ARTICLE SIXTEEN.
Noah and the Deluge.
Methuselah, Son of Promise.—God, having shown to Enoch the approaching utter destruction of Earth's wicked inhabitants, covenanted with the founder of the Sacred City that the repeopler of the devastated globe should be of his lineage. In order that this promise might not fail, Enoch's son, Methuselah, distinguished among men as the one who attained to the greatest age in mortality,[[1]] "was not taken" when Zion was translated, but remained to become the father of Lamech and grandfather of Noah.[[2]]
Earth's Baptism.—The Deluge was Earth's baptism. Baptism symbolizes birth or creation. In a certain sense, our planet was "born of water and of the Spirit" at the very beginning.[[3]] In Noah's day, which was reminiscent of that beginning, it experienced a rebirth, "a washing of regeneration," typical of a spiritual and fiery immersion yet to come.
Like Unto Adam.—It devolved upon Noah to recommence, after the Flood, the work begun by the great sire of the race under God's original command—the command to "multiply and replenish the earth." Noah's time, therefore, typified the period of the Creation. He, like Adam, "was the father of all living in his day, and to him was given the dominion."[[4]]
The Flood Foretold.—Blest and ordained by Methusaleh when but ten years old, Noah, like his predecessors in the patriarchal line, was a prophet and a preacher of righteousness. The word of the Lord came to him, saying:
"My spirit shall not always strive with man; . . . . yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years; and if men do not repent, I will send in the floods upon them." They hearkened not, and God then decreed: "The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence, and behold I will destroy all flesh from off the earth."[[5]]
Shem, Ham and Japheth.—Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth—naming them in the order usually given. Japheth, however, was the eldest, and Ham the youngest, of these brothers.[[6]] They were among the eight survivors of the Deluge;[[7]] "and of them was the whole earth overspread."[[8]] Japheth peopled Europe, Shem Asia, and Ham Africa.
Noah's blessing upon Shem and Japheth, and his curse upon Canaan, son of Ham, are thus recorded:
"Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.