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From Eternity Past
and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green
herb have I given you all things.” Before this time God had given no
permission to eat animal food; but now that every green thing had been
destroyed, He allowed them to eat the flesh of the clean beasts that had
been preserved in the ark.
The entire surface of the earth was changed at the Flood. Every-
where were strewn dead bodies. The Lord would not permit these to
remain to decompose and pollute the air. A violent wind which was
caused to dry up the waters moved them with great force, in some
instances even carrying away the tops of mountains and heaping up
trees, rocks, and earth above the bodies of the dead. By the same
means the silver and gold, choice wood and precious stones, which
had enriched the world before the Flood, were concealed, the violent
action of the waters piling earth and rocks upon these treasures and
even forming mountains above them. God saw that the more He en-
riched and prospered sinful men, the more they would corrupt their
ways before Him.
The mountains, once beautiful, had become broken and irregular.
Ledges and ragged rocks were now scattered upon the surface of the
earth. Where once had been earth’s richest treasures of gold, silver,
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and precious stones were seen the heaviest marks of the curse. And
upon countries not inhabited and those where there had been the least
crime, the curse rested more lightly.
More terrible manifestations than the world has yet beheld will be
witnessed at the second advent of Christ. As lightnings from heaven
unite with the fire in the earth, the mountains will burn like a fur-
nace and pour forth terrific streams of lava, overwhelming gardens
and fields, villages and cities. Everywhere there will be dreadful
earthquakes and eruptions.
Thus God will destroy the wicked from off the earth. But the
righteous will be preserved as Noah was preserved in the ark. Says the
psalmist: “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even
the most High, thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee.”
Psalm
91:9, 10
; see also verse 14; and
Psalm 27:5
.
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