1.
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;
2.
The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
3.
And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
4.
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
THE ARK OF SAFETY
‘And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.’
Genesis 8:4
The history of the Deluge is alleged in the New Testament as a type of the deep waters of sin, in which a lost world is perishing, and from which there is no escape but in that ark which God hath prepared for us. The eight souls saved from the Deluge are types of that little flock which rides safely and triumphantly, though the floods lift up their waves and the billows break over them. And their safety is assured to them, because they are in Christ.
I. At the root of all Christianity lies that deep mysterious truth, the spiritual union of the Redeemer with those whom He redeemed.—To this truth most emphatically witnesses all the New Testament teaching about the ark as a symbol and a prophecy. For ( a) the ark is a figure of Christ. The ark floated over the waste of waters as Christ dwelt and toiled and suffered in the wilderness of this world and amid the waters of affliction. ( b) The ark is a figure of the redeemed of Christ. The Church, which is Christ’s body, is also the ark of refuge from the wrath of God. This life is still to the Church a conflict, a trial, a pilgrimage, a voyage. The crown shall be at the resurrection of the just.
II. The practical thoughts to which this subject leads us differ but little from the doctrinal.—Is not the substance and the end of all—safety in Christ, rest in Christ, and at last glory in Christ? Those only who have rested in the Ark will rest upon Mount Ararat. The life of the Christian is begun on earth; it is perfected in heaven. When the voyage is over, the Saviour, who has been to us the Ark upon the waters, shall be to us, in the eternal mountains of the Lord, rest and peace and light and glory.
Bp. Harold Browne.
Illustration
‘The Ark a Type of Christ. The ark was a refuge from coming doom. So Christ. It was also a Divinely appointed refuge. God was its architect, and it was built according to Divine conception. So is the plan of human redemption and salvation. The Ark was made of earthly material. It was not something sent down fully prepared from heaven, but was built from the trees of the forest. Christ was the Son of God, but He was also the Son of man. The Ark had but one door of access. Through Christ alone man finds salvation. “I am the door.” The hope of the human race floated in the Ark. Had the waters engulphed it, the race of man would have perished on the earth. So the hope of man’s eternal future is in Christ Jesus.’
5.
And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
6.
And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
7.
And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.
8.
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;
9.
But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
10.
And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;
11.
And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
12.
And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
13.
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
14.
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
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.
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, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.