The universal tradition of a deluge is most naturally accounted for by admitting that there was a "universal deluge." But "universal" does not apply to the extent as embracing the whole earth, but as affecting the small area then inhabited--an area which was probably not greater than the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris. The story in Genesis is the Hebrew version of the universal tradition, and its plain affinity to the cuneiform narratives is to be frankly accepted. But the relationship of these two is not certain. Are they mother and daughter, or are they sisters? The theory that the narrative in Genesis is derived from the Babylonian, and is a purified, elevated rendering of it, is not so likely as that both are renderings of a more primitive account, to which the Hebrew narrative has kept true, while the other has tainted it with polytheistic ideas. In this pa.s.sage the cessation of the flood is the theme, and it brings out both the love of the G.o.d who sent the awful punishment, and the patient G.o.dliness of the man who was spared from it. So it completes the teaching of the flood, and proclaims that G.o.d "in wrath remembers mercy."
1. "G.o.d remembered Noah." That is a strong "anthropomorphism," like many other things in Genesis--very natural when these records were written, and bearing a true meaning for all times. It might seem as if, in the wild rush of the waters from beneath and from above, the little handful in the ark were forgotten. Had the Judge of all the earth, while executing "terrible things in righteousness," leisure to think of them who were "afar off upon the sea"? Was it a blind wrath that had been let loose? No; in all the severity there was tender regard for those worthy of it. Judgment was discriminating. The sunshine of love broke through even the rain-clouds of the flood.
So the blessed lesson is taught that, in the widest sweep of the most stormy judgments, there are those who abide safely, fearing no evil.
Though the waters are out, there is a rock on which we may stand safe, above their highest wave. And why did G.o.d "remember Noah"? It was not favouritism, arbitrary and immoral. Noah was bid to build the ark, because he was "righteous" in a world of evil-doers; he was "remembered" in the ark, because he had believed G.o.d"s warning, obeyed G.o.d"s command as seeing the judgment "not seen as yet," and so "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." They who trust G.o.d, and, trusting Him, realise as if present the future judgment, and, "moved with fear," take refuge in the ark, are never forgot by Him, even while the world is drowned. They live in His heart, and in due time He will show that He remembers them.
2. The gradual subsidence of the flood is told with singular exact.i.tude of dates, which are certainly peculiar if they are not historical. The slow decrease negatives the explanation of the story as being the exaggerated remembrance of some tidal-wave caused by earthquake and the like. Precisely five months after the flood began, the ark grounded, and the two sources, the rain from above and the "fountains of the deep" (that is, probably, the sea), were "restrained," and a high wind set in. That date marked the end of the increase of the waters, and consequently the beginning of their decrease. Seven months and ten days elapsed between it and the complete restoration of the earth to its previous condition. That time was divided into stages. Two months and a half pa.s.sed before the highest land emerged; two months more and the surface was all visible; a month and twenty-seven days more before "the earth was dry." The frequent recurrence of the sacred numbers, seven and ten, is noticeable. The length of time required for the restorative process witnesses to the magnitude of the catastrophe, impresses the imagination, and suggests the majestic slowness of the divine working, and how He uses natural processes for His purposes of moral government, and rules the wildest outbursts of physical agents. The Lord as king "sitteth upon the flood," and opens or seals the fountains of the great deep as He will. Scripture does not tell of the links between the First Cause and the physical effect. It brings the latter close up to the former. The last link touches the fixed staple, and all between may be ignored.
But the patient expectance of Noah comes out strongly in the story, as well as the gradualness of G.o.d"s working. Not till "forty days"--a round number--after the land appeared, did He do anything. He waited quietly till the path was plain. Eager impatience does not become those who trust in G.o.d. It is not said that the raven was sent out to see if the waters were abated. No purpose is named, nor is it said that it returned at all. "To and fro" may mean over the waste of waters, not back and forward to and from the ark. The raven, from its blackness, its habit of feeding on carrion, its fierceness, was a bird of ill-omen, and sending it forth has a grim suggestion that it would find food enough, and "rest for the sole of its foot," among the swollen corpses floating on the dark waters. The dove, on the other hand, is the emblem of gentleness, purity, and tenderness. She went forth, the very embodiment of meek hope that wings its way over dark and desolate scenes of calamity and judgment, and, though disappointed at first, patiently waits till the waters sink further, discerns the earliest signs of their drying up, and comes back to the sender with a report which is a prophecy: "Your peace shall return to you again." Happy they who send forth, not the raven, but the dove, from their patient hearts.
