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1. 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.
2. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven were restrained. 7:11
3. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 7:24
4. Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. Is. 37:38; Jer. 51:27
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. 7:20
God did not forget Noah and his family, or all that was in the ark. So God caused the waters to recede back into the fountains of the deep, and he stopped the heavens above to cease from raining In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, (Which is the month of Nisan), according to the Jewish sacred calendar. This is the exact same time when the flood began (during the months of March and April), when all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened up (Gen. 7:11). The tenth month, on the first day of the month puts us in the month of Tebeth, according to the Jewish calendar. This would have been during the months of December and January. As we see in the accounting of the flood, God gives specific dates of this occurrence, Why? After careful consideration and research, The only thing that makes any sense is what was explained to me by one of the elders of my church. He went on to explain it in this way: I’m paraphrasing here, It was to give credence to God and the truth of his story. He then went on to elaborate on this. Again I am paraphrasing what he said; Throughout the centuries, and in all religions and cultures, there is an accounting of the earth, at some point in time, having been flooded with water. However only our God of the christian faith puts an exact date as to when this occurred. No other culture or religion, for whatever reason (either as to lose credibility of their own beliefs, or because of no scientific data at the time of the records of the flood), will go this far in explaining the flood.
6. So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 6:16
As God promised, the rain lasted forty days and forty nights. Along with the number Seven being a sign of not only perfection but also of completeness, it appears that the number forty is also a number of significance in God word (Compare Exo 24:18, 34:28, Num 14: 32-33, Luke 4:1-2).
7. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.
After the rains stopped and the fountains of the deep ceased, Noah sent out raven to scout for dry land to no avail. The raven never came back into the ark, but probably perched outside the ark, flying around the waters looking for dry land.
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.
As opposed to the raven, every time the dove came back to Noah, she came to him and was safely put back into the ark. I believe that the Dove described here is representative of God’s spirit being present with Noah and his family while they were in the ark waiting for the flood-waters to recede ( Matt 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, John 1:32).
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 was in 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.
There are three things which come to mind in these verses. First verse ten and twelve. It appears that it took a total of 21 days, in seven day increments, in which Noah would send out the dove from the ark, before the dove would return with an olive branch. This brings to mind the age of Lamech 777 years, who is the father of Noah. Remember the number seven is a sign of perfection in the bible. Verse eleven is of a spiritual nature. Like I mentioned earlier the dove is representative of God’s spirit. The olive tree, and its branches have been used symbolically in the scriptures in the Psalms and also in Hosea. Each time they are mentioned it is followed by a time of God’s wrath on the iniquities of the world. When God has cast away the wickedness from the land and the evil people He brings about peace and blessings to the land and the people of the of Israel. The olive branch is symbolic of peace and deliverance from their iniquities. The branches of the olive tree are used to describe Israel as being beautiful, and grow to be fruitful in all the land, they will live in peace and prosperity (Psalms 52, 128, Hosea 14). God said He grieved in his heart because the hearts of men were continually thinking evil thoughts. god felt so bad that He said He was sorry for what He had created. Never let it be said of you that God was sorry for the day you were born, that separation from God would be too much for me personally to bear. Noah and his family have been delivered from the cataclysmic event that had just occurred. The third thing which comes to mind is the last part of verse twelve where we see that the Dove did not return to Noah again. This brings to mind what God said in Genesis 6:3:
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.
In my opinion, by the dove not returning to Noah, is symbolic of what God promised in Gen. 6:3. With the exception of a few chosen men and women throughout the scriptures God’s spirit did not dwell with men again until the day of Pentecost ( Joel 2:28,29, Acts 2: 38-41), when about three thousand people received His Spirit on that day. This prophecy of Joel has not been fulfilled completely even to this day, in the latter days (As the prophet joel spoke),God will once again pour out His Spirit in the latter days; of the end of this earth age.
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 to covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.
The six hundred and first year would bring Noah to the age of six hundred and one years old (Gen. 7:11), where it speaks of Noah being six hundred years old when the flood began. This tells us that Noah and his family were on the ark for almost a year before the earth was “dried up” from the flood. In the Jewish sacred calendar the first month would be the month of Nissan (The same month the flood waters were released from the fountains of the deep, and the windows of heaven were opened up). In regards to our Gregorian calendar this would have occurred somewhere between March and April. The covering that Noah removed is referring to pitch that was used in Gen 6:14 to protect the ark from the rains.
14. And in the second month, on the twenty seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. 7:11
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. 7:13 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. 7:2, 3
It was a total of 57 days from the time that the surface of the ground was dry to the time that the earth was dried. During this time Noah and his family stayed on the ark waiting for God’s instructions. Noah’s faith in God was strong. He waited on the Lord to tell him when it was time to leave the ark, and not of his own understanding. This is a great lesson in patience for all of us, it is one of the fruits of the Spirit that is spoken of in Galatians chapter five. for if we are led in the Spirit and not in the works of the flesh it should be clearly seen that God’s Spirit dwells in us. (Gal. 5:18-23), Noah has come to learn to be patient with the lord in the weightier matters of life, but only after years and years of God working with him and shaping him to be the man he has come to be; righteous unto the lord. Noah is mentioned as a man of faith in Hebrews eleven (Hebrews. 11:7)
20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took every clean animal and every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’ 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. 22. “While the earth remains seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. Jer. 33:20, 25
As we know from earlier passages: Of the Clean animals Noah took seven pairs, male and female, and only one pair male and female of the unclean animals. The burnt offerings that Noah sacrificed to the Lord on the altar are just one reason why God instructed Noah to take so many of the clean animals onto the ark. According to the law of God only the clean animal kind can be sacrificed to God as offerings. When the verse says that God smelled a soothing aroma, it wasn’t in a literal sense per se, but in the sense that God was pleased in the offering of Noah, or maybe it was literal, what do I know? It was only the clean animals that God would accept as a sacrifice to Him, and in chapter nine verse two, in Genesis we are told that God has now giving man every living thing that moves for food. Verse 20 above tells us that Noah offered up to God “EVERY” clean animal and clean bird, Noah wasn’t concerned about Where he and his family would get their next meal, it was Noah’s faith that God would provide, Noah’s faith is what was the soothing aroma that God smelled, not the actual scent of the animal’s meat on the altar.
Verse twenty two is the description of the covenant that God makes with Noah as he promised him (Gen 6:18). God acknowledges that man’s heart is evil early on in life, but even so, the Lord will never again destroy all living things because of man’s iniquities. This is a promise that he makes with Noah, and as we study the Bible in its entirety, we learn that God never breaks a promise/ covenant that he makes with his loyal servants. It is always man who breaks their promise to God and transgress from Him and his Law. Even still as man breaks their covenant with God He keeps his end of the bargain. I could go on and on, and show scripture after scripture, to support what I am saying here, but then that would deprive anyone who reads this from developing their own relationship with God, and learning this on their own. I actually would rather people learn this themselves, and not take my word for it, read the Bible yourself, see for your own eyes, God’s word is true, and he cannot lie, or He will cease from being who He is.