And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
Noah was six hundred years old, in his six hundredth year, when the flood of waters was upon the earth. The flood began in the second month on the seventeenth day of the month when the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, and only eight persons, Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives, were shut in by the Lord Himself as a refuge from the storm. It came because the wickedness of man was great and the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, until transgression reached unto heaven and reached its full measure, so God in wrath interfered to vindicate His authority and blot out the race as an act of mercy and an example of certain punishment. God in mercy gave a one-hundred-and-twenty-year probation with warning and invitation, during which Noah preached righteousness and prepared the ark while the world despised warnings and presumed on mercy until the boundaries of divine mercy were passed. As they knew not until the flood came and took them all away while eating and drinking and mocking, so the literal flood prefigures the coming of the Son of man, when sudden destruction shall overtake the pleasure-loving and unprepared, while God will preserve faithful Noah's counterparts as His refuge.
Time and Events of Flood
Noah was six hundred years old, in his six hundredth year, when the flood of waters was upon the earth. Those last days before the flood stole silently on as a thief in the night. The flood began in the second month on the seventeenth day of the month, when all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, with rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and the waters prevailing upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
Eight persons in all, Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives, passed into the ark as a refuge from the storm because of the waters, going in according to all that had been commanded them. The Lord Himself shut them in with an invisible hand and closed the door upon them. The beasts and fowls and cattle and all other living creatures showed obedience by coming two by two without a visible leader under God's invisible leadership to be housed and stored for refuge, darkening the heavens as they came in, while men remained disobedient and unbelieving despite the sight.
After entering the ark seven days passed with no sign of coming storm, with daily clear sunrise and sunset. Those seven days, a full week enclosed before rain fell, tested and tried the faith of Noah and his family inside, though Noah rested in the word that the flood was coming. Outside the apparent delay made the wicked certain the message was a delusion and that the flood would never come, and fully revealed unbelief. Even after seeing the beasts and birds enter and God shut the door, they continued in sport and revelry, and crowded around the ark in mockery and derision, scoffing with bolder violence than before at a crazy old man shut in with his family.
Up to that time no rain had fallen and the earth had been watered only by a mist arising. Then after seven days rain began slowly and gently as a new thing never seen before, with clouds gathering for the first time. It increased heavily and in power until the heavens were opened in torrents the ground could no longer drink up. The ark floated upon the troubled waters, and the waters rose higher day by day, morning and evening, to despair. The inhabitants climbed to the mountains and to the tops of the mountains in vain, and the water reached the tops of the highest trees and swept them into the boiling deep and swept everyone away, so that a place within the ark came too late for them, and every living thing outside the ark perished.
Cause and Justice of Judgment
The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, the wickedness of man great in the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually. That state came because men put God out of their knowledge and worshiped creatures of their own imagination, and by beholding became changed into the likeness of their debased deities. Having God's commandments given as a rule of life, they transgressed them and gave themselves to open and daring sin, until justice was trampled in the dust and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven. Iniquity had become so common that it no longer shocked the senses, while men went on eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until Noah entered the ark.
The flood of waters came upon the earth because continual transgression of God's law and human sin and iniquity had reached unto heaven and reached full measure. God had made known to Noah beforehand that He would destroy man whom He had created from off the earth by the waters of the flood. In wrath God interfered to vindicate His authority and the honor of His law, to repress unrighteousness, to limit human life, and to blot out the indifferent race to keep them from spoiling one another in continual defiance, while appearing as protector of the righteous. The waters of the Flood therefore show God's verdict on the wicked, and their destruction was an act of mercy to the world. It stands as an example of the certain punishment awaiting persistent wickedness and warns all who should afterward live that God will surely punish those who disregard His law. Noah and his family were saved in the ark for right-doing, and the massive boat was God's means to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness, by which all were tested.
In mercy God gave a one-hundred-and-twenty-year probation with warning and invitation and hope for everyone until the door was closed. During it Noah walked by faith and with his helpers worked constantly preparing the immense ark on dry land, preaching more earnestly in proportion to ridicule and scorn without losing reverence and love for God's law, while many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant. Men exceeded the bounds of long-sufferance and the limits of grace by decided disobedience to known law, despising warnings and presuming on mercy until love was rejected and despised. The measure of iniquity became full and the boundaries of divine mercy were passed, after God had declared the limits of His forbearance toward that guilty race. By the standard of God's law the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient at a most critical time.
