Commentary on Genesis Part 29

V. 12. _And G.o.d saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth._

222. Inasmuch as the wrath of G.o.d is appalling and destruction is imminent for all flesh except eight souls, Moses is somewhat redundant in this pa.s.sage, and uses repet.i.tions, which are not superfluous but express an emphasis of their own. Above he said the earth was corrupt; now he says that G.o.d, as if following the customary judicial method, saw this and meditated punishment. In this manner he pictures, as it were, the order in which G.o.d proceeds.

223. The judgment of spiritual people concerning the pope at the present day is that he is the Antichrist, raging against the Word and the kingdom of Christ. But they who censure it are unable to correct this wickedness. Wickedness is growing daily and contempt for G.o.dliness is becoming greater every day. Now comes the thought: What is G.o.d doing? Why does he not punish his enemy? Does he sleep and care no longer for human affairs? The delay of judgment causes the righteous anguish. They themselves cannot come to the succor of a stricken religion and they see G.o.d who could help, connive at the fury of the popes, who securely sin against the first and the second tables of the Law.

224. Just so Noah sees the earth filled with wrongs. Therefore, he groans and sighs to heaven in order to arouse G.o.d from the highest heaven to judgment. Such voices occur here and there in the Psalms (10, 1): "Why standest thou afar off?"; (13, 1): "How long, O Jehovah?"; (9, 13): "Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah; consider my trouble"; (7, 6-9): "Arise, judge my cause, etc."

225. What Moses here describes comes at length to pa.s.s, that G.o.d also sees these things and hears the cry of the righteous who are able to judge the world; for they who are spiritual judge all things (1 Cor 2, 15), though they cannot alter anything. Wickedness is incorrigible when adorned with a show of piety, and so is oppression when it a.s.sumes the disguise of justice and foresight. It is nothing new that they who seize the wives, daughters, houses, lands and goods of others desire to be just and holy, as we showed above in respect of the papacy.

226. This is the second stage then: When the saints have seen and judged the wickedness of the world, G.o.d also sees it. He says of the Sodomites: "The cry of them is waxed great before Jehovah" (Gen 19, 13); and above (ch 4, 10): "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me." But always before the Lord takes note, the sobs and groans of the righteous precede, arousing, as it were, the Lord from slumber.

What Moses desires to show in this pa.s.sage through the word, "saw" is that G.o.d finally perceived the afflictions and heard the cries of the righteous, filling at last all heaven. He who hitherto had winked at everything and seemed to favor the success of the wicked, was awakened as from slumber. The fact is he saw everything much sooner than Noah; for he is the searcher of hearts and cannot be deceived by simulated piety as we can. But not until now, when he meditates punishment, does Noah perceive that he sees.

227. Thus we are afflicted today by extreme and unheard of wickedness, for our adversaries condemn from sheer caprice the truth they know and profess. They try to get at our throats and shed the blood of the righteous with a satanic fury. Such blasphemous, sacrilegious and parricidal doings against the kingdom and name of G.o.d, manifest as such beyond possibility of denial, they defend as the acme of justice.

While contending for the maintenance of their tyrannical position they go so far as to arrogate to themselves the name of the Church. What else can we do here but cry to Jehovah to make his name sacred and not to permit the overthrow of his kingdom nor resistance to his paternal will?

228. But so far the Lord sleeps. He apparently does not observe such wickedness, because he gives no sign as yet of observing it. Rather he permits us to be tormented by such woeful sights. We are, therefore, thus far in the first stage and this verse, stating that the whole earth is corrupt, applies to our age. But at the proper time the second stage will be reached, when we can declare in certainty of faith that not only we but G.o.d also sees and hates such wickedness.

Though G.o.d, in his long-suffering, has continued to wink at many things, he shall retain the name of One who in righteousness shall judge the earth.

229. How bitter and hard such delay is for the righteous, the lamentations of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 12, 1ff., and 20, 7ff, show.

