Animals Entering Noah's Ark Guided by an AngelBible World
7:16Genesis 7:16
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
They that went in went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded, the animals coming by divine drawing with provisions already stored, and only eight persons, Noah and his family, entering to be saved while the Lord Himself shut them in by divine power through an angel closing the massive door and sealing it. That door could not be closed by those within and could not be opened from within or without by any man, staying shut until God sent an angel to open it after the waters receded. The shutting enclosed Noah and his household in safety under God's protecting care while shutting the rejecters of mercy out, ending the one hundred and twenty years of probation when God's Spirit strove with men, mercy ceased pleading, and justice took vengeance. It foreshadows the close of the investigative judgment a short time before the Lord appears, when Christ ceases intercession, the door of mercy is shut silently and unnoticed, destiny is fixed for life or death, and the righteous are shielded while Satan has full control of those who rejected mercy. As destruction then came suddenly after seven days of mocking and ordinary planting and building, so sudden destruction will break upon the unready at Christ's coming, and safety must be entered hastily by believing, repenting, and obeying all His commandments without following the majority.
Setting and Entry
Those entering went in male and female of all flesh as commanded, the beasts and birds coming quietly two by two by divine drawing without any visible leader, with provisions already stored inside as the last sign. The created animal kinds were thus preserved in the ark, while the confused species not created by God were destroyed by the flood. That amalgamation producing confused species began after creation and continued after the flood.
Noah faithfully warned of the coming flood while building the immense boat on dry land, and Methuselah, his sons and grandsons, and others who received his instruction helped him in the work. The ark on dry land looked as strange as a large steamer set on land for repair, yet it needed no iron standards or supports to bear its immense weight. He preached coming judgment and obeyed in building through the whole one-hundred-and-twenty-year warning, though laughed to scorn and mocked as fanatical for speaking of rain never yet seen.
The verse belongs to a world where wickedness was great and every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually, where the earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence. God's law given as a rule of life was transgressed, every conceivable sin followed, wickedness was open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven. Men had put God out of knowledge and worshiped creatures of their own imagination and the works of their own hands, becoming debased by beholding them. They were ungrateful for giant undecayed forests, Eden-like gardens, bubbling fountains, running streams, beautiful lakes, rich minerals, gold, silver and precious stones given to enrich the earth, claimed them as their own, forgot the Giver, disobeyed His law, and idolized trees. The flood cleansed the earth after they became deeply corrupt through unrestrained appetite and indulgence, declaring them incurable and unwilling to submit to divine authority, so God in mercy to the world blotted out Noah's contemporaries whose rebellion was leading others away.
God granted one hundred and twenty years of probation and warning through preaching and ark-building, abundant time to repent, turn from sins, overcome bad habits, and form righteous characters, with every passing day shortening probation. The pleasure-seeking, business-driven world refused the gracious invitation with mockery and derision of Noah as visionary, fanatic, and alarmist, until conscience was unimpressible and men were left in darkness following the curse their own hearts had chosen. Only a few repented, some believing carpenters and others who kept the faith died triumphant before the flood, and other converts backslid, so the righteous on earth were but few. They deliberately chose their own wicked ways and did not use the opportunity to choose between evil and good and turn to God.
Only eight persons lived to enter and be saved, Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives, out of that vast population, while all the rest were swept out of existence. Their salvation by entering fulfilled the warning that all who would not keep heaven's commandments should drink the waters of the flood, with obedience rewarded by shelter and disobedience punished by death. All were tested by the truth Noah preached, and those who believed and turned from unrighteousness were saved.
Those shut in remained enclosed one full week before any rain fell, a trial of faith to wait shut in with no sign. During that week the wicked outside mocked and derided those inside, fully revealing themselves in reviling, while continuing their careless, pleasure-loving life of planting and building, eating and drinking, because the flood did not come immediately. The doomed continued unconscious that their doom was fixed.
Judgment then came without further delay in the six hundredth year of Noah on the seventeenth day of the second month. The fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, waters from beneath uniting with waters from above to form a great sea. Rain began slowly and gently at first and then poured in torrents, forty days and forty nights of rain with the bursting forth of waters from the earth. The waters prevailed one hundred and fifty days until no living person or animal outside the ark remained alive, and all outside seeking safety in houses, temples, trees, and mountains were swept away.
