Genesis 6:1-22

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