Amid a world corrupt before God and filled with violence, where every imagination of the heart was only evil continually, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord as one just, upright and perfect in his generation who walked with God and was a pleasure to his Creator. God saw that widespread persistent wickedness, was grieved at His heart, and determined to bring the end of all flesh and wash the earth of its moral pollution by flood, an act both just and merciful. One hundred and twenty years beforehand He told Noah His purpose and directed him to build the ark, giving that world a merciful probation in which every blow on the ark warned of coming judgment and called sinners to repent, believe and find refuge. Only eight persons, Noah and his family, accepted the warning and were miraculously preserved, while the wicked who rejected it were swept away. As it was in the days of Noah so it will be before Christ appears, so believers in a like age of sin are called to earnestly seek the Lord, stand separate from prevailing wickedness in holy integrity and unwavering faithfulness, and live wholly consecrated, pure and walking with God.
Corrupt World Before Flood
But Noah found grace stands against a world corrupt before God and filled with violence, where every imagination of the heart was only evil continually and wickedness was widespread and persistent until God determined to destroy its inhabitants. In that antediluvian world there were two classes, the righteous and the wicked, with Enoch and others walking with God in uprightness while the great majority were given over to iniquity. The verse belongs to that account of pre-flood corruption in which human gifts and skill were perverted, violence filled the earth, the Lord was forgotten, people turned from God under Satan's influence to wickedness and oppression, and Noah as just and upright and walking with God stood in contrast to the corruption that brought judgment.
That corruption showed itself in intemperance in eating and drinking, demand for flesh meat without divine permission though fruit was appointed as food, gluttony, drunkenness, depraved unbounded appetite, lust, sensual passion, and abominable idolatry until men became violent and ferocious and corrupt in body and soul, hating God, with the cup of iniquity full so that God could bear with them no longer. Ordinary pursuits such as eating, marrying, buying and building became sinful when they consumed minds and displaced God, and the inhabitants chose the imaginations of their own corrupt minds and wicked inventions, steeped in licentiousness until they could not discern pure affections from destructive lusts, as sinful as Sodom. That pre-flood condition gives a lesson on temperance, and in those days children were trained to love excitement, glorify themselves and follow evil desires amid depravity, cruelty, violence and crime.
Men corrupted themselves by choice, growing bold in disobeying God's law after Adam's transgression, casting aside restraint and seeking freedom from His government, so that continual transgression increased until the flood came upon the earth. God's forbearance only made the wicked more bold and defiant, the longer men lived in sin the more abandoned and corrupt they became, long life was no blessing to the sinner, and human depravity ripened until steadily increasing sin called for destruction, exemplifying that God means what He says. Without speedy punishment of transgression the earth would again become as corrupt as in Noah's days, with evils even greater than resulted from sparing Cain.
The age was marked by selfishness and covetousness leading to violence, crime and every kind of wickedness, robbery, fraud and dishonest business such as speculation in mining stocks and city lots, greed for possessions, presumptuous daring deeds of unholy ambition to gain strength by robbing others, nation watching nation for advantage, strife and war and bloodshed, oppression, and taking the sword so that he that taketh the sword shall perish with the sword. Confusion, strife and discord between labor and capital appeared, with force used to cause men to unite with confederacies and unions, unions and confederacies already existing in Noah's day and binding men in bundles for the burning of the great fires of the last days, alongside misuse of power, cruelty, ambition for self-exalting exhibition, every conceivable crime, lust of the flesh and pride of the eyes, and display of selfishness. There was hypocrisy in the churches, no time to meditate, a round of gaiety and pleasure-seeking and eating and drinking that men call life, with men determined to carry out their own plans regardless of others as seen in destruction of property and attempts to destroy life by union men striking for higher wages, and the cities growing more and more like the earth before the flood and like Sodom, as now revealed in San Francisco and Oakland, so that those crowded in cities should procure land far from cities and cultivate the soil.
Decay reached home and worship, for parents transgressed the law of Jehovah and failed to instruct children diligently to love and fear God and obey all His commandments, so sin and iniquity abounded, wrath was kindled against the teachers of the earth, and children were trained to love excitement and follow evil desires. Those professing to know God practiced idolatry and by influence led others to reject warning, and those separating from God's faithful followers corrupted sacrificial worship into offerings of animals to idols rather than in faith in the coming Redeemer. Corruptions of every type of long standing mingled with presentation of truth, putting nature as God, unrestrained license of human will, counsel of the ungodly, employment of power of mind on mind to carry out Satan's designs, and a form of godliness without real godliness.
God looked on the corrupt earth, saw the wickedness, repented that He had made man, was grieved at His heart, clothed Himself with vengeance to execute judgment against transgressors of His law, and determined to destroy man and beast and creeping thing and fowl from the earth and bring the end of all flesh and destroy them with the earth. By a flood He washed the earth of its moral pollution and blotted out its wicked inhabitants, and that sentence of death for transgressing God's law and cutting short unbridled iniquity was both just and merciful, freeing the world from those hardened in rebellion and showing God's wrath against transgression. The inhabitants of the old world lost God's favor by disobedience and wickedness unbearable to Him, yet in mercy and love He gave a probation of one hundred and twenty years while the ark was building, with Noah and Methuselah and many others sounding warning and entreaty so that every blow on the ark was a warning.
