Chapter 4. Genesis 6, 7, 8. The Flood.
THE earth was gradually being peopled by the descendants of A lam and Eve. Men in those days lived longer than they do now. Adam lived to be nine hundred and thirty years old. One of his sons, Seth, was nine hundred and twelve when he died. Methuselah the oldest man that ever lived died at the age of nine hundred and sixty-nine years. As they multiplied, they became very wicked and God saw, if was not good they should live so long. So he said they should live only about one hundred, and twenty years. Among all those men up to that time, very few feared God. Of one we read, whose name was Enoch, that he walked with God; that is, that in everything he did, he tried to please God, and to obey Him. This pleased God indeed, for He always takes notice of obedience, so He did not let him die and be buried like the others, but He took Him to heaven without dying.
As the wickedness of men increased, God was grieved in His heart, and was sorry He had created them. So He said, “I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth; both man and beast, . . . for it repenteth Me that I have made them.
There was at that time a man named Noah, who was just and perfect before God. God did not want to destroy him with the others, so He told him His purpose of destroying by flood everything living on the earth, and He commanded him to make himself an ark of gopher wood, and to pitch it with pitch, or tar, inside and out. It, was to be four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy feet broad and forty-five feet high. It must have a door on the side and a window on the roof and be built in three stories. What an immense building! But it needed to be large, for Noah was to take, beside his wife, his three sons and their wives, two of each kind of every living thing, whether of birds, or beasts or creeping things; and plenty of food for them all. It took many, years for Noah to build the ark, and while he worked at it, he told men what God was going to do. But they did not believe him, but kept on in their evil ways, and eating and drinking and marrying as if they had not been told what was going to happen. Is not this like the. days in which we are living? We hear about that great judgment which God is to bring upon this earth, not by flood, but by fire, and yet people do not care enough about it to find out whether it is true or not.
But the day came when the ark was finished, and Noah with his wife and his sons and their wives, all went into the ark, and God shut the door. Think of the few inside, sheltered from judgment, and of the many outside, left out, without shelter when that great storm came! How many readers will be found trusting in the Lord Jesus, of which the ark is the type, when this earth will be judged? Will your portion be in or out? Is it not an important enough question to investigate? Will it pay to wait until tomorrow to look into it? God tells you in His word to flee from the wrath to come. If you neglect to do so, you will have an eternity of woe to repent of it. And the way is simple enough for the smallest child to follow. As men would have been saved, had they entered the ark, so will you be saved, if you simply accept the Lord Jesus as the Saviour, God has provided for you.
The very day Noah and his family entered the ark, the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the rain began to come down, and it rained for forty days and forty nights, until the highest mountain was covered. But as the waters rose, so did the ark. It floated on the water and all those inside were safe.
Not so with those left outside, for everything that had breath, whether man, or bird or beast or creeping thing was drowned. Noah only, remained alive and those that were with him in the ark.
For one hundred and fifty days the water remained on the earth. But God remembered those that were in the ark, so He sent a wind on the earth to dry it. As the water decreased, the ark rested on Mount Ararat, in the seventh month. At the end of ten months, the tops of the mountains were seen. Forty days later, Noah opened the window of the ark, and sent out a raven, which went back and forth until the water was dried off the earth. Then he sent a dove, but she found no place for her foot, and she returned to him, and he put out his hand and took her in. Seven days later, he sent the dove out again. This time, in the evening, she brought in her beak an olive leaf. Noah knew by that, that the water was almost gone. After seven more days he sent the dove out again. She did not return to the ark any more. Then Noah took the covering off the ark, and looked and saw that all was dry. Then God told him to come out with his family and the living things that were with him. They were glad to see the dry ground again, and the sun and trees and flowers. They were all well; for God had kept them safely in the ark from the wind and waters. Then Noah and his family thanked God and built an altar and offered sacrifices of thanksgiving to the Lord.
And God set a beautiful rainbow in the sky and He told Noah that when it should rain again upon the earth, and the clouds should hang over the earth, then the rainbow should be seen in the cloud, that people might know that God would not again drown the earth. The sun shining upon the little drops of water in the rain-cloud makes the bow and its beautiful colors.
ML 01/31/1909