Turn in your Bibles to Genesis
chapter 8. Genesis chapter 8 deals with the conclusion of the flood. We have seen the preparation
of the ark in Genesis chapter 6, the actual flood in chapter
7, and here the end of the flood and the subsequent sacrifice,
and then the covenant of God with Noah. I'll read beginning
in chapter 8 at verse 1. Then God remembered Noah and
every living thing and all the animals that were with him in
the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the
water subsided. The fountains of the deep and
the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven
was restrained. And the waters receded continually
from the earth. At the end of the hundred and
fifty days the waters decreased. And the ark rested in the seventh
month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of
Ararat. and the waters decreased continually
until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first
day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. So it
came to pass at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window
of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which
kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the
earth. He also sent out from himself a dove to see if the
waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found
no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned
into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the
whole earth. So he put out his hand and took
her, and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet
another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the
ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a
freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth. And Noah knew that
the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another
seven days, and sent out the dove, which did not return again
to him anymore. And it came to pass in the 601st
year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that
the waters were dried up from the earth. And Noah removed the
covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the
ground was dry. And in the second month, on the
27th day of the month, the earth was dried. Then God spoke to
Noah, saying, Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons
and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living
thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle and every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound
on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So
Noah went out, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives
with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and
whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families,
went out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the
Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird
and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled
a soothing aroma. And the Lord said in his heart,
I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Nor will
I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the
earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter
and summer, and day and night shall not cease. Amen." Well,
as we have seen in this particular section, the genealogy of Adam
proceeds through the line of Seth to Noah. in chapter 5. Noah's death is highlighted in
chapter 9, but before we get there, we learn of the great
accomplishment of Noah's life was basically living through
the flood in the ark that God had provided him. And in terms
of the flood narrative, we see the decision to send the flood
and rescue Noah in chapter 6, the command to build the ark
in chapter 6, the command to enter the ark in chapter 7 along
with the floods coming and here tonight we see the floods abate
or the waters decrease or subside and then the command to exit
the ark and then ultimately we see this building of the altar
and then this covenant made by God with Noah termed the Noahic
Covenant. So tonight we'll look first at
the abatement of the waters in verses 1 to 14. Secondly, the
departure of the family from the ark in verses 15 to 19. And
then finally, the covenant of the Lord in verses 20 to 22. Now in the first place, we note
that the waters subside. Notice in verses 1 to 3. Verse
1 says, Then God remembered Noah. And as has been the case throughout
this section in our study in the book of Genesis, we see this
kind of language used very much concerning God. It's the language
of anthropopathism or anthropomorphism. Ascribing bodily parts to God,
we'll see that later when the Lord smells this soothing aroma. And then ascribing human passions
to God is called an anthropopathism. Well, here it says, then God
remembered Noah. Again, this is language used
in the manner of man. God doesn't remember because
God never forgets. All knowledge is always present
to God. He doesn't increase. He doesn't
diminish. He doesn't lose. He doesn't forget. He doesn't wake up one day and
say, oh yeah, I've got eight people in an ark. I need to get
to them and make sure that they land safely on Ararat. John Gill
says, not that God had forgotten Noah, for he does not and cannot
forget his creatures, properly speaking. But this is said after
the manner of men and as it might have seemed to Noah. You can
see where it might have seemed that way to Noah because Noah's
floating in this vessel with all of these animals for quite
a long time. But the text highlights, then,
God remembered Noah. So it's anthropopathic language,
language that is descriptive of God, not properly. It doesn't actually mean that
God remembers because God forgets, but it's what's called an improper
predication. It's something designed to teach
us, the creature, something true of God. In other words, what
we are to be alerted to here is God's intervention, divine
intervention. And then this language is as
well suggestive of covenant. The reference could be covenantal.
