Genesis 6:21, commentary and pictures

God commanded Noah to take and gather into the ark every kind of edible food and store it there to sustain his family and the animals and meet their needs through the Flood. The command was part of the directions given 120 years beforehand, while Noah was to warn of coming judgment and while the ark was building on dry land as a refuge for all who would believe and enter. Noah obeyed implicitly and did all that was commanded, faithfully finishing the immense work and storing the provisions despite unbelief, ridicule, and the heavy cross of building where no rain had ever fallen. For 120 years the building and preaching warned that safety was in the ark, but nearly all closed their ears, mocked Noah as a fanatic, and refused to enter, so only eight were saved while the rebellious perished in the waters. Those days prefigure the present age before Christ appears, when human nature and wickedness are the same, and genuine faith still does God's known will at once, exactly as directed, without picking what is agreeable or turning aside to avoid loss, ridicule, and persecution.

Wording and Historical Setting

Genesis 6:21 belongs to inspired, divine words that cannot be separated from the New Testament, presenting a literal Noah who lived and a literal Flood as fact in history. The days it belongs to prefigure the present age before Christ appears in the clouds, because Christ who knows the past truly foretells the future, human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit is the same now as then, and the character of that generation characterizes this age.

The verse belongs to the directions God gave Noah for preparing the ark 120 years before the Flood, while he was to warn of coming judgment and while the ark was building as a refuge for those who accepted the warning. Noah warned that the Flood was coming, his family and others helped build, and he faithfully carried out God's instructions while warning a world that did not believe. The ark was to be built for the saving of himself and his family and provided refuge for those who accepted God's warning.

The verse commands Noah to take and gather into the ark all food that is eaten and store it, so it would be food for him, his family, and the animals and sustain them and provide for their needs during the Flood. The gathering and preparing belongs to the time while the ark was building, and Noah also carried God's warning to an impenitent, corrupt people of whom only eight accepted, entered, and were saved. The gathering included preserved seeds and living plants that provided for future generations after the earth's surface and vegetation were devastated.

The building was done under God's supervision with every particular according to divine instruction, with no room for human plans and devisings. God arranged every detail including the gathering of food and communicated wisdom to Noah to do His will by His word, by His Spirit, and by His providence. Noah's faithful work warned the world and preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts.

The direction was given when disobedience had made wickedness unbearable and God determined to purify the world by a Flood, giving in mercy and love a probation of 120 years. There were then two classes, the righteous few walking uprightly with God like Enoch while the great majority were given over to iniquity, including talented men of skill and knowledge become corrupt in imagination because they left God out of their plans and were wise to do evil. God was about to speak in determined language against wickedness grown to fearful proportions, to give an exhibition of His power, to clothe Himself with vengeance and execute judgment on transgressors, and to arise to punish bold transgression, destroying the wicked as an act of mercy to prevent further harm to the world and to those born afterward.

Enoch instructed his family about the coming Flood of waters, and Methuselah, his sons and grandsons, with Noah's family and others, received instruction and acted on it by helping build the ark. During that building Noah, Methuselah, and many others warned and entreated, so that every blow struck in the work was a warning message. Those who sought selfish gratification and distinction instead of fearing God made only half changes, sinned and apostatized and many died, leaving only Noah and his family called righteous.

The storing of food and goods was completed by constant work until the immense ark was finished before cattle and all other living creatures including beasts and fowls came two and two to be housed. Then God told Noah and his family to enter and shut them in, and the enclosed believers waited one week with no rain while mocked, derided and reviled, holding faith under trial until rain fell. When rain came the ark floated upon the troubled waters while the unbelieving world outside perished and was swept away.

Preparation and Obedience

Noah and his helpers obeyed by working constantly until the immense ark standing on dry land was finished and the food and goods were gathered and stored inside for his family and for the animals. That storing was completed before cattle and every other living creature came two and two to be housed, before Noah and his family were told to enter and were shut in, and before the enclosed believers waited a week with no rain while mocked and reviled until rain fell and all outside perished. He faithfully carried out God's instructions while warning a world that did not believe the coming flood, preparing the ark as a refuge so that those who believed the warning might find shelter in the day of destruction. The building work itself was a warning joined to his preaching as a preacher of righteousness for one hundred and twenty years, with every blow struck on the ark sounding a note of warning to the world. By the standard of God's law the obedient were thus distinguished from the disobedient in a most critical time, and when universal scorn was thrown on the law and on the workers, Noah did not lose reverence and love for the law but preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule.

