p. 140 | Noah's Carpenters

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 26, 1869

Noah's Carpenters.

Noah, the herald of the deluge to the Old World, did at God's command build an immense ark, nearly or quite 600 feet in length, 100 in breadth, and 60 in hight. We cannot tell the exact measure of the cubit then in use, but the building was not much short of this, even at 22 inches to the cubit, as now allowed. Noah must have possessed immense wealth in order to erect so vast a structure and of such immense strength as it must have been made, and to finish within for the purpose it was to fill. We may safely conclude that he had little left when the ark was finished. What a waste of means in the eyes of the antediluvian world!

But how did Noah ever erect so vast a structure? It was impossible that himself and three sons should do this work alone. 1. It was so vast an undertaking that four men alone could not perform all the labor in many hundred years. 2. It was a work requiring at one time the united exertions of a large number of men. Nothing is more evident, then, than that he employed a large number of workmen. What became of these men who helped build the ark? They miserably perished in the waters of the flood.

It is likely that some of them were for a time friendly to the cause of truth. They feared the coming judgment of God. Some, without doubt, were so much impressed with the importance of Noah's preaching that they gave of their time and their means to the erection of the ark. But when it came to the suffering of reproach for the truth, they stood back. They could not be identified with crazy Noah. They discovered that the doctrine was unpopular. They perhaps ascertained from scientific research that the drowning of the world was an impossibility, for God had not water enough for this purpose. They found at all events, that the mighty men of renown (see Gen. vi, 4) had no faith in the doctrine. Men in these days dispose of all God's threatened judgments by declaring that the great burning day met its fulfillment at the destruction of Jerusalem. The same ingenuity, no doubt, existed in the great antediluvian teachers. And so Noah, when preaching the flood, had his unwelcome message explained away as all fulfilled at the destruction of some antediluvian Jerusalem. The force of his preaching, accompanied as it was by works that proved his faith, must have been very great. But he saved neither friend nor brother in the ark. And of all that large number of skilled workmen and artisans who helped him build the ark, not one escaped the awful deluge. What lessons of admonition may be drawn from this wonderful story of God's judgment.

1. Men may be intimately connected with the cause of God, and perform labor pertaining to it that shall make their services indispensable, and yet not be saved themselves at last. Noah's carpenters were indispensable to the erection of the ark, and yet every one perished in the flood.

2. God's truth may be explained away by human ingenuity till men feel secure in their sins; yet the Judgment will come just as literally as though it had not been argued all away.

3. There is no spectacle of moral heroism more worthy of our admiration than Noah standing up alone in behalf of unwelcome and hated truth, while all the world opposed him. How such an example speaks to us!

4. How foolish to be swerved by popular unbelief! The whole world disbelieved, despised and frowned upon the servant of God. He stood as firm as a beaten anvil. In due time God vindicated his servant. The waters of the deluge changed public opinion. Reader, dare to be right.