COMMENTARY.
The terror of God’s judgment. Picture to yourself the horror of this terrible judgment of God. In sixteen hundred years the human race had increased to millions of beings, and now all were destroyed! Many of them were drowned when the Flood first began, while others saved themselves for a time in high trees or on the roofs of houses. But the houses were swept away and the trees uprooted, and all who were on them were swallowed up in the waters. Many fled to the mountains, but the flood followed them there. With deadly fear they watched the waters rising higher and higher, till the very mountaintops were’ swallowed up, and one by one those who had sought safety on them were engulfed in the roaring waves. Mothers saw their children, brothers their sisters, husbands their wives, drowning before their eyes, and were powerless to help them. Black clouds covered the sky, and the earth was wrapped in darkness. Beasts roared, and men wailed and cried aloud to heaven for mercy. But the day of mercy was past; the day of retribution had come. And, behold, while the storm raged fiercer and fiercer, and the waters rose above the highest mountains, burying all mankind in a watery grave, the ark floated securely on the top of the horrible flood, protected by the hand of God, neither injured by the fallen trees which were hurled against it, nor dashed to pieces against the sunken rocks.
The four last things. The patriarchs lived to a great age, but they had to die at last. Of each one, with the exception of Henoch, it is said that he lived to such and such an age, and then died. By this they fulfilled the words of God: “Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” So it is with man still, and so it will be till the end of the world: all men must die, because they are the inheritors of Adam’s curse. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment” (Hebr. 9, 27). The four last things are death, judgment, heaven, hell.
The sons of God and the sons of men. The opposition between the sons of God and the sons of men continues to this day, and will continue to the end of the world. The children of men are those who either have no faith, or who do not live up to their faith, but follow the desires of their own corrupt hearts, and without shame transgress God’s commandments. They love the world above all things, as if it were their God. They struggle after the honours, pleasures, and riches of this life, and do not trouble themselves about eternal life. But who are the children of God? They are those who do God’s will, who live in the grace and love of God, and who strive after heavenly things. As Christians, we are all children of God. Let us live as such, and try to do the will of our Father, who is in heaven.
The long life of the Patriarchs. As the earth before the Flood produced larger plants and larger beasts than it does now, so men in
