And God remembered Noah, and all the animals, and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
This verse arrives at the darkest point of the story. The old world is gone. The ark has floated for months on a shoreless sea. Then God remembers Noah, and the account turns from judgment toward restoration.
Judgment had done its work. One writer draws attention to what God delights in.
"But God remembered Noah." The strange work of judgment is over. Now the saved family, and all who are with them, come into remembrance… The beams of the sun begin to act on a world that had passed through a baptism of judgment. Judgment is God's "strange work." He does not delight in it, though He is glorified by it. Blessed be His name, He is ever ready to leave the place of judgment and enter that of mercy, because He delights in mercy.
Noah was already safe inside the ark. The verse gives him more than that, measured against the ruin all around.
But they were more than safe. They were remembered… The scene of death and judgment lay all around our patriarch. It was one vast, deep, mighty ruin… But He who had already shut His remnant in now remembers them. In that remembrance there was life for the present, and a rich inheritance ahead.
Remembrance did not mean instant rescue. The waters fell slowly. Those inside had every reason to feel forgotten.
The five months of floating on a shoreless sea would seem endless to Noah and his family. We can well imagine that they felt God had forgotten them. "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark" — the wild beasts as well as the domesticated animals. But a flood covering even the mountains would need a long time to subside, even with the wind God sent to help… The sources the water came from were stopped, and the rain from heaven no longer fell. That in itself would be a welcome relief to the people in the ark… Yet at the end of 150 days the ark only grounded in the mountains of Ararat. There was still no land in sight.
The verse says God remembered, not the LORD. One writer treats that choice as deliberate.
The next chapter (Genesis 8) shows God's remembrance of Noah and every living thing. Here it would not have served His purpose to say, "Jehovah remembered every living thing." That is because not every living thing stood in moral relationship with God. Noah undoubtedly was; but it is not always, nor here, the aim to draw attention to what was special.
The change of title is not random. It tracks the change of subject, and it shifts again a few verses later.
This is the general care of Him who had created all. So every living thing and all the cattle are remembered along with Noah… This is simply God's usual way from chapters 7:17 to 8:19. From Genesis 8:20 we have special relationship, and the name Jehovah appears at once, with perfect fitness… The same writer was led to vary the name of God just as the change of subject required.
One writer points ahead. Noah is not the last person God remembers this way.
It will be so with another chosen remnant in coming days. A book of remembrance will be written before the same covenant God who was now keeping Noah in mind. It is for those who fear the Lord and think on His name (Malachi 3)… Just as now, because of this covenant-remembrance, the Lord causes a wind to pass over the earth, the waters go down, and the ark rests on the mountains of Ararat.
Noah went through the flood and came out into a new world. One writer reads that as a picture of salvation.
Next comes Noah's passage through the judgment of the old world into a new scene, accepted by God in the pleasing aroma of sacrifice. This is the type of where salvation puts us — "in Christ, a new creation: old things passed away, and all things become new."
- Remembered, not forgotten. God's long silence was not neglect. This verse marks the moment His remembrance starts to act.
- Remembrance moves. He is always ready to leave the place of judgment and enter that of mercy, because He delights in mercy.
- Remembrance reaches wide. The verse says God, not the LORD, because the Creator's care covers every living thing, not Noah alone.
- Remembrance works slowly. The wind blows and the waters fall. Months still pass before land appears. Delay is not indifference.
- Remembrance ends in a new world. That remembrance held life now and an inheritance ahead. God brings His people through judgment into a new scene.
And the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were closed, and the pour of rain from heaven was stopped.
This verse shuts off the flood at both ends: the deep below and the sky above. Genesis 7:11 had opened those same two sources. Who closed them again, and why does the account tell it so quietly, in the same breath as God remembering Noah?
The waters stop because God has finished. One writer reads that as God moving out of one work and into another.
The strange work of judgment is over. Now the saved family, and all who were with them, come into remembrance… The beams of the sun now begin to act on a world that had been baptised with a baptism of judgment. Judgment is God's "strange work." He does not delight in it, though He is glorified by it. Blessed be His name, He is ever ready to leave the place of judgment, and enter that of mercy, because He delights in mercy.
Nothing in the verse suggests water simply draining away by natural means. The text names no clouds and no sea. One writer weighs the words the account actually uses, both for where the water came from and for how it stopped.
But besides rain, it speaks of the fountains of the great deep being broken up, and the windows of heaven opened. It is never said that the water drained back into the sea. It says that "the waters returned from off the earth continually." And it declares that the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. So the account does present the flood as having both its source and its stopping in the extraordinary intervention of God — call it "miracle" or what you please.
The two phrases are not poetry for heavy weather. They describe a supply of water God had held in reserve.
Here we see how God destroyed the early population of the earth. He used the vast store of water He had provided above and below to overwhelm man and beast — apart from those preserved in the ark with Noah by His command. The language of Gen. 7:11 points to this huge overflow: "all the fountains of the great deep burst forth," "and the windows (or the floodgates) of heaven were opened." On the other hand, the language of Gen. 8:2 marks the point when the subsiding set in.
Through this part of the account the title is "God," not "the LORD." One writer reads that as the Creator's care for everything He had made.
It is the general care of Him who had created all, and so God remembers every living thing and all the cattle along with Noah. We have not here specific relationship, where "Jehovah" (LORD) would be needed and in keeping. It was the same when the account described God's action in bringing on the flood; here it is His action in removing what He had inflicted, for His creatures that were preserved.
Shutting off the water is not the same as opening the door. Months of waiting still lay ahead. One writer pictures how that wait felt to the people inside.
The five months of floating on a shoreless sea would seem endless to Noah and his family. It is easy to imagine them feeling that God had forgotten them… But the sources the water came from were stopped. If a tidal wave had come from the seas, it stopped exerting its power, and of course the rain from heaven no longer fell. This itself would be a welcome relief to the people in the ark. Yet at the end of 150 days the ark only grounded in the mountains of Ararat: there was still no land visible.
The receding water is not only history. One writer sees Noah's whole passage through the flood as a picture of what salvation does.
Noah passed through the judgment of the old world into a new scene, accepted of God in the sweet savour of sacrifice. This is the type of where salvation puts us — "in Christ, a new creation: old things passed away, and all things become new."
- Remembered — the turn comes from God, not from the weather. He brings Noah, his family and every creature with him back into remembrance.
- Restrained — the flood began and ended by God's own act. The hand that opened the deep and the sky closed them again.
- Reserved — the water came from a store God had provided above and below. Its closing matches, phrase for phrase, the opening in Genesis 7:11.
- Regarded — the title "God" fits here. This is the Creator's general care, reaching to the cattle as well as to Noah.
- Renewed — relief came long before release. The passage through judgment into a new scene pictures where salvation puts the believer: in Christ, a new creation.
And the waters retired from the earth, continually retiring; and in the course of a hundred and fifty days the waters abated.
The flood story turns here. Water that had risen for months begins to fall, and a slow, dated count toward dry land starts while Noah's family waits inside the ark.
The water falls back because God remembered Noah and everyone with him. One writer sees the sinking flood as the end of a work God took no pleasure in.
The strange work of judgment is over. The saved family, and all who were with them, come into remembrance… The rays of the sun now begin to act on a world that had passed through a baptism of judgment. Judgment is God's "strange work." He does not delight in it, though He is glorified by it. Blessed be His name, He is always ready to leave the place of judgment and enter that of mercy, because He delights in mercy.
The verse ends with a number: 150 days. The record does not leave those months vague. It dates each stage of the flood, from the first rain to the day the ground was dry.
As to the flood itself, the account given (Genesis 7:11 — Genesis 8:14) is quite explicit, both as to its length and its size. The heavy rain lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The waters prevailed from the 17th day of the 2nd month to the 17th day of the 7th month. Then the ark grounded on the mountains of Ararat. On the 1st day of the 10th month the tops of the mountains appeared. On the 1st day of the 1st month of a new year the waters had vanished from the face of the earth. On the 27th day of the 2nd month the earth was dry enough for those in the ark to go out. One year and 10 days had passed since it began.
How far had the water spread before it began to fall? One writer answers those who limit the flood to a river valley by pointing to where the ark came to rest.
The writer of the "Genesis of the Earth" tries in vain to move the disaster to the low lands of the Euphrates and the Tigris. There a flood of fifteen cubits would barely affect the earth in general or those living on it. This is to overlook or disbelieve "the mountains of Ararat" (Gen. 8:4), where the ark rested when the waters were going down. Its chief peak, being 17,000 feet above the sea, may give some idea of the appalling fact.
Inside the ark, the change was too slow to see. Five months passed with no land in sight.
The five months of floating on a shoreless sea would seem endless to Noah and his family. We can easily imagine them feeling that God had forgotten them. "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark" — the wild beasts as well as the domestic ones. But a flood covering even the mountains would need a long time to go down, even with the wind God sent to help. Still, the sources the water came from were stopped.
The earth itself went under the water. One writer names the pattern in its return: death, then resurrection.
The earth has been remembered, and is now taken up again, but through purifying judgments. Everything takes the sentence of death into itself. So it may stand as a new thing, in the strength and grace of Him who gives life to the dead. The earth itself was in the water, or under the water. The chosen remnant were saved from the hand of the avenger, as in the appointed city of refuge. And so everything appears again, as in resurrection.
What Noah saw from the ark encouraged him. Still, he would not move until God spoke.
His faith had been tried not a little, but the outlook was comforting even from the first… But though rightly exercised and comforted, he still waited for God's word before going out, just as he had gone in at His word. He will not rush ahead in the impatience of nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. God gave the word in due time, as He always does to those who look up to Him.
