Genesis 9:28-29

(4) Noah's Death (Genesis 9:28-29).

Noah, we are told here, lived after the Flood three hundred and fifty years, His life terminated, when he was nine hundred and fifty years old, on the same tragic note that characterizes the family of man: an he died (Hebrews 9:27), It is interesting to note, in this connection, by way of comparison, that Abraham lived to be only one hundred and seventy-five years old (Genesis 25:7), and Moses only one hundred and twenty years old (Deuteronomy 34:7). How shall we account for this constantly decreasing longevity?

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FOR MEDITATION AND SERMONIZING

The Bow in the Cloud

1. The rainbow in the cloud was a most meaningful emblem. It had the prime characteristic of universality. It is a phenomenon which occurs in all parts of the earth where there is the proper relation between sunshine and shower, The Rainbow Covenant was not for just one people, one nation, one race. Unlike the covenant of circumcision which was for the fleshly seed of Abraham only, the Rainbow Covenant was God's promise to the entire family of man, in fact, to every living creature of all flesh (Genesis 9:15). Hence the sign of this covenant has to be one which is universal in scope, one that might be seen in every land. It was an attractive sign. Nothing is more beautiful, more attractive to the human eye, than the rainbow in the cloud. It stirs the finest of our emotions and the most fruitful of our meditations. In its selection, then, we detect another evidence of Divine grace. But, above all, it was a hopeful sign. It expresses the optimism of the entire book of Genesis. The darker the cloud, the more impressive is the bow in the cloud! And how forcefully this bow in the cloud reminds us of Calvary! There a cloud so dark descended upon the earth that even at midday there was intense darkness over the land (Matthew 27:45, Mark 15:33, Luke 23:44). But the eye of faith discerns in that, the heaviest cloud that ever gathered, the bright rainbow of eternal love suffering for a lost world! There is an aura of hope connected with the rainbow, even in Noah's experience, suggestive of the new world, the cleansed world, into which he had entered on withdrawing from the Ark, and of the Divine grace which had been extended to him all along the way. The Rainbow Covenant is rightly called the Covenant of Hope.

2. The Rainbow Covenant teaches us that the blessings of nature are no longer conditioned on man's moral conduct. All the blessings and benefits of what we call the regular course of nature are covenant blessings, flowing out of God's post-diluvian covenant with Noah. This covenant was to the effect that while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22). Isaac Errett (EB, 80): Even though the imaginations of men's hearts should be evil from their youth, the sun will rise, the moon will wax and wane, the rains will descend, and the seedtime and harvest will come in their appointed seasons. Men in their wickedness may deprive themselves of the blessings God thus designs to bestow, but His promise is none the less fulfilled. He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends His rain on the just and the unjust; for this is His promise (Matthew 5:45). Thus, as Paul writes, God -left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness-' (Acts 14:17). When we pause to reflect on what science unfolds to us of the ceaseless motions of innumerable worlds, and learn how the slightest variation from the established order might plunge system after system into confusion and disaster, we cannot but adore that everlasting truthfulness and unfailing goodness which hold all the mighty words and systems in harmony, and enable the astronomer to foretell for ages the sun's rising and setting, the transits of the planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon, and even the motions of comets, God's covenant of the day and night secures all this. God is forever true, God is absolute Truth, absolute Beauty, and absolute Goodness.

3. However, the Rainbow Covenant is evidence that the present world-order is not to last forever. The promise itself contains an intimation to the contrary: note well the words, while the earth remaineth. Is not this an intimation that our earth will not always remain, or at least not always remain what it is now? But the earth will never again be devastated by water: this was the Divine assurance. Cf. 2 Peter 3:5-7: the earth was once purged with water; it will in the next instance be swept clean by fire, in the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, Nevertheless, God's saints look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:13; cf. Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; Psalms 102:25-27; Hebrews 1:10-12; Hebrews 12:26; Revelation 21:1-4).

