0727. Corrupting the Whole Race

Corrupting the Whole Race

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth" (Gen_6:5).

Following the death of Abel, Seth was born. He was the one chosen of God through whom the Seed, Jesus Christ, was destined to be born.

1. The line of descendants is clearly and fully set down. Satan may have lost sight of the significance of this lineage from Eve, and through Seth unto Noah. He did not, so far as we know, attack the direct descendants exclusively. What satan did attempt was to corrupt the whole race and thus to make impossible the coming of the Seed which was to bruise his head.

2. Satan’s success is fully described in Genesis. Then "men began to multiply on the face of the earth" (Gen_6:1). Satan never slept. By day and night he sought to corrupt the race and make impossible the promise of the Seed. How well did the adversary press his way! A thousand years saw even satan satisfied. "The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen_6:5). Satan was seeming victor over all the race. The whole world lay in his hand, subjected to his power.

In those days the "sons of God" took "wives" of the "daughters of men," all that they chose, and they bare children unto them. "The same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown" (Gen_6:2, Gen_6:4).

3. Satan doubtless thought himself a victor. He may have scorned in his heart the "curse" which God had placed over him. Perhaps he thought he had wholly succeeded in his hellish work. But not so. God still had a few men on the earth true to Him, and pure in their lineage from Eve.

Thus it was that God said unto Noah, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation" (Gen_7:1).

With only eight souls secured in the ark, God sent the deluge that destroyed the sin-corrupted race of men.

When, at last, the waters receded from off the face of the earth, what chagrin must have gripped the heart of the devil, as he beheld his work of centuries undone, and as he saw the earth purified from the men who had polluted it.

When, too, satan saw the ark resting safe on the top of Ararat, and the saved of Adam’s race stepping forth upon the land, what wrath and what evil designs must then have gripped his heart! There stood Noah, the man of God. And Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and offered thereupon ascending offerings (savors of rest unto God) of every clean beast and of every clean fowl.

From Adam unto Noah the Edenic promise of the coming Seed had been made sure, while Noah’s sacrifice looked on along the years, to the bruising of the Seed, that yet was sure to come.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR