Genesis 8:1-22
“Resting in the ark of grace”
Vs. 1-12 The wind and a bird
Vs. 13-22 From the ark to the altar
Intro.
If you add up the genealogical records in the Bible you can estimate that the flood took place around 2500-3500 BC, or around 4,300 years ago. Now the evolutionist will balk at this because of the so-called scientific dating methods.
There are three primary methods used for determining age:
Carbon dating: Which is based upon carbon that is found in all living things. There are two types of carbon, one that occurs naturally in C12, and one that forms in conjunction with the nitrogen in the atmosphere called C14. The amount of C12 stays the same after a living thing dies but the amount of C14 changes as it reverts back to nitrogen. So the theory goes that a really smart evolutionist would be able to measure the amount of C14 and C12 the specimen contains and based upon how much C14 is left they would be able to date it. There are several problems with this:
How long does it take for there to be no more C14 left? (Some estimate 50,000 years). So how are they going to be able to test this seeing none lives that long?
There are too many factors that can change how much C14 a specimen may have. Plants don’t take in as much C14 as other living things thus it would take less to revert back to nitrogen, making the plant look older than it actually was. The amounts of C12 in the atmosphere have not always been consistent.
Radiometric: Which attempts to measure the amount of radioactive minerals in rocks. Most fossils do not contain radioactive minerals so they simply take volcanic rocks around where the fossils are found. Again all this falls upon guessing how long it took elements to change without ever taking in consideration how the rock was formed to begin with.
K-Ar: Tests the amount of potassium-argon: Here again they have some problems because the evolutionist has to assume three things:
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- How much of the elements were in the rocks when they hardened.
- At what rate did the decay of the elements take place and was it always at the same rate?
- The amount of elements being measured never increased or decreased by any other way.
The problem is obvious: the evolutionists were not there, nor have they tested every rock on the planet. But to their chagrin they did go to Mt. Saint Helen’s right after it erupted in the early 1980’s to sample the rocks that were created by the eruption. The tests came back that the rocks that were formed in the 1980’s were anywhere from 340,000 to 2.8 million years old and it seems as if it only happened 34 years ago!
There is one other way to date something:
Eyewitness account: That’s where a person actually witnessed the time in which something happened and wrote it down. “I’m telling you I watched Mt. Saint Helens erupt and that rock is only 34 years old!” “No way man, we’ve run our tests and it’s 2.8 million years old!” So whom are you going to believe?
Vs. 1-12 The wind and a bird
Vs. 1a Before any change in Noah’s situation it says, “God remembered Noah”. This phrase does not mean that God turned on the water in the world and had forgotten that He had left it running then suddenly remembered Noah was in the tub. The Hebrew phrase does not deal with the act of remembering but rather with the manner or way in which God remembers. And we are told in 6:8 that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” The important thing here is to see that God remembered Noah in grace. God deals with the inward heart before He ever deals with the outward surroundings.
Vs. 1b-2 We are given two ways in which God caused the waters to subside:
“God made a wind to pass over the earth.” It seems as though before the flood and while the ark was floating around that there were no big winds. Here God caused a warm drying wind to help in evaporation. The “wind” in scripture is used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The first activity that was used in changing Noah’s condition was that of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always changes the heart of a person before it ever changes the condition in which the heart finds it’s self in.
The earth’s crust collapsed into the subterranean reservoirs which now make up the present day ocean basins, some up to two miles in depth. Again the order of this is interesting in light of the activity of the wind or Holy Spirit. You can’t turn back the waters of our old nature prior to first having the Holy Spirit change our hearts.
Vs. 3 The effects of the two is that the “waters receded continually.” The earth was not flooded overnight nor would it dry again in one day. It seems that the effects of the change were quite noticeable in about 5 months of consistent work of the wind. Change is always gradual, it’s never all the sudden like.
Vs. 4-5 Some calculate that Noah most likely felt the ground some 40 days before they began to see it. This is true spiritually with us as well as we need to wait patiently to “see” with our eyes what our heart already tells us is true in Christ! The specific month and day of the ark’s resting is given to us. Exactly five months after the flood began the ark stood fast in the mountains of Ararat, which is modern day Turkey in the Armenian Mountain range. Mount Ararat at 17,000 feet is most likely where it landed but it would be another two and a half months (verse 5) before the tops of the mountains were seen.
Notice what else took place on this same date in history: The 7th month of the Hebrew civil calendar was later, in Ex. 12:2, changed to the first month in the religious calendar in honor of the Passover. We know according to the gospels that Jesus and His disciples ate the Passover meal on the 14th and three days later on the 17th He rose from the dead. So Jesus would rise from the dead on the exact same day as the ark rested on Mt. Ararat, which by the way means “Holy ground”. New life was about to begin for Noah and his family and the only way this new life was going to be accomplished was if it was resting upon the power of the resurrection.
