Our God is Master of the elements. God then created them in seven days in a marvelous way so that the earth could serve mankind (, ), having fallen into the state of vanity until the redemption of the sons of God when it to will be made anew (, , God was promising Noah that He would never again disrupt the earth with a flood, so that there would always be an uninterrupted set of seasons. Where there is great outward attraction a man fights against the growing sense of inward uncongeniality, and persuades himself he is too scrupulous and uncharitable, or that he is a bad reader of character. Genesis 8:22 guarantees that after the Flood, the seasonal cycle will continue uninterrupted “while the earth remaineth”, until the end of the Millennium. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; —. During the sixteen hundred and fifty years in which the world had existed, there had been no such manifestation of the Divine character as this family had seen. II. Genesis 5:1-32; Genesis 6:1-22; Genesis 7:1-24; Genesis 8:1-22; Genesis 9:1-29. In this catastrophe every one who strives after godliness may find encouragement, seeing in it the Divine earnestness of God-for good and against evil. The Jews observe, that the seasons of the year are divided into six parts, and two months are to be allowed to each part; which Lyra, from them, and chiefly from Jarchi, thus gives,"to seedtime the last half of September, all October, and half November; to cold, the other half of November, all December, and half January; to winter, half January, all February, and half March: to harvest, half March, all April, and half May; to summer, half May, all June, and half July; to heat, half July, all August, and the first half of September. He sends the North wind, with its frigid blast; He sends the south wind, with its soft and balmy breezes. The farmers have sown their autumn wheat, and many of them are longing for an opportunity to sow their spring wheat; but what is sowing but a burial of good store? Here are only earnests of the inheritance (Ephesians 1:14); there alone is the inheritance itself (Colossians 1:12). Try it free for 30 days! Thus clearly did the Word of God, far back in Noah's day, give a foregleam of the death and resurrection of Christ and of our union with Him in His death and resurrection. An acknowledgment of dependence. The people of this age should know what is about to happen. The promise of the perpetuating of the seasons was the guarantee of man’s food supply and of the certainties of life, and it is seen as a direct response to man’s submission and act of worship. Clarence D. Ussher, in "The Sunday School Times. The seasonable changes to which our earth is subject are of vast importance to man. “While the earth remaineth.”. By Divine commandment going into the prepared refuge. Who sowed the harvest of civilization which we are now reaping? A common expression for the favourable acceptance of an offering, cp. ] He has foretold the constant cycle of seasons so long as the earth remains: this has been thoroughly accurate for thousands of years and will remain so until, as He has also foretold, the earth and its works shall be burned up. From the place of prayer, we must go to the place of privation and of penury. Unseen, yet very really, God’s Spirit is at work, altering influences, changing modes. III. 1. Yet at the end of 150 days the ark only grounded in the mountains of Ararat: there was still no land visible (v.4). ), II. ); (cf. Noah remembered his recent preservation, and in his offering expressed his confidence that He who had preserved him under such circumstances would still continue to provide for his safety. The first is a personal covenant made in response to Noah’s act of worship. The cold properly occupies the interval between sowing and reaping, or the months of January and February. Now ten and a half months had passed since Noah's entering the ark. 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. God remembers Noah. Man redeemed is man living by every word of God. ", , "And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:", Thus, this verse is a fulfillment of the prophecy of, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed, , "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;", , "Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. Now is the time for hoping and waiting (Romans 8:25); then is the season for seeing and enjoying (1 John 3:2). Thus, the emphasis of. "No," says God, "it never shall." 20:40; Jeremiah 48:15; Amos 4:10). "Seldom has there been a more liberal offering in proportion to the means of the giver. 2. Read, "the end of the 150 days," i.e. That outward judgments, though they may terrify and restrain men, yet cannot of themselves sanctify and renew them the grace of God must work with those judgments. And in contemplation of his own effort he might have lost sight of the Divine providence over him. The use made of this event in the New Testament is remarkable. ", , "And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.". How vitally important it is that we believe the revelation of God! Rashi 's Commentary: Show Hide. So was it with the Hebrews when the Lord led them forth from Egypt (Exodus 12:11); so should Christians be always ready for their Master's summons, whether to pass from affliction (Isaiah 3:11) or into it (Genesis 22:1; Acts 21:13), to enter upon a new sphere of work (Isaiah 6:8) or retire from an old one into silence (1 Kings 17:3); to go down into the grave (2 Timothy 4:6) and wait for the apocalypse of the saints (Job 14:14), or to go up into glory and partake of the inheritance of the saints in light (Matthew 24:44). The ground is not cursed any more for man's sake, but, the more evidently, that which falls upon the ground may fall upon man himself. AC 930. 4. And may it not be expected of us His children, that we stand in presence of the cross until our cold and frivolous hearts catch something of the earnestness, the "resisting unto blood striving against sin," which is exhibited there? It speaks with a manly frankness of the beauty of women and its ensnaring power. VI. 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 pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. Thus God remembers that he is flesh, corrupt and sinful, Psalm 78:39. If wicked thoughts, desires, and actions were always to be followed by the judgments they merit, disaster would never be far off (. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 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. God always lets his people know what is practically for their good. The seasons are commonly understood by scholars to have been relatively constant, with little variations in temperature. The other observation I would beg to offer, ariseth from the different characters which the raven and the dove seem to suggest to our minds. Thus, we also the dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, hovering over the floodwaters in Noah"s day, just as the Spirit of God hovered over the earth in the beginning of creation. they shall continue ever in operation and succession. That the sacrifice of Noah was acceptable to God and preventive of further evil to the world. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. Noah had been commanded to do everything else connected with his wondrous deliverance; he was commanded to build the ark, and was given the pattern after which he was to construct it; was told who were to occupy it, and when he was to leave it. God is giving man a second opportunity to take dominion over the earth and to subdue it. 1. So that verse 14 tells us that it was about two months later that the earth was dried. In every branch of the human family traditions of the event are found. It was preventive of calamity. He accepts that man is sinful from his youth, and that it is now a natural part of man. 2. Individuals, families, and nations have their seasons--their spring, summer, autumn, winter. Whether at first they returned there for shelter at night we are not told. Upon the Cross the billows of wrath flowed over Christ. May we not, without violence, consider the raven as an emblem of the carnal mind, which, amidst all its profession, can live upon the mere carcase without, and feels no desire to enter within the ark, for its comfort and enjoyment? There is no reference in Genesis 8:21 to any doctrine of "original sin," for which we should have had some such phrase as "from his birth." 3. “While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” And they do not. This sacrifice was not precluded by any excuse consequent upon the circumstances of Noah. Noah was bid to build the ark, because he was ‘righteous’ in a world of evil-doers; he was ‘remembered’ in the ark, because he had believed God’s warning, obeyed God’s command as seeing the judgment ‘not seen as yet,’ and so ‘became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.’ They who trust God, and, trusting Him, realise as if present the future judgment, and, ‘moved with fear,’ take refuge in the ark, are never forgot by Him, even while the world is drowned. The dove had plucked off “an olive leaf.” Perhaps you have seen a picture of the dove carrying an olive branch in its mouth, which, in the first place, a dove could not pluck out of the tree, and in the second place, a dove could not carry an olive branch even if she could pluck it off. He lived after the Flood 350 years, the half week of centuries; his life represented a rest, but not the rest, a half sabbath, promise of the rest which remains to the people of God. Close Filters Scripture . Though the waters are out, there is a rock on which we may stand safe, above their highest wave. 3. THE PROMISE AND THE PLEDGE OF GOD (Genesis 8:21-22 ). This is why God gave this command again to Noah in, , "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. "soothing aroma" is literally 'the smell that gives peace'. “Mean!” replied he, “why, He promised above three thousand years ago, and He still makes His Word good, that ‘while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, shall not cease.’”. 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. Properly the cutting off of fruits, from a root meaning to cut off, hence summer; and the time when fruits are plucked, hence autumn (including winter); the import of the root being to gather, to pluck off; θε ì ρος και Ì ἐ ì αρ (LXX.). It is man who looks at the outward appearance, but Gods looks at the heart. This is Yahweh’s personal response to Noah’s faith and trust. It might apparently be argued that it could not have spread to the seacoast, or that at any rate no ships had as yet been built large enough to weather a severe storm; for a thoroughly nautical population could have had little difficulty in surviving such a catastrophe as is here described. The man who knows God, walks with Him, and is righteous before Him, will be protected from judgment. It's a troubling story for many, mostly because it is so often misunderstood. In short, we do well to be humble, and considering that we know very little about existence of any kind, and least of all about God’s, and that our God has been presented to us in human form, we do well to accept Christ as our God, to worship, love, and serve Him, finding Him sufficient for all our wants of this life, and leaving it to other times to get the solution of anything that is not made plain to us in Him. 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. It was no ordinary occasion. In this event, too, we see the completeness of God’s work. xxxii., No, 1891. 1. The sacrifice of Noah was a sweet-smelling savor to God. Genesis 8:22 NIV "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." That time was divided into stages. But now whatever danger had been connected with their twelve months' drifting across a trackless sea was at an end. 2. This promise has been kept. Spiritual Meaning of GENESIS 8:22 previous - text - summary - Genesis - BM Home - Full Page. in this estate; for though it seems probable that the substance of the earth will abide for ever, after the dissolution of the world by fire; yet that will be in another manner, and for other purposes, and then there will be no need of. The entering in to the ark. Lord! not confusedly, but in an orderly fashion, as they had come in, each one sorting to its kind. Dear heart, you have been shut out from the world now for many days, but God has not forgotten you. (3.) No; in all the severity there was tender regard for those worthy of it. NOAH'S OFFERING ON COMING FORTH FROM THE ARK, AND ITS RESULTS. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. The harvest is a time of poetry, rich in meaning, full of beauty, and set to music by God Himself, the poetry of nature smiling in her loveliness and ripe fruition, accompanied by the music of the breeze, as it rustles among the golden ears of bearded grain, and enlivened by sounds of human gladness. Genesis 6:14 "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from of 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. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. . Have you never seen, on the other hand, the noble Christian, sowing to the higher life of the spirit, sowing love and kindness to all around him, to come back to him in a harvest of gratitude and affection; sowing intelligence and wisdom to be paid to him in happy thoughts, beautiful fancies, and glorious aspirations; sowing piety, and adoration, and devotion to God, and reaping here the peace that passeth understanding, joy in the Holy Ghost, sweet communion with God, and in the world to come, life everlasting. "altar" is the first altar mentioned in the Bible. I. Thus, these characteristics of the earth serve as God's instruments in effecting His plan of redemption for mankind upon the earth. They serve--. So that in the midst of all felt restriction, there is the highest hope, that one day we shall go forth from the narrow precincts of our ark, and step out into the free bright sunshine, in a world where there is nothing to offend, and that the time of our deprivation will seem to have been well spent indeed, if it has left within us a capacity permanently to enjoy love, holiness, justice, and all that is delighted in by God Himself. Without any physical effort we were all moving toward that throne. Precisely five months after the flood began, the ark grounded, and the two sources, the rain from above and the ‘fountains of the deep’ {that is, probably, the sea}, were ‘restrained,’ and a high wind set in. - There is something very expressive in the original, עד כל ימי הארץ od col yemey haarets, until all the Days of the earth; for God does not reckon its duration by centuries, and the words themselves afford a strong presumption that the earth shall not have an endless duration. So he waited a week longer and then sent it out again. He showed himself worthy to be entrusted with the care of the new world. There can be little question that this is a true description of Noah’s feeling. From the days of the flood until this hour the sun has risen and set upon the just and the unjust, God's purposes of grace have moved steadily forward. Moses learned at the backside of the mountain, where he was shut in with God, how to go forth to the people. The practice of offering sacrifices of blood was practiced since the time of Abel (, ). Noah was now 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, behold, he begins with an altar for God: God, that is the first, must be first served and he begins well that begins with God. The time when the earth shall no longer remain is not mentioned. The air was full of leaves that fluttered to their rest on the red earth and the dark green pools scattered through the wood. The world's Noahs are allied to the world's seed time and harvest. Here observe, (1.) Poole, Clarke, Bush, and Inglis hold that the antediluvian sacrifices presupposed an altar. HEAT Sowing, beginning in October Reaping, ending in June COLD Early fruit, in July Fruit harvest, ending in September. III. Second, God knows how to reserve. Like Israel in the desert, it must be ‘at the commandment of the Lord’ that we pitch the camp, and at the commandment of the Lord that we journey. Genesis 8:20-9:17 Genesis 8:22 "A Promise and Sign of Seedtime and Harvest" Introduction I'm not even sure of the movie's name anymore, but I certainly remember what it was about. But the passage before us is not limited to the seasons of any particular country. And until we see our way to some truly higher conception than that which we have of a Personal God, we had better be content with it. But the relationship of these two is not certain. The unclean raven would no doubt find carrion to feed upon, which would be offensive to the clean dove. Gen 1:1. Spiritual winter is an ordination of God. It brings the latter close up to the former. We are saved to serve. God had cursed the ground when Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden. [2.] You must not relinquish this to a commentator. Genesis 8:22 STU XRF TSK ... Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers (22) While the earth remaineth . THE SAINT'S WORSHIP OF THE SAVIOR (Genesis 8:20). A.). 6 When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. Read the chapter in one sitting. Terence E. Fretheim. First, The course of nature always changing. God foretold the flood 120 years in advance: the flood came. Evidently God's awesome judgment of the ungodly world increased within Noah a healthy, reverential fear of the God of all the earth. Some of our great dailies are already prepared, so we are told, to write up the story of the Rapture, and rush it into their papers at any time. From the heights, we must go to the depths, carrying our new life and light. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; Until then, the earth had been obnoxious to Jehovah. There are included, also, in this promise, the regular alternations of light and darkness, although these were not interrupted by the flood. We ought to think of Him as the Absolutely Unknowable. Why do husbandmen hide their grain in the earth? "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." It may be that it will bring you something worth bringing one of these days, as Noah’s dove brought to him. Not only the promise of the text, but every other promise that God has made, will be fulfilled. To this we owe it that the world stands, and the wheel of nature keeps it track. i., p. 140. Genesis 9:1-7.—R. Let us all ask ourselves the question Are we under the Blood? And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. If by ridding our minds of all anthropomorphic ideas and refusing to think of God as feeling, thinking, acting as men do, we could thereby get to a really higher conception of Him, a conception which would practically make us worship Him more devotedly and serve Him more faithfully, then by all means let us do so. Rid of its corruption, cleansed of its impurity, and brought a sacrifice unto the Lord takes into that... Eph 5:2 ) with Isaac shalt thou not be distinguished during part of the story as being the remembrance. Will in due time he will no longer remain is not gone out, however including! 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