The setting lies fifteen centuries after the sentence on Cain, when Cain's influence, example, teaching and spared life had ripened into crime and pollution flooding the earth. In that time men, animals and trees were many times larger than any now existing or for thousands of years, and at the flood great changes took place in which giant men, animals and trees were buried and preserved as evidence to later generations that the antediluvians perished by a flood, designed to establish faith in inspired history, though men pervert benefit into curse by wrong use and by using buried relics to argue for long ages. Truth was passed from Abel, Seth and Enoch to Noah and onward, placing Noah among earlier examples whose teaching helped educate even Daniel and his companions in faithfulness.
Noah's Grace and Character
Noah found favor and grace in the eyes of the Lord amid a world of persistent, widespread wickedness, and he was a pleasure to his Creator in that degenerate age. He is described as just and upright, complete and perfect in his generation, walking with God when conditions were unfavorable for the development of character. He was one of the few who did what was right and feared and honored his Creator, belonging with the believing and obedient as distinct from the disobedient before the Flood. He would not remain among the wicked, and his faith was tested amid ridicule yet preserved with those with him in the ark, since the world's wickedness did not prevent God from delivering them. The same favor calls believers in the last days, in an age of sin and corruption like Noah's day, to so live that they are a pleasure to God and are kept from evil while showing forth His praises.
He found grace because he earnestly sought the Lord with all his heart, and those who seek God in the same way will find Him. Finding Him separates them in practice from all others on earth, guarding their charge like a shepherd, refusing to lead others into close connection with the world, selfish gratification and worldly customs, educating for undivided service, betraying no trust, practicing right principles, and bringing no earthly selfish principles into God's work. He was truly on the Lord's side when sins that still exist filled the world, an exception amid corruption and a pattern for loyalty when disloyalty and contempt for God's law prevail. Though surrounded by enemies of God and of truth, he stood on Christ's side, and severe tests come to every soul on that side, requiring youth and all to be stored with Bible truth. His connection with God made him strong with infinite power, so his message carried divine authority and reality, while God's people now must be as wholly consecrated to Christ as the world is wholly given to evil, pure and holy, clothed in Christ's righteousness, walking and talking with God, discerning truth from error and ready for the Son of man.
There were two classes in the antediluvian world, the righteous and the wicked, with Enoch and others walking with God in uprightness while the great majority were given over to iniquity. After Adam's transgression brought sin and men grew bold in disobeying God's law, Noah was one of the few righteous and obedient on the impenitent earth. Amid prevailing corruption he labored with Methuselah and many others to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to hold back the tide of moral evil, remaining distinct from it. Truth had been passed from Abel, Seth and Enoch onward, and Noah's example helped educate later faithful ones such as Daniel and his companions. Against the background where the old world lost favor by unbearable disobedience, God in mercy gave a probation of one hundred and twenty years in which Noah and his fellow workers sounded warning and entreaty while the ark was building.
He stood like a rock amid the tempest of universal wickedness, moral corruption, violence and crime, distinguished by holy integrity, meekness, righteousness and unwavering faithfulness. While the world disregarded God and indulged in extravagant dissipation, power attended his words as the voice of God through His servant. Amid popular contempt, ridicule, scoffs and jeers he remained an unbending witness and faithful preacher of righteousness, meek and righteous while others ignored the message and continued in wickedness. His example when most chose the wrong side shows that the majority's choice does not make sin right or weaken God's law. God's benevolence and care continued despite human wickedness, and the world was spared from immediate flood because of the covenant made with Noah.
The verse also belongs to the account of the world before the Flood when human gifts were perverted, violence filled the earth, the Lord was forgotten, and people turned from God under Satan's influence into wickedness and oppression. It stands connected with the contrast between the old world's disobedience and its destruction, in which Noah was spared while the disobedient perished, and with the time when disregard for God and His law, selfish pleasure, pride, immorality and violence prevailed. It is set against widespread moral pollution in which dishonest practices, greed, speculation and corrupt sacrificial worship offered to idols were already present. In those settings the mention of grace is not explained further apart from placing Noah's favor within the history of corruption that brought judgment.
Warning, Ark, and Deliverance
One hundred and twenty years before the flood God by a holy angel made known to Noah His purpose to destroy the wicked by a flood of water and directed him to build an immense ark on dry land. That long period was given in mercy as a probation in which the world might repent, while Satan was demonstrating his principles of rebellion against God's law. Knowledge of the coming flood had already been given through Enoch to his children, and Noah labored with Methuselah and many others to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and hold back the tide of moral evil. Methuselah and his sons lived to hear Noah's preaching and helped build the ark.
While building, Noah was to preach warning as a preacher of righteousness, declaring that a flood would deluge the world because of its unsurpassed wickedness. He was sent so the people would see their sins and crimes and wickedness, be alarmed and fear, and repent and believe and find refuge, with every blow struck on the ark itself a warning. Those who believed the message and prepared by repentance and reformation would find pardon and be saved, receiving mercy and life and shelter in the ark until God's indignation was overpast. God warned because He wanted them to have life and gave opportunity to receive His mercy, and the ark was the massive boat provided to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness.
Only eight persons, Noah and his family, accepted the warning, took refuge and were saved, for only a few repented and the granted time for repentance was not valued. Some believing carpenters died before the flood and other converts backslid, and even many who helped build the ark did not believe the warning message, did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things contrary to the mind and will of God. All were tested by the truth Noah preached, and those who believed were saved.
When the appointed time came and probation closed, rain was sent from heaven and the foundations of the great deep were broken up, and the flood swept away the wicked inhabitants who rejected warning and would not keep the commandments of heaven. Noah and those with him were miraculously preserved in the ark, not because God willed the others to perish but because they would not heed the warning; obedience brought shelter while rejection ended in death. That blotting out of the wicked and destruction of transgressors of the law is presented as mingled mercy and judgment, an act of mercy toward the world and an exemplification of the truth of God's word.
