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When the World Was Destroyed by Water
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corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” His law
was transgressed, and every imaginable sin was the result. Justice
was trampled in the dust, and the cries of the oppressed reached to
heaven.
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Human Life Regarded With Indifference
Polygamy had been introduced early, though it was contrary to
God’s plan. The Lord gave one wife to Adam, but after the fall
people chose to follow their own sinful desires. As a result, crime
and misery increased rapidly. Neither marriage nor the rights of
property were respected. People reveled in violence. They delighted
in destroying animals, and the use of flesh for food made them still
more cruel and bloodthirsty, until they came to regard human life
with indifference.
The world was in its infancy, yet evil had become so deep and
widespread that God said, “I will destroy man whom I have created
from the face of the earth.” He declared that His Spirit would not
always strive with the guilty race. If they did not cease their sins
He would blot them from His creation; He would sweep away the
beasts and the vegetation that furnished such an abundant supply of
food and would transform the fair earth into one vast scene of ruin.
A Ship to Preserve Life
One hundred and twenty years before the Flood, the Lord told
Noah His plan and directed him to build an ark. He was to preach
that God would bring a flood of water on the earth. Those who
would believe the message and would prepare by repentance and
reforming their lives would find pardon and be saved. Methuselah
and his sons, who lived to hear the preaching of Noah, assisted in
building the ark.
God gave Noah the exact dimensions of the ark and instructed
him how to build it. Human wisdom could not have designed a
structure so strong and durable. God was the architect and Noah
the master builder. It was three stories high, with only one door in
the side. Light was admitted at the top, and the different apartments
were so arranged that all were lighted. The material was cypress or