87. It is to be observed here what has been an object of difficulty for Jerome, that the flood came a hundred years after the birth of Shem, Ham and Japheth, while here a hundred and twenty years are said to have been the time of the flood.
| B. | NOAH AND HIS PREACHING. | |||
| 1. | The time Noah began to preach [87]. | |||
| 2. | Why the world took occasion to despise Noah's preaching [88]. | |||
| * | Jerome's reckoning of the 120 years [89]. | |||
| 3. | Why Noah married after living so long single, when the world was to be destroyed [90]. | |||
| 4. | How and why Noah was the prophet of prophets and his the greatest of prophecies [91]. | |||
| 5. | His preaching disregarded not only by the Cainites but by the sons of God [92]. | |||
| * | To what end God's complaint of the first world should serve us [93]. | |||
| * | When was the judgment of God announced [94]. | |||
| * | The generation of the Cainites. | |||
| a. | Whether it still existed in the days of Noah [95]. | |||
| b. | Why Moses does not record the generations of the Cainites and of their patriarchs [95]. | |||
| c. | How the holy patriarchs warned their children against the Cainites [96]. | |||
| d. | How the Cainites tormented the holy patriarchs [96]. | |||
| 6. | Why God raised up Noah [97]. | |||
| 7. | Noah's faith exceptionally strong [97-98]. | |||
| 8. | What impelled Noah to continue his work, and not to turn to the world [99]. | |||
| 9. | How Noah's age was the wickedest and he had to oppose its wickedness all alone [100]. | |||
| * | Who of the patriarchs were still living in Noah's time [100]. | |||
| 10. | What trials Noah had to experience [101]. | |||
B. NOAH AND HIS PREACHING.
87. But this passage shows that Noah began preaching about the impending punishment of the deluge before his marriage, having hitherto led the life of a celibate.
88. Consider, therefore, what pastime he offered to a wicked world in its fancied security. He predicts destruction to the whole world through the flood, nevertheless, he himself marries. Why? Was it not sufficient for him to perish alone, that he must join to himself a companion for the disaster? Oh, foolish old man! Surely if he believed the world was to perish by a deluge, he would rather perish alone than marry and take the trouble to beget children. But if he himself will be saved, why, so shall also we.
In this manner they commenced to despise the preaching concerning the flood with the greater assurance because of the marriage of Noah, ignorant of the counsel of God, who moves in a manner altogether unintelligible to the world. How absurd to promise Abraham posterity through Isaac, and yet to command Isaac to be sacrificed!