After the Flood
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likeness of the glory of Jehovah.”
Ezekiel 1:28
. The revelator declares,
“Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.... There
was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.”
Revelation 4:2, 3
. When man by his great wickedness invites the divine
judgments, the Saviour, interceding with the Father in his behalf, points
to the bow in the clouds, to the rainbow around the throne and above
His own head, as a token of the mercy of God toward the repentant
sinner.
With the assurance given to Noah concerning the Flood, God
Himself has linked one of the most precious promises of His grace:
“As I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the
earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My
peace be removed, saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee.”
Isaiah 54:9,
10
.
As Noah looked upon the powerful beasts of prey that came forth
with him from the ark, he feared that his family, numbering only eight
persons, would be destroyed by them. But the Lord sent an angel to
His servant with the assuring message: “The fear of you and the dread
of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of
the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, 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 man no permission to eat
animal food; He intended that the race should subsist wholly upon
the productions of the earth; 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. A third
dreadful curse rested upon it in consequence of sin. As the water began
to subside, the hills and mountains were surrounded by a vast, turbid
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sea, Everywhere were strewn the dead bodies of men and beasts. The
Lord would not permit these to remain to decompose and pollute the
air, therefore He made of the earth a vast burial ground. A violent wind
which was caused to blow for the purpose of drying up the waters,
moved them with great force, in some instances even carrying away
the tops of the mountains and heaping up trees, rocks, and earth above