FROM THE COMMENTATORS
The narrative here becomes more circumstantial than it has been in chapters four and five, for the Flood is the first event of crucial importance since the Creation and the beginnings of man upon earth (chapters one to three), of which Hebrew tradition told. The Flood marks the end of a past age and the beginning of a new one; it is thus an event in which the purposes of God may be expected to declare themselves with peculiar distinctness; and it is, accordingly, treated as the occasion of a great manifestation both of judgment (chapter 6) and of mercy (8:15 to 9:17). The Flood is a judgment upon a degenerate race: Noah, with his family, is delivered from it on account of his righteousness; as humanity starts upon its course afresh, new promises and new blessings are conferred upon it.—The Book of Genesis, S. R. Driver.
What, then, is the purpose of inspiration? Is it to insure that we shall have clear and infallible information on certain questions of geology and astronomy, or on the way in which God created the heavens and the earth? Is it to keep us from mistakes about the history of Israel?... Surely not. God had no intention of giving us an encyclopedia of scientific knowledge, and thus depriving us of the discipline of acquiring such knowledge for ourselves.... Inspiration is concerned with what is to us of infinitely more importance—even the guidance of our conduct, the building up of noble characters for God. It has been well said that conduct forms three fourths of human life, and it is with these three fourths that the inspired writings have to do. Their inspiration therefore consists not so much in their infallible science or minutely accurate details of history, as in their teaching God’s will and God’s relation to men.... These writings concern themselves with the great moral and spiritual facts, duty, character, moral responsibility, the happiness that comes from harmony with the will of God. Their object is to teach the eternal contrast between Righteousness and Unrighteousness, Obedience and Disobedience, Selfishness and Self-sacrifice, Purity and Lust; to teach men that God is on the side of holiness and good, that his help and sympathy are near in the fierce fight with temptation, and that even when the fight is lost and the life defiled, there is a way back to holiness and God if men will but earnestly seek it.—How God Inspired the Bible, J. Paterson Smyth.
They (the Scriptures) conveyed to the Hebrews, and they still convey to us, the worthiest conceptions of God and of His relation to the world and men. They are a standing witness to the fact that the nation of Israel enjoyed a peculiar revelation of the true God. If the “folk-lore” of the Hebrews, like that of all other peoples, was inconsistent at many points with our modern knowledge of nature and history, yet it was so purified among them, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, from all taint of heathenism, that, as it stands in the opening chapters of Genesis, it contains nothing inconsistent either with the religion of Jehovah or with the fuller revelation of Jesus Christ.—The One Volume Bible Commentary, J. R. Dummelow.
AIM
To present the ideal of unquestioning obedience to the commands of God, and through the story to deepen the impulse to choose and do the right.
LESSON PREPARATION
A careful study of the passage of Scripture assigned for the teacher in this lesson presents much that is interesting and many points that are puzzling. For one’s own information and satisfaction it would be well to read the article on the Deluge in any good Bible dictionary and to consult commentaries on the narrative. But in preparing the lesson for the pupil attention must be centered on the story as given in the verses that the pupil is to read. The simple account of the one man who was “righteous,” “perfect [or blameless] in his generation,” and who “walked with God” in loving obedience, when the “wickedness of man was great in the earth,” and “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” is one that makes a strong appeal to the children. The building of the ark; the surprise of the people as they saw a boat built upon dry land, and their undoubted ridicule of Noah; his opportunity for preaching righteousness; the completion of the ark and the going in of the animals, Noah and his family, are the elements of a story of surpassing interest, which carries also a strong religious impression in its emphasis upon obedience and its reward. The negative side should not be dwelt upon.
The teacher will need to note carefully just the point in the story where this lesson ends. The story is so generally told as a whole, including the building of the ark, its completion, the going in of animals and people, the coming of the rain, the rising of the waters, the final settling of the ark on dry land, and the going out of Noah and his family and the animals, that the natural tendency will be to encroach upon next week’s lesson without meaning to do so.