Genesis 6:18, commentary and pictures

God established His covenant with Noah as the exception when He declared the end of all flesh because the earth was corrupt and violent before Him, to preserve Noah and bring eight persons into the ark, Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives. The ark was provided in pity and love as a refuge and shelter until the indignation was overpast, and it was opened to the whole generation so that all who would believe, repent and reform could enter and be saved from the flood. Noah believed God's word given 120 years beforehand, faithfully warned of the coming flood by word and work, and obeyed implicitly in building exactly as directed though it was on dry land with no sign of rain. Nearly all refused, mocking him as a fanatic and explaining his message away, so only the eight righteous entered, God Himself shut the door, mercy ceased to plead, and the waters destroyed all flesh outside. That history is the real pattern for the world before the appearing of Christ, when the same wickedness, sudden destruction, and scorned warning are repeated, and it calls for perfected reformation, keeping God's law already known and preserved through Noah, and doing His will at once without consulting self even at the cost of loss and ridicule.

Covenant Setting and Terms

The promise was given when the end of all flesh was declared because the earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, with every imagination of the heart only evil continually, and judgment was determined by a flood of waters to destroy all flesh with the breath of life. That corrupt condition meant human gifts and inventions turned to violence and rebellion against God. Talented men possessing skill and knowledge left God out of their plans and councils, becoming corrupt in imagination and wise to do evil what He never told them to do, in swelling pride and unrighteousness. They continually broke His law in rebellion against His authority, until their wickedness became unbearable to Him and was judged incurable and unwilling to submit to divine authority. The flood that blotted out the wicked inhabitants was sent in mercy to the world, because their example would have harmed those born afterward.

As the exception to that destruction, the covenant was established with Noah to preserve him and his household through the flood. He was to come into the ark with eight persons in all: Noah himself, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives. Their preservation in the ark stands in contrast to the destruction of the corrupt and violent world. Only Noah and seven members of his family entered and survived, while the disobedient perished in fulfillment of the warning.

The covenant to save was declared one hundred and twenty years before the flood by a holy angel. With it came direction to build the ark and to preach that God would bring a flood of water to destroy the wicked. God caused Noah to know His purpose and instructed him to warn the impenitent world while building an ark in which the obedient could find shelter until the indignation was overpast. That long probation bore with transgressors in mercy, giving them one hundred and twenty years to repent while Noah, Methuselah, and many others warned and entreated them. Every blow struck on the ark during that time was itself a warning message.

The ark so commanded was an immense boat prepared on dry land. Every detail of it was arranged and directed by God Himself, who gave wisdom to do His will. Noah and his helpers were constantly at work upon the huge wooden vessel on open ground, with its tall curved side, closely spaced ribs and long bands along the hull, upright supports and scaffolding, built from long logs and so large in scale that it dwarfed the people around it. When finished the animals were housed two by two, the beasts and fowls coming by obedience to God to find refuge while men would not believe.

Ark Refuge and Invitation

The ark was provided in pity and love as a refuge and shelter where the obedient could be preserved and saved from the flood until the divine indignation was overpast. The covenant secured that Noah and his household would come into the vessel built on dry land exactly as directed, and when finished the animals were housed two by two. Only eight persons entered and survived, Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives, while the warning that the disobedient would perish was fulfilled. The preparation joined building to preaching that a flood of waters would destroy the wicked, with the Spirit striving with rebellious men until the appointed time nearly expired. When Noah and his family entered, God's own invisible hand closed the door and mercy ceased to plead and intercede.

That same refuge was opened to the whole generation, not to Noah alone. All who would believe the message and prepare by repentance and reformation and turning from unrighteousness could enter and receive pardon and salvation. The invitation was declared 120 years before the flood by a holy angel and then preached by Noah while the great boat stood before the world, continuing earlier light, for Enoch had already repeated what God had shown him about the flood and Methuselah and his sons lived to hear Noah and assisted in building with many others laboring to keep alive the knowledge of the true God. God worked to draw men to Himself, yet many at first convicted resisted the invitations of mercy and the pleadings of infinite love, and the multitudes refused to heed and laughed the warning to scorn as fanatical because no rain had ever fallen. The eight who believed were saved, while those who rejected the words were left with light become darkness when the Spirit ceased to strive with them.