- Remembered. The water turns back the moment God remembers Noah — judgment is God's strange work, and He is always ready to leave it for mercy.
- Measured. Every stage carries a date: 150 days to the grounding on Ararat, one year and ten days from start to dry ground.
- Global. The water had to recede from mountains, and a peak of 17,000 feet rules out a local river flood.
- Slow. Five months on a shoreless sea felt like being forgotten. The sources feeding the flood had already stopped, though nothing looked different yet.
- Raised. The earth takes the sentence of death and comes back new. Noah steps out on ground that appears again, as in resurrection — and only after God speaks.
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
The flood story turns here: after five months adrift over a world under judgment, the ark touches solid ground on a dated day. Commentators find far more in that date and that mountain than a shipping log — they see God giving rest, and a new world beginning.
The verse fixes the landing to a named day. That day matters once you line the calendar up with the Passover.
God's judgment had done its full work. Then we read that the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day (Gen. 8:4). This is no accident. The seventh month became the first at the time of the Exodus (Ex. 12:2). So the ark rested three days after the day set for the sacrifice of the Passover lamb — the very day of our Lord's resurrection. The Saviour's triumphant return from among the dead is the public proof that God's wrath about the sins of His people has spent itself, and that He has established rest and peace forever.
The Hebrew word for what the ark does here shares its root with the name of the man inside it.
Noah means, as we have seen, "rest" or "comfort." His father Lamech gave him that name in faith that God would give His comfort through him, and that hope was well founded. In Gen. 8:4, the ark rested, literally "Noahed," upon the mountains of Ararat. In the 21st verse of the same chapter, "the Lord smelled a sweet savour," literally "a savour of rest," or Noah. In each case the root is the same. It shows how truly God answered the faith seen in his name. He gave rest while the scene around lay in ruins, and He declared that the sacrifice was the basis of it.
The named landing place is hard evidence about how far the waters reached. It answers those who shrink the flood to a local river basin.
It is no use for the writer of the "Genesis of the Earth" to move the disaster to the low lands of the Euphrates and the Tigris. There a flood of fifteen cubits would barely affect the earth in general or those living on it. This is to overlook or disbelieve "the mountains of Ararat" (Gen. 8:4), where the ark rested when the waters were going down. Its chief peak stands 17,000 feet above the sea. That may give some idea of the appalling fact.
One reference work adds a caution: "Some object that the mountain is too high. But the ark may not have rested on its highest part" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
Where the ark stops is where everything after it begins.
The new world did not begin until God had executed judgment on the old, and the starting place was Ararat. This is the great question, I repeat: when did the new creation begin, and where is the source of righteousness and life? The New Testament makes it clear to my soul that this was so, and could only be so, when God raised Christ from the dead. The Old Testament makes it just as clear that Noah's world began when God raised him from the dead above the waters of the flood. I do not doubt the sons of Noah were safe, resting in the word of God, before this. But they were saved when the ark rested on Ararat.
The name itself may carry meaning. Ararat is said to mean "high ground" and "holy ground," and one writer adds: "Nothing is so holy and so productive of holiness as the rest of the gospel" (F. W. Grant).
The ark settles, but the view from inside has not changed. Nothing dry is in sight for months more.
The five months of floating on a shoreless sea would seem endless to Noah and his family. You can well imagine that they would feel God had forgotten them… Yet at the end of 150 days the ark only grounded in the mountains of Ararat. There was still no land in sight (v. 4). Four and a half months later the tops of the mountains appeared (v. 5).
Yet the ground underneath is real, and one writer applies that solid footing to the reader.
Then the waters go down, and the ark rests on the mountains of Ararat (Gen. 8:4)… For forty days he has been on solid rock. It is divine security. I am not only in the place of safety, but I have the sense of security. How absolute and perfect is the salvation that God gives.
- Judgment spent — the ark rests only after the flood has finished its work; rest follows judgment, it never skips it.
- Rest named — the verb shares the root of Noah's name, which means "rest"; the sacrifice later in the chapter is "a savour of rest" too.
- Rest dated — on Israel's later calendar, the ark lands three days after the day set for the Passover lamb: resurrection day.
- Rest grounded — Ararat is real, high ground where a new world starts; commentators tie it to Christ risen from the dead.
- Rest before sight — the ark touches rock while water still hides the land; safety comes first, the view comes months later.
And the waters abated continually until the tenth month in the tenth [month], on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
The flood has peaked and begun to fall. This verse marks the day the drowned world first came back into sight, and it raises two questions: why did God's rescue come so slowly, and what did Noah do while he waited?
The flood narrative is not vague. Every stage carries a month and a day, and this verse supplies one of them.
The account of the flood itself (Genesis 7:11 — Genesis 8:14) is very clear about both how long it lasted and how far it spread. The huge rain lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The waters prevailed from the 17th day of the 2nd month to the 17th day of the 7th month. Then the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. On the 1st day of the 10th month the tops of the mountains were seen. On the 1st day of the 1st month of a new year the waters had vanished from the face of the earth. On the 27th day of the 2nd month the earth was dry enough for those in the ark to leave it — one year and 10 days after it all began.
The ark stopped moving months before anyone on board could see land.
The five months of floating on a sea with no shore would seem endless to Noah and his family. It can well be imagined that they would feel God had forgotten them… But a flood that covered even the mountains would take a long time to go down, even with the wind God sent to help. Yet at the end of 150 days the ark only came to rest in the mountains of Ararat: there was still no land in sight (v. 4). Four and a half months later the tops of the mountains were seen (v. 5).
The wording of this verse has been used as an argument about how far the flood reached. Because mountain tops had to re-emerge, they must first have been under water — and mountains do not hold water on one side of the globe only.
I believe the flood was all over the earth, wherever man was. There is no mistake. Some have questioned whether it covered the whole globe, speaking in general terms, as if it only covered the part where people lived. But Scripture says, "the mountains were covered," and "the tops of the mountains were seen," and so on. That sounds like the whole earth. You have to allow for a miracle in any case… Suppose Mount Ararat, fifteen or sixteen thousand feet high, in northern Armenia, stood covered. If the waters had not stood all around it, and far beyond it, they would have run off and covered somewhere else. There had to be a miracle either way.
Commentators read the sequence — resting, then land appearing — as a picture. What the passengers saw was not the old world restored but a new one beginning to show itself.
The third section pictures the resurrection… It speaks of the ground of resurrection (the resurrection of Christ) on which faith now builds, beyond the reach of any flood. It is high ground and "holy ground," which is said to be the meaning of "Ararat"… The new beginning is in rest: the ark comes to rest on Ararat, and the new earth begins to be visible.
Another writer puts it as a clean break with the past.
The old world perished. The new world began where the ark rested, upon the mountains of Ararat. God did not save the old world by Noah; old things passed away and all became new. It is so in Christ, old things passed away, and all things became new; and all things of God.
Seeing the mountain tops was a signal to act, but not a signal to leave. Noah's next step came only after this sight.
Another step was now taken by Noah after the tops of the mountains were seen. God had given the warning needed to save life, but He also put Noah's dependence and patience to a long test.
The pressure now was to get out. One writer treats that pressure as the real test.
No doubt Noah became impatient to leave the ark once it had done its work… He worked for many years to build the ark, and now he is impatient to leave it, as soon as it has saved him. God has been vindicated, His truth witnessed to, Noah and his house saved; and now he wants to leave it before it is God's will. It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than it is to reach it.
- Seen — dated. This verse is one dated point in a record of a year and ten days. Rain fell 40 days, the waters stayed high 150, and mountain tops showed on day one of the tenth month.
- Seen — slowly. The ark had come to rest four and a half months earlier. Even with the wind God sent, water that deep took a long time to go down.
- Seen — everywhere. Tops can only reappear if water once stood over them. Commentators take this as a mark of a flood over the whole earth, not one region.
- Seen — new. What came into view was not the old world restored but a new one, pictured on resurrection ground. Old things passed away and all became new.
- Seen — not yet entered. The sight of land let Noah look, not leave. He had to wait, and staying in the place of blessing proved harder than reaching it.
And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.
God shut Noah inside the ark. At the end of forty days Noah makes his first move — he opens the window he had made and sends out a bird. Two questions follow. Why the window and not the door? And why must a man kept safe by God wait at all?
Noah had two openings in front of him, and only one was his to touch. One writer weighs what that meant for a man waiting on God's timing.
The ark had a window in it. The door was in the keeping of the Lord, but the window was for Noah's use. He who had shut him in was the only one who could let him out — the times and the seasons were in His hand. The time of his journey, as a prisoner of hope, cannot be shortened. Even so, his hopes may be richly fed, and his spirit within him kept active. Noah may open the window, remove the covering, look out, and send out his messengers.
Where an opening sits decides what it shows. One writer weighs the ark's two openings and what they gave the family inside.
The door of the ark was in the side, but the window above. It is no new thing to say that this is faith's outlook. The passengers rode in a vessel that was wonderfully guided and protected. They did not need their eyes for steering, and they were not to look out on the solemn judgment taking effect around them. The waters were the grave of the world. They lifted the passengers above its mountain-tops up to the blue heavens, and the waters grew calmer as they rose. What a season for them — shut in by God, with God! And what a preparation for beginning that new life they were to start in the world beyond the flood.
Forty is not a random number. One writer shows what such a stretch of time is for, and notes which opening Noah actually used.
