Commentary on Genesis Part 35

(2) Why such words used here 53.

3. Flood covered and destroyed the whole earth 54.

4. Why G.o.d sent the deluge 54.

* Why G.o.d so often repeats the same thing 55-60.

* What is meant by Zippor 55.

* How G.o.d's wrath as seen in the deluge was very great 56-57.

5. The deluge was a terrible spectacle; Noah and his sons took courage from it 58-60.

* Noah's glorious faith at the sight of the deluge 60.

* Noah's long ship voyage; how he was comforted 61.

6. How the world's destruction harmonizes with G.o.d's promises: how the promises to the Church agree with his threatenings 62ff.

* G.o.d's threatenings and man's unbelief.

a. Why the first world believed not the threatenings about the deluge 62ff.

b. Why the Jews believe not the threatenings of the prophets 63.

c. Why the Papists believed not the threats against them 64.

* G.o.d's Church and her maintenance.

a. The world understands not how the church is maintained 66.

b. What is the true form of the true Church 66.

c. G.o.d's promises not rescinded when rejected; who bear the name of the Church 67-68.

7. Whether G.o.d fully rescinded through the flood the rule over the earth he once gave man 69.

* How G.o.d preserved his Church through the deluge 69.

8. The deluge was apparently against G.o.d's promise 70.

* G.o.d allows nothing to hinder the punishment of the impenitent 71-73.

* By what means Papists adorn themselves and how it is all in vain 72.

* Why we should not rely on present, temporal things, but upon G.o.d's Word 73.

* The marks of a true Church.

a. What they are not and what they are 74-76.

b. Papists have characteristics Holy Scriptures give as marks of Antichrist 75.

c. Church born of G.o.d's Word and is to be known by that Word 76.

d. Rule to be observed in the marks of the true Church 77.

e. How far one may consider the Papists the true church, and how far not 78-79.

f. The true church is where the Word is, although few belong to it and it has no temporal power 79.

g. Whether the Evangelicals can justly be accused of falling from the old church 80.

h. How and why the Evangelical or Gospel Church is really the true Church 81.

* How Noah retained all and remained lord of the world although the deluge destroyed everything 81.

II. COMPLETE DESTRUCTION.

Vs. 11-12. _In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights._

35. We see that Moses uses a great many words, which results in tiresome repet.i.tion. How often he mentions the animals! how often the entrance into the ark! how often the sons of Noah who entered at the same time! The reason for this must be left to the spiritually minded; they alone know and see that the Holy Spirit does not repeat in vain.

36. Others, however, who are more materially minded may think that Moses, being moved, when he wrote the pa.s.sage, by the greatness of G.o.d's wrath, desired to enforce its truths by repet.i.tion; for reiteration of statements is soothing to troubled minds. Thus did David repeat his lament over his son Absalom, 2 Sam 18, 33. So viewed, this narrative shows depth of feeling and extreme agitation of mind.

This example of wrath so impresses the narrator that for emphasis he mentions the same thing again and again, and in the same words.

37. This is not the custom of poets and historians. Their emotions are fact.i.tious; they are diffuse in their descriptions; they pile up words for mere effect. Moses husbands his words, but is emphatic by repet.i.tion that he may arouse the reader's attention to the importance of the message and compel him to feel his own emotions instead of reading those of another.

38. Evidently Moses did not only wish to convey by persistent repet.i.tion the extreme agitation of his own mind, but also of that of Noah himself, who, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and burning with love, necessarily deplored the calamity when he saw that he could not avert it. He foresaw the doom of the wisest and most distinguished and eminent men. Thus did David mourn when he could not call back Absalom to life. So Samuel mourned when he despaired of saving Saul.

39. The text is not a mere tautology or repet.i.tion. The Holy Spirit does not idly repeat words, as those superficial minds believe, which, having read through the Bible once, throw it aside as if they had gathered all its contents. Yet these very repet.i.tions of Moses contain a statement more startling than any to be found in heathen records--that Noah entered the ark in the six hundredth year, the second month and the second day of his life.

40. Opinions differ as to the beginning of the year. One is, that the year begins at the conjunction of the sun and the moon which occurs nearest to the vernal equinox. Thus this month is called the first by Moses in Exodus. If the flood set in on the seventeenth day of the second month, it must have continued almost to the end of April, the most beautiful season of the year, when the earth seemingly gathers new strength, when the birds sing and the beasts rejoice, when the world puts on a new face, as it were, after the dreary season of winter. Death and destruction must have come with added terror at that season which was looked forward to as a harbinger of joy and the apparent beginning of a new life. This view is substantiated by the words of Christ in Matthew 24, 38, where he compares the last days of the world to the days of Noah and speaks of feasting, marriage and other signs of gladness.

41. A second opinion makes the year begin with that new moon which is nearest to the autumnal equinox, when all the harvest has been gathered from the fields. Its advocates declare this to be the beginning of the year, because Moses calls that month in which such new moon occurs, the end of the year. They call this autumnal equinox the beginning of the civil year, and the vernal equinox the beginning of the holy year. The Mosaic ceremonies and festivals extend from the latter season up to the autumnal equinox.

42. If Moses in this pa.s.sage is speaking of the civil year, then the flood occurred in September or October, an opinion I find Lyra held.

It is true that fall and winter are more liable to rains, the signs of the zodiac pointing to humidity. Again, as Moses writes further on, a dove was sent forth in the tenth month and brought back a green olive branch. This fact seems to harmonize with the view that the deluge began in October.

43. But I cannot endorse this argument of the Jews, a.s.suming two beginnings of the year. Why not make four beginnings, since there are four distinct seasons according to the equinoxes and solstices? It is safer to follow the divine order, making April the first month, starting with the new moon which is nearest to vernal equinox. The Jews betray their ignorance in speaking of an autumnal beginning of the year: the autumnal equinox is necessarily the end of the year.

Moses so calls it for the reason that all field labors had then ceased and all products had been gathered and brought home.

44. Hence, it is my belief that the flood began in the spring, when all minds were filled with hope of the new year. Such is the death of the wicked that when they shall say, "Peace and safety," they perish.

1 Thes 5, 3. Nor is any inconsistence shown in the fact that the green olive branch is afterward mentioned, for certain trees are evergreen, as the boxwood, fir, pine, cedar, laurel, olive, palm and others.

45. But what does Moses mean by saying that the fountains of the great deep burst, and that the windows of heaven were opened? No such record is found in all pagan literature, although the heathen searched with zeal the mysteries of nature. One discrimination should be made as regards the abysses of the earth, the floodgates or windows of heaven, and the rain. Rain, as we know it, is a common phenomenon, while that of bursting floodgates and abysses is both unfamiliar and amazing.