Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch. This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels. I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die. But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive. Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.” Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.
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Genesis 6:14-22 sits inside this longer paragraph.
God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth. Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch. This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels. I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die. But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive. Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.” Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.
Parallel Translations
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Make a ship of gopher wood. You shall make rooms in the ship, and shall seal it inside and outside with pitch.
This is how you shall make it. The length of the ship shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
You shall make a roof in the ship, and you shall finish it to a cubit upward. You shall set the door of the ship in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third levels.
I, even I, will bring the flood of waters on this earth, to destroy all flesh having the breath of life from under the sky. Everything that is in the earth will die.
But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ship, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.
Take with you some of all food that is eaten, and gather it to yourself; and it will be for food for you, and for them.”
Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him.
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Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Show all 3 translations
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Make thee an ark of gopher wood; with rooms shalt thou make the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is how thou shalt make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
A light shalt thou make to the ark, and to a cubit shalt thou finish it upward; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
And I, behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; every thing that is in the earth shall perish.
But I will establish My covenant with thee; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
Of the fowl after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.'
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
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Cross-references (93)
- Exodus 40:16 (v22) Moses did so. According to all that Yahweh commanded him, so he did.
- John 15:14 (v22) You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you.
- 2 Peter 2:5 (vv17–18) and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world…
- Genesis 7:4 (v17) In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made…
- John 2:5 (v22) His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”
Show all 87 cross-references
- Genesis 7:5 (v22) Noah did everything that Yahweh commanded him.
- Genesis 7:21-23 (v17) All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.…
- Matthew 7:24-27 (v22) “Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. The rain…
- Hebrews 11:7-8 (v22) By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which…
- Hebrews 11:7 (vv17–18) By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which…
- Deuteronomy 12:32 (v22) Whatever thing I command you, that you shall observe to do. You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.
- 1 Peter 3:20 (vv14, 17, 18) who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight…
- Genesis 7:7 (v18) Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters.
- Psalms 107:34 (v17) and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
- Genesis 7:16 (vv16, 22) Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in.
- Luke 17:27 (vv14, 17) They ate, they drank, they married, and they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came and…
- Genesis 7:13 (v18) In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into…
- Genesis 17:7 (v18) I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to…
- Psalms 29:10 (v17) Yahweh sat enthroned at the Flood. Yes, Yahweh sits as King forever.
- Amos 9:6 (v17) It is he who builds his rooms in the heavens, and has founded his vault on the earth; he who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours…
- Genesis 7:9 (v22) went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah.
- Exodus 40:23 (v22) He set the bread in order on it before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Isaiah 26:20 (v18) Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
- Matthew 24:38 (v14) For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah…
- 1 John 5:3-4 (v22) For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.…
- Genesis 1:29-30 (v21) God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit…
- Genesis 2:19 (v20) Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would…
- Genesis 6:7 (v17) Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of…
- Genesis 6:13 (v17) God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and…
- Genesis 7:1 (v18) Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
- Genesis 7:8-9 (v19) Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as…
- Genesis 7:15-16 (v19) Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah. Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh,…
- Genesis 7:20 (v15) The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.
- Genesis 8:6 (v16) At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made,
- Genesis 9:9-16 (v18) “As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you:…
- Genesis 17:23 (v22) Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money: every male among the men of Abraham’s…
- Exodus 2:3 (v14) When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and…
- Exodus 14:17 (v17) Behold, I myself will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will go in after them. I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over…
- Exodus 40:25 (v22) He lit the lamps before Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Exodus 40:27 (v22) and he burned incense of sweet spices on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Leviticus 26:28 (v17) then I will walk contrary to you in wrath. I will also chastise you seven times for your sins.
- Deuteronomy 3:11 (v15) (For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Isn’t it in Rabbah of the…
- Deuteronomy 32:39 (v17) “See now that I myself am he. There is no god with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is no one who can deliver out of…
- Job 22:16 (v17) who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream,
- Psalms 93:3-4 (v17) The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. Above the voices of many waters,…
- Psalms 136:25 (v21) who gives food to every creature; for his loving kindness endures forever.
- Psalms 145:16 (v21) You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
- Isaiah 51:12 (v17) “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass?
- Isaiah 54:9 (v17) “For this is like the waters of Noah to me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth, so I have sworn…
- Ezekiel 5:8 (v17) therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.
- Ezekiel 6:3 (v17) and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the…
- Ezekiel 34:11 (v17) “ ‘For the Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
- Ezekiel 34:20 (v17) “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says to them: ‘Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.
- Ezekiel 41:16 (v16) the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries around on their three stories, opposite the threshold, with wood ceilings all…
- Hosea 5:14 (v17) For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear in pieces and go away. I will carry…
- Acts 10:11-12 (v20) He saw heaven opened and a certain container descending to him, like a great sheet let down by four corners on the earth, in which were all…
- Romans 5:21 (v17) that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Romans 6:23 (v17) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Genesis 1:20-24 (v20) God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” God created the…
- Genesis 2:7 (v17) Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- Genesis 7:2-3 (v19) You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male…
- Genesis 7:8-16 (v20) Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as…
- Genesis 7:15 (v17) Pairs from all flesh with the breath of life in them went into the ship to Noah.
- Genesis 7:17 (v17) The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth.
- Genesis 8:17 (v19) Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on…
- Genesis 9:9 (v17) “As for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you,
- Genesis 17:4 (v18) “As for me, behold, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of a multitude of nations.
- Genesis 17:21 (v18) But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year.”
- Exodus 40:19 (v22) He spread the covering over the tent, and put the roof of the tabernacle above on it, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Exodus 40:21 (v22) He brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the covenant, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Exodus 40:32 (v22) When they went into the Tent of Meeting, and when they came near to the altar, they washed, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- 2 Samuel 6:16 (v16) As Yahweh’s ark came into David’s city, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out through the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing…
- 2 Kings 9:30 (v16) When Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out at the window.
- Job 38:41 (v21) Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?
- Job 40:20 (v21) Surely the mountains produce food for him, where all the animals of the field play.
- Psalms 35:6 (v21) Let their way be dark and slippery, Yahweh’s angel pursuing them.
- Psalms 36:6 (v19) Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep. Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.
- Psalms 104:27-28 (v21) These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are…
- Psalms 147:9 (v21) He provides food for the livestock, and for the young ravens when they call.
- Ezekiel 42:3 (v16) Opposite the twenty cubits which belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement which belonged to the outer court, was gallery…
- Matthew 6:26 (v21) See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of…
- Matthew 24:39 (v17) and they didn’t know until the flood came, and took them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
- Luke 13:25 (v16) When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying,…
- John 5:40 (v20) Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.
- Romans 5:12-14 (v17) Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned. For until…
- Romans 8:20-22 (v17) For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also…
- Genesis 1:28 (v20) God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the…
87 distinct cross-references across this passage (93 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv14, 18, 19, 22 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Here…
14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Here follows the command to build the ark, in which God wonderfully proved the faith and obedience of his servant. Concerning its structure, there is no reason why we should anxiously inquire, except so far as our own edification is concerned. First, the Jews are not agreed among themselves respecting the kind of wood of which it was made. Some explain the word gopher to be the cedar; others, the fir-tree; others, the pine. They differ also respecting the stories; because many think that the sink was in the fourth place, which might receive the refuse and other impurities. Others make five chambers in a triple floor, of which they assign the highest to the birds. There are those who suppose that it was only three stories in height; but that these were separated by intermediate divisions. Besides, they do not agree about the window: to some it appears that there was not one window only, but many. Some say they were open to receive air; but others contend that they were only made for the sake of light, and therefore were covered over with crystal, and lined with pitch. To me it seems more probable, that there was only one, not cut out for the sake of giving light; but to remain shut, unless occasion required it to be opened, as we shall see afterwards. Further, that there was a triple story, and rooms separated in a manner to us unknown. The question respecting its magnitude is more difficult. For, formerly, certain profane men ridiculed Moses, as having imagined that so vast a multitude of animals was shut up in so small a space; a third part of which would scarcely contain four elephants. Origin solves this question, by saying that a geometrical cubit was referred to by Moses, which is six times greater than the common one; to whose opinion Augustine assents in his fifteenth book on the ‘City of God,’ and his first book of ‘Questions on Genesis.’ I grant what they allege, that Moses, who had been educated in all the science of the Egyptians, was not ignorant of geometry; but since we know that Moses everywhere spoke in a homely style, to suit the capacity of the people, and that he purposely abstained from acute disputations, which might savor of the schools and of deeper learning; I can by no means persuade myself, that, in this place, contrary to his ordinary method, he employed geometrical subtlety. Certainly, in the first chapter, he did not treat scientifically of the stars, as a philosopher would do; but he called them, in a popular manner, according to their appearance to the uneducated, rather than according to truth, “two great lights.” Thus we may everywhere perceive that he designates things, of every kind by their accustomed names. But what was then the measure of the cubit I know not; it is, however, enough for me, that God (whom, without controversy, I acknowledge to be the chief builder of the ark) well knew what things the place which he described to his servant was capable of holding. If you exclude the extraordinary power of God from this history, you declare that mere fables are related. But, by us, who confess that the remains of the world were preserved by an incredible miracle, it ought not to be regarded as an absurdity, that many wonderful things are here related, in order that hence the secret and incomprehensible power of God, which far surpasses all our senses, may be the more clearly exhibited. Porphyry or some other caviller, may object, that this is fabulous, because the reason of it does not appear; or because it is unusual; or because it is repugnant to the common order of nature. But I make the rejoinder; that this entire narration of Moses, unless it were replete with miracles would be colds and trifling, and ridiculous. He, however, who will reflect aright upon the profound abyss of Divine omnipotence in this history, will rather sink in reverential awe, than indulge in profane mockery. I purposely pass over the allegorical application which Augustine makes of the figure of the ark to the body of Christ, both in his fifteenth book of ‘The City of God,’ and his twelfth book against Faustus; because I find there scarcely anything solid. Origin still more boldly sports with allegories: but there is nothing more profitable, than to adhere strictly to the natural treatment of things. That the ark was an image of the Church is certain, from the testimony of Peter, (1 Peter 3:21;) but to accommodate its several parts to the Church, is by no means suitable, as I shall again show, in its proper place.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 18, 22 Hebrew, Gopher.
Hebrew, Gopher.
Hebrew, nests.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22 Gen 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood;…
Gen 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
Ver. 14. Make thee an ark.] Or chest, or coffin. And indeed by the description here set down, the ark, in shape, was like to a coffin for a man’s body, six times so long as it was broad, and ten times so long as it was high: and so fit to figure out, saith an interpreter, {a} Christ’s death and burial, and ours with him, by mortification of the old man: as the apostle applies this type to baptism, {1Pe 3:20-21} whereby we are become "dead" and "buried with Christ". {Rom 6:3-4; Rom 6:6} The poets’ ship, "Argos," may have reference to this ark.
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{a} Mr Ainsworth.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv14–22 An ark; a little ship made in the form…
An ark; a little ship made in the form of an ark or chest, but probably sloping at the bottom for the convenience of navigation, as it was for another reason sloping at the top.
Gopher wood: this word is but once used in Scripture, and therefore it is diversely rendered by the learned; by some pine, by many cedar, but by others cypress, a tree very proper and usual for ships, and of a firm and durable substance, and much abounding in those parts; all which appears from ancient authors.
