Matthew Henry Commentary Genesis 7:1-12

"And Jehovah said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female: of the birds also of the heavens, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the ground. And Noah did according unto all that Jehovah commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons` wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creepeth upon the ground, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God commanded Noah. And it came to pass after the seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah`s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights." — Genesis 7:1-12 (ASV)

The call to Noah is very kind, like that of a tender father to his children to come indoors when he sees night or a storm coming. Noah did not go into the ark until God commanded him, though he knew it was to be his place of refuge. It is very comforting to see God going before us in every step we take. Noah had taken a great deal of pains to build the ark, and now he himself was kept alive in it.

What we do in obedience to the command of God, and in faith, we ourselves will certainly have the comfort of, sooner or later. This call to Noah reminds us of the call the gospel gives to poor sinners. Christ is an ark, in whom alone we can be safe when death and judgment approach. The word says, “Come;” ministers say, “Come;” the Spirit says, “Come, come into the Ark.” Noah was accounted righteous, not for his own righteousness, but as an heir of the righteousness which is by faith (Hebrews 11:7). He believed the revelation of a Savior, and sought and expected salvation through Him alone.

Thus he was justified by faith, and received that Spirit whose fruit is in all goodness; but if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. After the hundred and twenty years, God granted seven more days for repentance. But these seven days were trifled away, like all the rest. It was to be only seven days. They had only one week more, one Sabbath more to make use of, and to consider the things that belonged to their peace.

But it is common for those who have been careless of their souls during the years of their health, when they viewed death from a distance, to be just as careless during the days, the few days of their sickness, when they see death approaching, their hearts having become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. As Noah prepared the ark by faith in the warning given that the flood would come, so he went into it by faith in this warning that it would come quickly. And on the day Noah was securely settled in the ark, the fountains of the great deep were broken up.

The earth had within it those waters which, at God's command, sprang up and flooded it. In the same way, our bodies have in themselves those elements which, when God pleases, become the seeds and springs of mortal diseases. The windows of heaven were opened, and the waters which were above the firmament (that is, in the air) were poured out on the earth. The rain usually comes down in drops, but such rains fell then as were never known before or since.

It rained without stopping or lessening for forty days and forty nights, on the whole earth at once. As there was a special exercise of the almighty power of God in causing the flood, it is futile and presumptuous to attempt to explain its method by human wisdom.