This verse by verse Bible study on Genesis is an inductive verse by verse study with extensive reflections, verse by verse commentary, cross-references, and applications. They are the personal study of notes of a very good doctor friend of mine. His native tongue is Mandarin, but his English is amazing as you will see below. It is refreshing to take a look at this important book of Genesis through the eyes of a believer from another culture. Without further adieu: The Scribblings According to David.

Genesis 8-9 Inductive Bible Study

Outline:

The Flood Subsided – Noah’s Restoration (VIII 1 – 19)
Epilogue – The Everlasting Covenant of God (VIII 20 – IX 17)

VIII 1 – 19. The Flood Subsided – Noah’s Restoration

Verse-by-verse Exegesis

v.1 “But God remembered Noah…”

Reflection: On a wooden box with no sail or rudder that knew only to float and drift along in the midst of boundless waters where not even one living creature with breath on its mouth could be found, God remembered Noah. The presence of a fiery trial does not mean the absence of God, one pastor said. God remembers. It does not mean, however, that God somehow forgets about what He ought to do. ESV Study Bible comments on this verse and says, “When the Bible says that God ‘remembers’ someone or His covenant with someone, it indicates that He is about to take action for that person’s welfare.” God is about to act when He remembers His chosen ones and His faithful promises. When God rained down burning sulfur from heaven to Sodom and Gomorrah, He remembered Abraham and Lot and saved them (Gen. 19:29). When the Israelites suffered under the yoke of slavery in Egypt, God remembered the covenant He made with their forefathers and delivered them (Ex. 2:24). For God’s children, a time may come when they look around and see no hope in their circumstances, yet they must not forget that His eyes are on the sparrows (Lk. 12:6-7), and it is His Promise, which says “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5), that we must cling to. God remembered Noah. And as far as the Flood story is concerned, it undoubtedly marks the turning point of the narrative.

v.1-3 “… And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated. …”

Reflections:

(1) The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens being opened, causing the global calamity, was a dramatic display of God’s wrath. Their closing, however, was somehow less dramatic to show forth God’s mercy. And for that reason, most people would pay far less attention to the latter. But we must not forget that the same God who brings damnation also brings restoration, however slow and subtle the process may seem. Matthew Henry commented, “God sent His wind to dry the earth, and seal up His waters. The same Hand that brings the desolation, must bring the deliverance; to that Hand, therefore, we must ever look. When afflictions have done the work for which they are sent, whether killing work or curing work, they will be taken away.” And as the prophet Hosea says in Hos. 6:1-3,

“Come, let us return to the Lord;

for He has torn us, that He may heal us;

He has struck us down, and He will bind us up.

After two days He will revive us;

on the third day He will raise us up,

that we may live before Him.

Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;

His going out is sure as the dawn;

He will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth.”

(2) Another footnote: the Hebrew word for “wind”, ruakh, can also be translated “Spirit”. Although for obvious reasons it refers here to the natural wind, its usage in v.1 definitely strikes a gentle note to echo the same verb in Gen. 1:2 and Gen. 6:3. And most interestingly, the Greek word for “wind”, pneuma, uniquely defines the Spirit in Jn. 3:8, where Jesus explained to Nicodemus the ministry of the Holy Spirit, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

v.4 “… the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.”

Reflection: Mt. Ararat, with an altitude of over 17,000 feet, is in the region of Caucasus in modern Turkey (see picture below). This is one more reminder to the reader that the Bible records actual people, actual places and actual events of actual history, not just some interesting stories with moral teachings scattered here and there. The Bible is a historical book. If it is true in the moral sense, it is also true in the historical sense.

v.6-12 “At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent forth a raven. … Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. …”

Reflection: Though as eye-opening as it is to me for the most part, the Matthew Henry’s Commentary on this verse took on a deviated path in hermeneutics and used instead a allegorical approach: “The dove is an emblem of a gracious soul, that, finding no solid peace of satisfaction in this deluged, defiling world, returns to Christ as to its ark, as to its Noah, its rest. The defiling world, returns to Christ as to its ark, as to its Noah, its rest. The carnal heart, like the raven, takes up with the world, and feeds on the carrion it finds there; but return thou to my rest, O my soul; to thy Noah, so the word is, Psalms 116:7. And as Noah put forth his hand, and took the dove, and pulled her to him, into the ark, so Christ will save, and help, and welcome those that flee to him for rest.” The puritan commentator saw “types” in the raven and dove that Noah sent forth. Although to some extent it might seem to make sense, there is no sufficient reason to believe such fanciful idea is buried underneath the plain and simple sense of the Scripture. Unless another writer under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit would supplement another divine passage to substantiate that, a raven is still a raven; a dove, still a dove. And perhaps, a raven is a “detestable” bird according to Lev. 11:15. But attaching extra spiritual symbols to the birds would be subtly adding one’s own thinking into the pure meaning of these verses. Such, I believe, is not a good example of rightly handling the Word of Truth.

v.13-16. “And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. … Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.’”