Salvation inside the ark reveals that grace has limits, for after bearing long with transgressors through a probation of one hundred and twenty years God distinguished the obedient from the disobedient by the standard of His law. He vindicates the honor of His law by blotting out decided transgression, shutting the believers in by an invisible hand and then sending steady rain until no living being or dumb animal outside remained alive. The days of Noah in this judgment warn of the days of the Son of Man.

As the ark upon the billowy deep outrides the storms that threaten it with destruction, so God's word is preserved uncorrupted through the ages of darkness. Though efforts are urged to bury truth beneath error, heresy, and superstition, and men labor to obscure the plain simple meaning of the Scriptures and make them contradict their own testimony, the word bears not the stamp of man but the impress of God.

Noah's Warning and Obedience

Noah faithfully warned of the coming flood as a preacher of righteousness for 120 years, both by words and by works in building the immense ark on dry land, while God's Spirit strove with rebellious men until the appointed time nearly expired. His preaching was joined to the work of preparation, declaring that God would bring a flood of waters to destroy the wicked and that believing the message and preparing by repentance and reformation would bring pardon and salvation. Every blow struck on the ark sounded as a warning message, as Noah with Methuselah and many others warned and entreated the antediluvians during the long probation while the ark was building. Though universal scorn was thrown upon God's law and upon Noah and his helpers, he preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule heaped upon them, and many of the believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the end.

Noah believed God's word as reality and stood like a rock amid tempest, popular contempt, ridicule, scoffs and jeers. He was distinguished by holy integrity, meekness, righteousness and unwavering faithfulness, and his words carried power because they were the voice of God to man through His servant. Connection with God made him strong in the strength of infinite power as an unbending witness, concerning events that seemed impossible to human wisdom. Though he and his household were helpless against the corrupt generation around them, their faith in God's word enabled them to withstand its power, even while only his own family accepted his message.

Noah obeyed implicitly and built exactly according to divine instruction, with no human plans and devisings added, both to preserve his family and to warn the world of coming destruction. Though it was a heavy cross to prepare that ark by building it on dry land with no prior signs of rain or flood, he did according to all the Lord commanded him. He did not pick and choose only precepts agreeable to present comfort and convenience while rejecting those requiring self-denial and exposing him to sport and derision from the godless. His course of obedience disregarding loss, inconvenience and ridicule, refusing to reason for a course that avoids reproach, is the course of all who have genuine faith, who as soon as they know the will of God do it without consulting their own will and choice, even when obedience means sacrifice and loss of friends, property, name and life itself.

Noah faithfully instructed his family about the coming flood, and members of his family living during the construction received his instruction and helped build the ark. The warning continued earlier light, for Enoch had already repeated to his children what God had shown him about the flood. Methuselah and his sons lived to hear Noah preach and assisted in building, with Methuselah's family and many others laboring to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and stay moral evil. The covenant had been declared to Noah 120 years before the flood with direction to build and to preach, securing preservation for Noah and his household while opening pardon and salvation to all who would believe and prepare by repentance and reformation.

The building work itself preached sermons to convict and convert hearts, for God arranged every detail of the ark and gave wisdom to do His will. The same pattern holds in erecting institutions for God today, which must represent truth by faithful, stable and fit work in every part to honor His name and represent His power and majesty. Such work must be done in the spirit and love of God, in entire dependence on Him, looking unto Jesus and laboring together with God in a work of eternal consequence. God Himself watches the work done and by His word, by His Spirit and by His providence designs to direct it, so builders must ask His counsel, pray and sing.

Rejection and Flood Fulfillment

Nearly all the world refused the warning, convinced they were right and Noah was wrong, claiming to know more than he did and closing their ears to truth until they came under darkness. They branded him a fanatic and a crazed alarmist, caricaturing and criticizing his peculiar earnestness and intense feeling about judgments to come. They explained his message away by false science and talk of science and of laws controlling nature, treating as parables and laughing to scorn words that seemed impossible to human wisdom because no rain had ever fallen and no signs of flood had ever existed. Their mockery spent the graciously granted probation of one hundred and twenty years in ridicule while the great boat stood before the world as a preached invitation.