The preaching warned, tested and proved the people amid popular contempt, ridicule, scoffs, jeers and scorn, as those who followed pleasure mocked the message from heaven and each passing day left one day less of probation. Noah did not yield to the universal scorn thrown upon the law and upon himself and his helpers, but with his helpers kept working to prepare the ark and preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule, his connection with God making him strong in infinite power so that power attended his words. Other believers kept the faith and died triumphant, while some listened for a time and even worked with him in building but did not endure, for evil influences prevailed and they turned away from truth to become scoffers because they were not firmly grounded. When judged every man according to his deeds they understand that the message would have been their life and salvation if they had accepted the evidence and practiced its conditions.
Pattern for the Last Days
As it was in the days of Noah so it will be before Christ appears, for human nature without the influence of God's Spirit is the same, and the present world is fast becoming corrupt, violent, absorbed in excitement and worldly pursuits, unaware of coming judgment, with no flattering signs of millennial glory. In the antediluvian world there were two classes, the righteous and the wicked, with Enoch and others walking with God in uprightness while the great majority were given over to iniquity, the earth corrupt before God and filled with violence, every imagination of man's heart only evil continually. God looked on the corrupt earth, repented that He had made man, was grieved at His heart, and said He would destroy man, beast, creeping thing and fowl from the earth and bring the end of all flesh and destroy them with the earth, clothing Himself with vengeance to execute judgment against transgressors of His law, yet giving direction that an ark be built for those desiring to be saved from the coming destruction. This same condition of war, bloodshed and wicked deeds fills the world today in the very last days when judgments fall, cities are destroyed as warning, thrones are broken, nations are distressed, Satan works with intense activity, and suffering fills the earth as Christ declared it would be as in the days of Noah at His coming. Noah received God's favor and was a pleasure to his Creator amid the corruption of that degenerate age, meaning being just and perfect and walking with God even when the world is unfavorable for the development of Christian character, and in the last days of this earth's history, in an age of sin and corruption like Noah's day, it calls believers to so live that they shall be a pleasure to God. The wickedness of the world before the flood is repeated in this age, and God looks upon the world today just as He looked upon it in Noah's time, placing His favor upon Noah while sending His messages to people now as He sent them in the days of Noah, even as those sins that brought destruction on the antediluvians exist in the present day as well, including among some who profess to await Christ's return.
As God looked on Noah's generation and sent a warning, He looks on the world today and sends plain messages of truth for the last days, while judgments already fall in destroyed cities, earthquake, flood and flame, thrones broken, nations distressed and suffering filling the earth. Noah's preaching warned, tested, and proved the people before the flood destroyed them, and the same warning-and-testing work belongs to the message of truth for the last days. The inhabitants of the old world lost God's favor by disobedience and wickedness that became unbearable to Him, so God determined to purify the world by a flood, but in mercy and love gave the antediluvians a probation of one hundred and twenty years. During that time, while the ark was building, Noah with Methuselah and many others sounded warning and entreaty, and every blow struck on the ark was a warning message, and the same pattern repeats today, with God sending plain warnings and with judgments already falling, so that all who refuse to repent will perish. Many who helped build the ark did not believe the warning 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, showing that people may help with the work without believing the warning or turning from wrongdoing.
Satan works with intense activity to make the world again as wicked as before the flood, while the Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn from the earth and His restraining power over Satan removed, leaving disasters to become more constant. The first flood came upon a very wicked world, and disasters like the Johnstown flood will become more constant because the restraining power God has held over Satan is being withdrawn, leaving Satan free to exercise his power over the inhabitants of the world in plagues God allows Satan to bring upon men and beasts. As long as Satan lives his constant and untiring effort is to make the world again as wicked as before the flood. The world is step by step reaching again through satanic working the corrupt conditions of the days of Noah, marked by confusion, strife and discord between labor and capital, hypocrisy in the churches, no time to meditate, a round of gaiety and pleasure-seeking and eating and drinking, ambition to make a self-exalting exhibition, every conceivable crime, the lust of the flesh and the pride of the eyes, display of selfishness, misuse of power, cruelty, and force used to cause men to unite with confederacies and unions, binding themselves in bundles for the burning of the great fires of the last days, a round of crime and folly that men call life.
When defiance of God's law becomes almost universal and a crisis comes, God reveals Himself, interposes to hinder Satan's plans, mingles mercy with judgment, and sustains and vindicates His people who seek Him as Deliverer. In Noah's day men disregarded the law of God until almost all remembrance of Him had passed from the earth, with wickedness, violence, crime and every kind of sin intensely active, so the Lord brought a flood of water upon the world that swept away the wicked inhabitants. In that judgment mercy was mingled, for Noah and his family were saved, revealing God's manner of working when mindful of what is passing on earth to reveal Himself and interpose at a crisis to sustain and vindicate His people.
Noah is treated as a literal person in inspired history, whom Christ treats as a literal person, and that history is taught to prepare people for Christ's advent. That history stands in an extended probation of one hundred and twenty years, when the crime and violence of the antediluvians and their repeated rejection of the messages God sent wore out His long-suffering patience, so that these despisers of His mercy were destroyed by the flood. Their example warns that persistent sin and rejection of God's warnings bring judgment, even after long patience and mercy, for the people of Noah's world were committed to evil, and God destroyed them.