The Design of Positive Institutions

A moral law commands a thing to be done because it is right, but a positive law makes a thing right because God commands it, In popular parlance God's positive enactments are commonly designated ordinances. All such positive institutions, although always embodying the moral quality of obedience, are primarily for the purpose of proving (testing?) the faith of the worshiper.
The fact that Noah, on entering the new and cleansed world, worshiped God instead of paying homage to (blessing, burning incense to, pouring holy water on) the Ark, has a lesson of tremendous significance for all ages, In this act the very heart of the design of positive institutions revealed in Scripture is exemplified. The three following propositions will amplify this statement and serve to set forth the truly Divine purpose in all such institutions.
1. Superstition makes everything of a positive ordinance. Had Noah been a superstitious man he would have worshiped the Ark because it was the visible instrument of his deliverance. Man's corrupt nature makes it difficult for him to look beyond the visible and temporal to the invisible and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). These facts account for the mass of ritual which has grown up under the aegis of the older denominations of Christendom: men have gotten so thoroughly imbued with traditions and superstitions, many of them borrowed from pagan sources, that they are willing to bow before lifeless images, put crucifixes on their walls, sprinkle holy water, wear sacred relics as amulets, etc. Their cathedrals reek with the light of candles and the odor of incense as all ancient pagan temples did. In all such cases the Christian faith itself becomes an empty shell, just sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. There are those in New Testament churches who worship baptism instead of the Christ who commanded it. No one can literally believe in baptism; rather, one believes in Christ who has ordained that believers should witness by this act of faith, to the facts of the Gospelthe death and burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Romans 6:17). There is no efficacy in the water as such, that is, there is no magic involved in the institution; the efficacy is in the faith that is exemplified in this positive act of the obedience of love for the redeeming Savior. If there is any efficacy in water, it might be right to practice infant sprinkling (infant baptism is infant immersion); if there be such a thing as water regeneration, it certainly would be implicit in the act of sprinkling or pouring water on a baby (the act which is generally and erroneously called infant baptism). The unknowing babe has no understanding of what is going on; it has no conscience entering into the transaction (cf. 1 Peter 3:21); hence the efficacy in such an act, if any, must lie in the water and in the water alone. But who believes such a thing? Is it not sheer magic, sheer superstition? Most certainly the Bible does not teach water regeneration, nor does it authorize the patting of a few drops of water on a baby's head and calling that a baptism. Baptism is for the penitent believer: it is the expression to the world of his faith in Christ and of his love for Christ; it is his testimonial to the facts of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The moment the sinner begins to worship the ordinance instead of the Christ who ordained it, his faithif it can be called thathas degenerated into mere superstition. Take an example from the Old Testament: As long as the Children of Israel looked on the brazen serpent in the wilderness, and looked through it to the God who ordained it and its specific purpose, and then took God at His Word by doing what He commanded them to do, they were healed (Numbers 21:9, John 3:14). However, there came a time when they drifted into the worship of the thing itself instead of worshiping the God who, in His benevolence, had ordained it for their good; it was then that Hezekiah the king ordered the brazen serpent broken into pieces, calling it Nehushtan, that is, a piece of brass (2 Kings 18:4).

2. Mysticism, infidelity, and profanity make nothing of a positive institution. The mystic prates about the mere word, as if it were something to be trifled with He forgets that this is the Word which created and which sustains our universe in all its aspects and processes (Psalms 33:6-9; Psalms 148:1-6; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:1-4; Colossians 1:13-17; Romans 10:4-17). The mystic depends on feeling as his spiritual barometer, talks a great deal about heartfelt religion, spiritual experiences, about being in tune with the Infinite, etc., but, insofar as his actions are the norm, seems to care very little about the Bible. (Such groups as the Quakers, the Christian Scientists, the Unity cults, etc., spiritualize both baptism and the Lord's Supper out of concrete existence altogether.) The unbeliever scoffs at Divine institutions, and dubs them superstitions, hangover of folklore, etc. The profane person, while halfheartedly recognizing a positive ordinance as having something of divinity, still manifests no respect for it or for the God who ordained it. To all these classes we might issue the warning expressed in the old axiom, He who despises an ordinance of God, despises the God of the ordinance, and in the blunt words of the prophet Samuel to King Saul, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams (1 Samuel 15:22).