Scripture shows plainly that "forty" stands for a period of trial, whether of days or years. Both the Old and New Testaments give examples. So it seems to have been here. And temptation must be borne, not dodged. We have the assurance that God will not let us be tempted beyond what we are able. He also promises that with the trial He will make the way of escape, so that we may be able to endure. So here, after waiting the proper time, Noah opened, not the light or roof, but the window of the ark, and sent out the raven.
Noah sent out a raven first, then a dove. One writer reads their different behaviour as a picture of what the heart rests in.
The raven went out, back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. The unclean bird escaped, and no doubt found a resting-place on some floating carcass. It never sought the ark again. Not so the dove. She found no place to set her foot, so she returned to him in the ark. Noah sent her out again, and in the evening she came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth. She is a sweet picture of the renewed mind, which, in the middle of all that ruin, seeks and finds its rest and portion in Christ.
The raven stayed away, and Noah could have taken that as proof the earth was ready. He did not, and one writer praises his caution.
The raven never returns. The earth may still be uncleansed, but the unclean nature can put up with it. The "present evil world" will do well enough for fallen, degraded man… But Noah will not trust her. Beautiful, godly discernment! The raven may stay outside; but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. Noah will not trust her, but sends out a clean creature after her.
- Door. God shut Noah in, and only God could let him out. The timing of release never belonged to the man inside.
- Window. The opening Noah could use sat above, so faith looked up into a clear heaven instead of out at the judgment — shut in by God, with God.
- Forty. The number marks a period of trial, and God asks us to bear trial, not dodge it.
- Birds. The raven settles in a scene of death. The dove finds no rest there and comes home.
- Discernment. Noah would not take the raven's absence as proof, and waited for a witness he could trust.
And he sent out the raven, which went forth going to and fro, until the waters were dried from the earth.
Forty days after the mountaintops appeared, Noah opens the ark's window and sends out a raven. The bird never comes back — so why send this one first, and what does its restless going "to and fro" tell us?
The forty days are not a random figure. Scripture uses that number in a settled way.
Scripture shows plainly that "forty," whether of days or years, marks a time of trial. Both the Old and New Testaments give instances. So it seems to have been here. And temptation must be borne, not evaded. We have the assurance that God will not let us be tempted beyond what we are able. He will also, with the trial, make the way of escape, so that we may be able to endure it. So here, after waiting the proper time, Noah opened the window of the ark — not the light or roof. He sent out the raven, which kept going to and fro till the waters were dried up from the earth.
The window itself marks the limit of what Noah could know.
The ark had a window in it. The door was in the keeping of the Lord, but the window was for Noah's use. He who had shut him in alone could let him out — the times and the seasons were in His hand. The time of his journey, as a prisoner of hope, cannot be shortened. Yet God may richly nourish the hopes of such a prisoner, and exercise his spirit within him for blessing.
The bird's behaviour follows from its diet. Its name and its food explain why it could survive where a dove could not.
The word oreb comes from a root meaning "to be black." It appears to cover not only the common raven but other birds of the same family, such as the crow and the rook. We read of "every raven after its kind" as being unclean (Leviticus 11:15; Deuteronomy 14:14). When Noah sent the raven out from the ark, it could no doubt find food, because it can feed on carrion. The dove could not. Yet the raven went "to and fro" till the waters were dried up (Genesis 8:7).
A world of death suited this bird.
The raven never returns. The earth may still be unpurged, but the unclean nature can put up with it. The "present evil world" will do well enough for fallen, degraded man. Indeed, to the unclean raven the ark was more a prison than a shelter.
The raven's absence proved nothing. It could stay out whether or not the earth was fit to live on. So Noah sends a bird he can trust.
But Noah will not trust her. What beautiful spiritual discernment! The raven may stay outside, but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. Noah will not trust her, but sends out a clean creature after her. And the news that clean bird brings is very different indeed. It is, in principle, the contest of Caleb and Joshua with the other spies.
(Caleb and Joshua were the spies who brought back a true report of the promised land. Their companions did not.)
Commentators read the two birds as a picture of two natures in the believer.
As a type, this shows how little these Genesis life-stories forget or hide about what we really are, however sure we may be of our place in Christ Jesus. Saved out of the world, and no longer of it, we still carry the raven with us and may let it out. We have that in us which can settle down in a scene of death where the waters of judgment have not yet dried. Like the unclean bird, it uses the ark only as a base for pursuing the work it enjoys with more energy.
The contrast is more than natural history. It ends in a promise of victory.
The raven soon found something to satisfy its taste and did not come back. The dove found nothing till dry land began to appear. The flesh in us is like the raven, and feeds on carrion. What is born of God is like the dove, feeding only on what is pure. The dove, we may remember, is in Scripture an emblem of the Spirit of God. Now just as the dove got the victory over the carrion, so whatever is born of God gets the victory over the world. It must do so; it is in its very nature to do so.
- Window, not door. God alone opened the ark; the window was Noah's, so his knowledge was partial and his waiting was real.
- Forty. The number marks a period of trial — borne, not dodged, with God providing the way to endure it.
- Raven. An unclean bird named from a root meaning "black"; carrion kept it alive outside, so it never needed the ark again.
- Report. Its staying away proved nothing about the earth, and Noah refused to trust it — he sent a clean bird after it.
- Two natures. The raven pictures what still lives in a saved man and settles into a world under judgment. The dove pictures what is born of God — and that nature wins.
And he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had become low on the ground.
The flood is going down, but Noah cannot see the ground. He is shut inside the ark with only a window above him. So he sends out a bird to bring back word of a world he cannot look at himself. Two questions follow: why a dove, and why does she come back empty?
Noah's problem was that the ark gave him almost no view of the outside. One writer traces his action to the ark's own design.
God remembered Noah and all that were alive with him in the ark. He stopped the waters and sent the wind, which started the process of drying up the waters. The window of the ark was in the roof and not in the side of it. So Noah must have had an imperfect knowledge of what was happening outside. That is why he acted as Genesis 8:6-12 records. A raven and a dove are birds of a different nature as to habits and food. The one feeding on carrion and other unclean things, the other a clean feeder. When first released there was plenty to attract the raven, but as yet nothing for the dove.
The raven had already gone out and stayed out. That silence proved nothing, and Noah knew it — so he chose a different messenger.
The raven never returns. The earth may still be unpurged, but the unclean nature can take up with it. The "present evil world" will do well enough for fallen, degraded man. In fact, the ark was more a place of captivity than of safety to the unclean raven. But Noah will not trust her. Beautiful spiritual insight! The raven may stay outside; but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. Noah will not trust her, but sends out a clean creature after her.
Noah did not rush the process. The forty days before the window opened are read as a measured period, and the pattern is applied to the reader.
We may easily gather from Scripture that "forty" is used again and again, of days or years, for a period of trial. Both the Old and New Testaments give instances. So it seems to have been here... He also sent out the dove. In this case it is added, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground... The dove returned to Noah and to the ark, because water still covered the whole earth. This was conclusive. They must still wait.
The dove comes back with nothing, and that empty return is itself the report. Commentators read the ark as a picture of Christ. They read the dove as a picture of the Spirit of God.
The flood speaks of the judgment coming on all men for their sins. The ark speaks of Christ, the only shelter from that judgment. But His people, while they are still waiting in hope, can know nothing of what is theirs in Christ risen. So the Spirit — the dove — is given to make us know what is ours... On his first flight he finds nothing but a scene of desolation. Unlike the raven, who will feed on the refuse of what has been judged, he returns to the ark. The Spirit of God can find nothing in a world under judgment to rest upon, and returns, as it were, to Christ. It is as though He said to us, You will find nothing in all this world for your heart to rest upon; Christ is all.
The failed first flight has a counterpart in the Gospels, where a dove descends and stays.
Noah then sent out a dove. There was nothing to attract it. "The dove found no rest for the sole of her foot." This shows the condition of the world before Christ came. When He was here, the holy dove could remain on Him (John 1:32). But before that, there was no man on whom the Holy Spirit could rest. He came on certain men and gave them power for service. But there were none on whom He could rest.
One writer turns the picture into a question about where the reader stands.
If you have never had this rest, you are like Noah's dove. You are outside the ark, in a scene of judgment, without a spot for the sole of your foot to rest on. Safety, rest, peace and plenty were inside the ark; destruction, death, restlessness, and sorrow outside.
- Sent — Noah's window faced the sky, so he could not see the ground; the dove goes out as his eyes.
- Sifted — the raven stayed away, and that proved nothing; Noah trusted only a clean bird's report.
- Silent — the dove brings back no sign, and the empty return is the message: the earth is still under judgment.
- Sheltered — with nothing to perch on, she turns back to the ark, as the Spirit turns the heart back to Christ.
- Settled — the holy dove came down and rested on Jesus; outside that ark no one has a place to stand.
But the dove found no resting-place for the sole of her foot, and returned to him into the ark; for the waters were on the whole earth; and he put forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ark.
Noah sends the dove out after the raven, and she comes straight back, because water still covers the ground. Writers read it on two levels: a man testing whether the flood was over, and a picture of what a clean nature can rest on in a ruined world.
Noah did not rush. One writer sees the number forty as a set period of testing, and notes that each bird acted true to its own nature.
Forty is regularly used in Scripture, of days or years, for a period of testing... And we must endure temptation, not dodge it. So here, after waiting the right length of time, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out the raven... The raven and the dove were each true to their habits. The dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and came back to Noah and to the ark... This settled it. They still had to wait.
The raven never came back; the dove could not stay away. One writer reads the two birds as two natures, and notes that Noah drew no conclusion at all from the raven staying out.