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With pitch; or rather, with some kind of bitumen, of the same nature and use with pitch, to cement the parts of the ark together, and to preserve it from the injuries of the sun, and water, and worms; but more odoriferous, to correct the unpleasant scent of some of the creatures.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v22 Noah's care and diligence in building the ark may…
Noah's care and diligence in building the ark may be considered, 1. As an effect of his faith in the word of God. God had told him he would shortly drown the world; he believed it, feared the threatened deluge, and, in that fear, prepared the ark. Note, We ought to mix faith with the revelation God has made of his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; the threatenings of the word are not false alarms. Much might have been objected against the credibility of this warning given to Noah. "Who could believe that the wise God, who made the world, should so soon unmake it again, that he who had drawn the waters off the dry land (Gen 1:9, Gen 1:10) should cause them to cover it again? How would this be reconciled with the mercy of God, which is over all his works, especially that the innocent creatures should die for man's sin? Whence could water be had sufficient to deluge the world? And, if it must be so, why should notice be given of it to Noah only?" But Noah's faith triumphed over all these corrupt reasonings. 2. As an act of obedience to the command of God. Had he consulted with flesh and blood, many objections would have been raised against it. To rear a building, such a one as he never saw, so large, and of such exact dimensions, would put him upon a great deal of care, and labour, and expense. It would be a work of time; the vision was for a great while to come. His neighbours would ridicule him for his credulity, and he would be the song of the drunkards; his building would be called Noah's folly. If the worst came to the worst, as we say, each would fare as well as his neighbours. But these, and a thousand such objections, Noah by faith got over. His obedience was ready and resolute: Thus did Noah, willingly and cheerfully, without murmuring and disputing. God says, Do this, and he does it. It was also punctual and persevering: he did all exactly according to the instructions given him, and, having begun to build, did not leave off till he had finished it; so did he, and so must we do. 3. As an instance of wisdom for himself, thus to provide for his own safety. he feared the deluge, and therefore prepared the ark. Note, When God gives warning of approaching judgments, it is our wisdom and duty to provide accordingly. See Exo 9:20, Exo 9:21; Eze 3:18. We must prepare to meet the Lord in his judgments on earth, flee to his name as a strong tower (Pro 18:10), enter into our chambers (Isa 26:20, Isa 26:21), especially prepare to meet him at death and in the judgment of the great day, build upon Christ the Rock (Mat 7:24), go into Christ the Ark. 4. As intended for warning to a careless world; and it was fair warning of the deluge coming. Every blow of his axes and hammers was a call to repentance, a call to them to prepare arks too. But, since by it he could not convince the world, by it he condemned the world, Heb 11:7.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–20 A window shalt thou make to the ark,.... Or…
A window shalt thou make to the ark,.... Or a "light", such as is that at noon, for which the word in the dual number is used; and therefore Junius and Tremellius translate it a "clear light". The Jewish writers (s) will have it to be a precious stone, a pearl which Noah fetched from the river Pison, and hung up in the ark, and it gave light to all the creatures, like a large chandelier; but a window no doubt it was to let light into the several apartments, and to look out at on occasion, since Noah is afterwards said to open it; but what it was made of is difficult to say, since it does not appear that as yet glass was invented. Some think it was made of crystal, which would let in light, and keep off the water. A very learned (t) man is of opinion, that Noah understanding chemistry, prepared a fine subtle fragrant spirit, of an oily nature and luminous, which he put into vessels made of crystal or glass, and hung them up in every room in the ark, and which was both illuminating and refreshing; and this he thinks is what is meant by the "Zohar", or "light", which we translate a "window"; but this is afterward said to be opened by Noah, to send forth the raven and the dove, which will not agree with such a vessel of spirituous liquor:
and in a cubit shall thou finish it above; not the window, as some think, which they place at top of the ark, and suppose to be a cubit in length, but the ark itself, which was finished with a roof raised up a cubit high in the middle:
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and the door of the ark shall thou set in the side thereof; on which it is not said; an Arabic writer (u) places it on the east side of it, on which side he supposes Noah and his sons dwelt, and on the west side his wife and his sons' wives. How large this door was is not said; it is reasonably supposed (w) to be ten cubits high and eight broad, that there might be room enough for an elephant to enter in by it; and it seems it was so large, that Noah, and those with him, could not shut it, but it was done by the Lord, Gen 7:16.
with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it: the above Arabic writer (x) makes the lower story to be for the beasts, the second for the birds, and the third for Noah and his children; and with him agrees a Jewish writer (y): but as by this distribution no place is left for provisions, they seem most correct who place the beasts in the lower story, and the birds with Noah and his family in the uppermost, and the provisions for all in the middle. This ark was a type of the church of God. As to the form and pattern of it, it was of God, so the separation of men from the world in a church state is of God; it is by his appointment, and it is his will, that when any numbers of men are converted in a place, that they should be incorporated together in a church state, the form of which is given by him, its officers appointed, and the laws and ordinances of it fixed by him: and as to the matter of it, "Gopher wood", a lasting and incorruptible wood, denoting the duration of the church; God ever had, and ever will have a church in the world: as to the parts of it, and rooms in it, the rooms may point at particular churches, of which there have been many; or may signify, that there is always room enough in the church of God to receive saints. The ark had three stories in it, as the tabernacle and temple had three divisions, which were types of the same also; and may have respect to the visible church, consisting of believers and unbelievers, the invisible church, or general assembly of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, and the church triumphant. The door into the ark may signify Christ, who, and faith in him, may be said to be the door into the church, and to all the ordinances of it: the window may either typify the glorious light of the Gospel, held forth in the church, or the ordinances of it, to which sensible souls betake themselves, as doves to their windows, Isa 60:8. Into this ark not only Noah and his family, but creatures of all sorts were admitted, as sinners of all sorts called by grace, and become peaceable, are received into the church of God; yea, even good and bad have a place here, though the latter under the notion and character of the former, but are hypocrites in Zion: here also were plenty of provisions for all in it, as there are in the church of God fulness of spiritual provisions for all the people of God. The ark was of the use of a ship, and was the means of saving a few men, even Noah and his family; so the church of God has the nature and use of a ship, of which Christ is the pilot, and conducts it through the sea of this world, in which it is often tossed with tempests, and distressed; but at last brought to its haven, in which a few are saved, not as the cause, which alone is Christ, but as the means. The Apostle Peter makes baptism its antitype, Pe1 3:21 which is God's ordinance, and not man's, of his appointing; as to the form and manner of it, is the object of the world's scorn, when rightly administered, as Noah's ark was; represents a burial, as that did when Noah entered into it; and was an emblem of Christ's resurrection and ours, when he came out of it: it was a type of baptism in its salutary effect, it saves by water, as that does by leading to the resurrection of Christ; it saves not as a cause, but as a means of directing to Christ, the author of salvation; and saves not all in the water, only those that are in the ark, that is, truly and rightly in the church, and real members of it, or that are in Christ; and so many make the ark also a type of Christ.
(s) Targum Jonathan in loc. Pirke Eliezer, c. 23. (t) Dickinson. Physic. vet & vera, c. 20. p. 324, 325. (u) Patricides, apud Hottinger. p. 248, 250. (w) Scbeuchzer. Physica Sacra, vol. 1. p. 40. (x) Patricides, apud Hottinger. p. 248, 250. (y) Pirke Eliezer, c. 23.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14, 17, 18 I will destroy them with the earth, but make…
I will destroy them with the earth, but make thee an ark - I will take care to preserve thee alive. This ark was like the hulk of a ship, fitted not to sail upon the waters, but to float waiting for their fall. God could have secured Noah, by the ministration of angels without putting him to any care or pains, but he chose to employ him in making that which was to be the means of his preservation, both for the trial of his faith and obedience, and to teach us that none shall be saved by Christ, but those only that work out their salvation; we cannot do it without God, and he will not without us: both the providence of God and the grace of God crown the endeavours of the obedient and diligent. God gave him particular instructions concerning this building.
1. It must be made of Gopher-wood; Noah, doubtless, knew what sort of wood that was, though now we do not.
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2. He must make it three stories high within: and,
3. He must divide it into cabins with partitions, places fitted for the several sorts of creatures, so as to lose no room.
4. Exact dimensions are given him, that he might make it proportionable, and might have room enough in it to answer the intention, and no more.
5. He must pitch it within and without: without, to shed off the rain, and to prevent the water from soaking in; within, to take away the ill smell of the beasts when kept close.
6. He must make a little window towards the top to let in light.
7. He must make a door in the side of it by which to go in and out.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 Verse 14. Make thee an ark] תבת tebath, a…
Verse 14. Make thee an ark] תבת tebath, a word which is used only to express this vessel, and that in which Moses was preserved, Ex 2:3; Ex 2:5. It signifies no more than our word vessel in its common acceptation - a hollow place capable of containing persons, goods, c., without any particular reference to shape or form.
Gopher wood] Some think the cedar is meant others, the cypress. Bochart renders this probable,
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1. From the appellation, supposing the Greek word κυπαρισσος, cypress, was formed from the Hebrew גפר, gopher; for take away the termination ισσος, and then gopher and κυπαρ will have a near resemblance.
2. Because the cypress is not liable to rot, nor to be injured by worms.
3. The cypress was anciently used for ship-building.
4. This wood abounded in Assyria, where it is probable Noah built the ark. After all, the word is of doubtful signification, and occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures.
The Septuagint render the place, εκ ξυλων τετπαγωνων, "of square timber;" and the Vulgate, de lignis laevigatis, "of planed timber;" so it is evident that these translators knew not what kind of wood was intended by the original. The Syriac and Arabic trifle with the passage, rendering it wicker work, as if the ark had been a great basket! Both the Targums render it cedar; and the Persian, pine or fir.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv17, 22 Gen 6:17-18. Behold, I, even I, do bring a…
Gen 6:17-18. Behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth — I, who am infinite in power and therefore can do it; infinite in justice, and therefore will do it. But with thee will I establish my covenant — 1st, The covenant of providence, that the course of nature should be continued to the end of time, notwithstanding the interruption which the flood would give to it: this promise was immediately made to Noah and his sons, Gen 9:8, &c.; they were as trustees for all this part of the creation, and a great honour was thereby put upon them. 2d, The covenant of grace, that God would be to him a God, and that out of his seed God would take to himself a people.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 18, 19 Timber planks. Hebrew, "gopher wood," which is no where…
Timber planks. Hebrew, "gopher wood," which is no where else mentioned in Scripture. It was probably a sort of wood full of rosin, and being besmeared with something like our pitch, was capable of resisting the fury of the ensuing tremendous storm, for a length of time. (Calmet; Haydock) --- Rooms to separate the birds, various animals, provisions, &c. --- Pitch, literally: "besmear it with bitumen," which has a very strong smell, able to counteract the disagreeable odours arising from beasts confined. (Menochius) --- It might be mixed with some other ingredients, naphtha, pitch, &c. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22 Make thee an ark--ark, a hollow chest (Exo 2:3).
Make thee an ark--ark, a hollow chest (Exo 2:3).
gopher wood--probably cypress, remarkable for its durability and abounding on the Armenian mountains.
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rooms--cabins or small cells.
pitch it within and without--mineral pitch, asphalt, naphtha, or some bituminous substance, which, when smeared over and become hardened, would make it perfectly watertight.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 14. Make thee an ark — תבה, a word…
14. Make thee an ark — תבה, a word applied only to the structure built by Noah and to the little papyrus vessel made by the mother of Moses, (Exo_2:3,) and like this, “daubed with slime and with pitch,” to make it water-tight, in which she put her child, (afterwards the Noah of Israel,) and laid it in the flags of the Nile. It was a chest, or oblong box, and in no sense a ship. It was flat-bottomed, not boat-shaped, as often pictured, was without spars or sails, oars or rudder, built simply for floating and carrying a precious freight, not for sailing.
Gopher wood — Or pitch wood; a general name for resinous timber, and especially cypress, which the Phenicians used for ship-building on account of its lightness and durability.
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Rooms — Literally, nests; little compartments arranged for the accommodation of Noah’s family and of the various animals which were to dwell for a year in the ark, as well as for the provisions that were to sustain their lives through this long period.
Pitch — Hebrews כפר, kopher, cognate with gopher. Mineral pitch or asphalt; an opaque, inflammable, very tenacious substance, used, according to Josephus and Strabo, for mortar and for the calking of ships, (Gen_11:3, where it is called slime,) and, according to Wilkinson, used by the Egyptians to make their papyrus boats water-tight.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv14–22 14. an ark] The word here used, têbâh, is…
14. an ark] The word here used, têbâh, is only found in this passage and in Exo_2:3-5. It is of foreign origin; according to some, an Egyptian word; according to others, derived from the Assyrian. LXX κιβωτός, Lat. arca, which our translators adopted and transliterated. The “ark” of the Covenant (e.g. Exo_25:10) is another Heb. word, ’arôn, but unfortunately rendered also by LXX κιβωτός, Lat. arca.
gopher wood] A word only used here. “Gopher” is said to be a resinous coniferous tree, possibly the “cypress” (cuparissus), to which word it may be akin.
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The versions, not realizing that it was a botanical description, made wild guesses at the meaning. Thus LXX ἐκ ξύλων τετραγώνων = “of squared beams”: so, Vet. Lat. ligna quadrata, Vulg. ligna laevigata.
rooms] The meaning is obvious. The interior of the ark was to consist of cabins, or cubicles. The sentence would be rendered literally, “nests shalt thou make the ark.” Vulg. mansiunculas.
pitch] Heb. kopher, a word only found here in the Bible, and its resemblance in pronunciation to “gopher” (see above), is, to say the least, strange. The Assyrian word for bitumen is kupru, and that word is used in the Babylonian account, in which the hero of the Flood is made to say, “Six sars of bitumen (kupru) I spread over it for caulking.” The word suggests (1) that there is some connexion of the Hebrew story with the Babylonian version, (2) that the region was the Euphrates Valley in which bitumen was freely obtainable. The word in Exo_2:3 is not kopher, but khêmar, which is also found in Gen_11:3; Gen_14:10.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv14–19 (14) Make thee an ark.—Têbâh, a word so archaic…
(14) Make thee an ark.—Têbâh, a word so archaic that scholars neither know its derivation, nor even to what language it belongs. It is certain, however, that it was an oblong box, not capable of sailing, but intended merely to float. In the Chaldean account of the deluge, the language everywhere is that of a maritime people: the history in Genesis is as plainly the work of a people living inland.
