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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
G E N E S I S
CHAP. VIII.
In the close of the foregoing chapter we left the world in ruins and
the church in straits; but in this chapter we have the repair of
the one and the enlargement of the other. Now the scene alters,
and another face of things begins to be presented to us, and the
brighter side of that cloud which there appeared so black and
dark; for, though God contend long, he will not contend for
ever, nor be always wrath. We have here, I. The earth made
anew, by the recess of the waters, and the appearing of the dry
land, now a second time, and both gradual.
1. The increase of
the waters is stayed,
2. They begin sensibly to abate,
3. After sixteen days’ ebbing, the ark rests,
4. After sixty days’ ebbing, the tops of the mountains appeared
above water,
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,
6. Two months after the appearing of the tops of the mountains, the
waters had gone, and the face of the earth was dry
(ver. 13),
though not dried so as to be fit for man till almost two months
after,
II. Man placed anew upon the earth, in which,
1. Noah’s discharge and departure out of the ark,
2. His sacrifice of praise, which he offered to God upon his enlargement,
3. God’s acceptance of his sacrifice, and the promise
he made thereupon not to drown the world again,
And thus, at length, mercy rejoices against judgment.
| The Earth Becomes Dry. | B. C. 2349. |
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1 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 assuaged;
2 The fountains also of the deep and
the windows of heaven were stopped,
and the rain from heaven was restrained;
3 And the waters returned
from off the earth continually: and
after the end of the hundred and fifty
days the waters were abated.
Here is,
I. An act of God’s grace: God
remembered Noah and every living thing.
This is an expression after the manner of
men; for not any of his creatures
(Luke xii. 6),
much less any of his people, are forgotten
of God,
But,
1. 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; so that God’s remembering
Noah was the return of his mercy to mankind,
of whom he would not make a full
end. It is a strange expression,
When I have accomplished my fury in them,
I will be comforted. The demands of divine
justice had been answered by the ruin of
those sinners; he had eased him of his
adversaries
(Isa. i. 24),
and now his spirit
was quieted
(Zech. vi. 8),
and he remembered
Noah and every living thing. He remembered
mercy in wrath
(Hab. iii. 2),
remembered the days of old
remembered the holy seed, and then remembered
Noah.
2. Noah himself, though one
that had found grace in the eyes of the Lord,
yet 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 should be confined and when he should
be released. Very good men have sometimes
been ready to conclude themselves forgotten
of God, especially when their afflictions have
been unusually grievous and long. Perhaps
Noah, though a great believer, yet when he
found the flood continuing so long after it
might reasonably be presumed to have done
its work, was tempted to fear lest he that
shut him in would keep him in, and began
to expostulate. How long wilt thou forget
me? But at length God returned in mercy
to him, and this is expressed by remembering
him. Note, Those that remember God
shall certainly be remembered by him, how
desolate and disconsolate soever their condition
may be. He will appoint them a set time
and remember them,
3. With
Noah, God remembered every living thing;
for, though his delight is especially in the
sons of men, yet he 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 considered
the cattle of Nineveh,
II. An act of God’s power over wind and
water, both of which are at his beck, though
neither of them is under man’s control.
Observe,
1. He commanded the wind, and said to
that, Go, and it went, in order to the carrying
off of the flood: God made a wind to
pass over the earth. See here,
(1.) What
was God’s remembrance of Noah: it was
his relieving him. Note, Those whom God
remembers he remembers effectually, for
good; he remembers us to save us, that we
may remember him to serve him.
(2.) What
a sovereign dominion God has over the
winds. He has them in his fist
and brings them out of his treasuries,
He sends them when, and
whither, and for what purposes, he pleases.
Even stormy winds fulfil his word,
It should seem, while the waters
increased, there was no wind; for 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, such a wind as God
sent to divide the Red Sea before Israel,
2. He remanded the waters, and said to
them, Come, and they came.
(1.) He took
away the cause. He sealed up the springs of
those waters, the fountains of the great deep,
and the windows of heaven. Note,
[1.] As
God has a key to open, so he has a key to
shut up again, and to stay the progress of
judgments by stopping the causes of them:
and the same hand that brings the desolation
must bring the deliverance; to that
hand therefore our eye must ever be. He
that wounds is alone able to heal. See
[2.] When afflictions have done
the work for which they are sent, whether
killing work or curing work, they shall be
removed. God’s word shall not return void,
(2.) Then the effect ceased;
not all at once, but by degrees: The waters
abated
(v. 1),
returned from off the earth continually,
Heb. they were going and returning
(v. 3),
which denotes a gradual departure.