Reflection: A simple math would show us that Noah and his family had spent 378 days on the Ark. Noah had spent a little more than a year in a floating wooden box. Scripture does not mention any seasickness he or his family had, but it is very possible that the one-year maritime trip was not enjoyable. After all, no one had any nautical experience whatsoever before the Flood. The worldwide typhoon lasted only 40 days, and the raging rains 150 days, and for the rest of the time, the Ark was just resting on the peak of Mt. Ararat (Gen. 8:4). One can easily imagine the urgent yearning of this family to get off – seeing the Ark got stuck and the earth began to dry out, and especially the dove went out and never came back – indicating the dry land was possibly habitable by then. Noah could have tried breaking the door, climbing up the roof, or many other ways to get out. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited for another 3 months. He waited till God told him to do so. Such was an amazing example of waiting on the Lord (Ps. 62:1-7, 25:1-5, 27:11-14). Matthew Henry had well commented, “God consults our benefit, rather than our desires; He knows what is good for us better than we do for ourselves, and how long it is fit our restraints should continue, and desired mercies should be delayed. … As Noah had a command to go into the ark, so, how tedious soever his confinement there was, he would wait for a command to go out of it again. We must in all our ways acknowledge God, and set Him before us in all our removals. Those only go under God’s protection, who follow God’s direction, and submit to Him.”

v.17 “Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh … that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

Reflection: The world was literally a desolate place at this point, having just gone through divine judgment. Yet the God of the Bible is nothing like the god of a deist, who withdraws from the affairs of his created order and simply do nothing. God is actively involved – and He is now going to replenish and restore the “terraformed” earth. To that end, by His Sovereign Will, He chose to use natural, instead of supernatural, means. “Be fruitful and multiply”. The blessing that God gave to Adam and Eve in Gen. 1:22 was reiterated to Noah. It is a command as well as a promise: the wonderful ecosystem would be gradually restored. Nonetheless, it would be a much more hostile environment for man to live, as indicated by the sudden and significant drop of man’s lifespan afterwards. The MacArthur Study Bible comments, “Noah faced a new world where longevity of life began to decline immediately; the earth was subject to storms and severe weather, blazing heat, freezing cold, seismic action, and natural disasters.” One may ask, why? The answer is, such is the consequence of sin. Although the damage that sins had brought would be gradually and eventually alleviated, things might never be the same. The addict who breaks free from the bondage of drugs by the power of the gospel might still have to face the medical sequelae his sin has done to his body. The adulterer who is forgiven by the offended spouse by the power of the gospel might still have to face the severe damage his sin has done to his marriage. The rebuilt temple in Jerusalem under the permission of a gentile king was never again as magnificent as the temple King Solomon built during Israel’s heyday. Sin does have consequences. And it will not go unnoticed. When Moses gave warning to the Israelites, he said “… behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23). And such an understanding should serve, at least in part, as a healthy deterrence to committing sins in our pursuit of a life of righteousness.

v.18-19 “So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.”

Reflection: The faithful Ark-builder finally walked out of the vessel with the same obedience, with his family and all the creatures delivered from the judgment. From this very act, the renewal of a desolate world was set in motion. From this very man, the repopulation of a devastated earth was triggered off. ESV Study Bible comments, “While the land is cleansed of the defilement caused by human wrongdoing and a new start is made possible with God, the people’s nature has not been transformed, as the final short episode in Gen. 9:20-28 reveals. The inclination of the human heart is still toward evil.” Ending on such on a pessimistic note might seem disheartening, unless one realizes that the Great Physician who brings a definitive and complete remedy to the problem of sin should eventually come – as promised. And nothing is truly restored except by His redemptive work, once and for all.

VIII 20 – IX 17. Epilogue – The Everlasting Covenant of God

Verse-by-verse Exegesis

VIII 20. “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”

Reflection: What Noah was doing here, namely, the sacrifice of burnt offerings, was later established as one of the well-defined rituals in the religious service of OT Israel (Lev. 1:3-17). According to the MacArthur Study Bible, “It was an offering of repentance for sins committed, with the desire to be purged from the guilt of sinful acts. Designed to demonstrate the sinner’s penitence and obedience, it indicated his self-dedication to the worship of God.” Unlike other offerings, part of which goes to the priests as their sustenance, it requires the animal to be completely consumed by fire, and therefore is to be brought before the Lord and not before man. The spiritual significance of burnt offerings is that it provides, as Lev. 1:4 shows, the atonement for sin. In other words, it is an offering to acknowledge one’s sinfulness and to ask for the forgiveness of his sins, with the animal being sacrifice as a symbol of the deadly consequence of sin as well as the substitutionary atonement for the sinner. However, as Heb. 10:4 puts it, “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” The practice of burnt offerings points to the perfect Lamb of God, Christ Himself, as the ultimate sacrifice for the sin of man, as Heb. 9:26 puts it, “But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

The first thing Noah did when he got out of the Ark was what was to be the very first thing done in the new world. What he did was not to build a house for himself, cook a meal for himself, have a good sleep by himself, or any worldly care of the like. Instead, he built God an altar. The very first thing he did was worship. Matthew Henry commented, “He begins well, that begins with God.” In fact, not only that, but he offered a sacrifice that represented his confession of sin. On the one hand, this demonstrates once again that the righteousness of Noah was righteousness by faith (viz. he did not have attained a state of sinless perfection, and therefore he offered sacrifices for his sins), and that the doctrine of Sola Fide was not exactly a NT novelty. On the other, we also see the faith of Noah was by all means a genuine saving faith, because the more spiritually mature a believer is, the deeper he understands his sinfulness. The first of the