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After Seven Days, February 3
Genesis 7
And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were
upon the earth.
Genesis 7:10
.
For seven days after Noah and his family entered the ark, there appeared
no sign of the coming storm. During this period their faith was tested. It was
a time of triumph to the world without. The apparent delay confirmed them
in the belief that Noah’s message was a delusion, and that the Flood would
never come. Notwithstanding the solemn scenes which they had witnessed ...
they still continued their sport and revelry, even making a jest of these signal
manifestations of God’s power. They gathered in crowds about the ark, deriding
its inmates with a daring violence which they had never ventured upon before
At the end of seven days clouds began to gather. This was a new sight; for
the people had never seen clouds.... Soon rain began to fall. Still the people
tried to think that this was nothing very alarming.... For a time the ground drank
up the rain; but soon the water began to rise, and day by day it rose higher and
higher. Each morning as the people found the rain still falling they looked at one
another in despair, and each night they repeated the words, “Raining still!
The people first beheld the destruction of the works of their own hands.
Their splendid buildings, and the beautiful gardens and groves where they had
placed their idols, were destroyed by lightning from heaven, and the ruins were
scattered far and wide.... The terror of man and beast was beyond description.
Above the roar of the tempest was heard the wailing of a people that had despised
the authority of God.... In that terrible hour they saw that the transgression of
God’s law had caused their ruin. Yet while, through fear of punishment, they
acknowledged their sin, they felt no true contrition, no abhorrence of evil. They
would have returned to their defiance of Heaven, had the judgment been removed.
So when God’s judgments shall fall upon the earth before its deluge by fire, the
impenitent will know just where and what their sin is—the despising of His holy
law. Yet they will have no more true repentance than did the old-world sinners
[41]
9
Ibid., 98, 99
.
10
The Signs of the Times, April 10, 1901
.
11
Patriarchs and Prophets, 99, 100
.
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