GENESIS CHAPTER EIGHT --------------------- Verses 1-4, Not that God had forgotten Noah; but being in the ark for 5 months the thought might have crossed Noah's mind. But God had not forgotten him and it was now time for the flood to cease. God was fulfilling the Covenant the he had made with Noah. Gen 6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every [sort] shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep [them] alive with thee; they shall be male and female. There are seven covenants made by God in the Bible. 1st, The Adamic; man's continued enjoyment in Eden 2nd, The Noahic; the earth and its seasons 3rd, The Abrahamic; Israel's occupancy of Palestine 4th, The Mosaic; Israel's enjoyment of God's favors based on obedience to the law 5th, The Levitic; The priesthood should remain in that tribe 6th, The Davidic; Concerns the kingdom and particularly the throne 7th, The Messianic; New Covenant which concerns the Millennium The wind is likened to the Holy Spirit and in the beginning we read: Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Here we have a new beginning and God's Spirit is moving upon the earth as He had done before. Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so. So again, the dry land appears. 150 days from the beginning of the flood including the 40 days and nights of rain. The 17th day of the 7th month is exactly 5 months or 150 days from the beginning of the flood. Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. Gill says, that it was not until the Jews came out of Egypt that they began their year on Nisan. So beginning at Tisri this would put our time now at about our March or April, which is Passover time and the time that the Lord was raised from the dead. The mountains of Ararat: 'Ararat {ar-aw-rat'} AV - Ararat 2, Armenia 2; 4 Ararat = "the curse reversed: precipitation of curse" 1) a mountainous region of eastern Armenia, between the river Araxes and the lakes Van and Oroomiah, the site where Noah's ark came to rest Verse 5, Another 2 months and 13 days passed before the tops of the mountains appeared. Verses 6-9, 40 days from the 1st day of the tenth month, because it was 73 days from when the ark rested till the mountains appeared. Noah opens the one window which he had made in the top of the ark and sent forth a raven and a dove. The raven did not return into the ark, but came back to the area of the ark because the land had not dried up, but when it had dried up the raven quit going to and fro. He sent out a dove also probably 7 days after the raven, see verse 10, "OTHER seven days". The dove found no place to land and find rest so it came back into the ark. Verses 10-11, After 7 days the dove was sent out again and returned in the evening (stayed out a long time) with an olive leaf that it had plucked off. The water had retracted to where the olive trees were showing, which grow in the lower places, but yet the water is still on the earth. Verses 12-14, After another 7 days he sent out the dove again and it did not return, which meant that the waters were dried up from off the earth. 1 month and 17 days short of a whole year (601st yr, 1st month, 1st day). "And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and LOOKED, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry." He had not beheld the flood, but looked at a new earth. Remember Lot's wife looked back. Noah never looked back to the old world which perished. The land must have still been moist because it was not till the next month on the 27th day that the earth was dried up, which was 1 year and 10 days from when it began. Verses 15-17, God speaks to Noah again, commanding him to go forth from the ark and bring his family and the living creatures with him. "Be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth." A NEW Beginning! God had told Adam: Ge 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Verses 18-19, Noah did as God had commanded him. Verses 20-22, There is one thing different with this beginning than when Adam was in the garden of Eden. Noah is offering sacrifice, which denotes GRACE and substitution. Man is depraved as verse 21 declares and God will deal with him by sacrifice. "And the LORD smelled a sweet savour." Eph 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake." Man deserves to be cursed, and if God dealt with us according to our sins we would all perish, but he has dealt with us through Christ and we are saved for CHRIST'S SAKE. Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Our hope is not in doing good works but in our Messiah who substituted and gave himself a sacrifice for our sins. NO MORE FLOOD: READ Gen 9:11-15