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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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.
Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 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.
After forty days, Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 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.
He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 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.
Genesis 8:1-11
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Forty days and forty nights. More than a month of rain fell as God opened up the heavens and flooded the earth with so much water that the tops of the highest mountains were submerged. No living creature on land survived, each having their breath taken away by the Maker who had granted it.
As we turn to the opening verses of Genesis, chapter 8, we learn what happened when the rains stopped and how God initiated His plans for life to be renewed on the earth. Look again at those words here:
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.
Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 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.
After forty days, Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 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.
He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 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. Vv.1-11
Everyone and everything on the ark was a part of God’s restoration plan to repopulate the world and as He “remembered” them all, “He sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded...steadily from the earth”.
Now this wasn’t a quick process like you might experience if a sink is full of water and you remove the stopper from the drain. No, the scriptures tell is that it was a “hundred and fifty days” before “the water had gone down”, a period of nearly five months. During all this time and up to the “seventeenth day of the seventh month”, Noah’s ark remained afloat before coming “to rest on the mountains of Ararat:”. And there it sat as the “waters continued to recede until the tenth month” when the “tops of the mountains” finally became visible again. That tells us that there was still a lot of water flooding the earth that had to subside before anyone could be on dry ground again.
God’s Word tells us that forty days later, “Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven”, which flew “back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth”. Then, we read where Noah “sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground” which would indicate the earth was once again inhabitable. Unfortunately, things weren’t quite ready yet because “the dove could find nowhere to perch” on “the surface of the earth” and so “it returned to Noah in the ark”.
Seven days later, Noah once again dispatched the “dove from the ark” and when it returned this time, it had “a freshly plucked olive leaf” firmly “in its beak”. This let Noah know that “the water had receded from the earth”. The freshly plucked olive leaf was a sign that things had begun to grow once again upon the devastated earth. Indeed, God was about to make all things new again and restore life, starting with Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark.
Today, Christians have their own version of the olive leaf carrying dove in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son who He sent to be the Savior of the world.
Like in the days of Noah, the world today is becoming increasingly wicked and by the time we reach the end of days as detailed in the Book of Revelation, evil and sin will dominate the earth just before the final judgment that comes when Jesus returns. The scriptures are clear that this event will culminate with the total destruction of Heaven and earth as we know it.
Thankfully, God has made a way for people to be saved from the sure destruction and eternal damnation of Hell, something we could liken to the great floodwaters that wiped out humanity. For when a person places their belief in Jesus, they are assured safety and eternal life, sealed and protected much like Noah, his family, and the animals were while on the ark.
And so when we look at this story of Noah and how God removed the waters to allow renewed life, believers need to look to the cross, a place of death where they see Jesus crucified, but then visit an empty tomb three days later to be reminded how God brought eternal life for all sinners out of the death and subsequent resurrection of His Son.
Whether the olive leaf or the empty tomb, we see signs of how the Lord restores and renews life and this truth should always bring us to a place of thanksgiving and praise, now and forever.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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