Noah a Preacher of Righteousness
By Percival J. Laird
“Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, that aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing.” 1 Peter 3: 18-20, A. R. V. With an open Bible, and an abundance of concordances and lexicons, it is passing strange that comparatively few have discovered that not man, but God only, is immortal. Hence, unless we are brought to God by the imputed righteousness of Christ, we must eventually be destroyed as were the disobedient in the days of Noah. It is a pity that the foregoing text is so often pronounced too abstruse for the general reader; or else misquoted in support of the theory of man’s natural immortality, or as an illustration of “the wideness of God’s mercy,” in sending Christ’s disembodied spirit on a mission to the spirits of the departed. Setting aside the truth that “the dead know not anything,” advocates of the popular view are driven to fables in answer to the queries, Why did Christ go down? What message did he proclaim? Their probation past, would a merciful Saviour taunt the lost, as if the theoretical never-ending flames of hell were insufficient agony? Others, apparently oblivious of the fact that the text plainly states that the preaching was to “the disobedient,” declare that Christ went to those who had repented of their sins after the flood began to rise on earth’s fair domain, to assure them of their salvation. But this view must fall, because it either locates both good and bad together in one place, or else assumes that a second hell is reserved for those who died lacking the assurance of faith. Yet with the first such hell unproved, two are absurd. Moreover, Christ has recorded the fact that his business with the faithful redeemed must wait until his appearing. Then will come that final liberty to the erstwhile captives and prisoners who in all ages through faith have availed themselves of God’s conditions to inherit eternal life. “As it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. . . . Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all [the disobedient].” Luke 17: 26, 27. Here we get the divine commentary on our text. Noah had it on God’s word that the world was to be destroyed by a flood. He believed God; and thus, not being disobedient, “prepared an ark to the saving of his house.” But Peter, who tells us of the Spirit of Christ, which preached to the disobedient in the days of Noah, also informs us that Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.” “Nevertheless they were disobedient. . . . Yet many years didst thou bear with them, and testifiedst against them by thy Spirit.” Neh. 9: 26, 30. They might have allowed themselves to be convicted “of righteousness, . . . and judgment [the coming flood];” but alas, they “took their own course still,” and God destroyed them by the flood. They are “reserved unto judgment.” 2 Peter 2: 4. It was no fault of Noah’s message that so few believed; nor is it the fault of the last message of mercy now sounding to the world that so few heed its call. Those of this generation, as truly as the disobedient of Noah’s day, who are not persuaded, are daily hastening to their doom. “When the long-suffering of God waited.” Some jewels show to best advantage when set in a dark background.5Such is the wonderful love and bounty of God, set over against man’s unbelief and disloyalty. Whenever we are tempted to sin, let us remember those heartrending words of the Saviour, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” This was the climax of the horror of great darkness that settled down upon Jesus—and it was all necessary to bring us to God. “As it was in the days of Noah,” so to-day, when we are so near the end, we do well to remember that “the Lord is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish.” Yet “because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Eccl. 8: 11. Noah’s was a stupendous task. Think of the great mass of material to be prepared and put together, and this probably amid the scoffs and ridicule of those of his generation. “What,” they may have said, “means this old dotard to do? Whither this monstrous voyage? You look far before you, and what! shall we all perish, and you alone escape?” How real must God’s promises have been to Noah! how steadfast his faith in God’s truth, power, and goodness! Souls thus fortified can never be discouraged. Neither is it recorded that Noah sat down and soliloquized: “How shall this all come about? How shall I ever get all those beasts and birds inside the ark? And when we are inside, what then?” No; it was a settled principle of Noah’s faith that the ark was his work, and that his salvation was bound up with it. God honored faithful Noah. As we look out on the great well-nigh lost world to-day, and see so few accepting the third angel’s message, let us study Noah’s life; let us pray, watch, and work. Soon we shall, if faithful, look up and say, “This is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us. . . . We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”