WE now come to the second great epoch,—the memorable Deluge,—the first direct judgment of God upon this world for its daring and persistent wickedness. When the long years of patient waiting had come to an end—the ark being now finished—and the warning voice of Noah had ceased to call the people to repentance, the animals of every kind—the beasts of the forest, as well as those that were tame and domesticated—came wending their way with the fowls of heaven and every creeping thing, to the ark of safety prepared for them, under God's directing power, and they entered in with Noah and his family. Then the door was shut, or, as it is significantly stated, "The Lord shut him in." The one door (and there was but one) was closed, and firmly fixed, so that none could open it, for God Himself had closed it. How awfully solemn to think that the door was at that moment closed forever on all those many thousands of hardened unbelievers, who had refused to listen to the voice of mercy!
And so, alas! it will be later on, when another door will be shut, and the unbelievers will be excluded; for it would seem that neither the judgments and Warnings of the past, nor the entreaties of God's ambassadors, will change the main tide of this world's wickedness, though a few here and there will believe; but in comparison with the vast majority that will not, their number will indeed be very small, as our Lord said when down here, " Few there be that find it."
When Noah and his family were safely shut in the ark, the rain began to descend in torrents, and so continued for forty days and nights. And in addition to the windows of heaven being thus opened, the fountains of the deep—the vast subterranean springs in the interior of the earth—burst forth with tremendous force, and the dry land was completely covered with water, even to the tops of the highest hills, and every living creature perished.
Though Scripture is silent as to the first effect of this appalling catastrophe upon those doomed antediluvians, yet we can well imagine that their consternation and horror must have been awful in the extreme, as they were thus suddenly awakened to the terrible fact that the judgment predicted by Noah, on account of their sin and folly in rebelling against God, was now about to overtake them We can also imagine their frantic efforts to escape by striving to ascend the highest summits, arid, it may be, by uttering the most agonizing cries to Noah to open the ark and let them in.
But it was all in vain, for the waters rose, until every peak was covered, and all were overwhelmed in inevitable destruction.
The waters continued to rise and to prevail for about six months, when they were at their highest. Then God caused a wind to pass over this all-pervading ocean, which began to abate from that time, and the ark soon rested upon the mountains of Ararat. Three months and forty days later (or about nine months after the flood began) Noah sent out two birds,—first a raven, which never returned; then a dove, which returned because she found no rest for the sole of her foot. When the dove was sent out the second time, it returned with an olive leaf, so Noah knew that the waters were abated, and after waiting for about two months more, till the face of the ground was dry, he and all with him came forth at the command of God, having been in the ark for a little over a year.
Thus cleansed by the removal of all its wicked inhabitants, the world began another phase of ' its history with only eight persons on it, Noah and his wife, his three sons, and their wives.
The first thing Noah, as a righteous man of God did, was to build an altar unto the Lord, and to offer burnt-offerings thereon; with which the Lord was well pleased, and He entered into a covenant with him, and with all creation through him.
The two leading points of this interesting covenant are, that "while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:2222While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)), and that the earth should not again be destroyed by a flood of waters. "The waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth" (Gen. 9:15,1615And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. (Genesis 9:15‑16)). And this beautiful "bow in the cloud " ever continues to be the perpetual token of that gracious covenant.
Then during the dispensation that followed,—that is, from the Deluge to the call of Abraham, which lasted about four hundred and twenty-seven years,—we see that God began to deal in a general governmental way with the children of men, and that the chief feature of this period was, as briefly stated on the chart, " the public governmental dealings of God with the world."
After an account of the covenant with Noah, and of the posterity of his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, we have a description of the most prominent event of that period—namely, the erection of the Tower of Babel on the plain of Shinar, where the great city of Babylon was afterward built.
In this event we have another striking example of the pride, independence, and obstinate self-will of the human heart, which led the people of that day into direct disobedience of God's commands; for God's purpose from the first was that mankind should multiply and replenish the earth (Gen. 1:2828And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:28)), but these rebellious ones said, "Let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" (Gen. 11:44And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:4)). To accomplish this they set about building their high -tower and great city, when God, in His displeasure, came down, and, by confounding their language, scattered them all over the world. Here again, even after such a terrible judgment as the Deluge, we find an ungodly world drifting rapidly into the evil courses to which it is so prone.
In this noted rebellion we see the first attempt to establish an unholy confederacy in opposition to the ways and purposes of God, which became in that day, and also subsequently, the nucleus and hostile camp of the enemies of God,—the very center, too, of various systems of idolatry. Consequently this Babel, or Babylon, ever stands out prominently in Scripture as the type of all lawlessness and rebellion against God, which we, even in this day of full Gospel light, see growing more pronounced than ever, and, as we know from God's Word, will continue to grow, until it culminates in the abominations of the two beasts and the Babylon of the Apocalypse.