October 26, 2023

Genesis 8 (HCSB)
The Flood Recedes
8 God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside. 2 The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped. 3 The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the waters had decreased significantly. 4 The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible. 6 After 40 days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made, 7 and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down, 9 but the dove found no resting place for her foot. She returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought her into the ark to himself. 10 So Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark again. 11 When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down. 12 After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again. 13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry.
The Lord’s Promise
15 Then God spoke to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, those that crawl on the ground—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. 19 All wildlife, all livestock, every bird, and every creature that crawls on the earth came out of the ark by their groups.  20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Garnett Cothern
Raining –flooding –150 days’ worth, then it stopped. I wonder what Noah and his family felt during this time. Waiting –waiting –for what? Then it DID stop and started to recede. How many times, and how long was the period that we had to ‘wait’? As a child –my summer break, as an adult –maybe for that wedding date, as an employee –maybe that vacation period. How about –waiting for the Lord’s return? And what do we do while waiting? Then, Noah had ‘trials’. Maybe not like we think of as trials, but he had to seek a solution to his condition. Float around for who knows how long, or, send a ‘messenger’ out. Try again, then again via the raven, then the dove. We try various methods many times trying to understand our trials. Why did it happen? When will it end? How can we overcome? The answer –God and His Grace. Then, we seek ‘answers’, as did Noah. When do we exit this ship and all that it demands? Are we here long term or short? We all have times when we seek answers, such as change jobs, have kids, go to school again, how to serve God in a greater capacity, and on and on. The answer-prayer, sincere prayer! Then, Noah ‘came out’ –built an altar to God and even sacrificed some of the ‘clean’ animals. God even acknowledged that He would love man although man’s heart is ‘inclined to evil’. So –praise God –through all our times of waiting, through our trials and times of seeking answers –God IS there, and He loves and provides for His children. Hallelujah!