for 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. We would go out of the ark before the ground is dried; and perhaps, if the door be shut, are ready to remove the covering, and to climb up some other way; but we should be satisfied that God's time of showing mercy is certainly the best time, when the mercy is ripe for us, and we are ready for it.
15. And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16. Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. 17. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth ; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. 18. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: 19. Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
Here is,
I. Noah's dismission out of the ark, v. 15...17. Observe, 1. Noah did not stir till God bid him. As he had a command to go into the ark, (ch. 7. 1.) so, how tedious soever his confinement there was, he would wait for a command to go out of it again. Note, We must in all our ways acknowledge God, and set him before us in all our removes. Those only go under God's protection, that follow God's direction, and submit to his government. Those that steadily adhere to God's word as their rule, and are guided by his grace as their principle, and take hints from his providence to assist them in their application of general directions to particular cases, may in faith see him guiding their motions in their march through this wilderness. 2. Though God detained him long, yet at last he gave him his discharge; for the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak, it shall speak the truth, (Hab. 2. 3.) it shall not lie. 3. God had said, Come into the ark, which intimated that God went in with him; now he says, not, Come forth, but Go forth, which intimates that God, who went in with him, stood with him all the while, till he sent him out safe; for he has said, I will not leave thee. 4. Some observe, that when they were ordered into the ark, the men and the women were mentioned separately, ch. 6. 18, Thou and thy sons, and thy wife and thy sons' wives; whence they infer that, during the time of mourning, they were apart, and their wives apart, Zech. 12. 12. But now God did as it were new marry them, sending out Noah and his wife together, and his sons and their wives together, that they might be fruitful and multiply. 5. Noah is ordered to bring the creatures out with him; that having taken the care of feeding them so long, and been at so much pains about them, he might have the honour of leading them forth by their armies, and receiving their homage.
II. Noah's departure when he had his dismission. As he would not go out without leave, so he would not, out of fear or humour, stay in when he had leave, but was in all points observant of the heavenly vision. Though he had been now a full year and ten days a prisoner in the ark, yet when he found himself preserved there, not only for a new life, but for a new world, he saw no reason to complain of his long confinement. Now observe, 1. Noah and his family came out alive, though one of them was a wicked Ham, whom, though he escaped the flood, God's justice could have taken away by some other stroke. But they are all alive. Note, When families have been long continued together, and no breaches made upon them, it must be looked upon as a distinguishing favour, and attributed to the Lord's mercies. 2. Noah brought out all the creatures that went in with him, except the raven and the dove, who, probably, were ready to meet their mates at their coming out. Noah was able to give a very good account of his charge; for of all that were given him he had lost none, but was faithful to him that appointed him, pro hac vice — on this occasion, high steward of his household.
20. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord ; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. 21. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour ; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.
Here is,
I. Noah's thankful acknowledgment of God's favour to him, in completing the mercy of his deliverance, v. 20. 1. He builded an altar. Hitherto he had done nothing without particular instructions and commands from God. He had a particular call into the ark, and another out of it; but altars and sacrifices being already of divine institution for religious worship, he did not stay for a particular command thus to express his thankfulness. Those that have received mercy from God, should be forward in returning thanks; and do it, not of constraint, but willingly. God is pleased with free-will offerings, and praises that wait for him. Noah was now turned out into a cold and desolate world, where one would have thought his first care would have been to build a house for himself; but, behold, he begins with an altar for God: God, that is the first, must be first served; and he begins well that begins with God. 2. He offered a sacrifice upon his altar, of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, one, the odd seventh that we read of, ch. 7. 2, 3.
Here observe, (1.) He offered only those that were clean; for it is not enough that we sacrifice, but we must sacrifice that which God appoints, according to the law of sacrifice, and not a corrupt thing. (2.) Though his stock of cattle was so small, and that rescued from ruin at so great an expense of care and pains, yet he did not grudge to give God his dues out of it. He might have said, "Have I but seven sheep to begin the world with, and must one of those seven be killed and burnt for sacrifice: Were it not better to defer it, till we have more plenty?" No, to prove the sincerity of his love and gratitude, he cheerfully gives the seventh to his God, as an acknowledgment that all was his, and owing to him. Serving God with our little, is the way to make it more; and we must never think that wasted, with which God is honoured. (3.) See here the antiquity of religion: the first thing we find done in the new world, was an act of worship, Jer. 6. 16. We are now to express our thankfulness, not by burnt-offerings, but by the sacrifices of praise,
