Lesson 26
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Bible Study 1 - Genesis 8
Series: THE PROGRESSION OF SIN
Lesson 26: Genesis 8:1-22 MERCY REJOICES AGAINST JUDGMENT
INTRODUCTION:
AND
INTERPRETATION:
In the close of Chapter 7 because of “Sin’s Progression,” the world was left in ruins. However, in this chapter we have the picture of restoration from “Sin’s Progression.”
Now in Chapter 8 we begin to see the brighter side of that cloud which there appeared so black and dark. The earth was made anew, by the recess of the waters, and the appearing of the dry land a second time, even though it was gradual. The increase of the waters remained for a long season (v. 1, 2). They begin sensibly to abate (v. 3). After sixteen days’ ebbing, the ark finally comes to rest. (v. 4). After sixty days’ of ebbing, the tops of the mountains began to appear above water (v. 5). After forty days’ ebbing, and twenty days before the mountains appeared, Noah began to send out his spies, a raven and a dove, to gain intelligence (v. 6-12). Two months after the appearing of the tops of the mountains, the waters had gone, and the face of the earth was dry (v. 13), but they were not dried enough to be fit for man to travel upon until almost two months afterwards (v. 14). Man was placed once again upon the earth when Noah was discharged and departed out of the ark (v. 15-19). He made a sacrifice of praise, which he offered to God upon his rescue for his blessing of Grace from God. (v. 20). God accepted his sacrifice, and made the promise that He would not drown the world again (v. 21, 22). Therefore, at length, MERCY REJOICES AGAINST JUDGMENT.
EXPLANATION:
BY GOD’S GRACE HE PROVIDES SECURITY Verses 1-3
Genesis 8:1-3 “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.”
GOD TAKES CARE OR HIS PEOPLE’S PERSONS
Not any of God’s creatures much less any of his people, are forgotten. Jesus said in Luke 12:6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” It is recorded in Isa. 49:15-16 “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”
Nevertheless, it does seem a little strange at first glance that the whole race of mankind, except Noah and his family, was now extinguished, and driven into the land of forgetfulness, to be remembered no more. However, God’s remembering Noah was the return of his mercy to mankind, of whom he would not make a full end.
Thus, the words “When I have accomplished my fury in them, I will be comforted.” This is a strange expression which comes from Ezekiel 5:13 where we read, “Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them.” This simply means that the demands of divine justice had been answered by the ruin of those vile, anti-God, disrespectful, unrepentant, hateful, pagan sinners that had disobeyed God and defiled God’s beautiful earth with their sin and debauchery. God had eased himself of His adversaries. As He had said in Isa. 1:24, “Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease Me of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies: and now His spirit was quieted,”
However, God remembered Noah and every living thing. God remembered mercy in His wrath. Habakkuk’s prayer in Habakkuk 3:2 was, “O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.” God remembered the days of old, He remembered the holy seed, and then He remembered Noah. Isaiah 63:11 reads, “Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?”
Yet Noah, the one that had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, seemed to be forgotten in the ark, and perhaps began to think himself so; for we do not find that God had told him how long he would be confined or when he would be released.
Very good people have sometimes been ready to conclude to themselves that they have been forgotten of God at times, especially when their afflictions have been unusually grievous and long. Perhaps Noah, though a great believer, when he found the flood continuing so long after it might reasonably be presumed to have done its work, was tempted to fear that the God who had shut him in would keep him in, and began to protest. “How long will you forget me? How long are you going to leave me here? I’ve done all you commanded me to do and I am ready to get out and I’m tired of waiting. I’ve been patient but Lord get me out of here!”
This is evidence that with God timing is more important than time therefore we must wait patiently upon the Lord. After many days God returned in mercy to Noah, and this is expressed by God remembering him. God usually works deliverance for his people gradually so that the day of small things may not be despised, nor the day of great things will be despaired. Zechariah 4:10 says, “For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see…they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” Proverbs 4:18 says “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”
Those that remember God shall certainly be remembered by him, no matter how desolate and disconsolate or what their condition may be. He will appoint them a set time and remember them. Job once said as recorded in Job 14:13, “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!”
GOD TAKES CARE OF HIS PEOPLES POSSESSIONS
With Noah, God remembered every living thing.
What was God’s remembrance of Noah: IT WAS GOD RELIEVING HIM.
