Thus did Noah, &c.— Obedient to the divine command Noah made the ark, and during that time, no doubt, must have endured many scoffs and contumelies, from the joyous, unthinking, and irreligious of that generation. On that account the building the ark is considered as an act of triumphant faith by the sacred writer. "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, full of religious reverence, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Hebrews 11:7. The Mahometans have a tradition, that when Noah began to work upon this famous vessel, all who saw him derided him, and said, "You are building a ship; if you can bring water to it, you will be a prophet as well as a carpenter." But he made answer to these insults: "You laugh at me now, but I shall have my turn to laugh at you; for you will learn, to your own cost, that there is a God in heaven who punishes the wicked."
Noah was no sooner commanded to build the ark but he obeys: such is the mind of every true believer. "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Observe,
1. His unreserved faith. A thousand corrupt reasonings, no doubt, intruded, of the how, and why, and wherefore; but it was enough for Noah, he had God's word, which silenced every doubt. Note; one reason why men do not now flee from the wrath to come, is, because they attend to the vain reasonings of their mind against the express revelation of God.
2. His diligence. He began immediately, and finished it according to the pattern. He neither staggered at the trouble and expence, nor could be diverted by the mockeries of the unbelievers, who, no doubt, thought him a very ridiculous enthusiast, to attempt providing against such an improbable, or, as to them it appeared, impossible event. Note; those who cannot bear the scoffs of the world, or be ready to give up all for Christ, will never swim in the ark.
3. It was a continual sermon: every blow of the axe and hammer was a call to repentance. It convinced not the world indeed, but it condemned it. Note; the time will come, when impenitent sinners may remember their obstinacy and hardness of heart too late to amend it.