Call to Faithful Living
Noah received divine favor and was a delight to his Maker in the midst of a degenerate age when wickedness was so widespread that destruction of man, beast, creeping thing and fowl was determined. The meaning is to be just and perfect and to walk with God even when the world is unfavorable to Christian character, and in the last days in an age of sin and corruption like his, believers are to so live as to be a pleasure to God and show forth His praises while kept from evil in the world. When the world is wholly given to evil and no life is safe except by divine protection, with conditions returning like Sodom and Gomorrah and men saying the Lord delays His coming, God's people must be as wholly consecrated to Christ and His service, with lives pure and holy, clothed in the white garments of Christ's righteousness, walking and talking with God, with eyes anointed to discern truth from error, ready to meet the Son of man coming in an hour not expected. Those who find grace see the necessity of the new life formed within, to be like Christ in character, contending for the faith once delivered to the saints and living godly in Christ Jesus, while those who choose to ignore truth and righteousness to follow the imagination of their evil hearts shall not enter heaven.
His experience is the pattern for those who remain loyal when disloyalty and contempt for God's law prevail, calling Bible believers to stand for righteousness and truth amid violence, crime and conditions like those in which the old world perished. As in the days of Noah and of Lot, God's people must separate from prevailing wickedness, with no compromise with sin or the world. In his time there were two parties, those faithful to God and those opposed to Him, and Noah belonged to the faithful who remained distinct from surrounding corruption, showing that integrity can be preserved and a saving influence exerted, though many join the wickedness around them.
Noah lived in corruption like the present yet found grace because he earnestly sought the Lord with all his heart, and those who seek God the same way today will find Him. Finding Him separates them in practice from all other people on earth, so that they guard their charge like a shepherd guards his flock. They refuse to lead others into close connection with the world, selfish gratification and worldly customs, educate them to render undivided service to God, betray no sacred trust, observe the greatest care to practice right principles, and bring no earthly and selfish principles into the work of God.
The flood proves that the whole world perished and only Noah and the few with him were saved, so that it is not great numbers who follow Christ and following the majority leads to destruction and loss of heaven. Present believers must therefore not be discouraged when only a few believe the truth, must not turn to the right or left to fables, and must stand alone for known duty and lift the cross even at the cost of life. The majority's choice does not make sin right nor weaken God's law, for most in his time chose the wrong side.
The pre-flood condition gives a lesson on temperance, for Noah lived when selfishness, violence and crime prevailed from excessive indulgence of appetites and passions, and the same evils prevail as earth's history closes from the same cause. Loyalty in such a time calls for decided reform to a higher plane of action, with the church arising and shining and every family practicing self-denial to improve their condition. Those on the Lord's side are self-denying and self-sacrificing, eating and drinking to the glory of God and refusing to corrupt soul and body by intemperance, and their condition testifies that their light has not been removed, while those who refuse to receive and practice the light are left in the background as health reform goes on without them, showing their candlestick removed out of its place. A reform in habits of life is especially needed now to fit a people for the coming of Christ, keeping the brain clear and the body as free as possible from disease.
Iniquity that prevailed and polluted the world then exists today not only in the world but in the church, and against that Noah-like sin the atoning sacrifice must be kept before people. They must thereby see sin in its true hateful character and lay hold upon the righteousness of Christ, which alone can subdue sin and restore the moral image of God in man.
That same corrupt condition before the flood is now being repeated in the cities, which grow more like the earth before the flood and more like Sodom and prepare for Sodom's fate, so those crowded into cities should procure land in localities far from cities where they can cultivate the soil. That setting warns against unfair and dishonest dealings when ungodly practices prevail. While surrounded by enemies of God and of truth, Noah was on the side of Christ, and as severe tests come to every soul on Christ's side amid the same surrounding enemies now, youth and all must use every opened advantage to obtain knowledge of Bible truth and be stored with it.
God looked on a wicked world and placed favor on Noah, and He looks on the world today just as then, sending messages now as in Noah's days while the wickedness before the flood is repeated. Noah stood in grace and endured to the end of probation while building the ark under divine favor, though many who helped build it did not believe the warning, did not cleanse themselves from wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things contrary to the mind and will of God. Some listened for a time and even worked with him, but did not endure, for evil influences prevailed and they turned from truth to become scoffers, and because not firmly grounded they failed to stand. When judged every man according to his deeds they will understand the message would have been life and salvation if they had accepted the evidence and practiced its conditions, and that they might have been saved had they not rejected the only means of salvation, and so in the last days those who hear truth but do not believe and practice it will fall amid moral infidelity.
In a wicked world under judgment safety is only in being wholly on the Lord's side and giving no place to the enemy. The first flood came on a very wicked world, and disasters like the Johnstown flood will become more constant because the Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn and His restraining power over Satan removed, leaving Satan free to exercise power over earth's inhabitants. Those found on the enemy's side will perish with the wicked in plagues God allows Satan to bring upon men and beasts, so such calamity should cause fear and trembling. The world fast becomes as before the flood, with men determined to carry out their own plans regardless of others, as seen in destruction of property and attempts on life by union men striking for higher wages and in discouraged police who will not act their part, with an end the human mind cannot determine, all brought to notice to show the evil of following our own way and will which has appeared again and again. The natural man needs conversion and the Spirit of God operating on the heart, for many church members grow weak through self-sufficiency instead of depending on God, while only God can keep people from the widespread pollution threatening as crime and corruption near fullness as before the flood.