Noah believed the word of God and faithfully warned that sinful generation and made every effort to turn them from transgression to obedience, fulfilling the will of God with a last effort of warning, entreaty and appeal. He pleaded with tearful eye, trembling lip and quivering voice for them to believe and secure a refuge in the ark. Nearly all 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 said a flood could not come. They branded him a fanatic, insane and egotistical, laughed and mocked and scoffed at him as a preacher of righteousness, and said he speaks in parables. By false science and by reason, science, philosophy and philosophy they explained away the truth that rain would come when rain had never been seen and no signs of it had ever existed, and none of the wise and honored of the earth believed his testimony. Many who helped 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. Only his own family at last received his message, only eight persons of that vast, impenitent, pleasure-loving, corrupt population accepted the warning, fled for refuge into the ark, and were saved, and the rejected message condemned the world.
Their unbelief and rejection did not make the message of none effect nor prevent the flood, and they finally drank the waters that covered the earth. Unbelief did not stop fulfillment: the rain came and the wicked inhabitants who refused the warning perished in the waters. Truth stands though the whole world opposes it. The destruction of the whole world by the Flood proves that the majority is lost and only a few hold to truth.
Warning for the Last Days
The account is of a literal Noah and a historical flood, and that generation prefigures the present age before the appearing of Christ. Human nature now is like that of Noah's day, when people were uninfluenced by God's Spirit. Worldwide wickedness was increasing then as it is now, and God looks upon the world today just as He looked upon it then. That repetition is seen in increasing calamities, earthquakes, floods, and disasters by land and by sea, proving that time is very short and probation is closing.
As the wicked knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. They were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, and planting and building, until Noah entered the ark, pursuing worldly life while dismissing warnings. Those last days before the flood stole silently on as a thief in the night. So Christ's coming and the end will arrive suddenly, as a snare and as a thief, to overtake unprepared pleasure-loving, moneymaking, dishonest, luxurious, intemperate people and a sleeping church crying peace and safety.
The flood is the pattern for the last message of mercy now to be carried to regions beyond and to the whole world to be warned. That message gives all sufficient light to accept saving truth and obey all God's commandments and be saved, and it will be received by some and rejected by others. The same unbelief that prevailed before the flood will exist prior to the coming of Christ. Yet moral darkness covering the earth and gross darkness the people does not change the duty to lift the voice in warning and show professing children of God their transgressions. The last call of mercy goes unheard by those blinded by peace and safety theories, cases are soon fixed for eternity, and character becomes fixed as holy or filthy. Therefore diligent heart-searching, conversion, pardon of sin, humbling under God, serving one master, waking up and getting ready before it is everlastingly too late are required in preparation for the closing scenes of this earth's history.
As God delivered faithful Noah who had warned the mocking inhabitants, He will deliver those who faithfully warn the world of His coming wrath and will not suffer the wicked to destroy them. Noah and his family entered the ark and were shut in, and the ark rode safely upon the waters preserving them while one after another of the mockers drowned beholding the despised ark safe. Noah was preserved in the ark that God had prepared for him. So in the coming days of destruction and calamity when everything in nature is convulsed, God will be the refuge of His believing ones so that no evil or plague comes near them. Those expecting translation who will not bow to the decree of the beast or receive his mark will be gloriously delivered and preserved from Satan and the wicked despite mockery of the saints going up.
The massive boat was God's means to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness, and all were tested by the truth Noah preached. Only eight persons of the vast, impenitent, pleasure-loving, corrupt population accepted the warning, fled for refuge into the ark, and were saved, and the rejected message condemned the world. Nearly all thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claimed to know more than God's faithful servant, closed their ears to words of truth, branded him a fanatic, laughed and mocked his words as parables, and by false science explained away the truth that rain would come when no signs of it had ever existed. Their unbelief did not prevent the flood, and they finally drank the waters that covered the earth. Truth stands though the whole world opposes it, proving that the majority is lost and only a few hold to truth. The ark is the ark of safety, and entering it means accepting the great salvation offered, while remaining outside is neglecting that salvation and fighting against God even without openly opposing the truth. Mothers are accountable for the souls of their children and cannot afford to remain outside, because if they remain outside their children will not enter. The small number who believe present truth and keep the commandments must not be discouraged and must not follow the majority, for following the majority will keep them out of heaven, but none must walk contrary to God's Word in rebellion bringing His displeasure, and all must be found on the side of the loyal and true when Christ comes.
