Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Thus Noah obeyed fully and exactly all that God commanded him. One hundred and twenty years before the Flood God told him His purpose to destroy the wicked world and directed him to prepare an immense wooden vessel on dry land as a refuge where all who believed, repented and reformed could be saved. His obedience was by faith, doing what he knew to be God's will without choosing only agreeable precepts or reasoning to avoid sacrifice, loss and ridicule. While building he faithfully warned his generation for one hundred and twenty years as a preacher of righteousness, so that his work itself and every blow struck on the ark was a message testing the people. When the warning was rejected the disobedient were swept away and only eight persons were saved in the ark, which prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing when God's last warnings likewise test the world.
History and Divine Command
Genesis 6 belongs to inspired Scripture and records Noah as a real person and the Flood as a historical event. One hundred and twenty years before the Flood God made known to Noah, by a holy angel, His purpose to punish and destroy the wicked world and directed him to build an ark. In mercy He thus gave transgressors a probation of one hundred and twenty years. During that time Noah was to build while warning the people that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth.
The ark was commanded as a refuge and shelter where the obedient could find safety until God's indignation was past. It was for all who desired to be saved, who would believe the message and prepare by repentance and reformation. To such pardon and salvation were offered, and they could receive pardon and be saved by entering. The command was given because wickedness had grown to fearful proportions, with the earth corrupt before God and filled with violence, and God was about to speak in determined language against that wickedness, clothe Himself with vengeance, and execute judgment against transgressors of His law.
God arranged every detail of the ark, and every part of the work had to conform exactly to divine direction. Noah did according to all that was commanded, completing the ark exactly as directed. He stored food for people and animals before entering, and entered with his family when told. The work itself was the preparing of an immense boat, a huge wooden vessel, on dry land and open ground. That immense boat standing on dry ground, with tall curved side, ribs, bands, upright supports and scaffolding, built from long logs and beams, dwarfed the people beside it.
Complete Obedience by Faith
Thus did Noah means he did according to all that God commanded him, obeying fully, implicitly and completely in building the ark as instructed. While the world around him was full of pre-Flood wickedness and refused to obey in self-importance, swelling pride and deeds of unrighteousness, he with his helpers stayed constantly at work preparing an immense boat on dry land during the merciful probation of one hundred and twenty years. While the ark was being built many who helped did not believe the startling message, did not cleanse themselves from wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things contrary to God's mind and will. He fully obeyed God's instructions about the coming judgment, warning the people for one hundred and twenty years while building the refuge where the obedient could find shelter until God's indignation was past, yet some carpenters he employed believed for a time but died before the flood, others of his converts backslid, and only eight righteous persons, Noah and his family, lived to enter the ark and were saved. When the ark was finished and goods were stored, cattle and all other living creatures came two and two and were housed, believers were shut in by an invisible hand, and after a testing time of seven days with no rain in which mockery fully revealed unbelief, steady rain destroyed every living being outside and fulfilled the warning against those who disobeyed, with obedience rewarded and disobedience punished.
His obedience flowed from faith and was done by faith, and the immense boat on dry ground was evidence of that faith. His work and example made clear that he believed the warning he preached about coming destruction, for he faithfully obeyed God's commands in delivering God's warning to a corrupt, impenitent people, entering the ark when told, and persevering in warning and calling to repentance even when mocked. Waiting seven days in the ark before the rain began tested that faith while others remained unbelieving. His implicit, complete obedience was moved by faith in God's warning of a coming storm upon the wicked inhabitants of the old world to prepare a refuge by building the ark on dry land, a heavy cross. Genuine faith as defined by his course does what it knows to be God's will without consulting its own will and choice, carefully and conscientiously walking in the path God indicates even when obedience costs sacrifice and loss of friends, property, name, and life itself. It does not pick and choose only the agreeable precepts suited to present comfort and convenience while rejecting those requiring self-denial and exposing to sport and derision from the godless, and it does not reason that it is consistent to take a course that would save loss or inconvenience and avoid ridicule.