The raven never returns. The earth may not be cleansed yet, but the unclean nature can put up with it. The "present evil world" will do well enough for fallen, degraded man. In fact, to the unclean raven the ark was more a prison than a safe place; once she had escaped it, she never went back. But Noah will not trust her. What beautiful, holy discernment! The raven may stay outside; but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. Noah will not trust her, but sends out a clean creature after her. And the news she brings is very different indeed. Noah knows he can trust her, and well he may: her only sympathy is with the signs of peace and of a new creation.
The verse gives the plain reason: water still covered the ground. (Older translations put the phrase as "no rest for the sole of her foot", which is how the writers quoted here word it.) One writer looks for the deeper reason. The dove came home because the ground was unclean, not because she was afraid or disappointed.
"Arise, depart; for this is not your rest," says the Spirit through the Prophet. And why? Why is it not to be our rest? "It is polluted," he adds. He does not say it is sorrowful, it is disappointing, it is unsatisfying, but it is polluted... The dove outside the ark was not afraid of a trapper's net. She found no rest for the sole of her foot on ground that was still unclean.
One writer takes the dove as a picture of the Spirit of God, sent out to bring news back to those still shut inside the ark.
The flood speaks of the judgment coming on all men for their sins; the ark, of Christ the only shelter from the judgment... His people, still shut in and waiting in hope, can know nothing of what is theirs in the risen Christ. So the Spirit is given — the dove — to make us know what is ours. The dove is sent out three times to make known the state of what was not visible. On his first flight he finds nothing but a scene of desolation. The raven will feed on the leftovers of what has been judged; the dove will not. He returns to the ark. The Spirit of God can find nothing in a world under judgment to rest on, and returns, as it were, to Christ. It is as though He said to us, You will find nothing in all this world for your heart to rest on; Christ is all.
One writer links the bird that had nowhere to land with the moment the Spirit came down on Jesus and stayed there.
In this scene the Holy Spirit is like the dove sent out from the ark. At last it has a spot where it can find a place to rest — to stay. The dove, you remember, went out more than once and came back each time, because she "found no rest for the sole of her foot". At last she found a resting-place and "returned not again any more" (Gen. 8:9, 12). The heavenly Dove, after 4,000 years of searching in vain for a sinless resting-place in man, has found One to rest on in the first chapter of John.
One writer puts the dove's plight to any reader who has never found that rest.
If you have never had it, you are, like Noah's dove, out of the ark, in a scene of judgment, without a spot for the sole of your foot to rest on. Safety, rest, peace and plenty were inside the ark; destruction, death, restlessness, and sorrow outside.
- No rest. The waters still covered everything, so the dove had nowhere to land.
- Polluted. The ground was not merely sad or disappointing. It was unclean, so no clean creature could settle there.
- Two natures. The raven stayed out among the leftovers of judgment; the dove came back. Noah trusted the clean bird's report, not the unclean one's silence.
- The hand that reached out. Noah drew her back in himself; the shelter she had left was still open to her.
- Rest at last. The heavenly Dove found no resting-place in man until He came down on Jesus and stayed. Rest is still inside the ark, never outside.
And he waited yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.
Noah has already tested the earth twice. A raven never came back. A dove found nowhere to land. Now, instead of acting, he counts out another full week. This verse is about waiting. Why would a man with the mountaintops in sight sit still for seven more days?
God used the whole delay — from the open window to the open door — to train Noah, not just to inform him.
Noah now took another step, after the tops of the mountains appeared. God had given the warning needed to save life, but He exercised Noah's dependence and patience to the full.
This waiting was not idle. Noah kept testing, again and again.
But it is beautiful to notice how Noah can wait. Many days had passed before he opened the window of the ark. Many more passed while he tested the state of the renewed earth by the messengers he sent out again and again — and not in vain.
The pull in the other direction was strong. The ark had done its work, and Noah wanted out. One writer reads the two birds as a rebuke to that impulse.
Noah had been a witness for God's mind, against the wilfulness of everyone around him. He worked for many years to prepare the ark. Now, as soon as it has given him salvation, he is impatient to leave it… The freed raven, going back and forth, is a fitting picture of the restlessness of our impatient spirits. The dove reads Noah a different lesson… The dove tells him first that he must have patience. How humbling to be rebuked by the weak, gentle tones of trusting love! The dove had a home in the ark — why should Noah not have one? The second time, the dove returns with the branch of peace. So not only must he submit; patience has done its perfect work, and he wants nothing.
The raven's absence proved nothing to Noah. An unclean bird can be content in a ruined world. So he put the question to a creature he could trust.
The raven never returns. The earth may still be uncleansed, but the unclean nature can put up with it… But Noah will not trust her. What beautiful discernment! The raven may stay outside; but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. He sends out a clean creature after her… The dove returns by instinct. There was no rest for her in a place still under God's judgment and not yet cleansed. Noah knows he can trust her, and can leave the question to her to settle, so he sends her out a second and a third time.
The two birds behaved exactly as their natures required, and that is the point of the contrast — one settled among the ruins, the other could not.
There is surely nothing far-fetched in noticing how the unclean nature finds its satisfaction outside, where death reigns; while the clean returns to the shelter of the ark — first with no sign of life, then after seven days more with a freshly plucked olive leaf in her beak.
Commentators read the returning dove as a picture of the renewed mind. Such a heart cannot settle in a scene under judgment.
A sweet emblem of the renewed mind. In the middle of the surrounding desolation, it seeks and finds its rest and portion in Christ. And not only that: it also takes hold of the down payment of the inheritance, and gives the blessed proof that judgment has passed away and a renewed earth is coming fully into view. The carnal mind, by contrast, can rest in anything and everything except Christ.
Other writers see the dove as a picture of the Holy Spirit, who makes known what Noah could not yet see.
The dove is sent out three times to make known the state of what was not visible. On his first flight he finds nothing but a scene of desolation. The raven will feed on the refuse of what God has judged; the dove, in contrast, returns to the ark. The Spirit of God can find nothing in a world under judgment to rest on, and returns, as it were, to Christ.
On that reading, the seven-day pause is not empty time. It is the gap before the same messenger goes out again and comes back with something from the new world.
Next, the dove brings back something from the new earth — an olive leaf, a pledge of fruitfulness after the judgment. So the Spirit is for us the down payment of our inheritance — the foretaste and the pledge of what is to come. The olive leaf itself suggests the fruits of the Spirit — the olive produces oil — and these belong to the new creation.
- Wait. God had already saved Noah. The seven extra days exercised his dependence and patience. Waiting well is a beauty in him, not a delay.
- Test. The raven's silence proved nothing. So Noah sent out a clean creature whose report he could rely on.
- Return. The dove came back because a world under judgment offered her nothing. That is the mark of a renewed mind: it rests in Christ and nowhere else.
- Receive. The second time, she brings back an olive leaf — a pledge of fruitfulness after judgment, a first instalment of the world to come.
- Beware. The restless raven pictures our impatient spirits. The gentle dove rebukes them by coming home.
And the dove came to him at eventide; and behold, in her beak was an olive-leaf plucked off; and Noah knew that the waters had become low on the earth.
Noah has been shut in the ark for months, and the flood is his only horizon. Then the dove comes back with one small leaf — his first news from the world outside, and a picture, many writers say, of much more.
Noah could not see the ground. He had to learn its condition from a creature that could:
The dove was a clean bird. Noah sent it out the first time, and it came back, because it found no place to set its foot. But when he sent it out the second time, it returned with proof of dry land... There is much more to learn from this event. For now we will stop here and stress one point: the olive leaf was a sure witness to Noah that the flood had gone down.
The word "plucked" matters. The leaf was not floating wreckage. Something alive had grown it.
In the New Testament the dove becomes the picture of the Spirit of God... The second time, the dove came back with "a freshly plucked olive leaf." Here was the first evidence of life appearing above the waters of death. This leaf had not been drifting among the wreckage; it came from a living tree. Death entered by sin, and "so death spread to all men" (Rom. 5:12), as much after the flood as before it. The first evidence of real life rising up beyond the scene of death was when Christ rose from the dead.
Two birds went out from the ark. Each found a different resting place.
The unclean bird made its escape, and found, no doubt, a resting place on some floating carcass. It never went back to the ark. Not so the dove... "in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf." A sweet picture of the renewed mind. Surrounded by desolation, that mind seeks and finds its rest and its portion in Christ. More than that, it takes hold of the pledge of the inheritance. And it gives blessed proof that judgment has passed away and that a renewed earth is coming into full view. The mind ruled by the flesh, on the other hand, can rest in anything and everything except Christ.
Noah's own conduct is part of the lesson. He did not accept the raven's silence as an answer:
The raven may remain outside; but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. Noah will not trust her, but sends out a clean creature after her. And the news she brings is different indeed... Her only sympathy is with the pledges of peace and of a new creation.
Of all the trees that might have supplied it, the message came from an olive — the tree that yields oil.
A leaf stands for profession or testimony ("So Noah knew," Gen. 8:11)... The leaves hold the mouths and lungs of the plant. They surround it like so many tongues, telling what tree it is and what fruit is (or should be) on it... Here the testimony given is of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit... The tree is a remarkable one, and its main feature is the oil (Judges 9:9). That is, what marks out the vessel of testimony is that it holds the Holy Spirit as the source of light... It is evergreen, and it will grow in the most barren and stony soil.
Everything depends on where that leaf came from.
One thing that had been under the waters of judgment had risen above them. One spot was clear of the judgment, and from that spot the dove brought an olive leaf to Noah. There is today one spot that has emerged from under the judgment of God: it is Christ... "So Noah knew." Through the testimony that the Holy Spirit gives to the risen Christ, we too may know that Christ has borne our judgment and put our sins away forever.
