Jesus warned that things on earth will be “as it was in the days of Noah” when He next reveals Himself to humanity (Luke 17:26–27).

We’ve looked numerous times at this prophecy by the Lord. He followed that up by saying it will also be like the “days of Lot” (Luke 17:28–30), which we’ve looked at even more frequently.

In both cases, times had become so debauched, so evil, so anti-God, that God looked down and determined that those doers of wickedness had to be destroyed.

He, of course, destroyed the world by the great Flood in the days of Noah, and He decimated the civilization that existed at the south end of the Dead Sea when Lot was taken out of Sodom.

In both cases, humankind had moved farther and farther from Heaven’s governance. All the people had corrupted themselves—with the assistance of the angels who fell in the rebellion with Lucifer and came to earth to cohabit with human women.

The whole ugly process began again sometime following the days when Noah and his family escaped the destruction through the Lord’s provision of the ark.

A mighty leader—I believe possibly having Nephilim DNA at some level of his genealogy, with Nephilim being the offspring of the sexual union between a fallen angel and a human female—led another rebellion against God’s governance.

This mighty hunter, of course, was Nimrod. He was instrumental in the project that became the nucleus of this post-Flood rebellion. This was when the progeny who came from Noah and his family settled all together on the plain of Shinar. There they determined to build what we know as the Tower of Babel.

Here is the biblical account and what God thought of that effort:

And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:3–9)

This was a merciful act by the Lord, not a punitive action. He could have destroyed them all, but He considered their lost, sinful condition and restored His governance in order to continue toward the redemption He would one day offer through His Son as the Lamb that would take away the sin of those who would believe and accept that great sacrifice.

People haven’t changed in their sin and lostness. The world’s population is once again moving toward this independence from God.

Humanity—through the diplomatic efforts of those who, in Nimrod-like fashion, have determined to seek and build a new world order—is in the process of constructing a neo Tower of Babel.

Symbolically, we might look at reaching out into space as trying in some ways to achieve the failed Tower project that was halted as the people were scattered by the God who created them.

We know all about Elon Musk’s efforts to saturate the heavens with his Starlink satellites. It is an effort that has come to fruition since the time Sputnik circled the globe—the achievement by the Soviet Union that launched the Space Race.

That race to mount up into the heavens is rocketing upward exponentially. The following is a brief excerpt of the latest Babel-like efforts:

As humanity prepares to bring back material from the Moon, Mars, and potentially other worlds, a new question is moving from science fiction into serious policy discussions: what if something comes back with it? The possibility remains entirely hypothetical, yet some researchers argue that the consequences of introducing an unknown extraterrestrial organism to Earth’s biosphere could be too significant to ignore. In a paper published in the journal Ambio, scientists are urging NASA to consider an unprecedented solution, a dedicated biocontainment facility on the Moon where samples from space could be quarantined and studied before ever reaching Earth.

For decades, planetary protection policies have focused on preventing contamination between worlds. Yet the prospect of returning samples from Mars and other celestial bodies is pushing those policies into unfamiliar territory. Scientists increasingly recognize that while the discovery of extraterrestrial life would rank among humanity’s greatest scientific achievements, it could also introduce unprecedented biological risks.

The new proposal envisions a secure lunar research and quarantine facility where all extraterrestrial materials would be analyzed before receiving clearance to travel to Earth. Such a system would effectively place a checkpoint nearly 240,000 miles away from our planet, allowing researchers to study potentially hazardous samples in an isolated environment. (“Researchers are urging NASA to establish a lunar biocontainment facility to prevent any potentially hazardous extraterrestrial organisms from reaching Earth,” by Lydia Amazouz, Dailygalaxy, June 20, 2026)

Obviously, God’s Word outlines the operative problem with fallen humankind. He said that whatever humans—who are, of course, created in His image—determine to do, they can eventually do. We see this in our constant thinking about reaching far into space and colonizing worlds other than the one God assigned us.

It is the effort to become Godlike—whether trying to build a new world order or reach physically into the heavens—that God won’t tolerate. Here is what He says about people trying to break the bonds He has placed on His creation:

Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. (Amos 9:2–4) 

Bottom line: God is sovereign. Human ambitions apart from the Creator are fruitless and dangerous. But His corrective action is tempered by His mercy on this fallen race—thankfully.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. (Psalms 103:8–11)