The breaking forth of waters uprooted trees and swept away inhabitants, groves, palaces, and costly works of pleasure lovers. It filled idol places with masses of rubbish and earth and threw up rocks concealed under the surface to cover the loveliest adored places, utterly destroying fruitful trees, shady avenues, forests and gardens. The lovely home given to man became a broken, uneven, frightful solitude of deep gorges, seamed and cleft rocks, caverns, channels and varied structures. The rocks raised from the depths by the breaking forth of the waters, with flood-scarred rocks and fossils, remain as witnesses to that display of power and wrath against transgression of the law and explain changes in the earth.
Divine Closing Act
The Lord Himself shut Noah in, not by human hands but by divine power. Unseen and invisible hands closed the massive outer door amid dazzling light, with a cloud of glory hovering before the entrance. An angel performed the closing and put the seal of Heaven upon the door. The animals had entered as commanded, two and two, and then the Lord shut Noah and the believers inside after the work was finished.
That massive door could not be closed by those within, and once God had shut it no man could open it from within or without. Noah could remove the covering of the ark but could not open the door. It was the only entrance, and it stayed shut until after the waters receded. Then God sent an angel to open it and commanded through that angel that Noah and his family and every living thing go forth out of the ark.
That same door shut Noah and his household in for safety and shut the rejecters of mercy out. Those shut in were under the protecting care of God and guided by a divine hand. The closing of the only entrance made the final separation between those preserved inside and those exposed outside. Only those who believed could enter, and no others could enter after.
God's direct care preserved those inside as they rode safely upon the troubled waters through the storm by His power. The ark preserved them while those who had mocked drowned. Once the door was shut, late pleas for admission went unheard amid the tempest and those clinging to the ark were washed away. All outside seeking safety in houses, temples, trees, and mountains were swept away in the flood.
Mercy Ended, Judgment Fell
The shutting of the door ended the time in which the Spirit strove with rebellious men. Probation was ended, the long forbearance of God had ceased, mercy ceased pleading and stepped down from the golden throne no longer to intercede for the guilty sinner, and justice took the sword of vengeance. The figures in the books of reckoning had accumulated and the cup of iniquity and of the unjust was full. That close came after one hundred and twenty years of probation and warning given through preaching and ark-building, which the mocking, pleasure-seeking, business-driven world had rejected until conscience was unimpressible. Once God closed them in, judgment came without further delay, proving that persistent transgression exceeds the limits of grace and moves God to interpose in wrath to vindicate His law and stop unrighteousness.
Up to that time God had opened a door of refuge where all who believed the message, repented, reformed, and turned might find pardon and be saved. That door was now shut and no man could open it. Hope for the world was dead, the last warning rejected, the golden opportunity past forever, the last call of mercy ended and no more to be heard. What remained was the holy still holy and the filthy still filthy, because continued resistance to warning had separated men from God. Men blinded by peace and safety theories, trying to serve two masters instead of humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God, must therefore wake up and get ready before it is everlastingly too late.
The shutting fixed the destiny of all for life or death. It was decided in the sanctuary above and made final a short time before judgment fell. For seven days the doomed continued their careless, pleasure-loving life of planting and building, eating and drinking, and mocking warning, unconscious that their doom was fixed. They remained living on earth in mortal state, righteous and wicked together, unaware that the final irrevocable decision had been pronounced.
Unbelievers saw the beasts and fowls and animals of all kinds enter of themselves without a visible leader and saw Noah and his family go in. They saw the wondrous door shut without human hands and felt a premonition they could not comprehend. Yet they hardened their hearts and continued in revelry and scoffing. Their fear and repentance came too late, and their efforts to break in failed, for once God closed the only entrance no one could open it or enter.
Type of Final Probation
The shutting of the door foreshadows the time when intercession for guilty men ceases before the coming in the clouds of heaven, when the door of mercy is shut, divine grace no longer restrains the wicked, Satan gains full control of those who rejected mercy and they seek to destroy God's people, while the righteous are shielded by divine power just as Noah was shut into the ark. It is the type of the close of the investigative judgment a short time before the appearing of the Lord, when the final irrevocable decision upon every man's destiny is pronounced in the sanctuary above and mercy's offer is finally withdrawn. That decisive hour comes silently, unnoticed as the midnight thief, while righteous and wicked are still living on earth in mortal state, unconscious that the final decision has been pronounced.
