The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 211

IIOMILETICS. Vera. 15-22.-Th.e saint and the Saviour. I. THE SAVIOUR'S INJUNCTION TO THE SAINT (ver. 15). The command which God addressed to Noah and the other inmates of the ark to go forth and take possession of the renovated earth may be regarded as emblematic of that· Divine instruction which shall yet be given to the saints to go forth and take possession of the new heavens and the new earth, when the great gospel ship of the Christian Church, now floating on the troubled sea of life, shall have landed with its living freight upon the coasts of bliss. The Divine command to Noah was an order to pass-1. From a situation of comparative peril to a positiO'I!, of perfect safety. Though, certainly, before the bursting of the storm the only available ahefter was that afforded by the ark, "all flesh and all in whose nostrils was the breath of life " that remained without having perished, yet even in8ide tbo ark must have seemed.to the inexperienced voyagers to be at the best of only doubt- ful security. But now whatever danger had been connected with their twelve months' drifting across a trackless sea was at an end. And so, though only within the shelter of the Christian Church can safety be enjoyed, yet at the beet it is not entirely free from peril. What with temptations and afflictions, 11 fears within and foes without," there always is a risk of making shipwreck of the soul (1 Tim. i. 19); but when life's voyage has been finished, and the new heavens and the new earth have been revealed, the sal- vation of the saints will be complete. 2. From a period of patient hoping to a season of delightful enjoving. It is doubtful if we always sufficiently realise the greatness :of the strain to which the faith of the patriarch was subjected when be was shut up within the ark and left there for o.ver a twelvemonth without any direct communica- tion from God, with nothing for his faith to rest upon but the simple promise that he and his should be saved. Af the best it was only little foretastes or eamests of God's complete salvation which he enjoyed : first in being sheltered from the storm ; next in being floated above the waters ; then in touching land upon Ararat ; and again in getting signs of the approaching deliverance. Throughout the entire period he could only live in hope and pati~ntly endure. But here at length was the time of foll fruition come. Go forth from the ark. And so it is with Christ's saints nnivers- nlly. Here are only earnests of tho inheritance (Ephes. i. 14); there alone is the inheritance itself (Col. i. 12). Now is the time for hoping and waiting (Rom. viii. 25); then is the season for seeing and enjoying (1 John iii. 2). Here the saints rest upon the promise as their guarantee (2 Tim. i. 1; Heb. iv. 1) ; there the so.ints behold and experience its renlisation (Heh. vi. 12). 3. From a condition of re- strained activit'IJ to a spltere of highe1· and freer service. Not thatNotih's life within the ark could ln any s•)nse have been one of idleness, and neither are the lives oc Christians en the earth md in the Church belo,v; but Noah entered on another o.nd B nobler kind of work when he left the nrk thlln tl1at which bud engaged his powers within its precincts, nnd so do they who nrc counted worthy of attaining ta Christ's  THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [CR, VIII, 16-22.