By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in
prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark
was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water
(I Pet. 3:19-20).
COMMON GRACE/WELL-MEANT OFFER ARGUMENT:
One of the primary effects of common grace is said, by
proponents, to be that “God exercises forbearance and longsuffering towards the
world. Man collectively deserves the judicial outpouring of divine wrath, but
God suspends it” (Donald Macleod, Behold
Your God [Christian Focus, 1990], p. 118).
Peter, in this text, speaks of the longsuffering of God
“waiting” in the days of Noah. This is often thought to be about God graciously
giving the reprobate a chance (120 years—an abundance of time) to repent and turn
to Him, and that He is longsuffering towards them, desiring them to be saved, if only they will heed His
gracious overtures in the preaching.
Through the preaching of Noah, during that 120-year period,
God is said to be conveying a well-meant offer of salvation to all that
outwardly hear, before eventually bringing that time of opportunity to a close.
(I)
Prof. David J. Engelsma
In general, the case has been
made that longsuffering is God’s loving attitude towards His elect people in
their suffering in the world. In His fatherly love, He is moved to deliver
them at once from their sufferings at the hands of the wicked but allows them
to suffer because He is working out His plan for their full salvation and His
plan for the wicked’s filling their cup of iniquity. It is comparable to
the surgeon’s performance of a painful surgery upon his own dear child. He
is inclined to spare the child, but in love for the child’s good he performs
the surgery.
This explains the longsuffering
of I Peter 3. God was longsuffering towards Noah and his family. In that longsuffering towards His dear
child, God endured the wicked for a long time.
(II)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
(a)
[Source: A Pilgrim’s Manual: Commentary on 1 Peter (RFPA, 2012), pp. 231-232]
The
longsuffering of God is an attribute of God that he shows only to his elect
people who are in the world and who suffer greatly in the world at the hands of
the ungodly. Reverently speaking, God finds it difficult to endure this
suffering of which he is a witness. It is as difficult for God to endure the
suffering of his people as it would be for a husband who loves his wife dearly
to see her beaten and mistreated by thieves who have broken into the home. He
cannot bear it. Nevertheless, God does bear it, because he knows that the
suffering that his people must endure is necessary for their entrance into the
kingdom. It is only through suffering that the elect can be purified and made
ready for their home in glory. In this respect, God is like a surgeon who must
operate on his son to save his life. To see the knife cut into his son’s body
and to witness the agony of recovery is almost more than a father can bear. Yet
he does bear it, because it will be the healing of his son. This is God’s
longsuffering toward his people.
During
Noah’s days the wicked cruelly treated the people of God. Such persecution is
not specifically mentioned in Scripture, but we may deduce it from Enoch’s
being a preacher of judgment upon the wicked and his being translated into
heaven without dying (Jude 14-15; Gen. 5:24). Especially the words “and was not
found” in Hebrews 11:5 indicate that evil men were hunting for Enoch. The
church had been reduced by persecution at the time of the flood to one family
of eight people. Apostasy was also a contributing cause for the smallness of
the church in Noah’s day (Gen. 6:1-5). Jesus compares the days prior to the
flood with the days before the end of the world (Matt. 24:21-22, 38-39). Lamech
boasted to his two wives of the murder of a child of God and dared God to
punish him as he punished Cain (Gen. 4:23-24).
If a
comparison can be made, the sin of persecuting the church is the worst sin the
wicked commit. The church is God’s bride, God’s beloved. The church is so
precious to him that he will do anything to save his church—even give his only
begotten Son to die in the throes of hell’s agony to redeem her. In his eternal
counsel he has ordered all things that take place in heaven and on earth, in order
to bring his church into heaven with him. The church represents his cause of
truth and righteousness. When the wicked kill God’s people, they show their
contempt and hatred for God himself. When Christ accomplishes all God’s
purpose, the victory of Christ over all of the wicked is announced throughout
all God’s world.
While
the pre-flood saints were being persecuted, Noah was building the ark at God’s
command. While he was building, Noah was preaching. The very building of the
ark was a sermon, because building a boat on dry land was sheer nonsense,
except that God had said he would send a flood to destroy the world (Heb.
11:7). When the creation had never received one drop of rain, it seemed
incredible that God would send so much rain that the whole world would be
drowned. Only by faith was it possible to do what God had commanded, and by
that flood came Noah’s salvation.
This
all is written as a word of comfort to the church that suffers so much in the
world for well-doing. God will once more vindicate our cause and send his
judgments upon the disobedient.
(b)
[Source: Another Look at Common Grace (2019
edition), p. 45]
[In] the days of Noah … the
true people of God were hard pressed by their enemies. In fact, so great was
the pressure of the wicked world that by the time the flood came only eight
souls were left among the believers. During that terrible time of suffering,
Noah was building the ark in which he was saved. God did not deliver them
immediately from their sufferings, because He had His own appointed time for
their deliverance in the ark by the flood. But during that time of persecution
God was longsuffering towards His people.
When the time came for deliverance, God came in judgment upon the world and
saved His church.
(III)
Rev. Angus Stewart
[Source: “The Longsuffering of God: A Survey of God’s Longsuffering
throughout Scripture”—originally published in the Covenant Reformed News, volume XVI, issues 3-10]
Here Jehovah’s longsuffering is
directed not to the wicked world He destroyed by the flood but to the “eight
souls” (Noah and his three sons with their four wives) who were “saved” by
water, as a picture of their eternal salvation.
(IV)
Herman Veldman (1908-1997)
[Source:
The
Standard Bearer, vol. 25, no. 21 (September 1, 1949),
p. 491]
This text has been quoted in
support of a longsuffering of God toward the ungodly contemporaries of Noah. At
first glance, this is understandable. The text speaks, does it not, of the
disobedient in the days of Noah, and declares that the longsuffering of God
waited in those days, while the ark was being prepared? Hence, it is affirmed,
the Lord, because of His longsuffering, waited one hundred and twenty years,
giving the wicked world time to repent. In connection with this “Common Grace”
interpretation of the days of Noah, we would make the observation that this
“longsuffering” of the Lord suffered a complete failure. Fact is that, when
this “period of probation” began, the Lord was already assured of the salvation
of Noah’s family. Fact is also that, when this period had come to an end, the
Lord had exactly as many saved souls as when it began. Only eight souls were saved. Hence, this
“longsuffering” of the Lord did not gain another soul. This, I must confess,
is a quite ridiculous presentation of the Lord Who does all things according to
His eternal counsel and will and Whom, so the apostle Paul declares in Romans
9:19, none can resist.
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(V)
More to come! (DV)
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