3. Faith regards and uses a positive institution as a Divine appointment, as God intended it to be used. Noah made use of the Ark as he was supposed to do, according to God's leading, in obedience to God's Word. Biblical positive ordinances are solemn trysts, Divine appointments, wherein Divine grace and human faith meet together. Christian baptism, for example, is the appointed institution wherein God meets the penitent believer to bestow on him remission of sins and the indwelling Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Galatians 3:2). The Lord's Supper is the appointed memorial institution wherein our Elder Brother meets, from Lord's Day to Lord's Day, with all whom He has bought with His own precious blood and incorporated into His Body, the Church (Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-30; Acts 20:28; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:18-20; Revelation 5:9). In like manner, the Ark was the Divinely appointed meeting-place wherein Noah met God and received deliverance from the Divine judgment which fell upon the ungodly antediluvian world. Noah was a man of faith, and faith takes God at His Word (Hebrews 11:7, Romans 10:17). Faith, which is the substance of things hoped for and a conviction with respect to things not seen (Hebrews 11:1), appropriates the Divine positive ordinances as solemn appointments as God intends them to be used.

Noah: God's Man for an Emergency

God always has His man for an emergency, and Noah certainly was no exception to the rule. Let us note the successive phases of Noah's life.
1. Noah in the world of the ungodly. Contemplation of faithful Noah living in the midst of a perverse generation, warning them of judgment not seen as yet, pleading with the people to repent and reform their lives, should remind the Christian of his constant duty in spite of every obstacle and discouragement; that he should go his way testifying of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come, regardless of the sneers of the worldly wise, the tauntings of the vicious, and the opposition of the hypocritical purveyors of false, assumed piety. A true Christian cannot expect to pitch his tabernacle on the mountain top, as Peter wanted to do on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:4); his work lies down in the valley where there is poverty, passion, toil, sorrow, pride, incestuousness, sin of every kind.

I said, -Let me walk in the fields,-'

God said, -No, walk in the town.-'

I said, -There are no flowers there,-'

He said, -No flowers, but a crown.-'

I said, -But the sky is black,

And there is smoke and bustle and din-';

He wept as He brought me back again,

And said, -There is morethere is sin.-'

2. Noah passing through the Flood. His deliverance through the raging waters of the Deluge is a striking figure of Christian baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). Water is the symbol of cleansing: hence in all ages God has maintained His water-line between the saved and the lost, between His people and the people of the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:2; Exodus 29:4; Exodus 40:12; Leviticus 8:6; Leviticus 16:4; Leviticus 16:24 with 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6; Matthew 3:5-7; Matthew 28:19, etc.). As the water separated those of faith, in the days of Noah, from the world of the ungodly, so in our Dispensation the same line of demarcation is fixed between the church and the unsaved world. The water which rolled over the eight persons in the Ark sanctified them, set them apart for Divine deliverance. As they passed from the wicked antediluvian world, through the water, into a new world where all was cleansed by this Divine judgment, so the penitent believer leaves the bondage of sin, comes to the water, passes through it, and arises to walk in newness of life (John 3:5, Galatians 3:27, Romans 6:1-11). As Noah and his family were completely buried from view so that they could neither see nor be seen by those about them, so the penitent believer must be buried in the water, completely hidden from view, before he can claim to be baptized Scripturally (Colossians 2:12, Matthew 3:16, Acts 8:36-39). Baptism is a profound spiritual heart act of the obedience of love (John 14:15, Romans 6:17).

3. Noah in the Ark presents a different picture from the Noah in the ungodly world. In the antediluvian society there was no rest for his troubled soul, no peace of body or mind or spirit, but in the Ark was profound seclusion. No matter if the elements were raging without, he and his family must have felt, in the ark, that security and peace which obedient faith alone can give. In this respect the Ark becomes a figure of Christ. All of God's waves and billows (Psalms 42:7, Jonah 2:3) rolled over the innocent Jesus when He hung on the Cross (Matthew 27:46), and, as a blessed consequence of His vicarious Sacrifice, none of these must pass over the saints, all of whom He has purchased with His own precious blood. At Calvary we see once again the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven opened. At Calvary we see deep calling unto deep at the noise of thy waterfalls (Psalms 42:7). Jesus bore the burden of humanity's sin in His own body and paid humanity's debt (John 1:29, 1 Peter 2:21-25). He put himself under the weight of His people's liabilities and discharged them fully. The acceptance of this truth, through unqualified belief in Him, gives to the soul that peace -which passeth all understanding.-' Christ is our Ark of safety; in Him only can we find that blessed security which only redeeming love can bestow. (Philippians 4:7).

