f this wrath and punishment 237.

* By what may it be known that God will visit Germany with
punishment 238.

* God complains more of the violence shown to the neighbor than
to himself 239.

* The damages of the deluge 240.

* The ground of the earth was in a better state before the
flood than now 240.

* The colors in the rainbow signs of the punishment of the
first and the last world 241.

VI. GOD DECIDES TO PUNISH THE FIRST WORLD; COMMANDS NOAH TO BUILD AN
ARK; THE COVENANT.

A. God Decides to Punish the Old World.

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._

231. After Noah and his people had for a long time raised their
accusing cry against the depravity of the world, the Lord gave
evidence that he saw the depravity and intended to avenge it. This,
the second stage, we also look for today, nor is there any doubt that
men shall exist, to whom this coming destruction of the world is to be
revealed, unless the destruction be the last day and the final
judgment, which I truly wish. We have seen enough wickedness in these
brief and evil days of ours. Godless men, as in Noah's time, adorn
their vices with the name of holiness and righteousness. Hence, no
penitence or reformation is to be hoped for. This stage having been
reached in the times of Noah, sentence is finally passed, having been
previously announced by the Lord when he gave command that striving
should cease and issued the declaration that he regretted having made
man.

232. Reason is incapable of believing and perfectly understanding such
wrath. Just consider how different this is from what had been. Above
we have read (ch 1, 31) that God saw everything he had made and
behold, it was very good; that he gave man and beast the additional
blessing of propagation; that he subjected to man's rule the earth and
all the treasures of the earth; that as the highest blessing, he added
the promise of the woman's seed and life eternal and instituted not
only the home and the State, but also the Church. How, then, is it
that the first world, called into being in this way through the Word,
should, to use Peter's expression, perish by water?

233. There is no doubt that the sons of the world threw all this up to
Noah as he preached the coming universal destru