Noah was six hundred years old, in his six hundredth year, when the flood of waters was upon the earth. The flood began in the second month on the seventeenth day of the month when the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, and only eight persons, Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives, were shut in by the Lord Himself as a refuge from the storm. It came because the wickedness of man was great and the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, until transgression reached unto heaven and reached its full measure, so God in wrath interfered to vindicate His authority and blot out the race as an act of mercy and an example of certain punishment. God in mercy gave a one-hundred-and-twenty-year probation with warning and invitation, during which Noah preached righteousness and prepared the ark while the world despised warnings and presumed on mercy until the boundaries of divine mercy were passed. As they knew not until the flood came and took them all away while eating and drinking and mocking, so the literal flood prefigures the coming of the Son of man, when sudden destruction shall overtake the pleasure-loving and unprepared, while God will preserve faithful Noah's counterparts as His refuge.
Time and Events of Flood
Noah was six hundred years old, in his six hundredth year, when the flood of waters was upon the earth. Those last days before the flood stole silently on as a thief in the night. The flood began in the second month on the seventeenth day of the month, when all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, with rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and the waters prevailing upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.
Eight persons in all, Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives, passed into the ark as a refuge from the storm because of the waters, going in according to all that had been commanded them. The Lord Himself shut them in with an invisible hand and closed the door upon them. The beasts and fowls and cattle and all other living creatures showed obedience by coming two by two without a visible leader under God's invisible leadership to be housed and stored for refuge, darkening the heavens as they came in, while men remained disobedient and unbelieving despite the sight.
After entering the ark seven days passed with no sign of coming storm, with daily clear sunrise and sunset. Those seven days, a full week enclosed before rain fell, tested and tried the faith of Noah and his family inside, though Noah rested in the word that the flood was coming. Outside the apparent delay made the wicked certain the message was a delusion and that the flood would never come, and fully revealed unbelief. Even after seeing the beasts and birds enter and God shut the door, they continued in sport and revelry, and crowded around the ark in mockery and derision, scoffing with bolder violence than before at a crazy old man shut in with his family.
Up to that time no rain had fallen and the earth had been watered only by a mist arising. Then after seven days rain began slowly and gently as a new thing never seen before, with clouds gathering for the first time. It increased heavily and in power until the heavens were opened in torrents the ground could no longer drink up. The ark floated upon the troubled waters, and the waters rose higher day by day, morning and evening, to despair. The inhabitants climbed to the mountains and to the tops of the mountains in vain, and the water reached the tops of the highest trees and swept them into the boiling deep and swept everyone away, so that a place within the ark came too late for them, and every living thing outside the ark perished.
Cause and Justice of Judgment
The earth was corrupt before God and filled with violence, the wickedness of man great in the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually. That state came because men put God out of their knowledge and worshiped creatures of their own imagination, and by beholding became changed into the likeness of their debased deities. Having God's commandments given as a rule of life, they transgressed them and gave themselves to open and daring sin, until justice was trampled in the dust and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven. Iniquity had become so common that it no longer shocked the senses, while men went on eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until Noah entered the ark.
The flood of waters came upon the earth because continual transgression of God's law and human sin and iniquity had reached unto heaven and reached full measure. God had made known to Noah beforehand that He would destroy man whom He had created from off the earth by the waters of the flood. In wrath God interfered to vindicate His authority and the honor of His law, to repress unrighteousness, to limit human life, and to blot out the indifferent race to keep them from spoiling one another in continual defiance, while appearing as protector of the righteous. The waters of the Flood therefore show God's verdict on the wicked, and their destruction was an act of mercy to the world. It stands as an example of the certain punishment awaiting persistent wickedness and warns all who should afterward live that God will surely punish those who disregard His law. Noah and his family were saved in the ark for right-doing, and the massive boat was God's means to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness, by which all were tested.
In mercy God gave a one-hundred-and-twenty-year probation with warning and invitation and hope for everyone until the door was closed. During it Noah walked by faith and with his helpers worked constantly preparing the immense ark on dry land, preaching more earnestly in proportion to ridicule and scorn without losing reverence and love for God's law, while many believing ones kept the faith and died triumphant. Men exceeded the bounds of long-sufferance and the limits of grace by decided disobedience to known law, despising warnings and presuming on mercy until love was rejected and despised. The measure of iniquity became full and the boundaries of divine mercy were passed, after God had declared the limits of His forbearance toward that guilty race. By the standard of God's law the obedient were distinguished from the disobedient at a most critical time.
