Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 1.djvu/105

Rh 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, v. 21. He smelled a sweet savour, or a savour of rest, from it; as it is in the Hebrew. 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 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. 5. 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. 6. 6, It repented the Lord that he had made man; now here it 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. 32. 36. Two ways this resolve is expressed: [1.] I will not again curse the ground, Hebrew, I will not add to curse the ground any more. God had cursed the ground upon the first entrance of sin (ch. 3. 17.); when he had drowned it, he had 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 this world, ch. 6.5. Because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. 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," Isa. 48. 8. Thus God remembers that he is flesh, corrupt and sinful, Ps. 78. 39. 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. That God's goodness takes occasion from man's badness 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 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 its 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 continues 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, Jer. 33. 20. We see God's promises to the creatures made good, and thence may infer that his promises to all believers shall be so.

CHAP. IX. Both the world and the church were now again reduced to a family, the family of Noah, of the affairs of which this chapter gives us an account, which we are the more concerned to take cognizance of, because from this family we are all descendants. Here is, I. The covenant of providence settled with Noah and his sons, v. 1..11. In this covenant, 1. God promises them to take care of their lives, so that (1.) They should replenish the earth, v. 1, 7. (2.) They should be safe from the insults of the brute creatures, which should stand in awe of them, v. 2. (3.) They should be allowed to eat flesh for the support of their lives; only they must not eat blood, v. 3, 4. (4.) The world should never be drowned again, v. 8..11. 2. God requires of them to take care of one another's lives, and of their own, v. 5, 6. II. The seal of that covenant, namely, the rainbow, v. 12..17. III. A particular passage of a story concerning Noah and his sons, which occasioned some prophecies that related to after-times. 1. Noah's sin and shame, v. 20, 21. 2. Ham's impudence and impiety, v. 22. 3. The pious modesty of Shem and Japheth, v. 23. 4. The curse of Canaan, and the blessing of Shem and Japheth, v. 24..27. IV. The age and death of Noah, v. 28, 29.

ND God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. 2. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3. Every moving thing that liveth, shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things: 4. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. 5. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the