God's promises are on conditions of obedience, and man must do what God has left for him to do instead of leaving God to do it. This includes denying appetite and gross passions to keep a healthy body and mind and a sanctified imagination in order to render to God an offering in righteousness, as Noah did all that God required of him in making the ark secure. After man has done all in his power, God performs what man cannot do and saves alone by a miracle of mercy, preserving the ark upon the stormy billows by miraculous power. Such obedience means loyalty to God's commands rather than dependence on human wisdom and human judgment. It included preserving God's law, for he and his family preserved God's law and their right-doing was connected with their miraculous rescue in the ark, he taught the ten commandments to his descendants, and the law of God was preserved in the ark and later observed by Abraham.
Holding to the full importance of the Sabbath belongs to this loyalty, with refusal to belittle truth in order to link up with unbelievers, refusal to depart from principle and conform to the world, and refusal of the counsel of any man whatever his position who works counter to what God has wrought to keep His people separate from the world. His obedience in building that immense boat on dry land is the pattern for all who enter the strait gate and travel the narrow path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. They go forward toward heaven against Satan and evil angels, against transgressors of God's law, against interposing earthly authorities, against tribulations, bruising of spirit, hard speeches, ridicule and persecutions, and against required conformity to laws and customs that would render them disloyal to God. They find and bear the cross in the way to life by obeying all God's requirements.
Warning While Building
While he was building the ark exactly as instructed, Noah faithfully warned the people that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy the wicked. For one hundred and twenty years he served as a faithful preacher of righteousness and a light to his crooked generation, proclaiming pardon and salvation to all who would believe the message and prepare by repentance and reformation. He warned by his works as well as by his words, so that the building itself was a warning and every blow struck on the ark was a warning message. His faithful building work itself preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts.
His work and example made clear that he believed the warning he preached, and he persevered in warning the people and calling them to repentance even when they mocked him. In mercy God gave the transgressors a probation of one hundred and twenty years, during which Noah and his helpers stayed constantly at work preparing an immense boat on dry land. Under universal scorn heaped upon God's law and upon Noah and his helpers, in the most critical time when the antediluvian world refused to obey in self-importance, swelling pride, and deeds of unrighteousness, he did not lose reverence and love for the law. He preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule and scorn heaped upon him for building the ark.
The warning held out opportunity to escape and urged all to find refuge in the ark. It warned, tested, and proved the people, and their salvation depended on how they treated the message, with only those who believed being saved, only eight people surviving. When the antediluvians rejected the warning the Spirit of God ceased to strive with them, so that light disregarded became darkness and all further hearing and preaching was vain, and the same takes place when men despise the warnings God in mercy sends them and the invitation of the first angel's message, turning instead to farm and merchandise until the Spirit ceases to arouse conviction.
Rejection and unbelief did not make the warning ineffective and did not prevent the coming judgment and its fulfillment. Though scoffers rejected the warning, though nearly all thought they were right and Noah was wrong and claimed to know more than he did, God's servants must still faithfully present the truth despite opposition. They closed their ears to truth because it did not suit them, explained the warning away by false science, objected that rain had never come and that coming rain was a fanatical proposition, branded him a fanatic and crazed alarmist, and laughed, mocked, and ridiculed his words as parables. Their unbelief did not prevent the flood, and when steady rain came they drank the waters covering the earth and perished, while Noah and his family alone were saved in the ark.
Helpers and Household Response
Noah did not build alone, for his family and others who received his instruction helped him build the ark. Methuselah, his sons and grandsons, and many others received his instruction and assisted in the work. Those fellow laborers joined him in laboring to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to hold back the tide of moral evil. They continued what Enoch had already repeated to his children of what God had shown him about the Flood, and while the ark was building the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, so that every blow struck on the ark was a warning message.
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. Merely working on the ark did not make them faithful when they failed to complete the change of character needed to worship God. Those builders pursued their own plans and sought distinction instead of conforming every part of the work to divine direction. Choosing corrupt company left them to perish in the flood, for helping with the preparation did not save those who would not obey and accept the message.
