Genesis 7:19, commentary and pictures

The waters prevailed exceedingly until they covered all the high hills under the whole heaven, rising over the loftiest heights until only a shoreless ocean remained and all life outside the ark perished together. They came by the uniting of water from above and from beneath, with torrents of rain descending for forty days and forty nights joined to the fountains of the great deep broken up with overwhelming force. The judgment came because the earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, with every imagination of the heart only evil continually in transgression of His law after long patience. God gave a merciful probation of one hundred and twenty years with Noah as a preacher of righteousness while building the ark, yet only eight souls entered, and when the measure of iniquity was full those outside were swept away. As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man, and as water from heaven united with water in the earth to cleanse moral pollution, so fire from heaven uniting with fire stored in the earth will purify the earth again.

Extent of the Covering

The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth until they covered all the high hills under the whole heaven, rising over the loftiest heights and the highest peaks until only a shoreless ocean remained. The rising flood reached the very highest land under the sky, overwhelming even the highest points where people and animals had tried to escape. The avenging waters swept over the last retreat on the loftiest mountains where men had fled for safety, so that the highest peaks looked out upon a shoreless ocean. God destroyed the people by those waters, though Satan remained free to continue his effort to corrupt humanity.

The covering was universal and fatal to all life outside the ark, with people and animals perishing together in the waters. Both people and beasts were overwhelmed, and people and animals alike perished in the flood. Those who rejected God's warning perished in the waters, and the people who lived before the Flood perished because they were disobedient to God, whereas had they obeyed His word they would not have perished. The prevailing waters meant total destruction of the old world by flood because men exceeded the bounds of long-sufferance and the limits of grace, after a probation of one hundred and twenty years and a final one-week test after the believers were shut into the ark, with steady rain continuing until every unbeliever outside the ark was perishing in sin, with not a living being or dumb animal left alive outside. All the despisers of God outside the ark perished in the black depths, their ridicule and scorning of Noah's solemn warnings ended, and the doomed sinners longed for the opportunities they had slighted, pleading for one hour's probation, one more privilege of mercy, one more call from the lips of Noah, but the sweet voice of mercy was no more to be heard by them. After Noah entered the ark and God shut him in, the people continued their careless lives for seven days, unaware that their doom was fixed, and this is a pattern for the final judgment, when people will go on with ordinary life until mercy ends and each person's destiny is settled.

The account is real history, with Noah as a literal person and the flood as fact, and Christ treats Noah as a literal person and the flood as fact and presents the people of Noah's generation as characteristic of the age before His return. The Flood overcame the natural boundaries people trusted and covered the high hills beneath the whole heaven. The waters were under God's control, and He could bring about the destruction Noah had warned of, though people reasoned that nature's regular order made such a disaster impossible.

How the Waters Came

The prevailing waters came by the uniting of water from above and from beneath, with torrents of rain descending from heaven joined to the fountains of the great deep broken up, spreading over the earth with overwhelming force until they formed a great sea. The windows of heaven were opened while the foundations of the deep were broken up, so that the waters from beneath united with the waters from heaven to prevail exceedingly and cover the earth. That cleansing by water, with water from the heavens above uniting with water in the bowels of the earth below, foreshadows the last great day when fire from heaven uniting with fire stored in the earth will purify the earth in the same manner.

Rain fell for forty days and forty nights, beginning slowly and gently and then increasing until the heavens opened and poured down in torrents from heavy clouds. At the same time the crust of the earth was broken and the water hidden in its bowels burst forth, throwing large stones into the air. After Noah and his family were shut inside by God Himself, seven days passed without rain while the people continued their careless lives, mocked and derided, unaware that their doom was fixed. Then the rain began, first gently and afterward with increasing power, until every living thing outside was destroyed.

The ark had been built on dry land and looked as strange there as a ship set on supports on shore, but it needed no immense iron standards to bear it up and no rail track to carry it to the water, because the flood itself lifted it. Once lifted it rode safely upon the troubled waters by God's power, floating securely while the flood rose until it covered the highest mountains and reached the tops of the highest trees, keeping Noah and his family safe inside. God had shut in those who believed His word, and no others could enter, so that the same prevailing waters that bore up the ark drowned the wicked inhabitants.

