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 a 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 nowhere to perch 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 on 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 land—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 humans, even though every inclination of the human 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.”
SS9 BLOWN AWAY
Genesis 8
God remembered Noah and sent wind. First, wind in the storm was proof that God remembered Noah. Interesting thought. I bet Noah did not feel that way during the wind. I know the wind can be more frightening than the rain. But God was using it to move the water. God can use things that scare us to help us. It can be a sign of God's presence.
Wind is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Sidenote, about God remembering Noah. The idea that God could forget about Noah is frightening. I mean, his family were the only people around. I have often prayed that God would remember me in my trials. It is easy to feel forgotten. Bibleheads say the word “remember” here is like when we say that we are remembering someone on their birthday. It is not that we forgot them on other days, just that we are focusing our attention on them or acknowledging them. Same deal. God was focused on Noah.
After 150 days, the ark lands in Ararat Mountains. After 40 more days, Noah opens the window. He is a lot more patient than I am. He sent out a raven and it flew all over. He sent a dove and it returned because it could find no other place to land. The next time he sent a dove, it came back with an olive leave. We have seen that image a million times used to mean peace, not safety. That is sort of weird. And what was the raven v. dove thing about? Got Questions says that the raven never came back – and it eats carrion, so it might have found something gross to munch on. The dove returned and was a better messenger since it brought the leaf back with it. Makes sense and probably contains a lesson on being a messenger for God. Don't stop for snacks unless you can bring them with you, or something.
Noah still was on the boat even though the land was dry. He waited until God told him to get out. I have trouble listening like that and would have jumped out and complained to God about the mud. I wonder how long in all Noah was in the boat. Most of the Bibleheads think about a year. Yikes!!!
I like that Noah's first act after the flood is to make a sacrifice to God. God is impressed as well because it inspires Him to make a promise to never completely destroy the earth like that again. I am sure that promised has helped us scrape by more than once.
I told you that I struggle with this section, but I do glean a few things. There is the water symbolism. It mirrors baptism- water as cleansing sin from the land. It also very much mirror's Moses's story of escaping on the water while all other babies perish. It is also a story of incredible faith since God ordered Noah to do the seeming impossible. I imagine that week of sitting in the boat before it rained was probably very stressful. His wife probably glared at him over breakfast each day. Collect animals, he said. Get on the big grounded boat, he said. Sky water, he said. What now, Mr. Weatherman? This was a study of obedience and patience.
I suspect this story means more if you have come through a time of destruction. We lived through a real terrifying water flood as children, but I am thinking more of a life storm. Sweet T and I have both lived through devastating life storms. It is really challenging to hear from God during the storm. Even in calm waters, I am not the best at hearing God, and He knows that. He is loud when He speaks and repeats Himself until I get it.
I do identify with having to wait for things to work out. Think of Noah building the ark for 120 years. He had to have some doubts when his neighbors saw what he was doing. But he did it. Think of the week onboard where not a drop of rain fell. Then the water comes and seems endless. Is God hearing me? Is He even in this? Does He exist or is it just water and death? I was faithful God, why am I going through this? The questions and cries for God to remember us. I am sure Noah experienced some of this.
Then the water recedes with the blast of wind comes. That had to feel like a new kind of storm. He may not have known God was in it.
Noah knows dry land is there. But still he has to wait until God tells him to leave the boat. I bet his kids were chanting, are we there yet? Noah got through, but think of our author Moses who never saw the promised land.
We live by faith, but the results are not always what we expect. God works off of a different agenda. It is a good agenda, but it does not always feel good. Noah had a lot of hard days. He lost friends in this flood. He lost possessions and his home. There are times when you are obedient, but you feel let down by God. God is not going to always make us agree with his decisions or allow us to even understand. That is why we walk by faith and not by our wants.
And I think we have it better than Noah. He heard from God. He listened and acted. All external instruction. It was a separation between God and man. As Christ died, he erased the separation. We no longer need the external voice because God places His Holy Spirit IN us. It is no longer a list of instructions but an intimate relationship. God went through the storm to make it possible for us. And with all that, we are still called blessed because we believe without seeing! Noah and Adam would have given an arm to be in our shoes. It is silly, but some days I long to hear God's voice like they did. I cannot wait until we have both!