Of gopher wood.—Heb., trees (or beams) of gopher This is also a word which occurs nowhere else, but means the cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), a tall, upright evergreen tree, of great durability, and anciently much valued for shipbuilding.
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Rooms.—Literally, nests, small cells or cabins, arranged in three tiers, so that the interlacing of the timbers might aid in holding the whole structure together.
Pitch.—That is, natural bitumen. The ark therefore must have been built in some country where this natural product is easily obtainable, as in Assyria.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22 Make thee an ark. tbTe, constr. of hb; Te,…
Make thee an ark. tbTe, constr. of hb; Te, etymology unknown (Gesenius); of Shemitic origin, from hbT to be hollow (Furst); of Egyptian derivation, a boat being called tept (Keil, Kalisch, Knobel); from the Sanskrit pota, a pot or boat (Bohlen); "a peculiar archaic term for a very unusual thing, like lWBm, the term for the Flood itself" (T. Lewis); translated kibwtov qibh (LXX), area (Vulgate), larnax (Nicolas Damaseenus), ploion (Berosus); not a ship in the ordinary acceptation of the word, but a box or chest (cf. Exo_2:3) capable of floating on the waters. "Similar vessels, generally, however, drawn by horses or men, were and are still used in some parts of Europe and Asia" (Kalisch). Of gopher wood. Literally, woods of gopher (rpgO: apax leg.., the root of which, like rpk, seams to signify to cover (Kalisch); ligna bituminata (Vulgate); pitch trees, resinous trees, such as are used in ship-building (Gesenius); most likely cypress, kuparissov (Bochart, Celsius, Keil), which was used "in some parts of Asia exclusively as the material for ships, in Athens for coffins, and in Egypt for mummy cases" (Kaliseh). "It is said too that the gates of St. Peter"s Church at Rome (made of this wood), which lasted from the time of Constantine to that of Eugene IV, 1. a 1100 years, had in that period suffered no decay" (Bush). Roomskinnim, nests, applied metaphorically to the chambers of the arkshalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Rp,koB T; rpk; w: literally, shalt cover it with a covering. The substance to be employed was probably bitumen or asphalt (asfaltov, LXX; bitumen, Vulgate). The root (cf. English, cover) signifies also to pardon sin, i.e. to cover them from God"s sight (Psa_65:3 Psa_78:38; 2Ch_30:18) and to make expiation for sin, i.e. to obtain covering for them (Gen_32:20; Dan_9:24) whence gopher is used for a ransom, (Exo_21:30 Exo_30:12) and cap-poreth, the covering of the ark, (Exo_25:17) for the mercy-seat (iJlasthrion, LXX; propitiatorium, Vulgate).
HOMILIES BY J.F. MONTGOMERY Ver. 14.
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The way of safety.
Prediction of deluge and way of escape were alike trials of faith; beyond reach of foresight; rejected or neglected by the world. Key to the typical meaning, 1Pe_3:20, 1Pe_3:21. Baptism the initial seal of the Christian covenant. Text therefore sets forth salvation through Christ.
I "Make thee an ark." Why? BECAUSE SENTENCE OF DEATH RESTS UPON ALL MEN. (Rom_5:12) As in the destruction of first-born. (Exo_11:5) No exceptions. Covenant people saved only by the blood; so here (cf. Job_9:30) Men, even now, are slow to believe this. Maxims of society contradict it. From childhood trained to live as if no danger, as if many things more important than salvation. And when preacher proclaims, (Act_2:40) men listen and approve and go on as before. Yet this is the first step towards salvation, the first work of the Holy Spirit to convince careless (Mat_16:26) and well-living people that they cannot save themselves. Until this is done Christ has no attractiveness. (Isa_53:2) Who would shut himself up in the ark if nodeluge coming? Who would trust it if another way would afford safety?
II "Make thee an ark." IT IS GOD"S APPOINTED WAY OF SAFETY. "The Lord hath made known his salvation." As surely as the deluge is according to his word, so surely is the way of deliverance. (Rom_5:20) But mark the way. Can you trust that which seems so frail? At the root of sin lies unbelief of God"s truth. This caused the fall. God says, Will you trust me? One will say, I live a good life; is not that the main thing? (1Co_3:11) Another, I pray that God would love me, and be reconciled to me. Does he not love thee?. (Tit_3:4) Is he not longing for thee? (Isa_1:18) And is not this unbelief of what Godsays? Thou needest indeed to pray that the Holy Spirit should open thine eyes to what God has done. But that thy prayer may be answered there must be the will to be taught. (Psa_85:8)
III "Make thee an ark." THE TEST OF FAITH. There is a faith which does nothing, which merely- accepts a doctrine. Such was not that of Noah. His life"s work was to act on what he believed. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ, the personal, living, loving Savior; not merely the doctrine that he died and rose again. "Make thee an ark" is more than knowledge that he is the Deliverer. It is taking refuge in him, and walking in his steps. M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv14, 17, 18, 22 Make thee an ark of gopher wood
Gen_6:14
Make thee an ark of gopher wood
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Noah and the ark
Sometimes God seems to create a colossal figure in the moral world for after ages to gaze at and pattern by, as the sculptor chisels a statue of heroic size for some high niche in temple or civic hall, that those below may be inspired by its beauty and its grand proportions.
Or, as God Himself has sculptured the Old Man of the Mountain on the naked cliff, high up in the air, for the traveller far down in the notch to gaze at, so he sometimes creates a man, sublime in his moral proportions, for all the ages to study--a character not for a generation, but for all the centuries. Yet, if we carefully study such a character, we shall find that, though the dimensions are heroic, they are not out of proportion. Each feature is true to common life, just as the Guardian of the Notch is no grotesque caricature of a man, but a faithful image. Such a colossal figure of the ages is Noah. And yet, as we carefully study this Scripture likeness, we shall find that his leading traits of character are common traits and imitable traits.
1. In the first place, we find that he was moved to the great work of his life--the building of the ark, at the command of God--by the same motivethat leads many men to turn to God today. He was moved by fear, says the apostle. There was nothing derogatory in this either to the power of Gods love or the human heart. If the storm is coming, it is the part of wisdom, not of cowardly fear, to prepare for it.
2. In the second place, if Noah was moved, aroused by fear, he was actuated by a sublime faith. When he began to build the ark the flood was one hundred and twenty years in the future. How dim and distant is any event removed from us by the space of six-score years!
3. Again, we are impressed with the fact that Noahs difficulties and obstacles must have been very much the same in essence as those of the modern Christian. He was in the minority, as the Christian is today, only it was a far more hopeless and overwhelming minority. He was engaged in a most unpopular cause. The earnest Christian does not find that his best work obtains the plaudits of the world. Noah was not, so far as we know, openly persecuted and hindered in his work any more than is the Christian of the nineteenth century; but doubtless all the artillery of sarcasm and ridicule was trained upon him, just as the modern Christian, when he conscientiously does anything out of the ordinary course, anything that attracts attention, the utility of which the world does not understand, finds that the same weapons are in use today. And yet we do not know that the work was interrupted, or that its completion was delayed a week by the fun and raillery which were doubtless heaped upon the project.
4. Another imitable trait in the character of this grand antediluvian was his obedience, strict and implicit. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Witness his ready obedience and minute performance of every command of God in the slow construction of the ark. Obedience was the same thing five thousand years ago that it is today. (F. E. Clark.)
The divinely achieved safety of the good, and its connection with the life-giving agencies of the material universe
I. THAT GOD IS NEVER AT A LOSS FOR A METHOD WHEREBY TO ACHIEVE THE SAFETY OF THE GOOD (Gen_6:14).
1. We find that the good are often in imminent peril.
2. We find that the good are often in peril through the prevalence of sin in the world around them.
3. We find that when it is the purpose of God to save the good from peril, He is never at a loss for means whereby to do so.
II. That in the working out of these methods for the safety of the good, THE GOOD ARE DESIRED TO RENDER THEIR MOST EFFECTIVE COOPERATION (Gen_6:15).
1. This cooperation involves an utter self-abandonment to the Divine teaching.
2. It involves self-sacrifice.
3. It involves much ridicule.
III. That in the working out of these methods for the safety of the good, THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE CONNECTS THEM WITH THE TEMPORAL NEEDS OF THE FUTURE. (Gen_6:19-22). LESSONS:--
1. Let a remembrance of Gods care for the good inspire comfort within the hearts of those in perilous circumstances.
2. That good men should be thoughtful and devout in their cooperation with the Spirit and providence of Gad.
3. That by such cooperation men enhance the temporal interests of the world. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The ark a type of the scheme of human salvation
I. That like the ark, the scheme of human salvation was wrought out AFTER A DIVINELY GIVEN PLAN AND METHOD.
1. Like the ark, the scheme of salvation was not conceived by any human mind.
2. Like the ark, the scheme of salvation was originated by God, and was the outworking of a Divine plan.
II. Like the ark, the scheme of human salvation was ANTECEDENTLY VERY UNLIKELY AND IMPROBABLE FOR THE PURPOSE.
III. That as the ark had a window, so the scheme of human salvation is ILLUMINED BY THE LIGHT OF GOD.
1. The scheme of human salvation is illumined by the Holy Spirit.
2. This illumination of the scheme of salvation is the abiding comfort and joy of man.
IV. That as the ark had a door, so into the scheme of human salvation THERE IS BUT ONE METHOD OF ENTRANCE.
1. That like the ark, the scheme of salvation has an entrance. Christ is the way to eternal safety.
2. That like the ark, the scheme of salvation has but one entrance.
V. That like the ark, the scheme of human salvation is EFFICIENT TO THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE DESIGNED PURPOSE.
VI. That like the ark, the scheme of human salvation is NEGLECTED BY THE VAST MULTITUDE. LESSONS:--
1. That a Divine method of salvation is provided for the human race from the future retributions of the universe.
2. That this salvation is equal to all the need of the case.
3. That men who neglect or despise it are sure to perish.
4. The holy wisdom of entering the ark at once. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Gods provision for salvation of His saints
1. In pouring out indignation on the wicked world, God provideth for His saints.
2. God alone knoweth how to deliver the just from destruction to come.
3. Man must use Gods means in order to salvation according to His prescript.
4. In Gods command of using means, there is implied a promise.
5. Means of salvation to sight are but mean and despicable, a little timber and pitch.
6. Several nests and mansions are in the ark of the Church (Gen_6:14).
7. All Church work for salvation must have its line and measure from God.
8. Sufficient dimensions doth God give to the means of salvation for His people. Breadth and length, etc. (Gen_6:15).
9. Light must be in the means or instrument of mans salvation.
10. A door or entrance must be for souls to come into the ark of the Church and live.
11. A due proportion of place is designed by God for all creatures admitted into the Church ark for salvation (Gen_6:16). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
The preaching of the ark
I. MEMORIAL OF DIVINE GOODNESS.
1. It reminds us of His saints. Amongst the thousands of the world, Noah stood alone, firm in faith, dauntless in courage; God does not forget him; the innocent shall not suffer with the guilty. God waited . . . while the ark was a-preparing (1Pe_3:20).
2. It reminds us of His regard for the families of His saints.
3. It reminds us of Gods goodness to the world. All are invited to enter the ark.
II. A TESTIMONY TO NOAHS FAITH (Heb_11:7).
III. A SYMBOL OF THE SAVIOUR.
1. The ark was a refuge. Thou art my hiding place (Psa_27:7).
2. The ark was a home. Lord, Thou hast been our home in all generations (Psa_90:1).
3. The ark was a temple. There Noah and his family worshipped. We must be in Christ if we would be acceptable worshippers (Rev_21:22).
4. The ark was a conveyance. So to speak, it bore Noah from the old to the new world; from the valley of his labours and sorrows to the mountain of rest and plenty. I am the way, said Jesus.
IV. A BEACON FOR THE SINNER. The ark warns sinners of their danger. It points out the awful nature of unbelief, of voluptuousness, of pride. It warns us that, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished. That numbers cannot shield us from Divine wrath.
1. The ark proclaims the wilfulness of sinners. Who built it? Were not many of its builders destroyed? We may be the means of insuring safety for others, and be ourselves lost (1Co_9:27).
