Genesis 6:17 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 6:17

Comments

The Hebrew says ‘a devastation of waters’. There is a little tautology in our translation here – ‘flood of waters’. The ark had one door. One can imagine how foolish they thought Noah was. Possibly there had been no rain up to that point in the history of the earth; the earth was watered by a mist, Moses tells us. It may still have been the case and if so they would have thought that Noah was doubly mad.Noah would have been severely mocked over what he was doing, and he might have worried that this was likely to undermine his testimony, his preaching to them. Why take any notice of a crazy man who thinks that something is going to happen which has never happened in the history of the world? And yet, this was what he had been told to do, and this apparent disadvantage was one which God wanted him to labour under, because that too corresponds to the preaching of the gospel to an unbelieving world. This flood was unmistakably sent from God. Even those who did not know the Lord would have concluded that their Creator was angry with them, angry enough to destroy what he had made. All life wherein is the breath of life, all land animals including man, who is at the pinnacle of them all, were to die.

Application

The gospel too seems to many to be an absurd message. ‘The world is going to end? Christ is going to come back and judge us for every single detail of our lives? He sees everything and nothing escapes his notice? But the world has been going on for millions of years, and we are convinced there is not God, no accountability to him for what we do. If there was a God in heaven, the idea that he would concern himself with the goings on of individual human lives, and care about that, is ridiculous. He would be working on far too big a scale to be interested in us.’ So thinks the world.

This disadvantage which Noah faced illustrated the fact that no one will come to faith without the Spirit opening their eyes. That generation had received ample warning. The Spirit had striven with them. Their consciences told them they were ripe for judgment, and the message that Noah preached chimed with this verdict in their hearts. Although they tried their hardest to ridicule the message, and encouraged each other in their unbelief, when the flood came, they would have chided themselves for how many warnings they had ignored.

Questions

How do we know if something is a judgment from God? Anything which is out of the ordinary and abnormal is a judgment from God. We learn from Scripture that God orders the clouds and directs the storms. He is sovereign over all the swellings and the floods. To insulate yourself from warning is a disaster, to be like a flint before the reproofs of God. If some relatively minor politician dares to say that some adversity which the country faces could be a judgment from God, then everybody pounces on him. Proud men will not have it that God is over the affairs of their lives, that there is any reason why he might decide to judge them. We insulate ourselves from any notion of God’s supervision and judgment . Warnings that are ignored, we learn from this passage, end in judgment without mercy. If we have had a warning, when will the firmer judgment come? Well we do not know. After the initial announcement of the flood, it took 120 years of God’s patience and mercy before it came.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Genesis 6:17 Commentary and Bible Study