II. Here are necessary orders given concerning the brute creatures that were to be preserved alive with Noah in the ark, v. 2, 3. They were not capable of receiving the warning and directions themselves, as man was, who herein is taught more than the beasts of the earth, and made wiser than the fowls of heaven — that he is endued with the power of foresight; therefore man is charged with the care of them: being under his dominion, they must be under his protection; and though he could not secure every individual, yet he must carefully preserve every species, that no tribe, no not the least considerable, might entirely perish out of the creation. Observe in this, 1. God's care for man, and for his comfort and benefit; we do not find that Noah was solicitous of himself about this matter; but God consults our happiness more them we do ourselves. Though God saw that the old world was very provoking, and foresaw that the new one would be little better; yet he would preserve the brute creatures for man's use: Doth God take care for oxen? 1 Cor. 9. 9. Or was it not rather for man's sake that this care was taken? 2. Even the unclean beasts (which were least valuable and profitable) were preserved alive in the ark; for God's tender mercies are over all his works, and not only over those that are of the most eminence and use. 3. Yet more of the clean were preserved than of the unclean, (1.) Because the clean were most for the service of man; and therefore, in favour to him, more of them were preserved, and are still propagated. Thanks be to God, that there are not herds of lions as there are of oxen, nor flocks of tigers as there are of sheep. (2.) Because the clean were for sacrifice to God; and therefore in honour to him, more of them were preserved, three couple for breed, and the odd seventh for sacrifice, ch. 8. 20. God gives us six for one in earthly things, as in the distribution of the days of the week, that in spiritual things we should be all for him. What is devoted to God's honour, and used in his service, is particularly blessed and increased.
III. Here is notice given of the now imminent approach of the flood, v. 4, Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain. 1. "It shall be seven days yet, before I do it." After the 120 years were expired, God grants them a reprieve of seven days longer; both to show how slow he is to anger, and that punishing work is his strange work, and also to give them some further space for repentance; but all in vain; these seven days were trifled away, after all the rest; they continued secure and sensual until the day that the flood came. 2. "It shall be but seven days." While Noah told them of the judgment at a distance, they were tempted to put off their repentance, because the vision was for a great while to come; but now he is ordered to tell them that it is at the door, that they have but one week more to turn them in, but one sabbath more to improve; to see if that will now, at last, awaken them to consider the things that belonged to their peace, which otherwise would soon be hidden from their eyes. 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 seven days, of their sickness, when they see it approaching, their hearts being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
5. And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. 6. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. 7. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 8. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 9. There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. 10. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Here is Noah's ready obedience to the commands that God gave him.
1. He went into the ark, upon notice that the flood would come after seven days, though, probably, as yet there appeared no visible sign of its approach, no cloud arising that threatened it, nothing done toward it, but all continued serene and clear; for as he 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, though he did not see that the second causes had yet begun to work. In every step he took, he walked by faith, and not by sense. During these seven days, it is likely, he was settling himself and his family in the ark, and distributing the creatures into their several apartments, which was the conclusion of that visible sermon which he had long been preaching to his careless neighbours, and which, one would think, might have awakened them; but, not obtaining that desired end, it left their blood upon their own heads.
2. He took all his family along with him; his wife, to be his companion and comfort; (though it should seem that, after this, he had no children by her;) his sons, and his sons' wives, that by them not only his family, but the world of mankind, might be built up. Observe, Though men were to be reduced to so small a number, and it would be very desirable to have the world speedily repeopled, yet Noah's sons were to have each of them but one wife, which strengthens the arguments against having many wives; for from the beginning of this new world it was not so: as, at first, God made, so now he kept alive, but one woman for one man; see Matth. 19. 4, 8.
3. The brute-creatures readily went in with him: the same hand that at first brought them to Adam to be named, now brought them to Noah to be preserved; the ox now knew his owner, and the ass his protector's crib, nay, even the wildest creatures flocked to it; but man was become more brutish than the brutes themselves, and did not know, did not consider, Isa. 1. 3.
11. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
I. The date of this great event; this is carefully recorded, for the great certainty of the story.
1. It was in the 600th year of Noah's life, which, by computation, appears to be 1656 years from the creation. The years of the old world are reckoned, not by the reigns of the giants, but by the lives of the patriarchs; saints are of more account with God than princes: The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Noah was now a very old man, even as men's years went then. Note, (1.) The longer we live in this world, the more we see of the miseries and calamities of it; it is therefore spoken of as the privilege of those that die young, that their eyes shall not see the evil which is coming.