Some carpenters he employed believed for a time but died before the Flood, and others of his converts backslid. Many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the end of the one hundred and twenty years of warning. Only a few repented, and only eight righteous persons, Noah and his family, lived to enter the ark and were saved. The small response did not change the duty to warn, and only those eight accepted the warning and entered by faith.
When the ark was finished and goods were stored, cattle and all other living creatures came two and two and were housed. Believers were shut in by an invisible hand when God told them to enter with the family. There was then a testing time of seven days with no rain in which mockery fully revealed unbelief and tested faith. That week of waiting proved obedience even while others remained unbelieving and mocked, until steady rain destroyed every living being outside the ark.
Judgment and Deliverance Outcome
The world before the Flood refused to obey, filled with pre-Flood wickedness, self-importance, swelling pride and deeds of unrighteousness in bold disobedience to God's law. The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence grown to fearful proportions, and though its men were talented and possessed skill and knowledge, they became corrupt in imagination by leaving God out of their plans and councils, wise to do evil what He had never told them to do. Their wickedness became unbearable to Him, so that He determined to purify the earth by a flood, to clothe Himself with vengeance, to arise out of His place to punish the inhabitants for iniquity, and to execute judgment against the transgressors of His law. Because their example would harm those born afterward, He took the matter in hand when the end of all flesh had come before Him because the earth was filled with violence through them.
They closed their ears to truth and turned away because the message did not suit their inclination, objecting that they had never had rain and that rain to come was a fanatical proposition. They explained the warning away by false science, claimed to know more than Noah though nearly all thought they were right and he was wrong, and talked of science and the laws controlling nature. They branded him a fanatic and crazed alarmist, holding a carnival over his words and calling him a crazy fanatic, and they laughed, mocked, ridiculed, caricatured and criticized his words as parables. Their confidence that he was wrong and their rejection of his message did not prevent the Flood from coming and did not prevent the fulfillment of the message.
When steady rain came the rebellious race who would not keep the commandments of heaven were swept away, drank the waters covering the earth, and perished with death as their portion. Only Noah and his family, eight righteous persons, entered the ark, and the flood fulfilled the prophetic warning against those who disobeyed God. In this obedience was rewarded and disobedience punished, exemplifying the truth of God's word that all who would not keep the commandments of heaven should drink the waters of the flood.
The flood proves men had exceeded the bounds prescribed by God's long-sufferance and the limits of grace, when a people with a plain thus saith the Lord presume on mercy, go decidedly counter to His will, and despise warnings. So God interfered in wrath to vindicate the honor of His law, to repress the increase of unrighteousness, to limit human life, and to prevent continual disobedience and men spoiling one another. When the antediluvians rejected, the Spirit of God ceased to strive with them, so that light disregarded became darkness and all further hearing and preaching was vain.
The ark upon the stormy billows was preserved by miraculous power and out-rode the storms that threatened it with destruction. Its survival shows how the word of God is preserved uncorrupted through the ages of darkness, outriding the storms that threaten it with destruction despite unwearied efforts to obscure the plain, simple meaning of the Scriptures and make them contradict their own testimony. It endures despite Satan urging papal priests and prelates to bury truth beneath error, heresy and superstition.
Prophetic Type of Last Days
Noah's generation foreshadows the present age, for human nature apart from God's Spirit remains unchanged and the conditions of his time characterize the age before Christ's appearing. God looks upon the world today as He looked upon it in Noah's time, and He sends His messages to people today as He sent them in the days of Noah, because this age repeats the wickedness of the world before the Flood. Genesis 6 belongs to inspired Scripture and records Noah as a real person and the Flood as a historical event.
The past is repeating today when God sends plain warnings and His judgments already fall in earthquake, flood, and flame upon evildoers who refuse to repent and will perish. That disobedient old world lost His favor and became so wicked that its wickedness was unbearable to Him, so that He determined in mercy and love to purify the world by a flood after a probation of one hundred and twenty years. Noah carried out all that was commanded by building an immense boat on dry land for the safety of all who would believe and enter, and by preaching that in one hundred and twenty years God would punish the inhabitants by a flood and destroy them all. He obeyed while laughed to scorn and mocked, while people objected that rain had never come and that coming rain was a fanatical proposition, yet their unbelief did not prevent fulfillment, and when rain came the wicked perished, leaving the world a picture of being found unprepared for the Lord's appearing.