The language signifies to act upon a previous commitment to
a covenant partner. You see this kind of language
used Later on, you'll see it in Genesis chapter 9 at verse
15. You see it in Exodus chapter
2 and Exodus chapter 6. God remembers in terms of his
covenant partners. You also see it in Luke's gospel
in Luke 1.72. Wenham sort of summarizes this
section. He says, the floodwaters have
done their worst in the previous scene with the total annihilation
of all life outside the ark. Now divine intervention begins,
the reestablishment of order and life on earth. Remember that
we have seen or we have looked at the Adam-Noah parallel. In many respects, Noah is a new
Adam and life is being recreated or re-established on the earth,
and this particular chapter essentially reverses everything we saw in
chapter 7. The floods come and they devastate. The floods now cease and God
builds. God uses Adam. He gives the command
specifically to the animals, to Adam, to his family, to be
fruitful and multiply. The very same command that was
given to Adam in terms of populating the earth. This is a new era. The old world has been judged
and shot down, and the new world has emerged. And we see that
with reference to God's remembrance in this section. And then note
the Lord God caused the waters to subside in verses 1b to 3. At the end of verse 1, and God
made a wind to pass over the earth and the water subsided.
The same sort of wind that we learn in Exodus 14, 21, that
was able to cause the Red Sea to dry up so that the children
of Israel could pass through safely and evade Pharaoh's armies. There's a lot of connection between
the water scenes here in Genesis 6 and 7 to later water scenes
in the Old Testament. Time does keep us from looking
at all of those, particularly though. And then notice what
we find in verse 2 is a direct reversal of what was said in
Genesis chapter 6 and verse 11. Here in verse 2, the fountains
of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and
the rain from heaven was restrained." As I said, it's almost as if
it's an exact parallel, the opposite way, as to Genesis 6. Genesis 6, these underground
waters were let loose. Genesis 6, the windows of heaven
were opened. Here in Genesis 7, and here in
Genesis 8, these things stop. God is in sovereign control.
He not only initiates this devastating judgment, but he also stops it
when the annihilation is complete, and he comes to bring restoration
to Noah and to his family. And then in verse 3, the waters
receded continually from the earth. At the end of the 150
days, the waters decreased. And then the ark rested in the
seventh month, the 17th day of the month, on the mountains of
Ararat. Now, most of the commentators,
at least that I read, say this was in Armenia. It wasn't one
particular mountain. It was a region of mountains.
I'm sure Answers in Genesis will probably nail down for you which
particular mountain that was. And I should say that once again,
if you want the science behind the flood, answersingenesis.com
is probably the best place that you can go as far as I know.
I'm sure there's others out there that do great job in terms of
the scientific explanation of these chapters. I simply do not
have the ability to comment that way but to simply explain what
the text says. There was a lot of water and
now there wasn't because God brought judgment and now God
is bringing restoration and deliverance to His chosen ones, to Noah and
his wife and his sons and their wives. And then note, the tops
of the mountains were visible, according to verse 5. The waters
decreased continually until the 10th month. In the 10th month,
on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were
seen. Remember, it was 15 cubits above that, so the water is starting
to decrease. I did pop on to Answers in Genesis
last week looking for something very specifically. I didn't have
time, but I noticed they have a particular article on what
happened to all this water. Because that's probably a big
question. What happened to all this water? I know that there's no new water,
water either. evaporates or it goes into the
earth, but they give an explanation or at least as far as I can tell,
they give an explanation as to the decrease or the subsiding
of this great mass of water. It's a great question. Where
did it all go? Again, answersingenesis.com. Ken Ham probably never would
have thought he would have gotten so much free plugs as I'm giving
him tonight. And then note, with reference
to the birds deployed. This is ingenious, and this is
something that not just NOAA did, but sailors have done, or
sailors did do before electronic navigation, and radar, and sonar,
and that sort of thing. They used birds. They would send
birds out, and if the birds came back, that would indicate certain
things. And so NOAA does that. But the
order that NOAA does this is intriguing, and it makes sense. Now, I don't say that to sort
of confirm that the Bible makes sense, but I've mentioned that
there are other flood stories in other religions and in other
civilizations. The most famous is the Gilgamesh
epic and the great flood story recorded there. But Waltke makes
this observation concerning these competing flood narratives versus
the biblical account. He says, Noah's release of the
birds into the air is the first sign of renewed life. In the
Babylonian account, the hero sends out a dove, a swallow,
and then a raven. The difference in the sequence
profiles, again, the superiority of the biblical account. The
raven braves the storm, can feed on carrion, and as the stronger
bird can remain in flight much longer. It makes sense, as in
the biblical account, to send out the stronger raven before
the gentle, timid, and low-flying dove, but none to reverse the
sequence as in the Babylonian epic." In other words, it doesn't
make any sense the way that the Babylonian epic describes it.
