Genesis 7:11, commentary and pictures

On the seventeenth day of the second month in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, judgment fell when the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. It came after Noah had brought his household into the ark in obedience and the Lord had shut them in, and after seven days of waiting under a clear sky while the wicked mocked outside. Waters burst upward from within the earth with indescribable force and poured down from the clouds in unceasing cataracts, joining to make a great sea that lifted the ark and swept all else away. Only eight souls, Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives, with the animals gathered by God, found refuge and were saved, while every living person and animal outside perished in the waters. As it was then, so the coming of the Son of man will be sudden destruction upon an unprepared, pleasure-loving world, with deliverance for the righteous shut in with God and no escape for willful unbelief when mercy ends.

Date and Immediate Setting

The day of judgment is fixed to the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the same day on which all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. The date marks the breaking forth of waters from below joining waters from above to destroy the old world. The depths of the earth then served as God's arsenal of forces for judgment.

The breaking forth came after God pronounced Noah righteous and commanded him and all his house to come into the ark, and Noah in obedience did all the Lord commanded and brought in his sons and his wife and his sons' wives because of the waters of the flood. The Lord Himself shut them in, closing the door upon the eight persons who entered as a refuge from the storm. Then seven days passed with no storm, a full week in which they waited inside while the sun rose and set in a clear sky. That delay was a trial of faith in which Noah rested and did not doubt God's word, while outside the wicked mocked and derided them. It came after the last signs of provisions taken into the ark, beasts coming from the forests to the door under God's invisible leadership, birds of all kinds presenting themselves by twos and by sevens, and the darkening of the heavens, which the people met with mirth and revelry and mocking because long resistance had perverted reason and made conscience unimpressible.

Until that day no rain had ever fallen upon the earth, but a mist had risen to water it. Clouds then gathered as a sight never seen before, and rain began to fall slowly and gently at first. It increased in power until the heavens were opened and poured down in torrents, in mighty sheets day and night without stopping. At first the ground drank it up, then the water rose higher and higher day by day, so that each morning and each night the people outside faced the still-falling rain in despair. The rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

The flood came at the close of one hundred and twenty years of probation mercifully given for repentance, overcoming bad habits, forming righteous characters, and finding refuge. During that time Noah warned a large population by voice while preaching and building the immense ark as a boat on dry land amid universal scorn. The invitation was gracious, abundant, and earnest, preached all the more as ridicule and scorn increased, and many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the end. The rest rejected the message as an idle tale, continued eating and drinking and marrying and planting and building and money-making, and grew more idolatrous and vile and criminal with every passing day shortening probation. When the appointed time came only eight righteous persons, Noah and his family, lived to enter and be shut in by an invisible hand, while the vast rebellious race outside were swept away.

How the Waters Came

The fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven opened means waters from inside the earth burst forth and joined waters falling from heaven to destroy the old world. The depths of the earth are under the Lord's control as His arsenal of forces for judgment, and the waters beneath served as His weapons in that destruction. The waters concealed within the earth were among His appointed means for carrying out what He had foretold, which no human philosophy or science could prevent or comprehend. As water was then called forth for judgment, so fire as well as water has since served as His agent against wicked cities, and fires stored within the earth will serve for the final destruction.

The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep was a violent upheaval in which water burst upward from the earth with indescribable force. It came as jets of water bursting from the earth, throwing massive rocks hundreds of feet into the air. When those rocks fell they buried themselves deep in the ground. The crust of the earth was broken, the waters concealed inside burst forth with power that hurled large stones and raised rocks from the depths.

The opening of the windows of heaven means water appearing to come from the clouds in mighty cataracts. The rain poured down for forty days and forty nights, coming in sheets steadily all day and all night like a tempest without stopping. It began slowly at first and then increased until the heavens were opened and poured down in torrents. The heavens grew darker and darker and the rain came faster, until ravines roared and the waters rose very high day by day. At first the ground drank it up, then the water entered houses and rose higher and higher until each morning and each night met only still-falling rain and despair.

Water burst up from beneath the earth and poured down from above to form a great sea around the ark. The vessel built on dry land where an immense boat had looked strange and out of place was lifted and floated without needing iron standards or human supports to bear it up. The ark floated upon the troubled waters and was preserved by the power of God, riding safely with all inside safe while the flood swept everyone else away. While the obedient found refuge inside, the inhabitants who had separated themselves from God were swept into the boiling deep.

