OUR
FATHER'S
WORD
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light
unto my path."
Psalm 119:105
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Genesis
A Message For The End Time
by
Jim Lisenby
________________________________________________________________________________
CHAPTER 8
The Flood Finally Ends
Think about Noah and his family, and all those creatures aboard the
ark. How uncomfortable they all must been after only a short
while, and they were on it for over a year. It wasn't like being
on a luxurious cruise liner sailing the Carribean. The cumbersome
wooden vessel was even sealed for a time at the beginning and there was
no contact with the outside world at all. Can you imagine how
uneasy and isolated they all must have felt? And yet, it was far
better than drowning with all those others who died in the surging
waters.
Gen. 8:1 And
God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle
that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the
earth, and the waters asswaged;
Of course God remembered Noah and all those creatures aboard the
ark. It was like being in a prison and
God knew that, so after the flooding rains were over He took the
appropriate action and calmed the waters. I don't think that we
can fully comprehend all the things that were taking place inside the
ark, and outside, while the waters were raging. It had to be a
rough and scary ride.
Gen. 8:2 The
fountains also of the deep and
the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was
restrained;
After 40 days and nights the water sources that supplied the
deluge were cut back or stopped entirely.
Gen. 8:3 And
the waters returned from off the earth continually:
and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
All the water in the upper levels of the high mountains had
finally drained down to pool in the basin. The word abated here should read abating because the waters had only begun
to start draining away.
Gen. 8:4 And
the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of
the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
The flooding began on the seventeenth day of the second month,
so this is exactly five months later when the ark settled
onto a mountain or high plateau somewhere. The exact
location where the ark finally came to rest is not known, but if the
Tarim
Basin in central Asia is the actual place where the flood occurred
then it was somewhere within, or around the periphery of that basin.
Gen. 8:5 And
the waters decreased
continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day
of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
The waters are still
very deep here in the tenth month, over seven months after
the flooding began. Remember
from chapter 7 that the water was 15 cubits (22-30 feet) above the tops
of the high hills,
so at least that much water had drained and evaporated away.
Now, don't go thinking that 30 feet is not very much water.
Imagine an
area about half the size
of the Gulf of Mexico, or the entire Black Sea, or all of the Caspian
Sea. Now imagine any one them about 30 feet deep in water, or
about 700,000,000,000,000 gallons, or 2,200,000,000,000,000 liters, of
water. That also is about 3.5 trillion tons of H2O.
That is approximately (no one can calculate the true amount exactly)
how much
water had drained off by the tenth month if it was about 30 feet, but
there was still hundreds of times that much
more water remaining to deal with before the area was back to
normal.
In other words, only about 30 feet of water level had drained away with
certainly many hundreds of feet
still left to go, possibly even thousands.
Gen. 8:6 And
it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the
window of the ark which he had made:
After the water stopped rising and the rains had stopped, Noah
opened a window. Why? Probably for several reasons.
To see what he could see outside. To get some fresh air inside
the ark. To see the sky again after being inside a yawing and
pitching dark smelly vessel for nearly six weeks. Anyway, after
he had opened the window he released a certain bird.
Gen. 8:7 And
he sent forth a raven, which
went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the
earth.
Oh no! Not a raven. In the lesson on chapter 7 I
stated that it was unlikely that there were any unclean fowl aboard the
ark, and then here in chapter 8 this raven, an unclean bird, shows up
to make me eat crow. Even so I'm not going to change my
mind. Why? Because this raven was on the ark but not for
the same reason as
the other birds. You see, it wasn't carried aboard the ark like
the other fowl, it was
a stowaway, a freeloader, a hitchhiker. Unlike crows, ravens are
often solitary birds and that may have been the case here. There
were seven pairs of each of the other birds carried on board.
As you probably already
know, crows and ravens are great opportunists and they can be pretty
bold, even audacious. This one probably flew on
board during the time just before the rain when the ark was
being loaded, and it was lucky to be on board after that. Noah
finally got around to releasing it after he
had opened the window. He may have released it to try to
determine how much water still covered the area, but it also
may have been driving everyone nuts by its constant raucous and
irritating calls. After Noah
opened the window and let it go, it simply flew back and forth at will
to rest and feed on the ark until it
eventually returned no more. Obviously, it wasn't going to
abandon the shelter and food that it found on the ark until it found
sustenance in the wild. Like I said, they are great opportunists.
Gen. 8:8
Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were
abated from off the face of the ground;
The raven was a wild creature, but this dove, or pigeon, may
have been domesticated to some extent.
Gen. 8:9 But
the dove found no rest
for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for
the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his
hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.