Many at first were convicted and awakened by the preaching, and some worked as carpenters building the ark under divine supervision or otherwise helped prepare it and the truth connected with it. They made only half a reformation of character, joining outwardly with the righteous while still sinning, for they did not learn to fear and worship God. They did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles nor overcome temptation to do and say things entirely contrary to the mind and will of God. Choosing corrupt company rather than good, they apostatized and backslid, and many died before the flood, so that helping to build did not itself show belief or save. Their selfish desire to be distinguished as men of great ability eclipsed the knowledge of God. Talented men possessing skill and knowledge left God out of their plans and councils and became corrupt in imagination, wise to do what God never told them to do, wise to do evil, and God saw that their example would harm those born afterward and took the matter in hand.

After one hundred and twenty years of warning only a few repented, and only eight righteous people lived to enter the ark, Noah and his household — Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives — while eight people accepting the warning took refuge and were saved. Few heeded the call to find refuge, and only eight received it. The rebellious race who would not keep the commandments of heaven drank the waters of the flood and death was their portion, fulfilling the prophetic warning and exemplifying the truth of God’s word that the disobedient would perish.

When Noah and his family entered at God’s command, God Himself shut them in, His own invisible hand closing the door. With that shutting mercy ceased to plead and intercede for man, the Spirit ceased to strive with those who rejected the words of warning, and their light became darkness. The believers remained enclosed a whole week before any rain fell, a one-week test with no rain and increased mockery and derision that tried their faith while probation was used up day by day by those following their own pleasure. Then steady rain fell slowly at first and afterward in torrents, with rain sent from heaven and the foundations of the great deep broken up so that waters from beneath united with waters from heaven, until the unbelieving world was swept away and not a living being or dumb animal outside remained alive. Their unbelief and ridicule did not prevent fulfillment and did not make the warning ineffective, for the rain came, the wicked who refused to enter perished, and the rescue of Noah’s family by miracle shows the message was fulfilled and condemned the unbelieving world.

End-Time Pattern and Prophecy

Noah's generation is the inspired and historically real pattern for the character of the world before the appearing of Christ and the revelation of the Son of man, affirmed as real history. When the earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, with every imagination of the heart only evil continually, judgment by a flood to destroy all flesh with the breath of life was declared, and covenant preservation was established by bringing Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives into the ark. That corrupt, violent condition that called forth judgment then represents the condition of the world today, where the same forms of wickedness, violence, and corruption exist with no new evils. After bearing long with transgressors in a probation of one hundred and twenty years, the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient by the standard of the law, while Noah built the immense boat on dry land amid universal scorn and preached all the more earnestly with those who kept the faith. When the ark was finished the animals were housed two by two and the believers were shut in by an invisible hand, and after a one-week test with no rain and increased mockery, steady rain fell until all unbelievers outside were perishing in their sins with no living being left alive outside. That salvation inside reveals that grace has limits and that God vindicates the honor of His law by blotting out decided transgression.

As God looked upon the wicked world then and sent a startling warning message through Noah before judgment by flood, so He looks upon the world now and sends His messages now as He sent them then, because that wickedness is repeated in this age. He has given a decided message of warning for the present world just as He gave Noah a decided message for the antediluvians, sent amid widespread wickedness and coming calamities in flood and flame. That warning came in mercy and love amid the determination to purify the world by flood because disobedience to the law made wickedness unbearable, with a probation of one hundred and twenty years while the ark was building, during which Noah, Methuselah, and many others warned and entreated and every blow struck on the ark was a warning. Merely helping to build the ark did not save and did not itself show belief or turning from wrongdoing, for many helped who did not believe the message, did not cleanse themselves from wrong principles, and did not overcome conduct contrary to God's mind and will. Loyalty to God's commands is therefore required, without belittling the Sabbath to link with unbelievers, without departing from principles of faith to conform to the world, and without heeding counsel that works against God's keeping His people separate.