As the waters rose, water entered houses and drove people to the temples of their idol worship, and the temples were swept away. Everywhere people fled for refuge to houses, idol temples, the highest branches of trees still standing, and the highest mountains, with terrified animals and terrified people climbing together only to be swept together into the boiling deep. Some clung to the ark until the waves washed them away, crying for a place of safety and pleading with Noah, while parents with children sought the highest branches only to be flung with the trees into the foaming water. Those left outside would gladly have entered and would have given anything for a place within the ark, wishing they could have a place inside, remembering the warnings with remorse but with mercy heard no more amid tempest, thunder, lightning, and the tossing wrecks of palaces and temples. Driven from idol groves, mansions, works of gold and temples of precious stones, mourning lost luxuries and fleeing from place to place for higher footing until the last refuge was reached, they perished in the black depths when the avenging waters swept over the loftiest mountains.

Why God Sent Judgment

The waters that covered all the high hills came because the earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, with every imagination of the thoughts of the heart only evil continually. That corruption included selfishness, immorality, oppression, crime, violence, and every conceivable sin, and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven. The flood washed the world clean of its moral pollution after human violence and crime had reached great proportions, and it stands as a warning that a corrupt, violent world can face sudden destruction.

The root cause was transgression of and rebellion against God's law and requirements, which had been given as a rule of life. Men put God out of knowledge and disregarded Him until almost all remembrance of Him passed away, becoming more and still more bold in disobeying His law and continually working in opposition to their Creator. After long patience and forbearance they exceeded the bounds of long-sufferance and the limits of grace, and God interfered to vindicate the honor of His law.

That rebellion took the form of idolatry and ingratitude, worshiping creatures of imagination clothed with human attributes and passions until by beholding them men became like them and sank lower and lower. God had surrounded them with precious things because He loved them and provided food and clothing from His liberal treasury, yet they lived in His house on His provision without thanks, were unmindful of His goodness, and turned His blessings into a curse by using them to gratify pride and glorify themselves. They felt extraordinary self-importance and continued with swelling pride in deeds of unrighteousness, despised the truth kept before them by righteous men such as Seth, Enoch, Noah and Methuselah, and formed secret societies to work violence in darkness.

Indulgence of appetite was a leading sin of that generation, with gluttony and drunkenness leading to other crimes. Their eating and drinking was by the rule of appetite rather than innocent use, their intemperance had no bounds, and through unrestrained indulgence they became corrupt in debased passions. The flood therefore poured waters upon the earth to wash the world from its moral pollution, because wickedness from indulgence of appetite and intemperance was beyond all remedy.

God gave a merciful probation of one hundred and twenty years, with Noah as preacher of righteousness warning while building the immense ark on dry land, and Noah's family and helpers received his instruction and stayed constantly at work amid universal scorn. There was also a final one-week test after the obedient were shut in, yet only eight souls, Noah and his family, repented and entered, while the rest mocked, denounced Noah as visionary, fanatic and alarmist, and laughed his fears to scorn as superstition. When the measure of iniquity was full and the bounds of long-suffering and grace were passed, the rebellious race was swept away and death was their portion, and their refusal did not hinder the predicted event. The destruction would not have happened if the inhabitants had repented, for the warning was given that men might repent of sins, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters, and find refuge until God's indignation was overpast.

Earth Transformed by Water

The covering of all the high hills was a complete overturning that broke up the crust of the earth and re-formed its whole surface. As the waters disappeared the bodies of people and animals driven to the highest ground were left upon mountains, hills and plains. Torrents of rain descending from heaven joined with the fountains of the great deep broken up, and their prevailing power uprooted idolized trees and swept away inhabitants, groves, palaces and costly works for pleasure. Places of idol worship were filled with masses of rubbish and earth, while rocks concealed under the surface were thrown up to cover the lovely places men had adored. Fruitful trees, shady avenues, forests and gardens were utterly destroyed, leaving deep gorges, seamed and cleft rocks, a broken uneven surface and a frightful solitude. This destruction came after a one-hundred-and-twenty-year warning through Noah, and would not have happened if the inhabitants had repented of ingratitude to God, disobedience to His law and worship of idols and the works of their own hands.

The flood buried people, animals and trees much larger than those now living, and preserved them in the earth as evidence that the inhabitants of the old world perished by the flood. Buried forests later became coal and oil, and as the crust was re-formed it preserved evidence of the abundant plant and animal life that existed before the flood. Their remains testify to a state of things unlike the present, and the time and meaning of such remains are learned from the inspired record rather than inferred from geology alone.

Time-worn rocky walls and battlements of rock, caverns, openings, deep gorges and deep channels worn by mighty cataracts and washed by mountain torrents have stood since that flood as its lasting marks. Rocks cast up from the deep and the earth by the breaking forth of the waters were washed smooth as if polished, with other rocks laid in regular layers as if fashioned by art, and these formations still rise high above the earth crowned with trees. They remain as witnesses to the deluge that covered the high hills because its inhabitants transgressed God's law, and they recall the terror of God's wrath.

