Session 4: Week 5 – Genesis 8:1-22
Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
God used a wind to make the waters go down. That’s interesting to me. The Hebrew word for wind is Ruakh רוּחַ which is the same word the scriptures translate as Spirit in other passages like Genesis 1:2. 2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.
Wind is a picture of God’s Spirit. Here in Genesis 8 God is using the wind to dry up the waters. This isn’t the only instance where wind is used in the deliverance of God’s people. In Exodus 14:21 we read: 21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
In Ezekiel 37:9 we read; 9 Then said He unto me: ‘Prophesy unto the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’
In this passage the words breath and winds are both translations of the Hebrew word Ruakh.
In 2 Samuel 22 David sings a song to the Lord on the day God delivered him from the hands of his enemies (Saul). In Verse 11 David describes seeing God on the wings of the wind, again Ruakh. And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, He was seen upon the wings of the wind.
In all these instances God’s Ruakh is employed to bring deliverance to man. What does this teach you about God’s Spirit, and/or God in general?
In the New Testament we see wind being a sign of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
In John 20 we see Yeshua commissioning the apostles with this breath of God – the Holy Spirit. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Just like the believers in the New Testament (see Acts 19) we need to receive the Holy Spirit in order to be equipped for the calling that God has on our lives; and for our own deliverance as well. What are your thoughts about this?
Back to Genesis 8:
2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
According to the Institute for Creation Research: 8:4 mountains of Ararat. “Ararat” in the Bible is the same as “Armenia.” The “mountains of Ararat” could apply to the entire region; however, the present Mount Ararat, 17,000 feet high, is the only logical site for the ark to rest. The ark landed the very day the waters began to assuage, and it was another 2� months until the tops of nearby mountains could even be seen. There have been many reported sightings of the ark, seemingly still preserved on an almost inaccessible ledge, most of the time encased in the stationary ice cap near its summit. Though none of these reports are sufficiently documented to constitute proof, the very number and variety of them is at least intriguing evidence that the ark has been divinely preserved, awaiting God’s timing for its confirmed discovery and manifestation. Mount Ararat is a volcanic mountain, formed evidently during the early months of the Flood year (there were no volcanoes before the Flood). There is also considerable geological evidence that it was further uplifted sometime after the Flood, so that it may well have been much lower and easier of access during the years immediately following the Flood. That even the summit of Ararat was at one time under water, however, is evident both from the marine fossils that have been found there and the extensive pillow lavas (lavas formed under high hydrostatic pressure) which exist there.
5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf wasin her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.
Interestingly, the raven is an unclean bird according to God’s standards because it eats the decaying flesh of dead animals. Lev. 11:13-15 and here the raven is sent from the ark but it never comes back. On the other hand the dove is a clean animal and another picture of the Holy Spirit. Luke 3:22 John 1:32-34. It was almost as if Noah had a relationship with the dove. That in and of itself is another beautiful picture of God’s Holy Spirit, through which we have relationship with God. How is this a new concept to you?
13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
Later on in scripture God calls the time of the Passover the beginning of months in Exodus 12:
15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
God had just told Noah to bring everything out of the ark so that they could be fruitful and multiply. Noah then makes the decision to sacrifice one of every clean animal and clean bird to the Lord. What does that tell us about Noah’s faith in God?
21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
Why do you think sacrifices are a soothing aroma to the Lord?
22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
What does this verse mean to you?
Let’s pray.
