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.