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c) Gen 8:15–19: This section of the flood narrative comprises the eighth scene, in which Noah hears and obeys God’s command to leave the ark. It parallels Gen 7:1–4.[1]
In this passage, Moses gave additional hints that Noah served as a second Adam.[2]
The key word, which occurs four times in these verses, means “to go out” (yatsa).[3]
Based upon the failure of the dove to return and his own observations, Noah knew that the earth was prepared for habitation (Gen 8:6–12).
Apparently, God had not spoken to Noah during the year since he entered the ark (Gen 7:1–4, 11; Gen 8:13–14). Nevertheless, he waited to receive an “all clear” signal from the Lord.[4]
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Concerning Noah’s patience, John Calvin (1509–1564) reached this conclusion:
Noah was restrained, by a hallowed modesty, from allowing himself to enjoy the bounty of nature, till he should hear the voice of God directing him to do so…
All ought indeed, spontaneously, to consider how great must have been the fortitude of the man, who, after the incredible weariness of a whole year, when the deluge has ceased, and new life has shone forth, does not yet move a foot…without the command of God.[5]
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Moses wrote, “Then the Lord spoke to Noah, saying, ‘Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons, and [the] wives of your sons with you. Every living thing which [is] with you from all flesh: birds and animals and all the creeping things which move on the land, you shall bring out with you. And they shall swarm upon the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.”
In his previous instructions, the Lord commanded Noah to bring various creatures on board to preserve their lives (Gen 6:18–20; Gen 7:2–3). Now God ordered him to release the animals so they could reproduce and fill the earth.[6]
Note the similarity to Moses’s account of the fifth and sixth days of creation (Gen 1:22–23, 27–28).[7] That the land animals finally received this same mandate points to the beginning of a new creation (Gen 1:24–25).[8]
The very close correlation between Gen 8:16–17 and Gen 8:18–19 emphasizes Noah’s obedience to the Lord’s commands.[9]
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The second pair of verses says, “And Noah went out, and his wife, and his sons, and [the] wives of his sons with him. Every living thing: every creeping thing and every bird and everything which moves upon the land. By their clans, they went out from the ark.”
Within Israel, a clan referred to a group of related people larger than an extended family but smaller than a tribe (Num 1:2; Josh 7:14). [10]
Noah and all his passengers disembarked to a renewed world, full of promise.[11]
Image via Wikimedia Commons
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Read Gen 8:15–19. How does this passage imply that Noah is a second Adam? What do these verses reveal about his character? How do you respond to what the Lord instructs you to do?
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Go to Overview of 1 Peter 3:18–22
[Related posts include Inhabitants of the Sea and Sky (Gen 1:20–23); Living Things from the Earth (Gen 1:24–25); Male and Female He Created Them (Gen 1:27); The Blessing of Fruitfulness (Gen 1:28); God Establishes a Covenant (Gen 6:18); Two of Every Kind (Gen 6:19–22); By Twos and Sevens (Gen 7:1–4); Renewal of the Earth (Gen 8:6–14); and Author and Date of Genesis]
[Click here to go to Chapter 8: Safely Through (Gen 8:1–19)]
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[1]Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 187.
[2]Waltke and Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary, 127.
[3]Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17, 307.
[4]Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17, 306–7.
[5]Calvin, Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, 280.
[6]Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 187.
[7]Waltke and Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary, 129.
[8]Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 187.
[9]Waltke and Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary, 141.
[10]H. -J. Zobel, “מִשְׁפָּחָה” (mishpakhah), TDOT 9:79–86, 80–1.
[11]Waltke and Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary, 121.
Redemptive History and Theology 