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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
If chapters four and five show the development and re sults of sin in th e fam ily life, then chapters six to eight give us th e resu lts in th e experience of th e race.— Evans. 6:6. “I t repen ted th e Lord.” By “ rep en t” we are to understand, no t th a t God changed His COMMENTS mind, but His purpose and dealings FROM THE only, w ith reference to th e race.— COMMENTARIES Evans. V. V. Morgan 6:8. “B u t Noah found grace in th e , eyes of th e Lord.” Grace, in th e Bible sense of the word, means God’s unm erited favour, and it was th is alone th a t gave Noah his sp iritu al position before God. He was “saved by grace alone.”— Thomas. 6:9. “In his generations.” Noah stands alone “ in his generations” like some single tree, green and erect, In a forest of blasted and fallen pines.—-Maclaren. “P erfect.” The original word means up righ t, genuine, and has no reference to the absence of sin. Uprightness in tu rn is the resu lt of being righteous before God through grace.— Thomas. “G enerations.” Here we have brought before us the thought of Noah’s life in relation to his contemporaries. He lived a life of w itness to God among those With whom he was associated. As the Apostle P eter tells us, he was “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2 :5 ). H is life as well as his words bore testimony to God and thu s “ condemned the world” of his day (Heb. 1 1 :7 ).— Thomas. “W alked.” He is one of two men of whom th is is re corded (5 :2 2 ). The idea is th a t of friendship and fellow ship w ith God, and it is noteworthy th a t such a position was possible am idst the very difficult, practical, every-day life th a t Noah had to lead. It meant courage and independ ence, for no one else was w alking in th a t way. When a man walks w ith God it necessarily means th a t he cannot walk w ith any of his fellows who are going in th e opposite direction.— Thomas. The Divine Purpose (v. 9-13) is now clearly stated to be a judgm ent upon sin. Its course is due to th e awful char acter of mankind (v. 11). The two words, “ co rrup t” and “ violence,” give us respectively the character and expres sion of th e sin, th e cause and the effect. The corruption has led to violence, for badness always leads to cruelty in one form or another. A life th a t is wrong w ith God neces sarily becomes wrong w ith its fellows. God is not indifferent to human life, and th e fact of sin necessarily compelled Him to take action. His decision to destroy the earth was a t once an expression of His justice and His mercy; the end had come, and th ere was no a lter native. Moral p u trid ity can only be destroyed by a Divine judgm ent.— Thomas. 6:14. “P itch .” - The Word here twice rendered “ pitch,” is called in th e Hebrew “ copher.” And then th e passage reads, “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; and thou shalt copher it w ithin and w ithout w ith copher.” F o r these He brew words are allied to our English one “ cover.” And thus we are rem inded of th a t precious and frequent phrase in the New Testam ent— “ in Christ.” In Him only can we be sheltered from th e w rath to come. In Him only can we be carried through the region of death and judgm ent into resurrection life (John 5 :2 4 ).— Lincoln. 6:19. “Two of every so rt.” (Cf. Gen. 7 :2 .) In addi tion to two animals, etc.,' commanded (Gen. 6:19 ) to be preserved for fu tu re increase ( “ they shall be male and female” ), th e fu rth e r command was given more th a n 100 years later to take of clean beasts, i. e. beasts acceptable for sacrifice, seven each.— Scofield. 7:1. “Come.” The first “ come” of th e Bible is one of salvation. So the last “ come” (Rev. 2 2 :1 7 ).—Moody. 7:4. “Yet seven days.” Like as God waited seven days afte r th e door of the ark was shu t ere He let loose the wa ters of the deluge upon men; and again, as th ere was a like pause of seven days between the warning to Pharaoh con cerning the slaugh ter of the first-born and th a t slaughter itself (compare Exodus 11 w ith 1 2 :1 5 ); so th ere will cer tainly elapse seven years, between the rap tu re of the Church to be w ith Christ, and His subsequent appearing to execute judgm ent on the world.— Lincoln. 7:16. “The Lord sh u t him in.” Here, assuredly, was full and perfect security for all w ithin. Jehovah kept the door, and no one could get in or out w ithout him. There was both a window and a door to the ark. The Lord se cured, w ith His own omnipotent hand, th e door, and left Noah the window, from which he m ight look upward to the place from whence all the judgm ent had em anated, and see th a t no judgm ent remained for him.— C. H. M.
given us His Son, will He not w ith Him also freely give us all th ing s?” God’s Word cannot be broken. Nothing pleases God more th a n abiding faith in His promises. Nothing gives the believer such absolute peace as implicit tru s t in, God’s gracious plan and provision fo r him. (4) THE FAILURE OF MAN, Ch. 11. In the n in th chapter we find even Noah falling away from his fellowship w ith God, and we are w arned to place no confidence in th e flesh. Here we have man in a con federation, ‘‘Let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach to Heaven” (v. 4) “And th e Lord came down to see th e city and the tow er” (v. 5). Before the flood we find the principles upon which ru in sets in, and upon which judgm ent is based. A fter the flood, we find th ree g reat sins are characterstiC of men, and these th ree continue un til judgm ent comes upon the earth ,— sensual indulgence (spoiling th e scene of th e hew earth by d runk enn ess); irreverence (Ham looking upon his fath e r’s n ak e d n ess); and am bition (th e desire to exalt hum anity and make a name above th a t of God). There was never a b etter opportunity for men to improve a golden privilege th a n when Noah and his fam ily had the earth to themselves. Behind them was a world’s fail ure, and God’s grace before them a world rich in resources, and above them a covenant-keeping God. Man never changes. A fter 6000 years’ history of his failures, it must take a good deal of courage to be an optim ist. Men conspired again st God. They took things into th e ir own hands and proposed to fight against God’s plan to replenish th e earth ,— “L et us build.” They evidenced worldliness, w ilfulness and wickedness in setting aside God’s wisdom and God’s prom ise of protection. God confused th e ir tongue. They sought to conform to a plan of Satan and God scattered them over the earth. The devil is God’s ape. He seeks to im itate God’s plans. He proposed to have a city, a people, a tower, a kingdom. Every hum an organization has been a failure and will be unto th e end. Topics fo r Study (1 ) The descending scale and degeneracy of man. (2) The demand for obedience to God’s law for m an’s sake. (3 ) Are all of God’s laws beneficial? (4) The Divine and gracious invitation of God, “ Come thou into the a rk .” (5) The Divine judgm ent upon sinners. (6) Are grace and judgm ent always manifest in contrast ing events? (7 ) Was God’s divine power manifest in saving Noah, and His Divine punishm ent in destroying th e World? (8 ) Is there definite security for all believers? (9) Is th e hand of Satan to be seen in th e plan to build the tower, and was it intended to circumvent God’s plan? (10) Is God’s eye always upon the children of men? (11) W hat was th e g reat sin of th e Babelites? (12) Do the cult builders come any n earer reaching heaven than th e Babelites, and why not? (13) Is the confusion of tongues among the nations a verification of this account? (14) W hat is the one g reat lesson to be drawn from these chapters?
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