Their gentle wishes come back with confirmation of their hopes, "as doves to their windows."
3. But Noah did not leave the ark, though "the earth was dry." G.o.d had "shut him in," and it must be G.o.d who brings him out. We have to take heed of precipitate departure from the place where He has fixed us.
Like Israel in the desert, it must be "at the commandment of the Lord"
that we pitch the camp, and at the commandment of the Lord that we journey. Till He speaks we must remain, and as soon as He speaks we must remove. "G.o.d spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth ... and Noah went forth." Thus prompt must be our obedience. A sacrifice of grat.i.tude is the fit close of each epoch in our lives, and the fit beginning of each new one. Before he thought of anything else, Noah built his altar. All our deeds should be set in a golden ring of thankfulness. So the past is hallowed, and the future secure of G.o.d"s protection. It is no unworthy conception of G.o.d which underlies the strongly human expression that he "smelled the sweet savour." He delights in our offerings, and our trustful, grateful love is "an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable" to Him. The pledge that He will not any more curse the ground for man"s sake is occasioned by the sacrifice, but is grounded on what seems, at first sight, a reason for the very opposite conclusion. Man"s evil heart the reason for G.o.d"s forbearance?
Yes, because it is _"evil from his youth_." He deals with men as knowing our frame, the corruption of our nature, and the need that the tree should be made good before it can bring forth good fruit.
Therefore He will not smite, but rather seek to draw to repentance by His goodness, and by the faithful continuance of His beneficence in the steadfast covenant of revolving seasons, "filling our hearts with food and gladness."
THE SIGN FOR MAN AND THE REMEMBRANCER FOR G.o.d
"And G.o.d spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And G.o.d said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. And it shall come to pa.s.s, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between G.o.d and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And G.o.d said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between Me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
GENESIS ix. 8-17.
The previous verses of this chapter lay down the outlines of the new order which followed the flood. The blessing and the command to be fruitful are repeated. The dominion over animals is confirmed, but enlarged by the permission to use them as food, and by the laying on them of "the terror of you and the dread of you." The sanct.i.ty of human life is laid down with great emphasis. Violence and bloodshed had brought about the flood. The appalling destruction effected by it might lead to the mistaken notion that G.o.d held man"s life cheap. Therefore the cornerstone of future society is laid in that declaration that life is inviolable. These blessings and commands are followed by this remarkable section, which deals with G.o.d"s covenant with Noah, and its token in the rainbow.
1. The covenant is stated, and the parties concerned in it enumerated in verses 3-11. When Noah came forth from the ark, after the stupendous act of divine justice, he must have felt that the first thing he needed was some a.s.surance as to the footing on which he and the new world round him stood with G.o.d. The flood had swept away the old order. It had revealed terrible possibilities of destruction in nature, and terrible possibilities of wrath in G.o.d. Was any knowledge of His intentions and ways possible? Could continuance of the new order be counted on? The answer to such questions was--G.o.d"s covenant. Now, as then, when any great convulsions shake what seems permanent, and bring home to men the thinness of the crust of use and wont roofing an infinite depth of unknown possibilities of change, on which we walk, the heart cries out for some a.s.surance of perpetuity, and some revelation of G.o.d"s mind. We can have such, as truly as Noah had, if we use the Revelation given us in Jesus.
In G.o.d"s covenant with Noah, the fact of the covenant may first be noted. What is a covenant? The term usually implies a reciprocal bond, both parties to which come under obligations by it, each to the other.
But, in this case, there are no obligations on the part of man or of the creatures. This covenant is G.o.d"s only. It is contingent on nothing done by the recipients. He binds Himself, whatever be the conduct of men. This covenant is the self-motived promise of an unconditional mercy. May we not say that the "New Covenant" in Jesus Christ is after the pattern of this, rather than after the manner of compacts which require both parties to do their several parts?
But note the great thought, that G.o.d limits His freedom of action by this definite promise. Noah was not left to grope in dread among the terrible possibilities opened by the flood. G.o.d marked out the line on which He would move, and marked off a course which He would not pursue.
It is like a king giving his subjects a const.i.tution. Men can reckon on G.o.d. He has let them know much of the principles and methods of His government. He has buoyed out His course, as it were, on the ocean, or p.r.i.c.ked it down upon a chart. We have not to do with arbitrary power, with inscrutable will. Our G.o.d is not one who "giveth no account of any of His matters." To use a common saying, "We know where to have Him."