His obedience in preparing the ark is the example of preparing for the Lord's coming, whose approach is knowable by signs even though the exact day and hour are unknown. Noah's warning before the flood parallels the last-days message, which likewise warns, tests, and proves the world. He held out warning and opportunity to escape and urged all to find refuge in the ark, but the multitudes refused to heed and rejected his words, and the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. When the antediluvians rejected, the Spirit of God ceased to strive with them, so that light disregarded became darkness and all further hearing and preaching was vain. The same takes place when men despise the warnings God in mercy sends and the invitation to receive the first angel's message, turning instead to farm and merchandise until the Spirit ceases to arouse conviction in their hearts.
As Noah publicly foretold destruction while it looked impossible and was called a crazed alarmist, so anyone foretelling Jerusalem's destruction when it looked impregnable in beauty, towers, walls, fortresses, and natural strength in the reign of Herod would be dismissed. Yet wrath had been denounced because of sins and stubborn unbelief, and doom was certain, for heaven and earth shall pass away but God's words shall not pass away. While the ark was building the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, so that every blow struck on the ark was a warning message.
Present Call to Faithfulness
Noah's obedience included warning the people before the flood, carrying God's message and urging them to repent and be saved, even though scoffers rejected the warning and remained deceived. Only eight persons accepted and were saved, but the small response did not change his duty to warn. Their unbelief did not prevent the coming judgment from arriving. Trusting God's word and standing with his household against a corrupt generation, he exemplifies how those who rely on God can withstand the power of the world. God's servants must therefore faithfully present the truth despite opposition.
His faithful response is the example of loyalty God's people are to follow when carrying a warning message and refusing to depart from obedience to God. That loyalty means obedience to God's commands rather than dependence on human wisdom and human judgment. It holds to the full importance of the Sabbath, refuses to belittle truth in order to link up with unbelievers, refuses to depart from principle and conform to the world, and refuses the counsel of any man whatever his position who works counter to what God has wrought to keep His people separate from the world.
He was God's faithful, loyal and true servant, in contrast to walking contrary to God's Word in rebellion that brings God's displeasure. Though nearly all the inhabitants of the world thought they were right and he was wrong and claimed to know more than he did, he gave God's message that rain and flood would come when no signs of it had ever existed. They closed their ears to truth, explained the warning away by false science, branded him a fanatic, and laughed and mocked his words as parables, but their unbelief did not prevent the flood and they drank the waters that covered the earth. The obedience was carried out during a merciful probation of one hundred and twenty years, while the ark was building and the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, so that every blow struck on the ark was a warning message. The past is repeating today when God sends plain warnings and His judgments already fall in earthquake, flood, and flame upon evildoers who refuse to repent and will perish. If the whole world is in opposition to God's law it should make no difference, and those who want to be found on the side of the loyal and true when Christ comes must stand loyal. The same loyalty calls parents to fulfill the obligations and duties He gives even when not convenient and different from the world, and to treat the training of their children as a sacred work entrusted by the Most High, lest by neglect they train them to become like the world and perish in disobedience.
God arranged every detail of the ark, and faithful building work itself preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts and warned the world. God still communicates with His people today and gives wisdom to do His will, and He Himself watches and by His word, by His Spirit, and by His providence directs the erecting of institutions for Him. Builders are to represent truth by working in the spirit and love of God with faithfulness, stability, and fitness in every part. They are to feel the greatest anxiety for the constant help of Christ, take time to ask counsel of Him, send up prayer and holy song, realize entire dependence upon God, look unto Jesus, and labor together with God in a work of eternal consequence. The making of the ark and the making of the animals that entered it give a practical lesson for little children from five years old and upward, teaching them how to work and how to manage and how to work together.
Thus Noah obeyed fully and exactly all that God commanded him.
