Genesis 6:20, commentary and pictures

God directed that two of every kind of bird, cattle, and creeping thing would come to Noah to keep their life alive. Every species God had created was thus preserved in the ark, while the kinds God had not created, attributed to amalgamation, were destroyed by the Flood. The clean animals and birds came by sevens, while the rest came as male and female pairs, two by two. They came to Noah of themselves by God's direction, brought by angels from every direction — from mountain, forest, and field — to enter the prepared places in the ark. Their orderly, voluntary coming was a striking display of God's power that no natural explanation could account for, showing obedience to God in contrast to disobedient men and standing as a visible final warning before the Flood.

Ark Instructions and Setting

One hundred and twenty years before the Flood God made known His purpose to Noah by a holy angel, directing him to build the ark. While building he was to preach that God would bring waters upon the earth to destroy the wicked. Those who believed the message and prepared by repentance and reformation would find pardon and be saved. The warning was already known, for Enoch had repeated to his children what God had shown him regarding the Flood. Amid prevailing corruption Methuselah, Noah, and many others labored to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to stay the tide of moral evil.

The instructions for the work were exact and had to be followed in every particular under God's supervision, with no human plans and devisings added. God communicated with Noah, gave him wisdom to do His will, arranged every detail of the ark, and Himself designed to direct the work. The ark to be built was an immense boat and huge wooden vessel, constructed on dry land and open ground. Its scale showed a work of great magnitude, with tall curved side, closely spaced ribs and long bands, upright supports, timbers, logs and beams brought across the ground, and scaffolding beside the hull dwarfing the workers laboring at its base and in the distance, set against low hills and cloudy sky around the building site.

After the warning was given Noah's family and others helped build the ark. Methuselah and his sons lived to hear Noah's preaching and assisted in the building. Carpenters and other workers were employed in the task, and Noah caused them to know God's purpose while warning the people that shelter could be found until God's indignation was overpast. Some of the carpenters employed believed, and others of his converts were gained, as the obedient were called to find refuge where life would be kept alive.

The account of Noah and the Flood is literal inspired history, not fable.

Animals Kept Alive

The command was for preservation by kind so that life would be kept alive, with fowls after their kind and cattle after their kind and every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort to come to Noah. Every species God had created was preserved in the ark, while kinds attributed to amalgamation which God had not created were destroyed by the Flood.

Clean animals and birds came by sevens, while the other animals and birds came in male-and-female pairs, two by two. God directed them to come to Noah in pairs, male and female, so they would be kept alive and live through the Flood.

The creatures came to Noah of themselves by God's direction as the sign that they were to be kept alive. Cattle and all other living creatures were seen approaching the ark two and two after it was finished and the goods were stored, and Noah housed them in the ark. Birds came from every direction and darkened the heavens as they went in, and beasts came from mountain and forest and field, including both the fiercest and the gentlest, brought by angels. Birds came in groups of seven, and the animal creation obeyed God's direction while Noah took the creatures in as part of the final provision for preserving animal life.

They entered peacefully and their arrival continued over seven days while Noah placed them in the prepared spaces and housed them in the ark. After the animals entered, God told Noah and his family to go in and shut them in, and they remained enclosed one week before rain fell as a trial of faith amid mocking. The ark built on dry land was their place of refuge while Noah walked by faith.

Noah also took seeds with him into the ark for preservation of life. God miraculously kept some kinds of trees and shrubs alive for future generations and for later generations.

The orderly, voluntary arrival of the animals was a striking display of God's power that natural explanations could not account for. Their entry displayed obedience to God in contrast with human rejection of the warning and with disobedient man, while people remained unbelieving and disobedient though the sight was wonderful. Their coming made the warning visible as a final sign before the Flood to people who had long rejected it.

Noah's Obedient Warning Work

Noah had faith and obeyed implicitly, doing according to all that was commanded without picking and choosing what was agreeable or convenient for present comfort. Building that immense boat on dry land was a heavy cross requiring self-denial and exposing him to sport and derision from the godless, and he refused to reason out a course that would save loss, inconvenience, and ridicule. His work on the ark under God's direction was part of that obedience to carry out His will.

For one hundred and twenty years he worked as a faithful preacher of righteousness, warning the world by works as well as by words while building. Every blow struck on the ark was a note of warning and a warning message, and the building preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts. Noah, with Methuselah and many others, sounded warning and entreaty during that probation while the ark was building.

He proclaimed that God would bring rain and a flood of water upon the earth to destroy the wicked, though no signs of such had ever existed. The ark was shelter and refuge where the obedient could find safety until God's indignation was overpast, and those who believed the message and prepared for that event by repentance and reformation should find pardon and be saved. Only those who believed and prepared in that way could be kept alive with him.

The warning was mocked and derided, with nearly all thinking they were right and Noah was wrong, claiming to know more than him, closing their ears to words of truth, and turning away because heeding did not suit their inclination. They branded him a fanatic and crazed alarmist, laughed and mocked his words as parables, and made a carnival of his peculiar earnestness and intense feeling about coming judgments. A coming rain was called a fanatical proposition since they had had no rain, and they talked of science and the laws of nature and explained truth away by false science, until darkness came upon them.

Only eight souls, Noah and his family, accepted the warning, believed, entered the ark, and were saved and left called righteous, while the vast majority rejected it. Only a few others at most briefly repented, with some of the carpenters he employed believing yet dying before the Flood and others of his converts backsliding, so the righteous on earth were but few. Many who helped build the ark did not believe the startling message, did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things entirely contrary to the mind and will of God. They made only half changes and glorified their own ability instead of fearing and loving God, and chose corrupt company rather than what was good, and therefore though they had prepared for what was coming they were not prepared and perished in the general ruin.

