⁹ The foretold Kingdom-preaching work and other features of the sign of Jesus’ presence are being fulfilled right now. Hence, the end is near for this wicked system of things. True, Jesus said: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:4-14, 36) But Jesus’ prophecy can help us to be ready for “that day and hour.”

14. What did Jehovah eventually tell Noah, and why?

¹⁴ As the ark neared completion, Noah may have thought that the Flood was imminent, although he did not know exactly when it would occur. Jehovah eventually did tell him: “In just seven days more I am making it rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” (Genesis 7:4) That gave Noah and his family just enough time to get all the animal kinds into the ark and enter it themselves before the Flood began. We do not need to know the day and hour for the start of this system’s destruction; survival of animals is not entrusted to us, and prospective human survivors are already entering the symbolic ark, the spiritual paradise of God’s people.