One hundred and twenty years before the Flood God told him His purpose to destroy the wicked world and directed him to prepare an immense wooden vessel on dry land as a refuge where all who believed, repented and reformed could be saved.
His obedience was by faith, doing what he knew to be God's will without choosing only agreeable precepts or reasoning to avoid sacrifice, loss and ridicule.
While building he faithfully warned his generation for one hundred and twenty years as a preacher of righteousness, so that his work itself and every blow struck on the ark was a message testing the people.
When the warning was rejected the disobedient were swept away and only eight persons were saved in the ark, which prefigures the present age before Christ's appearing when God's last warnings likewise test the world.
History and Divine Command
Genesis 6 belongs to inspired Scripture and records Noah as a real person and the Flood as a historical event. One hundred and twenty years before the Flood God made known to Noah, by a holy angel, His purpose to punish and destroy the wicked world and directed him to build an ark. In mercy He thus gave transgressors a probation of one hundred and twenty years. During that time Noah was to build while warning the people that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth.
The ark was commanded as a refuge and shelter where the obedient could find safety until God's indignation was past. It was for all who desired to be saved, who would believe the message and prepare by repentance and reformation. To such pardon and salvation were offered, and they could receive pardon and be saved by entering. The command was given because wickedness had grown to fearful proportions, with the earth corrupt before God and filled with violence, and God was about to speak in determined language against that wickedness, clothe Himself with vengeance, and execute judgment against transgressors of His law.
God arranged every detail of the ark, and every part of the work had to conform exactly to divine direction. Noah did according to all that was commanded, completing the ark exactly as directed. He stored food for people and animals before entering, and entered with his family when told. The work itself was the preparing of an immense boat, a huge wooden vessel, on dry land and open ground. That immense boat standing on dry ground, with tall curved side, ribs, bands, upright supports and scaffolding, built from long logs and beams, dwarfed the people beside it.
Complete Obedience by Faith
Thus did Noah means he did according to all that God commanded him, obeying fully, implicitly and completely in building the ark as instructed. While the world around him was full of pre-Flood wickedness and refused to obey in self-importance, swelling pride and deeds of unrighteousness, he with his helpers stayed constantly at work preparing an immense boat on dry land during the merciful probation of one hundred and twenty years. While the ark was being built many who helped did not believe the startling message, did not cleanse themselves from wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things contrary to God's mind and will. He fully obeyed God's instructions about the coming judgment, warning the people for one hundred and twenty years while building the refuge where the obedient could find shelter until God's indignation was past, yet some carpenters he employed believed for a time but died before the flood, others of his converts backslid, and only eight righteous persons, Noah and his family, lived to enter the ark and were saved. When the ark was finished and goods were stored, cattle and all other living creatures came two and two and were housed, believers were shut in by an invisible hand, and after a testing time of seven days with no rain in which mockery fully revealed unbelief, steady rain destroyed every living being outside and fulfilled the warning against those who disobeyed, with obedience rewarded and disobedience punished.
His obedience flowed from faith and was done by faith, and the immense boat on dry ground was evidence of that faith. His work and example made clear that he believed the warning he preached about coming destruction, for he faithfully obeyed God's commands in delivering God's warning to a corrupt, impenitent people, entering the ark when told, and persevering in warning and calling to repentance even when mocked. Waiting seven days in the ark before the rain began tested that faith while others remained unbelieving. His implicit, complete obedience was moved by faith in God's warning of a coming storm upon the wicked inhabitants of the old world to prepare a refuge by building the ark on dry land, a heavy cross. Genuine faith as defined by his course does what it knows to be God's will without consulting its own will and choice, carefully and conscientiously walking in the path God indicates even when obedience costs sacrifice and loss of friends, property, name, and life itself. It does not pick and choose only the agreeable precepts suited to present comfort and convenience while rejecting those requiring self-denial and exposing to sport and derision from the godless, and it does not reason that it is consistent to take a course that would save loss or inconvenience and avoid ridicule.