There the holy man almost verges on blasphemy until he is told that the Babylonian king should come and inflict punishment upon the unbelieving scoffers. Thereupon Jeremiah recognizes that G.o.d looks down on the earth and is Judge upon the earth.

230. The universal judgment which follows is terrible in the extreme, namely that all flesh upon the earth had corrupted its way and that G.o.d, when he had begun to examine the sons of men, did not, from the oldest to the youngest of the fathers, find any he could save from destruction.

This strikes our ears as still more awful when we take into consideration the condition of the primitive world, not judging by the miserable fragments we have today. As the physical condition of the world at that time was infinitely ahead of this age, so we may conclude that the majesty and pomp of our rulers and the show of sanct.i.ty and wisdom on the part of the popes are not to be compared to the show of religion, righteousness and wisdom found among those renowned men of the primitive world.

And yet the text says that all flesh had corrupted its way, save Noah and his offspring. That means all men were wicked, lived in idolatry and false religion and hated the true worship of G.o.d. They despised the promise of the seed, and persecuted Noah, who proclaimed forgiveness through the seed and threatened to those, who should fail to believe his forgiveness, eternal doom.

VI. G.o.d DECIDES TO PUNISH THE FIRST WORLD; COMMANDS NOAH TO BUILD AN ARK; THE COVENANT.

A. HOW G.o.d DECREED TO PUNISH THE OLD WORLD IN HIS WRATH.

1. How punishment finally comes when G.o.d has suffered sin long enough 231.

* Luther's hope that G.o.d's judgment may soon break upon the last world 231.

2. Whether reason can grasp the wrath and punishment of G.o.d 232.

3. How G.o.d's promises stand in the midst of his wrath and punishment 232.

4. The first world thought itself secure against G.o.d's wrath 233.

* The Papal security and boldness against the Evangelicals 234.

5. By what means G.o.d punished the first world 235.

* The Holy Spirit must reveal that G.o.d's wrath and punishment do not violate his promises 236.

6. The causes of this wrath and punishment 237.

* By what may it be known that G.o.d will visit Germany with punishment 238.

* G.o.d complains more of the violence shown to the neighbor than to himself 239.

* The damages of the deluge 240.

* The ground of the earth was in a better state before the flood than now 240.

* The colors in the rainbow signs of the punishment of the first and the last world 241.

VI. G.o.d DECIDES TO PUNISH THE FIRST WORLD; COMMANDS NOAH TO BUILD AN ARK; THE COVENANT.

A. G.o.d Decides to Punish the Old World.

V. 13. _And G.o.d said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth._

231. After Noah and his people had for a long time raised their accusing cry against the depravity of the world, the Lord gave evidence that he saw the depravity and intended to avenge it. This, the second stage, we also look for today, nor is there any doubt that men shall exist, to whom this coming destruction of the world is to be revealed, unless the destruction be the last day and the final judgment, which I truly wish. We have seen enough wickedness in these brief and evil days of ours. G.o.dless men, as in Noah's time, adorn their vices with the name of holiness and righteousness. Hence, no penitence or reformation is to be hoped for. This stage having been reached in the times of Noah, sentence is finally pa.s.sed, having been previously announced by the Lord when he gave command that striving should cease and issued the declaration that he regretted having made man.

232. Reason is incapable of believing and perfectly understanding such wrath. Just consider how different this is from what had been. Above we have read (ch 1, 31) that G.o.d saw everything he had made and behold, it was very good; that he gave man and beast the additional blessing of propagation; that he subjected to man's rule the earth and all the treasures of the earth; that as the highest blessing, he added the promise of the woman's seed and life eternal and inst.i.tuted not only the home and the State, but also the Church. How, then, is it that the first world, called into being in this way through the Word, should, to use Peter's expression, perish by water?

233. There is no doubt that the sons of the world threw all this up to Noah as he preached the coming universal destruction, and publicly charged him with lying, on the ground that home, State and Church had been inst.i.tuted by G.o.d; that G.o.d surely would not overturn his own establishment by a final destruction; that man had been created for propagation and dominion upon the earth, not for the rule of water over him to his destruction.