2. The ark warns us of the power of sin. How long was it building? Month after month it was surveyed by hundreds, still they continued in sin. Beware of the deceitfulness of sin. Listen to the strange and varied story this silent ark so eloquently tells. Hear its attestation of the goodness and faithfulness of God; hear, too, its awful revelation of His power to punish and destroy. (Stems and Twigs.)
The ark a type of the Lord Jesus Christ
I. The ark was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, by being A MEANS OF ESCAPE OF GODS OWN PROVIDING.
II. The ark was THE MOST UNLIKELY MEANS OF ESCAPE.
III. The ark was MOCKED BY THE WORLD.
IV. THERE WAS MORE THAN ROOM IN THE ARK for all its inhabitants.
V. The ark was A PRESERVER OF LIFE.
VI. The ark had but ONE DOOR AND ONE WINDOW. VII. The ark was DELUGED BY GOD. (R. Jessop, M. A.)
The ark a type of the Church
I. IT WAS BUILT BY HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY BUT THE FASHION OF IT, AS WELL, AS THE MATERIALS OF WHICH IT WAS TO BE MADE, WERE OF DIVINE APPOINTMENT.
II. THE ARK WAS BUILT BY DEGREES.
III. The ark was A RECEPTACLE FOR ALL.
IV. THE ANIMALS THAT ENTERED THE ARK WENT IN OF THEIR OWN FREE WILL, AND YET WERE DIVINELY GUIDED TO IT.
V. THE FIERCE PASSIONS OF THE ANIMALS WERE RESTRAINED WHILE IN THE ARK.
VI. TILL THE ARK WAS BUILT, THE WORLD COULD NOT BE DESTROYED. (R. Jessop, M. A.)
Noahs warning, preparation, and deliverance
I. THE WARNING THAT NOAH RECEIVED.
1. Only one received it. Noah found grace, favour.
2. To him a most unprecedented and unlikely thing. Beyond that vision, what was there to strengthen his faith? While the evidence to him was so slight, the proofs to us are numerous.
3. Imagine Noah after receiving this warning, with what different feelings he would regard the world, etc.
II. THE PREPARATION THAT NOAH MADE. By faith. He believed God more than nature, which preached stability; or than men, who must soon have begun to argue thus--
1. Who is Noah that he should have this warning?
2. But where is the promise or sign of this flood? Nature does not change.
3. The old man will never live to complete his task.
4. If he does, how are the animals, etc., to be collected?
5. Even if they are, is it likely that so cumbrous a vessel will float?
6. But where will all the water come from? To such men, Noahs ark would be Noahs folly. (Christ, our Ark, is a folly to many, 1Co_1:23).
7. If the worst comes to the worst, we will fly to the hills. Faith overcomes all arguments. 480 years of age when he began, he toiled on for 120 years. While others were growing rich or spending their time in pleasure and sin, he spent his substance about the ark.
III. THE DELIVERANCE THAT NOAH EXPERIENCED.
1. The ark finished. The world comes to look, and wonder, and laugh. Science and selfishness have furnished their arguments, and begin to launch them. On a huge platform of timber stands the ark.
2. Noah examines his work, and compares it with the plan. He has done his part and enters.
3. God now collects the animals, etc. The astonishment of the world at that strange sight. Misgivings. Noah, a wise man after all.
4. Seven days pause. Time yet for repentance. Mercy in the midst of wrath.
5. Noah shut in, and the world shut out.
6. The flood.
7. The waters rising.
The ark swings round from its resting place, and floats out on the bosom of the great waste of waters. LEARN--
1. To take heed to the warning and invitation that we have had.
2. To work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
3. Noah made the ark to save his life; what are we doing to save our souls?
4. Let us fly for refuge to the hope set before us. (J. C. Gray.)
Noah was a type, and Christ the antitype, in sundry particulars
1. As Noahs name signifies comforter and restorer, which shows Lamechs faith to put that name upon him (Gen_5:29; Gen_8:21). Herein he typified Christ, our grand Comforter and Restorer of the new world, as Noah was of the old.
2. Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2Pe_2:5). So also is Christ both preaching and purchasing, yea, procuring everlasting righteousness Dan_9:24).
3. As Noah found grace in the sight of God, both for himself and for all his family (Gen_6:8; Gen_7:1; Heb_11:7), so did Christ for Himself Mat_3:17; Mat_17:5), and for all his household of faith, for so many as God hath given him (Joh_17:2), they are all accepted in the beloved Eph_1:6). Yea, He is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe (1Ti_4:10; Luk_2:52).
4. As Noah was the builder of the ark, so is Christ of the Church, which is called His workmanship (Eph_2:10, etc.). Is not Christ the carpenter (Mar_6:3), to hew, plane, cement, and clinch us close together? etc.
5. As Noah was long in building the ark, even a hundred and twenty years, so is Christ long in building His Church, even some thousands of years.
6. As Noah used many carpenters that were instrumental to save others, but not themselves, so likewise doth Christ (Mat_7:22-23). Some ministers Christ employs that may save--
(1) Others, not themselves.
(2) Themselves, not others.
(3) Neither themselves, nor others.
(4) Both themselves, and others (1Ti_4:16).
7. As when Noah had finished the ark, the destruction of the old world by water followed immediately; so when Christ hath gathered in all His elect, and completed His Church, then will the destruction of this present world by fire presently pass upon it. Add unto all these--
8. As Noahs presence in the ark did secure his household all the time of its tossing, and landed them safely (after the destruction of the old world) in another; so Christs presence with His Church, while she is tossed with tempests and not comforted (Isa_54:11), doth secure her from allevil, for He keeps the ensuring office.
As there is congruity twixt this type and antitype, to wit, Christ and Noah, so there is some disparity.
1. As Noah preached to the old world and converted none, but Christ converted many in this new world.
2. Noah saved his household, but only temporarily, but Christ saves the household of faith, spiritually and eternally.
3. Noah had no better to send out than a raven and a dove, but Christ sent out better things, such as the law and the gospel, the former to work fear and the latter love.
4. Noah was insufficient to complete salvation for his family, as he was unable of himself to shut the great door of the ark after him; but Christ sayeth to the utmost, by His own power (Heb_7:25), rebuking storms and procuring calms, all in His own name.
5. As Noahs self was a type of Christ, so was his ark, wherein alone salvation was found from that deluge of waters, accordingly in Christ alone can be found salvation (of all sorts, temporal, spiritual, and eternal) from the deluge of Divine wrath and justice of God for the sin of man. Beside Him, there is no Saviour (Isa_43:11). As there was but one ark, so there must be but one mediator; no cock boats were to attend this ark Act_27:30). (C. Ness.)
Dimensions of the ark
Much needless ingenuity has been wasted on the calculation of the exact space in the ark, of its internal arrangements, and of the accommodation it contained for the different species of animals then existing. Such computations are essentially unreliable, as we can neither calculate the exact room in the ark, nor yet the exact number of species which required to be accommodated within its shelter. Scripture, which sets before us the history of Gods kingdom, never gratifies such idle and foolish inquiries. But of this we may be quite sure, that the ark which God provided was literally and in every sense quite sufficient for the purposes for which it was intended, and that these purposes were fully secured. It may perhaps help us to realize this marvellous structure if we compare it to the biggest ship known--the Great Eastern, whose dimensions are six hundred and eighty feet in length, eighty-three in breadth, and fifty-eight in depth; or else if we describe it as nearly half the size of St. Pauls Cathedral in London. It should be borne in mind that the ark was designed not for navigation, but chiefly for storage. It had neither masts, rudder, nor sails, and was probably flat at the bottom, resembling a huge floating chest. To show how suitable its proportions were for storage, we may mention that a Dutchman, Peter; Jansen, built in 1604 a ship on precisely the same proportions (not, of course, the same figures), which was found to hold one-third more lading than any other vessel of the same tonnage. To sum up Noahs life of faith, Noahs preaching of faith, and Noahs work of faith in the words of Scripture: By faith Noah, being warned of God, etc. Heb_11:7). (Dr. Edersheim.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v14 Gen_6:14. Gopher wood.] Probably, “cypress” (Conant, Davies); “pitch-trees, resinous…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Gen_6:14. Gopher wood.] Probably, “cypress” (Conant, Davies); “pitch-trees, resinous trees” (Gesenius); “a hard, strong tree, precise kind unknown” (Fürst).—
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Gen_6:18. Establish.] Or, “set up again,” “restore,” as in Amo_9:11; cf. 1Pe_4:19.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_6:14-22
THE DIVINELY-ACHIEVED SAFETY OF THE GOOD, AND ITS CONNECTION WITH THE LIFE-GIVING AGENCIES OF THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE
I. That God is never at a loss for a method whereby to achieve the safety of the Good. “Make thee an ark of Gopher wood,” Gen_6:14.
1. We find that the good are often in eminent peril. This is a fact too obvious to be overlooked or mistaken. It is not in the economy of heaven that moral goodness should avert from men all the perils of daily life and human circumstances. Scripture biography is an exemplification of this truth, and the annals of civilized and Christian nations lend a similar testimony. Good men are often in danger through the persecutions of their ungodly enemies. Daniel. The three Hebrew children. Sometimes royal mandates have been issued for the arrest of the innocent and the pure. But moral goodness is brave in time of peril. It is protected in imminent suffering. While good men are in this world, peril is a condition of their life, as storm is a condition of maritime life on the great ocean.
2. We find that the good are often in peril through the prevalence of sin in the world around them. We do not read that Noah was subject to severe persecution, though it is not improbable that he was; but his danger more particularly arose from association with a degenerate community at the time of its threatened destruction. The ancient world was to be destroyed by a flood; and there was danger lest Noah and his family should participate in the destruction. It does sometimes occur in the economy of heaven that the good and evil are apparently punished together, the same wave lands both on eternal and unknown shores. But it is only in appearance, for though the same event happens to both, the moral character of each renders it different in significance and destiny. To the wicked it is a penalty of woe, which will be eternal; while to the good it is a momentary discipline of pain relieved by the grace of God, and which will soon break into the bright and unending joy of heaven. Both characters go into the chamber of peril at the same portal, but they are immediately accompanied by varied companions, and they awake and emerge to widely different experiences and destinies. And thus a wicked and degenerate people may place a good man in extreme circumstances of danger. They are attractive of the divine anger and judgment.
3. We find that when it is the purpose God to save the good from peril, He is never at a loss for means whereby to do so. He does not always allow the good man to be destroyed by the angry waters let loose upon a degenerate world. He will instruct him as to the best method of safety, yes, even to the building of an ark, in which he shall outride the deluge. And thus the elements which shall destroy the wicked, shall bear up his wondrous craft in unthreatened safety. Such are the mysterious purposes of God. He is never at a loss for means to achieve the welfare of His saints. He can accomplish it by a direct agency, as in the case of Daniel, when heaven stopped the mouth of the lion; as in the case of Jonah, when the great fish was made to preserve the prophet’s life; or He can teach men how to achieve their safety by their own natural and daily effort. It is generally the divine way to make men construct the ark of their own safety. Heaven will not save from peril an improvident or thoughtless man. He is not worth saving. Heaven saves men who help themselves. As a rule God saves men who are brave and industrious enough to build their own ark.
II. That in the working out of these methods for the safety of the good, the good are desired to render their most effective co-operation.—“And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of,” Gen_6:15. God arranges the plans for the safety of the good, and the Noah to be saved from the deluge has to work them out. God is the architect of the ark, and Noah is the builder. Heaven teaches men the method of their own safety. Noah was instructed audibly. Men are now instructed by spiritual influences, silent but distinct. God quietly places in the mind of the good man an idea of the way in which his deliverance must be wrought, and he has carefully to work it out into conduct. This idea becomes the inspiration of energetic toil. If men would be saved from the perils of life they must work out the Divine idea in reference to their safety, they must earnestly co-operate with the silent influences of the Holy Spirit, and with the outworkings of Divine Providence in daily life, and then they will attain the truest welfare and safety of which man is capable, a safety environed by the wisdom and power of God. This co-operation:—
1. It involves an utter self-abandonment to the Divine teaching. Noah was told to build an ark. This to him would seem a great folly. The suggestion would be somewhat repugnant to his reason. He would not be able to understand the command, nor indeed the great necessity for its execution. But he had faith in God, and this was the animating principle of his conduct. And those who wish to be safe amidst the future perils of being must go and do likewise. They must listen to the Divine teaching. They must believe God. They must rely upon His word without hesitation. They must give themselves up to the Divine inspiration. God inspires men to build an ark, as well as to write a book. It is in yielding to such an impulse, and in acting on such a principle, that the rude carpenter becomes a saintly hero, preserved of God from an otherwise universal danger.
