Genesis 6:15, commentary and pictures

God gave Noah the exact size for the vessel of deliverance, immense in length, breadth and height. It was to be His own design carried out by Noah, a durable three-storied wooden structure shaped to float like a house upon a hull. Built by slow labor on dry land during one hundred and twenty years of mercy, it was provided in love as the only refuge from the coming destruction. Its building preached its warning with every blow, yet it was met with scorn and unbelief until only eight entered and the rest perished in the flood. So prepared in advance of forewarned judgment, it stands as the pattern of safety and implicit obedience required before Christ's appearing.

Ark's Size and Design

The fashion appointed is definite in measure: the length is three hundred cubits, the breadth fifty cubits, and the height thirty cubits.
Those proportions formed a three-storied structure, in some respects more nearly resembling a house yet with a boat-like foundation and like the hull of a ship, so that it might float upon the water.
It was an immense, durable wooden vessel of prepared timber, put together with great labor to render the work perfect.
Its tall curved hull was framed by closely spaced ribs and long bands, with upright supports and scaffolding, while workers brought long logs and beams across open ground, so large that it dwarfed the people building it.
Inside were compartments, with a door in the side and a window in the top so arranged that the upper compartments could be lighted by it.
God Himself was the designer and Noah the master-builder, and every particular of this important vessel followed explicit divine directions for its fashion and construction.
Those directions were beyond what human wisdom could have devised for strength and durability, and human plans or designs could not replace them.
Skillful men were not lacking to accomplish the work of building it to that given fashion.

Building on Dry Land

The dimensions belong to an immense boat built on dry land, prepared by constant work to make ready timber and render every part perfect through a slow and laborious process. Special directions for that work on dry ground called for obedience that does not reason to save loss or inconvenience or to avoid ridicule. All that human hands could do was done, yet the vessel of itself could not have withstood the coming storm, and only God could preserve those upon the tempestuous waters. It stood as an evidence of faith and as a place of salvation open to all who desired to be saved.

Its building filled a one-hundred-and-twenty-year probation granted in mercy to the old world for repentance before the disobedient would be swept from the earth by a flood of waters. During that whole time the coming flood was proclaimed as shelter for the obedient and destruction for the impenitent if they did not turn, and each passing day shortened their opportunity to avert judgment by turning to the Lord. The warning was given while the work went forward, and when the appointed time came the word was fulfilled to the letter.

Noah did not labor alone but with helpers constantly at work, employing carpenters and gaining converts while he built and warned. Many who helped build did not believe the warning or turn from wrongdoing, though they heard the truth. Some who believed kept the faith and died triumphant before the flood closed probation, while other converts backslid and only a righteous few remained.

When finished the ark was stored with goods, and cattle with all other living creatures were brought two and two and housed inside, the beasts obediently finding refuge while men remained disobedient and unbelieving. God Himself commanded Noah and his family to enter and shut them in, and they remained enclosed one week before rain began while wicked men mocked and derided them to try their faith. Up to that time no rain had fallen but a mist had watered the earth; then rain fell slowly at first and afterward poured in torrents, the ark floated upon the troubled waters, and rain from heaven united with the broken-up foundations of the great deep until the waters rose to the tops of the highest trees and mountains. When the flood came not a living being or dumb animal outside was left alive, and only eight souls of that vast population were saved.

Refuge, Warning, and Judgment

The ark was God's provision in pity and love of a refuge for the obedient and for all who desired to be saved, a shelter appointed against the coming flood until His indignation was overpast. It was urged upon all as the means of escape, declared openly to that generation with the call to repent and believe and find refuge inside. The invitation to enter was freely offered to all hearers to receive and share its blessing.

The command to build was joined to preaching that God would bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy the wicked because of unsurpassed wickedness. All who believed the message and prepared by repentance and reformation would find pardon and be saved, holding their future in their own hands during probation. The Spirit of God continued to strive with rebellious men while the ark was preparing, warning of the sure result of transgressing His law. Until the specified time nearly expired the striving continued, then Noah and his family entered the ark and the hand of God closed the door, and mercy no longer interceded for man.