The heat of the sun exhaled much, and perhaps
the subterraneous caverns soaked in
more. Note, As the earth was not drowned
in a day, so it was not dried in a day. In
the creation, it was but one day’s work to
clear the earth from the waters that covered
it, and to make it dry land; nay, it was but
half a day’s work,
But, the
work of creation being finished, this work of
providence was effected by the concurring
influence of second causes, yet thus enforced
by the almighty power of God. God usually
works deliverance for his people gradually,
that the day of small things may not be
despised, nor the day of great things
despaired of,
See
4 And the ark rested in the seventh
month, on the seventeenth day of the
month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
5 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.
Here we have the effects and evidences of
the ebbing of the waters.
1. The ark rested.
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,
whither it was directed, not by Noah’s
prudence (he did not steer it), but by the
wise and gracious providence of God, that it
might rest the sooner. Note, God has times
and places of rest for his people after their
tossings; and many a time he provides for
their seasonable and comfortable settlement
without their own contrivance and quite
beyond their own foresight. The ark of
the church, though sometimes tossed with
tempests, and not comforted
(Isa. liv. 11),
yet has its rests,
2. The tops of
the mountains were seen, like little islands,
appearing above the water. We must suppose
that they were seen by Noah and his
sons; for there were none besides to see
them. It is probable that they 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
and at length they spy ground,
and enter the day of the discovery in their
journal. They felt ground above forty days
before they saw it, according to Dr. Lightfoot’s
computation, whence he infers that, if
the waters decreased proportionably, the ark
drew eleven cubits in water.
6 And it came to pass at the end
of forty days, that Noah opened the
window of the ark which he had
made:
7 And he sent forth a raven,
which went forth to and fro, until the
waters were dried up from off the
earth.
8 Also he sent forth a dove
from him, to see if the waters were
abated from off the face of the ground;
9 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.
10 And he stayed yet other
seven days; and again he sent forth
the dove out of the ark;
11 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.
12 And he stayed yet
other seven days; and sent forth the
dove; which returned not again unto
him any more.
We have here an account of the spies
which Noah sent forth to bring him intelligence
from abroad, a raven and a dove.
Observe here,
I. That though God had told Noah particularly
when the flood would come, even
to a day
(ch. vii. 4),
yet he did not give him
a particular account by revelation at what
times, and by what steps, it should go away,
1. Because the knowledge of the former was
necessary to his preparing the ark, and settling
himself in it; but the knowledge of the
latter would serve only to gratify his curiosity,
and the concealing of it from him
would be the needful exercise of his faith and
patience. And,
2. He could not foresee the
flood, but by revelation; but he might, by
ordinary means, discover the decrease of it,
and therefore God was pleased to leave him
to the use of them.
II. That though Noah by faith expected
his enlargement, and by patience waited for
it, yet he was inquisitive concerning it, as
one that thought it long to be thus confined.
Note, 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. He that believes does not make
haste to run before God, but he does make
haste to go forth to meet him,
Particularly,
1. 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 carcases that floated, but returning
to the ark for rest; probably not in
it, but upon it. This gave Noah little satisfaction;
therefore,
2. 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. Note
here,
(1.) That 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 should seem,
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, and enquired concerning
them. Having directed his prayer,
he looked up,
(2.) The dove is an
emblem of a gracious soul, which finding no
rest for its foot, no solid peace or satisfaction
in this world, this deluged 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
carrions it finds there; but return thou to thy
rest, O my soul, to thy Noah, so the word is,
O that I had wings like a dove,
to flee to him!
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.
(3.) 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
soul earnests of rest and joy.
(4.) Some
make these things an allegory. The law was
first sent forth like the raven, but brought
no tidings of the assuaging of the waters of
God’s wrath, with which the world of mankind
was deluged; therefore, in the fulness
of time, God sent forth his gospel, 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.
13 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.
14 And in the second month, on the
seven and twentieth day of the month,
was the earth dried.
Here is, 1. The ground dry
(v. 13),
that is,
all the water carried off it, which, upon the
first day of the first month (a joyful new-year’s-day
it was), Noah was himself an eye-witness
of. He removed the covering of the
ark, not the whole covering, but so much as
would suffice to give him a prospect of the
earth about it; and a most comfortable
prospect he had. For behold, behold and
wonder, the face of the ground was dry.
Note,
(1.) It is a great mercy to see ground
about us. Noah was more sensible of it than
we are; for mercies restored are much more
affecting than mercies continued.