2. It involves self-sacrifice. Men who are to be saved from the impending dangers of the world are not exempt from hardship. The ark is not built by some unknown hand, and gently floated on some favourable tide to the door of Noah’s house, so that he and his family have nothing to do but to take possession of it. He who would dwell in the ark during the storm must build it. This involves much anxiety. All other enterprise has to be suspended, this heaven-given task demands an undivided attention and energy. The cost of such a building would be immense. The undertaking would not be popular, and men would require high wages for their help. Hence we can imagine that it would necessitate great self-sacrifice on the part of Noah in order to its completion. But his salvation from the deluge was ample repayment for all his effort and self denial. So men who would be saved from the world’s impending doom must be willing to sacrifice their all for Christ, and when the waters rage, He will be their refuge.
3. It involves much ridicule. The man who builds an ark against the coming deluge will always be ridiculed by those who have no insight into the moral history of the future. Some men are too wicked, and others are too thoughtless to inquire into the significance of future events, they think only of the passion of the passing moment and not of the solemnities of the eternal ages. These will not understand the earnest labours of the good to avert impending dangers, and consequently will often regard them with contempt. Their ridicule will soon have to cease its mockery in the cry for help. Hence we see that the safety of the good in times of peril and retribution requires their own effort, in harmony with Divine plans, and that it shall be self-sacrificing and brave.
III. That in the working out of these methods for the safety of the good, the Divine Providence connects them with the temporal needs of the future. “And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.” (Gen_6:19-22).
1. The perils which overtake the wicked are not yet intended to put an end to the existing order of the universe. The deluge which was predicted to come upon those ancient sinners, was not intended to terminate the affairs of the universe, to make an end of all its material splendour, or to permanently interrupt the usual course of things. The race was to be drowned. The brute world was to share in the ruin. But the earth itself was to survive the deluge. Hence it was necessary that provision should be made for its re-population, both with man and beast. And so it is now, the sinner is destroyed and sent to his own place, but the material world survives his fall. But this will not always be so, as one day the elements will melt with fervent heat, and will pass away as a shrivelled parchment.
2. Then the existing order of things after the flood must be restored by natural and ordinary methods. The old world empty is not to be re-furnished by miracle, or by the immediate voice of God, as in the first instance. It is to be replenished by the ordinary method of life, which is by generation. It is not the purpose of heaven to recover the devastation occasioned by sin by miraculous agency. Sin makes a havoc which takes long ages to repair. It will soon empty a large world. Piety makes the desolate world fruitful. The life-giving agencies of the future are given by God into the care of the good man, their continuance is connected with his safety, and they are to go forth from his refuge to replace the devastation occasioned by moral evil.
3. Thus we see that the safety of the good is inseparably joined and associated with the continuance and welfare of the universe at large. The good are not saved from the perils of the world for the mere preservation of their own lives, not for the mere purposes of religion, but for the preservation of the life-giving agencies of the world at large. A good man casts his mantle of protection over the commercial, social, and material interests of the universe. The lives of the good are linked by God to the continued welfare of humanity. LESSONS:
1. Let a remembrance of God’s care for the good inspire comfort within the hearts of those in perilous circumstances.
2. That good men should be thoughtful and devout in their co-operation with the Spirit and Providence of God.
3. That by such co-operation men enhance the temporal interests of the world.
THE ARK, A TYPE OF THE SCHEME OF HUMAN SALVATION
I. That like the Ark, the scheme of Human Salvation was wrought out after a Divinely-given plan and method. “And God said unto Noah, make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of.” (Gen_6:13-15.)
1. Like the Ark, the scheme of Salvation was not conceived by any human mind. It was utterly impossible that any human being in the ancient world could have conceived the idea of building an ark for the purpose of outriding the angry waters of the deluge. It could not have originated in the mind of Noah, as he would not have anticipated the impending doom but for the Divine announcement. And as for the men of the times, they were totally ignorant of, and were equally unconcerned about, the threats and purposes of heaven. But even when the world became conscious of its imperilled future, it would be thoroughly unable to devise any method of safety. It would be altogether impotent in the sad emergency. And in this respect, the ancient world is but a type of what would be the woful condition of fallen and sinful humanity, but for the aid of heaven. Man knows that he is a sinner, by the revelation of God. He has broken the original law of his being. He has lost his primitive innocence. And, through the operation of many causes, he has become altogether degenerate. His mental life is impure. His social relationships are unhallowed. He is the creature of violent passion. How then can he conceive any method of salvation from the judgment to which his wickedness has rendered him liable? Probably he has no disposition to contemplate the future of his being. And if he has, and is anxious to know how its penalty may be averted, of himself he will be unable to answer his anxieties. He does not know the relation in which he stands to God. He is ignorant of the complete meaning of sin. He possesses none of the factors necessary to determine the probable issues of the present condition of things, and has not sufficient insight into the purposes of God, or energy, to plan a method of safety from a peril so astounding. Sin destroys the true energies of the mind. In the secular sphere of life, man is capable of sublime invention; he can solve the most difficult problems, and conquer the most dire emergencies. His genius in this respect is at the basis of the civilization of nations. Its discoveries are of vast worth to humanity. They are rich in mental energy. They embody patient labour. They are helpful in commerce. They increase our comfort. They enhance our national prowess. They are the pride of our philosophy and learning. They augment our national fame. And in view of these things we cannot but applaud the inventive genius of man. But when we enter the moral sphere of life, when we leave man as a genius and a scholar, and approach him as a sinner, we find him utterly destitute of any idea as to what will constitute his future safety from the wrath of God. He who can make a steam-engine cannot make an ark; he who can paint a picture to be the admiration of the ages, cannot outline the method of his own salvation in the coming danger. Yes! man is better able to solve the problems, and to ascertain the relations of the material universe than of the moral. He knows more about the fires of earth, and how to escape their injury, than how to avert the lightnings of God’s wrath. He has greater facilities for comprehending and taming the destructive forces around him than he has for those above him. He has a wider knowledge of their relations. He can make a nearer approach to their secrets. He has previous calculations and experiments to aid his inquiries. He has instruments with which to perform his operations. Whereas in reference to the retributive agencies of the future, man, without a Divine revelation, knows not their relation to himself, he cannot penetrate their mystery, he is unable to ascertain their destiny; he is alone in the investigation of them, no previous thinkers can yield him aid; he has no method whereby to calculate their result, and certainly cannot avert their terrible consequence. Man cannot grapple with the awful problem of his sin, and its bearing on the future penalties. It is a certain fact, that man apart from God, however gifted, cannot originate the idea of an ark, or of any method of salvation from the consequences of his guilt. Here he is in an eternal perplexity. How pitiful his condition. For, as Noah and his family would have inevitably perished in the deluge had not God told them how to accomplish their safety, so, had not heaven given to men a scheme of salvation, they must have endured the consequences of their degeneracy.
2. Like the Ark, the scheme of Salvation was originated by God, and was the outworking of a Divine plan. The idea of building an ark was implanted in the mind of Noah by God. And the manner in which it was to be wrought out was communicated to him in varied and complete detail. Thus Noah did not build the ark after his own imagination, nor according to the dictate of his own reason, but from a pattern showed him by Jehovah. And so with the scheme of human salvation. As we have seen, man had no idea as to how to avert the calamity consequent upon his sin. But God, by His written word, announced the advent of Jesus Christ as the world’s Saviour. Thus came to man the first merciful idea of salvation from the retribution of moral evil. Nor was the sending of Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners the outcome of a mere idea in the Divine mind, but of a well-defined plan. And we can trace this plan all through the ages; first in dim outline, and then in sublime completion. The promise merges into prophecy, the prophecy into history; and the seed of the woman is seen in the incarnate Christ. Thus the scheme of salvation was not an accidental thought in the mind of Jehovah. It was a pre-conceived plan. Hence it was in beautiful harmony with all the works of God. The material universe was in idea before it was spoken into permanent form; the sun, moon and stars were arranged in thought before they were sent on their light-giving mission. Throughout the world we have evidence of plan. There is nothing accidental in it. There is nothing random in it. Not one single flower is out of place, even though it bloom upon a desert. And so in the scheme of salvation, there is evidence of design throughout. The priest at the sacrificial altar, and every incident in the life of Christ, was pre-arranged. This plan is the outcome of a Divine intelligence. It displayed a heavenly wisdom. It conveys unfailing comfort to the human soul. It makes men feel that their salvation was intentional, and enables them to place reliance on all its detail.
II. Like the ark, the scheme of human salvation was antecedently very unlikely and improbable for the purpose. If Noah, or any other individual in the ancient world had been informed that it was the purpose of God to save them from the deluge, they would not have imagined that he would have employed such a method. They would not have conceived that he would have saved them in such a manner. They might have thought that He would conceal them in some happy nook where the fury of the angry billows should not reach; or that He would convey them to some distant spot hitherto unknown, where they might dwell in safety till the storm was spent. Such would probably have been the imaginings of the human mind. But as for constructing a rude ark in which to reside during the storm, such an idea would have been the last to have gained their consent. And so, in reference to the scheme of human salvation, it is almost the last that man would have anticipated. That God should send forth His own son into the world, to be incarnate, to die, and to rise again, for the sins of man, was antecedently the most unlikely method of securing our safety that could have been selected. So weak is the human mind to conceive the purposes of God.
1. Some of the ancient world would no doubt say that the ark was wanting in artistic beauty; and have not men said the same in reference to the scheme of human salvation? Look at the ark finished as it stands up yonder the pride and astonishment of Noah, its proportions unequal, its dimensions extravagant, and its materials altogether void of beauty as of polish. It was the building of a rude workman. And as such, it would invite the scorn and ridicule of the people of the age. And men have denounced the scheme of salvation as utterly destitute of moral loveliness. They point to its varied parts, the sacrifices of the ancient times, the bitter sufferings, and painful death of Christ, and ask if such can be accepted as a plan of beauty. But such men are mistaken in their ideas of beauty, as were the people of Noah’s day. The beauty of the ark was not in its timbers, but in its merciful design. And so the moral loveliness of the scheme of man’s salvation, was not so much in the historic circumstances by which it was accompanied, as in the holy and divine purpose contemplated therein. In the death of a supposed impostor, there was humanly speaking nothing to be desired, there was to the human eye no pencilling of light and glory, but in the pardon it secures, in the moral purity it renders possible, and in the heaven it provides, there is a wealth of beauty beyond compare. Thus like the ark, the cross was unsightly to the outward eye, while to the inner vision of the believing soul it was bright with immortal glories. Only the few are true judges of the morally beautiful. There is no beauty equal to the rose of Sharon. There is none that has been more despised.
2. Some of the ancient world would no doubt say that the Ark would be unable to accomplish its purpose; and have not men said the same in reference to the scheme of human Salvation? Many people who came to view the Ark, would predict its utter failure in the time of severe trial, which would be occasioned by the angry deluge. They would say that such a huge mass of timber would not float upon the sweeping waters; that Noah would not be able to control its movements, or direct its course; in short that it would soon expose the pious man to the flood he hoped to escape. But they were false and ignorant prophets, who knew not that the secret of the Lord was with them that fear him. Men have uttered the same prediction in reference to the scheme of human salvation. They have said that it would not answer its contemplated purpose. They have found fault with it as a moral structure. They say that it has not sufficient regard for all the exigencies of the case, and that when the times of retribution come it will be a wreck. This is the prediction of infidelity. It is uttered without sufficient warrant. It is destined to disappointment. No storm can reach the soul that has taken refuge in Christ. He is competent to carry it to the eternal haven of peace. He has shielded thousands from the retributions of Divine anger.
3. Some of the ancient world would no doubt come to criticise the ark; and have not men done the same in reference to the scheme of human salvation? This is implied in what we have already stated; the artist would criticise its beauty; the mechanic of the day would inspect its structure and material; the scientists of the age would regard it in relation to the elements; and the philosopher would view it as the outcome of frenzy. And no doubt each would view it from his own peculiar standpoint; and many would imagine that they could have built a better thing themselves if there were any need for it. And is not all this typical of the amount and kind of criticism which has attacked the scheme of human salvation? The man of intellectual predilictions has criticised and even written books in reference to it. He cannot understand it, and is it any wonder? Could any person understand the ark of Noah without going inside it? Nor can men, however philosophical they may be, comprehend the scheme of man’s salvation unless they have practical and personal experience of it. This is the only remedy for a hostile criticism of the cross. Noah did not criticise the ark; he was saved by it. Men of emotional and fearful natures have approached the scheme of salvation, and anxiously inquired as to its worth. They are timid. They fear it will fail them in the hour of trial. And many imagine that they can save themselves from the impending doom without it. They are mistaken. Many never criticise the ark. They are thoughtless. They neglect it altogether. A sceptical and merely critical spirit is the worst which a man can bring to the sacred inspection of the scheme of salvation.
