5. The Testimony of the Flood.
WHEN the world was young, God allowed man to follow his own way, and this course culminated in his entering into alliance with Satan. Then the earth became corrupt before God, and it was filled with violence. Whereupon God said, “The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” The unrestrained will of man inevitably issues in oppression and violence, and man, casting off the fear of God and His laws, falls into the arms of Satan, to become more corrupt than his own unaided imagination could render him. In our own day we have seen in Christendom how men, who have cast off the fear of God, can fill their land with violence. We have seen in Paris the masses rise up in the name of liberty to burn, to destroy, to slay; and in heathendom we see what corruption ensues when men place themselves under the influence of demons; thus we cannot be ignorant as to what the soil of the human heart is, and as to what man will do when left to himself or when associated with Satan.
As God looked down on men in those bygone days, He said, “Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” Then came the waters of divine judgment, “And all flesh died.... all that was in the dry land, died.” (Gen. 7:21,2221And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: 22All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. (Genesis 7:21‑22).)
Thus perished earth’s first population-swept away by divine judgment on account of man’s violence and the corruption wherewith Satan had corrupted the human race.
The testimony of the flood declares God’s judgment against sin, and therefore it is not acceptable to modern notions. Moreover, that past judgment witnesses to another that is coming, and this again is but an additional reason why the infidelity of our day should scorn its story. As we open the New Testament, we hear the Lord Jesus Christ saying, “As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matt. 24:37-3937But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:37‑39).) “They knew not”! But Noah had been preparing the ark for the saving of his house for more than a century. “They knew not,” though he had preached righteousness and consequently judgment. Ah! how deaf is the infidel heart of man to the preaching of righteousness―tell men that God is their universal Father, and that He will never condemn the sinner, or punish sin, and the preacher will be popular, but let him, Noah-like, be “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:55And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; (2 Peter 2:5)), and he will be called a narrow-minded unchristian character! “They knew not,” for they were “disobedient,” and would not know. No, “they knew not until the flood came,” until it was too late, until they were forced to believe, and so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man.
The old world went on undisturbed on its course all the “while the ark was a preparing,” using the time of “the long-suffering of God” but to eat and to drink in, to marry in, and to be given in marriage, to live as though this short sinful day was to last forever, and as though the construction of the ark and the lips of the preacher were alike vanity. And “so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
“Few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water” in Noah’s day, and the great mass of mankind will remain in ignorance of the coming of the Son of man until the heavens shall be opened and He shall come with clouds, and then “every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.” (Rev. 1:77Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7).), The flood testifies of divine judgment against sin, and of man’s disobedience added to his sin. Sinners we all are, but when the word of righteousness has reached us, we are personally responsible to God as to how we treat His message. The spirits of the disobedient of Noah’s day are now in prison awaiting the judgment that ensues after death, and surely so will it be with all who in this our day die rejecting God’s testimony concerning His judgment against sin executed on Calvary against His Son, who was then made sin for us.
“They knew not” may well be said of thousands in Christendom. “For this they willingly are ignorant of; that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” (2 Peter 3:5-75For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:5‑7).)
Noah, by his acts, “condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith” (Heb. 11:77By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. (Hebrews 11:7)). God’s people are now “looking for the... coming of the day of God”; they are looking for His own vindication of His righteousness by His mighty arm of judgment; but more, they are looking for the calm beyond the storm, for the abiding and unbroken blessing which He shall bring in; they are looking “for new heavens and’ a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (2 Peter 3:1313Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. (2 Peter 3:13).)
The testimony of the flood abides, written not merely on the face of this earth, but on thy eternal pages of God’s Book in both Testaments.