For one hundred and twenty years the invitation was preached while the great boat stood on dry ground as evidence of faith, yet it was laughed to scorn and mocked as fanatical because no rain had ever fallen. As people ate, drank, married, planted, built, and pursued pleasure and money, absorbed and unprepared until Noah entered the ark and the flood destroyed them all, so it will be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. So it will be before the second appearing of Christ, when a pleasure-loving, moneymaking, dishonest world and churches crying peace and safety are eating and drinking, planting and building, absorbed and unprepared, till sudden destruction comes upon them as a thief. Unbelief did not stop the message from being fulfilled, for the rain came and the wicked who refused to enter perished.

Noah's warning that tested the people before destruction came is the pattern for the last-days message, which also warns and tests the world. The open invitation to enter the ark as a refuge and escape, with blessing in accepting it, is the pattern for the first angel's invitation to receive the message of Christ's second coming, which multitudes likewise scorn and reject. When the multitudes rejected Noah's words the Spirit ceased to strive with them and their light became darkness. Enough is made known about the approach of judgment to require preparation even when the exact day and hour are not known, and Noah's preparing the ark in response to warning is the pattern for preparing for the second coming when the signs of the times show its approach. Noah's public foretelling of coming destruction, for which he was called a fanatic and crazed alarmist, parallels the certain destruction of Jerusalem because of sin and stubborn unbelief even though the city had been beautified and fortified until it appeared impregnable. The flood brought as judgment for increasing sin thus warns that God's punishment of persistent human perversity is certain.

Law Kept and Faith Applied

Through Noah and his family God preserved His law for later generations in connection with Noah's right-doing, for their preservation in the ark by miracle was linked to that righteousness. That law had been given after Adam's fall, was preserved by Noah, and was observed by Abraham, being already known before God proclaimed it at Sinai and wrote it on stone.

Coming into the ark required perfected reformation of character through fearing and loving God, after one hundred and twenty years of probation left only Noah and his household called righteous. Others awakened by the preaching worked as carpenters building the ark under divine supervision, yet made only half a reformation, did not learn to fear and worship God, joined outwardly with the righteous while still sinning, and apostatized until many died, while selfish desire to be distinguished as men of great ability eclipsed the knowledge of God. The building itself had to be in every particular according to divine instruction with no human plans added. The same covenant calls for loyalty to God's commands, for the Sabbath must not be belittled to link up with unbelievers, principles of faith must not be departed from to conform to the world, and no counsel working against God's keeping His people separate from the world must be heeded, as God gave Noah a decided warning for the antediluvians just as He has given one for the present world.

Noah had faith and obeyed implicitly, making ready a refuge from the terrible storm of judgment coming upon the wicked inhabitants of the old world. Though building on dry land was a heavy cross, he did according to all that was commanded, not picking only precepts agreeable to comfort and convenience while rejecting those requiring self-denial and exposing him to sport and derision from the godless. His course is the course of all who have genuine faith, who as soon as they know God's will do it without consulting their own will and choice, even when obedience means sacrifice and loss of friends, property, name, and life itself, walking carefully and conscientiously in the path indicated.

That obedience disregarding loss, inconvenience, and ridicule, refusing to reason out a course avoiding reproach, is the pattern for entering the strait gate and traveling the narrow path cast up for the ransomed. Every step there meets obstacles, tribulation, hard speeches, ridicule, persecution, and opposition from Satan and evil angels, from transgressors of God's law, and from earthly authorities requiring disloyalty to God. All of God's requirements including the Sabbath must be obeyed to avoid being swept away with the rebellious.

Noah as faithful servant gave God's message of coming rain and flood when no signs of such had ever existed. Nearly all the world thought themselves right and Noah wrong, claimed to know more than him, closed their ears, came under darkness, branded him a fanatic, explained his warning by false science, and laughed and mocked his words as parables, yet their unbelief did not prevent the flood and they perished in the waters covering the earth. Noah and his household were helpless against the corrupt generation around them, yet their faith in God's word enabled them to withstand its power. Walking contrary to God's Word is rebellion bringing God's displeasure, and the lesson is not to follow the majority against God's law but to walk in obedience and be found loyal and true when Christ comes.