Genesis 8:15-22 - Exposition

The saint and the Savior.

I. THE SAVIOR 'S INJUNCTION TO THE SAINT ( Genesis 8:15 ). The command which God addressed to Noah and the other inmates of the ark to go forth and take possession of the renovated earth may be regarded as emblematic of that Divine instruction which shall yet be given to the saints to go forth and take possession of the now heavens and the new earth, when the great gospel ship of the Christian Church, now floating on the troubled sea of life, shall have landed with its living freight upon the coasts of bliss. The Divine command to Noah was an order to pass—

1. From a situation of comparative peril to a position of perfect safety . Though, certainly, before the bursting of the storm the only available shelter was that afforded by the ark, "all flesh and all in whose nostrils was the breath of life" that remained without having perished, yet even inside the ark must have seemed to the inexperienced voyagers to be at the best of only doubtful security. But now whatever danger had been connected with their twelve months' drifting across a trackless sea was at an end. And so, though only within the shelter of the Christian Church can safety be enjoyed, yet at the best it is not entirely free from peril. What with temptations and afflictions, "fears within and foes without," there always is a risk of making shipwreck of the soul ( 1 Timothy 1:19 ); but when life's voyage has been finished, and the new heavens and the new earth have been revealed, the salvation of the saints will be complete.

2. From a period of patient hoping to a season of delightful enjoying . It is doubtful if we always sufficiently realize the greatness of the strain to which the faith of the patriarch was subjected when he was shut up within the ark and left there for over a twelvemonth without any direct communication from God, with nothing for his faith to rest upon but the simple promise that he and his should be saved. At the best it was only little foretastes or earnests of God's complete salvation which he enjoyed: first in being sheltered from the storm; next in being floated above the waters; then in touching land upon Ararat; and again in getting signs of the approaching deliverance. Throughout the entire period he could only live in hope and patiently endure. But here at length was the time of full fruition come. Go forth from the ark. And so it is with Christ's saints universally. Here are only earnests of the inheritance ( Ephesians 1:14 ); there alone is the inheritance itself ( Colossians 1:12 ). Now is the time for hoping and waiting ( Romans 8:25 ); then is the season for seeing and enjoying ( 1 John 3:2 ). Here the saints rest upon the promise as their guarantee ( 2 Timothy 1:1 ; Hebrews 4:1 ); there the saints behold and experience its realization ( Hebrews 6:12 ).

3. From a condition of restrained activity to a sphere of higher and freer service . Not that Noah's life within the ark could in any sense have been one of idleness, and neither are the lives of Christians on the earth and in the Church below; but Noah entered on another and a nobler kind of work when he left the ark than that which had engaged his powers within its precincts, and so do they who are counted worthy of attaining to Christ's Kingdom and glory. Here, like Noah's, the saint's powers of service are limited and confined; there they shall attain to greater freedom and fuller scope ( 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 ; Revelation 4:8 .)

II. THE SAINT 'S RESPONSE TO THE SAVIOR ( Genesis 8:18 ). The command to leave the ark which God addressed to Noah was obeyed—

1. Immediately . We can imagine that everything was in a state of readiness for departure when the marching orders came, so that there was no need to interpose delay. 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 ).

2. Universally . Not the patriarch alone, but all his family and all the creatures came forth; so did all God's people come forth from the house of bondage ( Exodus 10:26 ); and so will all Christ's redeemed ones who have entered into the salvation ark of his Church emerge at last into the light and felicity of heaven ( Isaiah 51:11 ; Luke 12:32 ; 1 Corinthians 15:22 ; 1 Thessalonians 4:14 ).

