The Pulpit Commentaries
Genesis 8:15-22
EXPOSITION
And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark. For which command doubtless the patriarch waited, as he had done for instructions to enter in (Genesis 7:11), "being restrained by a hallowed modesty from allowing himself to enjoy the bounty of nature till he should hear the voice of God directing him to do so" (Calvin). Thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. The order is different, in Genesis 7:7, whence Ambrose noteth, "non commiscetur sexus in introitu, sod commiscetur in ingressu." Bring forth with thee—God having preserved alive the creatures that a twelvemonth before had been taken into the ark, and were now to be restored to their appropriate habitations on the earth—every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (cf. Genesis 7:21; Genesis 9:10); that they may breed abundantly—sharatz, to creep or crawl, used of reptiles and small water animals (Genesis 1:20; Genesis 7:21); hence to swarm, or multiply (Genesis 9:7)—in the earth, and be fruitful (Genesis 1:22), and multiply—literally, become numerous—upon the earth.
And Noah went forth,—in obedience to the Divine command,—and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him,—in obedience to Noah, to whom alone the Divine instructions were communicated;—an early instance of filial subjection to parents. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, i.e. the chayyah, the remes, the 'oph, all creepers upon the ground (cf. Genesis 1:26; Genesis 7:8, Genesis 7:14), all of which had previously entered in. After their kinds. Hebrew, families, tribes (Genesis 10:18); i.e. not confusedly, but in an orderly fashion, as they had come in, each one sorting to its kind. Went forth out of the ark.
And Noah builded an altar. Mizbeach, a place for slaying sacrifices, from zabach, to slaughter animals (Genesis 31:54), to slay in sacrifice (Le Genesis 9:4; 1 Samuel 1:4), as θυσιαστηìριον, from θυìειν, is the first altar mentioned in history. The English term (from altus, high) signifies a high place, because the altar was commonly a raised structure or mound of earth or stones (Exodus 20:24). Keil thinks that altars were not required prior to the Flood, the Divine presence being still visibly among men at the gate of Eden, "so that they could turn their offerings and their hearts towards that abode." Poole, Clarke, Bush, and Inglis hold that the antediluvian sacrifices presupposed an altar. Unto the Lord. Jehovah, the God of salvation. And took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl. Vide Genesis 7:2. "Seldom has there been a more liberal offering in proportion to the means of the giver. His whole stock of clean animals, wherewith to fill the world, was seven pairs of each" (Inglis). And offered. By Divine appointment, since his service was accepted; and "all religious services which are not perfumed with the odor of faith are of an ill savor before God (Calvin); but "God is peculiarly well pleased with free-will offerings, and surely, if ever an occasion existed for the exercise of grateful and adoring sentiments, the present was one" (Bush). Burnt offerings. 'ōlōth, literally, things that ascend, from 'ālāh, to go up, alluding not to the elevation of the victims on the altar, but to the ascension of the smoke of the burnt offerings to heaven (cf. Judges 20:40; Jeremiah 48:15; Amos 4:10). On the altar.