The leaf was small. It did not carry Noah out of the ark; it told him the day was coming.
Next, the dove brings back something from the new earth — an olive leaf, pledge of fruitfulness after the judgment. So the Spirit is for us the guarantee of our inheritance — the foretaste and the pledge of what is to come.
- Judgment. The first flight found nothing. The water still covered everything, and the dove had nowhere to set her foot.
- Life. The leaf came from a living tree — the first sign of life rising above the water of death.
- Witness. A leaf is testimony; an olive leaf, from the tree of oil, carries the message back to the man shut inside.
- Knowledge. "So Noah knew" — he learned the state of an unseen world from what the bird brought him.
- Pledge. One leaf is not the harvest. It is the sample that guarantees the whole new world is coming.
And he waited yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove; but she returned no more to him.
Noah sends the dove out a third time, and this time she never comes back. Her silence told him the earth was ready — and writers have long seen in this small event a picture of the Spirit of God finding a home.
The first flight ended in return, the second in a plucked olive leaf, and the third in silence. Writers point out that this silence carried the clearest message of the three.
The result after another seven days is plainer still, if that is possible. This time the dove was sent out, and she could find rest for the sole of her foot on the renewed earth. She did not return to him again. The dove had strong wings to fly from anything out of keeping with her pure and gentle nature. Now she had a place that drew her, and Noah could only draw the right conclusion.
Noah waited a further week before he tested the earth again. That patience did not come easily to him.
Noah, no doubt, became impatient to leave the ark after it had done its work. Nothing exposes our impatience or self-will as much as this… It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than to reach it… The freed raven, going back and forth, is a fitting picture of our restless, impatient spirits. The dove reads Noah a different lesson… The dove tells him first that he must have patience. The dove had a home in the ark; why should not Noah?… And when the dove goes out again, she may stay away. The discipline is over, and he is called into a new scene.
One writer takes the dove as a picture of the Spirit of God and reads the three flights as three stages.
Noah sent out the dove, emblem of the Holy Spirit of God, three times. The first time it returned with nothing. There was nowhere to rest her foot, for the waters were everywhere. This shows the utter ruin of the first man and of the old creation bound up with him. Death covered them all. The second time she returned with the single olive leaf. At last the first piece of the renewed earth had appeared above the waters… The third time the dove found not just a leaf, but a resting place for her feet.
The dove would not settle on a scene still under water. That is why, one commentator argues, the Spirit's coming had to wait for a finished work.
On the first flight the dove has nowhere to rest, so she returns. The Holy Spirit can only rest where the work of judgment is complete… The dove returns to Noah, but afterwards goes out from him and returns no more. This, I think, is how we should understand John 7:39. In Old Testament times the Holy Spirit visited the earth many times. But He could not yet be given until the ascension of Christ bore witness that the work of atonement was perfect. He is then given as a witness that peace has been made with God.
The dove that never came back has an echo in the New Testament. Another writer sees it in the opening chapter of John's Gospel, where the Spirit at last has someone to rest on.
The dove, you remember, went out once and again, but returned, because she "found no place to set her foot." At last she found a resting place, and she "did not return to him anymore"… The heavenly Dove searched 4,000 years for a sinless resting place in man and found none. In the first chapter of John He has found One to rest on.
The final flight also looks forward. The bird stayed away because the earth below her was fit to live in again.
The third sending out of the dove carries our thoughts on to the world to come, the days of the glorious Kingdom still to dawn for this sin-spoiled earth. Judgment will have cleared that scene of everything offensive to God. It will then be a fitting home for the Holy Spirit. The renewed earth was a fitting home for the dove; she returned to the ark no more. And in coming days the Holy Spirit will not be given only to those who are "in Christ," but will be poured out upon all flesh.
- Silence — The dove's failure to come back was itself the report; Noah read the absence and knew the earth was ready.
- Patience — He waited seven more days before the final test. The restless raven pictures our hurry; the dove teaches waiting for God's time.
- Sequence — Three flights, three stages: no rest at all, then one olive leaf from a world still under water, then a home.
- Ground — The dove settles only where judgment is over. So the Spirit came only after Christ finished the work of atonement.
- Person — The bird that stayed away points to the Spirit resting on Christ, and on to a renewed earth where God will pour Him out on all flesh.
And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried.
A date opens this verse: the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year. After ten and a half months shut inside, he lifts the covering, looks out, and sees dry ground — yet he does not step out.
The verse gives an exact date. One writer explains why the ground can look dry here while the whole earth is not dry for another two months:
Ten and a half months had now passed since Noah entered the ark. He removed the covering of the ark and found the face of the ground dry (v. 13). Of course it would be dry on the higher ground where the ark was. The lower areas needed more time for the waters to drain away. So verse 14 tells us that it was about two months later that the earth was dried. The total time comes to one year and ten days.
Noah had no clear view until the covering came off. One writer finds the reason in where the ark's openings were:
The door of the ark was in the side, but the window above. It is no new thing to say that this is faith's outlook. The passengers in that wonderfully guided and protected vessel did not need their eyes for steering. They were not to look out on the solemn scenes of judgment taking effect around them. Meanwhile the waters, which were the grave of the world, floated them above its mountain tops up to the blue heavens, growing calmer as they rose.
What Noah sees is more than the end of a storm. The dove had not come back. One writer reads Noah's uncovering of the ark as the act of a man who has understood why:
Beautiful mystery! The earth was redeemed from the curse now, and in its new-creation state the dove can delight. All of it is her native air. It is now the land of the turtledove and the olive, and Noah understands why this clean creature is absent. He at once removes the covering from the ark and looks out. The God of glory soon lets him out, as the God of all grace had before shut him in.
Noah sees dry ground, but the verse records no exit. He waits until God speaks. One commentator makes that restraint the heart of the verse:
His faith had been tested more than a little, but the prospect was comforting even from the first. "The face of the ground" was dry when he looked. After nearly two months more "the earth was dry." But even with this comfort, he still waited on God's word to go out, as he had gone in at His word. He will not rush ahead in the impulsiveness of nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. The word came in due time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
The ark carried its passengers safely through the judgment. But the dry ground shows God's purpose ran further than survival:
Meanwhile it was never God's mind that there should be life only, but liberty. Life out of death leads into liberty. Christ not only gives life and shelter, but does so as a preparation for the freedom of grace... now there is life. Death and judgment have done their worst on Him who is risen out of both. So there is liberty also for those given new life.
The same writer sets this drying against the world's future:
The waters of Noah did go over the earth, as surely as they shall go over it no more. A still more terrible destruction awaits it, however long the delay seems. By His word the heavens and earth that now exist are kept in store. They are reserved for fire on a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. The one is as certain as the other. But we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
- Judgment — the waters that buried a world lifted the ark above its mountain tops. The flood carried Noah; it did not threaten him.
- Sight — the window was above, the door in the side. Only when the covering came off could Noah see the ground. Faith's outlook is upward before it is outward.
- Word — dry ground was not the signal to leave. Noah went in at God's word and waited to go out at God's word, refusing the impulsiveness of nature.
- Liberty — God never intended life alone, but liberty. Shelter in the ark prepared the way for freedom on a cleansed earth.
- Promise — water will never cover the earth again. The present heavens and earth are kept for fire on a day of judgment. The believer looks for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.
And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
A single date closes the flood: the earth is dry at last, more than a year after the waters broke loose. Yet Noah is still inside the ark. If the ground is dry, why has he not stepped out?
The verse is the last entry in a careful log. One writer lays out every date in the account, from the first rain to this verse:
The account of the flood itself (Genesis 7:11 — Genesis 8:14) is very clear about how long it lasted and how far it reached. The tremendous rain lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. The waters prevailed from the 17th day of the 2nd month to the 17th day of the 7th month, when the ark grounded on the mountains of Ararat. On the 1st day of the 10th month the tops of the mountains appeared. On the 1st day of the 1st month of a new year the waters had vanished from the face of the earth. On the 27th day of the 2nd month the earth was dry enough for those in the ark to go out — one year and 10 days after it all began.
Verse 13 already said the ground was dry. This verse says it again, and the difference is height and time:
Ten and a half months had now passed since Noah entered the ark. He removed the covering of the ark and found the face of the ground dry (v. 13). Of course, the high ground where the ark rested would be dry first. Lower areas needed more time for the waters to drain away. So verse 14 tells us that the earth was dry about two months later.
Noah could see the change with his own eyes, and it comforted him. Still he did not move:
His faith had been tested hard, but the prospect was comforting even from the first. "The face of the ground" was dry when he looked. Nearly two months later "the earth had dried out." He was rightly stirred and comforted by this. Even so, he still waited for God's word before going out, just as he went in at His word. He will not rush ahead with the rashness and self-confidence of nature. He depends on God and obeys His word. The word came at the right time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
The same writer notes how long Noah had already waited:
But it is beautiful to note how Noah can wait. Many days had passed before he opened the window of the ark. Many more passed while he tested the state of the renewed earth by the messengers he sent out again and again — and not in vain.
Waiting inside a dry world is its own test. One writer suggests Noah felt it once the ark had done its work:
After years of discipline and toil, Noah is in the ark. Very often the quality we are best known for, the one we have gained most from, deserts us, and we suffer much. Noah, no doubt, became impatient to leave the ark after it had accomplished its purpose. Nothing exposes our impatience and self-will like this… He worked for many a year to build the ark. Now he is impatient to abandon it, as soon as it has given him salvation… It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than even to reach it.
