Read Genesis 7:1-12
Verse 1-12 -
The call to Noah is very kind, like that of a tender father to his
children to come in-doors when he sees night or a storm coming. Noah
did not go into the ark till God bade him, though he knew it was to
be his place of refuge. It is very comfortable to see God going
before us in every step we take. Noah had taken a great deal of
pains to build the ark, and now he was himself kept alive in it.
What we do in obedience to the command of God, and in faith, we
ourselves shall certainly have the comfort of, first or last. This
call to Noah reminds us of the call the gospel gives to poor
sinners. Christ is an ark, in whom alone we can be safe, when death
and judgment approach. The word says, "Come;" ministers say, "Come;"
the Spirit says, "Come, come into the Ark." Noah was accounted
righteous, not for his own righteousness, but as an heir of the
righteousness which is by faith, Hebrews
11:7. He believed the revelation of a saviour, and sought and
expected salvation through Him alone. Thus was he justified by
faith, and received that Spirit whose fruit is in all goodness; but
if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. After
the hundred and twenty years, God granted seven days' longer space
for repentance. But these seven days were trifled away, like all the
rest. It shall be but seven days. They had only one week more, one
sabbath more to improve, and to consider the things that belonged to
their peace. But it is common for those who have been careless of
their souls during the years of their health, when they have looked
upon death at a distance, to be as careless during the days, the few
days of their sickness, when they see death approaching; their
hearts being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. As Noah prepared
the ark by faith in the warning given that the flood would come, so
he went into it, by faith in this warning that it would come
quickly. And on the day Noah was securely fixed in the ark, the
fountains of the great deep were broken up. The earth had within it
those waters, which, at God's command, sprang up and flooded it; and
thus our bodies have in themselves those humours, which, when God
pleases, become the seeds and springs of mortal diseases. The
windows of heaven were opened, and the waters which were above the
firmament, that is, in the air, were poured out upon the earth. The
rain comes down in drops; but such rains fell then, as were never
known before or since. It rained without stop or abatement, forty
days and forty nights, upon the whole earth at once. As there was a
peculiar exercise of the almighty power of God in causing the flood,
it is vain and presumptuous to attempt explaining the method of it,
by human wisdom.
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