And the Lord (Jehovah) smelled—as is done by drawing the air in and out through the nostrils; from the root ruach, to breathe; high; to smell—a sweet savor. Reach hannichoach literally, an odor of satisfaction, acquiescence, or rest; from nuach, to rest, with an allusion to Noah's name (vide Genesis 5:29); ὀσμηÌν εὐωδιìας (LXX.); (cf. Le Genesis 2:12; Genesis 26:31; Numbers 15:3; Ezekiel 6:13). The meaning is that the sacrifice of the patriarch was as acceptable to God as refreshing odors are to the senses of a man; and that which rendered it acceptable was
(1) the feeling from which it sprang, whether gratitude or obedience;
(2) the truths which it expressed—it was tantamount to an acknowledgment of personal guilt, a devout recognition of the Divine mercy, an explicit declaration that he had been saved or could only be saved through the offering up of the life of another, and a cheerful consecration of his redeemed life to God;
(3) the great sacrifice of which it was a type. Paul, by using the language of the LXX. (Ephesians 5:2), shows that he regarded the two as connected. And the Lord said in his heart. I.e. resolved within himself. It is not certain that this determination on the part of Jehovah was at this time communicated to the patriarch (cf. Genesis 6:3, Genesis 6:7 for Divine inward resolves which were not at the moment made known), unless the correct reading be to his (Noah's) heart, meaning the Lord comforted him (cf. Judges 19:3; Ruth 2:13; Isaiah 40:2; Hosea 2:14), which is barely probable. I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake. Literally, I will not add to curse. Not a revocation of the curse of Genesis 3:17, nor a pledge that such curse would not be duplicated. The language refers solely to the visitation of the Deluge, and promises not that God may not some. times visit particular localities with a flood, but that another such world-wide catastrophe should never overtake the human race. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Genesis 6:5 assigns this as the reason for man's destruction; a proof of inconsistency between the Elohistic author and his Jehovistic editor (Bleek). "Hie inconstantiae videtur Deus accusari posse" (Luther). "God seems to contradict himself by having previously declared that the world must be destroyed because its iniquity was desperate" (Calvin). Some endeavor to remove the incongruity by translating כִּי as although (Bush, Inglis), but "there are few (if any) places were כִּי can be rendered although" (T. Lewis). Others connect it with "for man's sake," as explanatory not of the promise, but of the past judgment (Murphy), or as stating that any future cursing of the ground would not be for man's sake (Jacobus). The true solution of the difficulty appears to lie in the clause "from his youth," as if God meant to say that whereas formerly he had visited man with judicial extermination on account of his absolute moral corruption, he would now have regard to the circumstance that man inherited his depravity through his birth, and, instead of smiting man with punitive destruction, would visit him with compassionate forbearance (Keil, 'Speaker's Commentary'). Tayler Lewis regards the expression as strongly anthropopathic, like Genesis 6:6, and indicative of the Divine regret at so calamitous an act as the Deluge, although that act was absolutely just and necessary. Neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done. There should be no more deluge, but—
While the earth remaineth. Literally, as yet, all the days of the earth, i.e. henceforth, so long as the earth continues, עֹד expressing the ideas of repetition and continuance (vide Genesis 8:12). Seed-time and harvest,—from roots signifying to scatter, e.g. seed, and to cut off, specially grain; σπεìρμα καιÌ θερισμοÌς (LXX.)—and cold and heat,—ψυìχος καιÌ καῦμα (LXX.)—and summer and winter. Properly the cutting off of fruits, from a root meaning to cut off, hence summer; and the time when fruits are plucked, hence autumn (including winter); the import of the root being to gather, to pluck off; θεìρος καιÌ ἐìαρ (LXX.). The first term of each pair denotes the first half of the year, and the second term of each pair the second half. And day and night (cf. Genesis 1:5) shall not cease. Hebrew, lo yish-bothu, shall not sabbatise, or keep a day of rest; i.e. they shall continue ever in operation and succession. This Divine promise to conserve the orderly constitution and course of nature is elsewhere styled "God's covenant of the day and of the night" (cf. Jeremiah 33:20, Jeremiah 33:25).
Traditions of the Deluge.
1. The Babylonian.
(1) From the Chaldean monuments. As deciphered from the eleventh tablet of the Izdubar series, the story of the Flood is briefly this:—Izdubar, whom George Smith identifies with Nimrod, the founder of Babylonia, is informed by Hasisadra, whom the same authority believes to represent Noah, of a Divine commandment which he had received to construct a ship after a specified pattern, in which to save himself and "the seed of all life," because the city Surippak wherein he dwelt was to be destroyed. After first attempting to excuse himself, as he explains to Izdubar, on the ground that "young and old will deride him," Hasisadra builds the ship, and causes to go up into it "all my male servants and my female the ants, the beast of the field, the animal of the field, the sons of the people, all of them," while the god Shamas makes a flood, causing it to rain heavily. The flood destroys all life from the face of the earth Six days and nights the storm rages; on the seventh it grows calm. Twelve measures above the sea rises the land. The ship is stopped by a mountain in the country of Nizir. After seven days Hasisadra sends forth a dove, "which went and turned, and a resting-place it did not find, and it returned;" then a swallow, and finally a raven. On the decrease of the waters he sends forth the animals, and builds an altar on the peak of the mountain, and pours out a libation ('Chaldean Genesis,' Genesis 16:1; 'Records of the Past,' vol. 7:133-141).