versus what the Bible describes, would have been the most natural
way to do it. You send out the strong raven
first, and then you send out the timid dove. And that is precisely
what happens. Verse 7, he sent out a raven
which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from
the earth. And then in verses 8 to 12, he sends out the dove. Initially, the dove finds no
resting place. And, you know, I mentioned last
week, I think it was, that we're not to read the flood narrative
as sort of an ecological tract and, you know, conservationism
and that sort of a thing. But at the same time, we ought
to make the observation that Noah did have regard for the
lives of his beasts. If you look specifically at verse
8, I'm sorry, verse 9, the dove found no resting place for the
sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the
waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put his hand
and took her and drew her into the ark to himself. That's kind
of a tender moment, isn't it? I mean, this is a dove and Noah
reaches out his hand and the dove lands on his hand and he
brings the dove back into the ark. ecological or conservationist
sort of tirade, but certainly we ought to appreciate God's
kindness with reference to the animals, God's kindness with
reference to the stability of the earth as we leave this particular
chapter, and then Noah's kindness with reference to the animals.
He doesn't say, you know, I'm so sick and tired of these birds,
I hope they never come back. No, he sees the dove and he brings
the dove back into the ark with him. So the dove initially goes
out and finds no resting place. The dove then goes out and returns
with an olive leaf. This is promising. This is good.
This evidence is that the waters are, in fact, subsiding. You see that specifically in
verse 11. Then the dove came to him in
the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her
mouth, and no one knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which
did not return again to him anymore. Now, I had seen this before I
started in the commentaries today, but you probably all heard it,
that doves, once they match up as a male and a female, they're
together for life. Apparently, doves are, you know,
the model monogamous creatures on, you know, in terms of the
bird kingdom. Doves just, you know, they match
up, there's no divorce, there's no separation, you know, till
death do us part as far as you're a dove. So now this dove doesn't
come back to his mate. That actually causes some issues
in the commentaries. Why didn't the dove come back?
The dove found it nice to be out of the boat. He was happy
and content to live life no longer in the ark. I don't know that
that's what we're supposed to get hung up on. The idea is that
when the dove did not return anymore, that indicated, again,
for Noah, that these waters were residing or subsiding. And then
notice in verses 13 and 14, we see the waters are dried up.
And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the
first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were
dried up from the earth, and Noah removed the covering of
the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was
dry. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of
the month, the earth was dry. Now the New King James translates
the verbs the same, dry, but the second means more dry or
completely dry. In fact, Waltke says the verbs
of 8, 13, and 14 rendered dry differ. Even after Noah sees the earth
has dried out, he waits patiently almost another two months until
it is completely dry, waiting for the divine word that it is
safe to disembark. And that's something that we
ought to observe here. Verses 13 and 14, Noah now looks for
himself. He sent out the raven, he sent
out the dove, the dove brought back the olive leaf, the dove
didn't come back. Noah now lifts the cover from
the ark. He sees it for himself, but just
because it's dry doesn't necessarily mean it's time to jump down and
start doing everything that man does on the earth. He waits for
divine instruction. God commanded Noah and his family
to enter into the ark, and Noah concludes that God's going to
command him to exit the ark as well. Noah walks by faith consistently. Noah walks by faith in the living
God. He listens to the voice of God
in terms of those decisions that he is to make in life, and that
brings us specifically to the departure of the family from
the ark in verses 15 to 19. There is, as we ought to expect,
a divine command. Noah waits, God commands, and
that is what we find in verses 15 to 17. Again, just the opposite
of what we find in Genesis chapter 7. They're commanded to enter
the ark, now they're commanded to exit the ark. Then God spoke
to Noah, saying, Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your
sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every
living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle
and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that
they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply
on the earth." Again, we ought to hear the ring of Adam in this
section. We ought to think in terms of
this is a second Adam, not the last Adam. We know that Christ
is the last Adam. But this is the same sort of
vocation given to Adam at the creation account. It's being
duplicated here in a sort of a recreation account after the
devastation of the old world by this water, by these waters,
And now God gives instruction to Noah on what he is to do in
terms of life in this post-flood world. And then notice this specific
instruction concerning the animals. Bring out with you. I doubt he
would have had to actually carry them. All he would have had to
do is whistle and they probably all ran. I mean, come on, they've
been in this ark. From what everybody says, and
you know, math again, I mean, the science eludes me. Math,
I'm sure I could work it out, but there's not enough time on
a Wednesday. From what I gather, the total time in the ark was
one year and ten days. I'm sure those animals were more
than happy to exit the ark, as were Adam, or rather Noah, his
wife, his sons, and their their wives. I'm sure they were all
chomping at the bit to get out of there. But you'll sometimes
meet this question. In fact, I did see it on Answers
in Genesis. I didn't read it, but you know,
how did the animals get from there to everywhere else in the
world? It's a good question, isn't it?