The flood destroyed the trees and flowering shrubs of the former world, which far exceeded the present world in beauty, grandeur and loveliness, even though present mountains and rocks are beautiful and majestic. God had surrounded people with the precious things of earth because He loved them, but they turned those blessings into a curse by using them to gratify pride and glorify themselves, and the earth was defiled by their violence and corrupting works so that the Lord destroyed them and the earth with them. The flood therefore marked a great increase in the curse resting on the earth because of human disobedience, and that curse rested heavier afterward on people, animals, trees and all vegetation, growing heavier as later generations forgot God and transgressed His commandments. Yet seeds and a few living kinds of trees and shrubs were preserved for future generations.

Justice Mercy and Unbelief

The covering of all the high hills under heaven was total destruction of the old world because men had exceeded the bounds of long-suffering and passed the limits of grace. After bearing long with sin through a probation of one hundred and twenty years with warning, and a final one-week test after the believers were shut into the ark, God in wrath vindicated the honor of His law when human wickedness and defiance came to a crisis. He beholds all the works of men, and when violence, crime and every kind of sin became intensely active and almost all remembrance of Him had passed away, He interposed to hinder Satan's plans, to repress the increase of unrighteousness, to blot out those indifferent to His law, to limit human life, and to prevent men spoiling one another in continual disobedience. By the standard of that law the obedient inside the ark were distinguished from the disobedient outside, and love no less than justice demanded that judgment put a check on sin when the measure of iniquity was full and the boundaries of divine mercy were passed. The avenging waters swept over the last retreat on the loftiest mountains, all despisers outside perished in the black depths, their ridicule ended, and though the doomed longed for one hour's probation, one more privilege of mercy and one more call, the sweet voice of mercy was no more to be heard by them.

Mercy was mingled with judgment, for Noah and his family, eight persons only, entered the ark God had prepared and found shelter and were saved while the world outside was drowned. When warning was rejected the Spirit of God was withdrawn from the sinful race, probation ended, and God Himself shut the door, shutting Noah safely inside and shutting the guilty world outside with mercy ceased, hope dead, and no man able to open it. A few days after, steady rain continued until every unbeliever outside was perishing in sin, with not a living being left alive outside, driven from idol groves, mansions, works of gold and temples of precious stones, mourning lost luxuries and fleeing for higher footing until only a world of water remained. Amid tempest and thunder and sharp lightning, with uprooted trees and wrecks of palaces and temples tossed on the boiling, seething waters, the ark was kept safe under God's protecting care by miracle and divine hand, and as Noah was then preserved so God Himself will be the refuge, habitation and defense of His believing ones, hiding them in His pavilion and upon a rock so no evil comes near them.

Nearly all the inhabitants thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claiming to know more than God's faithful servant, closing their ears to words of truth, explaining truth away by false science, and branding him a visionary, fanatic and alarmist for saying rain would come when no sign of it had ever existed. They laughed and mocked God's message through him as parables and superstition, denounced his fears and forebodings, and refused the gracious invitation to repent, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters and find refuge during the one hundred and twenty years given. Their unbelief and darkness did not prevent fulfillment and did not make the message of none effect, for the predicted event came, the waters prevailed exceedingly and covered the earth, and those left to follow the curse their own sinful hearts had chosen drank the same waters and perished in great wrath and general ruin with none but Noah and his family saved. Even if the whole world opposes God's law it makes no difference, and those walking contrary to His Word stir up rebellion and bring His displeasure upon themselves.

The flood swept out of existence all the vast world except eight persons, destroying great men and good men, philosophers, scientific men and learned men who did not believe the warning, though they reasoned that a merciful God would not do this and that the wise would have known if it were true. Numbers do not decide truth, and following the majority leads to destruction and loss of heaven, so the few who believe present truth and keep the commandments are not to be discouraged but to stand alone for duty rather than turn aside to fables. Whatsoever a man sows he must also reap at a certain reaping time overseen by a God who understands every action, and after one hundred and twenty years of probation God would have saved every soul that obeyed but perished all who refused His offers of mercy amid influences that took attention from heavenly things. The waters covering all the high hills were punishment for disobedience of God's requirements, not waters washing transgressors straight into glory, proving that a merciful God does execute the final penalty for transgressing His law and that obedience to all His law, keeping the Sabbath and believing the message of warning, is absolutely essential to eternal life while wrath will soon fall on all the sinful and disobedient in the general conflagration.