(2.) The
divine power which now renewed the face of
the earth can renew the face of an afflicted
troubled soul and of a distressed persecuted
church. He can make dry ground to appear
even where it seemed to have been lost and
forgotten,
2. The ground
dried
(v. 14),
so as to be a fit habitation for
Noah. Observe, Though Noah saw the ground
dry the first day of the first month, yet God
would not suffer him to go out of the ark
till the twenty-seventh day of the second
month. Perhaps Noah, being somewhat
weary of his restraint, would have quitted
the ark at first; but God, in kindness to
him, ordered him to stay so much longer.
Note, God consults our benefit rather than
our desires; for he knows what is good for
us better than we do for ourselves, and how
long it is fit our restraints should continue
and desired mercies should be delayed. We
would go out of the ark before the ground is
dried: and perhaps, if the door be shut, are
ready to remove the covering, and to climb
up some other way; 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.
15 And God spake unto Noah,
saying,
16 Go forth of the ark, thou,
and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy
sons’ wives with thee.
17 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.
18 And Noah went forth, and his sons,
and his wife, and his sons’ wives with
him:
19 Every beast, every creeping
thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever
creepeth upon the earth, after
their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
Here is,
I. Noah’s dismission out of the
ark,
Observe,
1. Noah did not
stir till God bade him. As he had a command
to go into the ark
(ch. vii. 1),
so, how
tedious soever his confinement there was,
he would wait for a command to go out of
it again. Note, We must in all our ways
acknowledge God, and set him before us in
all our removes. Those only go under God’s
protection that follow God’s direction and
submit to his government. Those that
steadily adhere to God’s word as their rule,
and are guided by his grace as their principle,
and take hints from his providence to assist
them in their application of general directions
to particular cases, may in faith see him
guiding their motions in their march through
this wilderness.
2. Though God detained
him long, 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
(Hab. ii. 3),
it shall not lie.
3. God had said, Come into the ark which
he says, not, Come forth, but, Go forth,
which intimates that God, who went in with
him, staid with him all the while, till he sent
him out safely; for he has said, I will not
leave thee.
4. Some observe that, when they
were ordered into the ark, the men and the
women were mentioned separately
(ch. vi. 18):
Thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’
wives; hence they infer 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.
5. Noah was ordered
to bring the creatures out with him, that
having taken the care of feeding them so
long, and been at so much pains about them,
he might have the honour of leading them
forth by their armies, and receiving their
homage.
II. Noah’s departure when he had his
dismission. As he would not go out without
leave, so he would not, out of fear or humour,
stay in when he had leave, but was in all
points observant of the heavenly vision.
Though he had been now a full year and
ten days a prisoner in the ark, 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.
Now observe,
1. Noah and his family came
out alive, though one of them was a wicked
Ham, whom, though he escaped the flood,
God’s justice could have taken away by some
other stroke. But they are all alive. Note,
When families have been long continued
together, and no breaches made among them,
it must be looked upon as a distinguishing
favour, and attributed to the Lord’s mercies.
2. 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 his
charge; for of all that were given to him he
had lost none, but was faithful to him that
appointed him, pro hac vice–on this occasion,
high steward of his household.
| Noah’s Sacrifice. | B. C. 2348. |
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20 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.
21 And the LORD smelled a sweet
savour; 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 every thing living, as I have
done.
22 While the earth remaineth,
seedtime and harvest, and cold and
heat, and summer and winter, and
day and night shall not cease.
Here is, I. Noah’s thankful acknowledgment
of God’s favour to him, in completing
the mercy of his deliverance,
1. He
built an altar. Hitherto he had done nothing
without particular instructions and commands
from God. He had a particular call
into the ark, and another out of it; but,
altars and sacrifices being already of divine
institution for religious worship, he did not
stay for a particular command thus to express
his thankfulness. Those that have received
mercy from God should be forward in returning
thanks, and do it not of constraint,
but willingly. God is pleased with free-will
offerings, and praises that wait for him.
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.
2. He offered
a sacrifice upon his altar, of every clean beast,
and of every clean fowl–one, the odd seventh
that we read of,
Here observe,
(1.) He offered only those that were clean;
for it is not enough that we sacrifice, but we
must sacrifice that which God appoints, according
to the law of sacrifice, and not a
corrupt thing.
(2.) Though his stock of
cattle was so small, and that 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, “Have I but
seven sheep to begin the world with, and
must one of these seven be killed and burnt
for sacrifice? Were it not better to defer it
till we have greater plenty?” No, to prove
the sincerity of his love and gratitude, he
cheerfully gives the seventh to his God, as
an acknowledgment that all was his, and
owing to him. Serving God with our little
is the way to make it more; and we must
never think that wasted with which God is
honoured.
