God shows that mercy here, and that he says quotes I even I unquote will flood the world.
God never
delights in punishing the wicked, as shown in Ezekiel 33:11. He is always
longsuffering toward us, and is willing but none perish but that all come to
repentance. 2nd Peter 3:9. However, there comes a time when the consequences
for sim must be paid.
Thankfully now
the price has been paid in full, completely, forever through the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins.
God still
waited, of course, for people to come to him and turn from their wicked ways.
Who knows, there might have been some willing to join Noah who were killed for
their faith before Noah finished the ark. We are only told what God wanted us
to know, in his wisdom. It wasn't important for us to know if anyone got saved
under Noah's leadership but lost their lives. Noah's Ark is a type of how we
escaped judgment, and just as the persecuted church now suffers and toils for
their faith, there could have been those who suffered back then.
One other
interesting point is that Noah hadn’t been told at first that he’d be spared. God
spoke to Noah as He would later to Abraham. We don’t know if this was after a
long time of prayer by Noah or anything, except that the Holy Spirit wasn’t
free to roam about the world because of the curse of sin until the4 vein in the
temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, at the moment of Jesus’ death which
atoned for our sins.(Matt. 27:51) So, the Holy Spirit rested on people, not in
them. The Holy Spirit moved in the world, but didn’t reside in peoples’ hearts.
We do know,
however, that like Abraham, Noah was told what would happen and then told to do
something that would take a lot of faith. Unlike Abraham’s long journey, Noah
was to engage in a long project which would provide for the salvation of those
who hhad not been corrupted by the incredible evil which was on the earth at
that time.