God's promises are on conditions of obedience, and man must do what God has left for him to do instead of leaving God to do it. This includes denying appetite and gross passions to keep a healthy body and mind and a sanctified imagination in order to render to God an offering in righteousness, as Noah did all that God required of him in making the ark secure. After man has done all in his power, God performs what man cannot do and saves alone by a miracle of mercy, preserving the ark upon the stormy billows by miraculous power. Such obedience means loyalty to God's commands rather than dependence on human wisdom and human judgment. It included preserving God's law, for he and his family preserved God's law and their right-doing was connected with their miraculous rescue in the ark, he taught the ten commandments to his descendants, and the law of God was preserved in the ark and later observed by Abraham.
Holding to the full importance of the Sabbath belongs to this loyalty, with refusal to belittle truth in order to link up with unbelievers, refusal to depart from principle and conform to the world, and refusal of the counsel of any man whatever his position who works counter to what God has wrought to keep His people separate from the world. His obedience in building that immense boat on dry land is the pattern for all who enter the strait gate and travel the narrow path cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in. They go forward toward heaven against Satan and evil angels, against transgressors of God's law, against interposing earthly authorities, against tribulations, bruising of spirit, hard speeches, ridicule and persecutions, and against required conformity to laws and customs that would render them disloyal to God. They find and bear the cross in the way to life by obeying all God's requirements.
Warning While Building
While he was building the ark exactly as instructed, Noah faithfully warned the people that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy the wicked. For one hundred and twenty years he served as a faithful preacher of righteousness and a light to his crooked generation, proclaiming pardon and salvation to all who would believe the message and prepare by repentance and reformation. He warned by his works as well as by his words, so that the building itself was a warning and every blow struck on the ark was a warning message. His faithful building work itself preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts.
His work and example made clear that he believed the warning he preached, and he persevered in warning the people and calling them to repentance even when they mocked him. In mercy God gave the transgressors a probation of one hundred and twenty years, during which Noah and his helpers stayed constantly at work preparing an immense boat on dry land. Under universal scorn heaped upon God's law and upon Noah and his helpers, in the most critical time when the antediluvian world refused to obey in self-importance, swelling pride, and deeds of unrighteousness, he did not lose reverence and love for the law. He preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule and scorn heaped upon him for building the ark.
The warning held out opportunity to escape and urged all to find refuge in the ark. It warned, tested, and proved the people, and their salvation depended on how they treated the message, with only those who believed being saved, only eight people surviving. When the antediluvians rejected the warning the Spirit of God ceased to strive with them, so that light disregarded became darkness and all further hearing and preaching was vain, and the same takes place when men despise the warnings God in mercy sends them and the invitation of the first angel's message, turning instead to farm and merchandise until the Spirit ceases to arouse conviction.
Rejection and unbelief did not make the warning ineffective and did not prevent the coming judgment and its fulfillment. Though scoffers rejected the warning, though nearly all thought they were right and Noah was wrong and claimed to know more than he did, God's servants must still faithfully present the truth despite opposition. They closed their ears to truth because it did not suit them, explained the warning away by false science, objected that rain had never come and that coming rain was a fanatical proposition, branded him a fanatic and crazed alarmist, and laughed, mocked, and ridiculed his words as parables. Their unbelief did not prevent the flood, and when steady rain came they drank the waters covering the earth and perished, while Noah and his family alone were saved in the ark.
Helpers and Household Response
Noah did not build alone, for his family and others who received his instruction helped him build the ark. Methuselah, his sons and grandsons, and many others received his instruction and assisted in the work. Those fellow laborers joined him in laboring to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to hold back the tide of moral evil. They continued what Enoch had already repeated to his children of what God had shown him about the Flood, and while the ark was building the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, so that every blow struck on the ark was a warning message.
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. Merely working on the ark did not make them faithful when they failed to complete the change of character needed to worship God. Those builders pursued their own plans and sought distinction instead of conforming every part of the work to divine direction. Choosing corrupt company left them to perish in the flood, for helping with the preparation did not save those who would not obey and accept the message.
