Judgment and Promise

MEMORY VERSE: “By faith Noah; being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” —Hebrews 11:7

GENESIS 6:5-8,13,14; 7:1,4,5; 9:8-13

IT WAS between fifteen and sixteen hundred years from the creation of Adam until the time when God announced to Noah that because of the great wickedness of the people he proposed to destroy the human race by a flood of waters. The record states, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Genesis 6:4 reads, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” In Jude 6 we read of these “sons of God” as being “angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,” and Jude explains that the Lord has reserved these in chains of darkness “unto the judgment of the great day.”

The Apostle Peter refers to these angels as “spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (I Pet. 3:19,20) Thus what Genesis refers to as “sons of God” Jude describes as “angels,” and Peter as “spirits.”

The disobedience of these was in leaving their first, or created estate as spirit beings, materializing as humans, and marrying the daughters of men. This took place prior to the Flood, Peter indicates, and the Genesis record is that the offspring of these angels were “giants,” and men of “renown.” it seems reasonable that the excessive violence in the earth at that time was due to a considerable extent to the activity of these “giants.”

The record states that it “repented” the Lord that he had made man. We are not to think of the word “repented” here as signifying the acknowledgment of guilt, and feeling sorry for it. Rather, in this instance the word simply has the connotation of changing, and the great Creator of the universe is indeed capable of changing his course of action.—Jer. 18:1-10

When God first told Noah about the coming Flood he said that man’s days would then be one hundred and twenty years. (Gen. 6:3) This has been taken to mean that Noah was one hundred and twenty years building the ark, but the record does not say so. It has also been supposed that Noah was a preacher of righteousness for one hundred and twenty years, but the account does not say this either. The record simply is that from the time the Lord announced the coming of the Flood, until it came, would be one hundred and twenty years.

In the last section of our lesson we are told of the covenant which the Lord made with Noah assuring him that he would never again destroy all flesh with a flood of waters. This could well be taken as an assurance that never again would God destroy all flesh in any way. This disproves the theory of the Dark Ages that one day the earth be destroyed by literal fire.

With the return of Christ there comes a “time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation.” (Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21,22) This trouble is symbolized in the prophecies as fire, earthquakes, etc., but the earth will not be destroyed, for it abideth forever. (Eccl. 1:4) And, as Jesus declared, the “tribulation” upon the people will be brought to an end before all flesh is destroyed. God created the earth to be man’s everlasting home.

Noah was one of the faith heroes of ancient times. He took God at his word, and although there was no evidence of rain, he built the ark as commanded. This faithfulness, as our memory verse indicates, condemned the world, but it made Noah an “heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Noah’s work demonstrated his faith, and through his faith-justification he became a friend of God, and will be brought forth in the “better resurrection” to be one of the “princes in all the earth.”—Ps. 45:16; Heb. 11:35,40

QUESTIONS

What was one of the contributing causes of the great violence in the earth just prior to the Flood?

Will all flesh ever again be destroyed?

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