Amid a world corrupt before God and filled with violence, where every imagination of the heart was only evil continually, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord as one just, upright and perfect in his generation who walked with God and was a pleasure to his Creator. God saw that widespread persistent wickedness, was grieved at His heart, and determined to bring the end of all flesh and wash the earth of its moral pollution by flood, an act both just and merciful. One hundred and twenty years beforehand He told Noah His purpose and directed him to build the ark, giving that world a merciful probation in which every blow on the ark warned of coming judgment and called sinners to repent, believe and find refuge. Only eight persons, Noah and his family, accepted the warning and were miraculously preserved, while the wicked who rejected it were swept away. As it was in the days of Noah so it will be before Christ appears, so believers in a like age of sin are called to earnestly seek the Lord, stand separate from prevailing wickedness in holy integrity and unwavering faithfulness, and live wholly consecrated, pure and walking with God.
Corrupt World Before Flood
But Noah found grace stands against a world corrupt before God and filled with violence, where every imagination of the heart was only evil continually and wickedness was widespread and persistent until God determined to destroy its inhabitants. In that antediluvian world there were two classes, the righteous and the wicked, with Enoch and others walking with God in uprightness while the great majority were given over to iniquity. The verse belongs to that account of pre-flood corruption in which human gifts and skill were perverted, violence filled the earth, the Lord was forgotten, people turned from God under Satan's influence to wickedness and oppression, and Noah as just and upright and walking with God stood in contrast to the corruption that brought judgment.
That corruption showed itself in intemperance in eating and drinking, demand for flesh meat without divine permission though fruit was appointed as food, gluttony, drunkenness, depraved unbounded appetite, lust, sensual passion, and abominable idolatry until men became violent and ferocious and corrupt in body and soul, hating God, with the cup of iniquity full so that God could bear with them no longer. Ordinary pursuits such as eating, marrying, buying and building became sinful when they consumed minds and displaced God, and the inhabitants chose the imaginations of their own corrupt minds and wicked inventions, steeped in licentiousness until they could not discern pure affections from destructive lusts, as sinful as Sodom. That pre-flood condition gives a lesson on temperance, and in those days children were trained to love excitement, glorify themselves and follow evil desires amid depravity, cruelty, violence and crime.
Men corrupted themselves by choice, growing bold in disobeying God's law after Adam's transgression, casting aside restraint and seeking freedom from His government, so that continual transgression increased until the flood came upon the earth. God's forbearance only made the wicked more bold and defiant, the longer men lived in sin the more abandoned and corrupt they became, long life was no blessing to the sinner, and human depravity ripened until steadily increasing sin called for destruction, exemplifying that God means what He says. Without speedy punishment of transgression the earth would again become as corrupt as in Noah's days, with evils even greater than resulted from sparing Cain.
The age was marked by selfishness and covetousness leading to violence, crime and every kind of wickedness, robbery, fraud and dishonest business such as speculation in mining stocks and city lots, greed for possessions, presumptuous daring deeds of unholy ambition to gain strength by robbing others, nation watching nation for advantage, strife and war and bloodshed, oppression, and taking the sword so that he that taketh the sword shall perish with the sword. Confusion, strife and discord between labor and capital appeared, with force used to cause men to unite with confederacies and unions, unions and confederacies already existing in Noah's day and binding men in bundles for the burning of the great fires of the last days, alongside misuse of power, cruelty, ambition for self-exalting exhibition, every conceivable crime, lust of the flesh and pride of the eyes, and display of selfishness. There was hypocrisy in the churches, no time to meditate, a round of gaiety and pleasure-seeking and eating and drinking that men call life, with men determined to carry out their own plans regardless of others as seen in destruction of property and attempts to destroy life by union men striking for higher wages, and the cities growing more and more like the earth before the flood and like Sodom, as now revealed in San Francisco and Oakland, so that those crowded in cities should procure land far from cities and cultivate the soil.
Decay reached home and worship, for parents transgressed the law of Jehovah and failed to instruct children diligently to love and fear God and obey all His commandments, so sin and iniquity abounded, wrath was kindled against the teachers of the earth, and children were trained to love excitement and follow evil desires. Those professing to know God practiced idolatry and by influence led others to reject warning, and those separating from God's faithful followers corrupted sacrificial worship into offerings of animals to idols rather than in faith in the coming Redeemer. Corruptions of every type of long standing mingled with presentation of truth, putting nature as God, unrestrained license of human will, counsel of the ungodly, employment of power of mind on mind to carry out Satan's designs, and a form of godliness without real godliness.
God looked on the corrupt earth, saw the wickedness, repented that He had made man, was grieved at His heart, clothed Himself with vengeance to execute judgment against transgressors of His law, and determined to destroy man and beast and creeping thing and fowl from the earth and bring the end of all flesh and destroy them with the earth. By a flood He washed the earth of its moral pollution and blotted out its wicked inhabitants, and that sentence of death for transgressing God's law and cutting short unbridled iniquity was both just and merciful, freeing the world from those hardened in rebellion and showing God's wrath against transgression. The inhabitants of the old world lost God's favor by disobedience and wickedness unbearable to Him, yet in mercy and love He gave a probation of one hundred and twenty years while the ark was building, with Noah and Methuselah and many others sounding warning and entreaty so that every blow on the ark was a warning.