Earth Reshaped and Marked

When the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, the moving waters carried earth and rocks, reshaped the land, and broke up the surface and crust of the earth. Their commotions tore up immense forests and buried the trees beneath stones and earth, while the dead and the treasures of the earth were buried with them. Rocks concealed under the surface were thrown up above the earth, fruitful trees, shady avenues, forests and gardens were destroyed, and the lovely home given to man was turned into a broken, uneven surface and frightful solitude. The buried forests later became coal beds and supplied oil, leaving evidence of the abundant plant and animal life that existed before the Flood. Their underground ignition, together with water acting on rock, causes intense heat, explosions, volcanic eruptions, and convulsions of the earth.

The convulsion uplifted clay, lime, and shells from the bottoms of the seas and threw them hither and thither. By fire and flood, earthquakes and volcanoes, rich treasures of gold, silver, and precious stones were buried beyond the sight and reach of man, though vast treasures are still contained in the mountains. Lasting evidence remains in the broken surface of the earth, in deep gorges and seamed and cleft rocks of varied shapes, in mountains and precipices. Rocks raised up from the depths and from the earth by the breaking forth of the waters remain as witnesses to the Flood, recalling its terror and the awful outpouring of wrath against transgression of the law, as barren rocky places still show. That broken face of nature tells that a great wrong was done, that men abused God's gifts, forgot the Creator, and by corruption and idolatry called down punishment upon themselves.

Destruction fell first on the works of men's own hands, for the splendid buildings and the beautiful gardens, groves, palaces, avenues, and costly works of pleasure where idols had been placed were destroyed by lightning from heaven and by flood, and the ruins were scattered far and wide and filled with masses of rubbish and earth. The altars on which human sacrifices had been offered were torn down. The worshipers trembled at the power of the living God and knew that their own corruption and idolatry had called down their destruction. At that same destruction by water for the world's wickedness, Eden was withdrawn from the earth. The curse on the earth, which had begun at Adam's fall and increased after Abel's murder, grew heavier still at the Flood because of human disobedience.

Reason for Judgment

The judgment fell because human wickedness had become great, with every imagination of the thoughts of the heart only evil continually, the earth corrupt before God and filled with violence, open and daring in sin, with justice trampled in the dust, appetite indulged without restraint, and fraud, murder and crime abounding in transgression of God's commandments as the rule of life. Men had exceeded the bounds set by long-suffering, presuming upon mercy while going decidedly against His will, despising warnings and exceeding the limits of grace, until God interfered to vindicate the honor of His law by repressing the increase of unrighteousness and blotting out a race grown indifferent to the law made known to the Noachian world. He must limit human life and interpose in wrath to keep men from spoiling one another in continual disobedience and defiance, for they were incurable and unwilling to submit to divine authority, and their destruction was also an act of mercy to the world. The sins bringing that judgment were rebellion against His law under Satan's leading after one hundred and twenty years granted to repent, and the increasing sins of the present are the same kind that brought that judgment.

Men thought themselves wiser than God and refused to obey His law and commandments and statutes and precepts, misusing the rich things of earth and the choice favors of heaven to separate from God instead of obeying Him, and thus became satanic in nature rather than divine. In ingratitude for His gifts and disobedience to His law they remained impenitent though warned through Noah that after one hundred and twenty years a flood of waters would come upon the impenitent, and if they had repented He would not have destroyed them.

For the whole probation Noah's warning was rejected while he warned a large population by voice and by building the immense ark on dry land, with many believing ones keeping the faith and dying triumphant, yet the people quieted their fears, rejected the message as an idle tale and parable and fanaticism, and continued eating and drinking and marrying and planting and building and money-making while growing more idolatrous and vile and criminal. They denounced Noah as a visionary, fanatic and alarmist, laughed his fears and forebodings to scorn as superstition, called him deluded, mocked his statement that rain would come when no sign of it had ever existed, and claimed to know more than God's faithful servant. Great and wise men proved to their satisfaction that destruction by water was impossible, truth was explained away by false science, self-importance and swelling pride prevailed in deeds of unrighteousness, and with every passing day shortening probation there was mockery of heaven's messages and universal scorn thrown upon God's law and upon Noah and his helpers, who preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule heaped upon them.

Disbelief and arguments against the warning did not prevent the judgment, for unbelief, mockery and derision did not hinder the predicted event nor stop the rain nor prevent the waters from covering the scoffing world. The flood really came and covered the earth exactly as Noah had warned, and the people finally drank the waters that covered the earth, knowing not until the flood came and took them all away, showing sudden destruction upon willful unbelief. Their rejection did not make the message of no effect, and only those who found shelter in the ark were saved.

That overthrow proved human philosophy and boasted wisdom to be foolishness, for the Lawgiver is greater than the laws of nature, and Omnipotence is at no loss for means to accomplish His purposes. Before the flood rivers and brooks had stayed within their banks because God restrained the waters, but men treated nature's regular patterns as if beyond His power to change, while the waters concealed within the earth were among His means of carrying out the judgment He had foretold, which human philosophy and science could neither prevent nor comprehend.

Saved and Lost

Out of the vast population of the old world only eight souls accepted the warning, fled for refuge into the ark, and were saved — Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives — while the rebellious race outside who would not obey were swept away and death was their portion. The ark was the shelter where the obedient could find refuge from the storm until the indignation was overpast, and those shut in were the only ones saved when the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened to wash the earth of its corruption. After one hundred and twenty years of warning only a few repented and only those eight righteous persons lived to enter, fulfilling the warning that all who would not keep the commandments of heaven should drink the waters covering the earth.

Beasts came from the forests to the door and birds of all kinds presented themselves, entering two by two and by sevens under the invisible leadership of God without a visible leader, after provisions had been taken in and the heavens darkened. The dumb animals quietly obeyed and found refuge inside, while the hardened inhabitants were not impressed, did not humble themselves, and met the sign with mirth and revelry and mocking because long resistance had perverted reason and made conscience unimpressible. After cattle and every other living creature had entered and the believers had been shut in by an invisible hand, a testing time of one week passed with no rain in which unbelieving mockery was fully revealed in words and acts of reviling.

No living person or animal outside remained alive, for the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days and every unbeliever outside perished in sin. All the wicked inhabitants perished, knowing not until the flood came and took them all away, with rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights bringing sudden destruction upon willful unbelief. The rebellious were swept away and every living thing on the earth was destroyed, leaving death as their portion.

The rain fell forty days and forty nights until water entered houses and drove the people to the temples they had built for idol worship, and those temples were swept away. People fled everywhere for refuge and would gladly have entered the ark, crying for a place of safety and pleading, but their voices were unheard in the tempest because God had shut in those who believed and no others could enter, and those who clung to the ark were washed away. Parents with children seeking refuge in treetops were flung with the trees into the foaming water, and men and animals climbing the highest mountains were swept together into the boiling deep when the water rose above the highest trees, while the ark was preserved by the power of God riding safely with Noah and his family inside. The beasts roamed about in wildest terror with discordant cries that seemed to moan out their own destiny and the fate of man, as dark clouds overspread the heavens and large drops never before witnessed struck the hearts of men with fear. At first the ground drank up the falling rain, then the water rose higher and higher day by day, so that each morning and each night the people outside faced the still-falling rain in despair.

Pattern for Last Days

As it was in the days of Noah so shall the coming of the Son of man be, sudden and inescapable destruction falling on a pleasure-loving, unprepared world that goes on eating and drinking and marrying and planting and building until the day overtakes them as a thief. The flood came exactly as warned, in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day, when the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, with rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights and the waters prevailing a hundred and fifty days until all the wicked inhabitants perished, knowing not until the flood came and took them all away. It came at the end of one hundred and twenty years of gracious probation in which Noah warned a large population by voice and by building the ark, offering abundant time to repent, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters and find refuge, yet men refused, quieted their fears, denounced him as visionary, fanatic and alarmist, called the message an idle tale and superstition, laughed his forebodings to scorn, and grew more idolatrous, vile and criminal while continuing routine money-making, eating and drinking and marrying. Even the last signs of provisions taken in, beasts coming from the forests to the door without a visible leader, birds presenting themselves by sevens, and the heavens darkening were met with mirth and revelry and mocking, because long resistance had perverted reason and made conscience unimpressible, and their unbelief, mockery and derision did not hinder the predicted event but left them in darkness to follow the curse their own hearts had chosen in general ruin. Asleep in carnal security, full of rioting and godless pleasure, fraud, murder, crime and common iniquity, putting afar off coming judgment, boasting that all things remain as from the beginning and tomorrow shall be as this day only much more abundant, going on with plans and inventions of iniquity without regard to principle, they were caught unprepared by surprise when destruction broke upon them unawares, and thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Noah's faithful warning amid mockery and derision, his entering the ark with his family because of the waters in obedience to the command to come in, God's shutting them in, and their riding safely upon the waters in the vessel the mockers had made sport of while the mockers drowned outside, is the pattern for the end-time deliverance of God's people. As Noah was preserved in the ark God had prepared for him, so in these final days of convulsed nature, fire, earthquake and destruction of human life, God Himself will be the refuge of His believing ones, making the Lord their habitation so no evil befalls them and no plague comes near them, hiding them in His pavilion and setting them on a rock and preserving the saints amid the convulsions of the earth before Christ comes. So those who have faithfully warned the earth of coming wrath will be delivered when the wicked seek to destroy them for refusing to bow to the decree of the beast or receive his mark and for expecting translation, for God will not suffer the wicked to slay them to gratify Satan and his evil host and all who hate God, and those who mocked the idea of the saints going up will witness God's care for His people in their glorious deliverance and translation.