III. That as the ark had a window, so the scheme of human salvation is illumined by the light of God. The ark was not in total darkness, but was illumined by a window, the plan of which was Divinely given. The light thus brought into the ark would be very necessary to industry, comfort, and life. Otherwise all within would have been in much the same sad condition as the multitudes without. In fact it would have been no refuge to Noah and his family.
1. The scheme of human salvation is illumined by the Holy Spirit. As the rays of the natural light streamed in through the window of the ark, and discovered all its compartments to Noah: so the light of the Divine Spirit of God shines into the wondrous scheme of man’s redemption. This light discloses the meaning of salvation, the great and universal need of it, and also the awful retribution which it averts. Thus men can only see all the inner departments of the great scheme of salvation when they walk in the light of the Holy Spirit of God. Then they see its construction, they perceive its intention, and can admire the great wisdom displayed in its every department. The folly of man is that he tries to see the scheme of salvation by the aid of a light which he himself possesses. He seeks not the light from on high. What would have been the folly and danger of Noah had he rejected the light of heaven, and substituted a tinder and flint of his own for it? He would not have seen the ark to perfection, he would not have been acquainted with it, in fact half his time he would have been in darkness. Yet this is the course men are constantly pursuing in reference to the scheme of human salvation. They use their own feeble lights in the investigation of it, in preference to the eternal light of God, and is it any wonder that they get imperfect conceptions of it? If a man would see God’s truth, he must use the light which comes in at the God-given window. That light is the purest and the best. The light of mere intellect is feeble compared with it. Thus by walking in the light of God shall we see in the scheme of salvation its moral beauty, its fitness for the end contemplated, and its exhibition of the manifold wisdom of heaven.
2. This illumination of the scheme of salvation is the abiding comfort and joy of man. There are and ever will be mysteries in the scheme of human salvation which no created intelligence will be able to fathom, or comprehend. There were compartments in the ark where the light was almost darkness, and where the eye of man would be almost useless. But into these there is little need that Noah should go. All the broad places of the ark are well lighted. So the plan of redemption is illumined by the Holy Spirit in all its departments where human intelligence is required to toil. All is revealed that it is necessary for man, to know. And this is the comfort of the human heart. It is the joy of the human soul. We ought indeed to be grateful that the great centre truth of doctrine is thus so well illumined by the good Spirit of God.
IV. That as the ark had a door, so into the scheme of human salvation there is but one method of entrance.
1. That like the ark the scheme of salvation has an entrance. The ark was not built without a door, if it had been it would have been useless, Noah could not have entered. Neither was the scheme of salvation completed by Jesus Christ and then left without the possibility of human entrance. This would have been a mockery of human hope. Christ is the way to eternal safety.
2. That like the ark, the scheme of salvation has but one entrance. There was only one door in the ark, and that was at the side. Noah was commanded to make it. And so in reference to the scheme of human salvation, there is but one mode of entrance, and that is by Jesus Christ, and no man can come unto the Father but by Him. And this one way is sufficient to admit all comers. None have to wait for admission because the door is crowded, and will not admit the multitudes who are anxious to get in. If the door is solitary, it is wide, and easily accessible. Men may attempt to make new doors into the ark of salvation, but they cannot. They can only enter by the appointed one. There is no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus.
V. That like the ark, the scheme of human salvation is efficient to the accomplishment of the designed purpose. The ark was efficient to the salvation of Noah and his family from the terrible deluge; and so the scheme of salvation wrought out by Jesus Christ is, and will be, efficient to the redemption of men from the guilt and retribution of sin into the eternal joy of heaven. And as Noah was landed almost upon a new world, so the redeemed sinner shall enter upon the possession of the sinless world, not made desolate by a flood, but enriched with all the fulness and glory of God.
VI. That like the ark, the scheme of human salvation is neglected by the vast multitude. The myriads of the old world perished in the angry deluge; the exploit and glory of the age, all perished in this watery grave. Only Noah and his family were saved. The men of the age were without excuse in their destruction. They had been warned of the penalty of their sin. The facts of the case were made known to them by Noah. They paid him no heed. And so it is to-day. The sins of men are waiting the retributions of God. The judgment is in the future. The ministers of Christ proclaim it near. The world apparently believes them not, but continues in its degenerate course of life. Its passion will only be subdued by the woe of the actual calamity. Then it will see its folly, when too late! LESSONS:—
1. That a Divine method of salvation is provided for the human race from the future retributions of the universe.
2. That this salvation is equal to all the need of the case.
3. That men who neglect or despise it are sure to perish.
4. The holy wisdom of entering the ark at once.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
THE PREACHING OF THE ARK
Gen_6:14. The ark stands out in the dim scene of the remote past, an object of the deepest interest. As we gaze on its huge bulk, now floating on the dark waters, then resting in majestic repose on the heights of Ararat in the sunshine of the renovated world, it seems to us to be replete with instruction. It is at once a memorial of Divine goodness and a testimony to the strength of human faith. It appears both as a symbol of Divine mercy, and as a beacon of Divine wrath. Let us review it in these various phases.
I. A memorial of Divine goodness.
1. It reminds us of His saints. Amongst the thousands of the world, Noah stood alone, firm in faith, dauntless in courage; God does not forget him; the innocent shall not suffer with the guilty. “God waited … while the ark was a preparing.” 1Pe_3:20. It reminds us of His regard for the families of His saints. It may be some of the members of Noah’s family did not participate in their father’s faith, yet all were saved. It is a universal fact that God specially blesses the children of His servants. They may not be among the saved at last, but they have enjoyed more privileges, heard more warnings, received more entreaties than others.
3. It reminds us of God’s goodness to the world.
All are invited to enter the ark. None who sought admission would be refused.
II. A testimony to Noah’s faith. Heb_11:7.
1. It was on account of Noah’s faith the ark was devised.
2. Faith built and furnished it.
3. By faith Noah entered.
4. Faith sustained him there.
III. A symbol of the Saviour.
1. The ark was a refuge. “Thou art my hiding place.” Psa_27:7.
2. The ark was a home. “Lord, thou hast been our home in all generations.” Psa_90:1.
3. The ark was a temple. There Noah and his family worshipped. We must be in Christ if we would be acceptable worshippers. John, the divine, speaks of the Lord after this fashion, “The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” Rev_21:22.
4. The ark was a conveyance. So to speak, it bore Noah from the old to the new world; from the valley of his labours and sorrows to the mountain of rest and plenty. “I am the way,” said Jesus.
IV. A beacon for the sinner. The ark warns sinners of their danger. It points out the awful nature of unbelief, of voluptuousness, of pride. It warns us that, though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.” That numbers cannot shield us from divine wrath. The crime of the antediluvians was none the less terrible, because universally fashionable!
1. The ark proclaims the wilfulness of sinners. Who built it? Were not many of its builders destroyed? We may be the means of insuring safety for others, and be ourselves lost. 1Co_9:27.
1. The ark warns us of the power of sin. How long was it building? Month after month it was surveyed by hundreds, still they continued in sin. Beware of the deceitfulness of sin. Appl. Listen to the strange and varied story this silent ark so eloquently tells. Hear its attestation of the goodness and faithfulness of God; hear, too, its awful revelation of His power to punish and destroy.—[Stems and Twigs.]
In pouring out indignation on the wicked world, God provideth for his saints.
God alone knoweth how to deliver the just from destruction to come.
However, God alone saveth, yet it is by means.
Men must use God’s means in order to salvation according to his prescript.
In God’s command of using means, there is implied a promise. As to make the ark.
Means of salvation to sight, are but mean and despicable, a little timber and pitch.
Gen_6:15-16. All church-work for salvation must have its line and measure from God.
Sufficient dimensions doth God give to the means of salvation for his people.
Light must be in the means or instrument of man’s salvation.
A due proportion of place is designed by God for all creatures admitted into the church ark for salvation.
Gen_6:17. It was an appalling announcement; how solemn and how stern; “I, even I,”—the repetition has in it an awful emphasis and force—“I, even I.” It is the Lord who speaks, the Creator, the Preserver, now coming forth in wrath as the Destroyer.—(Dr. Candlish).
It is an assurance that He will execute His decree, not merely on account of what He has said to His creatures, but also on account of what He is in Himself—that His very nature requires the thing to be done.—(Dr. Candlish).
God, even God himself, will testify against the unbelief of the wicked, and will encourage faith in His own.
God not only threatens, but executes vengeance on the wicked.
Rare and unheard of judgments hath God in store for unbelievers.
All creatures are at God’s commands to work His vengeance.
Vengeance spreads in the earth, as far as wickedness.
Corruption of sin in man brings destruction upon the life of all flesh that serves him.
God has His time to rid sinners from under heaven.
Universal sin brings universal death.
Abused mercy turns into fury [Trapp].
A dismal doom: and God is now absolute in His threatening, because He will be resolute in His execution [Trapp].
Gen_6:18. Special grace exempts from general desolation.
God’s covenant only conveys His grace for salvation.
God makes His covenant to special persons.
God makes His covenant of grace stable to His covenanted ones.
The covenant of grace carries a common salvation in it.
The whole family sometimes fares the better for a gracious saint.
Wicked men may have the mercies of God’s covenant, and never yet be in it.
Salvation:—
1. Given to man.
2. Extended to brutes.
3. Not by chance.
The covenant with Noah. Here is the first appearance of a covenant between God and man on the face of Scripture. A covenant is a solemn compact, tacit or express, between two parties, in which each is bound to perform his part. Hence a covenant implies the moral faculty; and whereever the moral faculty exists, there must needs be a covenant. Consequently, between God and man there was of necessity a covenant from the very beginning, though the name do not appear. At first it was a covenant of works, in regard to man; but now that works have failed, it can only be a covenant of grace to the penitent sinner. My covenant. The word my points to its original establishment with. Adam. My primeval covenant, which I am resolved not to abandon. Will I establish. Though Adam has failed, yet will I find means of maintaining my covenant of life with the seed of the woman. With thee. Though all flesh be to perish through breach of my covenant, yet will I uphold it with thee. [Dr. Murphy.]
Thou and thy sons. Yet Ham soon after degenerated: for the present he concealed his wickedness from men; from God he could not. He bears with hypocrites in his visible church for a season, till the time of separation. [Trapp.]
Gen_6:19-20. Providence determineth to continue the world by propagation with male and female.
The highest providence useth man’s care in saving creatures.
An instinct doth God give to creatures whom He will save, to come to the means of their salvation.
Life of all kinds in heaven and earth is the work of God and issue of his counsels.
If more questions be asked as to how untamed and savage animals could be got to live harmoniously and quietly together, let one consideration be remembered. The same Lord who will hereafter make the wolf dwell with the lamb and the leopard lie down with the kid, when the earth shall be as full of the knowledge of the Lord, as it then was full of the waters covering the sea—that same Lord who designed the ark floating on the flood to be the very type and emblem of that holy mountain of his, in all which they shall not hurt nor destroy—He could with equal ease both move the creatures to enter in at Noah’s command, and constrain them for a brief season to resume the peaceful nature which they had in Paradise, before this creation began to groan for the sin of man—the nature which—are they not to have again when creation is delivered and Paradise restored. (Isa_11:6-9; Rom_8:19-22. [Dr. Candlish.]
Gen_6:21-22. Life God maintains by food convenient, and therefore commands providence to men to get meat for themselves and beasts.
True faith in God giveth obedience to him.
God’s command alone is the rule of faith’s obedience.
Faith giveth full and thorough returns to all that God enjoineth.
God could have kept them alive without either food or ark. But He will have us serve His providence, in use of lawful means; and so to trust Him, as that we do not tempt Him. [Trapp.]
NOAH’S OBEDIENCE
The deluge the greatest demonstration of God’s hatred of sin, with the exception of the Cross. One favoured servant was exempted from the retribution—Noah.
I. The obedience rendered by Him. It is not easy to form a just estimate of this. The circumstances in which he was placed. He was appointed a preacher of righteousness, and had to predict the deluge. Thus for 120 years; without sign of its approach. The delay would be almost fatal to the message. The means he was directed to use for the preservation of God’s chosen remnant. The ark. Expense and labour of it. Ridicule; almost beyond endurance. His perseverance in the use of these means till he had completed the work assigned him. Nothing could induce him to desist from his work till it was perfected in every part. This obedience was of the most exalted character. It shows how firmly he believed the Divine testimony, how he stood in awe of God, and how determined he was to avail himself of the means of safety offered. In accordance with this is
II. The obedience required of us.
1. The danger to which we are exposed it similar. God has declared that He will call the world to judgment. We see no preparation for it. Multitudes laugh at it. The wrath of God will fall on them.
2. The means provided for our escape are similar. God has provided an ark for us—His own Son—into which all who believe shall enter; but which will be closed against an unbelieving world. Many think this absurd. They prefer the ark of their own good works.
