D. Scott Meadows

“Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark” —Genesis 8:9.

13 MARCH PM, MORNING AND EVENING BY C. H. SPURGEON

Wearied out with her wanderings, the dove returns at length to the ark as her only resting place. How heavily she flies—she will drop—she will never reach the ark! But she struggles on. Noah has been looking out for his dove all day long, and is ready to receive her. She has just strength to reach the edge of the ark, she can hardly alight upon it, and is ready to drop, when Noah puts forth his hand and pulls her in unto him.

Mark that: “pulled her in unto him.” She did not fly right in herself, but was too fearful, or too weary to do so. She flew as far as she could, and then he put forth his hand and pulled her in unto him. This act of mercy was shown to the wandering dove, and she was not chidden for her wanderings. Just as she was she was pulled into the ark.

So you, seeking sinner, with all your sin, will be received. “Only return”—those are God’s two gracious words—“only return.” What! nothing else? No, “only return.” She had no olive branch in her mouth this time, nothing at all but just herself and her wanderings; but it is “only return,” and she does return, and Noah pulls her in.

Fly, thou wanderer; fly thou fainting one, dove as thou art, though thou thinkest thyself to be black as the raven with the mire of sin, back, back to the Saviour. Every moment thou waitest does but increase thy misery; thine attempts to plume thyself and make thyself fit for Jesus are all vanity. Come thou to him just as thou art. “Return, thou backsliding Israel.” He does not say, “Return, thou repenting Israel” (there is such an invitation doubtless), but “thou backsliding one,” as a backslider with all thy backslidings about thee, Return, return, return! Jesus is waiting for thee! He will stretch forth his hand and “pull thee in”—in to himself, thy heart’s true home.

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Elaboration

On Genesis 8.9

O Spurgeon! What an evangelistic preacher, or often, a preaching evangelist! Our occasional qualms about your exegesis seem trifling when we admire your zeal for gathering sinners to the Savior Jesus Christ.

Of course the words of this text faithfully report of an act which was both literal and historical. It means that Noah, famed man of the ark, reached for the dove flapping her wings, and when she had alighted upon his hand, took took her back into the ark with him, his family, and all the other animals. Spurgeon affirms this while making it an illustration, if not an allegory, of evangelistic significance, as he appeals to any unconverted readers for their own good.

A case can be made from Scripture that this spiritual treatment is warranted. Matthew Henry’s words were probably familiar to Spurgeon:

The dove is an emblem of a gracious soul, which finding no rest for its foot, no solid peace or satisfaction in this world, this deluged defiling world, returns to Christ as to its ark, as to its Noah. The carnal heart, like the raven, takes up with the world, and feeds on the carrions it finds there; but return thou to thy rest, O my soul, to thy Noah, so the word is, Ps. 116:7. O that I had wings like a dove, to flee to him! Ps. 55:6. And as Noah put forth his hand, and took the dove, and pulled her in to him, into the ark, so Christ will graciously preserve, and help, and welcome, those that fly to him for rest (in loc.).

Long before Spurgeon and Henry were born, the Reformer Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563) offered a different interpretation.

The foot of the dove did not find any place outside the ark to rest, wherefore it returns to Noah in the ark and is peacefully received. And Christ sent his disciples from the house of God into the world, endowing them with the simplicity of doves. There, they sometimes do not find a place where they may rest, that is, where they may find some success. Therefore, when empty, they return to the church in which Christ remains with his own, and they are no less lovingly received by him. Noah, having extended his hand, receives the dove which he himself had sent forth. The hand of Christ is in the church, which sends doves forth and receives them back. Here is the true Noah, true rest, calling to all who labor and promising them rest (Reformation Commentary: Genesis 1–11, in loc.).

A modern scholarly commentary instead sees in this text an illustration of Noah’s righteousness as one with devoted concern for animals. It adds, “he was an archetypal conservationist. This is another respect in which he is an imitator of God” (WBC 1, in loc.).

These variations caution us against undue hermeneutical liberties. However, illustrating truth from Scripture history like this, though perhaps a bit fanciful, is not, in my view, censurable while there is no compromise of historicity or theological orthodoxy. Spurgeon is guilty of neither.

The structure of this devotional message

I. The return of this dove to Noah
II. The retrieval of this dove by Noah
III. The gospel promise to seeking sinners
IV. A gospel exhortation to seeking sinners

So whether you are still unconverted or perhaps a weary preacher with too little to show for your earnest evangelistic efforts, return to the Christ who is willing to receive you and give you rest—good advice in any case. Ω