The Flood Ends: Genesis 8:1-22

Genesis 8:1 opens with the phrase "God remembered Noah."  The idea of God remembering should seem strange to us.  Had he forgotten Noah for the year and ten days he spent in the ark?  What sort of omniscient god forgets something?  It turns out that the Hebrew concept of God remembering is a quite different from our own.  Derek Kidner, in his commentary "Genesis" says, "God [remembering] combines the ideas of faithful love... and timely intervention."  So when the text says that God remembered Noah, there is an implied action taking place.  In this case, God acts to dry up the waters and bring Noah out of the ark.

Verses 6 through 14 are interesting.  Why is Noah playing with birds?  Why is he waiting?  Why not just come out of the ark if he can see the ground is dry (verses 13 and 14) instead of just removing the ark's covering?  We might think his behavior is a little odd, but consider that God commanded Noah to build and fill the ark (6:14-22), and he commanded Noah to enter the ark (7:1-3).  Now Noah demonstrates his obedience once again by patiently waiting waiting for God to command him to come out of the ark (this happens in verse 8:15).  

In verse 20, Noah builds an altar to God and offers sacrifices of clean animals on it.  You might wonder what constitutes "clean".  For this, we have to remember the audience that was hearing the story.  The newly minted nation of Israel, led by Moses, had laws defining which animals are clean.  This would have been familiar to them and needed no further explanation.  Descriptions of clean animals can be found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

Let's consider why God is pleased by Noah's offering.  The text says that he found the aroma pleasing in verse 21.  But consider the offerings of Cain and Abel from chapter 4.  In my post on that passage, it was clear that God was displeased with Cain's attitude more than the nature of his offering (aroma or otherwise).  I think the same is true here.  Let's once again consider our audience.  The nation of Israel had laws regarding burned offerings and their purpose (see Leviticus 1).  In general, burned offerings had the following concepts associated with them:

1)  Recognition that the giver had a broken relationship with God (sinfulness)
2)  The offering was a symbol of the giver's sinfulness (through laying on hands in Leviticus 1:4)
3)  Burning the offering restored the relationship between God and the giver (atonement)

So it is likely that Noah's offering showed his desire for a restored relationship with God.  In verse 21, God responds with two statements.  First, God tells Noah that he will not curse the ground (as he did in Genesis 3:17) even though man's inherently evil nature would justify such action.  Here, we see God acting mercifully toward mankind in spite of the evil in their hearts, not because of their righteousness.  Second, God reassures Noah that he will never again destroy all living creatures.