For seven days after the door was shut the doomed continued their careless, pleasure-loving life of planting and building, eating and drinking, and mocking the warning, unconscious that their doom was fixed. Their absorption in worldly life until the flood came and swept them away is the pattern for the second coming, when hopes of continued prosperity will be overturned and the end will come suddenly. So people before Christ's coming will likewise continue ordinary activities unaware that probation has closed and each destiny has been fixed. The same pattern of a shut door to unbelievers and an open door to the humble, the believing, those who obeyed God occurred in the destruction of Sodom where Lot had an open door, and toward the inhabitants of Tyre and toward the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus it will be at the end of time, when those that are ready go in with him to the marriage and the door is shut.
As God shut Noah and his family in and preserved them through the deluge while those who mocked drowned, He will be the refuge of believing ones in the last days of destruction and calamity when everything in nature is convulsed with burning mountains, boiling waters, mighty earthquakes, and great destruction of human life. He will deliver those who have warned the world of coming judgment, who expect translation, and who refuse to worship the beast or receive its mark, and their deliverance will show His care as Noah's preservation did. The flood declares that persistent transgression exceeds the limits of grace and moves God to interpose in wrath to vindicate His law and stop unrighteousness, for after one hundred and twenty years of warning only eight lived to enter, the rebellious were swept away, and death was their portion. Obedience was rewarded by shelter in the ark until the indignation was overpast and disobedience was punished by death in the flood, fulfilling the warning that all who would not keep the commandments of heaven should drink the waters of the flood. In mercy to the world God blotted out contemporaries who had become incurable and would not submit to divine authority, because their rebellion was leading others away and their sins had increased to bring certain punishment.
Noah did right, preserved the law and taught it to his descendants, and all were tested by the truth preached, with those who believed and turned from unrighteousness saved. The flood closed a one-hundred-and-twenty-year period of choice between evil and good in which men deliberately chose their own wicked ways and did not use the opportunity to repent and turn to God. As the flood closed that period, the coming destruction of the world by fire will close the present period of test and trial in which men show whether they will be loyal and obedient to the law of God. That destruction stands in the same line as Sodom for disobeying the laws of God's kingdom, Jerusalem because Israel would not heed the messages given them, and the final destruction of the whole world because of transgression and impenitence in the closing period of its history, giving a lesson embracing all time on the sure result of transgression of His holy law.
Warning and Present Duty
The account is inspired Scripture recording a literal Noah and a historical flood, given as a warning relevant to the present age because human nature without the influence of God's Spirit is the same now as then. It supplies the basis for understanding changes in the earth and the time when fossils and other relics existed, which geology alone cannot establish. It also shows that the warning through Noah was fulfilled and that the natural order is not beyond God's power to change.
Nearly all the inhabitants thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claiming to know more than God's faithful servant and closing their ears to words of truth until darkness came upon them. They branded him a fanatic, visionary, and alarmist with superstitious fears, laughed and mocked his statement that rain would come when no sign of it had ever existed, explained the truth away by false science, and said he speaks in parables. Their unbelief did not prevent the predicted event, for the waters came and they finally drank the waters that covered the earth. The same faithfulness is required now, for scoffing neither removes responsibility to heed God's warning nor to deliver it faithfully.
Men reasoned that the saving of eight persons only while all the rest of that vast world were swept out of existence was not in accordance with the character of God. They argued that great men and good men, philosophers and scientific and learned men, could not all perish while Noah alone was found worthy to be spared, and called the message of warning an illusion of the brain. As they reasoned then they reason now against the warning to fear God and keep His commandments, claiming God is too good and too merciful to save just a few who keep the Sabbath and believe the message while the sinful and disobedient perish in the general conflagration.
The saving of the few condemned the world that refused the warning, for only eight accepted it, fled for refuge into the ark, and were saved when God secured them inside. That same division repeats now, for the last message of mercy requires self-denial and lifting the cross, proving a savor of life unto life to those who heed it and a savor of death unto death to those who refuse it. All have sufficient light to accept saving truth and obey God by keeping all His commandments and be saved, and God does not compel, so those who would not believe were lost while Noah and his family were shut in and saved. Believers in present truth therefore should not be discouraged when only a few believe and keep the commandments, must not follow the majority or turn aside to fables, but must lift the cross and hold loyalty to God even if the whole world opposes, to be found with the loyal and true when Christ comes and to escape the destruction that will meet those who refuse.