(2) From Berosus. The god Kronos appeared to Xisuthrus, the tenth Mug of Babylon, in a vision, and warned him of an approaching deluge upon the fifteenth day of the month Desius, by which mankind would be destroyed. Among other things the god instructed him to build a vessel for the preservation of himself and friends, and specimens of the different animals. Obeying the Divine admonition, he built a vessel five stadia in length and two in breadth, and conveyed into it his wife, children, and friends. After the flood had been upon the earth he three times sent out birds from the vessel, which returned to him the second time with mud upon their feet, and the third time returned to him no more. Find. ing that the vessel had grounded on a mountain, Xisuthrus disembarked with his wife and children, and, having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, in reward for which he was raized immediately to heaven.
2. The Egyptian. Though commonly alleged to be entirely unknown in the Nile valley, it is certain that the germs of the Deluge story are to be discovered even there. According to the Egyptian historian Manetho, quoted by Eusebius, Thoth, the first Hermes, erected certain pillars with inscriptions, which, after the Deluge, were transcribed into books. Plato also states in the Timaeus that a certain Egyptian priest informed Solon that the gods, when wishing to purify the earth, were accustomed to overwhelm it by a deluge, from which the herdsmen and shepherds saved themselves on the tops of the mountains. Josephus ('Ant.,' I. 3.9) certifies that Hieronymus the Egyptian refers to the Flood. A conception altogether analogous to that of Genesis is likewise to be found in a myth belonging to the archaic period of Seti I; which represents Ra, the Creator, as being disgusted with the insolence of mankind, and resolving to exterminate them. In short, the Egyptians believed not that there was no deluge, but that there had been several The absence of any indications of this belief in the recovered literature of ancient Egypt is not sufficient to set aside the above concurrent testimonies to its existence.
3. The Indian. Through the theft of the sacred Vedas by the giant Hayagrivah, the human race became fearfully degenerate, with the exception of seven saints and the good King Satyavrata, to whom the Divine spirit Vishnu appeared in the form of a fish, in. forming him of his purpose to destroy the earth by a flood, and at the same time to send a ship miraculously constructed for the preservation of himself and the seven holy ones, along with their wives, and one pair of each of all the irrational animals. After seven days the rain descended, when Satyavrata, confiding in the promises of the god, saw a huge ship drawing near, into which he entered as directed. Then the god appeared in the form of a fish a million miles long, with an immense horn, to which the king made the ship fast, and, drawing it for many years (a night of Brahma), at length landed it upon the highest peak of Mount Himavau. When the flood abated the god arose, struck the demon Hayagrivah, recovered the sacred books, instructed Satyavrata in all heavenly sciences, and appointed him the seventh Mann, from whom the second population of the earth descended in a supernatural manner, whence man is styled Manudsha (born of Mann). Vide Kalisch, p. 203; Auberlen's 'Divine Revelation,' p. 169 (Clark's 'For. Theol. Lib.' ).
4. The Grecian. It is sufficient here to refer to the well-known story of Deucalion and Pyrrha, first given in Pindar, and afterwards related by Apollodorus, Plutarch, Lucian, and Ovid, whose account bears so close a resemblance to the Biblical narrative as to suggest the probability of access to Hebrew or Syrian sources of information. The previous corruption of manners and morals, the eminent piety of Deucalion, the determination "genus mortals sub undisperdere," the construction of a boat by Divine direction, the bursting of the storm, the rising of the waters, the universal ocean in which "jamque mare et tellus nullum discrimen habebant," the subsidence of the flood, the landing of the boat on Parnassus with its double peak, the consultation of the Deity "per sacras sortes," and the answer of the god as to how the earth was to be re-peopled "ossaque post tergum magnae jactare parentis," are detailed with such graphic power as makes them read "like amplified reports of the record in Genesis." Indeed, by Philo, Deucalion was distinctly regarded as Noah. Cf. Ovid, 'Metamorph.,' lib. 1. f. 7.; 'Kalisch on Genesis,' p. 203; Kitto's 'Bible Illustrations,' p. 150 (Porter's edition); 'Lange on Genesis,' p. 294, note by Tayler Lewis; Smith's ' Dictionary of the Bible,' art. Noah.