3. Joyfully . This we may infer. After the twelve months' isolation, and confinement, and comparative peril we need not doubt that Noah and his family exulted with delight, and that even the lower creatures were not strangers to agreeable sensations. It was a picture of the happiness which even here the saints enjoy in the Divine interpositions on their behalf; but especially of the universal thrill of gladness which God's redeemed family, and even "the creature itself," shall experience in the palingenesia of the heavens and the earth ( Isaiah 35:10 ; Romans 8:19-23 )

4. Finally. They were never more to return to the ark, because never again should there he a flood. It was a delightful symbol of the completeness and finality of God's salvation when the saints shall have been landed on the heights of bliss ( Revelation 21:4 ; Revelation 22:3-5 ).

III. THE SAINT 'S WORSHIP OF THE SAVIOR ( Genesis 8:20 ). As Noah's first act on stepping forth from the ark was to build an altar unto the Lord, so the saint's first work on reaching heaven will be to worship; and this worship will be—

1. Believing . This was implied in the very thought of offering up a sacrifice to Jehovah, but specially so in the circumstances in which the patriarch was then placed. The visible symbol of the Divine presence had retired to its original dwelling-place in the heavens, and yet Noah had as little doubt as ever he had that there was a God to worship. The building of an altar, therefore, just then and there was an explicit declaration of his faith. Without faith there can be no worship of God either there or there, on earth or in heaven ( Hebrews 11:6 ).

2. Thankful . The offering of Noah was designed as an expression of his gratitude for the Lord's mercy, and so should the worship of the saints on earth be characterized by the same spirit ( Philippians 4:6 ), as we know the adorations of the saints before the throne are ( Revelation 7:12 ).

3. Generous . Noah took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, i.e. one of seven or one of fourteen ( vide Expos.), in either case a munificent tribute to the God of his salvation. How seldom is the like liberality exhibited by Christ's worshippers on earth! What a blessed thought it is that among the saints above there will be no temptation to such meanness as is often practiced by the saints below!

4. Sincere . It was no merely formal service that the patriarch presented. The burnt offering was a symbolic declaration of his self-consecration—body, soul, and spirit—to the God who had redeemed him. Of this sort is the service which Christ expects and believers should render on the earth ( Matthew 16:24 ; Luke 14:26 ; Romans 12:1 ; 1 Corinthians 6:20 ). Of such kind will be the worship of the saints in heaven ( Revelation 22:8 ).

IV. THE SAVIOR 'S RESPONSE TO THE SAINT ( Genesis 8:21 , Genesis 8:22 ). As the sacrifice of Noah was well-pleasing unto God, so will the worship of the saints find acceptance in his sight. And this acceptance of the sacrifices of the glorified, like the reception of Noah's offering—

1. Will consist in the cherishing by God of a feeling of sweet complacency towards the worshippers . As from the burning victims upon Noah's altar there came up into the Divine nostrils a savor of rest, so from the spiritual sacrifices of Christians even here there ascends an odor of a sweet smell unto God ( Philippians 4:18 ), while in the upper sanctuary the services of the redeemed go up continually before God like the smoke of incense ( Revelation 8:4 ).

2. Will be based upon the odor of the sacrifice of Christ , of which Noah's was the type. It was not the actual service of Noah, considered as an opus operatum, that produced the feeling of complacency in God ( Micah 6:7 ), but the sacrificial work of Christ, to which the faith of the patriarch had an outlook ( Ephesians 5:2 ). For the sake of that offering up of himself once for all in the end of the world that was to be accomplished by the woman's seed, and which Noah's faith truly, however dimly, embraced, God accepted him and his. That same offering is the ground or basis on which all the saints sacrifices are accepted either on earth ( 1 Peter 2:5 ) or in heaven ( Revelation 5:6 ).

3. Will express itself through the perpetuation of the worshipper's safety .

Lessons :—

1. Live in a state of readiness for the glorious appearing of the Son of man ( Titus 1:13 ).

2. Expectantly wait for the manifestation of the sons of God ( Romans 8:19 ).

3. Learn the nature of the saint's service in the heavenly world ( Revelation 5:8 ).

4. Note the security for the perpetuity of heaven's blessedness—Christ's sacrifice and God's covenant.