Bible Commentaries
Genesis 7

Verses 1-24

At last the work was completed, and the man who by faith had done that which was evidence of his folly in the eyes of the world entered the Ark, leaving behind him all his possessions.

Then came the swift and final judgment of God against the corrupted race.

The righteousness of this judgment can be challenged only by such as fail to notice carefully the corruption of the race as to its nature and extent. The only way in which it was possible to ensure the eventual purity of the race, and thus realize the divine ideal m its creation was by the destruction of that which was utterly and irrevocably corrupt.

Love, illumined by light, acts not merely in the interests of the present moment, but of all the coming centuries. There is a severity which is of the very essence of tenderness; and the story of the Flood is an instance of the actuality of the love of God.

Questions as to the universality of the Flood are not relevant to the story as it is written in Genesis. All that this story declares is that the destruction was coextensive with the region occupied by man. The Hebrew word used uniformly for "the earth" through this section, erets, is used sometimes of the whole earth, sometimes of a part of it, as we may use the word 'land." All that this account demands is that we should understand that a corrupt race was swept away and a godly remnant spared.