The substance of this covenant is noteworthy. It is concerned solely with physical nature. There is nothing spiritual or "religious" about it. There are to be no more universal deluges. That is all which it guarantees. But consider how important such an a.s.surance was in two aspects. Note the solemn light which it threw on the past. It taught that the flood was an exception in the divine government, which should stand unrepeated for ever, in its dread pre-eminence testifying how awful it was as a judicial act, and how outrageous had been the guilt which it drowned out of existence and sight. A wholesome terror at the unexampled act of judgment would fill the hearts of the little group which now represented mankind.
Consider the effect of the covenant in encouraging hope. We have said that the one thing needful for Noah was some a.s.surance that the new order would last. He was like a man who has just been rescued from an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. The ground seems to reel beneath him. Old habitudes have been curled up like leaves in the fire. Is there to be any fixity, any ground for continuous action, or for labour for a moment beyond the present? Is it worth while to plant or sow? Men who have lived through national tempests or domestic crashes know how much they need to be steadied afterwards by some reasonable a.s.surance of comparative continuity. And these men, in the childhood of the race, would need it much. So they were sent out to till the earth, and to begin again strenuous lives, with this covenant to keep them from falling into a hand-to-mouth style of life, which would have brought them down to barbarism. We all need the same kind of a.s.surance; and then, when we get it, such is the weakness of humanity, we are tempted to think that continuity means eternity, and that, because probably to-morrow shall be as this day, there will never come a to-morrow which shall be quite unlike to-day. The crust of cooled earth, on which we walk, is thick enough to bear man and all his works, but there comes a time when it will crack. The world will not be flooded again, but we forget, what Noah did not know, that it will be burned.
The parties to the covenant must be noticed. Note how frequently the share in it, which all living creatures have, is referred to in the context. In verse 10 the language becomes strained (in the original), in order to express the universal partic.i.p.ation of all living creatures; and in verse 13 "the earth" itself is spoken of as one party. G.o.d recognises obligations to all living things, and even to the dumb, non-sentient earth. He will not causelessly quench one bright, innocent life, nor harm one clod. Surely this is, at least, an incipient revelation of a G.o.d whose "tender mercies are over all his works." He "doth take care for oxen"; and man, with all the creatures that are with him, and all the wild ones that "come not near" him, and all the solid structure of the world, are held in one covenant of protecting and sustaining providence and power.
2. The sign of the covenant is described at great length in verses 12-17. Note that verses 12, 13 state the general idea of a token or sign, that verses 14-16 deepen this by stating that the token to man is a reminder to G.o.d, and that verse 17 sums up the whole with emphatic repet.i.tion of the main points. The narrative does not imply, as has often been supposed, that the rainbow was visible for the first time after the deluge. To suppose that, is to read more into the story than is there, or than common sense tolerates. If there were showers and sunshine, there must have been rainbows. But the fair vision strode across the sky with no articulate promise in its loveliness, though it must always have kindled wonder, and sometimes stirred deeper thoughts.
Now, for the first time, it was made "a sign," the visible pledge of G.o.d"s promise.
Mark the emphasis with which G.o.d"s agency is declared and His ownership a.s.serted. "_I_ do set _My_ bow." Neither Noah nor the writer knew anything about refraction or the prismatic spectrum. But perhaps they knew more about the rainbow than people do who know all about how it comes, except that G.o.d sets it in the cloud, and that it is His. Let us have the facts which science labels as such, by all means, and the more the better; but do not let us forget that there are other facts in nature which science has no means of attaining, but which are as solid and a great deal deeper than those which it supplies.
The natural adaptation of the rainbow for this office of a token is too plain to need dwelling on. It "fills the sky when storms prepare to part," and hence is a natural token that the downpour is being stayed.
Somewhere there must be a bit of blue through which the sun can pierce; and the small gap, which is large enough to let it out, will grow till all the sky is one azure dome. It springs into sight in front of the cloud, without which it could not be, so it typifies the light which may glorify judgments, and is born of sorrows borne in the presence of G.o.d. It comes from the sunshine smiting the cloud; so it preaches the blending of love with divine judgment. It unites earth and heaven; so it proclaims that heavenly love is ready to transform earthly sorrows.
It stretches across the land; so it speaks of an all-embracing care, which enfolds the earth and all its creatures.