How did the animals get from Asia to America? How did the
animals traverse the ground or get from point A to point Z? Well, I want to share Matthew
Poole's commentary. Now, Matthew Poole's commentary
was first published in 1685. That's some staying power, isn't
it? I guarantee you Benny Hinn's
books aren't going to be sold in 300 years from now. Matthew
Poole is, John Owen is, John Calvin is, John Gill is. All
those guys have staying power because they spoke the truth.
But I found this very intriguing in Matthew Poole's commentary
on this subject. He says, question, how could
these creatures which came out of the ark in Asia get thence
to America or to the islands remote from the continent? Answer? One, as for America, it is sought
by divers learned men that is, I'm sorry, I must have missed,
that is either joined to this. Oh, yeah, that it, America, is
joined to this continent or separated from it only by a narrow sea
which diverse living creatures could easily swim over. He says,
second, many living creatures are, and always were, transported
by men in their vessels, either for their supply or profit or
diversion or other ends, and thence might easily be propagated
there. But it was his answer number
three that really intrigued me. He says, the same God who made
all these creatures and caused them to come first to Adam and
afterwards to Noah could afterwards both incline and empower them
to go whither he pleased without the advice of these vain men
who will believe nothing of God which themselves either do not
see or cannot do. In other words, if God made the
world, and God does what the Bible says he does, he can get
an elephant to America. That's like chump change, as
far as God is concerned. And I thought that was very intriguing,
because it's not the case that it's only 21st century man that's
sort of questioning these things. In the 17th century, there were
men questioning these things, and the Reform were always answering
these sorts of things. But I love that. The same God
who made all these creatures and caused them to come first
to Adam and afterwards to Noah could afterwards both incline
and empower them to go whither He pleased without the advice
of these vain men who will believe nothing of God which themselves
either do not see or cannot do. It's a beautiful thing. So they
are commanded, divine command in verses 15 to 17, and then
compliance in verses 18 and 19. So Noah went out and his sons
and his wife and his sons' wives with him, every animal, every
creeping thing, every bird and whatever creeps on the earth,
according to their families, went out of the ark. Again, compare
this with chapter seven and see how it's just the opposite, the
complete contrast. parallel in structure, parallel
in terms of the players, parallel in terms of the instructions,
except just the opposite. Chapter 7 deals with the devastation
of the flood. Chapter 8 deals with the restoration
after the flood, vis-Ã -vis Noah and his family occupying that
particular position of rebuilding the earth. And that brings us
finally to the covenant of the Lord. Now it's important for
us to understand that in verses 21 and 22, God is speaking to
himself. Now, I don't think that means
he looks into a mirror, but it says that God said in his heart,
Verses 21 and 22 are not communicated to Noah. That's what chapter
9 is. So what we have in verses 21
and 22 is the divine purpose and then in chapter 9 is the
divine explanation or the divine sort of blessings that are going
to take shape in this Noahic covenant. So it's important to
understand that. 21 and 22 are basically programmatic
for what God is going to do. Chapter 9 is the actual act of
God, where any covenants with Noah, in terms of those things
He had purposed in His heart. But before that covenant, or
before that promise that God makes, note the sacrifice of
Noah. Look at what Noah does when he
exits the ark. Beautiful thing, isn't it? He
doesn't go look for fruit. He doesn't say, wow, we didn't
have these on the ark. He doesn't say, oh, wow, I need
to build a shelter. I need to make fire. I've got
to find clothes. He worships God. He immediately
sacrifices, verse 20, that Noah built an altar to the Lord and
took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered
burnt offerings on the altar. Go back for just a moment to
chapter 6. Chapter 6, remember verse 8, but Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. There's a contrast being set
forth in chapter 6 that is consistent with the contrast in chapters
4 and 5. You have the Lion of Adam through
the ungodly Cainites in chapter 4. Then you have the Lion of
Adam through the godly Sethites in chapter 5. There's this contrast. There's this collective seed
of the woman. And there's this collective seed
of the devil. You see that contrast make its
way into chapter 6, and here specifically you have the great
mass of men that have filled the earth with corruption and
violence, and then you have Noah who found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. Noah did not achieve this righteousness
in and of himself, but rather God was gracious to him. Now
that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, that led to
what we learn concerning Noah in verse 9. Notice it says, this
is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect
in his generations, Noah walked with God. Remember, it's not
that he was these things and therefore grace was given to
him. No, grace was given to him, therefore
he was these things. He didn't receive grace because
he was upright. He was upright because he received
grace. That's the pattern, the conspicuous
pattern, in the entirety of Scripture. It's grace through faith, and
that yields the fruits of righteousness and godliness and blamelessness.
We know Noah had faith according to Hebrews chapter 11 at verse
7. It's by faith Noah did what he
did. So he receives the grace of God,
he looks unto Christ savingly, and that yields this kind of
a man, or that produces this kind of a man. He's a just man,
he's perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. Now no
doubt on the ark Noah walked with God. No doubt on the ark
Noah prayed. On the ark, Noah worshipped.
On the ark, Noah sacrificed. On the ark, Noah engaged himself
in communion with the Lord God Most High. The very first thing
Noah does when he steps off the ark is to build an altar to the
Lord and to take of every clean animal and every clean bird and
offer them up to Yahweh as a burnt offering. Gil says, not an house
for himself and his family, but an altar for God. His first and
greatest concern being for the glory of God and not for the
temporal good of himself and his. That's indicative of a man
who's just. That's indicative of a man who
is described as perfect in his generations, as a man who walks
with God. He seeks first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. He doesn't seek the food. He
doesn't seek the shelter. He doesn't seek the clothing.
Not that he doesn't need those things, but he seeks first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness, knowing that then those things
will be added unto him. In other words, Noah sets forth
the priority that all of God's Noahs ought to follow in suit
with. We ought to make sure that the
Lord God Most High comes first. And in terms of the actual sacrifice,
there's reasons for this. First, to renew the public worship
of God. We know that sacrifice was already
in play. God sacrificed animals in order
to make skins to atone for Adam and Eve's sin, or to cover Adam
and Eve. And in Genesis chapter 4, at the end of days, at the
end of the days of the week, what do Cain and Abel do? Cain
goes and he offers the first fruit to the ground, or the fruit
of the ground, and then Abel offers up the first fruits from
his flock. So sacrifice was already in place,
and so Noah is renewing public worship of God. As well, he is
expressing his thankfulness, his gratitude to God for divine
preservation. Now, you know, we read these
passages and we come through narrative like this and we don't
really stop and consider the magnitude of it all. I mean,
everybody on the earth except for Noah and his family are gone. There's nobody else. Noah and
his family alone are spared. So Noah comes to sacrifice to
the Lord to renew the public expression of the worship of
God, but as well this thankfulness to God for his preservation. And then certainly sacrifice
in the Old Covenant ought to be seen as typical of the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then notice the promise of
the Lord. Again, this whole idea of anthropomorphism that's so
frequently used in Genesis at least 6, 7, and 8, we really
ought to be in tune with it. We ought not to be shaken when
that sort of convention is used. I mean, it's just employed over
and over and over again. in the narrative here, then the
Lord saw, then God remembered. Well, obviously, God always sees,
God always knows, so these are anthropomorphism or popathism,
and here we have that. Notice verse 21, and the Lord
smelled a soothing aroma. The word is actually a resting
aroma, relative to Noah, which means rest or comfort. What Noah's offering up here
is something like Noah in the nostrils of God. That idea that
something was soothing aroma. Listen to Calvin here. He says,
yet nothing can be more absurd than to suppose that God should
have been appeased by the filthy smoke of entrails and of flesh. But Moses here, according to
his manner, invests God with a human character for the purpose
of accommodating himself to the capacity of ignorant people.
It's a beautiful way to understand this language. This is a beautiful
way to understand anthropomorphism or anthropopathism. It's God's
making something simple for his people. God doesn't smell. He doesn't have a nose. He doesn't
get some sort of a pleasure off of filthy entrails and the smoke
of entrails and of flesh. It's the language of approval. God approves of what Noah is
doing. God is using another anthropomorphic
sort of statement. He's happy with Noah at this
particular time. That's what the language is designed
to convey and it uses language in the manner of man to communicate
to us those things that are true of God. It is for the purpose
of accommodating himself to the capacity of ignorant people."
Now, I would suppose, at least in our day, people would take
offense to being called ignorant by Calvin. You get the point. In comparison to God, we're all
ignorant. In comparison to God, we're all
childlike. In comparison to God, we need
to be lisped to by God in order for us to understand. That's
what Calvin means here. Now, note the Lord's promise
in verses 21 and 22. Verse 21, the Lord smelled a
soothing aroma, then the Lord said in his heart. Go back for
just a moment to chapter 6 at verse 6. It says, and the Lord
was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved
in his heart. So this idea of God's grief in
the heart at the condition seen in Genesis chapter 6, and here
in Genesis chapter 8, then the Lord said, in his heart. So we
move from one place in terms of God, the revelation of God's
displeasure with sin and sinners, and here the revelation of God's
musing on the condition post-flood. And then it says, God said this
in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake,
although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Now, it's an intriguing thing.
It says, he would never again curse the ground for man's sake.
Genesis 3.17, God cursed the ground when Adam fell into transgression. I don't think that means, or
this verse means, that that curse is being lifted but the specific
curse further explained at the end of verse 21. Nor will I again
destroy every living thing as I have done. That's what's in
view when it says I will never again curse the ground for man's
sake. It doesn't mean All that was
meant by Genesis 3.17 is going to be reversed, and there's never
going to be a thorn or thistle, there's never going to be sweat
on your brow, there's never going to be harm. That's not it at
all. The specifics of this curse that will not be duplicated is
that he will destroy every living thing as he had done in this
worldwide flood on this particular generation. But notice, we might
ask the question, why? Look at sort of right in the
middle of this statement in verse 21. I will never again curse
the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart
is evil from his youth." Go back to Genesis chapter 6. Verse 5,
then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. There, the statement of man's
depravity is the reason for or the rationale behind God sending
the flood. Here in chapter 8 at verse 21,
it's almost as if it's the rationale for God not sending another flood. So how do we square that? Well,
I think this ought to suffice. If it is the case that man continues
unabated in his sinfulness, then God would be required to send
a flood each and every day. In other words, something that's
true after the flood is that man still has a sin problem. And it may be pointing us forward
to the reality that there's only one champion that will ultimately
deal with the sin problem, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The floodwaters didn't eradicate the problem of sin in the human
condition. And so if God does not purpose
in his heart, If God does not stop or cease or desist from
sending floodwaters upon man whose wickedness is there from
his youth, then life will only be defined by constant floods
to purge the earth of wicked sinners. John Gill says, so that
if God was to curse and drown the world as often as man sins,
he must be continually doing it. In other words, God does
send this flood in this generation. After the flood, he says that
the problem of man continues unabated, but I have purpose
not to send floods again and again and again and again. John
Calvin says, here it behooves us more deeply to consider His
design. For it was the will of God that
there should be some society of men to inhabit the earth.