When time closes God shuts in those who have taken refuge so that only they are saved and all who remain outside are forever lost, and the destruction of the old world warns that the time to escape will end. The place of safety must be entered hastily without waiting to avoid ridicule, because delay risks being too late. While entrants hasten within, multitudes go about their various ways, deride them as following a cunning deception, insist there is no danger to avoid, and even lay hold of some to prevent them.
Mere help in building the ark did not save, for many who helped 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. All were tested by the truth Noah preached, which was given to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness, and only eight persons were saved. Only those who believe, turn from unrighteousness, and obey all His commandments will be saved.
This age repeats the wickedness of the world before the flood, with the same hardened unbelief that mocked instead of humbling itself despite the witness of animals quietly entering two and two under unseen leading. Men are asleep in carnal security, full of rioting and godless pleasure, putting afar off the coming of the Lord, laughing at warnings, calling those who arouse them fanatics and enthusiasts, boasting that all things remain as from the beginning and tomorrow shall be more abundant, and carrying on pleasure-loving, money-making work without regard to principle through amusements, gains, traffic, dishonest practices, luxury, and reveling. While the world is thus absorbed, calamities, earthquakes, floods, and disasters by land and sea increase, and the church and ministers are lulled in blind security crying peace and safety.
As the flood came with the great wrath of God in general ruin upon those who had forgotten admonition, suddenly overtaking them with all their plans and inventions of iniquity, so it will be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. Despite warnings many will be absorbed in worldly life with hopes of continued prosperity until the end comes suddenly and sweeps them away. The shut door means the last call of mercy ends and will not be heard, leaving the holy still holy and the filthy still filthy, because men blinded by peace and safety theories try to serve two masters instead of humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God. All must therefore wake up and get ready before it is everlastingly too late, for sudden destruction will break upon the unready as a snare and as a thief.
They that went in went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded, the animals coming by divine drawing with provisions already stored, and only eight persons, Noah and his family, entering to be saved while the Lord Himself shut them in by divine power through an angel closing the massive door and sealing it. That door could not be closed by those within and could not be opened from within or without by any man, staying shut until God sent an angel to open it after the waters receded. The shutting enclosed Noah and his household in safety under God's protecting care while shutting the rejecters of mercy out, ending the one hundred and twenty years of probation when God's Spirit strove with men, mercy ceased pleading, and justice took vengeance. It foreshadows the close of the investigative judgment a short time before the Lord appears, when Christ ceases intercession, the door of mercy is shut silently and unnoticed, destiny is fixed for life or death, and the righteous are shielded while Satan has full control of those who rejected mercy. As destruction then came suddenly after seven days of mocking and ordinary planting and building, so sudden destruction will break upon the unready at Christ's coming, and safety must be entered hastily by believing, repenting, and obeying all His commandments without following the majority.
Setting and Entry
Those entering went in male and female of all flesh as commanded, the beasts and birds coming quietly two by two by divine drawing without any visible leader, with provisions already stored inside as the last sign. The created animal kinds were thus preserved in the ark, while the confused species not created by God were destroyed by the flood. That amalgamation producing confused species began after creation and continued after the flood.
Noah faithfully warned of the coming flood while building the immense boat on dry land, and Methuselah, his sons and grandsons, and others who received his instruction helped him in the work. The ark on dry land looked as strange as a large steamer set on land for repair, yet it needed no iron standards or supports to bear its immense weight. He preached coming judgment and obeyed in building through the whole one-hundred-and-twenty-year warning, though laughed to scorn and mocked as fanatical for speaking of rain never yet seen.
