Genesis 7:17, commentary and pictures

The forty days were pouring rain upon the earth, and as the waters kept rising higher they bore up the great ark and lifted it above the earth so that it rode safely on the troubled waters. It was God's judgment and execution of penalty upon a world corrupt and filled with violence and continual transgression of His holy law, washing and cleansing the earth of its moral pollution. Mercy was mingled with the judgment, for Noah and his family, only eight persons, were shut in by God Himself and preserved by His power while those outside who mocked and refused to enter perished in the very waters. The cleansing by water, with water from heaven uniting with water broken up from the earth, foreshadows the last great day when fire from heaven uniting with fire stored in the earth will again sweep the earth of moral corruption. Unbelief and mockery did not hinder the predicted event, so obedience to all of God's law and entrance into the refuge provided are absolutely essential now before probation closes unnoticed as it did when the door was shut.

Setting Before the Flood

The verse belongs to the time when the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, and that corruption grew from transgression of God's commandments given as a rule of life, bringing open daring wickedness, trampling of justice, oppression, selfishness, crime, and disregard of His law. Sin entering the world had so corrupted men that a degenerate race trampled His broken law under foot, formed secret societies to work violence in darkness, and despised truth though Seth, Enoch, Noah, Methuselah and others kept the knowledge of God continually before the world. For centuries God looked with patience and forbearance upon that awful presumption, and then came forth out of His hiding place to punish the inhabitants for their iniquity by sweeping them away with the flood.

God gave that generation one hundred and twenty years to repent, an abundant and gracious and merciful probation to repent of sins, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters, and find refuge in the ark. During that time Noah as a preacher of righteousness warned of what was coming, preaching and working building the immense ark and immense boat on dry land. His family and others who received his instruction helped him build it, and Noah and his helpers constantly worked and preached all the more earnestly in proportion to the ridicule, not losing reverence and love for God's law under universal scorn heaped on the law and on themselves. Those who followed their own pleasure mocked and derided the messages sent from heaven, refused to obey with extraordinary self-importance, swelling pride and continued deeds of unrighteousness, denounced Noah as a visionary, fanatic and alarmist, and laughed his warnings to scorn as superstitious fears. Every day that passed left one less day of probation, by the standard of God's law the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient when the long probation was about to close, only a few repented and only eight souls of that vast population, Noah and his family, lived to enter, while many of the believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the flood came.

God bade Noah and his family enter the ark and shut them in Himself, God's hand closing the door, shutting Noah and his family in and shutting the world out. They remained enclosed one week with no rain while the wicked mocked and derided them, which tried their faith, while people continued their ordinary, careless lives without knowing their doom was fixed. The dumb beasts and fowls quietly went in two by two under God's invisible leadership in obedience for refuge, yet men stayed disobedient and unbelieving though the warning was for their salvation, were not impressed, did not humble themselves, and made light of Noah and his family. The shut ark marked a separation between Noah and the ungodly, and when probation ended mercy ceased and hope was dead.

Until that time rain had never fallen but a mist watered the earth. The warning that rain would come where no sign of such had ever existed was called foolishness, branded as fanaticism and a fanatical proposition, and laughed at and mocked as parables. Nearly all the inhabitants thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claimed to know more than God's faithful servant, closed their ears to words of truth, and explained away truth by false science, and darkness came upon them. Their unbelief and mockery did not hinder the predicted event.

The flood is a real event in history, and its account is part of the inspired Old Testament record. God, who had restrained the waters, could bring it by changing their course, so it was an actual judgment and not an impossible event ruled out by the regular course of nature. The flood history supplies the timing and explanation that geological remains alone cannot establish.

Waters Rising Forty Days

The flood was forty days and forty nights of pouring rain upon the earth. It began slowly and gently, then poured in torrents from opened heavens, with the waters rising higher and higher until houses were entered and idol temples were swept away. The rising for forty days lifted the ark above the earth, and the floodwaters became the means by which those who rejected the warning perished and the earth was cleansed of moral pollution.

The waters from above united with waters from beneath to bear up the ark. The crust of the earth was broken and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the waters concealed in its bowels burst forth with tremendous force. The foundations of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven opened sent waters from above and beneath that formed a great sea.