The dried earth is a new earth. One writer reads it as a picture of coming through death into life:
The flood swept away the ungodly. It brought judgment and death on the world. The ark rode above the waters and rested at last on the cleansed earth. It taught the lesson of life for the people of God, once they had passed through judgment and death. The new earth came up out of the waters of death. Noah and his family set their feet on the dry land as people saved through those waters, as people raised from the dead.
Dry ground is not the end. God's purpose goes beyond bare survival:
Meanwhile it never was the mind of God that there should be life only, but liberty. Life out of death ushers into liberty. Christ not only gives life and shelter, but this as a preparation for the freedom of grace.
- Dated. The flood is a record with exact markers, closing here at one year and ten days from the day the waters began.
- Dried. Verse 13 shows the high ground dry. Verse 14, two months later, shows the whole earth dry — the same drying, finished.
- Delayed. The earth was ready before Noah moved; he entered at God's word and would leave only at God's word.
- Disciplined. The hardest test came after the ark had done its work — staying in the place of blessing is harder than reaching it.
- Delivered. Dry land is resurrection ground, and God's aim there is not bare life but liberty.
And God spoke to Noah, saying,
The waters have gone down and the earth is dry, yet Noah is still inside the ark. He waits, and this verse is the moment God's word comes to him.
Noah could see for himself that the ground was dry. Yet seeing was not the same as going.
His faith had faced no small test, but the prospect was comforting even from the first. "The face of the ground" was dry when he looked. Almost two months later "the earth had dried out." This stirred and comforted him, and rightly so. Yet he still waited for God's word before going out, just as he went in at His word. He will not rush ahead with the rashness of nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. And the word came in due time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
The ark had two openings, and only one of them was his.
The ark had a window in it. The door was in the Lord's keeping, but the window was for Noah's use. The One who had shut him in was the only one who could let him out. The times and the seasons were in His hand. No one can shorten the time of his journey as a prisoner of hope. But the hopes of such a prisoner may be richly fed, and his spirit stirred within him.
Three commands frame Noah's story, and all three come from the same God. What he does after the last one shows where his faith rested.
"Then God said to Noah, 'Go out from the ark.'" The same God who had said, "Make yourself an ark," and "Go into the ark," now says, "Go out from the ark." "So Noah went out … and built an altar to the LORD." ALL is simple obedience. There is the obedience of faith and the worship of faith: both go together… Superstition would have worshipped the ark, since the ark was the means of salvation. The heart always tends to let what God appoints take God's place… But Noah's faith passed beyond the ark to the God of the ark. So when he stepped out, he did not look back at it with longing, and he did not treat it as an object of worship. He built an altar to the LORD and worshipped Him — and the ark is never heard of again.
The command reaches everyone aboard, not Noah alone.
Not one thing had gone into the ark thirteen months before which did not now come out. The small and the great had been in it, and the small were as safe as the great. The creeping thing from the ditch or the hedge was as free from danger and harm as Noah himself. Precious mystery! We may be little, and we are little, as the heart knows full well. But heaven, or the coming system of glory, has fitted itself, like the ark, to receive the small as well as the great.
Commentators see more here than one man's release. It pictures how God brings people through a coming trial instead of lifting them out of it.
Now comes the faithful word of God to His waiting and watching servant: how welcome to the prisoner of hope! It is the type of those kept safe through the great hour of temptation that will come on the whole inhabited world to test those who dwell on the earth… Christ's coming to receive His own to Himself for the Father's house on high follows a different pattern. It is not the pattern of Noah passing through the scene of judgment, but of Enoch taken up to heaven before the time of trouble came, as we may see in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.
Waiting inside a finished ark on a drying earth was a test of its own. The two birds Noah sent out show how a heart handles delay.
No doubt Noah became impatient to leave the ark once it had done its work. Nothing exposes our impatience or self-will so much as this… God stands vindicated, His truth has its witness, Noah and his house are saved — and now he wants to leave before it is God's will. It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than even to reach it… The freed raven, going back and forth, is a fitting picture of our restless, impatient spirits. The dove teaches Noah a different lesson… The dove tells him first that he must have patience.
- Word. The new world begins with God speaking. Noah moves at a word, not at the view from his window.
- Wait. He went out as he came in, at God's word. He could open the window, but only the Lord could open the door.
- Walk. Obedience and worship travel together. Noah leaves the ark and builds an altar, and the ark is never mentioned again — his faith rested on the God of the ark.
- Whole. Every creature that entered came out. The smallest was as safe as Noah himself, and the coming glory has room for small and great alike.
- Watch. The hardest test came after the rescue. The raven pictures our restlessness. The dove teaches patience. It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than to reach it.
Go out of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
The flood is over and the ground is dry, yet Noah does not move until God speaks. Why does a man already free to step out wait to be told? And what world is he stepping into?
Noah had already looked out and seen dry ground. He still did not move, and one writer reads that restraint as the mark of a tried faith.
His faith had been tried more than a little, but the prospect was comforting even from the first. "The face of the ground" was dry when he looked. Nearly two months later, "the earth was dry." This rightly moved and comforted him. Even so, he still waited on God's word to go out, as he went in at His word. He will not rush ahead with the impulsiveness of nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. The word came in due time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
Three commands shape Noah's whole story, and all three come from the same God.
"And God spoke to Noah, saying, go out from the ark." The same God who had said, "make yourself an ark," and "come into the ark," now says, "go out from the ark." "And Noah went out … and built an altar to the Lord." ALL is simple obedience. There is the obedience of faith and the worship of faith: both go together. Superstition would have worshipped the ark, since it was the means of salvation. The heart always tends to let the things God appoints take God's place. But Noah's faith went past the ark to the God of the ark. So when he stepped out, instead of looking back at the ark, he built an altar to the Lord and worshipped Him — and the ark is never heard of again.
The command sends Noah back to soil he had walked before the flood, but it is no longer the same soil.
He landed on the renewed earth. At that mysterious moment, all was in a great sense according to God's mind again. It was no longer corrupt, as it had been when he last walked on it in its old condition, but clean, refined by the judgment.
One writer moves from the ark's passengers to what heaven itself is made to hold.
Not one thing had gone into the ark thirteen months before that did not now come out. The small and the great had been in it, and the small were as safe as the great. The creeping thing of the ditch or the hedge was as free from all danger or harm as Noah himself. Precious mystery! We may be little, and we are little, as the heart knows full well. But heaven, or the coming system of glory, has fitted itself like the ark, to receive the small as well as the great.
Noah is not called out alone. God names his wife, his sons and their wives with him, and one writer draws a wide principle from that.
Some will say that Noah was a picture of Christ — the righteous head of a saved family, saved because of their connection with him. I grant all this. But Noah's role as a picture does not in any way interfere with the principle I am drawing from this and similar passages. I will state that principle plainly here at the start: the house of every servant of God is brought into a place of privilege, and of responsibility that follows, because of its connection with him.
Commentators also read this call out of the ark as a picture of a later rescue.
Now comes the faithful word of God to His waiting and watching servant. How welcome to the prisoner of hope! It is the picture of those kept safe through the great hour of temptation. That hour will come upon the whole inhabited world to test those who dwell on the earth.
Another writer pairs Noah with Enoch, and the two picture different groups.
Enoch is a figure of those caught up, Noah of the remnant of the Jews who go through the tribulation. In Noah the world is comforted — the figure of the millennium.
- Word in. Noah entered the ark because God spoke; the same voice, not the drying ground, moves him out.
- Word waited for. He could see the earth was dry, and still would not act on his own confidence. Faith that will not run ahead gets the word "in due time."
- Word obeyed. He goes out and builds an altar at once — worship for the God of the ark, not for the ark itself.
- Word wide enough. Everything that went in comes out again. The smallest creeping thing was as safe as Noah himself.
- Word ahead of us. Commentators read the call out of the ark as a picture of people kept safe through coming judgment. Enoch stands for another group — those caught up.
Bring forth with thee every animal which is with thee, of all flesh, fowl as well as cattle, and all the creeping things which creep on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and may be fruitful and multiply on the earth.
The flood is over, and God sends out every creature that came through it with Noah. Two things stand out: Noah will not move until God speaks, and the animals are named one by one and told to fill the earth again.
Noah could see for himself that the ground was dry, yet he did not move until God spoke.
His faith had been tried more than a little, but the prospect was comforting even from the first. "The face of the ground" was dry when he looked. Nearly two months later, "the earth was dry." He was rightly moved and comforted by this. Even so, he still waited on God's word to go out, just as he went in at His word. He will not rush ahead in the impulsiveness of nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. And God gave the word in due time, as He always does to those who look up to Him.
The ark kept every creature alive; this verse sends them out to spread over the earth.
Meanwhile it never was the mind of God that there should be life only, but liberty. Life out of death ushers into liberty. Christ not only gives life and shelters, but does this as a preparation for the freedom of grace. With freedom He set us free. The law had long tested human nature, and its mind proved hostile to God. But now there is life, after death and judgment have done their worst to Him who is risen out of both. So there is liberty as well for those born again.
They step out onto an earth that is not the one they left.
Noah went out. He landed on the renewed earth. At that mysterious moment all was, in a great sense, according to God's mind again. It was no longer corrupt, as when he had last walked on it in its old condition, but clean, under the refining of the judgment.
God names birds, animals and creeping things one by one, and tells them to multiply. Their future is tied to man's.
Jehovah deals with the creatures set under the headship of Adam. How blessed to know, on authority beyond doubt, that "the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God"! It will "be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." As man's sin dragged it down with himself into ruin, so shall the Second Man raise it out of its degradation and misery.
The same writer applies this directly to the day when Christ reigns openly: "the merely animal creation is to rejoice; and indeed all that is now travailing and groaning through the fall of its head."