The verse belongs to a world where wickedness was great and every imagination of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually, where the earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence. God's law given as a rule of life was transgressed, every conceivable sin followed, wickedness was open and daring, justice was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven. Men had put God out of knowledge and worshiped creatures of their own imagination and the works of their own hands, becoming debased by beholding them. They were ungrateful for giant undecayed forests, Eden-like gardens, bubbling fountains, running streams, beautiful lakes, rich minerals, gold, silver and precious stones given to enrich the earth, claimed them as their own, forgot the Giver, disobeyed His law, and idolized trees. The flood cleansed the earth after they became deeply corrupt through unrestrained appetite and indulgence, declaring them incurable and unwilling to submit to divine authority, so God in mercy to the world blotted out Noah's contemporaries whose rebellion was leading others away.
God granted one hundred and twenty years of probation and warning through preaching and ark-building, abundant time to repent, turn from sins, overcome bad habits, and form righteous characters, with every passing day shortening probation. The pleasure-seeking, business-driven world refused the gracious invitation with mockery and derision of Noah as visionary, fanatic, and alarmist, until conscience was unimpressible and men were left in darkness following the curse their own hearts had chosen. Only a few repented, some believing carpenters and others who kept the faith died triumphant before the flood, and other converts backslid, so the righteous on earth were but few. They deliberately chose their own wicked ways and did not use the opportunity to choose between evil and good and turn to God.
Only eight persons lived to enter and be saved, Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives, out of that vast population, while all the rest were swept out of existence. Their salvation by entering fulfilled the warning that all who would not keep heaven's commandments should drink the waters of the flood, with obedience rewarded by shelter and disobedience punished by death. All were tested by the truth Noah preached, and those who believed and turned from unrighteousness were saved.
Those shut in remained enclosed one full week before any rain fell, a trial of faith to wait shut in with no sign. During that week the wicked outside mocked and derided those inside, fully revealing themselves in reviling, while continuing their careless, pleasure-loving life of planting and building, eating and drinking, because the flood did not come immediately. The doomed continued unconscious that their doom was fixed.
Judgment then came without further delay in the six hundredth year of Noah on the seventeenth day of the second month. The fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, waters from beneath uniting with waters from above to form a great sea. Rain began slowly and gently at first and then poured in torrents, forty days and forty nights of rain with the bursting forth of waters from the earth. The waters prevailed one hundred and fifty days until no living person or animal outside the ark remained alive, and all outside seeking safety in houses, temples, trees, and mountains were swept away.
The breaking forth of waters uprooted trees and swept away inhabitants, groves, palaces, and costly works of pleasure lovers. It filled idol places with masses of rubbish and earth and threw up rocks concealed under the surface to cover the loveliest adored places, utterly destroying fruitful trees, shady avenues, forests and gardens. The lovely home given to man became a broken, uneven, frightful solitude of deep gorges, seamed and cleft rocks, caverns, channels and varied structures. The rocks raised from the depths by the breaking forth of the waters, with flood-scarred rocks and fossils, remain as witnesses to that display of power and wrath against transgression of the law and explain changes in the earth.
Divine Closing Act
The Lord Himself shut Noah in, not by human hands but by divine power. Unseen and invisible hands closed the massive outer door amid dazzling light, with a cloud of glory hovering before the entrance. An angel performed the closing and put the seal of Heaven upon the door. The animals had entered as commanded, two and two, and then the Lord shut Noah and the believers inside after the work was finished.
That massive door could not be closed by those within, and once God had shut it no man could open it from within or without. Noah could remove the covering of the ark but could not open the door. It was the only entrance, and it stayed shut until after the waters receded. Then God sent an angel to open it and commanded through that angel that Noah and his family and every living thing go forth out of the ark.
That same door shut Noah and his household in for safety and shut the rejecters of mercy out. Those shut in were under the protecting care of God and guided by a divine hand. The closing of the only entrance made the final separation between those preserved inside and those exposed outside. Only those who believed could enter, and no others could enter after.
God's direct care preserved those inside as they rode safely upon the troubled waters through the storm by His power. The ark preserved them while those who had mocked drowned. Once the door was shut, late pleas for admission went unheard amid the tempest and those clinging to the ark were washed away. All outside seeking safety in houses, temples, trees, and mountains were swept away in the flood.