Warning for the End

As in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the Son of man, for the flood is the pattern for Christ's second coming. The covering of all the high hills under heaven was real history with Noah as a literal person, and that generation stands as characteristic of the age before His return. Wickedness is increasing now as then, iniquity has become so common it no longer shocks the senses, and the world is fast becoming as it was when the flood swept away its inhabitants. People are absorbed in eating and drinking, marrying, planting, building, pleasure, amusements, gains, traffic, moneymaking, luxury and reveling, going on in ordinary life until sudden destruction comes unprepared as a snare and as a thief. After one hundred and twenty years of probation and warning to repent, overcome bad habits, form righteous characters and find refuge, with dumb animals quietly entering two and two under invisible leadership as remarkable evidence, the hardened inhabitants refused to humble themselves, made light of Noah and his family, denounced him as visionary, fanatic and alarmist, and laughed his fears to scorn as superstition, yet their darkness did not hinder the predicted event. After Noah entered and the hand of God closed the door, one week passed without rain while the people mocked, then rain began gently and increased in power and continued until every living thing outside was destroyed and met the great wrath of God in general ruin.

The seven days after God shut Noah in, when doom was fixed yet careless ordinary life went on unaware, is a pattern for the final judgment when mercy ends and each destiny is settled. When mercy closes he that is holy will be holy still and he that is filthy will be filthy still, and many blinded by peace and safety theories will not hear the last call of mercy. Once again, before the great destruction of the world by fire, a period of test and trial is granted in which men are given opportunity to show whether they will be loyal to God and obey His law, to repent, humble themselves under His mighty hand, wake up and get ready lest it be everlastingly too late, for time is very short as wickedness increases as in the days of Noah and no man can serve two masters.

The cleansing by water uniting from heaven above with water in the bowels below foreshadows the last great day when fire from heaven uniting with fire stored in the earth will purify the earth in the same manner. Before He appears everything in nature will be convulsed with burning mountains, boiling waters, mighty earthquakes and great destruction of human life. That judgment by water will not be repeated, but God will soon sweep the earth of its moral corruption again by a sea of unquenchable fire that no human devising can quench, declaring likewise that the wicked are incurable and unwilling to submit to divine authority.

As Noah was preserved in the ark through the deluge, so in those days of destruction and calamity God Himself will be the refuge, habitation and defense of His believing ones, hiding them in His pavilion and upon a rock so no evil or plague comes near them, while those who remain outside are lost. The ark riding the deep and storm-tossed waters pictures God's word surviving the storms that threaten to destroy it and remaining uncorrupted through every age.

Later generations on the plain of Shinar remembered the known height the waters had reached in covering all the high hills under heaven, yet disbelieved God's covenant that He would not again bring a flood upon the earth. Many denied the existence of God and attributed the flood to natural causes, while others believed a supreme being had destroyed the antediluvian world yet rose in rebellion against Him with hearts like Cain's and complained His destruction was arbitrary and severe instead of gratefully remembering His mercy and gracious covenant with Noah. In that unbelief and rebellion they made one object of the tower to secure safety from another deluge by carrying it much higher than the waters had reached to place themselves beyond danger, and to ascend to the region of the clouds to ascertain its cause, exalting human pride and turning future generations away from God to idolatry.

The flood therefore calls for present loyalty and earnest effort, for all will have sufficient light to accept saving truth, obey God's requirements in keeping all His commandments, and be saved. Bible believers must take their position for righteousness and truth as the same selfishness, violence and crime of Noah's days prevail and wars, nation rising against nation, covetousness and moral darkness cover the earth, reading and keeping the inspired history before the mind as warning. Only eight of that vast population accepted the warning, fled for refuge into the ark and were saved while the waters prevailed, and Noah's message condemning the world belongs to the last message of mercy to be warned to regions beyond, a savor of life unto life to those who heed it and of death unto death to others, with duty remaining to lift up the voice, show professed children of God their transgressions, and work untiringly to save souls ready to perish. The same unbelief that prevailed before the flood will exist prior to the coming of Christ, when great men and good men, philosophers, scientific and learned men perished with the disobedient for reasoning that a merciful God would not destroy and that the wise would have known if the warning were true, so as the flood swept out of existence all except eight persons, the wrath of God will soon fall in general conflagration on all the sinful and disobedient while only a few who fear God, keep His commandments, keep the Sabbath and believe the message of warning will be saved. Those who faithfully warn of coming judgment may be mocked as Noah was, but God can protect and deliver His faithful people, and in the final crisis He will deliver those who warned the world and refuse to worship the beast or receive its mark so the wicked are not allowed to destroy them, showing He beholds all works, vindicates His authority, interposes when wickedness comes to crisis at the limit of forbearance and the full measure of iniquity, and sweeps the wicked race away when the boundaries of divine mercy are passed.