He obeyed implicitly and did according to all that was commanded in gathering and preparing, making ready a refuge from the terrible storm to come upon the wicked inhabitants of the old world. It was a heavy cross to build on dry land amid widespread unbelief and refusal to hear God's voice. He did not pick and choose among God's precepts, keeping what was agreeable for present comfort and convenience and rejecting what required self-denial and exposed him to sport and derision from the godless, but did the known will of God at once without consulting own will and choice, carefully walking the indicated path even when obedience demanded sacrifice and loss of friends, property, name, and life itself. The building of that immense boat on dry ground into which all who desired to be saved might enter was evidence of his faith, for he and his household trusted and obeyed God amid a corrupt generation and stood against the people of their time through faith in God's word. For one hundred and twenty years he presented the warning message of the coming flood, but they laughed him to scorn.

Many helped in building and preparing who did not believe the startling message, who did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, and who did not overcome the temptation to do and say things entirely contrary to the mind and will of God. The builders could take part in that preparation of the ark and its provisions yet perish in the flood because they chose corrupt company rather than what was good; participation in preparing for the coming judgment did not itself save them. Some awakened by the preaching were employed as carpenters, and the work went forward through one hundred and twenty years of probation under God's supervision with every particular according to divine instruction and no room for human plans and devisings. Those who sought selfish gratification and distinction for great ability instead of fearing and loving God did not perfect reformation of character to become believers and witnesses, but made only half changes, sinned and apostatized, and many died. Some of the carpenters employed believed but died before the flood, and others of his converts backslid, leaving only eight righteous who lived to enter the ark, Noah and his family called righteous, while the rebellious race were swept away and death was their portion.

Warning Rejected and Judgment

For one hundred and twenty years Noah as a preacher of righteousness proclaimed that a flood would come and that safety was in the ark, and every blow struck in building was a warning message entreating the world. God had made known His purpose to Noah and directed him to warn the people while building, and the gathering and preparing of food belonged to that time of probation while the ark was building. Few heeded, only a few repented, and Noah, Methuselah and many others warned in vain.

God directed Noah to prepare on dry land an immense boat as a place of safety and refuge with provision for all who would believe and enter, in which the obedient could find shelter until the indignation was overpast. All were invited to find refuge there and share the blessing of acceptance, and the ark stood as an opportunity to escape for all who desired to be saved from coming destruction. God gave Noah this warning message to present, urging the refuge upon all.

Through His faithful, loyal and true servant Noah warned that rain would come upon the earth and cover it with a flood, though no signs of such had ever existed and no rain had fallen. Because of this the preparation looked fanatical, and Noah was laughed to scorn and mocked.

Nearly all the inhabitants thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claimed to know more than he did, closed their ears to words of truth, and explained truth away by false science and talk of science and the laws controlling nature. They branded him a fanatic and crazed alarmist, said he speaks in parables, and used the graciously granted probation to laugh, mock, ridicule, caricature and criticize his peculiar earnestness and intense feeling about judgments God would surely fulfill. Talented men of skill and knowledge, wise to do what God had never told them to do and wise to do evil, joined in calling him a crazy fanatic.

Their unbelief brought darkness and God's displeasure upon them, and because men rejected the warning the Spirit of God was withdrawn from the sinful race. When the probation had been so used God's patience was exhausted and He declared that the end of all flesh had come because the earth was filled with violence. Yet unbelief and mocking of the prospect of a flood did not prevent fulfillment; the rain came as warned.

Only eight who accepted the warning, believed, turned from unrighteousness and entered the ark — Noah and his family — were saved, while Noah and his family alone lived to enter. The rebellious, impenitent and corrupt race who refused to believe and enter were swept away by the flood, drank the waters that covered the earth, perished in the waters, and death was their portion. The multitudes who refused to heed perished, and the whole world save a few perished.

