The First Universal Judgment
Gen. 6:1- 9:17
Jay Horsley
In the sixth chapter of Genesis God faced a problem of epic proportions. His creation had completely corrupted itself. As the population of the earth grew and men began to accomplish works by their own hands – the domestication of livestock and the making of tents, cities, musical instruments, and tools of iron and bronze (see Gen. 4:19-24) – they became more immoral, boastful and vengeful. This trend continued and multiplied itself as men chose their wives by regarding only their beauty and not their holiness. These men made great strides in worldly endeavors becoming “mighty men...of old, men of renown.” (Gen. 6:4) But God did not regard this as a we might. He noted their moral corruption and evil hearts. “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (6:5)
This caused God great grief. “And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (6:6) God was grieved the point of action. Thus the warning of the Hebrew writer was put into effect: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) Since man had universally corrupted himself “And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth,” (6:12) God promised to bring a universal judgment. “And the LORD said, `I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.'” (6:7)
Though God had declared judgment on all, He found one family faithful to Him. Noah alone “was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” (6:9) So God instructed Noah to make preparations adequate to save his house and a seed-stock of all air breathing animals. These preparations were massive in scale; basically a three story barge 450 feet long, 150 feet and 45 feet high. (6:15) This would give the ark the same floor space as twenty basketball courts. (Whitcomb and Morris, The Genesis Flood, pg. 10) Consider this to help grasp the momentous size of the ark:
[T]he dimensions of the Ark were sufficiently great to accomplish its intended purpose of saving alive the thousands of kinds of air-breathing creatures that could not otherwise survive a year-long flood. Assuming the length of the cubit to have been at least 17.5 inches, the available floor space of this three-decked barge was over 95,000 square feet, and its total volume was 1,396,000 cubic feet.
Such figures are difficult to picture without comparisons. For the sake of realism, imagine waiting at a railroad crossing while ten freight trains, each pulling fifty-two boxcars, move slowly by, one after another. That is how much space was available in the Ark, for its capacity was equivalent to 520 modern railroad stock cars. A barge of such gigantic size, with its thousands of built-in compartments (Gen. 6:14) would have been sufficiently large to carry two of every species of air-breathing animal in the world today... John Whitcomb, The World That Perished, Revised, pg. 25)
No wonder Noah and his sons were given 100 years to complete this task. It was the largest ship ever to set float until 1858. (Whitcomb, pg. 22)
Why were these massive preparations necessary? Because the flood was globally cataclysmic. The whole world was to be destroyed. Water flooded the highest mountains to the debt of 15 cubits (7:20). This is the estimated draft of the ark. So the ark could safely float over the highest of them without dragging.
This was truly a universal flood with universal effects. “And all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.” (7:21,22)
The waters that would flood the highest mountains would truly be catastrophic. Such waters had never been seen before (possibly rain had never even been seen). Water also came from below the ground. “In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” (7:11) It is quite possible that God raised the floors of the ocean to flood the land and after the flood lowered the ocean floors again and raised the mountains up to drain those waters from the earth. The action of the water sweeping over the earth, remaining on the earth for nearly a year, then flowing back off would have changed every physical feature on the planet. But just such action is the best way to explain the present features of the earth: the great canyons caused by the run-off; the great plains formed by thousands of feet of dirt silted out of the run-off, the great waterfalls caused by the uplifting of land to drain it, etc.
Nothing could have survived such a rapid change - and the evidence that nothing did is apparent every time we fill our cars with gas. The best explanation for the formation of oil and coil deposits is that massive amounts of animal and vegetable life were swept into great piles, then buried under tremendous weights causing these heaps to be pressurized. The evolutionary explanation of a long, slow process of change cannot account for great masses of living material dying at once, being heap up and suddenly being buried - buried before it had a chance to rot away. Couple this with the fact that it all had to happened in the recent enough past for these fields of oil and gas to remain pressurized to this day.
The evidence of God's universal judgment surrounds us daily. We see the effects in nature. We see the rainbow that was promised by God as a sign that judgment would not be brought in this way again (9:9-17). We see the sea that is no longer allowed to cross the boundary that God set for it.
We can build very near the sea knowing that it will not come much closer. This is not to say that some beaches do not erode, or that waves and storms do not drive water inland a short distance for a little while. The oceans stay where God put them, and there they shall remain. (As a side note this should give us confidence that global warming will not cause the ice caps to melt and flood all the great coastal cities of the world.)
In addition to the physical proofs of the universal flood we have the repeated declarations of the word of God. Genesis records the facts and purpose (wiping out all of perverse humanity) of the flood. Genesis, Hebrews (Heb. 11:7) and Peter (1 Pet. 3:30; 2 Pet. 2:5) declare that only Noah and his family survived. And Jesus Himself stated that the flood destroyed all men, “and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17:27) To deny that universal, destroying flood of watery judgment is to deny the inspiration of Genesis, Matthew, Mark, Hebrews, and 1 & 2 Peter. Yet that is what many do.
There are two classes of flood deniers. First are the mockers who deny the ability or will of God to judge all mankind. Peter said that these would come denying the coming final judgment. To do this they would willingly overlook the fact that God destroyed the world once before (2 Pet. 3:5,6). Others are compromisers who state that Noah was in a flood, but it was a local one. But the absurdity of Noah building an ark and gathering the world's animals when all he had to do was get to higher ground seems lost on them. These deny the clear teaching of scripture concerning the fact, purpose, effect and lesson of the flood.
I believe it to be telling that in divine record of the beginning of mankind (Gen. 1-11) more time is spend on the flood than on creation itself. This was/is a story for all men to know not only because it is our history, but it is a strong lesson for all men. But many are unaware. Even Jesus said, “And they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matt. 24:39) Only eight were prepared the first time. Are you prepared for the next? The evidence of the first is clear. So is the promise of the second.