Noah stood as preacher of righteousness, warning the world for one hundred and twenty years by words and by works, with Methuselah and many others joining him in warning and entreaty. The work of building over that time was itself his preaching, so that every blow struck on the ark was a note of warning and a warning message. That warning tested its hearers and proved a reality attended with power as the voice of God through His servant, an unbending witness in holy integrity and unwavering faithfulness amid universal wickedness and disobedience.

The warning was met with universal scorn, ridicule, reviling and mockery, with men laughing to scorn and mocking Noah's words as parables. Onlookers reasoned that no rain had ever fallen and that rain to come was fanatical, branded Noah a fanatic, claimed they knew more than he did, closed their ears to words of truth, and explained away the truth by false science. They held that they were right and Noah was wrong, and mocked and derided those enclosed even during the week after the shutting in while faith was tried. Yet their unbelief and darkness did not prevent fulfillment, and walking contrary to God's Word brought God's displeasure.

Only eight persons, Noah and his family, believed, entered, and were saved out of that vast population, while the few other believers either died in faith before the flood or backslid. The vast rebellious race who would not keep the commandments of heaven and refused to obey drank the waters of the flood, and death was their portion. When the appointed time came rain from heaven united with the broken-up foundations of the great deep until not a living being outside the ark was left alive, fulfilling God's word and prophetic warning to the letter.

Pattern for the Last Days

The record is literal, inspired history that cannot be separated from the New Testament, for Noah was a real man who lived and the flood was a real fact in history. The days of Noah foreshadow the present age before Christ appears in the clouds of heaven, because human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit is the same then as now, and the description of that generation marks the character of this age. The sins that brought judgment by the flood are increasing again, and their punishment is certain. As it was then with eating and drinking and marrying until the flood destroyed them all, so unbelief and sudden destruction will mark the day when the Son of man is revealed.

As Noah prepared the ark in advance of a forewarned judgment, enough of the approach of a coming divine event can be known to require active preparation, so those warned by the signs of the times are to prepare for Christ's coming. God directed Noah to build an immense boat on dry land for the safety of all who would believe and enter, but mockers reasoned that rain had never fallen and called the work fanaticism, yet their unbelief did not prevent fulfillment when the rain came and those who refused to enter perished. The ark thus remains the only place of safety and a warning against being found unprepared for Christ's second appearing.

The freely offered invitation to enter the ark as a refuge and means of escape is the same in character as the first angel's message, freely offered to all hearers to receive and share its blessing yet scorned and rejected by many who care for none of these things. Salvation depended on how men treated the message sent from heaven in Noah's day, and because they rejected the warning the Spirit of God was at length withdrawn from the sinful race and they perished in the waters. When merciful warnings are despised, the light God gives becomes darkness, His Spirit after a time ceases to arouse conviction, and all further hearing and preaching is vain.

God's decided warning through Noah shows that He commissions a definite warning to the world, and the present warning stands just as Noah's warning stood for the antediluvians. That present decided message calls for loyalty to God's commands, for honoring the Sabbath, for holding the principles of faith without conforming to the world, and for refusing counsel that works against God in keeping His people separate from the world.

The ark upon the billowy deep outriding the storms that threatened it with destruction shows how the word of God is preserved uncorrupted through all ages of darkness. It bears not the stamp of man but the impress of God, despite efforts to bury truth beneath error, heresy and superstition and unwearied efforts to obscure the plain, simple meaning of Scripture and make it contradict its own testimony.

As God arranged every detail of the ark as He arranged every detail of the tabernacle in the days of Moses, so He watches and directs the building of His institutions today by His word, by His Spirit, and by His providence. The building of the ark warned the world in Noah's day, and faithful work done today in erecting the Lord's institutions in the spirit and love of God preaches sermons that convict and convert hearts. Every part is to show faithfulness, stability, and fitness for honoring His name and representing His power and majesty, with workers seeking His wisdom and counsel with entire dependence upon God, looking unto Jesus and laboring together with the great Master-builder on work of eternal consequence. That past warning work is repeating today, for while the ark was building to its commanded pattern during the one hundred and twenty years of probation granted in mercy and love, the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty and every blow struck was a warning message, even as plain warnings and judgments already falling in flood and flame now fall upon evildoers who refuse to repent. Those building for Him now, as in the sanitarium at Washington, are to seek wisdom from God at every step and labor under His direction for a building plain yet substantial, convenient, attractive, clean and orderly, rightly representing present truth and advancing ministry to the sick and suffering rather than a grand expensive building for tourists drawing astonishment and admiration except for consistency with professed truth.