The old world went under the water, and Noah steps out onto a new one.
In Noah, we have a plain figure of resurrection, the whole world passing away in the judgment of the flood, and a new world emerging from the baptismal waters. The apostle Peter teaches us to see in this a type of salvation (1 Peter 3:20-21). And to the man in Christ, risen with Him, the old has passed away and all things have become new. The figure is very plain here, although many a detail may be hidden from us.
Others read it forward as well as inward. Noah brought safely through the judgment is taken as "the type of those preserved through the great hour of temptation which shall come upon all the habitable world," while those taken to heaven before the trouble begins are pictured instead by Enoch.
- Word. Noah went in at God's word, and he would not come out without it. Dry ground was not permission; the command was.
- Life. The ark kept every creature alive, but life alone was never the aim — "it never was the mind of God that there should be life only, but liberty."
- Ground. They step out onto an earth refined by the judgment that passed over it — "no longer corrupt... but clean."
- Creation. God names the animals and tells them to multiply. They fell with man, their head, and the Second Man will lift them out of ruin. Creation is still waiting for the sons of God to be revealed.
- Picture. The whole scene is a figure of resurrection: the old world gone in judgment, a new world out of the water. Peter takes it up as a type of salvation.
And Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him.
A year had passed since the door closed. The ground was dry, but Noah did not move until God spoke — and when he stepped out, everything that went in came out with him.
The ground had been dry for weeks. Noah had pulled back the ark's covering and seen it. What kept him inside was not the weather but his habit of taking direction from God.
"The face of the ground" was dry when he looked, and after nearly two more months "the earth had dried out." Though this rightly stirred and comforted him, he still waited on God's word to go out, just as he went in at His word. He will not rush ahead in the impulsiveness of nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. And the word came in due time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
That wait was harder than it looks. The real test came not while the flood raged, but after the ark had done its work.
After years of discipline and toil, Noah is in the ark. Very often the quality we are most known for, and from which we have gained most, deserts us, and we suffer much. Noah, no doubt, became impatient to leave the ark once it had done its work... God had been vindicated, His truth witnessed to, Noah and his house saved; and now he wants to leave before it is God's will. It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than even to reach it.
The earth Noah walks onto is not the earth he left.
The flood swept away the ungodly. It brought judgment and death on the world. The ark was carried up above the waters and finally rested on the cleansed earth. It taught the lesson of life for the people of God after judgment and death had been passed through. The new earth emerged from the waters of death. Noah and his family set their feet on the dry land as those saved through those waters, as risen from the dead.
Count the names here against the list of those who went in. Nothing was lost.
Not one thing had gone into the ark thirteen months before that did not now come out. The small and the great had been in it, and the small were as safe as the great. The creeping thing from the ditch or the hedge was as free from all danger or harm as Noah himself. Precious mystery! We may be little, and we are little, as the heart knows well. But heaven — the coming system of glory — has fitted itself, like the ark, to receive the small as well as the great.
The verse names four men and four women. God had invited one man.
The ground on which the Lord commands Noah to enter the ark with his household is, "for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." Someone might object that probably all the household were righteous before God too, but the later history of one of them — Ham (Genesis 9:22-25) — forbids that thought. The force of the statement cannot be weakened in any way: the family of Noah was delivered from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head. True, it was not salvation; but it was so in figure (1 Peter 3:20-21). And it was no small blessing to be carried in the ark through that mighty flood.
Noah steps out and builds an altar. He does not cling to the ark that saved him.
The same God who had said, "Make yourself an ark," and "Go into the ark," now says, "Go out from the ark." "So Noah went out... and built an altar to the LORD." It is all simple obedience. There is the obedience of faith and the worship of faith: both go together... Superstition would have worshipped the ark, since it was the means of salvation. The heart always tends to put God's ordinances in God's place... But Noah's faith passed beyond the ark to the God of the ark. So when he stepped out, he did not look back at it or treat it as an object of worship. He built an altar to the LORD and worshipped Him. And the ark is never heard of again.
- In by the word. Noah entered the ark because God said so, and his household came in with him on the strength of one man's faith.
- Kept by the word. The waters that destroyed everything outside carried everything inside. The smallest creature was as safe as Noah himself.
- Out by the word. Dry ground was in plain sight. He still waited for God to speak, refusing the self-confidence that moves a day too soon.
- Out onto new ground. The eight step onto an earth that judgment has cleared, as people brought through death to the other side.
- Out into worship. The first act on the new earth is an altar, not a monument. Faith goes past the ark to the God of the ark, and the ark is never mentioned again.
All the animals, all the creeping things, and all the fowl -- everything that moves on the earth, after their kinds, went out of the ark.
The flood is over and the ark empties. Every creature that had been shut inside walks out onto a washed, empty earth, grouped by families. Why does the record name each class of creature? And why do they leave only when God says so?
Noah did not decide the moment. He had gone in when God told him, and he stayed until God told him to leave.
His faith had been tested more than a little, but the prospect was comforting from the first. "The face of the ground was dry" when he looked. Nearly two months later "the earth had dried out." Yet even though his heart was rightly stirred and comforted, he still waited for God's word before going out, just as he went in at His word. He will not rush ahead in the rashness of human nature and its self-confidence. He depends on God and obeys His word. And the word came at the right time, as it always does to those who look up to Him.
That waiting cost him something. Once the ark had done its work, staying inside became the harder test.
Noah, no doubt, became impatient to leave the ark once it had served its purpose. Nothing exposes our impatience or self-will so much as this. God has been vindicated. His truth has had its witness. Noah and his house are saved. And now he wants to leave before it is God's will. It is harder to stay in the place of blessing than to reach it.
The list leaves nothing out. It names creeping things beside beasts and birds, and the same number that went in comes out.
Not one thing had gone into the ark thirteen months before which did not now come out. The small and the great had been in it, and the small were as safe as the great. The creeping thing from the ditch or the hedge was as free from danger or harm as Noah himself. Precious mystery! We may be little, and we are little, as the heart knows full well. But heaven, the coming world of glory, has fitted itself like the ark to receive the small as well as the great.
The verse sorts the creatures into groups. The word translated "beast" carries a precise range of meaning.
The ordinary use of this word distinguishes all animals from man, and marks off four-footed animals from birds and creeping things, Gen. 8:19. The word is also used symbolically: for the ignorance of man and his acting as a creature without reason or conscience before God, and for great worldly powers, such as the four great kingdoms in Daniel 7.
They leave under orders, and the going out starts the repopulating of the world.
Nothing is said about anyone being anxious to leave the ark. Had they become so used to living there that they were hesitant to leave? God gave them orders to go out, however, including all the people and all the animals of every kind. Whether at first they returned there for shelter at night we are not told. The animals, sent back into their natural surroundings, would then breed and multiply.
Man's fall dragged the animals down with him. That link explains why they belong in the story at all.
Man, by his sin, has not only brought ruin on himself but has spoiled his home and dragged down all the creatures that depend on him. Thorns and thistles are marks of man's sin, and much more the groans of the animal creation (Gen. 3:18). Man, unlike angels, was made by God the centre of a system of things. The whole of this lower creation either suffers or rejoices with its head.
Survival was never the whole point. God's purpose reaches past shelter to freedom.
Meanwhile it never was the mind of God that there should be life only, but liberty. Life out of death brings us into liberty. Christ not only gives life and shelter; He does it to prepare us for the freedom of grace.
- Command — Noah went out as he went in: at God's word, refusing to move on his own judgment even when the ground looked dry.
- Composure — the harder discipline was staying put. It is harder to remain in the place of blessing than to reach it.
- Completeness — every creature that entered came out, the creeping thing as safe as Noah himself.
- Classes — they go out by families: beasts, birds and creeping things, each kind sent to fill the earth again.
- Consequence — creation suffers or rejoices with man, its head. So man's rescue is creation's rescue, and life through death opens into liberty.
And Noah built an altar to Jehovah; and took of every clean animal, and of all clean fowl, and offered up burnt-offerings on the altar.
Noah steps out of the ark onto an earth just emptied by judgment. The first thing he does is not build a shelter but raise an altar. That choice raises three questions: why sacrifice at a fresh start, why only clean animals, and what did God see in the rising smoke?
Until this verse the Bible records offerings but never an altar.
The word "altar" is mentioned here for the first time in the Bible. The altar is for worship. Here then worship is for the first time revealed. We worship, having passed from the old into the new, standing on the ground of resurrection. We know that death and judgment are past, and therefore we worship in spirit and in truth. Christ is our altar, and the sacrifices Noah brought are a picture of Christ too. Only the person who knows Christ and the perfect work He has done is a true worshipper.
The ark had just carried Noah through judgment. He might have treasured it. Instead it vanishes from the story here.
Everything is simple obedience. There is the obedience of faith and the worship of faith: both go together. The altar is set up where, just before, all had been a scene of death and judgment... Superstition would have worshipped the ark, as being the means of salvation. The heart always tends to put God's appointed means in God's own place. The ark was a very clear and obvious appointed means. But Noah's faith passed beyond the ark to the God of the ark. So when he stepped out of it, he cast no lingering look back at it, and he did not treat it as an object of worship or reverence. He built an altar to the Lord and worshipped Him. And the ark is never heard of again.
Noah had taken these animals aboard to keep their kinds alive. He offered them up anyway.
Before the flood Noah had been occupied with building an ark for himself and his household. After the flood we find him intent on building an altar for God... He held back none of the small stock of acceptable animals that came out with him from the ark. They had gone in with him to keep their kinds alive on the earth, yet he felt it was right to offer some of them on the altar to God. So his offering shows the thankfulness of his heart. But in it we see something more: the ground on which all blessing could now rest — a sacrifice accepted by the Lord.