The setting lies fifteen centuries after the sentence on Cain, when Cain's influence, example, teaching and spared life had ripened into crime and pollution flooding the earth. In that time men, animals and trees were many times larger than any now existing or for thousands of years, and at the flood great changes took place in which giant men, animals and trees were buried and preserved as evidence to later generations that the antediluvians perished by a flood, designed to establish faith in inspired history, though men pervert benefit into curse by wrong use and by using buried relics to argue for long ages. Truth was passed from Abel, Seth and Enoch to Noah and onward, placing Noah among earlier examples whose teaching helped educate even Daniel and his companions in faithfulness.
Noah's Grace and Character
Noah found favor and grace in the eyes of the Lord amid a world of persistent, widespread wickedness, and he was a pleasure to his Creator in that degenerate age. He is described as just and upright, complete and perfect in his generation, walking with God when conditions were unfavorable for the development of character. He was one of the few who did what was right and feared and honored his Creator, belonging with the believing and obedient as distinct from the disobedient before the Flood. He would not remain among the wicked, and his faith was tested amid ridicule yet preserved with those with him in the ark, since the world's wickedness did not prevent God from delivering them. The same favor calls believers in the last days, in an age of sin and corruption like Noah's day, to so live that they are a pleasure to God and are kept from evil while showing forth His praises.
He found grace because he earnestly sought the Lord with all his heart, and those who seek God in the same way will find Him. Finding Him separates them in practice from all others on earth, guarding their charge like a shepherd, refusing to lead others into close connection with the world, selfish gratification and worldly customs, educating for undivided service, betraying no trust, practicing right principles, and bringing no earthly selfish principles into God's work. He was truly on the Lord's side when sins that still exist filled the world, an exception amid corruption and a pattern for loyalty when disloyalty and contempt for God's law prevail. Though surrounded by enemies of God and of truth, he stood on Christ's side, and severe tests come to every soul on that side, requiring youth and all to be stored with Bible truth. His connection with God made him strong with infinite power, so his message carried divine authority and reality, while God's people now must be as wholly consecrated to Christ as the world is wholly given to evil, pure and holy, clothed in Christ's righteousness, walking and talking with God, discerning truth from error and ready for the Son of man.
There were two classes in the antediluvian world, the righteous and the wicked, with Enoch and others walking with God in uprightness while the great majority were given over to iniquity. After Adam's transgression brought sin and men grew bold in disobeying God's law, Noah was one of the few righteous and obedient on the impenitent earth. Amid prevailing corruption he labored with Methuselah and many others to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and to hold back the tide of moral evil, remaining distinct from it. Truth had been passed from Abel, Seth and Enoch onward, and Noah's example helped educate later faithful ones such as Daniel and his companions. Against the background where the old world lost favor by unbearable disobedience, God in mercy gave a probation of one hundred and twenty years in which Noah and his fellow workers sounded warning and entreaty while the ark was building.
He stood like a rock amid the tempest of universal wickedness, moral corruption, violence and crime, distinguished by holy integrity, meekness, righteousness and unwavering faithfulness. While the world disregarded God and indulged in extravagant dissipation, power attended his words as the voice of God through His servant. Amid popular contempt, ridicule, scoffs and jeers he remained an unbending witness and faithful preacher of righteousness, meek and righteous while others ignored the message and continued in wickedness. His example when most chose the wrong side shows that the majority's choice does not make sin right or weaken God's law. God's benevolence and care continued despite human wickedness, and the world was spared from immediate flood because of the covenant made with Noah.
The verse also belongs to the account of the world before the Flood when human gifts were perverted, violence filled the earth, the Lord was forgotten, and people turned from God under Satan's influence into wickedness and oppression. It stands connected with the contrast between the old world's disobedience and its destruction, in which Noah was spared while the disobedient perished, and with the time when disregard for God and His law, selfish pleasure, pride, immorality and violence prevailed. It is set against widespread moral pollution in which dishonest practices, greed, speculation and corrupt sacrificial worship offered to idols were already present. In those settings the mention of grace is not explained further apart from placing Noah's favor within the history of corruption that brought judgment.
Warning, Ark, and Deliverance
One hundred and twenty years before the flood God by a holy angel made known to Noah His purpose to destroy the wicked by a flood of water and directed him to build an immense ark on dry land. That long period was given in mercy as a probation in which the world might repent, while Satan was demonstrating his principles of rebellion against God's law. Knowledge of the coming flood had already been given through Enoch to his children, and Noah labored with Methuselah and many others to keep alive the knowledge of the true God and hold back the tide of moral evil. Methuselah and his sons lived to hear Noah's preaching and helped build the ark.
While building, Noah was to preach warning as a preacher of righteousness, declaring that a flood would deluge the world because of its unsurpassed wickedness. He was sent so the people would see their sins and crimes and wickedness, be alarmed and fear, and repent and believe and find refuge, with every blow struck on the ark itself a warning. Those who believed the message and prepared by repentance and reformation would find pardon and be saved, receiving mercy and life and shelter in the ark until God's indignation was overpast. God warned because He wanted them to have life and gave opportunity to receive His mercy, and the ark was the massive boat provided to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness.
Only eight persons, Noah and his family, accepted the warning, took refuge and were saved, for only a few repented and the granted time for repentance was not valued. Some believing carpenters died before the flood and other converts backslid, and even many who helped build the ark did not believe the warning message, did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things contrary to the mind and will of God. All were tested by the truth Noah preached, and those who believed were saved.
When the appointed time came and probation closed, rain was sent from heaven and the foundations of the great deep were broken up, and the flood swept away the wicked inhabitants who rejected warning and would not keep the commandments of heaven. Noah and those with him were miraculously preserved in the ark, not because God willed the others to perish but because they would not heed the warning; obedience brought shelter while rejection ended in death. That blotting out of the wicked and destruction of transgressors of the law is presented as mingled mercy and judgment, an act of mercy toward the world and an exemplification of the truth of God's word.
