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Chapter VII. Part I · Commentary on Genesis, Sin, and the Flood

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Section twenty three off Commentary on Genesis, Volume two Luther on Sin and the
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Flood by Martin Luther, translated by John Nicholaslinker, Conrad Bruno, Godis,
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and others. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Jillian
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Henjy. Chapter seven, Part one, Noah obeys command to enter the Ark
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verse one A, and Jehovah said, and to Noah, come thou and
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all thy house into the Ark. One As soon as that extraordinary structure,
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the Ark, was built, the Lord commanded Noah to enter it, because
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the time of the deluge, which the Lord announced one hundred and twenty years
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before, was now at hand. All this convinced Noah that God was taking
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care of him. And not only this, but also, as Peter says
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Second Peter Chapter one, verse nineteen, gave him an ample and abundant word
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to support and confirm his faith in such great straits. Having foretold the deluge
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for more than a century, he doubtless was bitterly mocked by the world in
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many ways. Two. As I have said repeatedly, God's wrath was incredible.
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It could not be grasped by the human mind. In that original age
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of superior men, that God was about to destroy the whole human race except
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eight souls. Noah, being wholly and just, a kindly and merciful man,
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often struggled with his own heart, hearing with the greatest agitation of mind,
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the voice of the Lord threatening certain destruction to all flesh. It was
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needful, then, that repeated declaration should confirm his agitated faith, lest he
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might doubt. Three. God's command to enter the ark amounted to this doubt.
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Not. The time of punishment for the unbelieving world is close at hand.
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But tremble not do not fear, for faith is at times very weak
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in the sense, I shall take care of you and your house. To
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us, such promise would have been incredible, but we must admit that all
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things are possible with God. Four. Notice Mosy's peculiar expression. Again,
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Jehovah said, it gives me particular pleasure that these words of God did not
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sound from Heaven, but were spoken to Noah through the ministry of man.
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Although I would not deny that these revelations may have been made by an angel
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or by the Holy Spirit himself. Yet where it can plausibly be said that
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God spoke through men, there the ministry must be honored. We have shown
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above that many of God's words, according to Mosy's, were spoken through Adam.
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For the word of God, even when spoken by man, is truly
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the word of God. Five Now, as Methuselah, Noah's grandfather, died
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in the very year of the deluge, it would not be inapt to infer
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that, since Lamach, Noah's father had died five years before the flood,
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this was so to speak Methuselah's last word and testament to his grandson and dying
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farewell. Perhaps he added some remarks as these, my son, as thou
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hast obeyed the Lord heretofore, and hast awaited this wrath in faith, and
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hast experienced God's faithful protection from the wicked. Henceforth, firmly believe that God
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will take care of thee. The end is now at hand, not mine
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alone, which is one of grace, but the end of all thine kind,
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which is one of wrath. For after seven days the flood will begin,
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concerning which thou hast long and vainly warned the world. After this manner,
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I think spoke Methuselah. But the words are attributed to God, because
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the Spirit of God spoke through the man. Thus, I like to interpret
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these instances to the honor of the ministry, wherever as in this case it
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can appropriately be done. Since it is certain that Methuselah had died in the
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very year of the flood, the supposition is harmless that these were his last
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words to Noah, his grandson, who heard his words and accepted them as
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the word of God. Six. The Jew's peculiar idea concerning these seven days
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is that they were to the one hundred and twenty years in honor of Methuselah,
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that therein this posterity might bewail his death. This is a harmless interpretation,
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for the patriarch's descendants did not fail to do their duty, particularly his
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pious children. Seven. But the first view concerning the ministry of the Word
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is not only plausible but also practical. God does not habitually speak miraculously and
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by revelation, particularly where he has instituted the ministry for this very purpose,
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while speaking to men, teaching, instructing, consoling, and entreating them.
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Eight. In the first place, God entrusts the Word to parents. Moses
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often says, thou shalt tell it to thy children, then to the teachers
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of the church. Is it intrusted Abraham, says Luke, Chapter sixteen,
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verse twenty nine. Quote. They have Moses and the prophets, Let them
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hear them. End quote. We must expect no revelation, be it inward
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or outward, where the ministry is established. Otherwise all ranks of human society
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would be disturbed. Let the pastor preach in church, Let the magistrate rule
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the state, Let parents control the house or family. Such are the ministries
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of men instituted by God. We should make use of them and not look
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for new revelations. Nine. Still, I do not deny that Noah heard
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God speak after Methuselah's death. God speaks ordinarily through the public ministry, through
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parents and the teachers of the church, and in rare cases, by inward
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revelation through the Holy Spirit. It is well that we remember not to overlook
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the Word in vain expectation of new revelations, as the fanatics do. Such
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a course gives rise to spirits of error, a source of disturbance to the
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whole world, as the example of the Anabaptists proves. Furse one be for
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thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation? Ten. This is
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truly a picture of the primitive ancient world, as Peter calls it Second Peter,
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Chapter two, verse five. His appellation carries the thought of a peculiarity
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of that particular age, which is foreign to the people of our own good
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words be more appalling than these. That Noah alone was righteous before the Lord.