4. Noah coming out of the Ark and taking his place in the cleansed new world must have experienced mingled feelings of awe, gratitude, and sadness: awe, because of the strange and mighty works of God, gratitude for the deliverance of himself and his family, and sadness at the thought of his friends and neighbors having all perished in the Flood. Throughout all his experience, he had placed himself unreservedly in the hands of Jehovah and been guided by Him. The same God who said at first, Make thee an ark of gopher wood, and later, Come, thou and all thy house, into the ark, now remembered Noah and all that were with him in the ark, and made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; the fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. The rays of the sun now poured down on a planet that had been baptized with a baptism of judgment. Judgment is one of God's terrible acts: He takes no delight in it, though He is glorified by it. The same God now said to Noah, Go forth from the ark. And Noah went forth. and builded an altar unto Jehovah. All is simple faith and obedience. Noah, in all his varied experiences, never raised a question when God spoke! He did what God told him to do and in the way God told him to do it. What a different thing from the carping, caviling, evasive thing that men have today which they call faith! Faith never asks the why or wherefore, when God commands. (Hebrews 11:7).

5. When God closed the door of the Ark behind Noah and his house, he shut out the unbelieving and impenitent world. Then the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened, and judgment was at hand. No matter that there were giants in the earth in those days, mighty men, men of renown; no matter that there were walled cities, and great herds and flocks on the outside; no matter that there were sounds of reveling by night, and wars and rumors of war by dayall had to be swept away! The sounds of the harp and the lyre were stilled, the forger's hammer lay unused, and the people cried for the rocks and the mountains, but it was too late! We may imagine that, if Noah could have given just one invitation from the door of the Ark, the people would have crowded in over each other's dead bodies! The Lord Jesus Christ opened the door of His Church on Pentecost, through His Apostles guided into all the truth by the Spirit, and it has never been closed from that day to this. It still stands ajar, ready to receive all who will enter in on the terms of the Gospel Covenant. The time is bound to come, however, when the Lord Himself shall close the door of His Church, and gather her unto Himself as a bride adorned for her husband (Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:9-10; Revelation 22:17). When that time comes all opportunity for repentance will have terminated. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51), He will come with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). Multitudes will cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them, but everlastingly too late. The hopeless answer will be, Jesus of Nazareth has passed by. Now is the accepted time, sinner friend: this should be the day of your salvation.

Noah was God's man for an emergency, God always has His man in the time of crisis, and Noah was this man in the early moral history of the race, Dean (OBH, 16): Some names are forever associated with great epochs: Lincoln with Emancipation, Cromwell with the Commonwealth, Moses with the Exodus, so Noah with the Deluge. Read Genesis 6:9; Genesis 7:1; Ezekiel 14:14. Noah was God's mana heroic figure in an apostate age. Altar after altar had crumbled, but the fires on Noah's altar did not go out till quenched by the Flood, It calls for courage to stand alone. But Noah dared to lead where few dared to follow. The absolute obedience and safety of Noah, the hopeless corruption and ruin of the racesuch as the impressive lessons. For one hundred and twenty years Noah faithfully preached and heroically lived. Only seven converts rewarded his labors: his wife, and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Jehpeth, and their wives. Yet Noah was successful: he did his duty, and he outrode the Flood.

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REVIEW QUESTIONS ON PART TWENTY-TWO

1.

How many days of Noah's life were spent in the Ark?

2.

List the successive phases of the days of prevailing of the waters upon the earth.

3.

List the successive phases of the days of assuaging.

4.

On what basis do we conclude that a month in Noah's life was a period of thirty days?

5.

Would you consider it reasonable to hold that the period of Noah's life spent in the Ark can be harmonized with the localized-Flood theory? Explain.

6.

Where did the Ark finally come to rest?

7.

Is there any definite conclusion to be drawn from the fact that the word erets may be translated either earth or land?

8.