5. The American. Traditions of the Flood appear to be even more numerous in the New World than the Old. The Esquimatux in the North, the Red Indians, the Mexicans and the Brazilians in the central parts of America, and the Peruvians in the South have all their peculiar versions of the Deluge story. Chasewee, the ancestor of the Dog. rib Indians, on the Mackensie river, according to Franklin, escaped in a canoe from a flood which overflowed the earth, taking with him all manner of four-footed beasts and birds. The Astees, the Mixtees, the Zapotess, and other nations inhabiting Mexico all have, according to Humboldt, their Noahs, Xisuthrus, or Manus (called Coxcox, Teocipactli, or Tezpi), who saves himself by a raft, or in a ship, which lands upon the summit of Colhuacan, the Ararat of the Mexicans. The legends of the Tamanacks relate that a man and woman saved themselves from the Deluge, and repeopled the earth by casting behind them the fruits of the Mauritia palm tree.
What, then, is the conclusion to be drawn from this universal diffusion of the Deluge story? The theory of Schirren and Gerland, as stated by the writer of the article Deluge in the 'Encyclopedia Britannica,' is that the Deluge stories were originally other-myths, descriptive of the phenomena of the sky, which have been transferred from the celestial regions to the earth; but, as Kalisch justly observes, "the harmony between all these accounts is an undeniable guarantee that the tradition is no idle invention;" or, as is forcibly stated by Rawlinson, of a tradition existing among all the great races into which ethnologists have divided mankind,—the Shemites, the Hamites, the Aryans, the Turanians,—"but one rational account can be given, viz; that it embodies the recollection of a fact in which all mankind was concerned."
HOMILETICS
The saint and the Savior.
I. THE SAVIOR'S INJUNCTION TO THE SAINT (Genesis 8:15). The command which God addressed to Noah and the other inmates of the ark to go forth and take possession of the renovated earth may be regarded as emblematic of that Divine instruction which shall yet be given to the saints to go forth and take possession of the now heavens and the new earth, when the great gospel ship of the Christian Church, now floating on the troubled sea of life, shall have landed with its living freight upon the coasts of bliss. The Divine command to Noah was an order to pass—
1. From a situation of comparative peril to a position of perfect safety. Though, certainly, before the bursting of the storm the only available shelter was that afforded by the ark, "all flesh and all in whose nostrils was the breath of life" that remained without having perished, yet even inside the ark must have seemed to the inexperienced voyagers to be at the best of only doubtful security. But now whatever danger had been connected with their twelve months' drifting across a trackless sea was at an end. And so, though only within the shelter of the Christian Church can safety be enjoyed, yet at the best it is not entirely free from peril. What with temptations and afflictions, "fears within and foes without," there always is a risk of making shipwreck of the soul (1 Timothy 1:19); but when life's voyage has been finished, and the new heavens and the new earth have been revealed, the salvation of the saints will be complete.
2. From a period of patient hoping to a season of delightful enjoying. It is doubtful if we always sufficiently realize the greatness of the strain to which the faith of the patriarch was subjected when he was shut up within the ark and left there for over a twelvemonth without any direct communication from God, with nothing for his faith to rest upon but the simple promise that he and his should be saved. At the best it was only little foretastes or earnests of God's complete salvation which he enjoyed: first in being sheltered from the storm; next in being floated above the waters; then in touching land upon Ararat; and again in getting signs of the approaching deliverance. Throughout the entire period he could only live in hope and patiently endure. But here at length was the time of full fruition come. Go forth from the ark. And so it is with Christ's saints universally. Here are only earnests of the inheritance (Ephesians 1:14); there alone is the inheritance itself (Colossians 1:12). Now is the time for hoping and waiting (Romans 8:25); then is the season for seeing and enjoying (1 John 3:2). Here the saints rest upon the promise as their guarantee (2 Timothy 1:1; Hebrews 4:1); there the saints behold and experience its realization (Hebrews 6:12).
