GENESIS CHAPTER EIGHT OVERVIEW
Overall what is happening in this chapter is that the flood is over and the water slowly recedes – God makes a covenant with Noah.
Thomas Coke (1801) - Genesis 8
The waters decrease: the ark rests on Mount Ararat. Noah sends forth a raven; and afterwards a dove; and then departs himself from the ark. He builds an altar, and sacrifices to the Lord, who promises him not to destroy the earth any more in this manner for man's iniquity.
Matthew Henry (1714) – Genesis 8
In the close of the foregoing chapter we left the world in ruins and the church in straits; but in this chapter we have the repair of the one and the enlargement of the other. Now the scene alters, and another face of things begins to be presented to us, and the brighter side of that cloud which there appeared so black and dark; for, though God contend long, he will not contend for ever, nor be always wrath. We have here:
I. The earth made anew, by the recess of the waters, and the appearing of the dry land, now a second time, and both gradual.
1. The increase of the waters is stayed (Genesis 8:1-2).
2. They begin sensibly to abate (Genesis 8:3).
3. After sixteen days' ebbing, the ark rests (Genesis 8:4).
4. After sixty days' ebbing, the tops of the mountains appeared above water (Genesis 8:5).
5. After forty days' ebbing, and twenty days before the mountains appeared, Noah began to send out his spies,
a raven and a dove, to gain intelligence (Genesis 8:6-12).
6. Two months after the appearing of the tops of the mountains, the waters had gone, and the face of the earth
was dry (Genesis 8:13), though not dried so as to be fit for man till almost two months after (Genesis 8:14).
II. Man placed anew upon the earth, in which,
1. Noah's discharge and departure out of the ark (Genesis 8:15-19).
2. His sacrifice of praise, which he offered to God upon his enlargement (Genesis 8:20).
3. God's acceptance of his sacrifice, and the promise he made thereupon not to drown the world again
(Genesis 8:21-22).
And thus, at length, mercy rejoices against judgment.
KEY VERSE
Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.
KEY EVENT
Noah leaves the ark.
KEY CROSS-REFERENCE
Psalm 106:4 “Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor toward Your people; Visit me with Your salvation.”
KEY THOUGHT
Everything changes and yet remains unchanged.
Genesis 8:22 "While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease."
KEY QUOTE
“See how changeable the times are and yet how unchangeable. The course of nature always changing. As it is with the times, so it is with the events of time, they are subject to vicissitudes – day and night, summer and winter, counterchanged. In heaven and hell it is not so, but on the earth God hath set the one over against the other… It is constant in this inconstancy. These seasons have never ceased, nor shall cease, while the sun continues such a steady measurer of time and the moon such a faithful witness in the heave. This is God’s covenant of the day and of the night, the stability of which is mentioned for the confirming of our faith, in the covenant of grace, which is no less inviolable.” Matthew Henry
