The Expositor's Bible: The Book of GenesisDods, Marcus
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis
Dods, Marcus
Bible. Genesis -- Commentaries
It may be felt that the matters about which God spoke to Noah were
barely religious, certainly not spiritual. But to take God as our God in
any one particular is to take Him as our God for all. If we can eat our
daily bread as given to us by our Father in heaven, then we are heirs of
the righteousness which is by faith. It is because we wait for some
wonderful and out-of-the-way proofs that God is keeping faith with us
that we so much lack a real and living faith. If you think of God only
in connection with some spiritual difficulty, or if you are waiting for
some critical spiritual experience about which you may deal with
God,--if you are not transacting with Him about your daily work, about
your temporal wants and difficulties, about your friendships and your
tastes, about that which makes up the bulk of your thought, feeling, and
action, then you have yet to learn what living with God means. You have
yet to learn that God the Infinite Creator of all is present in all your
life. We are not in advance of Noah, but behind him, if we cannot speak
to God about common things.
Besides, the relation of man to God was sufficiently determined by this
covenant. When any man in that age began to ask himself the question
which all men in all ages ask, How shall I win the favour of God? it
must, or it might, at once have struck him, Why, God has already
favoured me and has bound Himself to me by express and solemn pledges.
And radically this is all that any one needs to know. It is not a change
in God's attitude towards you that is required. What is required is that
you believe what is actually the case, that the Holy God loves you
already and is already seeking to bless you by making you like Himself.
Believe that, and let the faith of it sink more and more deeply into
your spirit, and you will find that you are saved from your sin.
What remains to be told of Noah is full of moral significance. Rare
indeed is a _wholly_ good man; and happy indeed is he who throughout his
youth, his manhood, and his age lets principle govern all his actions.
The righteous and rescued Noah lying drunk on his tent-floor is a
sorrowful spectacle. God had given him the earth, and this was the use
he made of the gift; melancholy presage of the fashion of his posterity.
He had God to help him to bear his responsibilities, to refresh and
gladden him; but he preferred the fruit of his vineyard. Can the most
sacred or impressive memories secure a man against sin? Noah had the
memory of a race drowned for sin and of a year in solitude with God. Can
the dignity and weight of responsibility steady a man? This man knew
that to him God had declared His purpose and that he only could carry it
forward to fulfilment. In that heavy helpless figure, fallen insensible
in his tent, is as significant a warning as in the Flood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account