3. From a condition of restrained activity to a sphere of higher and freer service. Not that Noah's life within the ark could in any sense have been one of idleness, and neither are the lives of Christians on the earth and in the Church below; but Noah entered on another and a nobler kind of work when he left the ark than that which had engaged his powers within its precincts, and so do they who are counted worthy of attaining to Christ's Kingdom and glory. Here, like Noah's, the saint's powers of service are limited and confined; there they shall attain to greater freedom and fuller scope (1 Corinthians 13:9; Revelation 4:8.)
II. THE SAINT'S RESPONSE TO THE SAVIOR (Genesis 8:18). The command to leave the ark which God addressed to Noah was obeyed—
1. Immediately. We can imagine that everything was in a state of readiness for departure when the marching orders came, so that there was no need to interpose delay. So was it with the Hebrews when the Lord led them forth from Egypt (Exodus 12:11); so should Christians be always ready for their Master's summons, whether to pass from affliction (Isaiah 3:11) or into it (Genesis 22:1; Acts 21:13), to enter upon a new sphere of work (Isaiah 6:8) or retire from an old one into silence (1 Kings 17:3); to go down into the grave (2 Timothy 4:6) and wait for the apocalypse of the saints (Job 14:14), or to go up into glory and partake of the inheritance of the saints in light (Matthew 24:44).
2. Universally. Not the patriarch alone, but all his family and all the creatures came forth; so did all God's people come forth from the house of bondage (Exodus 10:26); and so will all Christ's redeemed ones who have entered into the salvation ark of his Church emerge at last into the light and felicity of heaven (Isaiah 51:11; Luke 12:32; 1 Corinthians 15:22; 1 Thessalonians 4:14).
3. Joyfully. This we may infer. After the twelve months' isolation, and confinement, and comparative peril we need not doubt that Noah and his family exulted with delight, and that even the lower creatures were not strangers to agreeable sensations. It was a picture of the happiness which even here the saints enjoy in the Divine interpositions on their behalf; but especially of the universal thrill of gladness which God's redeemed family, and even "the creature itself," shall experience in the palingenesia of the heavens and the earth (Isaiah 35:10; Romans 8:19)
4. Finally. They were never more to return to the ark, because never again should there he a flood. It was a delightful symbol of the completeness and finality of God's salvation when the saints shall have been landed on the heights of bliss (Revelation 21:4; Revelation 22:3).
III. THE SAINT'S WORSHIP OF THE SAVIOR (Genesis 8:20). As Noah's first act on stepping forth from the ark was to build an altar unto the Lord, so the saint's first work on reaching heaven will be to worship; and this worship will be—
1. Believing. This was implied in the very thought of offering up a sacrifice to Jehovah, but specially so in the circumstances in which the patriarch was then placed. The visible symbol of the Divine presence had retired to its original dwelling-place in the heavens, and yet Noah had as little doubt as ever he had that there was a God to worship. The building of an altar, therefore, just then and there was an explicit declaration of his faith. Without faith there can be no worship of God either there or there, on earth or in heaven (Hebrews 11:6).
2. Thankful. The offering of Noah was designed as an expression of his gratitude for the Lord's mercy, and so should the worship of the saints on earth be characterized by the same spirit (Philippians 4:6), as we know the adorations of the saints before the throne are (Revelation 7:12).
3. Generous. Noah took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, i.e. one of seven or one of fourteen (vide Expos.), in either case a munificent tribute to the God of his salvation. How seldom is the like liberality exhibited by Christ's worshippers on earth! What a blessed thought it is that among the saints above there will be no temptation to such meanness as is often practiced by the saints below!
4. Sincere. It was no merely formal service that the patriarch presented. The burnt offering was a symbolic declaration of his self-consecration—body, soul, and spirit—to the God who had redeemed him. Of this sort is the service which Christ expects and believers should render on the earth (Matthew 16:24; Luke 14:26; Romans 12:1; 1 Corinthians 6:20). Of such kind will be the worship of the saints in heaven (Revelation 22:8).
