When the World Was Destroyed by Water
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and the earth was filled with violence.” His law was transgressed, and
every conceivable sin was the result. Justice was trampled in the dust,
and the cries of the oppressed reached unto heaven.
Human Life Regarded With Indifference
Polygamy had been early introduced, contrary to the divine ar-
rangement. The Lord gave to Adam one wife. But after the fall men
chose to follow their own sinful desires. As the result, crime and
wretchedness rapidly increased. Neither marriage nor the rights of
property were respected. Men exulted in violence. They delighted in
destroying animals, and the use of flesh for food rendered them still
more cruel and bloodthirsty, until they came to regard human life with
indifference.
The world was in its infancy, yet iniquity 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 should 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 which furnished such an abundant supply of food,
and would transform the fair earth into one vast scene of ruin.
A Boat to Preserve Life
A hundred and twenty years before the Flood, the Lord declared
to Noah His purpose and directed him to build an ark. He was to
preach that God would bring a flood of water upon the earth. Those
who would believe the message and would prepare by repentance and
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reformation, should 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 directions in
regard to its construction. Human wisdom could not have devised a
structure of so great strength and durability. God was the designer, and
Noah the master builder. It was three stories high, with but 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
gopher wood, which would be untouched by decay for hundreds of