Charles Spurgeon Commentary Genesis 8

And God remembered Noah,

Noah had been shut up in the ark for many a day, and at the right time God thought of him, practically thought of him, and came to visit him. Dear heart, you have been shut out from the world now for many days, but God has not forgotten you. God remembered Noah, and he remembers you.

And every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark:

Does God remember cattle? Then he will certainly remember men made in his own image. He will remember you, though you think yourself the most worthless one on the face of the earth: God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark.

And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged (Genesis 8:1).

Winds and waves are wholly under God's control. I suppose that this was a very drying wind, so the waters began to turn to vapor and gradually disappear. It is God who sends the winds; they seem most volatile and irregular, but God sends them to do His bidding. Blow it east, or blow it west, the wind comes from God; and whether the waters increase or subside, it is God's doing.

Are the waters very deep with you, dear friend? God can dry them up, and, remarkably enough, He can stop one trouble with another; He can dry up the water with the wind.

I have known Him to work in very remarkable ways with His people. When they thought they were quite forgotten, He has proved that He remembered them, and both the winds of heaven and the waters of the sea have had to work for their good.

There is not an angel in heaven whom God will not employ to serve you if you need him; there is not a wind in any quarter of the globe that God will not guide to you if it is necessary; and there are no waves of the sea that will not obey the Lord's will concerning you.

God works upwards, and stops the windows of heaven. He works downwards, and restrains the breaking up of the fountains of the deep.

"He everywhere has sway,
And all things serve his might."

Do not be afraid; He can open the windows of heaven and pour down abundant blessings for you, and He can let down the cellar-flaps of the great deep and stop its flowing fountains.

"When He bares His arm,
What will His work withstand?"

God told Noah when to go into the ark, but He did not tell him when he would come out again. The Lord told Noah when to go in, because it was necessary for him to know that; but He did not tell him when he would come out, because it was unnecessary for him to know that. God always lets His people know what is practically for their good. There are many curious points on which we would like to have information, but God has not revealed it, and when He has not revealed anything, we had better not try to unravel the mystery.

No good comes from prying into unrevealed truth. Noah knew that he would come out of the ark one day, for was he not preserved there to be a seed—to keep the race alive? Noah was not told when he would be released, and the Lord does not tell you when your trouble will come to an end. It will come to an end; therefore, wait, be patient, and do not desire to know the time of your deliverance. We would know too much if we knew all that will happen in the future.

It is quite enough for us if we do our duty in the present and trust God for the rest. Still, I think that Noah must have been very pleased when he felt the ark grating at last on the mountains of Ararat. He could not build a dock for his big ship, but God had prepared a berth for it on the mountainside. Now, as he looked out, he could see, here and there, a mountaintop rising like an island out of the great expanse of water.

And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro,

Sometimes alighting on the ark; then flying away again.

Until the waters were dried up from of the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from of the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in to him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days;

I wonder whether Noah sent out these creatures on the Sabbath mornings. The mention of seven days, and the resting in between seems to look like it. Oh, dear friends, sometimes people send out a raven on the Lord's day morning, and it never brings them anything.

Send out a dove rather than a raven; come to the house of God with quiet, gentle, holy expectation, and your dove will come back to you. It may be that it will bring you something worth bringing one of these days, as Noah's dove brought to him.