Commentary on Genesis Part 18

3. The most terrible examples of punishment G.o.d gives in the case of the proud and such examples should be diligently pondered 6-7.

* The complaint that the world is hardened by reason of G.o.d's judgments 7-8.

4. How the ancient world was misled into pride through its gifts 9-10.

5. Pride is the common weakness of human nature 11.

6. In what ways man is moved to pride 12-13.

a. The chief sin of the old world 14-15.

* Pride is the spring of all vices 15.

b. How the old world sinned against the first table of the law, and brought on the sins against the second table 16.

c. How and why G.o.d punished the old world 17.

* From the punishment of the first world we conclude that the last world will be also punished 18.

d. Whether the first world was wicked before Noah's birth; on what occasion its wickedness increased 19.

* Noah the martyr of martyrs 20.

* Why Lamech called his son Noah 21.

e. How sin greatly increased in the days of Noah 22.

* Why Noah remained unmarried so long, which was his greatest cross 23.

f. When the wickedness of the old world began 24.

* Concerning unchast.i.ty.

(1) It is the foundation of all want and misery 24.

(2) It is the spring of many other sins 25.

(3) How to remedy it 25.

(4) Whether bearing children is in itself to be reckoned as unchast.i.ty, and how far Moses denounces it 26.

(5) Unchast.i.ty makes the bearing of children difficult 27.

g. The reason the sons of G.o.d looked upon the daughters of men 28.

h. Why the sin of the first world was not so terrible as the sin of the second 29-30.

i. How the first world changed through the marriages of Adam and the other patriarchs 30-32.

* The sons of G.o.d.

(1) What is understood by them 32.

(2) The rabbins' fables about the sons of G.o.d, how to refute them 33-34.

* What is to be held concerning the "Incubis" and "Succubis" 34-35.

(3) How the deluge came because of the sons of G.o.d 36.

(4) To what end should the fall and punishment of the sons of G.o.d serve us 37-38.

* Should the Romish church be called holy 37.

* How the children of G.o.d became the children of the devil 38.

* How Noah had to spend his life among a host of villains 39.

* The conduct of the world when G.o.d sends it righteous servants 40.

I. THE SINS OF THE PRIMEVAL WORLD IN GENERAL THE CAUSE OF ITS DESTRUCTION.

1. In the first five chapters Moses describes the state of the human race in the primeval world and the wonderful glory of the holy patriarchs who governed it. In these five chapters the chronicles as in the first book, so to speak, the happiest period of the whole human race and of the world before the flood. Now we shall begin what may be termed the second book of Genesis, containing the history of the flood. It shows the destruction of all the offspring of Cain and the eternal preservation of the generation of the righteous; for while everything perishes in the flood, the generation of the righteous is saved as an eternal world.

2. It is appalling that the whole human race except eight persons is destroyed, in view of the fact that this was truly the golden age; for succeeding ages do not equal the old world in glory, greatness and majesty. And if G.o.d visited with destruction his own perfect creation and the very glory of the human race, we have just cause for fear.

3. In inflicting this punishment, G.o.d followed his own peculiar way.

Whatever is most exalted he particularly overthrows and humiliates.

Peter says in 2 Peter 2, 5: G.o.d "spared not the ancient world;" and he would imply that it was, in comparison with succeeding ages, a veritable paradise. Neither did he spare the sublimest creatures--the angels--nor the kings ruling his people, nor the first-born of all times. But the more highly they were blessed with gifts, the more sternly he punished them when they began to misuse his gifts.

4. The Holy Spirit says in the ninth verse of the second psalm, concerning kings: "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." But is it not the Lord himself who has ordained kings and wills that all men should honor and obey them? Here he condemns and spurns the wisdom of the prudent and the righteousness of the righteous. It is G.o.d's proper and incessant work to condemn what is most magnificent, to cast down the most exalted and to defeat the strongest, though they be his own creatures. He does this, however, that abundant evidence of his wrath may terrify the unG.o.dly and may arouse us to despair of ourselves and to trust in his power alone. We must either live under the shadow of G.o.d's wing, in faith in his grace, or we must perish.

5. After the fall it came to pa.s.s that the more one was blessed with gifts, the greater was his pride. This was the sin of the angels who fell. This was the sin of the primitive world, in which the grandest people of the race lived; but because they prided themselves in their wisdom and other gifts, they perished. This was the sin of the greatest kings. This was the sin of nearly all the first-born. But what is the need of so many words? This is original sin--that we fail to recognize and rightly use the great and precious gifts of G.o.d.

6. That the greatest men must furnish the most abhorrent examples is not the fault of the gifts and blessings, but of those to whom they are intrusted. G.o.d is a dialectician and judges the person by the thing,[1] meting out destruction to the thing or gift as well as to its possessor.

[Footnote 1: _ut arguat a conjugatis._]

7. It is expedient to give heed to such examples. They are given that the proud may fear and be humbled, and that we may learn our utter dependence upon the guidance and will of G.o.d, who resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble. Lacking the understanding and practice of these truths, man falls continually--kings, n.o.bles, saints, one after the other, filling the world with examples of the wrath and judgment of G.o.d. The Blessed Virgin sings: "He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. He hath put down the princes from their thrones, and hath exalted them of low degree." Lk 1, 51-53.

8. Full of such examples are all ages, all princely courts, all lands.

Yet, by the grace of Saint Diabolus, the prince of this world, our hearts are so hard that we are not moved by all this to fear; rather to disdain, though we feel and see that we also shall incur destruction. Blessed are they, therefore, who heed, and are moved by such examples of wrath to be humble and to live in the fear of G.o.d.

9. Consider, then, the preeminence of the old world, that perished in the flood. It possessed apparently the best, holiest and n.o.blest men, compared with whom we are as the dregs of the world. For the Scriptures do not say that they were wicked and unjust among themselves, but toward G.o.d. "He saw," says Moses, "that they were evil." The eyes of G.o.d perceive and judge quite differently from the eyes of men. He says in Isaiah 55, 8-9: "Neither are your ways my ways.... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

10. These tyrants and giants were esteemed and honored among themselves as the wisest and most just of men. So in our day kings and princes, popes and bishops, theologians, physicians, jurists and n.o.blemen occupy exalted places and receive honor as the very gems and luminaries of the human race. More deservedly did the children of G.o.d in the old world receive such honor, because they excelled in power and possessed many gifts. Nevertheless, falling into pride and contempt of G.o.d while enjoying his blessings, they were rejected by G.o.d and destroyed, together with their gifts, as if they had been the lowest and vilest of the human race.

11. And this is a common failing of our human nature. It necessarily puffs itself up and prides itself on its gifts unless restrained by the Holy Spirit. I have often said that a man has no more dangerous enemy than himself. It is my own experience that I have not without me so great cause for fear as within me; for it is our inner gifts that incite our nature to pride.