This dove, or pigeon, found no place to alight and settle in
because the
waters were still covering everything so she returned to the ark.
Noah knew each time that she returned it was because the waters were
still too widespread for her to alight anywhere. He was able to
reach out and take her into his hand so she may have been somewhat tame
and used to being around humans.
Gen. 8:10
And he
stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of
the ark;
Every seven days he released the dove.
Gen. 8:11
And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her
mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were
abated from off the earth.
Some doves, or pigeons, eat leaves as well as seeds and
insects. They may also use leaves in their nest building.
Anyway, she finally brought proof back to the ark that the waters were
rapidly draining away. They were now shallow enough to where the
dove could take a leaf from one of the olive trees that had been
submerged.
Gen.
8:12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and
sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
At last, the dove had no reason to return. She probably
began
to search for a mate and did what doves or pigeons do.
Make a nest, lay eggs, hatch baby squabs, and do whatever else it is
that they do.
Gen. 8:13
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the
first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from
off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked,
and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
Don't forget that the ark was sitting on high ground, there
still may have been some water below from where it rested. Notice
that this is the first
day of the first
month. That would likely make it the Vernal Equinox,
sometimes called the Spring Equinox. Air temperature may have had
something to do with waiting until Spring arrived before removing the
covering, but the covering was required all during the time of the
flooding rains and the ensuing months for protection. It also
prevented them from seeing the people and animals drown, and their
bloated cadavers floating in the waters.
During the warmer months the covering on the ark would not have been
much of a problem because the waters carried it high where the air
temperature would have been lower by about 3 degrees per thousand feet
of elevation. If the waters raised them to say 8,000 feet, then
the air temperature could possibly have been as much as 24 degrees
lower than the basin floor under normal circumstances.
Additionally, the sun may have been wholly or partially obscured during
that time which would have kept the temperature down inside the
ark. Water also acts as a temperature moderator because it does
not change temperature as rapidly, nor as much, as the land does.
Gen. 8:14
And in the second
month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth
dried.
Now, nearly two months later in the middle of the month of May,
Noah and all the other creatures aboard the ark were still living
on it.
Gen. 8:15
And God spake unto Noah, saying,
Gen.
8:16
Go forth of the ark, thou, and
thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
Gen.
8:17
Bring forth
with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of
fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful,
and multiply upon the earth.
God is instructing Noah to leave the ark, but it seems that He
is also
blessing him and the animals here.
Gen. 8:18
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and
his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:
Gen.
8:19
Every beast, every creeping
thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after
their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
Gen.
8:20
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean
beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the
altar.
Here in verse 20 is another reason that God told Noah to take
seven pairs of
the clean animals and birds. Not only were the clean animals and
birds to be used for food, but
some were also were to be sacrificed.
Gen. 8:21
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his
heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for
the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I
again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
The word
man's in this verse is referring only to the descendants of
Adam. There is no evidence that God has cursed the ground amongst
any of the other species of men living on the Earth, except for Cain,
who was not Adam's son. If He has cursed the ground for any of
the races, where is it recorded?
Not in the Bible because it isn't about any group of people save the
Adamic race. I'll say it once again: The Bible was written
by Adamites,
to Adamites,
and for Adamites.
The other kinds of people on the Earth have their own historical
documentation and records, if they have any at all.
The word LORD here means the
covenant God Yahweh, not El the creator, and He was feeling great
compassion for Noah and his family. He realized that because they
were in a flesh body, and limited in their abilities, that they could
not, and would not, live perfect lives as He had hoped. He also
pledged not to wipe them all out again like He had done here.
There is no telling how many Adamites, and others, were drowned in this
incident. Possibly millions of souls perished.
Gen. 8:22
While the
earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer
and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
There may be a lot more in this verse than meets the eye at
first glance. It could infer that the growing seasons and normal
weather patterns had been disrupted, and that little sunshine actually
reached the ground for a time. It is obvious that the place where
the flood took place was destroyed, and the normal growing seasons were
interrupted there for better than a year, but what if this verse also
is about the curse that He placed on the ground because of Adam and
Eve's misconduct? Was it more severe than we have realized, and
did it last for this long?
In any case, here He is stating emphatically that the yearly seasons
and the day/night cycle will remain constant from now on as long as the
Earth remains. While the earth
remaineth??? Whoa! Will it someday totally cease to
exist? What a terrifying thought! But Jesus did say
that Heaven and Earth will pass away, didn't He? See Matt. 24:35,
Mark 13:31, and Luke 21:33.
God bless with
understanding
of His word.
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2005 by Jim
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