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The world is similarly pictured in Sam fourteen, verses two and three,
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where we read let the Lord look down from heaven to see if there were
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any that did understand, that did seek God. But he says, quote
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they are all gone aside. They are together become filthy. There is none
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that doeth good, No, not one d quote eleven. Similar to this
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judgment upon the world was Christ's declaration as to the last days. He says,
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quote, when the son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on
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the earth, And quote look Chapter eighteen, verse eight. It is a
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fearful thing to live in such an evil and godless world. By the goodness
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of God, since we have the light of His word, we are still
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in the Golden Age. The sacraments are rightfully administered in our churches by its
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teachers, proclaim the word purely, and though magistrates be weak, wickedness is
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not desperately rampant. But Christ's prophecy shows that there will be evil times.
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When the Lord's day approaches wholesome teaching, nowhere will be found the church being
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dominated by the wicked. As to day, the plans of our adversaries are
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a menace. The pope and the wicked princes zealously strive totally to destroy the
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ministry of the Word, oppressing or corrupting the true ministries. That every one
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may believe what hoever pleases him twelve, So much the more diligently should we
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pray for our posterity and take earnest heed that a more wholesome doctrine be transmitted
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to them. If there had been more godly teachers in the days of Noah,
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there might have been more righteous people. The fact that Noah alone was
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proclaimed a righteous man makes it evident that the godly teachers had been either destroyed
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or corrupted, leaving Noah the sole preacher of righteousness, as Peter calls him
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Second Peter, Chapter two, verse five. Since government had been turned into
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turney and the home vitiated by adultery, and Hordam, How could punishment be
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delayed any longer. Thirteen Such danger awaits as also if the last days are
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to be like the days of Noah, Truly the popes and bishops strenuously endeavor
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to suppress the Gospel and to ruin the churches which have been rightfully established.
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Thus does the world assiduously press onward to a period similar to the age of
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Noah, when with the light of the Word extinguished, all shall go astray
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in the darkness of wickedness, or without the preaching of the word, faith
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cannot endure, nor prayer, nor the purity of the sacraments. Fourteen.
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Such, according to Moses, was the condition of the ancient world in Noah's
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day, when the world was young and at its best, The greatest geniuses
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flourished everywhere, and people were well educated by experience because they lived so long.
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What will be our fate in the frenzy, so to speak, that
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shall befall the world in its dotage? We should remember to care for our
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posterity and continually pray for it. Fifteen. As the first world was most
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corrupt, it was thus subject to terrible punishment. Adults perished who provoked God
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to anger by their wicked deeds. Also those of an innocent age who had
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knowledge and were unable to distinguish between their right hand and their left. Many,
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doubtless were deceived by their own guilelessness. But God's wrath does not discriminate.
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It falls upon and destroys alike adults and infants, the crafty and the
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guileless. Sixteen. This awful punishment appears to have moved even the apostle Peter
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like one besides himself. He uses words which we today are not able to
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understand. He says, Christ, having been made alive in the spirit,
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also went and preached unto the spirits in prison that a foetime were disobedient when
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the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark
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was a preparing wherein few, that his eight souls were saved through water and
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quote, and so on. Brist Peter Chapter three, verses nineteen and twenty
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seventeen a strange declaration and an almost fanatical saying by which the apostle describes this
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event. By these words, Peter assures us that there was a certain unbelieving
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world to whom the dead Christ preached after their death. If this is true,
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who would doubt that Christ took Moses and the prophets with him to those
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who were fettered in prison in order to change the unbelieving world into a new
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unbelieving one. This seems to be intimated by Peter's words, though I should
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not like to make this assertion authoritatively eighteen. But doubtless those whom he calls
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an unbelieving world were not the wicked despisers of his word, nor the tyrants.