What are the three pivotal events in the history of earth?

9.

How answer these questions: (1) Is there enough water on our planet to cover it entirely? (2) Whence came the waters which produced the Deluge? (3) Where did they go when the Flood subsided?

10.

What is meant by the statement that God remembered the occupants of the Ark when the time arrived for them to disembark?

11.

What is the significance of the statement that He remembered the animals that were with Noah in the Ark?

12.

Why was the raven probably sent out first?

13.

What was the significance of the sending out of the dove? How many times was the dove sent out?

14.

What was probably the symbolism of the freshly-plucked olive-leaf?

15.

What are the characteristics of a dove? What does the dove symbolize in the Scriptures?

16.

What is the connection between this symbolism and the manifestations which occurred after the baptism of Jesus?

17.

What probably is meant by the covering of the Ark?

18.

What interesting facts are revealed about the families in the Ark?

19.

Name the sons of Noah and state what each name means.

20.

What was Noah's first act on withdrawing from the Ark?

21.

What is the significance of the fact that Noah worshiped God and not the Ark?

22.

How do we know that Noah was not a superstitious man?

23.

What probably did the statement mean that Yahweh smelled the sweet savor of Noah's sacrifice?

24.

What seems to have been the deeper meaning of God's soliloquy in Genesis 8:21-22?

25.

In what special way was man's dominion over the lower animals reaffirmed?

26.

What was the change in the feelings of the animals toward man after the Flood?

27.

What does Noah's altar teach us about the institution of Sacrifice?

28.

What was the Divine blessing bestowed on Noah and his sons?

29.

Is there any conclusive Scripture evidence that man was permitted only a vegetarian diet prior to the Flood?

30.

What part of living creatures was prohibited as food after the Flood?

31.

What law was ordained about the eating of blood? Why this prohibition?

32.

What law was ordained about murder? What is murder?

33.

What was the ordination with respect to a beast that killed a human being?

34.

What was the purpose of the practice of blood vengeance?

35.

How shall we regard the law against murder in relation to capital punishment?

36.

Were these fundamental laws universal or only Mosaic in their scope? Explain your answer.

37.

What is a covenant?

38.

What was God's pre-diluvian covenant with Noah and his house?

39.

What was the essence of His post-diluvian covenant with Noah?

40.

What Divine promise did this covenant include about future floods?

41.

Was this covenant unilateral? If so, in what sense?

42.

What was the sign of this covenant?

43.

Does this necessarily mean that no rainbow had appeared before this time? Explain.

44.

Of what people was the earth overspread after the Flood?

45.

What sin did Noah commit after the Flood?

46.

What light does this throw on our statement that the Bible is the Book of Life?

47.

What various attitudes did Noah's sons take with regard to their father's sin?

48.

What does the New Testament teach about drunkenness?

49.

What was wrong in Ham's attitude? What fundamental moral law did he break?

50.

Explain the historical fulfillment of Noah's curse on the Line of Ham and Canaan.

51.

Explain the historical fulfillment of Noah's blessing on the Line of Shem.

52.

Explain the historical fulfillment of the blessings pronounced by Noah on the Line of Japheth.

53.

How old was Noah when he died? Compare this with Abraham's age when he died, and with the age of Moses when he died? How account for the descending longevity?

54.

What lessons are to be derived from the story of the Rainbow Covenant?

55.

What is the essential character of a Divine positive ordinance?

56.

How does a superstitious man treat a positive Divine ordinance?

57.

What lesson do we learn from the Old Testament story of the Brazen Serpent about the design of positive institutions mentioned in Scripture?

58.

What attitude does the mystic take toward Divine positive institutions?

59.

How does unbelief treat such an institution?

60.

How does a profane person treat God's positive ordinances?

61.

What two kinds of worship does God require of His people? What is the essential character of external worship?

62.

What do we mean when we say that positive ordnances are Divine appointments?

63.

What does this teach us about the design of the Christian ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper?

64.

What was wrong in Peter's attitude on the Mount of Transfiguration?

65.

Summarize the successive phases of Noah's life.

66.

What does the writer of Hebrews say about Noah's faith? How did Noah show his great faith?

67.

Why did we say that Noah was God's man for an emergency?