Vs. 6 Noah waited forty days before he opened the window to see. Think of this he has been bobbing around for 5 months and stuck fast for 40 days, the world and all in it are gone yet there is no sign of curiosity. This is extreme obedience, as Noah knew the Lord was working but was willing to wait and see until the Lord guided him to do so.
Vs. 7-12 The raven is listed as one of the unclean birds unfit to eat by the Jewish people because it is a scavenger that eats primarily on dead things. Noah releases the raven first knowing that it would continue to fly back and forth feeding on the dead carcasses before there was dry land. The raven would give Noah an indication of how high the water level was, as it would land upon the dead floating things in the water.
The dove was a clean animal as far as the Jews were concerned, as it required plant life and a place to roost before it could survive. The dove could find no place to roost and came back to the ark each day and Noah would take it in. After another seven days the dove goes out and this time returns with a freshly picked olive branch in its beak. The olive tree is extremely hardy and can grow in the most barren of situations. The dove showed Noah that the earth was again beginning to produce vegetation and would soon be ready to support life. The seeds and cuttings were no doubt in sediments left by the flood and began to sprout as soon as the water subsided and sunlight hit the soil. Experiments have shown that seeds will sprout even after months of submersion in salt water.
What a great picture we have here in the raven and the dove:
The raven: Represents the flesh as it finds its rest and sustenance on dead and decaying things of the former life in the world. There is no value in the things that it rests and feeds on; neither will it find comfort in the ark of Christ.
The dove: Represents our new nature in Christ, which only finds its rest in Jesus. The fruit of this new life in Christ is always fresh peace (olive branch) on our lips as well as in our hearts.
Vs. 13-22 From the ark to the altar
Vs. 13 Noah spent his 600th year in the ark but at the beginning of his 601st year of life was a brand new start. The old life had perished under the water and the new life was going to have to be lived in complete dependence upon God.
Vs. 14-16 On the first day of the month Noah removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry but it was not until the 27th day of the 2nd month that God told Noah to leave the ark. God did not want Noah and his family to get stuck in the mud and mire of their former life, instead God wanted them to wait until there was a firm foundation that they could stand upon.
Also it was the same word that told Noah to “come” into the ark that now tells him to go out of it. It is important that we not only follow God’s word when we seek to avoid His judgment but when we seek His blessing as well. Noah obeyed equally wanting to be right where God wanted him to be.
Vs. 16-19 Serves as Noah’s commissioning service, kind of like Jesus’ words to His disciples in Matt. 28:19 to go and make disciples. Noah was going to be like Abraham living alone in the land of promise. A year and 10 days later God assured him that His grace was not just upon the ark but upon a cleaned earth. Thus the same blessed command to be fruitful and multiply and repopulate the earth. All the animals can be traced to that which at one time were in the ark.
Vs. 20-22 Noah sacrificed a seventh of his flocks and herds in an act of faith, and praise to God. So that the first thing that Noah does outside the Ark is praise and thank God. Noah recognizes God’s governing hand that had guided him and his family safely to dry land. They owed their lives, not to good shipbuilding, favorable stars and the right alignment of the planets but rather to the proper worship of God. Noah not only offered sacrificially but he also offered by faith, instead of waiting until he had built up his flocks to sufficient number he proves his trust in God by offering out of the gross and not the net! By offering clean animals he offers what is best as well as in obedience.
Vs. 21-22 God responds to Noah offering of:
- Sacrifice
- Faith
- Best
- Obedience
By smelling “the savior of rest,” literally in the Hebrew, God accepted Noah’s worship showing that life in the new world was to be based upon faith in a saving atonement pointing to the permanent atonement we would have in Jesus. God promises several things based upon Noah’s praise offering:
“Never again curse the ground for man’s sake”: God had cursed the ground following Adam’s fall to bring man into greater dependence upon God yet man refused to trust in his creator. The garden curse was to still be in effect but no further cures upon the earth was to be tacked on. Because, “although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth”, God knows man is a sinner by nature and there is no amount of struggle or judgment that can change his wicked heart to a good heart, the only way man will change is by knowing God’s goodness and grace. Paul in Rom. 2:4 tells us that, “the goodness of God leads you to repentance”.
“Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done”: God would never again bring a worldwide cataclysm upon the earth. God is showing us that not even in His revealing His power over the external world and all life can change a sinful heart. It is only when a sinful heart responds to a God whose eyes are full of grace and truth that they will have a changed heart.
- Greater dependence upon God can make a man respond correctly for his own benefit but it has no power to change the heart.
- Outward judgments may terrify and even temporarily restrain the sinful heart but they cannot change it.
There is nothing that God can do for a sinful heart but to love it in spite of itself! It is only God’s love that can break a sinful heart! So the earth with man in it will remain in a state of probation, sustaining life while revealing His love for sinful man. The words of verse 22 proclaim His consistent love and grace to a world that has a terminal heart condition and concludes with “Shall not cease.”