God remembers us to save us, that we may remember Him to serve Him. Though his delight is especially in the sons of men, God rejoices in all his works, and hates nothing that he has made. He takes special care, not only of his people’s persons, but of their possessions—of them and all that belongs to them.
He commanded the wind, and said Go, and it went in order to carry off the flood: God made a wind to pass over the earth. This was an act of God’s power over wind and water, both of which are at his beckon call, neither of which is under man’s control. What a sovereign dominion God has over the winds.
1. He has them in his fist. Prov. 30:4 says, “Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?”
2. He brings the winds out of his treasuries. Ps. 135:7 says, “He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightning’s for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.”
3. He sends them when, where ever, and for what purposes he pleases. Even stormy winds fulfill his word. Ps. 148:8 speak of, “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapor; stormy wind fulfilling his word:”
I read a documentary recently that was supposed to be a compilation from many different modern day science “experts” in their particular fields and the conclusions to which they arrived were very interesting. In this article all who submitted statements affirmed that it would be impossible for the entire earth to be completely covered with water. They had conducted all the test and accumulated all of their facts and determined that there is not enough water on the earth in any form whatsoever to cover the earth. There is not enough water beneath the earth combined with the water on the earth to cover the earth. There is not enough water in the Atmosphere combined with the water beneath or on the earth to cover the earth. They concluded that there are asteroids in outer space that are solid forms of ice that could have collided with the earth. However, upon impact there would have been so much heat and gases produced that it would have evaporated much of the present water and the gases would have killed anything living, including Noah and his family.
It appears to me that those “expert” scientist failed to factor in one important element which is GOD! God also has sovereign power over the waters. I mean no disrespect for those who sincerely work diligently to discover all they can about God’s handiwork. However, when I read something like that my mind always goes back to a definition someone gave me of an “expert” a long time ago. I was told that an “EX” is A HAS BEEN and a “SPURT” is A LITTLE MORE THAN A DRIP. I will leave that definition with you and you can do with it what you may.
Concerning the flood, it would seem that even though the waters were increased, God would not have put in a dangerous wind; that would have added to the toss of the ark; but now God sent a wind, when it would not be so troublesome. Probably, it was a north wind, for that drives away rain. However, it was a drying wind, it was a wind such as God sent to divide the Red Sea before Israel, in Exodus 14:21. God completely controlled the wind and he completely controlled the waters, and said to them, Come, and they came. He took away the cause of the waters because they had accomplished what God had intended and now they were to dissipate.
He sealed up the springs of those waters, the fountains of the great deep, and the windows of heaven. As God has a key to open, so he has a key to shut up again, and to stop the progress of judgments by stopping the causes of them. The same hand that brings the desolation must also bring the deliverance. He that wounds is alone able to restore. Job 12:14-15 says, “Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.”
When afflictions have done the work for which they are sent, whether killing or curing, they shall be removed. God’s Word shall not return void, Isa. 55:10-11 says, “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
BY GOD’S GRACE HE PROVIDES SATISFACTION Verses 4-5
Genesis 8:4-5, “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.”
NOAH FOUND SATISFACTION WHEN THE ARK RESTED.
THE ARK WAS FINALLY ON A FIRM FOUNDATION:
This was some satisfaction to Noah, to feel the house he was in upon firm ground, and no longer movable. It rested upon a mountain, where God had directed it. Noah did not steer it, but the wise and gracious providence of God put exactly where it was supposed to be so that it might rest sooner rather than later.
God always has times and places of rest for his people after they have been tossed by circumstances and situations beyond their control. Very often God provides for our seasonable and comfortable settlement without their own plans and quite beyond their own foresight. The ark of the church, though sometimes tossed with tempests, and not comforted (Isa. 54:11), has its rests still before her. The promise of God in Isaiah 54:11 is “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.” We read in Acts 9:31 “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.” .
NOAH FOUND SATISFACTION WHEN HE COULD SEE LAND AGAIN:
THE TOPS OF THE MOUNTAINS WERE SEEN, LIKE LITTLE ISLANDS, APPEARING ABOVE THE WATER:
They must have been seen by Noah and his sons because there was no one else to see them. They probably had looked through the window of the ark every day, like the longing mariners, after a tedious voyage, to see if they could discover land, or as the prophet’s servant in 1 Kings 18:43 and 44, where we read “And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.” Continually they look until they spy ground, and enter the day of the discovery in their journal. They felt ground more than forty days before they saw it.
