Genesis Chapter Eight
Read Genesis 8:1-5
– The
v.1 “And 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;”
What does this word “ASSWAGED”
mean? The currently accepted spelling is
assuaged and it means (1) “to make milder or less severe; relieve; ease; (2) to
appease, satisfy; (3) to soothe, calm, or mollify.” God remembered Noah, ark and all the
creatures that He had saved. So much the
same as he controlled the
v.2-3 “The fountains also
of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven
was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and
after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.”
God, in his response to Job, asked
this question:
“Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who
can stay the bottles of heaven,” Job 38:37
and, of course, the answer is God. When God remember Noah he stopped the
fountains of the earth, the rain ceased and after 150 days the waters went to
their rightful place on the new earth.
v.4 “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of
the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.”
Exactly five months has
passed since the “FOUNTAINS OF THE GREAT DEEP BROKEN UP, AND THE WINDOWS OF
HEAVEN WERE OPENED.” (Genesis 7:11). The ark comes to rest on the top of a
mountain called Ararat. Where is this
mountain located? “A district of Armenia
(east of
v.5 “And the waters
decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were
the tops of the mountains seen.”
So the water continued to subside
for about another 2˝ months until the tops of the mountain could be seen.
Read Genesis 8:6-14 – Dry Land Again
v.6-7 “And it came to pass at the end of forty days,
that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: 7And he
sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up
from off the earth.”
After forty days, forty
days after the first of the tenth month, Noah started trying to find out if
there was dry land for him, his family and the animals on the ark to
occupy. God had told him precisely when
the flood was coming, told him how escape it, provided him the means to maintain
life on earth but has not yet told him that the earth was dry. Noah wants to find this out for himself. So Noah sends out a raven. Scripture tells us that this bird went to and
fro until the waters were dried up. One
commentator indicates that this bird probably flew back and forth but returned
to the ark to roost and rest without coming to Noah and says that the original
Hebrew means that the bird was “going forth and returning.”
v.8-9 “Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if
the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; 9But the
dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto 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 unto him into the ark.”
In addition to the raven, Noah also sent out
of the ark a dove. The dove did not find
a place to set her foot; a place of peace or that satisfied her, indicating
that there was still too much water on the earth.
v.10-11 “And he stayed yet other seven days; and again
he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And
the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated
from off the earth.”
The wording of scripture would
indicate that this time the dove did not return near as quickly as she had done
in verse 9. When she does return she
brings a branch from an olive tree in her mouth. Noah understands that this means that the
waters were continuing to subside and that now there was living plants on the
earth that would be needed to sustain him, his family and the animals that were
on the ark.
v.12 “And he stayed yet
other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him
any more.”
Noah waits another seven days and
sends out the dove again. This time she
does not return and Noah knows that she has found a resting place to her liking
and the means to sustain her life.
v.13-14 “And it came to pass
in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah
removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the
ground was dry. 14And in the second month, on the seven and
twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.”
New Year’s Day or
Noah’s birthday; what a day that must have been. It now has been about 10˝ months since God
destroyed the earth with the great flood.
Noah opens the ark to the extent that he can see that there is dry land
but God tells us that the earth wasn’t entirely dried until the second month
and twenty-seventh day; one year and ten days after the flood. Noah and his family are probably getting
restless and wish to leave the ark but God is not ready for them just yet and
they must wait another 2 months and 27 days.
Since God shut and sealed the only door it would logical that God would
also need to open that door as well.
Read Genesis
v.15-16 “And God spake unto Noah, saying, 16Go
forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with
thee.”
God does things when he is
ready. God told Noah when to go into the
ark now God tells Noah when to leave the ark as well. In these verses we also have another lesson
that most people never learn. We’re told
through the pen of the Apostle Peter:
I Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:”
As children of God we
must in all our ways acknowledge God and set his precepts before us in our
hearts, minds and way of living. Only
those who follow God’s direction and submit to his government will live under
God’s protection. Only those that are
steadfast in God’s word as their rule and are guided by the Word given by His
grace will reap the rewards of his blessings.
v.17 “Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of
cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may
breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and
multiply upon the earth.”
Just as at the beginning:
Genesis
The earth is to be
re-populated, replenished from those that survived and thus we have our
ancestry confirmed. Not
only human ancestry but also all of the creatures that Noah carried with him on
the ark. If we could trace our
linage as the generations of Jesus was traced by the Holy Spirit in the gospels
of Matthew and Luke we would eventually end our search here at the feet of
Noah.
v.18-19 “And Noah went
forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: 19Every
beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth
out of the ark.”
Noah, his wife, and his sons went
out of the ark taking with them all of the creatures that God had caused to
join them. They were alive, having
escaped the wrath of God because of the faithfulness of Noah:
Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah,
being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark
to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became
heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
His faith not only
extended the salvation from death to him and his family but also to those
creatures that were with him. Noah, at
least on this occasion, was a good steward of God and able to give a good
account of the responsibility that God had given him.
Read Genesis 8:20-22 – Noah’s Worship
v. 20 “And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and
took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings
on the altar.”
The first order of
business that we find to be conducted after Noah and his family
are delivered is their worship to God.
So, just as Abel had done several hundred years before, Noah now makes
offerings of beasts and blood to God. We
read here of clean beasts and fowls vs unclean,
something we usually associate with the Mosaic Law with God’s dietary
restrictions:
Leviticus 11:1-2 “And the LORD spake
unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, 2Speak unto the children
of Israel, saying, These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth.
Considering that God never changes (Malachi 3:6). Since he gave instructions to the patriarchs
and also to the Israelite nation about animals that were clean and unclean;
should we be concerned about these things today? No, we are under a different covenant with
God that does not have these instructions in it, they
apply only to those to whom they were given.
v.21 “And the LORD
smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD
said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake;
for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every
thing living, as I have done.”
God was pleased with Noah and the
worship of Noah’s family. He promises
two things in addition to the rainbow covenant that we find in Chapter Nine; he
will not curse the ground as he did with Cain and he will not totally destroy
every living thing from the earth again until the end of time when the earth
and universe will be destroyed and replaced with a new heaven and a new earth.
Even though “ALL HAVE SINNED, AND
COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD. (Romans
v.22. “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
While the earth remains: the seasons
will continue, spring for planting and seeding, fall for harvest, heat and
cold, summer and winter, night and day; God will not again disturb the order of
his creation. God keeps his promises,
not only those that have to do with this earth but those that have to do with
His Son and his son’s kingdom.