3. The distinction that will be made between the believing and unbelieving world will be similar. Learn from the whole:—
1. The office of faith. Not to argue, but to believe God. We are not to ask how we can be punished in hell, or how faith in Christ can save us. We are to credit the Divine testimony.
2. The necessity of fear. If we believe God’s threats against sinners, how can we but fear?
3. The benefit of obedience. Noah above the waves in perfect safety [Simeon’s Appendix].
The ark a type of the church:—
1. As Noah built the ark, so Christ, by prophets, apostles, etc., built the church.
2. As the ark is made of the most durable wood, so the church endureth constantly against all adversaries.
3. As pitch was used about the ark to join the parts together, so by ardent love the members of the church are united.
4. As the ark was pitched inside and out, so the faithful have not only good works externally, but holiness within.
5. As the ark was more long than broad, and more broad than high, so the church is of greater extent in its faith, which is longitude, than in its charity, which is latitude, and yet in its love of greater extent than in its heavenly contemplation, which is altitude.
6. As the ark was distinguished by rooms and stories, some higher and some less, so in the church there is great diversity of members, attainments, and social standing.
7. Like the ark, there is but one door into the church; and truth is the only light of the church.
8. All sorts of creatures came into the ark, both clean and unclean, so all sorts, both good and bad, are in the church.
9. As the clean creatures came in by sevens, so the godly in the church are united together in greater Numbers
10. As in the ark there was food for all kinds of creatures, so in the church there is a variety of food for the soul.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Moral Declension! Gen_6:1. As there is a law of continuity, whereby in ascending we can only mount step by step; so they who descend must sink with an ever-increasing velocity. No propagation is more rapid than that of evil; no growth more certain. He who is in for a penny, if he does not resolutely fly, will find that he is in for a pound. The longer the avalanche rolls down the glacier slopes, the swifter becomes its speed. A little group of Alpine travellers saw a flower blooming on the slope of the cliff on which they stood surveying the prospect below. Each started to secure the prize; but as they hastened down, the force of their momentum increased with each step of the descent—they were borne on the smooth icy surface swiftly past the object of pursuit—and were precipitated into a yawning crevasse. Such is the declension of the soul, until it passes
“Down into the eternal dark;
Yet not for rest, nor sleep.”—Bonar.
Sin-Proneness! Gen_6:1. The most lovely infant that is ushered into being has within it by nature the germs of those elements which feed the flames of hell, and leaven its forlorn inmates with their direst misery. It has in its own heart—to borrow the language of Canning—the embryo of that Upas-tree, which distils upon humanity on earth and on humanity in hell its death-drops; and so living are the seeds—so congenial is the soil that, unless overborne by the grace of the Holy Spirit and the appliances of the Gospel, they will inevitably spring up and flourish
“Till the whole soul it comprehends,
And all its powers overclouds
With condemnation’s thunder-shrouds.”—Oriental.
Evil Association! Gen_6:2. The sons of God could not associate with the godless world without suffering morally. Sophronius, a wise teacher, would not suffer even his grown up sons and daughters to associate with those whose conduct was not pure and upright. His daughter remarked that he must think them very childish to imagine that they would yield to evil when with such companions. The wise parent took a dead coal from the hearth, and placed it in his daughter’s hand, saying: “Do not fear, it will not burn you.” Yet, though it did not scorch, it smirched—not only hands, but dress. When Eulalia vexatiously expressed her objection to such close contact with coal, her father quietly remarked that evil company was like coal; it might not burn, but it would blacken. The company of the vicious daughters of the ungodly soils the purity of the “children of God”:—
“A thousand evil thoughts intrude
Tumultuous in the breast.”—Newton.
Conviction! Gen_6:3. In times, says Arnot, when vile men held the high places of the land, a roll of drums was employed to drown the martyr’s voice, lest the testimony of truth from the scaffold should reach the ears of the people. So do men deal with their own consciences and seek to put to silence the truth-telling voice of the Holy Spirit. But My Spirit shall not always strive with man. Thus obstinately resisted, He will withdraw, for
“Though the Holy Spirit deigns to dwell
In earthly domes, ’tis not those defiled
With pride—with fraud—with rapine, or with lust.”—Jenner.
Omniscience! Gen_6:5. The thoughts that issue from the home of the human heart—bold like robbers in the dark—overleap the fences of holiness, suck at will every flower they reckon sweet, and return to deposit their gatherings in the owner’s cup. But as a spectator watches the movements of a hive of bees, so the eye of the Lord sees ALL. Thought chases thought with lightning rapidity; still His eye sees ALL—sees that each is only evil without mitigation—that every germ of idea, every incipient embryo of conception, every inclination is only evil.
“Almighty God! Thy piercing eye
Strikes through the shades of night;
And our most secret actions lie
All open to Thy sight.”—Watts.
Sons of God! Gen_6:2. Some were born again—and thus a new creation made them sons of God. The Holy Spirit—descending on the wings of love, and moving in the almightiness of His strength—implanted new being in the heirs of life. Death can never generate life—skeletons cannot arise—dry leaves cannot bloom—extinct ashes cannot brighten into flame; only Omnipotence can turn the serfs of sin into the sons of God.
“Spirit of purity and grace,
Our weakness see;
O make our hearts Thy dwelling-place,
And worthier Thee.”—Auber.
Holy Spirit! Gen_6:3. We sometimes see in ancient mansions that portion once devoted to divine service laid in ruins, while that which was designed for the good cheer of men is whole and in complete repair. The soul is in a state of miserable decay and dilapidation, but the hall of entertainment—i.e., the body—is sound and furnished well. The principles and affections that belong to the lowest range and sphere of our being remain; but the spirit which alone can consecrate and sanctify them is gone. Here it is that the Spirit of God steps in to strive with man—to awaken him to a sense of self-ruin—to arouse in him the desire for self-restoration—and to accomplish that miraculous restitution of all good things in the moral ruin of the sanctuary of the human soul.
“The Spirit of God
From heaven descending, dwells in domes of clay;
In mode far passing human thought, He guides,
Impels, instructs.”—Hay.
Obduracy! Gen_6:3. Had the antediluvians no outward warning? They had Noah, the preacher of righteousness. Had they no inward check?. They had the Holy Spirit. Scripture is not silent, though the mystery is deep. The Spirit strove for a while, and ceased. He approached, and then withdrew. He came again; but admission was denied Him. His visits became more rare, and then they discontinued altogether. The knocks remained without answer, and ultimately died away. The inward stillness was no more disturbed. The souls slept on, and dreamed into perdition. Each morning in winter, the man breaks the ice forming on the lake, and though repeated frosts follow, the lake is not frozen over. But suffer the ice to form day by day, and little by little, the thickness increases, until thousands may stand with hammers, and strike in vain. These souls had drifted into frozen realms, where no gospel ray shone to thaw the ice upon them.
A blotting night of horror deep,
“That knows no dawn, and knows no sleep.”—Alger.
Sin-Issue! Gen_6:5. A mountain stream—whose pure and salubrious waters are continually polluted by the daily washing and cleansing of poisonous minerals—is a just emblem of the flesh. Its desires, imaginations, and affections—once pure and holy—are now like a corrupt and troubled spring, which is always emitting impure water. Salter says that the evil nature of fallen creatures is ever bursting out into bad and pernicious motions and lusts.
“Till custom takes away the judging sense,
That to offend, we think it no offence.”—Smith.
Sin! Gen_6:6. Man is prone to sin. He is like an idle swimmer, that goes carelessly floating down the stream rather than exert himself to swim against the current, and gain the bank. He must reach the sea at last; and when he hears the breakers, and sees the foaming crests of the waves, he becomes alarmed. But it is TOO LATE. The stream is now too strong for him—his limbs are benumbed and enervated from want of exertion, and, unfitted and unprepared, he is hurled into the ocean of eternity.
“Delay not! Delay not! the Spirit of grace,
Long-grieved and resisted, may take His sad flight;
And leave thee in darkness to finish thy race,
And sink in the vale of eternity’s night.”—Hastings.
Sin Growth! Gen_6:8. Dr. Boyd says: “I do not know why it is that—by the constitution of the universe evil has so much more power than good to produce its effect, and to propagate its nature. One drop of foul will pollute a whole cup of fair water; but one drop of pure water has no power to appreciably improve a cup of impure water. The sons of men were more numerous than the sons of God, and very soon corrupted them; and Noah, who stood alone was unable to any appreciable degree to influence for good the abounding evil men:—
“Men with men wrought wickedness—till crime and craft
Became to them what virtue once had been,
Their joy, their nature—their essential life.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Divine Grace! Gen_6:9. The light of Noah’s piety was not dim, because the Holy Spirit influenced him. What difference can be detected between two needles, one of which has received an electric shock, whilst the other has not? None until the occasion arises! and yet the one has hidden virtues, of which the other has none. The electric shock has rendered the one needle a magnet, which, duly balanced, will enable man to find his way across the trackless ocean. Noah had received the Holy Spirit, and his pious example—like the needle—pointed the wanderers in sin to God’s mercy. But they shut their eyes to the pattern:—
“Which shone, a star amid the storm,
The harbinger of REST.”—Latrobe.
Preaching! Gen_6:11. Like Enoch, Elijah and John the Baptist, Noah urged his neighbours to flee from the coming wrath. But they would not hear. If aroused for a moment from the sleep of sinful self-sufficiency, they soon slumbered. “Fire! Fire!” Such was the cry in the middle of the night, which echoed through the quiet streets. A ladder was placed against the wall—up its rungs sprang a brave young man to arouse a friend sleeping in that upper room, where he lay in a drunken sleep. To shake him roughly was the work of an instant. The sleeping man stirred—opened his eyes for a moment—turned on his side and closed his eyes in stupid insensibility, murmuring, “I do not believe it.” His would-be deliverer had but just time to drop into the fire-escape to save his own life. Noah preached, but men would not believe that danger and death were near!
“O hasten mercy to implore,
And stay not for the morrow’s sun;
For fear thy season should be o’er
Before this evening’s stage be run.”
Piety! Gen_6:9. Standing on the sea-shore on a calm summer morning or evening, the vessels in the far distance appear to be sailing in the sky and not on the sea. So doubtless did Noah appear to these worldling spectators of his age, to be walking in the sky, and not on the earth. He was a marked man, secretly to be admired, but openly to be avoided. They took notice of him that he was unlike themselves, living a life of faith, traversing his spiritual way to the glory of God.
“Saints are indeed our pillar-fires,
Seen as we go;
They are that City’s shining spires,
We travel to.”—Vaughan.
Holy Life! Gen_6:9. On one occasion a man made an effort in argument with a friend to disprove the existence of anything like “motion,” whereupon his friend sprang up, and paced the ground before him. And not more completely was his sophistry confuted who attempted to disprove the doctrine of motion, by his opponent immediately rising and walking, than Noah put to silence the folly and ignorance of the Antediluvians. By a walk holy and close with God he demonstrated to the unbelieving universe of his day that Jehovah’s word is true. In some cases, perhaps, evil was checked, but not subdued—enmity was shackled, but not removed—conscience was roused, but not enlightened—convictions were produced, but no conversions followed. Yet who shall say that Noah met not in Paradise some whose hearts were changed ere yet the waters reached the mountain tops?
“O friend! O brother! not in vain
Thy life so pure and true,
The silver dropping of the rain,
The fall of summer dew.”—Whittier.
The Divine Eye! Gen_6:12. Secher tells how Plato has a reference to the fact of the King of Lydia being in possession of a ring with which—when he turned the head to the palm of his hand—he could see every person, and yet he himself remain invisible. Though we cannot see God while we live, yet He can see how we live; for His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings—both outward and inward:—
“Under the surface, life in death.
Slimy tangle and oozy moans,
Creeping things with watery breath,
Blackening roots and whitening bones.”—Havergal.
Judgment! Gen_6:13. The stroke of judgment is like the lightning flash—irresistible, fatal. It kills—kills in the twinkling of an eye. But the clouds from which it leaps are SLOW to gather. As Guthrie says, they thicken by degrees. The mustering clouds—the deepening gloom—the still and sultry air—the awful silence—the big pattering raindrops, all reveal his danger to the traveller, and warn him to hasten to the nearest shelter. Ahab was busily employed picnicing with his gay court on the grassy slopes of Carmel, and did not see the gathering storm; but the prophet sent him warning to hurry to his ivory palace in the plain of Jezreel. And where is the sinner who goes down unwarned? An unseen hand often restrains with gentle touch—a voice within often persuasively reminds that ruin follows sin. The annals of the old world prove this. Truth announced that the inevitable end would come, but forbearance checked the final step for 120 years. The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah:—
“Mustering His wrath, while His anger stayed:
Till full their cup, the Lord of heaven delayed
To pour His vengeance.”—Rolls.
