Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He was the only one in a wicked world. The world had become so wicked, that God was sorry he made mankind and decided to destoy them. But Noah found favor with God -- thankfully for us!! Noah listened to God and built the Ark and he preached righteousness, although no one apparently listened. Only Noah's family got in the Ark with him. It took Noah 120 years to build the Ark. God gave mankind 120 years to repent, but they did not. They did not listen to the warnings and they did not cease from their wickedness during that time. Noah and his family got into the Ark, and the door was shut. All the rest of mankind died.
When Pharaoh of Egypt held in thrall God's chosen people, Israel, God sent many warnings to Egypt through Moses to let His people go. Pharaoh did not heed the warnings. He had time, with progressively worse and worse plagues falling from God on his land, but Pharaoh did not repent. Finally, when God took all the firstborn of the land, Pharaoh was forced to let the Israelites go.
Sometimes when God sends warning, men do repent. Jonah was an unwilling prophet to Nineveh. He tried to run from his task of warning Nineveh, but wound up swallowed by a whale, and puked back up again up on land. So Jonah did what God required of him, and preached to Nineveh his warning: repent or die. The men of Nineveh heard, and repented with tears and fasting. So God did not kill them at that time.
Throughout the Bible, there are warnings of a time when God will judge the whole earth again, not with flood this time, but with fire. This day of the Lord's wrath will come at a time of "wars and rumors of wars". It will come at a time when Jerusalem is a "cup of trembling" to the whole world. The Bible says leading up to this day of wrath, there will be earthquakes and famines. It would be a time when the Jews were back in their land. For near 2000 years, no one thought that was possible, but in 1948, there they came back to their land.
Those who study the Bible and its prophecies are convinced that this Day of God's wrath is very near. Will you be one who heeds the warnings God has sent, like the men of Nineveh did? Or will you be like the many others who ignored God's warnings and were killed? God gives time to repent, but that time does come to an end.
