Bible Commentaries

Genesis 7:1

I. The first fact that strikes us in the story of the flood is this: that God, on account of the wickedness to which the world had grown, had made up His mind to sweep it away, once and for all.

II. Out of the seed of Noah God had determined to people the earth once more with a race that would not be so wicked as the one He destroyed.

III. Noah was told to go into the ark because his life was to be saved from the flood. God has provided another ark for us; He tells us to go into it and be saved.

IV. Noah's family was taken with him into the ark, showing the value God sets on family life.

V. God gave it as a reward to Noah for his righteousness that his children went with him into the ark. A holy and loving example preaches a sermon to those who watch it, and remains in the memory of the godless son and the godless daughter long after the parents have been laid in the grave.

Bishop Thorold, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 17.

References: Genesis 7:1.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year, vol. iii., p. 171; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 118; The Weekly Pulpit, vol. i. (1887), p. 84; Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 17. Genesis 7:1-7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1336. Genesis 7:1, etc.—J. dimming, Church Before the Flood, pp. 307, 333. Genesis 7:8, Genesis 7:9.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 26. Genesis 7:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1613; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 157; B. Isaac, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. x., p. 425. Genesis 7:19, Genesis 7:20.—Clergyman's Magazine, vol. vii., p. 240.

Gen. 6-7

A long period elapsed between the commencement of the building of the ark and the actual flood. During that period we notice: (1) the strength of Noah's faith. God has told him of a deluge of which there is no appearance; he has commanded him to build a strange vessel for no apparent purpose; he has told him that one hundred and twenty years of toil must elapse before the vessel can be of any use to him. And yet, in the face of all these difficulties, Noah forms and keeps his resolution to obey God. (2) Notice the reception which Noah's work and message probably met with. The first feeling excited would be one of derision and mirth, then would come wonder, then pity, then disappointment and disgust, and lastly, perhaps, a silent contempt.

I. The flood shows us: (1) how absolute is God's control over the natural world; (2) it illustrates the evils of sin and the light in which it appears to the eye of God; (3) it reminds us of another deluge, of which all unreconciled sinners stand in jeopardy. No dove wings its way across that deluge; no mountains lift their tops through its departing billows. From this deluge let us all flee. Christ's ark still waits for us; His door stands open, and His voice says, "Turn ye to your strongholds, ye prisoners of hope."

II. Consider the various purposes that were served by the deluge: (1) it swept away an effete and evil generation, which had become of no use, except to commit sin and thus deprave and weaken the general stock of humanity; (2) the flood was calculated to overawe mankind, and to suggest the idea that other such interpositions might be expected when they were required; (3) the flood furnished an opportunity to God of coming more nearly and closely to men; (4) the flood brought the human family nearer to the promised land of Canaan.

G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega, vol. i., p. 241.

References: Gen 6.—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 223. Gen 6 and Gen 7.—S. Leathes, Studies in Genesis, p. 65.