Their unbelief and mockery did not prevent fulfillment of the message and coming of the Flood. The rain came and the wicked inhabitants perished, drowned in the waters that covered the earth.

Judgment, Mercy and Preservation

When the appointed time came and probation ended, rain was sent from heaven and the foundations of the great deep were broken up, the waters from beneath uniting with the waters from heaven. The rebellious race who would not keep the commandments of heaven were swept away by the flood, and death was their portion. This fulfilled the prophetic warning given one hundred and twenty years before to punish the inhabitants by a flood and destroy them all, and by that fulfillment the truth of God's word was exemplified. Their unbelief did not prevent fulfillment of the message, for though they had had no rain and called coming rain a fanatical proposition, the rain came and the wicked inhabitants perished in the waters.

The one-hundred-and-twenty-year warning while the ark was building as refuge and shelter was an act of mercy and love, giving opportunity to heed, to prepare through repentance and reformation, and to find refuge from the coming storm of God's wrath until God's indignation was overpast. Every blow struck on the ark was a warning message and entreaty sounded by Noah, Methuselah and many others, calling men for their own interest to heed. Their salvation depended on the manner in which they treated the message sent from heaven. Because that generation rejected the warning and turned away since it did not suit their inclination, the Spirit of God was withdrawn from the sinful race and ceased to strive with them, leaving hearing and preaching vain, and they perished in the waters of the flood.

The Flood shows God preserving life while judging the wicked and purifying the world. The command to build the ark for those who desired to be saved came because wickedness had grown to fearful proportions, men and women growing more bold in disobeying God's law until it became unbearable, and God was about to speak in determined language against it. He looked on the impenitent, disobedient world and decided to give transgressors an exhibition of His power, arising out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity and bold transgression, clothing Himself with vengeance to execute judgment against transgressors of His law. The waters declare God's verdict that the wicked are incurable, so that their destruction was mercy to the world.

Noah and his family were saved in the ark by a miracle of God. Noah preserved God's law through the Flood and taught it to his descendants. That law was first given to Adam after the Fall, was preserved in the ark by Noah and observed by Abraham, before God proclaimed it at Sinai on stone. The ark upon the billowy deep outriding the storms that threatened it with destruction shows how the word of God is preserved uncorrupted through ages of darkness. It bears not the stamp of man but the impress of God, despite efforts to bury the word of truth beneath error, heresy and superstition and to obscure the plain simple meaning of the Scriptures and make them contradict their own testimony.

End-Time Pattern for Today

The generation before the Flood is a pattern for the character of the age before Christ appears in the clouds of heaven and before the coming of the Son of man. The wickedness of the world before the Flood is repeated in this age, with the same widespread unbelief in which only eight accepted the warning and were saved. The sins that brought judgment by the Flood are increasing again, and punishment remains certain.

As it was then so it will be prior to Christ's second appearing, whose day and hour are unknown. The world will then be absorbed in eating and drinking, planting and building, pleasure-loving, amusements, gains, traffic, moneymaking, dishonest practices, luxury, extravagance, wine-drinking, reveling, and robbing the poor. The church will follow the practices of the world while ministers cry peace and safety, and the unprepared will be overtaken as by a thief when sudden destruction comes as a snare upon all who dwell on the earth.

The same exact obedience in fearing and worshiping God that was required in Noah's day is required now, because before the final destruction by the fire of God's vengeance it will be as it was in the days of Noah when the hour of His judgment is come. Noah's preparation of the ark is an example of readiness for what God has foretold. The decided message of warning given through Noah for the antediluvians is the pattern for the decided message now given for the world. That present message requires loyalty to God's commands with special faithfulness to the Sabbath, upholding the principles of faith, refusing to conform to the world or link up with unbelievers, and keeping God's people separate from the world. It also requires refusing human counsel that works against God's separation of His people and refusing dependence on human wisdom and judgment.

As the building of the ark warned the world and preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts, so faithful work in erecting the Lord's institutions today preaches in the same way. God Himself watches the building work today by His word, by His Spirit, and by His providence, and designs to direct it. Builders must therefore take time to ask His counsel, realize their entire dependence on Him, offer prayer and holy song, look unto Jesus, and labor together with God in a work of eternal consequence. That labor is to be done with faithfulness, stability, and fitness in every part to honor His name and display His power and majesty.

All who have genuine faith follow Noah's course, doing the known will of God at once 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 God has indicated. Noah had faith and obeyed implicitly, doing according to all that was commanded without picking and choosing what was agreeable for present comfort and convenience and rejecting what required self-denial and made him the subject of sport and derision. The obedient were thus distinguished from the disobedient by the standard of God's law at a most critical time when probation was about to close. Noah did not yield to universal scorn upon God's law and upon himself and his helpers or lose reverence and love for that law, but preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule and scorn heaped upon him.

This history is repeating today, as God sends plain warnings and messages as He sent His message through Noah then. Increasing calamities, earthquakes, floods, and disasters by land and by sea attend this time. His judgments already fall in flood and flame upon evildoers, so that all who refuse to repent will perish. Walking contrary to God's Word stirs up rebellion and brings God's displeasure. When Christ comes His people must therefore be found on the side of the loyal and true rather than in opposition to God's law, trusting God's word and standing against corrupt contemporaries as Noah and his household did.