It is not only a "sign to men." It is also, in the strong anthropomorphism of the narrative, a remembrancer to G.o.d. Of course this is accommodation of the representation of His nature to the limitations of ours. And the danger of attaching unworthy ideas to it is lessened by noticing that He is said to set His bow in the cloud, before it acts as His remembrancer. Therefore, He had remembered before it appeared. The truth, conveyed in the childlike language, is that G.o.d has His covenant ever before Him, and that He responds to and honours the appeal made to Him, by that which He has Himself appointed for a sign to men. The expectant eyes of the trustful man and the eye of G.o.d meet, as it were, in looking on the sign. On earth it nourishes faith; in heaven it moves to love and blessing. G.o.d can be reminded of what He always remembers. The rainbow reminds Him of His covenant by its calm light. Jesus Christ reminds Him of His grace by His intercession before the throne. We remind Him of His plighted faithfulness by our prayers.
"Ye that are the Lord"s remembrancers, keep not silence."
AN EXAMPLE OF FAITH
"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father"s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother"s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram pa.s.sed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south."
GENESIS xii. 1-9.
I
We stand here at the well-head of a great river--a narrow channel, across which a child can step, but which is to open out a broad bosom that will reflect the sky and refresh continents. The call of Abram is the most important event in the Old Testament, but it is also an eminent example of individual faith. For both reasons he is called "the Father of the Faithful." We look at the incident here mainly from the latter point of view. It falls into three parts.
1. The divine voice of command and promise.--G.o.d"s servants have to be separated from home and kindred, and all surroundings. The command to Abram was no mere arbitrary test of obedience. G.o.d could not have done what He meant with him, unless He had got him by himself. So Isaiah (li. 2) put his finger on the essential when he says, "I called him alone." G.o.d"s communications are made to solitary souls, and His voice to us always summons us to forsake friends and companions, and to go apart with G.o.d. No man gets speech of G.o.d in a crowd. If you desired to fill a person with electricity, you used to put him on a stool with gla.s.s legs, to keep him from earthly contact. If the quickening impulse from the great magnet is to charge the soul, that soul must be isolated. "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me."
The vagueness of the command is significant. Abram did not know "whither he went." He is not told that Canaan is the land, till he has reached Canaan. A true obedience is content to have orders enough for present duty. Ships are sometimes sent out with sealed instructions, to be opened when they reach lat.i.tude and longitude so-and-so. That is how we are all sent out. Our knowledge goes no farther ahead than is needful to guide our next step. If we "go out" as He bids us, He will show us what to do next.
"I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me."
Observe the promise. We may notice that it needed a soul raised above the merely temporal to care much for such promises. They would have been but thin diet for earthly appet.i.tes. "A great nation"; a divine blessing; to be a source of blessing to the whole world, and a touchstone by their conduct to which men would be blessed or cursed;--what was there in these to fascinate a man, unless he had faith to teach him the relative importance of the earthly and the heavenly, the present and the future? Notice that the whole promise appeals to unselfish desires. It is always, in some measure, elevating to live for a future, rather than a present, good; but if it be only the same kind of good as the present would yield, it is a poor affair.
The only really enn.o.bling faith is one which sets before itself a future full of divine blessing, and of diffusion of that blessing through us, and which therefore scorns delights, and for such gifts is content to be solitary and a wanderer.
2. The obedience of faith.--We have here a wonderful example of prompt, unquestioning obedience to a bare word. We do not know how the divine command was conveyed to Abram. We simply read, "The Lord said"; and if we contrast this with verse 7, "The Lord appeared ... and said," it will seem probable that there was no outward sign of the divine will.
The patriarch knew that he was following a divine command, and not his own purpose; but there seems to have been no appeal to sense to authenticate the inward voice. He stands, then, on a high level, setting the example of faith as unconditional acceptance of, and obedience to, G.o.d"s bare word.
Observe that faith, which is the reliance on a person, and therefore trust in his word, pa.s.ses into both forms of confidence in that word as promise, and obedience to that word as command. We cannot cut faith in halves, and exercise the one aspect without the other. Some people"s faith says that it delights in G.o.d"s promises, but it does not delight in His commandments. That is no faith at all. Whoever takes G.o.d at His word, will take all His words. There is no faith without obedience; there is no obedience without faith.