The preaching warned, tested and proved the people amid popular contempt, ridicule, scoffs, jeers and scorn, as those who followed pleasure mocked the message from heaven and each passing day left one day less of probation. Noah did not yield to the universal scorn thrown upon the law and upon himself and his helpers, but with his helpers kept working to prepare the ark and preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule, his connection with God making him strong in infinite power so that power attended his words. Other believers kept the faith and died triumphant, while some listened for a time and even worked with him in building but did not endure, for evil influences prevailed and they turned away from truth to become scoffers because they were not firmly grounded. When judged every man according to his deeds they understand that the message would have been their life and salvation if they had accepted the evidence and practiced its conditions.
Pattern for the Last Days
As it was in the days of Noah so it will be before Christ appears, for human nature without the influence of God's Spirit is the same, and the present world is fast becoming corrupt, violent, absorbed in excitement and worldly pursuits, unaware of coming judgment, with no flattering signs of millennial glory. In the antediluvian world there were two classes, the righteous and the wicked, with Enoch and others walking with God in uprightness while the great majority were given over to iniquity, the earth corrupt before God and filled with violence, every imagination of man's heart only evil continually. God looked on the corrupt earth, repented that He had made man, was grieved at His heart, and said He would destroy man, beast, creeping thing and fowl from the earth and bring the end of all flesh and destroy them with the earth, clothing Himself with vengeance to execute judgment against transgressors of His law, yet giving direction that an ark be built for those desiring to be saved from the coming destruction. This same condition of war, bloodshed and wicked deeds fills the world today in the very last days when judgments fall, cities are destroyed as warning, thrones are broken, nations are distressed, Satan works with intense activity, and suffering fills the earth as Christ declared it would be as in the days of Noah at His coming. Noah received God's favor and was a pleasure to his Creator amid the corruption of that degenerate age, meaning being just and perfect and walking with God even when the world is unfavorable for the development of Christian character, and in the last days of this earth's history, in an age of sin and corruption like Noah's day, it calls believers to so live that they shall be a pleasure to God. The wickedness of the world before the flood is repeated in this age, and God looks upon the world today just as He looked upon it in Noah's time, placing His favor upon Noah while sending His messages to people now as He sent them in the days of Noah, even as those sins that brought destruction on the antediluvians exist in the present day as well, including among some who profess to await Christ's return.
As God looked on Noah's generation and sent a warning, He looks on the world today and sends plain messages of truth for the last days, while judgments already fall in destroyed cities, earthquake, flood and flame, thrones broken, nations distressed and suffering filling the earth. Noah's preaching warned, tested, and proved the people before the flood destroyed them, and the same warning-and-testing work belongs to the message of truth for the last days. The inhabitants of the old world lost God's favor by disobedience and wickedness that became unbearable to Him, so God determined to purify the world by a flood, but in mercy and love gave the antediluvians a probation of one hundred and twenty years. During that time, while the ark was building, Noah with Methuselah and many others sounded warning and entreaty, and every blow struck on the ark was a warning message, and the same pattern repeats today, with God sending plain warnings and with judgments already falling, so that all who refuse to repent will perish. Many who helped build the ark did not believe the warning 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, showing that people may help with the work without believing the warning or turning from wrongdoing.
Satan works with intense activity to make the world again as wicked as before the flood, while the Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn from the earth and His restraining power over Satan removed, leaving disasters to become more constant. The first flood came upon a very wicked world, and disasters like the Johnstown flood will become more constant because the restraining power God has held over Satan is being withdrawn, leaving Satan free to exercise his power over the inhabitants of the world in plagues God allows Satan to bring upon men and beasts. As long as Satan lives his constant and untiring effort is to make the world again as wicked as before the flood. The world is step by step reaching again through satanic working the corrupt conditions of the days of Noah, marked by confusion, strife and discord between labor and capital, hypocrisy in the churches, no time to meditate, a round of gaiety and pleasure-seeking and eating and drinking, ambition to make a self-exalting exhibition, every conceivable crime, the lust of the flesh and the pride of the eyes, display of selfishness, misuse of power, cruelty, and force used to cause men to unite with confederacies and unions, binding themselves in bundles for the burning of the great fires of the last days, a round of crime and folly that men call life.
When defiance of God's law becomes almost universal and a crisis comes, God reveals Himself, interposes to hinder Satan's plans, mingles mercy with judgment, and sustains and vindicates His people who seek Him as Deliverer. In Noah's day men disregarded the law of God until almost all remembrance of Him had passed from the earth, with wickedness, violence, crime and every kind of sin intensely active, so the Lord brought a flood of water upon the world that swept away the wicked inhabitants. In that judgment mercy was mingled, for Noah and his family were saved, revealing God's manner of working when mindful of what is passing on earth to reveal Himself and interpose at a crisis to sustain and vindicate His people.
Noah is treated as a literal person in inspired history, whom Christ treats as a literal person, and that history is taught to prepare people for Christ's advent. That history stands in an extended probation of one hundred and twenty years, when the crime and violence of the antediluvians and their repeated rejection of the messages God sent wore out His long-suffering patience, so that these despisers of His mercy were destroyed by the flood. Their example warns that persistent sin and rejection of God's warnings bring judgment, even after long patience and mercy, for the people of Noah's world were committed to evil, and God destroyed them.
Call to Faithful Living
Noah received divine favor and was a delight to his Maker in the midst of a degenerate age when wickedness was so widespread that destruction of man, beast, creeping thing and fowl was determined. The meaning is to be just and perfect and to walk with God even when the world is unfavorable to Christian character, and in the last days in an age of sin and corruption like his, believers are to so live as to be a pleasure to God and show forth His praises while kept from evil in the world. When the world is wholly given to evil and no life is safe except by divine protection, with conditions returning like Sodom and Gomorrah and men saying the Lord delays His coming, God's people must be as wholly consecrated to Christ and His service, with lives pure and holy, clothed in the white garments of Christ's righteousness, walking and talking with God, with eyes anointed to discern truth from error, ready to meet the Son of man coming in an hour not expected. Those who find grace see the necessity of the new life formed within, to be like Christ in character, contending for the faith once delivered to the saints and living godly in Christ Jesus, while those who choose to ignore truth and righteousness to follow the imagination of their evil hearts shall not enter heaven.
His experience is the pattern for those who remain loyal when disloyalty and contempt for God's law prevail, calling Bible believers to stand for righteousness and truth amid violence, crime and conditions like those in which the old world perished. As in the days of Noah and of Lot, God's people must separate from prevailing wickedness, with no compromise with sin or the world. In his time there were two parties, those faithful to God and those opposed to Him, and Noah belonged to the faithful who remained distinct from surrounding corruption, showing that integrity can be preserved and a saving influence exerted, though many join the wickedness around them.
Noah lived in corruption like the present yet found grace because he earnestly sought the Lord with all his heart, and those who seek God the same way today will find Him. Finding Him separates them in practice from all other people on earth, so that they guard their charge like a shepherd guards his flock. They refuse to lead others into close connection with the world, selfish gratification and worldly customs, educate them to render undivided service to God, betray no sacred trust, observe the greatest care to practice right principles, and bring no earthly and selfish principles into the work of God.
The flood proves that the whole world perished and only Noah and the few with him were saved, so that it is not great numbers who follow Christ and following the majority leads to destruction and loss of heaven. Present believers must therefore not be discouraged when only a few believe the truth, must not turn to the right or left to fables, and must stand alone for known duty and lift the cross even at the cost of life. The majority's choice does not make sin right nor weaken God's law, for most in his time chose the wrong side.
The pre-flood condition gives a lesson on temperance, for Noah lived when selfishness, violence and crime prevailed from excessive indulgence of appetites and passions, and the same evils prevail as earth's history closes from the same cause. Loyalty in such a time calls for decided reform to a higher plane of action, with the church arising and shining and every family practicing self-denial to improve their condition. Those on the Lord's side are self-denying and self-sacrificing, eating and drinking to the glory of God and refusing to corrupt soul and body by intemperance, and their condition testifies that their light has not been removed, while those who refuse to receive and practice the light are left in the background as health reform goes on without them, showing their candlestick removed out of its place. A reform in habits of life is especially needed now to fit a people for the coming of Christ, keeping the brain clear and the body as free as possible from disease.
Iniquity that prevailed and polluted the world then exists today not only in the world but in the church, and against that Noah-like sin the atoning sacrifice must be kept before people. They must thereby see sin in its true hateful character and lay hold upon the righteousness of Christ, which alone can subdue sin and restore the moral image of God in man.
That same corrupt condition before the flood is now being repeated in the cities, which grow more like the earth before the flood and more like Sodom and prepare for Sodom's fate, so those crowded into cities should procure land in localities far from cities where they can cultivate the soil. That setting warns against unfair and dishonest dealings when ungodly practices prevail. While surrounded by enemies of God and of truth, Noah was on the side of Christ, and as severe tests come to every soul on Christ's side amid the same surrounding enemies now, youth and all must use every opened advantage to obtain knowledge of Bible truth and be stored with it.
God looked on a wicked world and placed favor on Noah, and He looks on the world today just as then, sending messages now as in Noah's days while the wickedness before the flood is repeated. Noah stood in grace and endured to the end of probation while building the ark under divine favor, though many who helped build it did not believe the warning, did not cleanse themselves from wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things contrary to the mind and will of God. Some listened for a time and even worked with him, but did not endure, for evil influences prevailed and they turned from truth to become scoffers, and because not firmly grounded they failed to stand. When judged every man according to his deeds they will understand the message would have been life and salvation if they had accepted the evidence and practiced its conditions, and that they might have been saved had they not rejected the only means of salvation, and so in the last days those who hear truth but do not believe and practice it will fall amid moral infidelity.
In a wicked world under judgment safety is only in being wholly on the Lord's side and giving no place to the enemy. The first flood came on a very wicked world, and disasters like the Johnstown flood will become more constant because the Spirit of the Lord is being withdrawn and His restraining power over Satan removed, leaving Satan free to exercise power over earth's inhabitants. Those found on the enemy's side will perish with the wicked in plagues God allows Satan to bring upon men and beasts, so such calamity should cause fear and trembling. The world fast becomes as before the flood, with men determined to carry out their own plans regardless of others, as seen in destruction of property and attempts on life by union men striking for higher wages and in discouraged police who will not act their part, with an end the human mind cannot determine, all brought to notice to show the evil of following our own way and will which has appeared again and again. The natural man needs conversion and the Spirit of God operating on the heart, for many church members grow weak through self-sufficiency instead of depending on God, while only God can keep people from the widespread pollution threatening as crime and corruption near fullness as before the flood.