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CHAPTER 7: After the Flood - Noah's Sacrifice - Noah's Sin - Noah's
Descendants. (GENESIS 8:15-9:28.)
RIGHTLY considered, the destruction of "all flesh" by the deluge was necessary for
its real preservation. Death was needful for its new life. The old world was buried in
the flood, that a new order of things might rise from its grave. For, manifestly, after
the mixing up of the Sethite with the Cainite race, an entirely new commencement
required to be made if the purpose of God in grace was to be carried to its goal.
Hence, also, God once more pronounced upon Noah the blessing of fruitfulness
which he had spoken to Adam, and gave him dominion over creation, yet, as we shall
see, with such modifications as the judgment that had just passed, and the new state
of things which had commenced, implied.
It deserves our notice that, even after the earth was quite dry, Noah awaited the
express command of God before leaving the ark. His first act after that was to build
"an altar unto Jehovah," and there to offer "burnt-offerings" "of every clean beast,
and of every fowl." Nor was it merely in gratitude and homage to God, but also in
spiritual worship that he thus commenced his life anew, and consecrated earth unto
Jehovah. In bringing an animal sacrifice Noah followed the example of Abel; in
calling upon the name of Jehovah he once again and solemnly adopted the profession
of the Sethites. But there was this difference between his and any preceding sacrifice,
that now for the first time we read of building an altar. While Paradise was still on
earth, men probably turned towards it as the place whence Jehovah held intercourse
with man. But when its site was swept away in the flood, God, as it were, took up His
throne in heaven, and from thence revealed Himself unto men and held intercourse
with them. (See also Genesis 11:5, 7) And the truth, that our hearts and prayers must
rise upwards to Him who is in heaven, was symbolized by the altar on which the
sacrifice was laid. Scripture significantly adds, that "Jehovah smelled a sweet savor,"
or rather "a savor of rest," "of satisfaction;" in other words, He accepted the sacrifice.
"And Jehovah said in His heart," that is, He resolved, "I will not again curse the
ground for man's sake, for (or because) the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth." Both Luther and Calvin have remarked on the circumstance that men's
universal sinfulness, which formerly had been the cause of the judgment of the flood,
should now be put forward as the reason for not again cursing the ground. But in fact
this only marks another difference between the state of man before and after the
flood. If we may so say, God now admitted the fact of universal sinfulness as
existing, and made it an element of His future government. He looked upon man as a
miserable and wretched sinner, with whom in His compassion and long-suffering He
would bear, delaying His second and final judgment till after He should have
accomplished all that He had promised to do for the salvation of men. Putting aside
Israel, as God's special people, the period between Noah and Christ may be
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