创世记——第八章

约拿

创世记第八章： 8:1 神记念挪亚和挪亚方舟里的一切走兽牲畜。　神叫风吹地，水势渐落。 8:2 渊源和天上的窗户都闭塞了，天上的大雨也止住了。 8:3 水从地上渐退。过了一百五十天，水就渐消。 8:4 七月十七日，方舟停在亚拉腊山上。 8:5 水又渐消，到十月初一日，山顶都现出来了。 8:6 过了四十天，挪亚开了方舟的窗户， 8:7 放出一只乌鸦去。那乌鸦飞来飞去，直到地上的水都乾了。 8:8 他又放出一只鸽子去，要看看水从地上退了没有。 8:9 但遍地上都是水，鸽子找不著落脚之地，就回到方舟挪亚那里，挪亚伸手把鸽子接进方舟来。 8:10 他又等了七天，再把鸽子从方舟放出去。 8:11 到了晚上，鸽子回到他那里，嘴里叼著一个新拧下来的橄榄叶子，挪亚就知道地上的水退了。 8:12 他又等了七天，放出鸽子去，鸽子就不再回来了。 8:13 到挪亚六百零一岁，正月初一日，地上的水都乾了。挪亚撤去方舟的盖观看,便见地面上乾了。 8:14 到了二月二十七日，地就都乾了。 8:15 神对挪亚说： 8:16 “你和你的妻子、儿子、儿妇都可以出方舟。 8:17 在你那里凡有血肉的活物，就是飞鸟、牲畜和一切爬在地上的昆虫，都要带出来，叫它在地上多多滋生，大大兴旺。” 8:18 于是挪亚和他的妻子、儿子、儿妇都出来了。 8:19 一切走兽、昆虫、飞鸟，和地上所有的动物，各从其类，也都出了方舟。 8:20 挪亚为耶和华筑了一座坛，拿各类洁净的牲畜、飞鸟献在坛上为燔祭。 8:21 耶和华闻那馨香之气，就心里说：“我不再因人的缘故咒诅地（人从小时心里怀著恶念），也不再按著我才行的，灭各种的活物了。 8:22 地还存留的时候，稼穑、寒暑、冬夏、昼夜就永不停息了。”

约拿

　　八1～19 洪水发生的时序如下：

　　l．七天——从挪亚进入方舟至洪水降下（七10） 　　2．四十昼夜——降雨的时间（七12） 　　3．一百五十天——从洪水降临至水退（八3）。方舟停在亚拉腊山上（比较七11和八4） 　　4．二百二十四天——洪水降临至山顶再现出来（比较七11和八5） 　　5．四十天——山顶重现至挪亚放出一只乌鸦去（八7） 　　6．七天——放出乌鸦至首次放出鸽子去。（八6～10；第10节：“又等了七天”） 　　7．另外七天——直至第二次放出鸽子去（八10） 　　8．另外七天——直至最后一次放出鸽子去（八12） 　　9．三百一十四天——洪水降临至挪亚撤去方舟的盖观看（比较七11和八13） 　　10．三百七十一天——洪水降临至地面上干了（比较七11和八14）那时神命令挪亚出方舟（16节）

　　本章第一节“神记念挪亚……”。挪亚一家人在方舟内，已有一百五十天之久(创七24)，似乎被神遗忘；但神并没有忘记他们。这里是强调神的信实和慈爱。那些记念神的人，必然被神所记念，不论他的处境是如何的孤独和痛苦。信徒若长时落在苦难试炼之中，可能会认为神不再顾念他；但神的顾念有始有终；他总是按着一定的时候，为他所顾念的人采取行动。

　　不洁的乌鸦（7节）和洁净的鸽子（8节）正好代表信徒新旧的本性。旧的本性爱吃垃圾和腐肉，但新的本性不能从死亡和审判中得到满足。除非稳站在复活的地位上，否则不得安息。

　　八20～22 挪亚感谢神拯救的恩典，筑了一座坛。一般人通常有两大毛病：1、蒙恩而不知感恩；2、容易倾向于崇拜神所施恩的工具（例如方舟），而漠视了施恩的神。但挪亚在这里是筑坛“向神感恩”。我们得救，免去神的忿怒，就当真心敬拜神。这是可悦纳可喜悦的，正如挪亚的时代一样，耶和华立约说，不再咒诅地，也不再按着他才行的，灭各种的活物了；并且，地还存留的时候，神使四季有定时。

　　“地还存留的时候，稼穑、寒暑、冬夏、昼夜就永不停息”这是洪水之后，神与人所立的约里面的一部分；他不只恢复了自然的秩序，并且确定这秩序要一直存留，使人类得以存活。这正说明了神的忍耐和信实。人一切的痛苦，全是由于人误用了神所安排的秩序。如果，人在神圣的管理下善用这秩序，那么，人既不会有痛苦，也不会有贫乏，人将有一种完善的生活。现在，四时的交替时常提醒我们神这应许仍在。

　　在第六章6节和这里第21节，神提到人心充满恶念。首先是没有献祭的，审判接踵而来。这里有献祭，神施恩。从圣经中我们看到神为了拯救世人，无数次显出他的爱心和忍耐。他虽然知道人心中充满邪恶，仍不停地试图挽回他们。当我们犯罪远离了神，理当受神审判毁灭，但是神应许在基督再来审判并永远毁灭邪恶之前，他不再毁灭地上的万物。

地上的过客

Genesis 8 ¹ But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. ² Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. ³ The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, ⁴ and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. ⁵ The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. ⁶ After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark ⁷ and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. ⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. ⁹ But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. ¹¹ When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. ¹² He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. ¹³ By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry. ¹⁵ Then God said to Noah, ¹⁶ "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. ¹⁷ Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you-the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground-so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it." ¹⁸ So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. ¹⁹ All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds-everything that moves on the earth-came out of the ark, one kind after another. ²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. ²¹ The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though ^[1] every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. ²² "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."