234. Just so the Papists press us with the one argument that Christ will be with the Church to the end of the world (Mt 28, 20); that the gates of h.e.l.l will not prevail against it (Mt 16, 18). This they vaunt in a loud-voiced manner, believing their destruction to be an impossibility. Swept by the waves Peter's ship may be, they say, but the waters cannot overwhelm it.

235. Quite similar was the security and a.s.surance before the flood; notwithstanding, we see that the whole earth perished. The scoffers boasted that G.o.d's regulations are perpetual, and that G.o.d had never completely abolished or altered his creation. But consider the outcome and you will see that they were wrong, while Noah alone was right.

236. Unless the additional light of the Holy Spirit is vouchsafed, man will surely be convinced by such argument; for is it not equivalent to making G.o.d inconstant and changeable, to maintain that he will completely destroy his creature? Yet G.o.d gives Noah the revelation that he will make an end of flesh and earth, not in part, but of all flesh and all the earth. Would it not be awful enough to part.i.tion the earth into three parts and to threaten destruction to one? But to rage against the whole earth and against all mankind seems to be in conflict with G.o.d's government and the declaration that everything is very good. These things are too sublime to be understood or comprehended by human reason.

237. What is the cause of wrath so great? Surely, the fact that the earth is filled with violence, as he here says. Astonishing reason! He says nothing here concerning the first table; he mentions only the second. It is, as if he said: I shall say nothing of myself that they hate, blaspheme and persecute my Word. Among themselves how shamefully do they live! Neither home nor State are properly administered; everything is conducted by force, nothing by reason and law.

Therefore, I shall destroy at the same time both mankind and the earth.

238. We see also in our age that G.o.d winks at the profanation of the ma.s.s, a horrible abomination that fills the whole earth, and at unG.o.dly teachings and other offenses which have hitherto been in vogue in religion. But when men live so together that they disregard both State and home, when huge covetousness, graft of every description and manifold iniquity have waxed strong, does it not become clear to every man that G.o.d is compelled, as it were, to punish, yea to overturn Germany?

239. It is the fullness of his mercy and love that prompts G.o.d rather to make complaint concerning the wrongs inflicted upon his members than those inflicted upon himself. We observe he maintains silence respecting the latter, while he threatens punishment, not to man alone, but even to the very earth itself.

240. A twofold effect is traceable to the flood; a weakening of man's powers and an impairment of his wealth and that of the earth. The latter-day fruit of trees is in nowise to be compared with that in the days before the flood. The antediluvian turnips were better than afterward the melons, oranges or pomegranates. The pear was finer than the spices of today. So it is likely that a man's finger possessed more strength than today his whole arm. Likewise man's reason and understanding were far superior. But G.o.d, because of sin, has brought punishment to bear, not alone upon man, but also upon his property and domain, as witness to posterity also of his wrath.

But how is the destruction to be effected? a.s.suredly, by his seizing the watery element and blotting out everything. The force with which this element is wont to rage is common knowledge. Though the atmosphere be pestilential, it does not always infect trees and roots.

But water not only overturns everything, not only does it tear out trees and roots, but it also lifts the very surface of the earth. It alters the soil, so that the most fertile fields are marred by the overflow of salty earth and sand (Ps 107, 34). This was therefore equal to the downfall of the primitive world.

241. The penalty of the present world, however, will be different, as the color of the rainbow shows. The lowest color the extent of which is well defined, is that of water. For the fury of the water in the deluge was so great that limits were set to its havoc, and the earth was restored to the remnant of the G.o.dly after the destruction of the evil-doers. But the other arch of the rainbow, the outer, which has no clearly defined bounds, is of the color of fire, the element which shall consume the whole world. This destruction shall be succeeded by a better world, which shall last forever and serve the righteous. This the Lord seems to have written in the color of the rainbow.

B. G.o.d COMMANDS NOAH TO BUILD AN ARK.

* That Noah had only three children is a sign of G.o.d's mercy 242.