If, however, they were to be dealt with according to their
deserts, there would be a necessity for a daily deluge. So, on the
one hand, Genesis 6, it's the reason, the rationale behind
the coming of the floodwaters. Genesis chapter 8, it is the
reason, the rationale for the cessation, at least indirectly,
of the floodwaters. Because man's sin is such that
God would continually have to pour out a deluge each and every
day to deal with it. And again, I think there's a
hint for us or it's pointing us forward to every particular
instance in the Old Testament dealing with the sin problem
ultimately should cause us to reflect on the glory of Jesus
Christ, not the floodwaters that is going to deal with sin. It's
the blood of Jesus Christ that's going to deal with sin. And then
note, finally, the Lord promises a stable environment. This is
going to be opened up in detail in Genesis chapter 9. You've
heard me probably say it before, I will say it again. The Noahic
Covenant is a common grace covenant. It's God's promise. to maintain
the earth as a stable environment for the proclamation of special
grace. So it's not necessarily a redemptive
covenant, but it serves the redemptive purposes of God by creating the
context in which Mankind lives and breathes and moves and has
His being and Jesus Christ ultimately comes to the sons of men and
He lives and He moves and He breathes and He has His death
and His resurrection to redeem His people from their sin. So
it's a common grace covenant that will be more expounded or
rather explained in Genesis chapter 9, but the sort of framework
is set forth in verse 22. while the earth remains, seed
time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and
night shall not cease." This sort of amplifies what he means
when he says, "...nor will I again destroy every living thing as
I have done." This does not preclude localized floods. This does not
preclude locust plagues. This does not preclude various
challenges that men face in farming, or in heating, or in getting
cool. It doesn't preclude that. The idea is that God will establish
a common grace order vis-a-vis the Noahic Covenant for the operation
of mankind until the fullness of the time comes when Jesus
comes to save his people from their sins. Actually, the Noahic
Covenant continues to the very end. It doesn't cease at the
coming of Jesus Christ. I mean, the sun rises today because
of Genesis 8. The rain falls today because
of Genesis 8. You can plan on taking out your
winter clothes earlier this year than it was last year, I think,
because of Genesis chapter 8. You can probably plan on, hopefully,
May or June, wearing shorts again because of Genesis chapter 8.
that this is God's establishment of a stable order so that His
plan of redemption can be carried out. As I said, Genesis chapter
9 will flesh it out in more detail on how things are supposed to
function in civil society with reference to this common grace
order. Well, in conclusion, in this
whole narrative thus far, we ought to see the judgment of
God. Genesis chapter 8 is a positive statement. It's a wonderfully
positive thing. The cover is thrown off, the
doors are opened, the family runs out. the animals run out, they don't
drown, there's not water, they get to engage in seeing the sunshine
and all those blessings and benefits. But we cannot forget what took
place in terms of Genesis chapter 7. And I would imagine that Noah
doesn't forget that either. because Noah builds an altar
to the Lord, and he praises God, and he thanks God, and he worships
God for God's preservation. So the judgment of God. Secondly,
the grace of God. That statement in Genesis chapter
6, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, it's fleshed
out here. It's fleshed out in the preservation
of Noah. It's fleshed out in the fact
that he has come into this new world. I don't mean that in the
George Bush sort of sense. I just mean in the new world
order of things. Please don't say Butler's advocating.
I'm not. It was. It was a new world order.
That's really what it was. Before that was a, you know,
diabolically charged phrase. It actually meant something and
it certainly means something here. And then finally, the Noahic
covenant was a covenant of common grace that establishes the stability
necessary for the preaching of redemptive grace. So in terms
of God's covenant with We see that covenant of grace, we see
it first revealed in the promise in the garden in Genesis 3.15.
It's moved along in farther steps until the final realization and
discovery of it in the New Testament with our Lord Jesus. But there
are these historical covenants made with persons in the Old
Testament. One was with Noah, and it's not
so much the covenant of grace. but it does undergird or serve
the covenant of grace in terms of providing a stable order.
While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and neat,
winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. That's
the promise of God. The covenant sign as we move
into Genesis chapter 9 is that rainbow. When we see it, we're
to thank God's faithfulness. Well, let's close in a word of
prayer. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for what
You tell us concerning sin and concerning Your great grace.
We thank You for that grace in our own lives and in our own
hearts. Help us, God, to rejoice in You, to present our bodies
as living sacrifices. We know that's our reasonable,
our rational service unto You for Your having saved us. We
also pray, God, that You would help us to see the great judgment
of God, that is on the horizon for all those who do not repent
and all those who do not believe. May you give us compassion. May
you move our hearts to consider the plight of men in our generation. And may you give us opportunity
to speak the truth of the gospel in love to people that are on
their way to hell. Help us, Father, in this. Help
us to set forth the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, your
Son. And we ask this in his most blessed
name. Amen.