Some carpenters he employed believed for a time but died before the Flood, and others of his converts backslid. Many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the end of the one hundred and twenty years of warning. Only a few repented, and only eight righteous persons, Noah and his family, lived to enter the ark and were saved. The small response did not change the duty to warn, and only those eight accepted the warning and entered by faith.
When the ark was finished and goods were stored, cattle and all other living creatures came two and two and were housed. Believers were shut in by an invisible hand when God told them to enter with the family. There was then a testing time of seven days with no rain in which mockery fully revealed unbelief and tested faith. That week of waiting proved obedience even while others remained unbelieving and mocked, until steady rain destroyed every living being outside the ark.
Judgment and Deliverance Outcome
The world before the Flood refused to obey, filled with pre-Flood wickedness, self-importance, swelling pride and deeds of unrighteousness in bold disobedience to God's law. The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence grown to fearful proportions, and though its men were talented and possessed skill and knowledge, they became corrupt in imagination by leaving God out of their plans and councils, wise to do evil what He had never told them to do. Their wickedness became unbearable to Him, so that He determined to purify the earth by a flood, to clothe Himself with vengeance, to arise out of His place to punish the inhabitants for iniquity, and to execute judgment against the transgressors of His law. Because their example would harm those born afterward, He took the matter in hand when the end of all flesh had come before Him because the earth was filled with violence through them.
They closed their ears to truth and turned away because the message did not suit their inclination, objecting that they had never had rain and that rain to come was a fanatical proposition. They explained the warning away by false science, claimed to know more than Noah though nearly all thought they were right and he was wrong, and talked of science and the laws controlling nature. They branded him a fanatic and crazed alarmist, holding a carnival over his words and calling him a crazy fanatic, and they laughed, mocked, ridiculed, caricatured and criticized his words as parables. Their confidence that he was wrong and their rejection of his message did not prevent the Flood from coming and did not prevent the fulfillment of the message.
When steady rain came the rebellious race who would not keep the commandments of heaven were swept away, drank the waters covering the earth, and perished with death as their portion. Only Noah and his family, eight righteous persons, entered the ark, and the flood fulfilled the prophetic warning against those who disobeyed God. In this obedience was rewarded and disobedience punished, exemplifying the truth of God's word that all who would not keep the commandments of heaven should drink the waters of the flood.
The flood proves men had exceeded the bounds prescribed by God's long-sufferance and the limits of grace, when a people with a plain thus saith the Lord presume on mercy, go decidedly counter to His will, and despise warnings. So God interfered in wrath to vindicate the honor of His law, to repress the increase of unrighteousness, to limit human life, and to prevent continual disobedience and men spoiling one another. When the antediluvians rejected, the Spirit of God ceased to strive with them, so that light disregarded became darkness and all further hearing and preaching was vain.
The ark upon the stormy billows was preserved by miraculous power and out-rode the storms that threatened it with destruction. Its survival shows how the word of God is preserved uncorrupted through the ages of darkness, outriding the storms that threaten it with destruction despite unwearied efforts to obscure the plain, simple meaning of the Scriptures and make them contradict their own testimony. It endures despite Satan urging papal priests and prelates to bury truth beneath error, heresy and superstition.
Prophetic Type of Last Days
Noah's generation foreshadows the present age, for human nature apart from God's Spirit remains unchanged and the conditions of his time characterize the age before Christ's appearing. God looks upon the world today as He looked upon it in Noah's time, and He sends His messages to people today as He sent them in the days of Noah, because this age repeats the wickedness of the world before the Flood. Genesis 6 belongs to inspired Scripture and records Noah as a real person and the Flood as a historical event.
The past is repeating today when God sends plain warnings and His judgments already fall in earthquake, flood, and flame upon evildoers who refuse to repent and will perish. That disobedient old world lost His favor and became so wicked that its wickedness was unbearable to Him, so that He determined in mercy and love to purify the world by a flood after a probation of one hundred and twenty years. Noah carried out all that was commanded by building an immense boat on dry land for the safety of all who would believe and enter, and by preaching that in one hundred and twenty years God would punish the inhabitants by a flood and destroy them all. He obeyed while laughed to scorn and mocked, while people objected that rain had never come and that coming rain was a fanatical proposition, yet their unbelief did not prevent fulfillment, and when rain came the wicked perished, leaving the world a picture of being found unprepared for the Lord's appearing.
