Noah removed the covering of the ark
Noah’s first consciousness of safety after the deluge
I. He would probably be impressed with the GREATNESS OF THE CALAMITY HE HAD ESCAPED. The roaring waters had subsided, but they had wrought a terrible desolation, they had reduced the earth to a vast charnel house; every living voice is hushed, and all is silent as the grave. The patriarch, perhaps, would feel two things in relation to this calamity.
1. That it was the result of sin.
2. That it was only a faint type of the final judgment.
II. He would probably be impressed with the EFFICACY OF THE REMEDIAL EXPEDIENT. How would he admire the ark that had so nobly battled with the billows and so safely weathered the storm!
1. This expedient was Divine. Christianity, the great expedient for saving souls from the deluge of moral evil, is God’s plan. “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.” Philosophy exhausted itself in the trial.
2. This expedient alone was effective. When the dreadful storm came, we may rest assured that every one of that terror-stricken generation would seize some scheme to rescue him from the doom. “There is no other name,” etc.
3. The expedient was only effective to those who committed themselves to it.
III. He would probably be impressed with the WISDOM OF HIS FAITH IN GOD. He felt now--
1. That it was wiser to believe in the Word of God than to trust to the conclusions of his own reason.
2. That it was wiser to believe in the Word of God than to trust to the uniformity of nature.
3. That it was wiser to believe in God’s Word than to trust to the current opinion of his contemporaries. (Homilist.)
Lessons
1. The giving in of one step of mercy maketh God’s saints to wait for more.
2. God’s gracious ones desire to let patience have its perfect work towards God.
3. The saint’s disposition is to have experience of mercy by trying means, as well as to wait for it.
4. In the withholding of return of means may be the return of mercy. Though the dove stay, yet mercy cometh.
5. Providence promotes the comfort of saints when He seems to stop them, as in staying the clove (Genesis 8:12).
6. As times of special mercy are recorded by God, so they should be remembered by the Church.
7. At His appointed periods God measures out mercy unto His Church.
8. The saints’ patient waiting would God have recorded, as well as His performing mercies.
9. As mercies move to God’s Church, so He moveth His saints to remove veils and meet them.
10. Manifestations of mercies God vouchsafeth His, as well as mercy itself.
11. Several periods of time God takes to perfect salvation to His Church.
12. After all patient waiting, in God’s full time full and complete mercy and salvation is given into His Church (Genesis 8:13). (G. Hughes, B. D.)