Deluge-traditions! Gen_6:13. Mr. Catlin vouches for the extraordinary fact that, of all the tribes he visited among the Indians of North-West America, there was not one which did not, by some means or other, connect their origin with a “big canoe,” which was supposed to have rested on the summit of some hill or mountain in their neighbourhood:—
“High on the summit of this dubious cliff
Deucalion wafting moor’d his little skiff.”—Dryden.
Salvation! Gen_6:13. When Noah heard the announcement of the flood of waters possibly the enquiry instantaneously flashed up; what must I do to be saved? As in the case of the anxious soul, so in the case of Noah, it was an enquiry which only God could answer. Just as the child, gathering pebbles on the sea shore, sinks into insignificance when compared with the diver searching for pearls, or the miner excavating for diamonds; so all Noah’s previous and present surroundings dwindled into nothingness before this important question: If such an overwhelming, universal deluge was ahead, what was he to do for salvation from it? God answered, as He always does the really sincere, anxious enquirer: I will save thee. Salvation is of the Lord. There is the divinely appointed ark of safety. Faith says:—
“Let earth and hell conspire their worst, their best,
And join their twisted might!
Let showers of thunderbolts dart round and round me,
All this shall ne’er confound me.”—Quarles.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Divine Salvation! Gen_6:14. Some time ago, a man, who had heard a minister of the Gospel preach on the previous sabbath, went to him in a state of mental anxiety to ask him how he could be saved. The venerable man of God said: “The wages of sin is death,” whereupon the man exclaimed: “Then I am lost.” To this exclamation of bitter anguish, the minister answered that such a conclusion did not follow, because God had found a ransom. “In His infinite love and pity, He devised a plan to save sinners, a plan, which should shew His eternal hatred of sin, while it disclosed the treasures of His compassion for sinners.” He then went on to detail the whole scheme of salvation, the Divinely prepared ark of safety in the cleft body of His dear Son of Calvary. The man was delighted and astonished. He exclaimed: “Is it really so? Is there an ark of safety?” The minister at once briefly replied that it was in the Bible. “Then the Bible is from God; for none but He could have thought it.”
Spritual Vision! Gen_6:15. As well may you pour tones of delicious music on the ears of the deaf, or floods of brilliant light on the eyeballs of the blind, expecting to awaken corresponding sympathy in the soul, as that the carnal mind can be convinced of the excellence and beauty of the Ark of Grace. The supreme excellence and perfect harmony which pervade its entire structure without and within, can only be discerned by a spiritual eye, others see no beauty in this ark; though Noah did. He could perceive the beauty of the Divine purpose. He could distinguish the harmony of the Divine plan. And this heart to prize the ark, this mind to investigate its nature, this eye to trace its proportions and beauties came from God.
“Oh! take the heart I could not give,
Without Thy strength-bestowing call;
In Thee, and for Thee, let me live
For I am nothing, Thou art all.”
Gospel! Gen_6:15. On one occasion in France, a group of Sunday-school children were taken a long distance to see the interior of a cathedral, in which was a stained glass window of exquisite beauty and chasteness. As they drew near, the conductor exclaimed: “There is the window,” pointing as he did so to what seemed a dingy sheet scarred with irregular pieces of dull lead. The children were disappointed, and complained of having been brought so far for “only that.” But the leader guided them within the precincts of the cathedral pile, when they at once saw all the beauty of design and structure. So the Holy Spirit leads us to the Gospel of Salvation; but we see nothing attractive in it, until He conducts us within its walls. Then the whole flood of beauty bursts upon our entranced spirits; and, like Peter in the Mount of Transfiguration, we are ready to exclaim: “It is good for us to be here:”—
“Seeing Him in all His beauty,
Satisfied with Him alone.”—Havergal.
Blindness! Gen_6:16. The mind—divinely illuminated—can penetrate into the vast domain of faith, and discover the glories there revealed. But without the Spirit all is dark—all mysterious. And just what the telescope is to the eye of the astronomer, as when with a glance he sweeps the firmament of nature in search of new and undiscovered worlds, faith is the Spirit of God to man. Man cannot find out God by all his searching; but the Spirit revealeth the deep things of God. The Ark of Christ is equally beyond human comprehension. What beams can its feeble, flickering light cast upon this mystery? But the Spirit must
“Enable with perpetual light
The dulness of our blinded sight.” 1662.—
Gospel-Ark! Gen_6:16. What has wrought such moral revolutions in the world? If the devotee of superstition has been converted by it—if it has made the spiritually blind to see—if it has transformed the ravening wolf into the gentle lamb, and the greedy vulture into the soft dove—if it has soothed the deepest anguish of the heart, and calmed the fierce tempest of the soul—if it has sweetened the bitterest calamities of life, and unfurled the banner of victory in the last and latest hour of life—if it has shed upon the Christian’s tomb the radiance of a glorious immortality, then it has done what no other schemes have succeeded in doing—then it is the Ark of God, to which we may safely flee. Till another Gospel has been discovered of more grace and goodness—of more power and principle—of more promise and perfection, let us not despise it. Let us make or find a better, safer Ark—not cavil at the Ark which Divine Wisdom has planned and Divine Love has provided:—
“Not to be thought on, but with tides of joy,
Not to be mentioned, but with shouts of praise.”
Ark! Gen_6:14. Christ is the Gospel-Ark. Behold Him! The ark of old was but an emblem of His full redemption. He is the one deliverance from all peril. He is the heaven-high refuge—the all-protecting safety. He is the building of enduring life—the foundation of which was laid in the counsels of eternity—the superstructure of which was reared in the fulness of time on the plains of earth, and the head of which towers above the skies. He is that lofty fabric of shelter which God decreed, appointed, provided, and set before the sons of men; and all the raging storms of vengeance, and all the fury of the waves of wrath only consolidate its strength. Our Ark of Salvation is the Mighty God.
“Onward then, and fear not,
Children of the Day!
For His word shall never,
Never pass away!”
Activity! Gen_6:17. Doubtless the Antediluvians were useful in aiding righteous Noah to construct the ark for the saving of his house, while they themselves perished in the flood—clinging, perchance, to the sides, or clutching the keel of the vessel as it floated serenely on its way. The scaffolding, says one, is useful in the erection of the building; but, constituting no essential part of the structure, it is removed when the edifice is complete. Religious activity is not salvation. Working for Jesus is not necessarily living in Jesus. An individual engaged in religious work may be useful in guiding the steps of others, as the finger-post planted midway between two diverging roads may direct correctly the doubtful steps of the traveller, itself remaining stationary. Noah’s neighbours helped him to fulfil God’s command—aided him in securing salvation; yet they never kept God’s statutes themselves, and never succeeded in escaping from the Deluge.
“In vain the tallest sons of pride
Fled from the close pursuing wave.”
Flood of Waters! Gen_6:17. Mythology tells how Jupiter burned with anger at the wickedness of the iron age. Having summoned a council of the gods, he addressed them—setting forth the awful condition of the things upon the earth, and announcing his determination to destroy all its inhabitants. He took a thunderbolt, and was about to launch it upon the world, to destroy it by fire, when he bethought himself that it might enkindle the heavens also. He then resolved to drown it by making the clouds pour out torrents of rain:—
“With his clench’d fist
He squeezed the clouds:
Then, with his mace, the monarch struck the ground;
With inward trembling earth received the wound,
And rising streams a ready passage found.”—Ovid.
Wilful Blindness! Gen_6:22. Hosea says: Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not. Old age steals on, and we are insensible of its encroachment. The hair is silvered—the eye loses its lustre—the limbs lack elasticity; and yet we take no thought of time. He knoweth it not. Nor does he desire to know it. Some individuals would efface each new mark of growing years, and shrink from every sad memento of approaching senility—as if ignorance of the fact would arrest the march of time, and each evidence of its ravages obliterated would win back the springtide of youth. These men loved not Noah for reminding them of their gradual declension in moral vigour, and of the rapidly approaching hour when moral death in aggravated form would close this decay. And when they saw him busily employed in preparing the ark, how much ridicule they heaped upon this “obedient servant of God,” until
“The clouds went floating on their fatal way.”—Procter.
Bible! Gen_6:22. There was a sculptor once who made a famous shield, and among the flowers and scrolls which adorned it he engraved his own name, so that whoever looked upon the shield would be sure to see it, and know who made it. Some people tried to erase the name, but they found that the man had put in the letters so cleverly as to render it impossible to take out one letter without spoiling the whole shield. Just so is it with the Bible and the name “Jesus.” Hence that aged ambassador’s counsel to his younger brother was full of potency and truth: There are hundreds of roads to our great English metropolis, so that no matter what point of the compass you start from, you will find that all bring you to London; and there are hundreds of truths in the Bible, and no matter what part of that holy book you take up, it ought to lead you to Christ. But as there are side-roads, and what John Bunyan calls “bye-paths,” so take care that you do not as a preacher wander from the road of truth, otherwise your sermon will never reach to the “Crucified One”—
“Who still for erring, guilty man,
A Saviour’s pity shows;
While still His bleeding heart is touched
With memory of our woes.”—Barbauld.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv14, 19 "Ark": type of Christ as the refuge of His…
ark
"Ark": type of Christ as the refuge of His people from judgment Heb 11:7. In strictness of application this speaks of the preservation through the "great tribulation" Mat 24:21; Mat 24:22 of the remnant of Israel who will turn to the Lord after the Church (typified by Enoch, who was translated to heaven before the judgment of the Flood) has been caught up to meet the Lord; Gen 5:22-24; 1Th 4:15-17; Heb 11:5; Isa 2:10; Isa 2:11; Isa 26:20; Isa 26:21. But the type also has a present reference to the position of the believer "in Christ" (Ephesians 1.), etc. It should be noted that the word translated "pitch" in Gen 6:14 is the same word translated "atonement" in Lev 17:11 etc. It is atonement that keeps out the waters of judgment and makes the believer’s position "in Christ" safe and blessed.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv14, 17 The Command to Build and Equip the Ark
The Command to Build and Equip the Ark
v. 14. Make thee an ark of gopher-wood. Noah and his family alone were exempted from the general destruction. For his preservation he was to build an ark, or ship of refuge, not so much for purposes of navigation, but for the carrying of a very great load. of gopher-wood the ark was to be built, which seems to have been a cypress-wood, very strong and able to withstand the influence of moisture very well. Rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. These compartments were not large rooms, but small cells, little cabins, intended for the housing of men and beasts. To make the vessel absolutely water-tight, all the seams, both inside and outside, were calked with pitch.
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v. 15. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. Figuring a cubit at a foot and a half, the dimensions of the ark were 450 feet in length, 75 feet in width, and 45 feet in height. The cubic contents of the vessel thus exceeded 1,800,000 cubic feet, and afforded ample room for the purpose which the ark was to serve, being able, as has been demonstrated, to carry a cargo greater by one-third than any other form of like cubical content.
v. 16. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above. The Hebrew text here indicates that an arrangement was made by which light and air could enter the ark, a light-opening, either under the ridge of the roof on one side, extending the entire length of the vessel a cubit in height, or in the upper deck, thus affording the opportunity for various light-openings in the interior. And the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. This was the entrance which the Lord afterwards closed, opening it again only at the end of the Flood. With lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. There were no individual openings for all these, but they were connected on the inside, probably by stairways, thus affording access to all the cells.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv16, 18, 20 a roof for the ark
a roof for the ark
This was probably a peaked or slanted roof. Its purpose was to protect everything in the ark from the rain.
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cubit
A cubit was a little less than half a meter long. See how you translated this in Genesis 6:15. (See: Biblical Distance)
a lower, a second, and a third deck
"a lower deck, a middle deck, and an upper deck" or "three decks inside"
deck
"floor" or "level"
Listen
God said this in order to emphasize that he would do what he was about to say. "Pay attention" or "Listen to what I am saying"
I am about to bring the flood of waters
In some languages it may b e better to say "to send" instead of "to bring. It is also possible to avoid the direction and say "to cause." AT: "I am about to send a flood of waters" or "I am about to cause a flood" (See: Go and Come)
all flesh
Here "flesh" represents all physical beings, including humans and animals. (See: Synecdoche)
that has in it the breath of life
Here "breath" represents life. AT: "that lives" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
flood
flesh
heaven
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14–19 6:14 The large boat (traditionally rendered ark) was a…
6:14 The large boat (traditionally rendered ark) was a long rectangular barge designed for survival, not for navigation. The Hebrew word tebah is used again only of the basket in which the baby Moses was floated on the Nile (Exod 2:3, 5). • cypress wood: It is not clear what kind of wood this was. It was possibly from a conifer, such as cypress.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.