The storm grew violent and destroyed every outside refuge. Merciless winds beat with foaming water and roaring tempest, with thunder and sharp lightning gleam. Large stones were thrown into the air, uprooted trees were thrown into boiling seething waters, and wrecks of palaces and temples tossed on the waters. The massive ark trembled amid the warring elements while angels commissioned to preserve it kept it riding safely, and the ark was safe under protecting care and guided by a divine hand amid the roar.

The waters increased until they reached the tops of the highest trees and mountains and covered the earth. No living being or animal outside the ark was left alive, and people and beasts in trees and on the highest mountains were flung together into the angry flood. The disobedient climbed to the tops of the mountains to escape but were swept into the boiling deep, finally drinking the very waters that covered the earth.

The rising waters uprooted the trees men had enjoyed and idolized and swept away groves, palaces, and costly works made to satisfy pleasure lovers. They filled places where men had placed idols and worshiped the works of their own hands with masses of rubbish and earth, and threw up rocks concealed under the surface to cover the most lovely places men had adored and glorified. Fruitful trees, shady avenues, beautiful forests and gardens were utterly destroyed, though the world destroyed had far exceeded the present earth in beauty, grandeur and loveliness. The lovely home God had given man, where He had surrounded people with precious things because He loved them but they turned blessings into a curse by pride and self-glorification, was turned into a broken, uneven surface and frightful solitude, defiled by violence and corrupting works.

Ark Borne Up Safely

The ark was built by faith on dry land, where it looked strange, like a large steamer set on land for repair upon iron standards. It needed no such human standards or supports to hold it up, for the waters from above and beneath formed a great sea that bore up the immense boat. Noah and his helpers worked constantly preparing that immense boat on dry land under universal scorn, yet without losing reverence and love for God's law.

As the waters increased they bore up the ark and lifted it above the earth. It rode safely upon the troubled waters amid the warring elements while the rebellious who would not obey were swept away and died. The same rising waters that carried the obedient to shelter until the indignation was overpast declared the verdict upon the wicked as incurable and unwilling to submit to divine authority.

It was preserved by the power of God, safe under His protecting care and guided by a divine hand amid the roar of tempest, thunder, and lightning. Angels that excel in strength were commissioned to preserve it through the tempest. Though massive and firmly made, it trembled in every fiber as merciless winds beat it and flung it from billow to billow, and the beasts within cried out in fear and pain. Its firm structure withstood desperate attempts by men to break into it.

Only eight persons, Noah and his family, entered and lived, finding shelter in the ark. The dumb beasts and fowls quietly went in two by two under God's invisible leadership, in obedience seeking refuge. Men stayed disobedient and unbelieving though the warning was for their salvation, were not impressed by that sign, made light of Noah, and only eight of that vast population fled for refuge and were saved when the waters lifted the ark.

Those outside who had mocked could not enter when they fled, cried for safety, and pleaded for admission. They remembered the warnings with remorse but not repentance when the voice of mercy was no longer heard. Those who clung to the ark were washed away by the surging waters or had their hold broken by collision with rocks and trees. Those who climbed to the tops of mountains and the highest trees would have given anything for a place inside, but were swept into the boiling deep and flung together with animals into the angry flood.

Its lifting is a picture of refuge, where those who enter and accept the warning escape and are saved while the multitudes outside who refuse are lost and perish.

Judgment Cleansing the Earth

The forty days belong to God's judgment, exhibition of power, and execution of penalty upon an impenitent, hardened world for continual transgression of His holy law. That destruction fell for ingratitude and unthankfulness for His gifts, for disobedience to His requirements, and for working continually in opposition to the Creator in whose house they lived and from whose treasury they were fed and clothed, and repentance would have prevented it. The waters that bore up the ark and lifted it above the earth swept away the rebellious race so that death was their portion, fulfilling the warning that all who would not keep the commandments of heaven should drink the waters of the flood.

God interposed in wrath only when men exceeded the bounds of long-suffering, passed the limits of grace, and filled the measure of iniquity after presuming on mercy, despising warnings, and going decidedly against His will. Then He vindicated the honor and authority of His law and repressed the increase of unrighteousness by blotting out a race indifferent to the known law, cutting short iniquity when rebellion seemed victorious and almost the whole world had joined it. He is mindful of what passes on earth and reveals Himself at the crisis to hinder Satan's plans and sustain His people, limiting human life and interposing to prevent men spoiling one another in continual disobedience and defiance when wickedness, violence, and crime reached a great height and almost all remembrance of Him had passed away. That interposition came after He declared the limit of forbearance, sent Noah with warning, gave one hundred and twenty years to turn from sin, and then a final week after the obedient were shut in, during which unbelief ripened in mockery until steady rain left no living being or animal outside alive.