By this fulfillment of the prophetic warning that all who would not keep the commandments of heaven should drink the waters of the flood, the truth of God's Word was exemplified. Salvation depended on how the heaven-sent message was treated, for the command to gather food belonged to that message sent from heaven on which salvation depended. Walking contrary to God's Word was shown to stir up rebellion and bring condemnation.

End-Time Parallel and Prophecy

The record to which the gathering of food belongs presents a literal man who lived and a literal flood as fact in history, part of inspired divine words that cannot be separated from the New Testament. Those days prefigure the present age before Christ appears in the clouds of heaven, for He who knows the history of the past truly foretells the character of the future. Human nature uninfluenced by the Spirit of God is the same now as then, and the character of that generation characterizes this age. God looked upon the world in the days of Noah when the ark was being built and prepared, and He looks upon the world today as a world repeating the wickedness of the world before the flood, with warning of judgment sent as then. Many helped in that building and preparing who did not believe the startling message, who did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, and who did not overcome the temptation to do and say things entirely contrary to the mind and will of God.

God gave Noah a decided message of warning for the antediluvians, and the same kind of decided message of warning has now been given for the world. Noah's warning came before the destruction of the world by water, and his preaching warned and tested the people before the flood destroyed them, just as God's last-day message warns and tests the world. That commission calls for loyalty to God's commands, for upholding the Sabbath, for holding the principles of faith without conforming to the world, and for refusing to link with unbelievers or heed counsel that would break down separation. The judgment of the flood was brought on by sins that are increasing again, serving as a warning that God's judgment on human perversity is certain.

Noah publicly foretold destruction in his day and was called a crazed alarmist for doing so. Anyone publicly foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem when the city had been beautified and made apparently impregnable would have received the same reception. The ark upon the billowy deep outriding the storms that threatened it with destruction pictures how the word of God is preserved uncorrupted through ages of darkness. That preservation stands despite efforts to bury the word beneath error, heresy and superstition, and to obscure its plain meaning and make it contradict its own testimony.

Faith and Present Duty

Genuine faith does the known will of God at once without consulting own will and choice, making ready a refuge from the terrible storm to come upon the wicked inhabitants of the old world. It obeys implicitly and does according to all that is commanded in gathering and preparing, even though it is a heavy cross to build the ark on dry land. It does not pick and choose among precepts and commandments, keeping what is agreeable for present comfort and convenience and rejecting what requires self-denial and exposes to sport and derision from the godless, but walks carefully and conscientiously in the indicated path even when obedience demands sacrifice and loss of friends, property, name, and life itself.

Obedience must be given exactly as God directs in building the immense boat on dry land and making full preparation, without reasoning to save loss or inconvenience or to avoid ridicule. Whoever so obeys enters the strait gate and travels the narrow path for the ransomed, finding obstacles hindering progress, the world pressing hard against him, conflict with Satan and transgressors of the law, interposition of earthly authorities, tribulations, bruising of spirit, hard speeches, ridicule, persecutions, and demands to conform to laws and customs that would make him disloyal to God, finding the cross in the way to life. By the standard of God's law the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient in a most critical time during the 120-year probation granted before evildoers would be swept from the earth by a flood, while Noah and his helpers worked constantly to prepare the immense ark on dry land. When universal scorn was thrown on the law and on Noah and his helpers, he did not lose reverence and love for the law but preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule and scorn.

The commission to Noah gives a decided message of warning for that generation, and the same kind of decided warning is now given to the world. That commission calls for loyalty to God's commands, for upholding the importance of the Sabbath, for holding the principles of faith without conforming to the world, and for refusing to link up with unbelievers or heed counsel that would break down separation from the world. God arranged every detail of the ark, including the gathering of food, and communicated wisdom to do His will by His word, by His Spirit, and by His providence. Noah's faithful work in building warned the world and preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts, and the same watching and directing belongs to erecting the Lord's institutions today, requiring counsel from God, prayer, holy song, entire dependence upon Him, and looking unto Jesus while laboring together with God in a work of eternal consequence.