Mercy Ended, Judgment Fell
The shutting of the door ended the time in which the Spirit strove with rebellious men. Probation was ended, the long forbearance of God had ceased, mercy ceased pleading and stepped down from the golden throne no longer to intercede for the guilty sinner, and justice took the sword of vengeance. The figures in the books of reckoning had accumulated and the cup of iniquity and of the unjust was full. That close came after one hundred and twenty years of probation and warning given through preaching and ark-building, which the mocking, pleasure-seeking, business-driven world had rejected until conscience was unimpressible. Once God closed them in, judgment came without further delay, proving that persistent transgression exceeds the limits of grace and moves God to interpose in wrath to vindicate His law and stop unrighteousness.
Up to that time God had opened a door of refuge where all who believed the message, repented, reformed, and turned might find pardon and be saved. That door was now shut and no man could open it. Hope for the world was dead, the last warning rejected, the golden opportunity past forever, the last call of mercy ended and no more to be heard. What remained was the holy still holy and the filthy still filthy, because continued resistance to warning had separated men from God. Men blinded by peace and safety theories, trying to serve two masters instead of humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God, must therefore wake up and get ready before it is everlastingly too late.
The shutting fixed the destiny of all for life or death. It was decided in the sanctuary above and made final a short time before judgment fell. For seven days the doomed continued their careless, pleasure-loving life of planting and building, eating and drinking, and mocking warning, unconscious that their doom was fixed. They remained living on earth in mortal state, righteous and wicked together, unaware that the final irrevocable decision had been pronounced.
Unbelievers saw the beasts and fowls and animals of all kinds enter of themselves without a visible leader and saw Noah and his family go in. They saw the wondrous door shut without human hands and felt a premonition they could not comprehend. Yet they hardened their hearts and continued in revelry and scoffing. Their fear and repentance came too late, and their efforts to break in failed, for once God closed the only entrance no one could open it or enter.
Type of Final Probation
The shutting of the door foreshadows the time when intercession for guilty men ceases before the coming in the clouds of heaven, when the door of mercy is shut, divine grace no longer restrains the wicked, Satan gains full control of those who rejected mercy and they seek to destroy God's people, while the righteous are shielded by divine power just as Noah was shut into the ark. It is the type of the close of the investigative judgment a short time before the appearing of the Lord, when the final irrevocable decision upon every man's destiny is pronounced in the sanctuary above and mercy's offer is finally withdrawn. That decisive hour comes silently, unnoticed as the midnight thief, while righteous and wicked are still living on earth in mortal state, unconscious that the final decision has been pronounced.
For seven days after the door was shut the doomed continued their careless, pleasure-loving life of planting and building, eating and drinking, and mocking the warning, unconscious that their doom was fixed. Their absorption in worldly life until the flood came and swept them away is the pattern for the second coming, when hopes of continued prosperity will be overturned and the end will come suddenly. So people before Christ's coming will likewise continue ordinary activities unaware that probation has closed and each destiny has been fixed. The same pattern of a shut door to unbelievers and an open door to the humble, the believing, those who obeyed God occurred in the destruction of Sodom where Lot had an open door, and toward the inhabitants of Tyre and toward the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus it will be at the end of time, when those that are ready go in with him to the marriage and the door is shut.
As God shut Noah and his family in and preserved them through the deluge while those who mocked drowned, He will be the refuge of believing ones in the last days of destruction and calamity when everything in nature is convulsed with burning mountains, boiling waters, mighty earthquakes, and great destruction of human life. He will deliver those who have warned the world of coming judgment, who expect translation, and who refuse to worship the beast or receive its mark, and their deliverance will show His care as Noah's preservation did. The flood declares that persistent transgression exceeds the limits of grace and moves God to interpose in wrath to vindicate His law and stop unrighteousness, for after one hundred and twenty years of warning only eight lived to enter, the rebellious were swept away, and death was their portion. Obedience was rewarded by shelter in the ark until the indignation was overpast and disobedience was punished by death in the flood, fulfilling the warning that all who would not keep the commandments of heaven should drink the waters of the flood. In mercy to the world God blotted out contemporaries who had become incurable and would not submit to divine authority, because their rebellion was leading others away and their sins had increased to bring certain punishment.
Noah did right, preserved the law and taught it to his descendants, and all were tested by the truth preached, with those who believed and turned from unrighteousness saved. The flood closed a one-hundred-and-twenty-year period of choice between evil and good in which men deliberately chose their own wicked ways and did not use the opportunity to repent and turn to God. As the flood closed that period, the coming destruction of the world by fire will close the present period of test and trial in which men show whether they will be loyal and obedient to the law of God. That destruction stands in the same line as Sodom for disobeying the laws of God's kingdom, Jerusalem because Israel would not heed the messages given them, and the final destruction of the whole world because of transgression and impenitence in the closing period of its history, giving a lesson embracing all time on the sure result of transgression of His holy law.