We have already said enough about the separation which was effected by Abram"s journey; but we may just notice that the departure from his father"s house was but the necessary result of the gulf between them and him, which had been opened by his faith. They were idolaters; he worshipped one G.o.d. That drove them farther apart than the distance between Sichem and Haran. When sympathy in religion was at an end, the breach of all other ties was best. So to-day, whether there be outward separation or no, depends on circ.u.mstances; but every true Christian is parted from the dearest who is not a Christian, by an abyss wider than any outward distance can make. The law for us is Abram"s law, "Get thee out." Either our faith will separate us from the world, or the world will separate us from our faith and our G.o.d.
The companionship of Lot, who attaches himself to Abram, teaches that religion, in its true possessors, exercises an attractive influence over even common natures, and may win them to a loftier life. Some weak eyes may discern more glory in the sunshine tinting a poor bit of mist into ruddy light than in the beam which is too bright to look at. A faithful Abram will draw Lot after him.
"They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came." Compare this singular expression with chapter xi.
31, where we have Terah"s emigration from Ur described in the same terms, with the all-important difference in the end, "They came" not into Canaan, but "unto Haran, and dwelt there." Many begin the course; one finishes it. Terah"s journeying was only in search of pasture and an abode. So he dropped his wider scheme when the narrower served his purpose. It was an easy matter to go from Ur to Haran. Both were on the same bank of the Euphrates. But to cross the broad, deep, rapid river was a different thing, and meant an irrevocable cutting loose from the past life. Only the man of faith did that. There are plenty of half-and-half Christians, who go along merrily from Ur to Haran; but when they see the wide stream in front, and realise how completely the other side is separated from all that is familiar, they take another thought, and conclude they have come far enough, and Haran will serve their turn.
Again, the phrase teaches us the certain issue of patient pilgrimage and persistent purpose. There is no mystery in getting to the journey"s end. "One foot up, and the other foot down," continued long enough, will bring to the goal of the longest march. It looks a weary journey, and we wonder if we shall ever get thither. But the magic of "one step at a time" does it. The guide is also the upholder of our way. "Every one of them appeareth before G.o.d in Zion."
3. The life in the land.--The first characteristic of it is its continual wandering. This is the feature which the Epistle to the Hebrews marks as significant. There was no reason but his own choice why Abram should continue to journey, and prefer to pitch his tent now under the terebinth tree of Moreh, now by Hebron, rather than to enter some of the cities of the land. He dwelt in tents because he looked for the city. The clear vision of the future detached him, as it will always detach men, from close partic.i.p.ation in the present. It is not because we are mortal, and death is near at the furthest, that the Christian is to sit loose to this world, but because he lives by the hope of the inheritance. He must choose to be a pilgrim, and keep himself apart in feeling and aims from this present. The great lesson from the wandering life of Abram is, "Set your affection on things above." Cultivate the sense of belonging to another polity than that in the midst of which you dwell. The Canaanites christened Abram "The Hebrew" (Genesis xiv. 13), which may be translated "The man from the other side." That is the name which all true Christians should deserve.
They should bear their foreign extraction in their faces, and never be naturalised subjects here. Life is wholesomer in the tent under the spreading tree, with the fresh air blowing about us and clear sky above, than in the Canaanite city.
Observe, too, that Abram"s life was permeated with worship. Wherever he pitches his tent, he builds an altar. So he fed his faith, and kept up his communion with G.o.d. The only condition on which the pilgrim life is possible, and the temptations of the world cease to draw our hearts, is that all life shall be filled with the consciousness of the divine presence, our homes altars, and ourselves joyful thankofferings. Then every abode is blessed. The undefended tent is a safe fortress, in which dwelling we need not envy those who dwell in palaces. Common tasks will then be fresh, full of interest, because we see G.o.d in them, and offer them up to Him. The wandering life will be a life of walking with G.o.d, and progressive knowledge of Him; and over all the roughnesses and the sorrows and the trivialities of it will be spread "the light that never was on sea or land, the consecration" of G.o.d"s presence, and the peacefulness of communion with Him.
Again, we may notice that the life of obedience was followed by fuller manifestations of G.o.d, and of His will. G.o.d "appeared" when Abram was in the land. Is it not always true that obedience is blessed by closer vision and more knowledge? To him that hath shall be given; and he who has followed the unseen Guide through dimly discerned paths to an invisible goal, will be gladdened when he reaches the true Canaan, by the sight of Him whom, having not seen, he loved. Even here on earth obedience is the path to fuller knowledge; and when the pilgrims who have left all and followed the Captain of salvation through a deeper, darker stream than Abram crossed, have touched the other side, G.o.d will appear to them, and say, as the enraptured eye gazes amazed on the goodly land, "Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee."