Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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All the cattle, fowl, and creeping things, died, except the few that were in the ark. Observe how this is repeated: All flesh died, Ge 7:21. All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was on the dry land, Ge 7:22. Every living substance, Ge 7:23. And why so? Man only had done wickedly, and justly is God's hand against him; but these sheep, what have they done? I answer,
(1.) We are sure God did them no wrong. He is the sovereign Lord of all life, for he is the sole fountain and author of it. He that made them as he pleased might unmake them when he pleased; and who shall say unto him, What doest thou? May he not do what he will with his own, which were created for his pleasure?
(2.) God did admirably serve the purposes of his own glory by their destruction, as well as by their creation. Herein his holiness and justice were greatly magnified; by this it appears that he hates sin, and is highly displeased with sinners, when even the inferior creatures, because they are the servants of man and part of his possession, and because they have been abused to be the servants of sin, are destroyed with him. This makes the judgment the more remarkable, the more dreadful, and, consequently, the more expressive of God's wrath and vengeance. The destruction of the creatures was their deliverance from the bondage of corruption, which deliverance the whole creation now groans after, Ro 8:21, 22. It was likewise an instance of God's wisdom. As the creatures were made for man when he was made, so they were multiplied for him when he was multiplied; and therefore, now that mankind was reduced to so small a number, it was fit that the beasts should proportionally be reduced, otherwise they would have had the dominion, and would have replenished the earth, and the remnant of mankind that was left would have been overpowered by them. See how God considered this in another case, Ex 23:29, Lest the beast of the field multiply against thee.
22 all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry
land, died.