Genesis 8:13 ¶ 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.
Genesis 8: 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.
Genesis 8:20 ¶ 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.
Verse 13 contains
a cross-reference to chapter 7, verse 11, where these events are linked to
Noah’s age. As mentioned previously the earth is still drying out in one way or
another.
God gives a
command to Noah to leave the ark so there is no possibility of this small group
of people trying to stay with the boat. They could use the material the ark was
built from to make shelter, carrying what they could with them, and returning
to get what they could not carry but they did have quite a few animals that
could be used to carry burdens of material and whatever supplies were left.
Noah honors God
with sacrifices of burnt offerings. Sacrificed animals represent God’s own
sacrifice when He comes in the flesh as the Lord Jesus Christ. Animals, unlike
human beings, do God’s will as part of their nature and act as agents of God’s
plans throughout the Bible.
God responds to
Noah’s sacrifices and makes a covenant with Himself, not dependent upon man’s
participation or agreement, that considering that mankind is inherently evil He
will, in any event, agree not to do two things First, he will no more curse the
ground. The Bible says I will not again
curse the ground any more for man’s sake and God says neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
So, there are two things He says He will not do. He will no longer curse
the ground and He will no longer destroy all life, or almost all life, as He
had just done.
This brings to
mind the curse of Genesis 3:17. Does this mean that the curse God laid on Adam
for the difficult work that he would have in making the earth give up its
bounty was now removed? It is more likely now that the curse on the ground is
no blanket curse on the whole earth as farming is difficult to varying degrees
with some places giving up their bounty rather easily and others being hard to
make productive. Only about 10% of the world’s land area is suitable for
agriculture.
God also promised
not to destroy all life on earth. In stating this He made it necessary that the
judgment at the end of the world must be curtailed so that He could keep this
covenant with Himself.
Matthew
24:22 And except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days
shall be shortened.
God
agreed to this in spite of the fact that the
imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.
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