The Great Dry Out

Good morning from the Panhandle. Still real dry here, kind of reminds me of that old joke. Two men were talking about the weather:

1^st Man – I hear it's real dry in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

2^nd Man – That's a fact it is dry.

1^st Man – How dry is it?

2^nd Man – Well have you heard of the great flood in Genesis 7?

1^st Man – Yes I have, but what does that got to do with the Panhandle?

2^nd Man – During that flood, we got two inches of rain.

Okay not the greatest joke but we like it up here. Now Genesis Chapter 8.

CHAPTER 8 AT A GLANCE:

1. The increase of the waters is stayed v. 1-2.

2. They begin sensibly to abate v. 3.

3. After sixteen days' ebbing, the ark rests v. 4.

4. After sixty days' ebbing, the tops of the mountains appeared above water v. 5.

5. After forty days' ebbing, and twenty days before the mountains appeared, Noah began to send out a raven and a dove, to gain intelligence v. 6-12.

6. Two months after the appearing of the tops of the mountains, the waters had gone, and the face of the earth was dry v. 13, though not dried so as to be fit for man till almost two months after v. 14.

II. Man placed anew upon the earth, in which,

1. Noah's discharge and departure out of the ark v. 15-19.

2. His sacrifice of praise, which he offered to God upon his enlargement v. 20.

3. God's acceptance of his sacrifice, and the promise he made thereupon not to drown the world again v. 21-22. And thus, at length, mercy rejoices against judgment.

(From Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Today we will look at verses 1-14.

Genesis 8:1-14

8:1 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 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. 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 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.

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.

The earth made new, by the receding of the waters, and the appearing of the dry land, now a second time. And so the narrative turns to the description of the gradual decrease of the water until the ground was perfectly dry. The fall of the water is described in the same pictorial style as its rapid rise.

Here we have the effects and evidences of the ebbing of the waters. The ark rested. It rested upon a mountain. Was it directed to a specific mountain, well not by Noah he had no way steer the ark. But by the wise and gracious providence of God, it rested in a place that was easy to disembark and in a place where it could rest sooner rather than later.

The tops of the mountains were seen, like little islands, appearing above the water. There is a good chance that they were seen by Noah and his sons; after all there was nothing else to see but them. It is probable that they had looked through the window of the ark every day, like the longing mariners, after a tedious voyage, to see if they could discover land.

Noah could have settled down in the ark and rejoiced in the fact that he had survived the wrath of God. But the ark might have been getting a little musty by this time with all those animals around the place! So he decided to start enjoying his new situation rather than rejoicing in his past experience.

1. GOD DRIED THE EARTH (vv. 1-5)

A wind that produced a strong and sudden evaporation could it happen? The effects of these winds, which are frequent in the east, are truly astonishing. A friend of mine, who had been bathing in the Tigris, not far from the ancient city of Ctesiphon, and within five days' journey of Bagdad, having on a pair of Turkish drawers, one of these hot winds, called by the natives "samiel," passing rapidly across the river just as he had got out of the water, so effectually dried him in a moment, that not one particle of moisture was left either on his body or in his bathing dress! - (from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

The earth was gradually dried, the waters, as they found passage, lessening by degrees till the seas and gulfs were formed, and the earth completely drained. This appears to be what is intended in the third and fifth verses by the waters decreasing continually, or according to the margin, they were in going and decreasing, Gen 8:5.

After 150 days, the ark came to rest upon one of the peaks of the high ranges in Armenia. Urartu, Accadian cognate of Ararat, is used in ancient documents to designate Armenia. The mountain now called Ararat towers to the height of 16,916 feet.

That Ararat was a mountain of Armenia is almost universally agreed. What is commonly thought to be the Ararat of the Scriptures, has been visited by many travellers, and on it there are several monasteries. For a long time the world has been amused with reports that the remains of the ark were still visible there, but many people have there and have found nothing to be seen. Because there is a chain of mountains which are called by the same name, it is impossible to determine on what part of them the ark rested, but the highest part, called by some the finger mountain, has been fixed on as the most likely place.

2. NOAH SENDS OUT THE RAVEN AND THE DOVE (vv. 7-12)

Noah dispatched the raven “which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth” (Gen. 8:7). It is generally reported that the raven flew off, and was not seen again, but this is not supportyed by the Hebrew text. Every translation I look at states that it went forth, going out and returning. From which it is evident that it did return. It made frequent excursions, and continued on the wing as long as it could, landing on dead wood or carrion it found floating in the water; and then, to rest, back on the ark. It is impossible it could have continued twenty one days without resting some place.

Noah now knew that a raven could survive outside the ark and a dove could not so he drew his conclusions from that data. The dove was sent out three times, the first time it speedily returned, having, in all probability, gone only a little way from the ark, as it was probably terrified at the appearance of the waters. A After a week he dispatched the dove again and this time she returned bearing the well-known olive branch an emblem of the restoration of peace between God and the earth; . Now “Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth” (v. 11).

After another week the dove flew another mission from which she did not return and Noah had all the information he needed so he “removed the covering of the ark” (v. 13). Noah, the man of faith and obedience, was also a man of resourcefulness and intelligence which he channeled into a thorough exploration of all that God had for him. At the end of another seven days the dove was sent out a third time, and did not returned. From this Noah surmised that the earth was now sufficiently drained, and so removed the covering of the ark, which probably let many of the fowls to fly off. This would allow him the more room in making arrangements for disembarking all the other animals.

Noah shows us “the excitement of exploration.” Utilizing the resources he had available, in this case a raven and a dove, Noah started his exploration of the new creation. There was no way that he was going to trust himself to the new post-flood environment without the kind of evidence that would assure him it was time to move. This in no way reflected on his faith any more than being a man of faith suggests that rational inquiry is out of order.

The excitement Noah experienced was tempered with “the discipline of delay.” While scholars do not agree on the exact duration of the flood it is reasonable to assume that from the time Noah and family boarded the ark to the moment of disembarkation, approximately one year had elapsed. On the one hand this may seem a short time for all the water to drain away (if the flood was universal and covered Mt. Everest the drain off rate would be in excess of well over 100 feet per day), but for Noah sitting in the ark wondering what was going on outside it must have seemed an interminable amount of time. Yet he showed great patience as he methodically went about his work trusting the God who had given him every reason to trust Him.

Being over six hundred years old has definite advantages when it comes to patience, but in our shorter life span we need to learn it more expeditiously. In an age and culture which has produced instant replays, instant potatoes, instant coffee, same-day cleaning, and digital photography it is not surprising that we have learned to pray, “Lord, give me patience and give it to me now!” But in the economy of God, which has an eternal dimension, things don’t always move as fast as we would like and we have to remind ourselves that delay has its own discipline, and discipline produces its own character. That which is gained easily is often lightly prized, that which arrives suddenly more often than not departs in similar fashion. - Briscoe D. Stuart