(3.) See here the antiquity of
religion: the first thing we find done in the
new world was an act of worship,
We are now to express our thankfulness,
not by burnt-offerings, but by the sacrifices
of praise and the sacrifices of righteousness,
by pious devotions and a pious conversation.
II. God’s gracious acceptance of Noah’s
thankfulness. It was a settled rule in the
patriarchal age: If thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted? Noah was so. For,
1. God was well pleased with the
performance,
He smelt a sweet savour, or, as
it is in the Hebrew, a savour of rest, from it.
As, when he had made the world at first on
the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed,
so, now that he had new-made it, in the
sacrifice of the seventh he rested. He was
well pleased with Noah’s pious 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.
2. Hereupon, he took up a resolution never
to drown the world again. Herein he had
an eye, not so much to Noah’s sacrifice as to
Christ’s sacrifice of himself, which was typified
and represented by it, and which was
indeed an offering of a sweet-smelling savour,
Eph. v. 2.
Good security is here given, and
that which may be relied upon,
(1.) That this judgment should never be
repeated. Noah might think, “To what purpose
should the world be repaired, when, in all
probability, for the wickedness of it, it will
quickly be in like manner ruined again?”
“No,” says God, “it never shall.” It was said
(ch. vi. 6),
It repented the Lord that he had made
man; now here he speaks as if it repented
him that he had destroyed man: neither
means a change of his mind, but both a
change of his way. It repented him concerning
his servants,
Deut. xxxii. 36.
Two ways this resolve is expressed:–
[1.] I will not
again curse the ground, Heb. I will not add
to curse the ground any more. God had
cursed the ground upon the first entrance of
sin
(ch. iii. 17),
when he drowned it he
added to that curse; but now he determines
not to add to it any more.
[2.] Neither will
I again smite any more every living thing;
that is, it was determined that whatever ruin
God might bring upon particular persons, or
families, or countries, he would never again
destroy the whole world till the day shall
come when time shall be no more. But the
reason of this resolve is very surprising, for
it seems the same in effect with the reason
given for the destruction of the world:
Because the imagination of man’s heart is evil
from his youth,
ch. vi. 5.
But there is this
difference–there it is said, The imagination
of man’s heart is evil continually, that is,
“his actual transgressions continually cry
against him;” here it is said, It is evil from
his youth or childhood. It is bred in the
bone; he brought it into the world with him;
he was shapen and conceived in it. Now,
one would think it should follow, “Therefore
that guilty race shall be wholly extinguished,
and I will make a full end.” No, “Therefore
I will no more take this severe method;
for,” First, “He is rather to be pitied, for
it is all the effect of sin dwelling in him; and
it is but what might be expected from such
a degenerate race: he is called a transgressor
from the womb, and therefore it is not strange
that he deals so very treacherously,”
Thus God remembers that he is
flesh, corrupt and sinful,
Secondly, “He will be utterly ruined; for,
if he be dealt with according to his deserts,
one flood must succeed another till all be
destroyed.” See here,
1. 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. Man’s
nature was as sinful after the deluge as it
had been before.
2. That God’s goodness
takes occasion from man’s sinfulness to magnify
itself the more; his reasons of mercy
are all drawn from himself, not from any
thing in us.
(2.) That the course of nature should never
be discontinued
(v. 22):
“While the earth remaineth,
and man upon it, there shall be
summer and winter (not all winter as had been
this last year), day and night,” not all night,
as probably it was while the rain was descending.
Here,
[1.] It is plainly intimated that
this earth is not to remain always; it, and all
the works in it, must shortly be burnt up;
and we look for new heavens and a new earth,
when all these things must be dissolved.
But,
[2.] As long as it does remain God’s
providence will carefully preserve the regular
succession of times and seasons, and cause
each to know its place. To this we owe it
that the world stands, and the wheel of nature
keeps it track. See here how changeable
the times are and yet how unchangeable.
First, The course of nature always changing.
As it is with the times, so it is with the events
of time, they are subject to vicissitudes–day
and night, summer and winter, counterchanged.
In heaven and hell it is not so, but on earth
God hath set the one over against the other.
Secondly, Yet never changed. It is constant
in this inconstancy. These seasons have
never ceased, nor shall cease, while the sun
continued such a steady measurer of time and
the moon such 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 grace, which is no less inviolable,
We see God’s promises to the creatures
made good, and thence may infer that
his promises to all believers shall be so.
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