Faith and Obedience Lessons

Noah obeyed implicitly and did according to all that was commanded him, without picking among precepts what was agreeable or for present comfort and convenience. The exact fashion given for the ark was a refuge from the terrible storm to come upon the wicked inhabitants of the old world, and his faith made that refuge ready on dry land. Building that immense boat on dry land was a heavy cross requiring self-denial, bringing sport and derision from the godless, and his example in constructing it showed that he believed the warning of coming destruction that he preached. His course shows the course of all who have genuine faith, who as soon as they know the will of God will do it without consulting their own will and choice, and who will carefully and conscientiously walk in the path God has indicated even though obedience means sacrifice and loss of friends, property, name, and life itself. Whoever follows his example enters the strait gate and travels the narrow path cast up for the ransomed to walk in, finding obstacles at every step, the world rubbing hard against him, opposition from Satan and evil angels and transgressors, earthly authorities interposing, tribulations, bruising of spirit, hard speeches, ridicule, persecutions, and demands to conform to laws and customs that would make him disloyal to God, for obedience must not reason to save loss or inconvenience or to avoid ridicule.

When the time came the beasts went two by two into the ark and the heavens were darkened by the birds going two by two into the ark, and they were obedient to God and found a place of refuge while men were disobedient and unbelieving. God commanded Noah and his family to go into the ark and shut them in Himself, and they remained enclosed one week before rain began while wicked men mocked and derided them, which tried their faith. Up to that time no rain had fallen but a mist had arisen to water the earth; then rain fell slowly at first and then poured down in torrents, the ark floated upon the troubled waters, and the waters rose to the tops of the highest trees and mountains and swept the inhabitants of the world away.

The ark was three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, and its building on dry land stood through a one-hundred-and-twenty-year probation granted in mercy before judgment on rebellion against the law. The flood came because of continual transgression of the law and because wickedness had grown to fearful proportions and become unbearable, so that God arose out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity and bold transgression, to clothe Himself with vengeance and execute judgment against transgressors in determined language. During that whole time righteousness was preached and coming destruction warned of while work on the ark went forward, but those who lived for pleasure mocked and derided the message from heaven, and each passing day shortened their probation. The inhabitants claimed they knew more, held that they were right, closed their ears to words of truth, explained away truth by false science, branded the warning as fanaticism and parable, laughed and mocked, and held that loyalty lay with the majority; but their unbelief and darkness did not prevent fulfillment, and they finally drank the waters that covered the earth. When the appointed time came rain from heaven united with the broken-up foundations of the great deep, and only eight souls out of that vast population were saved, showing that walking contrary to the Word stirs up rebellion and brings displeasure, while loyalty requires standing with the loyal and true even if the whole world opposes the law, the same rebellion later worked out in Sodom and Gomorrah and in all hostility against God.

The flood destroyed not only human life but also the world's great inventions and arts, which people had turned toward pride, violence, and opposition to God. Men before the flood were talented, skillful and knowledgeable, but corrupt in imagination because they left God out of their plans and councils, wise to do what was never commanded, wise to do evil, and their example would harm those born afterward. The graciously granted probation was spent ridiculing, caricaturing, criticizing, laughing at peculiar earnestness and intense feeling about judgments surely to be fulfilled, talking of science and the laws controlling nature, and holding a carnival over the words of warning and calling them crazy fanaticism, until patience was exhausted and the end of all flesh had come to be destroyed with the earth. Noah did not build alone but with carpenters who helped make the ark to its given fashion, who heard the truth and had every advantage to grow in grace and knowledge of the truth and become men of moral worth fitted for a holy heaven. They acted a part in the preparation of the ark, which fits a people to stand in the day of the Lord, yet they did not choose good society but the corrupt, gathering to influences that were not heavenly and uniting with them, and though they helped build they perished in the general ruin. So acting a part in preparing the truth does not save without fearing God and choosing the good, and the flood in which the whole world perished illustrates that the majority can be lost while only a few are saved.