The verse assumes Noah could tell a clean animal from an unclean one. Where did that knowledge come from?
Before the flood Noah already knew this essential part of an acceptable sacrifice (Gen. 7:2), though there is no record of how he learned it. But in the law we read God's definition of clean beasts and clean birds, and we find moral teaching tied to the subject (Lev. 11). So we must conclude that no man could have worked out by his own instinct which creatures God would count clean, and which He would not.
The record mentions no prayer and no song at the altar — only what God perceived.
Yet as far as we know, no prayer was spoken on that solemn occasion, and the patriarch raised no hymn of praise... It may have been a silent service. We read of nothing that God had heard, but only of what He smelled. A silent service perhaps, yet how full of meaning to Him, and instruction to us.
The altar is built to the LORD — Jehovah, as some translations print the name. One writer says that name, and not God, is the exact one here.
"And Noah," it is written in verse 20, "built an altar." To whom? To God? Most fittingly it is to Jehovah now. The two names could not be swapped without loss... It is Noah's relationship that appears here. The sacrifice offered there bore witness to the special place in which he stood.
Noah's altar did more than express thanks. The whole future of the earth rested on it.
Noah acted on this after the flood. His first recorded act was to build an altar and offer up whole burnt offerings of every clean beast and of all clean birds. For the earth after the flood was held on the ground of sacrifice.
And the rising smoke pointed forward.
In this the patriarch acknowledged that atonement was his only possible ground for standing before a holy God. That is a striking lesson for people in every age. As that lone column of smoke rose to heaven, "the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma." His mind ran on from that altar to Calvary. There, in due time, the great sacrifice would be offered, and every other sacrifice pointed to it.
- Altar first. Once rescued, Noah builds an altar before he builds a house. Obedience of faith and worship of faith go together.
- Ground, not gratitude only. The offering thanks God for the past, but its greater meaning is the ground on which all blessing could now rest.
- Costly ground. He held back none of the small stock of clean animals entrusted to him to keep their kinds alive.
- Taught ground. No one could guess by instinct which creatures God counts clean. Noah offered what God had already marked out as acceptable.
- Lasting ground. The earth after the flood was held on the ground of sacrifice — and that lone column of smoke pointed on to Calvary.
And Jehovah smelled the sweet odour. And Jehovah said in his heart, I will no more henceforth curse the ground on account of Man, for the thought of Man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will no more smite every living thing, as I have done.
Noah steps out of the ark onto a washed world and builds an altar. God is pleased — and the very reason He gave for sending the flood now becomes His reason for never sending another.
Older versions render the "pleasing aroma" as "a sweet savour." One writer gives a second rendering of the phrase, and shows what the offering secures for the one who brings it:
Here we have the sacrifice presenting a "sweet savour," or "a savour of rest," to God. It is what He finds His rest and delight in. And in its excellence the offerer finds the ground of his acceptance. The term burnt offering occurs here for the first time. We discover what it means in particular when we come to the book of Leviticus.
The flood did not improve anyone. Comparing God's words here with what He said before the judgment, one writer notes a small but sharp shift in wording:
Man had not improved, so there was no reason for God to deal with him differently. The Lord's estimate of man after the flood differed little, if at all, from that before it. Compare Genesis 6:5 with Genesis 8:21. Before the flood God spoke of evil as being constantly in the heart of His creature man. After it He declared it was innate. "The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth."
Notice the word "for" in the verse. One writer sets the reason God gives here beside the reason God gave for the flood:
It is interesting too that in Genesis 6:5 the reason for the flood was that "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Yet this same fact becomes a reason that God would not curse the earth again (v. 21). Since man's heart is evil from his youth, God would not again curse the earth or destroy every living thing out of it. The reason is that in the sacrifice of Christ there is a remedy for man's evil nature.
The altar changes what God's eye rests on, and the principle reaches far past Noah:
The reason God gave for not cursing is that He looks to Noah's sacrifice, not to the sin. God deals with us on the ground of what the Mediator is, instead of what we are. The sacrifice ought to be always in our hearts, but it is always before God.
But the offering did not win God over. The same writer is careful about what the sweet savour does:
There was to be no repetition of the curse. Otherwise the Lord might have been always at it, for every thought of man's heart was only evil, and that continually. But on the ground of sacrifice this was said: "the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will no more again curse." He would not again act as He had done. The effect of this sweet savour is very striking. It does not change God's mind; it reveals what He is — the source of peace.
God speaks this promise to Himself before He speaks it to anyone else:
When the Lord smelled the savour of Noah's sacrifice, He said in His heart that He would not again curse the ground. But that was just His own purpose and grace. For a time it was the secret of His own heart. In due time He made His purpose and grace known to Noah. Then Noah took the blessing in a way of special sweetness. He took it as coming from the deep, well-considered, and fully approved counsels and affections of the heart of the Lord Himself.
The pleasure was never in the dead animals themselves:
For God the sweet savour was in what the offerings meant: a new world brought in on the ground of the sacrifice of Christ, His own Son. God had no more pleasure in the actual death of Noah's animals than in those killed on Jewish altars. Hebrews 10:6 says as much: "In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure."
And what God rests in, the believer may rest in as well:
We must have a basis of approach to God. And more than this: we must be fully accepted, to be completely at rest there. If God finds a savour of rest in the death of Christ, we find our rest there too.
- Rest offered. The aroma is also rendered "a savour of rest." Scripture names the burnt offering here for the first time, and God finds His rest and delight in it.
- Rest despite man. The flood washed the earth but not the heart; God's verdict is now even sharper — evil is there from youth, innate.
- Rest instead of curse. The same fact that justified the flood becomes the reason for never repeating it. A sacrifice now stands between God's eye and man's sin.
- Rest revealed, not negotiated. The offering did not change God's mind. It showed what He is. He spoke the promise in His own heart before telling Noah.
- Rest shared. What God rests in at Noah's altar points on to Christ. Whoever trusts that sacrifice rests where God rests.
Henceforth, all the days of the earth, seed [time] and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.
After the flood, God makes a promise that has ruled the world ever since. As long as the earth lasts, the seasons will keep their round. Two questions follow. Why is the promise safe when man's heart has not changed? And how long do the words "while the earth remains" run?
The promise comes straight after Noah's burnt offering. That order decides everything.
No one can deny that God in His sovereignty has blessed man unconditionally. On what ground have the millions of our race since Noah's day enjoyed seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, day and night? Have these been conditional blessings?… Genesis 8:20-22 makes it clear. We have these blessings only on the ground of sacrifice — Noah's burnt offering, a type of Christ. If God gave them on the ground of men's conduct, men would have forfeited them long ago.
The flood washed the earth clean. What did it do to the heart inside man?
The cleansing of the waters of judgment had made no change in the imaginations of the thoughts of man's heart. They were still evil, and only evil. The heart was uncured, for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," though there be water to cleanse or fire to refine. It was no change there which gave the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil towards men.
Something new starts here. Compare it with the earlier blessing of paradise.
With the new method of dealing with men, God would bring in a stability unknown before… To man in innocence God made no such announcement. Whether the blessing of paradise lasted depended on his obedience. The flood broke the natural order of the seasons: seedtime and harvest stopped for a year. Because of the sacrifice, nothing will break that order again as long as the earth remains. Man can count on this; and man has proved it. God has often held back the earth's full crop, but the seasons have kept running their round.
Three pairs cover the whole year between them.
When God created the lights in the sky He said, "Let them be for signs and for seasons." It is well known that the different seasons on the earth come largely from the days being longer or shorter, so the earth gets more or less of the sun's heat. After the flood, God declared that while the earth remained the seasons should continue, Genesis 8:22. They fall roughly like this: seedtime, cold and winter run from October to March; harvest, heat and summer run from April to September.
The promise holds the seasons steady. It does not lift the curse on the ground.
Then after the flood God secures seedtime and harvest. Farming is blessed in a way. The curse is not gone, but man is comforted. So I should think it takes less work to get things out of the earth now than it did before the flood.
The promise has an end date. One writer traces the whole span.
The sign or token of this covenant with creation is the rainbow in the cloud. Under it the earth has continued until the present time, and it will continue throughout the millennial period. Then Christ will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. The heaven and the earth will pass away and give place to the new heaven and the new earth — the everlasting state, in which God shall be all in all.
Anyone can test the promise by looking at the record:
Few things show the divine perfection stamped on the Bible more than its unfailing accuracy about what has already been fulfilled. More than four thousand years ago, Jehovah said, "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest … shall not cease" (Gen. 8:22); and do they not continue to this day?
One writer carries the verse beyond farming, into the way God deals with what we sow.
The reaping does not come as soon as the seed is sown. So we need patience. But reap we shall — in due season, and God, not we, is Judge as to when the fitting season arrives. Still, arrive it certainly shall. Genesis 8:22 stands true even in this connection.
- Cause — The seasons keep going on the ground of Noah's burnt offering, a type of Christ. They do not rest on human conduct.
- Contrast — The flood left man's heart uncured. God's promise rests on the sacrifice He accepted, not on any change in man.
- Gift — Adam never had this. The seasons now run in a fixed order that no longer hangs on man's obedience.
- Limit — The curse on the ground is eased, not lifted. The promise runs only "while the earth remains" — through the millennium, up to the new heaven and new earth.
- Lesson — Seedtime and harvest never fail. So sowing and reaping hold good in the moral world too: the harvest is delayed, never denied.