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King James Version (en)

Genesis, Chapter 8, verse 22

²¹ which God accepteth, and promiseth to curse the earth no more

²²While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Read more:Genesis, Chapter 9

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8 We have here,

The earth made anew, by the recess of waters, and the appearing of the dry land a second time.
1. The increase of the waters is stayed, Gen 8:1-2.
2. They begin sensibly to abate, Gen 8:3.
3. After fifteen days ebbing the ark rests, Gen 8:4.
4. After sixty days ebbing the tops of the mountains appear, Gen 8:5.
5. After forty days ebbing, and twenty days before the mountains appeared, Noah begins to send out his spies, a raven and a dove to gain intelligence, Gen 8:6-12.
6. Two months after the appearing of the tops of the mountains the waters were gone, and the face of the earth was dry, Gen 8:13.
  tho' not dried so as to be fit for man 'till almost two months after, Gen 8:14.
Man placed anew upon the earth. In which,
1. Noah's discharge and departure out of the ark, Gen 8:15-19.
2. His sacrifice of praise which he offered to God upon his enlargement, Gen 8:20.
God's acceptance of his sacrifice; and the promise he made thereupon not to drown the world again, Gen 8:21-22.
And thus at length mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

NOTES

The covenant-union with Noah is the main event of the parable, its center of meaning. Here we no longer have simply a relationship with a particular person, but precisely a union with him and with all his descendants, and that is serious, forever - for God, unlike a human being...

The covenant-union with Noah is the main event of the parable, its center of meaning. Here we no longer have simply a relationship with a particular person, but precisely a union with him and with all his descendants, and that is serious, forever - for God, unlike a human being, keeps steady and unconditional faithfulness to the obligations He has taken upon Himself and to the word once given. Not because He lacks power over His creation, but because all His promises and unions are connected with His plan. His plan does not change merely because some human being betrays Him or turns away from Him. Such is the covenant with Noah, and through him with all humanity.

Still, not with all in every sense. On the one hand, the covenant with Noah really does concern everyone; on the other, it is revealed in its fullness only in the righteous, who, like Noah, "walk before God," walking as it has been revealed to them. In this connection a question arises: why did God need anything else? Why the people of God, why the Messiah? Why is the covenant with Noah alone not enough? In the language of a modern person this question sounds somewhat different, although its meaning does not change: why is it not enough simply to be a "good person"? In that case, of course, everyone understands "good person" in his own way, but the general idea remains the same: there are many good people in the world, however one understands the expression. They are already good without any additional effort; they do not need to be Christians or even simply believers in God; they are righteous in life. So why do they, or the world in general, need anything else? The answer to this question is given in the parable of Noah.

Yes, God makes a covenant with him, but in making it He says: every intention of the human heart is evil from his youth. In the Hebrew text of the parable it is precisely intentions, not thoughts. Even a righteous person cannot change himself without special efforts specially applied by God. He can follow God in spite of his own nature corrupted by sin, overcoming the intentions of his own heart, but he cannot change his heart and his nature by himself, even if he makes every effort to do so.

Here there is an impasse: after the fall, the human person is doomed to balance all the time on the edge of a very serious spiritual collapse, and with him the whole world is likewise doomed to balance on the edge of collapse. That is why the covenant with Noah is not enough. It is only the beginning of the way, and in no sense the end or the completion, which is impossible without God. God Himself will eventually place the final point on the way of humanity's return to God, but He will not place it soon, since the whole way still lies ahead. Noah takes the first step on that way, a very important and absolutely necessary step, but only the first.

What is the meaning of the covenant God makes with Noah, and what is its significance? It would seem that God promises Noah nothing special. It is only a matter of the stability of the existing order of nature...

What is the meaning of the covenant God makes with Noah, and what is its significance? It would seem that God promises Noah nothing special. It is only a matter of the stability of the existing order of nature, of the fact that a catastrophe like the flood witnessed by Noah will not happen again. But it turns out that this "only" is a real miracle of God: the very possibility of living while avoiding planetary-scale cataclysms that threaten humanity with destruction is not something self-evident at all, but the result of God's direct intervention in the life of the world, an intervention that follows from the covenant made with the righteous man and from the fulfillment of the promises given to him. And at the same time, the full limitation of this covenant is also evident here.

In every age people have asked the same question: why did God need some special people of His own? Why did the Messiah need to come? Are there not enough righteous people in the world as it is? Is their righteousness really insufficient? In our day, however, people usually speak not of the righteous, but of "good people," but this does not change the substance of the matter.

And so it turns out that all the righteousness of all the righteous of all times and nations, and Noah can in a certain sense be regarded as a collective image symbolizing such righteous people, is enough only for the world not to perish, not to collapse into the abyss under the weight of the sin that has burdened it since the fall. There can be no question of any fundamental change, of any deliverance of the world from the power of the evil in which it lies, of any transformation of it. The world is balancing on the edge of its own destruction, and all the righteousness of all the righteous barely suffices to keep it from falling into the abyss. And for something greater to become possible, as we can see, special efforts are needed. And God undertakes such efforts, creating His people and then sending into the world the Messiah, who will bring the Kingdom to the world, giving it what all the righteous of all times and nations could never have earned for it.

The most remarkable part of the parable of Noah is its conclusion (Gen 8:20-22). It speaks of the union...

The most remarkable part of the parable of Noah is its conclusion (Gen 8:20-22). It speaks of the union, the "covenant," that God makes with Noah, and in his person with all righteous people who have ever lived and are now living on earth. And at this solemn moment the full limitation of human nature and human possibilities becomes clear. The image of God here is deliberately made somewhat archaic. The God of the Bible in this passage resembles the gods of Homer: like them, He "inhales," drawing into His nostrils the smoke rising to heaven from the sacrifice, which ancient pagans thought the gods fed on just as we feed on food. But the definition God gives the human race at this point is extremely severe: "every intention of the human heart is evil from his youth" (Gen 8:21; in the Hebrew text it is precisely "intentions," not "thoughts," as in the Synodal translation). That is why destroying the human race is pointless: even if only one righteous person remains on the whole earth, as happened after the flood, evil will still enter the world, if not through him, then through his descendants. And yet, making a covenant with Noah, God promises him that the catastrophe will not be repeated (Gen 8:22). Here the limits of human righteousness become clear, and here also lies the answer to questions often asked of Christians: why was it so necessary for the Savior to come at all? Why was some separate, special people of God needed? Are there not enough righteous people in the world, some of whom did not know and do not know about God, yet nevertheless live according to His laws, keeping the commandments He gave? Today, however, people more often speak not of righteous people but of "good people," though this does not change the essence of the matter. The answer to these questions is simple and sorrowful: all the righteousness of all the righteous people in the world, people like Noah, all their faithfulness to God, is enough only to keep catastrophe from striking the world again, to keep it from collapsing into the abyss. This is the most they can do. They are not able to change the situation in the world radically or break the course of events, just as they are not able to change their own nature, damaged by the fall. For this, special efforts are needed; a special plan of God is needed, the plan for the salvation of the human person and the world, of which both the special people of God and the Messiah-Christ become a part.

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