By that flood God washed and cleansed the earth of its moral corruption and pollution, sweeping unrepentant evildoers from its face. He bore long in mercy through the one-hundred-and-twenty-year probation in which Noah and his helpers worked on the immense boat on dry land and preached more earnestly as scorn was heaped on the law, distinguishing the obedient from the disobedient by the standard of His law, while many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant before the waters came. The old world's history is to be kept before the mind in its inspired Genesis description as warning food for souls ready to perish amid present wars, selfishness, covetousness, violence, and crime.

That pollution came from indulgence of appetite, gluttony, drunkenness, and intemperance, with indulgence in food and drink inflaming passions and leading to other crimes, widespread corruption, violence, and wickedness beyond all remedy. In this God tests fallen men just where He tested man before the fall, showing indulgence of appetite among the most flagrant sins of the fallen race and the bringer of the greatest human woe, now making the present world like Noah's world.

Mercy was mingled with judgment, for Noah and his family were saved while God appeared as protector of the righteous and answered their prayers by terrible things in righteousness. The obedient who kept the law found shelter in the ark until the indignation was overpast, while the despisers of mercy were made to drink the flood waters and perished in punishment, proving they were not washed straight into glory and that God is not too merciful to punish transgression. Obedience to all of God's law is therefore absolutely essential to eternal life, and no one can reach heaven as well transgressing as obeying nor presume on mercy to sin and still be pardoned.

After the warning was rejected the Spirit of God was withdrawn and the people perished in the waters. Seth, Enoch, Noah, Methuselah and others had kept the knowledge of God continually before that long-lived race, but they despised truth, their imaginations were only evil continually, and secret societies were formed to work violence in darkness, so God destroyed them by water though He would have saved every soul that obeyed. Their destruction illustrates without fail that whatsoever a man sows he reaps, under the same distracting influences and difficulty of forming character for eternal life as now.

The flood lifted the ark above a world already corrupt before God after Adam's fall opened the floodgates of woe, and because the people would not believe only eight, Noah and his family, were saved in it. Through the great plan of redemption the same act that saved the few leaves open to humanity the privilege of gaining back God-given manhood and womanhood so that the immortal image of God may be restored. The same judgment of causing the wicked to drink the flood waters comes where the same condition of abounding iniquity returns, when means are misused apart from the Word as guide, multitudes are honored, great festivities are held, men make everything possible of themselves, and all seek their own pleasure.

Traces Left in Earth

The flood buried men, animals, and trees and preserved them in the earth, and it provides the historical setting for the great changes that came upon the earth. It destroyed the inhabitants of the old world, yet in burying and preserving men, beasts, and trees it left their remains in the earth as evidence of what perished. Many of those buried forms were much larger than those now living, including larger people, animals, and trees, and their remains were meant to strengthen faith in the inspired history. That history supplies the timing and explanation that geological remains alone cannot establish.

The surface of the earth was broken up and changed, and the re-formation of its crust preserved evidence of the life that had existed before the flood. Vast forests buried at that time were later changed into coal and sources of oil. Since the flood the curse upon the earth has greatly increased, and human and animal life, trees, and vegetation have continued to feel its effects as people have forgotten God and disobeyed. Rocks raised from the deep and the earth by the breaking forth of the waters stand as witnesses and reminders of the terror of that outpouring of divine wrath upon transgression of God's law. Deep gorges, seamed and cleft rocks, and varied shapes and structures thrown up by the breaking forth of the waters remain as testimony to that flood.

The waters increased to a measured height that lifted the ark above the earth, and that height was remembered after the flood. The dwellers on the plain of Shinar in pride tried to carry their tower much higher than the waters had reached, to place themselves beyond danger of another deluge and to ascend to the region of the clouds to find out the cause of the flood. Their plan showed disbelief in God's covenant that He would not again bring a flood upon the earth, with many denying God and attributing the flood to natural causes, while others acknowledged that God destroyed the antediluvian world yet rebelled against Him like Cain. The effort was driven by pride and was designed to exalt the builders and turn future generations away from God into idolatry. The builders of Babel murmured against God's destruction of the world by the flood as arbitrary and severe, instead of gratefully remembering His mercy to Adam and His gracious covenant with Noah.