IV. THE SAVIOR'S RESPONSE TO THE SAINT (Genesis 8:21, Genesis 8:22). As the sacrifice of Noah was well-pleasing unto God, so will the worship of the saints find acceptance in his sight. And this acceptance of the sacrifices of the glorified, like the reception of Noah's offering—
1. Will consist in the cherishing by God of a feeling of sweet complacency towards the worshippers. As from the burning victims upon Noah's altar there came up into the Divine nostrils a savor of rest, so from the spiritual sacrifices of Christians even here there ascends an odor of a sweet smell unto God (Philippians 4:18), while in the upper sanctuary the services of the redeemed go up continually before God like the smoke of incense (Revelation 8:4).
2. Will be based upon the odor of the sacrifice of Christ, of which Noah's was the type. It was not the actual service of Noah, considered as an opus operatum, that produced the feeling of complacency in God (Micah 6:7), but the sacrificial work of Christ, to which the faith of the patriarch had an outlook (Ephesians 5:2). For the sake of that offering up of himself once for all in the end of the world that was to be accomplished by the woman's seed, and which Noah's faith truly, however dimly, embraced, God accepted him and his. That same offering is the ground or basis on which all the saints sacrifices are accepted either on earth (1 Peter 2:5) or in heaven (Revelation 5:6).
3. Will express itself through the perpetuation of the worshipper's safety.
(1) By averting all evil. "There shall be no more curse (Revelation 22:3), as God determined in his heart (Genesis 8:21), and afterwards expressed to Noah (Genesis 9:15), never more to curse the ground or flood the earth.
(2) By securing all good, which was symbolized by the confirmation of the covenant of day and night.
Lessons:—
1. Live in a state of readiness for the glorious appearing of the Son of man (Titus 1:13).
2. Expectantly wait for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19).
3. Learn the nature of the saint's service in the heavenly world (Revelation 5:8).
4. Note the security for the perpetuity of heaven's blessedness—Christ's sacrifice and God's covenant.
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD
Rest and restoration.
Noah (Rest) comes forth from the ark in the sabbath century of his life, the six hundred and first year. He lived after the Flood 350 years, the half week of centuries; his life represented a rest, but not the rest, a half sabbath, promise of the rest which remains to the people of God.
I. AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH.
1. Not until God spake did Noah dare to do more than lift off the covering and look.
2. At the heavenly word the family, redeemed by grace, takes possession of the redeemed habitation.
II. THE REDEEMED LIFE IN ITS NEW APPOINTMENT. GO forth of the ark into the new world. There is the keynote of the Bible. Man redeemed is man living by every word of God.
1. By Divine commandment going into the prepared refuge.
2. By Divine commandment taking down old bounds and occupying new places.
3. Going forth into a promised land rejoicing in a pledged future.
4. Carrying with him all lower creatures into a new, progressive, God-blessed inheritance. The whole creation groaning and travailing, the whole creation participating in the Divine deliverance.—R.
The sanctification of the earth.
The sweet savor of man's burnt offerings—
(1) not the offerings of caprice, but the fulfillment of Divine commands,
(2) the reciprocation of Heaven's communications—
(3) ascends from the earth-built altar and fills the Lord with satisfaction. In return for that obedience and devotion the curse is removed, the earth is sealed with the saving strength of God in a covenant of peace.
I. RELIGIOUS LIFE IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD when it is
(1) grateful acknowledgment of his mercy;
(2) humble obedience to his own revealed will;
(3) consecration of place, time, life, possessions to him.
II. UNION and COMMUNION between God and man is the foundation on which all earthly happiness and security rest.
III. The FORBEARANCE AND MERCY OF GOD in his relation to those whose hearts are yet full of evil is at once probation and grace. The ground is not cursed any more for man's sake, but, the more evidently, that which falls upon the ground may fall upon man himself. The higher revelations of God in the post-Noachic period were-certainly larger bestowments of grace, but at the same time they involved a larger responsibility. So the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews reasons as to the punishment of those who trample underfoot the covenant of the gospel. The progressive covenants which make up the history of God's grace recorded in the Scriptures are progressive separations of the evil and the good, therefore they point to that complete and final separation in which God's righteousness shall be eternally glorified.—R.