Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
back to:
Genesis
Book: Genesis
Chapter: 6
Overview:
The wickedness of the world which provoked
God's wrath.
(1-7)
Noah finds
Grace.
(8-11) Noah warned of the
Flood, The
directions respecting the
Ark.
(12-21) Noah's
Faith and
obedience.
(22)
1-7 The most remarkable thing concerning the old world, is the
destroying of it
By the
Deluge, or
Flood. We are told of the
abounding iniquity of that wicked world:
God's just wrath, and
his holy resolution to punish it. In all ages there has been a
Peculiar Curse of
God upon marriages between professors of true
religion and its avowed enemies. The evil
Example of the ungodly
party corrupts or greatly hurts the other. Family religion is
Put an
End to, and the children are trained up according to the
worldly maxims of that parent who is without the fear of
God. If
we profess to be the sons and daughters of the
Lord Almighty, we
must not marry without his consent. He will never give his
blessing, if we prefer beauty, wit, wealth, or worldly honours,
to
Faith and
Holiness. The
Spirit of
God strove with men,
By
sending
Enoch,
Noah, and perhaps others, to preach to them;
By
waiting to be gracious, notwithstanding their rebellions; and
By
exciting
Alarm and convictions in their consciences. But the
Lord declared that his
Spirit should not thus strive with men
always; he would leave them to be hardened in
Sin, and ripened
for
Destruction. This he determined
On, because
Man was
Flesh:
not only frail and feeble, but
Carnal and depraved; having
misused the noble powers of his soul to gratify his corrupt
inclinations.
God sees all the wickedness that is among the
children of men; it cannot be hid from him now; and if it be not
repented of, it shall be made known
By him shortly. The
wickedness of a people is great indeed, when noted sinners are
men renowned among them. Very much
Sin was committed in all
places,
By all sorts of people. Any one might see that the
wickedness of
Man was great: but
God saw that every imagination,
or purpose, of the thoughts of
Man's
Heart, was only evil
continually. This was the
Bitter root, the corrupt
Spring. The
Heart was deceitful and desperately wicked; the principles were
corrupt; the habits and dispositions evil. Their designs and
devices were wicked. They did evil deliberately, contriving how
to do mischief. There was
No good among them.
God saw
Man's
wickedness as one injured and wronged
By it. He saw it as a
tender
Father sees the folly and stubbornness of a rebellious
and disobedient
Child, which grieves him, and makes him wish he
had been childless. The words here used are remarkable; they are
used after the manner of men, and do not mean that
God can
change, or be unhappy. Does
God thus hate our
Sin? And shall not
we be grieved to the
Heart for it? Oh that we may look
On Him
whom we have grieved, and
Mourn!
God repented that he had made
Man; but we never find him repent that he redeemed
Man.
God
resolves to destroy
Man: the original
Word is very striking, 'I
will wipe off
Man from the
Earth,' as dirt or filth is wiped off
from a place which should be
Clean, and is thrown to the
dunghill, the proper place for it.
God speaks of
Man as his own
Creature, when he resolves upon his
Punishment. Those forfeit
their lives who do not answer the
End of their living.
God
speaks of resolution concerning men, after his
Spirit had been
long striving with them in vain. None are punished
By the
Justice of God, but those who hate to be reformed
By the
Grace
of
God.
8-11 Noah did not find favour in the eyes of men; they hated
and persecuted him, because both
By his
Life and preaching he
condemned the world: but he found
Grace in the eyes of the
Lord,
and this made him more truly honourable than the men of renown.
Let this be our chief desire, let us labour that we may be
accepted of him. When the
Rest of the world was wicked,
Noah
kept his integrity.
God's good-will towards
Noah produced this
good work in him. He was a just
Man, that is, justified before
God,
By Faith in the promised Seed. As such he was made holy,
and had right principles; and was righteous in his
Conversation.
He was not only honest, but devout; it was his constant care to
do the will of
God.
God looks down upon those with an
Eye of
favour, who sincerely look up to him with an
Eye of
Faith. It is
easy to be religious when religion is in fashion; but it shows
strong
Faith and resolution, to swim against the stream, and to
appear for
God when
No one else appears for him;
Noah did
So.
All kinds of
Sin were found among men. They corrupted
God's
Worship.
Sin fills the
Earth with violence, and this fully
justified
God's resolution to destroy the world. The contagion
spread. When wickedness is become general, ruin is not far off;
while there is a remnant of praying people in a nation, to empty
the
Measure as it fills, judgments may be long kept off; but
when all hands are at work to pull down the fences,
By Sin, and
none stand in the
Gap to make up the
Breach, what can be
expected but a
Flood of wrath?
12-21 God told
Noah his purpose to destroy the wicked world
By
water. The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear him, Ps
25:14. It is with all believers, enabling them to understand
and apply the declarations and warnings of the written
Word.
God
chose to do it
By a
Flood of waters, which should
Drown the
world. As he chooses the rod with which he corrects his
children,
So he chooses the
Sword with which he cuts off his
enemies.
God established his
Covenant with
Noah. This is the
first place in the
Bible where the
Word '
Covenant' is found; it
seems to mean, 1. The
Covenant of
Providence; that the course of
nature shall be continued to the
End of time. 2. The
Covenant of
Grace; that
God would be a
God to
Noah, and that out of his seed
God would take to himself a people.
God directed
Noah to make an
Ark. This
Ark was like the hulk of a ship, fitted to float upon
the waters. It was very large, half the size of St.
Paul's
cathedral, and would
Hold more than eighteen of the largest
Ships now used.
God could have secured
Noah without putting him
to any care, or pains, or trouble; but employed him in making
that which was to be the means to preserve him, for the trial of
his
Faith and obedience. Both the
Providence of
God, and the
Grace of
God, own and
Crown the obedient and diligent.
God gave
Noah particular orders how to make the
Ark, which could not
therefore but be
Well fitted for the purpose.
God promised
Noah
that he and his family should be kept alive in the
Ark. What we
do in obedience to
God, we and our families are likely to have
the benefit of. The
Piety of parents gets their children good in
this
Life, and furthers them in the way to eternal
Life, if they
improve it.
22 Noah's
Faith triumphed over all corrupt reasonings. To rear
So large a
Building, such a one as he never saw, and to provide
Food for the
Living creatures, would require from him a great
Deal of care, and labour, and expense. His neighbours would
laugh at him. But all such objections,
Noah,
By Faith, got over;
his obedience was ready and resolute. Having begun to build, he
did not leave off till he had finished:
So did he, and
So must
we do. He feared the
Deluge, and therefore prepared the
Ark. And
in the warning given to
Noah, there is a more solemn warning
given to us, to flee from the wrath to come, which will sweep
the world of unbelievers into the
Pit of
Destruction.
Christ,
the true
Noah, which same shall comfort us, hath
By his
sufferings already prepared the
Ark, and kindly invites us
By
Faith to enter in. While the
Day of his patience continues, let
us hear and obey his voice.