GENESIS CHAPTER 8 and 9

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GENESIS CHAPTER 8

The waters of a flood gradually disappeared and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. The earth was completely dry and Noah and his family came out of the ark as God told him. God blessed every kind of living creature that was with Noah to be able to multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it. Also He blessed the ground and the earth.

GENESIS CHAPTER 9

God blessed Noah and his sons to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. Then God now established His covenant with Noah and with his descendants and with every living creature that was with Noah. The covenant was that "never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." And God gave the rainbow as the sign of the covenant. After the flood, when Noah drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth covered their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine he cursed Ham but blessed Shem and Japheth.

II. What 8 and 9 Chapters Tell Us

1. The Noah's Ark as the only place to be saved

God choose Noah and his family from the world filled with sin. He wanted to punish the world with the flood because of its sin but he gave mercy on Noah for His grace and sincere. According to God's order, Noah made the ark which was salvation from the sin, the ungodly world and for the new life. This salvation is only God's grace. Even though Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God(Gen 6:9), he could not foresee the flood by himself and it might impossible to make that big ark for a long time despite of being ridiculed by people.

There was no steering in the ark. It means Noah could not manage and make decision where and how he should go. It must be impossible to control the ark against the flood as great as all the springs of the great deep burst forth and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.(Gen 7:11) The ark could just float around on the water. It is the God's grace. The ark was the only place to be saved from the flood and even Noah and his family did not need to do something to be saved. God wanted them to be in the ark and stay there.

            2. Patience, a main factor in the Ark

The flood was not the partial judgment but general. Before the flood, God gave Noah the details about the flood which was how big the ark was, who he needed to board with. He might feel more comfortable with that time than after that. Because since the time when he was in the ark, God did not give any information about the flood so that he just waited for the time when he could go out. He must stand in calm with the fear of unpredictable situation. Finally the water disappeared but slowly. Almighty God can make the water is gone in a flash but He did not choose that way. He wanted Noah and his family to wait. Instead of His miracle, He let Noah use his wisdom such as sending out a raven and a dove.

            Boarding to the ark takes for very short time but staying there and waiting for the time getting off could take longer. God also waited for a very long time to judge the world with the flood. He did not punish people as soon as they made the sin.

            3. Salvation for worshiping God

            The bible says that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. As shown in the chapter 5, Noah was a descendant of Enoch who walked with God. It means Noah and Enoch were with God in their life. Noah was definitely obedient and the obedient was from his faith to God and His word. At the time of decreasing the water Noah sent out a raven and a dove to check the level of water. The term of sending out another dove was 7 days. It may symbolize the Sabbath and it tells us Noah kept the Sabbath even in the ark. Even though the time was before the Moses' law, he did not forget to worship God.

            After one year, the earth completely dried and they finally came out of the ark with God's order. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. (Gen 8:20) The worship to God was the first action on the earth for Noah after the flood. He knew that why God gave His mercy on him and what he needed to do for God's glory. He worshipped God not because of the Law but because of his own will for God.

            4. The Covenant with the saved from the flood

            As God said to Noah before the flood, He established covenant with Noah: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.(Gen 9:11) Every living creature need to breath but the judge of the flood means to stop breathing. The flood was the way to stop the sin on the earth and now He gave the rainbow as a sign which could make us remember His promise and also He wanted us not to fear of the flood again. This grace of God gave us peace and rest and also we do not need to fear in our daily life. The covenant makes us know God is sincere and merciful.

            5. Remember being saved

            After the flood, Noah started to proceed to plant a vineyard and then one day he was drunken and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, one of Noah's son, saw Noah's nakedness and told his brothers but Shem and Japheth covered Noah's mistake. Many people say that the fault is from Noah not from Ham. Of course Noah made serious mistake with drinking wine but the important thing is the attitude of Noah's sons to deal with their father's fault. This happened after the flood. Ham, who revealed his father's fault, totally forgot that he had saved by God's grace. Even though Ham could be saved by God's grace, he was still rude and hasty. Being mature after salvation is important as much as to be saved.

            III. Conclusion

            God gave His mercy on the earth through the Noah's ark. This means there will be another chance to complete the salvation through Jesus Christ. The Noah's ark prefigures Jesus Christ in New Testament as our saviour. Like through the ark Noah could be saved, all the people who believe in the name of Jesus will be saved. During the flood Noah had to be endured in the faith in the ark, all the saved people have to endure the life on the earth in the faith of that Jesus is our saviour. With worshiping God, which is God's blessing for the saved people only, we need to walk with God for His glory depending on His covenant. Every moment we need to remember that we are saved by Jesus' sacrifice even though we are still sinners because of His new command, "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.",(John 13:34)

Reference : NIV bible.

                    Grace Commentary by Young-Jo Hah

                    Matthew Henry Commentary