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 Ground of the Promise
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.
Not a Changed Heart
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.
Stability Introduced
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.
What the Pairs Mean
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 Curse Eased, Not Lifted
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.
How Long the Promise Runs
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?
A Principle to Live By
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.
Summary
- 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.