The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
Imagine the sight! Hundreds of people mocking Noah for years and years as he meticulously and methodically hammered, cut and packed the ark. Society must have had late night jokes about Noah and his pathetic ark. Peter, in both of his epistles, mentions and compares the last days with the days of Noah and concludes this:
2 Peter 3:3-4 (ESV)
knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”
We don’t have any direct quotes of the mocking Noah must have endured, but imagine what it might have been like when the first rain started to fall. The text states just a few verses earlier:
Genesis 7:11 (ESV)
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
Up to this point the earth was in a canopy situation. It was like a green-house effect. There was no rain. This is what made the assumed mocking of Noah so true. He was building a boat to protect from a flood that would come from rain that had never fallen on the earth. Do you think, as the water began to rise, that anyone knocked on the door of the ark? Would you? Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives were the ONLY ones in the ark. But read again how the waters began to rise. The destruction was not sudden. It was rising around them. For a while they could see the ark sitting in the rain. Then they would be able to see the ark slightly rise in the water (assuming they had sought higher ground). Did they also attempt to find something to float upon? Mankind, at the time, was corrupt, but not stupid. Survival would have kicked in. Yet, for naught. They would be destroyed by a flood they were told was coming, they saw coming and experienced all around them. Imagine the panic. Imagine the cries for mercy. Yet, too late! They mocked and they laughed and they scoffed and they partied. The failed to take heed of God’s warning. The entire Bible is God’s warning of destruction that is also yet to come. Read 2 Peter 3 and you will understand a little bit about what Noah experienced and heard as the Ark started to rise and float. God’s wrath is real.
Nahum 1:2-3 (ESV)
God's Wrath Against Nineveh
The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD is avenging and wrathful;
the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
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