5-19-19 Sermon Notes
“Origins” “God’s Faithfulness” – Genesis 8:1-22
Introduction
Last week, we looked at the evidence of a global wide flood. This week, we will be looking at the time spent on the ark and the exit from it.
Read Genesis 8:1-22
Genesis 8 New International Version (NIV)
8 “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. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days, the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 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.
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 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. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 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. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
Message
Have you ever felt like God has or had forgotten about you? Let’s begin with verse 1 that appears to raise that very question for Noah and his family. “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.”
One can wonder what was going on in Noah’s mind as days turned into months and still no sign of dry land or a message from God that it was time to exit the ark.
Let’s go back and read verse 2-14 again and notice the following:
- The rain stopped.
- A wind helped dry out the land.
- The waters receded over a 150 day period.
- The ark came to a rest on the mountains of Ararat.
- It took 9 months before Noah could see the tops of other mountains.
- Another 40 days passed before Noah began sending out the raven and the dove.
- Another 7 days passed before there was tangible evidence (an olive leaf in the beak of a dove) that the waters had receded.
- Another 7 days passed before the dove failed to return.
A couple of months then passed before God told Noah to come out of the ark. Verses 15 and 17 – 15 “Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
Based upon these verses, somewhere around a year had passed before God ‘remembered’ Noah. At first glance, we might conclude that God had forgotten Noah. But that would be a wrong conclusion. Remembering in this story means God put into action the exit strategy for Noah, his family and the animals. Other examples of God ‘remembering ‘ – His chosen people in Egypt. Exodus 2:24 “He has remembered His love and His faithfulness to Israel.” Psalm 98:3 For a more in-depth explanation, click on the following link: https://www.gotquestions.org/God-remembered.html
Verse 19 is interesting because it notes that all the animals and birds came out the same way they went in – 19 “All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.” So, it wasn’t a mass jumbled exit as one might expect after being ‘cooped up’ for a year.
Now, let’s look at the remainder of the chapter. Notice that the first thing Noah did was to build an altar and to sacrifice burnt offerings (remember the 7 pairs of clean animals). What does God do as a result of these offerings? A rainbow and a promise (covenant) that He will never again flood the entire earth.
Concluding Remarks and Application
- God is faithful and has His own timetable to meet our needs.
- God was pleased with Noah’s response (building the altar and the sacrifices. This should be a reminder that when God answers our prayers or delivers us from dire circumstances that we should not delay in thanking Him.
- God’s covenant to never flood the earth again was not based on our actions. “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.”
- We should appreciate God’s faithfulness every time we see a rainbow.
WEEK FOUR – Post-Flood Earth – Study Guide
Was it only from the wind that the land started to dry up or was there more?
Read Genesis 8:1-2 again.
When and where did the ark come to rest?
Many people have searched on Mt. Ararat for the Ark.
When could the mountains first be seen?
How much longer did Noah and the animals stay on the Ark?
What did God say the animals were supposed to do?
What is the first thing we are told that Noah did after leaving the ark?
What promise did God make to Noah at that time?
What responsibility was Noah and his sons given?
What kinds of food were men instructed to eat?
What were they not to eat?
(Think: What does this teach about the idea that it is morally wrong to eat meat?)
What are we forbidden to kill and what reason is given why this is different from killing animals in Genesis 9:5-6?
What punishment was decreed for the kind of killing that God forbade?
With whom did God make a covenant in Genesis 9:8- 11?
What was the covenant?
What is the sign of the covenant in Genesis 9:12-17? (Think: Did God promise He would never destroy the earth at all? If not, what has He said about the future destruction of the earth?)
Next Week – The continuation of the Origins series