His obedience in preparing the ark is the example of preparing for the Lord's coming, whose approach is knowable by signs even though the exact day and hour are unknown. Noah's warning before the flood parallels the last-days message, which likewise warns, tests, and proves the world. He held out warning and opportunity to escape and urged all to find refuge in the ark, but the multitudes refused to heed and rejected his words, and the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. When the antediluvians rejected, the Spirit of God ceased to strive with them, so that light disregarded became darkness and all further hearing and preaching was vain. The same takes place when men despise the warnings God in mercy sends and the invitation to receive the first angel's message, turning instead to farm and merchandise until the Spirit ceases to arouse conviction in their hearts.
As Noah publicly foretold destruction while it looked impossible and was called a crazed alarmist, so anyone foretelling Jerusalem's destruction when it looked impregnable in beauty, towers, walls, fortresses, and natural strength in the reign of Herod would be dismissed. Yet wrath had been denounced because of sins and stubborn unbelief, and doom was certain, for heaven and earth shall pass away but God's words shall not pass away. While the ark was building the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, so that every blow struck on the ark was a warning message.
Present Call to Faithfulness
Noah's obedience included warning the people before the flood, carrying God's message and urging them to repent and be saved, even though scoffers rejected the warning and remained deceived. Only eight persons accepted and were saved, but the small response did not change his duty to warn. Their unbelief did not prevent the coming judgment from arriving. Trusting God's word and standing with his household against a corrupt generation, he exemplifies how those who rely on God can withstand the power of the world. God's servants must therefore faithfully present the truth despite opposition.
His faithful response is the example of loyalty God's people are to follow when carrying a warning message and refusing to depart from obedience to God. That loyalty means obedience to God's commands rather than dependence on human wisdom and human judgment. It holds to the full importance of the Sabbath, refuses to belittle truth in order to link up with unbelievers, refuses to depart from principle and conform to the world, and refuses the counsel of any man whatever his position who works counter to what God has wrought to keep His people separate from the world.
He was God's faithful, loyal and true servant, in contrast to walking contrary to God's Word in rebellion that brings God's displeasure. Though nearly all the inhabitants of the world thought they were right and he was wrong and claimed to know more than he did, he gave God's message that rain and flood would come when no signs of it had ever existed. They closed their ears to truth, explained the warning away by false science, branded him a fanatic, and laughed and mocked his words as parables, but their unbelief did not prevent the flood and they drank the waters that covered the earth. The obedience was carried out during a merciful probation of one hundred and twenty years, while the ark was building and the voices of Noah, Methuselah, and many others were heard in warning and entreaty, so that every blow struck on the ark was a warning message. The past is repeating today when God sends plain warnings and His judgments already fall in earthquake, flood, and flame upon evildoers who refuse to repent and will perish. If the whole world is in opposition to God's law it should make no difference, and those who want to be found on the side of the loyal and true when Christ comes must stand loyal. The same loyalty calls parents to fulfill the obligations and duties He gives even when not convenient and different from the world, and to treat the training of their children as a sacred work entrusted by the Most High, lest by neglect they train them to become like the world and perish in disobedience.
God arranged every detail of the ark, and faithful building work itself preached sermons that convicted and converted hearts and warned the world. God still communicates with His people today and gives wisdom to do His will, and He Himself watches and by His word, by His Spirit, and by His providence directs the erecting of institutions for Him. Builders are to represent truth by working in the spirit and love of God with faithfulness, stability, and fitness in every part. They are to feel the greatest anxiety for the constant help of Christ, take time to ask counsel of Him, send up prayer and holy song, realize entire dependence upon God, look unto Jesus, and labor together with God in a work of eternal consequence. The making of the ark and the making of the animals that entered it give a practical lesson for little children from five years old and upward, teaching them how to work and how to manage and how to work together.