All New, But The Same

Good evening from the panhandle. The birds have flown the coop so to speak and now it is time for Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives to leave the ark. I can't imagine how they must have felt. Building the ark and loading the animals and supplies, all took between 70 and 120 years – no one's quite sure. And then they spent a year on the ark before they were able to leave it. All that time their lives were tied to the ark and now that was all done. It was time to leave the ark all that they knew, and start over.

Gen 8:15-22

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you--the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground--so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds--everything that moves on the earth--came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 "As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never cease."

1. NOAH AND HIS FAMILY, AND THE ANIMALS COME OUT OF THE ARK (vv.13-19)

From the Scriptures it appears that Noah was in the ark a complete solar year, or three hundred and sixty-five days; he entered the ark the 17th day of the second month, in the six hundredth year of his life, Gen 7:11,13.

Noah and his family were in the ark until the 27th day of the second month, in the six hundredth and first year of his life. The months of the ancient Hebrews were lunar; the first six consisted of thirty days each, the latter six of twenty-nine, the whole twelve months making three hundred and fifty-four days: add to this eleven days, (even though he entered the ark the preceding year on the seventeenth day of the second month, he did not come out till the twenty-seventh of the same month in the following year,).

That comes out to exactly three hundred and sixty-five days, the period of a complete solar revolution. - (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

The command to leave the ark is given and obeyed. Just as Noah did not enter the ark without divine direction; he did not leave the ark, without divine direction. "The fowl, the cattle, and the creeper." They are again to multiply on the earth. "Every living thing."

We saw that Adam, Cain, and Abel, offered sacrifices, so there is a good chance that they had altars that they used. So now, Noah built an alter to use for sacrifice. His is the first on record. The proper mode of worshipping God, was instituted by God himself, and sacrifice is an important part of worship. Without a sacrifice, there can never be atonement, That is why the passover lamb, that is why Christ Jesus had to die on the cross. In the heavens, a lamb is represented before the throne of God as newly slain, Rev 5:6,12-13.

NOTE: The Jews have a tradition that the place where Noah built his altar was the same in same spot that the altar built by Adam stood, and that it was used by Cain and Abel, and it was the same spot on which Abraham afterward offered up his son Isaac. - (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

2. THE EVENTS AFTER THE FLOOD (vv. 20-22)

God graciously accepted the offering of Noah which rose up to Him. In the sacrificial flame the essence of the animal was rendered into a vapor. When Noah presented a sacrifice in his own stead, it was as if his inmost being, his spirit, and his heart ascended to God in the vapor. The sacrifice brought the feelings of Noah's heart before God. This feeling of gratitude for gracious protection, and of desire for further communications of grace, was well-pleasing to God.

The effect of this plea is here described. The Lord smelled the sweet savor. He accepted the typical substitute, and, because of the sacrifice, the offerings, of the surviving ancestors of the post-flood race would be accepted. And so the re-entrance of the remnant of mankind upon the joys and tasks of life was inaugurated by an articulate confession of sin, a well-understood foreshadowing of the coming victim for human guilt, and a gracious acceptance of this act of faith.

"The Lord said in his heart." It is the inward resolve of His will. The purpose of mercy is then expressed in a definite form, suited to the present circumstances of the delivered family. "I will not again curse the soil any more on account of man." This seems at first sight to imply a mitigation of the hardship and toil which man was to experience in cultivating the ground (Gen 3:17). At all events, this very toil is turned into a blessing to him who returns from his sin and guilt, to accept the mercy of God through Christ Jesus.

There would be no world wide flood again. "Because the imagination of his heart is evil from his youth." This was the reason for the past judgment, the curse upon the soil: not for the present promise of relief for the future. The reason for the promise of escape from the fear of a deluge for the future is the sacrifice of Noah, the priest and representative of the human race, with which the Lord is well pleased.

The closing sentence of this verse is a reiteration in a more explicit form of the same promise. "Neither will I again smite all living as I have done." There will be no repetition of the deluge that had just swept over the land and destroyed the inhabitants.

3. Verse 22. [Henceforth all the days of the earth.] After these negative assurances come the positive blessings to be permanently enjoyed while the earth continues.

The year was divided into six seasons, founded on an experience of the uniform course of nature in Eastern countries. The same arrangement, though not noticed in sacred Scripture, was afterward adopted by the Jews, as appears by a passage quoted from an old Rabbinical work by Lightfoot (`Horae Hebraicae'): `Half of the month Tisri (September), all Marchesvan, and half of Kislef, are seed-time; half of Kislef, all Tebet, and half of Shebath are winter; the latter half of Shebath, all Adar, and half of Nisan are cold; the latter half of Nisan, all of Ijar, and half of Sivan are harvest; half of Sivan, all Tammuz, and half of Ab are summer; half of Ab, all of Elul, and half of Tisri are heat.'

Other Oriental people also reckon six seasons, as the Hindus, the Arabians, and the inhabitants of the neighboring regions. From this it appears, that although during the incessant rains of the deluge an almost total darkness prevailed, the distinction between "day and night" would be restored, and the character and succession of the seasons continue the same before.