The Lord smelled a sweet savour— Heb. a savour of rest, or cessation from anger. This is a phrase accommodated to our conceptions, which implies not any actual smelling, but only that this sacrifice of Noah's arose as acceptable to God, as sweet odours are to us. See Leviticus 26:31. And how it can be possible that the sacrifice and death of animals could be pleasing to God upon any other consideration than as his own appointment, and as sacrificed with a view to the great atonement, I have no conception.
REFLECTIONS.—The first concern of a gracious soul is to praise God for his mercies. Noah's first building is an altar, and his employment a sacrifice of thanksgiving. His flock of clean beasts and fowl was small, and one out of seven might be thought much; but Noah knew they would never be diminished by such a use of them. No man was ever the poorer for what he employed in God's service, nor the richer by what he defrauded it of.
The Lord said in his heart— Resolved within himself no more to curse the ground for man's sake; that is, as the last verse shews, no more to curse it in that manner, with a deluge. The sense of the passage, I conceive, runs thus: "I will no more destroy the ground (after this manner) on account of man [or, as a punishment for his iniquity]; I will not again punish the human race by a deluge, though the imagination of man's heart be (or should be hereafter) evil even from his youth: I will not smite every thing living as I have done. So long as the earth remains, its regular seasons shall not cease; or be interrupted, as they have been during this last melancholy year of darkness, rain, and desolation."
Observe here, a grateful heart is that sacrifice wherewith God is ever well pleased. The Lord accepts Noah's service, and blesses him abundantly in return.
1. The smell of the sacrifice is a sweet savour; it was the figure of that in which God hath since declared he is well pleased. It is for Christ's sake alone that any of our services are offerings of a sweet smell.
2. God's gracious promise, I will no more curse the ground, &c. Though man will be still a sinner, these floods shall not return.
Such is the history which the scripture gives us of this extraordinary event, "the general deluge, from which the family of Noah, and some of all living creatures, were preserved in a vessel, prepared by the immediate direction of God, to repeople and replenish the earth; when all that had breath beside perished."
REFLECTIONS on the Deluge.
The grand cause of the corruption which brought on the deluge, was the intermarriage of the children of God with the iniquitous and idolatrous children of men. For it happened, in that mixture, (what has always fallen out in following ages when a holy people mingled with a profane,) that the holy adopted the wicked manners of the profane, while the profane never imitated the manners of the holy. This remark, I am persuaded, will hold universally good in respect to communities, however a few instances may be produced to the contrary in respect to individuals. We learn hence the danger of an intercourse with the wicked and ungodly; and particularly in so close an union as the marriage-state.
Who can fail admiring the goodness and patience of God towards the inhabitants of the first world, in giving them such warning, and so long time to repent? Happy they, who, in every period, duly improve this long-suffering of God towards themselves! For God is ever bountiful to them that fear him: He will not suffer the just Noah to perish; He regards those who honour him: He will ever regard those who, after the example of the faith of that patriarch, walk in righteousness, and duly improve all the notices both of the judgments and mercies of the Lord.
His judgments have been abroad in the earth, and nothing affords a more signal example of them than this fearful deluge: for if God spared not the old world, how can presumptuous sinners of this expect to escape his vengeance? Learn hence, O man! that thy God is just, as well as merciful; that his threatenings are not in vain; that he will not always be provoked, and that no number or rank of sinners can defend thee or others from the punishment denounced against obstinate offenders. Follow not therefore a multitude to do evil. Consider only eight persons were saved from the general destruction by water!
The imagination cannot be struck with a more dreadful spectacle, than that of the whole earth, and all mankind, buried under the waters: a spectacle, which presents to the mind ideas still more affecting, when it stands before the tribunal of conscience and religion. In those ordinary corrections wherewith God visits man, the reflections upon our bodily toils and sufferings are softened by the spiritual advantages they procure us: but here there was no room for any hopes: the plague of the deluge was inflicted by a justly-incensed God: it was the effect of a general depravation. What then, did all the souls perish that were swept away by it? God forbid, that we should presume to think of determining a point like this! They are in the hands of their God. Let us only improve the solemn admonition; and take heed, lest by presumptuous guilt we draw down the just vengeance of a merciful God upon us.
Whatever was the fate of their souls, it is certain that the lives of all who were out of the ark were lost: and as certainly, those, to whom the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, who neglect to embrace that proffered salvation, and to enter by faith into that everlasting covenant, will perish. This is what Christ warns us of in the Gospel, when he tells us, that it will be at the day of his coming as in the days of Noah, when the inhabitants of the world lived in security, and thought nothing of the flood till it came upon them, and destroyed them all. And, alas! how many live in this sad state of inconsideration at present, utterly neglectful of God, utterly regardless of futurity. By these, every call to repentance is treated with as much scorn and ridicule, as Noah's preparation of the ark and preaching were treated by the unthinking of his day! Oh, that they were wise! Awaken them, Lord, from their sleep of death, that they may not be surprised, when the dreadful moment of thy coming approaches!
In the midst of judgment God remembers mercy: not only saving Noah and his family, but by that means renewing the race of mankind, as well as restoring the earth to its present beautiful state and order: the comforts of which while we daily enjoy, let us daily raise our hearts in gratitude to the Sovereign Benefactor. Noah sets us a pattern: his first care, after his deliverance, was to return thanks to his Deliverer. If ever the sense of gratitude and filial fear have produced a sincere homage, it was doubtless upon this occasion: for what other could he render to God, while he was in the midst of so many objects, so lively representing the divine vengeance and mercy? Here, the ruins of a world; there, his family preserved from the universal catastrophe, by a concurrence of many and continual miracles!—Thus too let us learn, for every deliverance, for every fresh mercy granted, to follow the amiable example of this great patriarch, and to present the best sacrifices of our hearts to the Sovereign Preserver! Attentive to his will, Noah comes not out of the ark, till he commands. He had, indeed, sent forth the raven and the dove from the ark to bring him intelligence of the state of the earth: the raven returned not,—emblem of those who forsake God's church, and embrace the present world; rather choosing to feed on foul and sensual pleasures, than to be confined within the bounds of holiness and obedience. The dove, like a true citizen of the ark, returns, and brings faithful notices with her: and oh! how worthy are those messengers to be welcomed, who, with dove-like innocence in their lives, bring glad tidings of peace and salvation in their mouths!
It is a gracious declaration, that the earth we inhabit shall no more be destroyed by a flood; a truth, which the experience of ages hath now attested. But reflect, O my soul! that a day is coming, in which this earth shall be destroyed by a more consummate destruction, when all its works shall be burnt up, and the final fate of all men be fixed! an event, which is sufficient to alarm all thy thoughts, and to withdraw thy affections from so transitory, so perishing a scene, and to fix them on that new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness; and where those, who have walked with God here below, shall ever live in bliss with Him, who is seated on the throne, round which the token of grace, the rainbow, shineth like an emerald; and before which they continually cry, (O may we too join the everlasting song!) "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created!" Revelation 4.