BY GOD’S GRACE HE PROVIDES SUBSTANTIATION Verses 6-12
Genesis 8:6-12, “And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him anymore.”
NOAH’S FAITH FOUND SUBSTANTIATION THROUGH HIS SPIES.
Noah sent his little spies, a raven and a dove, out to bring him intelligence from abroad:
Though God had particularly told Noah when the flood would come, even to a day in chapter 7 and verse 4, God did not give him a particular account by revelation about what times, and by what steps, it should go away. The knowledge of the particular time of the flood was necessary for Noah’s preparing the ark, and settling himself in it; but the knowledge of when it would all be over would serve only to gratify his curiosity, and God’s concealing of it from him would be the needful exercise of Noah’s faith and patience.
Noah could not foresee the flood by the revelation of God, but by ordinary natural means Noah might discover the decrease of it, and therefore God was pleased to leave him to that as enough.
Though Noah by faith expected to be blessed by God, and by patience waited for it, as any of us would be, he was inquisitive concerning it. I am sure as he thought about it he thought it was a long time to be confined.
Desires of release out of trouble, earnest expectations of it, and enquiries concerning its advances towards us, will very well consist with the sincerity of faith and patience. A difficult lesson for any of us to grasp is that he that believes does not make haste to run before God, but he makes haste to go forth to meet him. Isa. 28:16 says, “Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. ”
Noah sent forth a raven through the window of the ark, which went forth, as the Hebrew phrase is, going forth and returning, that is, flying about, and feeding on the carcasses that floated, but returning to the ark for rest; probably not in it, but upon it. This gave Noah little satisfaction. Therefore, he sent forth a dove, which returned the first time with no good news, but probably wet and dirty; but, the second time, she brought an olive-leaf in her bill, which appeared to be first plucked off, a plain indication that now the trees, the fruit-trees, began to appear above water.
THE GOOD REPORT OF THE DOVE WAS ON THE SABBATH.
Noah sent forth the dove the second time seven days after the first time, and the third time was after seven days too; and probably the first sending of her out was seven days after the sending forth of the raven. This intimates that it was done on the Sabbath day, which, it seems, Noah religiously observed in the ark. Having kept the Sabbath in a solemn assembly of his little church, he then expected special blessings from heaven. Having directed his prayer, he looked up as pictured in Ps. 5:3, “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.”
THE RETURNING DOVE IS A PICTURE OF A SATISFIED SOUL.
The dove is an emblem of a gracious soul, which finding no rest for its foot, no solid peace or satisfaction in this flood defiling world, returns to Christ as to its ark, as to its Noah. The carnal heart, like the raven, takes up with the world, and feeds on the decay it finds there. “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee” so the word is in Psalm 116:7. Also “…Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest” as spoken in Psalm 55:6. And as Noah put forth his hand, and took the dove, and pulled her in to him, into the ark, so Christ will graciously preserve, and help, and welcome, those that fly to him for rest.
THE OLIVE-BRANCH IS NOAH’S SPIRITUAL EVIDENCE.
The olive-branch, which was an emblem of peace, was brought, not by the raven, a bird of prey, nor by a gay and proud peacock, but by a mild, patient, humble dove. It is a dove-like disposition that brings into the world earnests of rest and joy.
Some make these things an allegory. The law was first sent forth like the raven, but brought no tidings of the appeasing of the waters of God’s wrath, with which the world of mankind was flooded; therefore, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, as the dove, in the likeness of which the Holy Spirit descended, and this presents us with an olive-branch and brings in a better hope.
BY GOD’S GRACE HE PROVIDES STABILITY Verses 13-14
“And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.”
STABILITY COMES IN THE PROSPECT OF DRY GROUND.
All the water carried off it, which, upon the first day of the first month. This must have been a joyful new-year’s-day that Noah himself was an eye-witness of. He removed the covering of the ark, not the whole covering, but just enough as to suffice to give him a prospect of the earth all around; and what a most comfortable prospect he had. As he looked in all directions he was filled with wonder as he saw the face of the ground was dry.