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If they were overwhelmed in their sins, these were certainly condemned. The
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unbelieving world of which he speaks seemed rather to be the children and those whose
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lack of judgment precluded belief. These were at that time seized and carried away
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headlong to their destruction by the offenses of the world, as if in the
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power of a rapid stream, only eight souls being saved nineteen. In this
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way does Peter magnify the awful intensity of God's wrath. At the same time,
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he praises his long suffering in that he did not deprive those of the
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Word of salvation who at the time did not or could not believe, because
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they hoped in the passience of God, and would not be convinced that he
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would visit such fearful and universal punishment upon the world. Twenty How this came
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to pass is beyond our understanding. We know and believe that God is wonderful
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in all his works and has all power. Therefore, he who in life
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preach to the living, could also in death preach to the dead. All
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things here feel and touch him, though our human minds cannot understand the process,
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nor is it to our discredit when we are ignorant of some of the
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mysteries of Holy writ. The apostles had each his own revelation, and contention
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concerning them would be presumptuous and foolish. Twenty one. Such was the revelation
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of Christ given to the spirits that evidently perished in the flood, and we
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may perhaps not inappropriately connect it with that article of our creed which speaks of
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the descent of Christ into Hell. Such was also Paul's revelation concerning Paradise the
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Third Heaven Second Corinthians, Chapter twelve, Verses two to four, and certain
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other matters of which we may be ignorant. Without shame, it is false
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pride to profess to understand these things. Saint Augustine and other teachers give their
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fancy, loose reign when they discuss these passages. Might it not be that
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the apostles had revelations which Saint Augustine and others did not have. But let
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us return to Mosy's twenty two. A truly fearful description of the world is
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vouchsafed in this declaration of God that he saw Noah alone to be righteous before
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him in spite of the small children and those others who had innocently been misled.
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Let us particularly note the term before me. It signifies that Noah was
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blameless, not only as regards the second Table of the Law, but also
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as regards the first. He believed in God and hallowed, preached and called
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upon his name. He gave thanks to God. He condemned godless teachings,
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for to be righteous before God means to believe God and to fear Him,
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and not as they taught in popetom to read masses, to free souls from
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purgatory, to become a monk, and like things. Twenty three. This
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term before me as reference also to the condemnation of the ancient world, having
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neglected the worship demanded by the first table, they criminally transgressed also the second.
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Not only did they mock Noah as a fool, but they went so
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far as to condemn his teaching as heresy. Meanwhile, they ate drank and
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celebrated festivals in security before the world. Accordingly, Noah was not righteous measured
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by her code. He was a sinner twenty four. Hence, God,
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or the grandfather Methuselah, consoles Noah with the word of counsel to disregard the
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blind and wicked verdict of the world, neither to care for her views and
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utterances, but to close eyes and ears while heeding alone the word and verdict
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of God, believing himself to be righteous before God, or approved and acceptable
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to him. Twenty five. And Noah's faith was truly great, he could
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rely upon God's utterance. I, forsooth, should not have believed. I
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realize what weight the whole world's hostile and contemnatory judgment must carry. We are
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condemned in the judgment of the Pope, the Sacumentarians, and the Anabaptists.
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But this is mere play and pleasure compared to what the righteous Noah had to
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bear, who found not a single person in the whole world to approve of
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his religion or life life, except his own sons and his pious grandfather.
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We have the endorsement of many churches by God's grace, and our princes fear
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no danger in defense of their doctrine and religion. Noah had no such protectors,
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and he saw his enemies living in peaceful leisure and enjoyment. If I
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had been he, I surely should have said, Lord, if I am
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righteous, if I am well pleasing to THEE, and if those people are
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wicked and displeasing to THEE, why then dost thou enrich them? Why dost
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thou heap upon them all manner of favors, while I, with my family
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am greatly harassed and almost without assistance. In short, I should have despaired
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in such great afflictions unless the Lord had given me that spirit which Noah had
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twenty six. Therefore, Noah is a brilliant and admirable example of faith,
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who opposed the judgments of the world with a heroic steadfastness of mind in the
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assurance that he was righteous while all the rest of the world was wicked twenty
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seven. Often, when I think of those most holy men, John huss
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and Jerome of Prague A view with astonishment the courage of their souls, as
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they, only two in number, set themselves against the judgment of the whole
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world of Pope, emperor, bishops, princes, universities, and all the
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schools throughout the Empire twenty eight. It is helpful often to reflect upon such
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examples. Since the Prince of the world battles against us, endeavoring to kindle
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despair in us with his fiery darts, it behooves us to be well armed
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lest we succumb to the enemy. Let us say, with Noah, I
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know that I am righteous before God, even though the whole world condemn me
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as heretical and wicked. Yea, even desert me. Thus did the apostles
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desert Christ, leaving him alone? But he said John chapter sixteen, verse
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thirty two, quote, I am not alone, and quote thus did the
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false brethren desert Paul. Hence this is no uncommon danger, and it is
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not for us to despair, but with courage to uphold the true doctrine in
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spite of the world's condemnation and curse. For She's two and three of every
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clean beast, thou shalt take to thee seven and seven the male and his
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female, and of the beasts that are not clean two the male and his
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female, of the birds, also of the heavens seven and seven male and
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female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. Twenty
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nine. It is evident that God takes pleasure in speaking to Noah. Hence
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he does not confine himself to a single command, but repeats the same things
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in the same words. To human reason, such repetition appears to be absurd
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talkativeness. But to a soul struggling against despair, the will of God cannot
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be repeated too often, nor can too exhaustive instruction be given. Relative to
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the will of God, God recognizes the state of a soul that is tempted,
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and hence makes the same statements again and again, so that Noah may
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learn from frequent conversations and conferences that he is not only not forsaken, though
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the whole world forsake him, but that he has a friend and protector in
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God, who so loves him that he never seems to weary of conversing with
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him. This is the cause of the statements being repeated. However, as
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has been explained, God spoke with Noah not from heaven but through men thirty
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In respect to the language, this passage shows that Habehimah signifies not only cattle,
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the larger animals, but also the smaller ones which were commonly used for
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sacrifice, as sheep, goats, and alike. The custom of offering sacrifices
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was not first instituted by Moses, but was in the world from the beginning,
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being handed down as it were, by the patriarchs to their posterity,
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as shown by the example of Abel, who brought of his first fruits and
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offering to God thirty one. As to the remainder of the passage, we
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explained at the end of the sixth chapter how to harmonize the discrepancies apparent in
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the fact that here seven beasts of each kind are ordered to be taken into
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the ark, while only two of each kind are mentioned there. To repeat
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is not necessary. Since Noah was saved by a miracle, he thought that
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a seventh animal should be added to the three pairs of clean beasts as a
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thank offering to God after the flood for his deliverance Verse four. For yet
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seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days
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and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made will I destroy
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from off the face of the ground. Thirty two. Here you see God's
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care to give Noah complete assurance. He sets a limit of seven days,
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after which will follow a rain of forty days and forty nights. God speaks
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with peculiar significance when he says that it shall rain. It was not a
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common rain, but fountains of the deep as well as the windows of heaven
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were opened. That is, not only did a great mass of rain fall
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from heaven, but also an immense amount of water streamed forth from the earth
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itself, and an immense amount of water was necessary to cover the highest mountain
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tops to a depth of fifteen cubits. It was no ordinary ragin, but
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the reign of God's wrath, by which he set out to destroy all life
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upon the face of the earth. Because the earth was depraved, God despoiled
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it, and because the godless people raged against the first and second tables of
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the Commandments, therefore God also raged against them, using heaven and earth as
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his weapons. Thirty three. This story is certain proof that God, though
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long suffering and patient, will not allow the wicked to go unpunished. As
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Peter says Second Peter, Chapter two, verse five, if he quote spared
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not the ancient world, and quote how much less will he spare the popes
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or the emperors who rage against his word? How much less will he spare
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us who blaspheme his name? When our life is unworthy of our calling and
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profession, when we freely and daily sin against our consciences. Let us then
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learn to fear the Lord humbly, to accept his word and obey it.
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Otherwise punishment will overtake also us, as Peter threatens Bercy's five to ten.
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And Noah did according unto all that Jehovah commanded him. And Noah was six
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hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah
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went in and his sons, and his wife, and his son's wives with
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him into the ark. Because of the waters of the flood, of clean
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beasts and of beasts that are not clean, and of birds, and of
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everything that creepeth upon the ground. There went in two and two and to
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Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah. And
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it came to pass after the seven days that the waters of the flood were
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upon the earth thirty four. This is clear from what proceeds. Noah's faith
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is praiseworthy in that he obeyed the Lord's command and unwaveringly entered the ark with
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his sons and their wives. God truly could have saved him in innumerable other
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ways. He did not employ this seemingly absurd method because he knew no other
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to him who kept Jonah for three days in the midst of the sea and
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in the belly of the well, what do you think is impossible? But
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Noah's faith and obedience are to be commended because he took no offense at this
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plan of salvation divinely shown to him and embraced it in simple faith. End
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of Section twenty three.