Peter tells us the illustration was given in Noah’s days.

The mention of Noah instantly reminds us of the flood—water—and that raises in our minds the thought of water baptism.

“By faith Noah . . . constructed an ark for the saving of his household; and through this faith he condemned the world.”​—HEBREWS 11:7.

 1, 2. What can we learn from an examination of Noah’s life?

JEHOVAH granted Noah and his family​—just eight in number—​the privilege of being the only humans to survive the Flood.

³ “Certainly if God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tartarus, delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment; and he did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people; and by reducing the cities Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them, setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come; and he delivered righteous Lot, who was greatly distressed by the indulgence of the law-defying people in loose conduct​—for that righteous man by what he saw and heard while dwelling among them from day to day was tormenting his righteous soul by reason of their lawless deeds—​Jehovah knows how to deliver people of godly devotion out of trial, but to reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment to be cut off, especially, however, those who go on after flesh with the desire to defile it and who look down on lordship.”

As those scriptures show, what took place in Noah’s day and in the time of Lot is filled with meaning for us.

The exceptional family was that of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah. (Gen. 5:25-32)

Let us notice the difference between Noah and the world society of his day, according to this Bible account: “Noah was a righteous man.

Days Like “the Days of Noah”

As in Noah’s day, so today, violence has become a household word.

12. In what way did Jehovah exercise foreknowledge in the days of Noah?

¹² Consider how God exercised foreknowledge in the days of Noah.

He gave sufficiently detailed information to Noah.

From shortly after the worldwide deluge that engulfed the earth in the days of the prophet Noah, more than 4,300 years ago, a wicked old order has entrenched itself in the earth.

In the days of Noah this God showed his ability to destroy a whole world of mankind with one stroke, one “act of God” that was not an accident.

But what did Noah do while he walked with God?

That must and will be true of the impending world calamity, for Jehovah’s greatest witness, Jesus Christ, said our days were to be parallel with those of Noah: “Just as it occurred in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of man.” (Luke 17:26, NW)

Noah Acted on Well-Founded Faith

5, 6. On what was Noah’s faith based?

⁵ Noah was one who had well-founded faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

One of these took place in the days of Noah, as called to our attention by Peter.

For anyone back there to experience salvation he had to be baptized into Noah.

FAMILY HEAD NOAH

 3. Describe Noah’s organizing activity.

³ The first great patriarch or family head of the immediate post-flood society was Noah.

The human race survived through it in our common forefather, Noah, and his three sons and the wives of all four.

From Noah’s three sons the three great branches of mankind sprang.

28, 29. How did Noah prove himself Jehovah’s witness, and how did false worship pass from the earth in his day?

²⁸ In the third generation after Enoch there was a man full of faith named Noah.

They were creatures making a big name for themselves, but Noah bore witness to the name of Jehovah as the one living and true God.—Gen. 6:4, NW.