STABILITY COMES IN SEEING GROUND REGAINED ABOUT US
Noah was more sensible of it than most of us; for mercies that are restored seem to have much more a much more affecting power upon us than mercies that are continued. The divine power which now renewed the face of the earth can renew the spirit of an afflicted troubled soul and of a life of a distressed persecuted church. God can make dry ground to appear even where it seemed to have been lost and forgotten, and beyond our ability to regain. But Psalm 18:16 assures us when it says, “He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.”. Verse 14 says the ground dried, so as to be a fit habitation for Noah.
Though Noah saw the ground dry the first day of the first month, yet God would not allow him to go out of the ark till the twenty-seventh day of the second month.
Perhaps Noah, being somewhat tired of his restraint, would have abandoned the ark quickly at first; but God, in kindness to him, ordered him to stay much longer than Noah thought necessary. However, we must always remember God is more concerned about our benefit than He is our desires; for he knows what is good for us better than we do for ourselves, and He knows how long it is best for us to be restrained and how long our desired mercies should be delayed.
Perhaps we would be tempted to go out of the ark before the ground is properly ready. Perhaps, if we found the door shut, we may be anxious and ready to remove the covering, and try to climb up some other way in our own efforts that is not right for us; but we should be satisfied that God’s time of showing mercy is certainly the best time, when the mercy is ripe for us and we are ready for it.
BY GOD’S GRACE HE PROVIDES SEPARATION Verses 15-19
Genesis 8:15-19, “And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.”
SEPARATION CAME WHEN NOAH GOT TO STEP OUT OF THE ARK.
NOAH DID NOT STIR UNTIL GOD GAVE HIM PERMISSION TO DO SO:
As he had a command to go into the ark in chapter 7 and verse 1, no matter how tedious his confinement there was, he waited for a command to go out of it again.
WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE GOD, AND SET HIM BEFORE US IN ALL OUR MOVES AND REMOVES:
In order to by faith see him guiding in life and in motions and in the march through this wilderness:
One must go under God’s protection.
One must follow God’s direction.
One must submit to his government
One must steadily adhere to God’s word as their rule.
One must be guided by his grace as their principles.
One must take hints from his providence to assist them in their application of general directions to particular cases,
Though God detained him in that Ark for a long time, yet at last he gave him his discharge; for the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak, it shall speak truth, it shall not lie. Habakkuk 2:3 assures us “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. ”
God had said, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark” he never said, “Go forth,” which insinuates that God went in with him and stayed with him the entire time until he sent him out safely, for he has said, “I will not leave thee.”
SEPARATION WAS REALIZED WHEN NOAH AND FAMILY WERE GIVEN A SPECIAL HONOR.
In Chapter 6 verse 18 when they were ordered into the ark, the men and the women were mentioned separately. “But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” There some who refer to this and feel that, during the time of mourning, they were apart, and their wives apart. But now, God did as it were new—marry them, sending out Noah and his wife together, and his sons and their wives together, that they might be fruitful and multiply. Noah was ordered to bring the creatures out with him, having taken the care of feeding them so long, and been at so much pains about them, he might have the honor of leading them forth by their armies, and receiving their respect.
BY GOD’S GRACE HE PROVIDES SIGHT Verses 15-19
By that, I do not mean just normal, everyday sight, but VISION of what God had in store for His new world was before him. Noah departed when he had permission to step out of that Ark because he would not go out without leave. He would not leave out of fear or humor, he would not stay in when he had permission to go, but he was in all points observant of the heavenly vision. Though he had been a prisoner in the ark now a full year and ten days, yet when he found himself preserved there, not only for a new life, but for a new world, he saw no reason to complain of his long confinement.
EVEN WITH SIGHT THOUGH THEY ALL ESCAPED THE FLOOD ONE WAS WICKED.
Noah and his family came out alive, though one of them was a wicked son named Ham, whom, though he escaped the flood, God’s justice could have taken away by some other stroke. However, they are all alive. When families have been together for a long period of time, and no disturbances have developed among them, it is usually looked upon as a distinguishing favor, and attributed to the Lord’s mercies.
Noah brought out all the creatures that went in with him, except the raven and the dove, which, probably, were ready to meet their mates at their coming out. Noah was able to give a very good account of everything that was under his charge. Of all that was given to his responsibility he had lost none, but was faithful to God to all that appointed him, and was the high steward of his household.
