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God Chooses Noah
v. 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. "In these words there breaks forth from the dark cloud of wrath the mercy which gives security for the preservation and restoration of humanity. " (Keil. ) God did not plan an absolute destruction of the entire human race, but only of those that deliberately persisted in their wickedness and would not accept the warning of His Spirit.
v. 9. These are the generations, the genealogy, of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations; and Noah walked with God. That is a summary of Noah's history: he was a righteous man, upright and just before the eyes of the generations that passed before his eyes. Like Enoch, Gen_5:22, he was in the most intimate relation with God, on terms of such confidence as to make his performing of the will of God self-evident. As Noah was the last of the patriarchs before the Flood, so he was the first of the line whose descendants after the Flood were the children of Israel, the chosen people of God.
v. 10. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Cf Gen_5:32.
v. 11. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
v. 12. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. These statements complete the picture drawn in verses 1-4. Utterly corrupt was the earth before the face of God, like a rotten piece of meat whose very appearance is nauseating. It would have been impossible to hide the conditions from the Lord; He was compelled to intervene with His curse and punishment, because the earth was full of violence and open wickedness. The Lord was a witness of the growing, unspeakable corruption which finally included the entire human race, carnal-mindedness being the governing impulse of every man's life. All that men had before them and wanted to keep before them was the gratification of their own fleshly desires. Their wickedness was openly perpetrated, and their moral judgment, their conscience, was submerged in their approbation of everything that was evil and corrupt.
v. 13. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. As the end of the time of respite approached, God saw that it was useless to extend this period. Its termination meant the end of the world which had reached the limit in wickedness and corruption and was bound for everlasting destruction. The Lord therefore announced that He would destroy men with the earth in the form which it then had, just as one of the consequences of the Flood has been that the earth and the fruits it produces no longer have the strength of the uncorrupted soil, neither does the life of men reach the length which was common with the patriarchs before the Flood. Thus the sentence of the Lord was passed, a word of warning also for our day and age. 1Co_10:11.