Warning and Present Duty
The account is inspired Scripture recording a literal Noah and a historical flood, given as a warning relevant to the present age because human nature without the influence of God's Spirit is the same now as then. It supplies the basis for understanding changes in the earth and the time when fossils and other relics existed, which geology alone cannot establish. It also shows that the warning through Noah was fulfilled and that the natural order is not beyond God's power to change.
Nearly all the inhabitants thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claiming to know more than God's faithful servant and closing their ears to words of truth until darkness came upon them. They branded him a fanatic, visionary, and alarmist with superstitious fears, laughed and mocked his statement that rain would come when no sign of it had ever existed, explained the truth away by false science, and said he speaks in parables. Their unbelief did not prevent the predicted event, for the waters came and they finally drank the waters that covered the earth. The same faithfulness is required now, for scoffing neither removes responsibility to heed God's warning nor to deliver it faithfully.
Men reasoned that the saving of eight persons only while all the rest of that vast world were swept out of existence was not in accordance with the character of God. They argued that great men and good men, philosophers and scientific and learned men, could not all perish while Noah alone was found worthy to be spared, and called the message of warning an illusion of the brain. As they reasoned then they reason now against the warning to fear God and keep His commandments, claiming God is too good and too merciful to save just a few who keep the Sabbath and believe the message while the sinful and disobedient perish in the general conflagration.
The saving of the few condemned the world that refused the warning, for only eight accepted it, fled for refuge into the ark, and were saved when God secured them inside. That same division repeats now, for the last message of mercy requires self-denial and lifting the cross, proving a savor of life unto life to those who heed it and a savor of death unto death to those who refuse it. All have sufficient light to accept saving truth and obey God by keeping all His commandments and be saved, and God does not compel, so those who would not believe were lost while Noah and his family were shut in and saved. Believers in present truth therefore should not be discouraged when only a few believe and keep the commandments, must not follow the majority or turn aside to fables, but must lift the cross and hold loyalty to God even if the whole world opposes, to be found with the loyal and true when Christ comes and to escape the destruction that will meet those who refuse.
When time closes God shuts in those who have taken refuge so that only they are saved and all who remain outside are forever lost, and the destruction of the old world warns that the time to escape will end. The place of safety must be entered hastily without waiting to avoid ridicule, because delay risks being too late. While entrants hasten within, multitudes go about their various ways, deride them as following a cunning deception, insist there is no danger to avoid, and even lay hold of some to prevent them.
Mere help in building the ark did not save, for many who helped 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. All were tested by the truth Noah preached, which was given to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness, and only eight persons were saved. Only those who believe, turn from unrighteousness, and obey all His commandments will be saved.
This age repeats the wickedness of the world before the flood, with the same hardened unbelief that mocked instead of humbling itself despite the witness of animals quietly entering two and two under unseen leading. Men are asleep in carnal security, full of rioting and godless pleasure, putting afar off the coming of the Lord, laughing at warnings, calling those who arouse them fanatics and enthusiasts, boasting that all things remain as from the beginning and tomorrow shall be more abundant, and carrying on pleasure-loving, money-making work without regard to principle through amusements, gains, traffic, dishonest practices, luxury, and reveling. While the world is thus absorbed, calamities, earthquakes, floods, and disasters by land and sea increase, and the church and ministers are lulled in blind security crying peace and safety.
As the flood came with the great wrath of God in general ruin upon those who had forgotten admonition, suddenly overtaking them with all their plans and inventions of iniquity, so it will be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. Despite warnings many will be absorbed in worldly life with hopes of continued prosperity until the end comes suddenly and sweeps them away. The shut door means the last call of mercy ends and will not be heard, leaving the holy still holy and the filthy still filthy, because men blinded by peace and safety theories try to serve two masters instead of humbling themselves under the mighty hand of God. All must therefore wake up and get ready before it is everlastingly too late, for sudden destruction will break upon the unready as a snare and as a thief.