BY GOD’S GRACE HE ACCEPTS SACRIFICE AND PRAISE Verses 20-22
Genesis 8:20-22, “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savor; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
GOD ACCEPTED NOAH’S SACRIFICE AND PRAISE IN HIS DAY:
Noah thankfully acknowledged God’s favor to him, for completing the mercy of his deliverance. He built an altar. Up to this point Noah had done nothing without particular instructions and commands from God. He had a particular call into the ark, and another call out of it. However, altars and sacrifices were already a divine institution for religious worship. Therefore Noah did not wait for a particular command to express his thankfulness to God for His Mercy.
The application to all of us today is that when we have received mercy from God should be prompt and forward in returning thanks to God and never do it with constraint, but always willingly and automatically. God is pleased with free-will offerings, and praises expressed in advance that wait for him.
When Noah left the Ark he was turned out into a cold and desolate world, where, one would have thought, his first care would have been to build a house for himself; but, instead, he began with an altar for God. Noah had his priorities in the right perspective. God was the first thing on his agenda, God was the first one to be served. The one who begins with God in whatever he does begins well.
When Noah offered a sacrifice upon his altar, he offered only those that were clean; for it is not enough that he sacrifice, but he must sacrifice that which God appoints, according to the law of sacrifice, and not a corrupt thing. Though his stock of cattle was small, and rescued from ruin at so great an expense of care and pains, yet he did not grudge to give God his dues out of it. He might have said, "I don’t have but seven sheep with which to begin the world, and must one of these seven be killed and burnt for sacrifice? Would it not better to defer an offering until we have greater plenty?’’ No, to prove the sincerity of his love and gratitude, he cheerfully gave the seventh to his God, as an acknowledgment that all was Gods, and all was owing to God. The application to us is that serving God with our little is the way to make it more; and we must never think that giving our offering to God from our meager resources or abilities is wasted when it is given to honor God to whom it all belongs anyway.
GOD ACCEPTS OUR SACRIFICE AND PRAISE IN OUR DAY:
In our day we are now to express our thankfulness, not by burnt-offerings, but by the sacrifices of our praise and the sacrifices of righteousness, by dutiful devotions and a moral conversation.
God graciously accepted Noah’s thankfulness in his day because it was a settled rule in the patriarchal age: If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? This was true with because verse 21 indicates that God was well pleased with the performance. He was well pleased with Noah’s religious zeal, and these hopeful beginnings of the new world, as men are with fragrant and agreeable smells; though his offering was small it was according to his ability, and God accepted it. Having caused his anger to rest upon the world of sinners, he here caused his love to rest upon this little remnant of believers.
CONCLUSION:
God took up a resolution never to drown the world again. God had an eye on another sacrifice and a different way – THE WAY. God was not so much focusing on Noah’s sacrifice as He was the sacrifice of Christ Himself, which was typified and represented by that sacrifice that Noah offered up to God. Noah’s offering was indeed an offering of a sweet-smelling savor, a good security is given here, and a promise was made that may be relied upon, that this judgment should never be repeated.
Though the world will never be destroyed by a flood again the Bible clearly teaches us that the earth is not to remain always; it and all the works in it, must someday be burned up; and we look for a new heaven and a new earth, when all these things must be dissolved. But as long as this present world does remain, God’s providence will carefully preserve the regular succession of times and seasons, and cause each to know its place.
There is no place for Mother-earth in biblical ideology. Earth owes ITS POWERS not HER POWERS to God’s divine command. The times are so changeable and yet are so very unchangeable. The nature of the world is always changing as are the seasons from Summer, to Spring, to Fall, to Winter or the length of nights and days. The events of time are subject to alternations as well, depending on the state of events from time to time. However, with Heaven and hell it is not so, but on earth God has set the one over against the other. Earth is constant in its inconsistency. Heaven and hell is constant is their constancy. The seasons have never changed. The sun has continued to shine as a measure of time and the moon is still a faithful witness in heaven. This is God’s covenant of the day and of the night, the stability of which is mentioned for the confirming of our faith in the covenant of God’s grace, which is no less unbreakable. We see God’s promises to the creatures made good, and demonstrates that his MERCY REJOICES AGAINST JUDGMENT to all believers.
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