The hour when time ran out and the ark was closed means the last call of mercy ends and will not be heard by men blinded by Satan's peace and safety theories, with the holy left holy still and the filthy filthy still. The wickedness of the world increasing as in the days of Noah shows time is very short, and after the sign of the animals coming two by two into the ark the door was shut and the inhabitants of the old world perished, so all must humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, serve not two masters, wake up and get ready lest it be everlastingly too late.

The destruction by water after a granted period of test is the pattern for the coming great destruction by fire after a like period of trial testing loyalty and calling people to find refuge in Christ as Noah's warning offered safety in the ark. The waters from within the earth burst forth and joined the waters from heaven to destroy the old world, the depths under the Lord's control serving as His arsenal and weapons of judgment which human philosophy and science could neither prevent nor comprehend. Since the flood, fire as well as water has served as God's agent of destruction against wicked cities, displaying His power and just sovereignty, and fires stored within the earth will be used for final destruction after the thousand years.

Because this age repeats the wickedness of the world before the flood, God looks upon the world today as He looked upon it then and sends His warning messages now as He sent them through Noah then. The flood therefore warns that calamities, earthquakes, floods and disasters by land and by sea will increase.

Truth and Present Duty

The breaking open of the deep is set down in inspired Scripture as factual history, not myth or mere illustration, for Christ Himself treats Noah as a real person and the Flood as a real event in history. The age of the earth and the remains of far larger men and animals found in it can be known only from that inspired record, not from geology alone. What fell on that day came exactly as Noah had warned, though nearly the whole world thought him wrong and themselves right. The rebellious who would not keep heaven's commandments were swept away and died, while the obedient found shelter in the ark until the indignation was past, and so the Flood demonstrated the truth of God's word and the penalty of disobedience to His law. To walk contrary to that Word stirs rebellion and brings God's displeasure, and the lesson is not to be like the mockers who explained truth away by false science but to be found loyal and true.

Noah and his family preserved God's law amid continual transgression, and God miraculously saved them in the ark because they did what was right, after which Noah taught the commandments to his descendants. Numbers do not decide truth, for few believe and are saved while the majority is destroyed. The Flood is therefore the pattern for this age, requiring a last message of mercy with self-denial and the lifting of the cross to go to regions beyond and warn the world. That message will be a savor of life unto life to some and a savor of death unto death to others, yet all will have sufficient light to accept saving truth and obey all God's commandments and be saved, while the same unbelief that prevailed before the Flood prevails again before the coming of Christ. Duty remains to lift the voice in warning and show professing children of God their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins, keeping the commandments and lifting the cross rather than following the majority or turning to fables, lest destruction come and heaven be lost.

The opening of the fountains displays God as Creator who made the world and the high mountains, formed the mighty rocks and tall trees, and knows every shrub and flower. Those wonders and the lessons drawn from them are rightly appreciated only as the Holy Spirit sanctifies observation and frees the mind from distorting influences. After a declared limit of one hundred and twenty years of forbearance and warning through Noah, when human wickedness rejected and despised God's love and the measure of iniquity was full and the boundaries of mercy were passed, God vindicated His authority by sweeping the wicked race away while appearing as protector of the righteous who had cried to Him with humiliation and fasting. Methuselah and his descendants received Noah's instruction about the coming Flood and helped build the ark. Some carpenters Noah employed believed but died before the Flood, and others of his converts backslid, so that only eight righteous persons lived to enter the ark, and many who helped build perished because they 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.