Here are the proof texts you have sent me from God’s Word, which refer to the Flood, Matt. 24:38, 3938For 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 24:38‑39); Luke 17:2727They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:27); 2 Peter 2:5, 65And 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; 6And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; (2 Peter 2:5‑6); to the Ark, 1 Peter 3:20, 2120Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: (1 Peter 3:20‑21); 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); and to the Rainbow, Isa. 54:99For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. (Isaiah 54:9); Ezek. 1:2828As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. (Ezekiel 1:28); Rev. 4:3; 10:13And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. (Revelation 4:3)
1And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: (Revelation 10:1).
Before God sent the flood of waters to destroy man, whom He had created, from the face of the earth, He beheld that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, Gen. 6:5-75And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. (Genesis 6:5‑7), and as Noah and his family left the ark “the Lord said in his heart, I will not curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is only evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing as I have done.” Gen. 8:2121And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. (Genesis 8:21). Alas! how soon did Noah’s saved family prove this by forgetting the God that had saved them. As they grew and multiplied, they consulted together to make themselves a name by building a great city; which should have a tower whose top (was to be) unto heaven, Gen. 11:1-91And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4And 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. 5And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1‑9), and not spread peacefully over the face of the earth, as God had bid them do. Gen. 9:1-71And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. 6Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. 7And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. (Genesis 9:1‑7).
As they would not trust in God, and peacefully go forth to replenish the earth, God scattered them by judgment, confounding their language, and compelling them to cease building their city which because of this was called Babel, confusion. In the next chapter, God comes forth in grace, as in the eleventh He had acted in judgment. All the world had given God up, not liking to retain Him in their knowledge, for when they knew God they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Rom. 1:21-2521Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 1:21‑25). But if man had given God up, God would not give up man, and in grace He calls one of these idolaters to know Him as the God of glory, Acts 7:22And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, (Acts 7:2); and in doing so God calls him to leave his country, and his kindred, and his father’s house, to go forth into a land which God promised to show him. And Abraham obeyed God’s voice, and left his country as a pilgrim on his way to this unknown land.
Now mark, my dear children, that in God calling Abraham out of an idolatrous world in order to bless him, He was condemning the world as an evil place, which He could no longer acknowledge.
Abraham was the first of God’s saints that was called out of his country to go to another place. The world had given God up, and therefore God must separate His own from the world. At first Abraham moved to Haran with his father and his nephew, and they settled there, but God had called Abraham not only to leave his country, but also his kindred, and his father’s house, and so when his father Terah died, God removed Abraham from Haran to the land of Promise, to which He had called him at the first. Acts 7:3, 43And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. 4Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. (Acts 7:3‑4). Abraham now fully obeyed the call of God, and had left his father’s house as well as his country, and his kindred. God calls sinners by His Spirit now, out of a world not only ungodly, but also guilty of the death of His Son, and awaiting the day of wrath, when God will send Jesus in flaming fire to destroy His foes.
The world is a worse place now God ward than in the days of its early idolatry. Satan is its prince and its god and God in His infinite grace is calling sinners out of it, to a greater blessing in a better land than Abraham’s. He calls sinners now to heaven as their inheritance, where He blesses them with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Eph. 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3).
And if my reader is one whom God has called thus with a heavenly calling, may he or she be true to that call, and not stop on the way at any Haran to pleas flesh and blood, or God will have to re move that which detains you from following Him with a whole heart. When Abraham goes forth again, he does not stop by the way. “They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came.” Gen. 12:55And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. (Genesis 12:5). This was the true pilgrim spirit. This is what one longs for oneself, and for all who are God’s pilgrims now. Canaan was the land where God promised to bless Abraham, and nowhere short of it would be obedience to God’s gracious call. Are you, my Christian reader, however young you may be, blest anywhere this side of your Canaan? Christ is in heaven, and your home and inheritance and all your blessings are there, and there God’s Spirit would conduct your heart and spirit. As one of the early martyrs sweetly said, when about to be thrown to the wild beasts, his heart with all its treasure, was in heaven, and he longed to be himself where his heart had been so long.
But the pilgrim’s path is one of faith throughout, and when Abraham reached Canaan and had pitched his tent, and built his altar there, God allowed a famine to try his confidence. And without waiting for God’s word, Abraham and his family left God’s land and sojourned, in Egypt, to escape the famine. Directly; we get off the ground of faith in God’s word, and dependence on Himself, our strength is gone. Abraham ceased to be the happy worshipper directly he left God’s land for Egypt. He found bread there, but not bread for his soul. He had lost the sweet assurance that God was with him, and he was afraid lest the ungodly Egyptians should kill him and take Sarah from him, so they agreed, not to return to Canaan and trust the living God, but to tell a lie and say they were brother and sister, that they might live, safely in Egypt. Many a Christian has fallen into the same snare, and in order to live in peace with God’s enemies, he has denied his calling and his hope. But this lie brought Abraham into the very trouble he sought to avoid. The king of Egypt hearing that Sarah was Abraham’s sister, and admiring her beauty, took her from Abraham, and had not God come in in mercy and delivered Abraham and Sarah from Pharaoh and Egypt altogether, Abraham would have lost the blessing God called him to Canaan to bestow.
God had not changed in His love and grace to Abraham, and directly restoring mercy brings Abraham back, he returns to his true life as God’s pilgrim and worshipper. Oh, what a mercy, when a young believer really hears that word, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy word.” Psa. 119:99BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. (Psalm 119:9). We never should go wrong if, whatever the trouble was, we trusted God, and waited to know His word, before we took another step. If Abraham had asked God what to do in the grievous famine, he would never have gone to Egypt to escape it. We remember what the blessed Lord said, when He hungered in the desert, and Satan tempted Him to command the stones to be made bread: “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Your affectionate friend,
UNCLE R.