Noah believed the word of God and faithfully warned that sinful generation and made every effort to turn them from transgression to obedience, fulfilling the will of God with a last effort of warning, entreaty and appeal. He pleaded with tearful eye, trembling lip and quivering voice for them to believe and secure a refuge in the ark. Nearly all 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 said a flood could not come. They branded him a fanatic, insane and egotistical, laughed and mocked and scoffed at him as a preacher of righteousness, and said he speaks in parables. By false science and by reason, science, philosophy and philosophy they explained away the truth that rain would come when rain had never been seen and no signs of it had ever existed, and none of the wise and honored of the earth believed his testimony. Many who helped 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. Only his own family at last received his message, only eight persons of that vast, impenitent, pleasure-loving, corrupt population accepted the warning, fled for refuge into the ark, and were saved, and the rejected message condemned the world.
Their unbelief and rejection did not make the message of none effect nor prevent the flood, and they finally drank the waters that covered the earth. Unbelief did not stop fulfillment: the rain came and the wicked inhabitants who refused the warning perished in the waters. Truth stands though the whole world opposes it. The destruction of the whole world by the Flood proves that the majority is lost and only a few hold to truth.
Warning for the Last Days
The account is of a literal Noah and a historical flood, and that generation prefigures the present age before the appearing of Christ. Human nature now is like that of Noah's day, when people were uninfluenced by God's Spirit. Worldwide wickedness was increasing then as it is now, and God looks upon the world today just as He looked upon it then. That repetition is seen in increasing calamities, earthquakes, floods, and disasters by land and by sea, proving that time is very short and probation is closing.
As the wicked knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. They were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, and planting and building, until Noah entered the ark, pursuing worldly life while dismissing warnings. Those last days before the flood stole silently on as a thief in the night. So Christ's coming and the end will arrive suddenly, as a snare and as a thief, to overtake unprepared pleasure-loving, moneymaking, dishonest, luxurious, intemperate people and a sleeping church crying peace and safety.
The flood is the pattern for the last message of mercy now to be carried to regions beyond and to the whole world to be warned. That message gives all sufficient light to accept saving truth and obey all God's commandments and be saved, and it will be received by some and rejected by others. The same unbelief that prevailed before the flood will exist prior to the coming of Christ. Yet moral darkness covering the earth and gross darkness the people does not change the duty to lift the voice in warning and show professing children of God their transgressions. The last call of mercy goes unheard by those blinded by peace and safety theories, cases are soon fixed for eternity, and character becomes fixed as holy or filthy. Therefore diligent heart-searching, conversion, pardon of sin, humbling under God, serving one master, waking up and getting ready before it is everlastingly too late are required in preparation for the closing scenes of this earth's history.
As God delivered faithful Noah who had warned the mocking inhabitants, He will deliver those who faithfully warn the world of His coming wrath and will not suffer the wicked to destroy them. Noah and his family entered the ark and were shut in, and the ark rode safely upon the waters preserving them while one after another of the mockers drowned beholding the despised ark safe. Noah was preserved in the ark that God had prepared for him. So in the coming days of destruction and calamity when everything in nature is convulsed, God will be the refuge of His believing ones so that no evil or plague comes near them. Those expecting translation who will not bow to the decree of the beast or receive his mark will be gloriously delivered and preserved from Satan and the wicked despite mockery of the saints going up.
The massive boat was God's means to save all who would hear the warning and turn from unrighteousness, and all were tested by the truth Noah preached. Only eight persons of the vast, impenitent, pleasure-loving, corrupt population accepted the warning, fled for refuge into the ark, and were saved, and the rejected message condemned the world. Nearly all thought they were right and Noah was wrong, claimed to know more than God's faithful servant, closed their ears to words of truth, branded him a fanatic, laughed and mocked his words as parables, and by false science explained away the truth that rain would come when no signs of it had ever existed. Their unbelief did not prevent the flood, and they finally drank the waters that covered the earth. Truth stands though the whole world opposes it, proving that the majority is lost and only a few hold to truth. The ark is the ark of safety, and entering it means accepting the great salvation offered, while remaining outside is neglecting that salvation and fighting against God even without openly opposing the truth. Mothers are accountable for the souls of their children and cannot afford to remain outside, because if they remain outside their children will not enter. The small number who believe present truth and keep the commandments must not be discouraged and must not follow the majority, for following the majority will keep them out of heaven, but none must walk contrary to God's Word in rebellion bringing His displeasure, and all must be found on the side of the loyal and true when Christ comes.