Pattern of Final Judgment

The generation swept away by the forty days' flood prefigures those living just before Christ's return, when the whole world becomes as it was in Noah's day and iniquity is so common that fraudulent transactions, murders and crimes no longer shock the senses. Violence, revelling and drunkenness fill the earth, minds are diverted from eternal realities, the church is converted by the world, and God's law is declared of no consequence, proving the end of all things is at hand. In the coming days of destruction and calamity nature itself will be convulsed with burning mountains, boiling waters, mighty earthquakes and great destruction of human life, and as Noah was preserved in the ark God prepared for him, so God Himself will be the refuge of His believing ones.

As Noah fulfilled God's will for one hundred and twenty years in bearing warning to an impenitent, pleasure-loving, corrupt people and only eight of that vast population accepted it, fled for refuge and were saved when the waters increased and lifted the ark above the earth, so the same unbelief that prevailed before the Flood will exist prior to Christ's coming. God's people now have the last message of mercy to carry to regions beyond and to warn the world in close connection with God, a truth requiring self-denial and the lifting of the cross, which will be to some a savor of life unto life and to others a savor of death unto death. Though moral darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, the duty to lift the voice in warning and show professed children of God their transgressions remains, and those who so warn will be delivered from the wicked in the final crisis.

For seven days after God shut Noah in and shut the world out, probation ended with mercy ceased and hope dead, yet people continued their ordinary, careless lives without knowing their doom was fixed. The shut ark marked a separation between Noah and the ungodly, and illustrates the unnoticed, decisive close of probation before Christ's coming. While the ark rode safe under the protecting care of the God of storm and tempest, guided by a divine hand amid roaring tempest, thunder, sharp lightning, uprooted trees thrown into boiling waters and wrecks of palaces and temples tossing on the waters, the wicked fled from place to place seeking higher foothold and remembered the warnings with remorse but not repentance when the voice of mercy was no longer heard.

As the flood arrived and carried away the unprepared absorbed in worldly life after they forgot admonition and dismissed warning, so Christ's coming will be sudden and unexpected. They kept their plans and inventions of iniquity, full of rioting and godless pleasure, asleep in carnal security, putting afar off the Lord's coming, laughing at warnings as fanaticism, boasting that all things remain as from the beginning and tomorrow shall be as today only much more abundant, until sudden destruction lifted the ark above the earth. Thus shall it be when the Son of man is revealed, when business routine goes on without principle, study seeks everything but the Bible, ministers cry peace and safety, and the world is absorbed in pleasure, amusements, gain, traffic, moneymaking, dishonest practices, eating and drinking, planting and building, and Christ comes as a thief upon lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God taken unawares.

The cleansing by water, with water from the heavens uniting with water in the bowels of the earth to increase and lift up, foreshadows the last great day when fire from heaven uniting with fire stored up in the earth will purify the earth. That judgment by water will not be repeated, but the earth will again soon be swept of its moral corruption by a sea of unquenchable fire no human devising can quench, in answer to worldwide misery, anguish, suffering and corruption, to avenge His own elect who cry to Him day and night speedily. As after one hundred and twenty years granted to choose between evil and good the Noachic world deliberately chose its own wicked ways and the flood came as the result of transgressed law seen in lawlessness, so once again before the great destruction of the world by fire men are granted a period of test and trial to show whether they will be loyal to God by obeying His law.

Noah's message condemned the world, and parallels the later warning of final judgment that many rejected or mocked, including in Miller's day. After an extended probation of one hundred and twenty years and repeated rejection of the messages God sent, the despisers of mercy were made to drink the waters of the flood because crime and violence wore out God's long-suffering patience. This history was known to the sons of the prophets and taught to the children of Israel to prepare them for the advent of Christ. The flood that destroyed the antediluvian world because they transgressed God's holy law and would not heed admonitions gives the world for all time a lesson on the sure result of transgression, standing in line with the destruction of Sodom for not obeying the laws of God's kingdom, the destruction of Jerusalem for not heeding the messages the Lord gave, and the final destruction of the whole world for transgression and impenitence in the closing period of its history.

The sins increasing in the present world are the same kind that brought God's judgments in the Flood, and the sweeping away of Noah's day is a warning parallel to the coming ruin of a world turning from God's law. Selfishness, violence and crime prevail now as they did before that destruction when the waters covered the Old World. Amid wars, selfishness and violence the flood's certain punishment when human perversity persists warns of what is coming upon a world given to pride, vanity and waste of time and money, calling all to think seriously and give account.

Warnings to Believe Now

Unbelief and mockery did not stop the flood from coming exactly as warned, for the waters increased until they covered the earth and lifted the ark above it. Nearly all thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claimed to know more than God's faithful servant, closed their ears to truth, and darkness came upon them. They denounced him as visionary, fanatic and alarmist, laughed his warnings to scorn as superstitious fears, parables and foolishness, and said a rain where no sign of rain had ever existed could not be. Men explained away truth by false science, yet they finally drank the very waters that covered the earth and perished in them, left in darkness to follow the curse their own sinful hearts had chosen, and great was the wrath of God seen in the general ruin. Their disbelief did not make the message of no effect and did not hinder the predicted event, for only Noah and his family were saved while the scoffing world was submerged.

The flood destroyed the whole world with only eight persons preserved, proving that great numbers do not follow God and that following the majority leads to destruction and loss of heaven. Great men and good men, philosophers, scientific men and learned men who saw no consistency in the warning, called it an illusion of the brain, and held that Noah was deceived perished, while Noah alone was found worthy to be spared. Those who believe present truth and keep the commandments of God must therefore not be discouraged when only a few believe and must not turn to the right or left from duty. The same will happen when the warning is now proclaimed to fear God and keep His commandments, for wrath will soon fall on all the sinful and disobedient and they will perish in the general conflagration, while only a few who keep the Sabbath and believe the message will be saved.

Continual transgression of God's law brought the flood upon the earth, while Noah and his family were miraculously saved in the ark because they did what was right, preserved the law, and taught it to descendants. The rising waters that lifted the ark were the execution of God's penalty upon the disobedient inhabitants of the old world for transgressing His requirements. They perished in punishment and were not washed by the deluge straight into glory, proving God is not too merciful to punish transgression. Obedience to all of God's law is absolutely essential to eternal life, and no one can get to heaven just as well transgressing as obeying, for transgressing even one law or showing disrespect to it brings loss of the soul. No one should presume upon mercy to sin and still be pardoned and saved, so victory over transgression must be gained now while mercy still offers cleansing.

The ark lifted above the earth and carried on the rising floodwaters, riding the storm, is a picture of God's Word surviving the storms and forces that threaten to destroy it. Time is now very short, for wickedness has increased as in the days of Noah and the flood came upon the hardened inhabitants after the time for the ark to be closed. The dumb animals quietly entered two and two under invisible leadership without a visible leader, yet the people were not impressed, did not humble themselves before God, and made light of Noah and his family. After God's hand closed the door one week passed without rain while the people mocked and derided, then rain began gently at first but increased in power until every living thing outside was destroyed.

People must now walk according to God's Word, be found on the side of the loyal and true when Christ comes, humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, serve one master, wake up and get ready, accept Christ, obey the law, keep the Sabbath, believe the warning, and proclaim a crucified and risen Saviour. Men blinded by Satan's peace and safety theories will not hear the last call of mercy, and the holy will remain holy still and the filthy will remain filthy still, lest it be everlastingly too late. God looks upon the world today as He looked upon it then because this age repeats its wickedness, He sends His messages as He sent them in Noah's days, and calamities, earthquakes, floods and disasters by land and by sea will increase.

Many who helped Noah build the ark did not believe the startling message, did not cleanse themselves from all wrong principles, and did not overcome temptation to do and say things entirely contrary to the mind and will of God. The ark was built on dry land for the safety of all who would believe and enter, but Noah was laughed to scorn and mocked because rain had never been seen and was called a fanatical proposition. God gave one hundred and twenty years of probation and offers of mercy which they refused, while He would have saved every soul that obeyed. Unbelief did not prevent fulfillment, for the rain came and the waters perished the wicked, illustrating that whatsoever a man sows he reaps without fail. The same pattern applies before Christ's second appearing, when the church follows the world and ministers cry peace and safety and the world is absorbed in pleasure, amusements, gain, traffic, moneymaking, dishonest practices, eating and drinking, planting and building, and then sudden destruction breaks upon them unprepared, with the same distracting influences and difficulty of forming a character for eternal life as in Noah's day.