Grace Thoughts
Teaching Notes: On Genesis 8
Teaching Notes are Bible studies we taught before GraceLife Ministries began publishing articles online in 1995. Some were presented as sermons, others as group studies.
Our hope is that these older studies will be a blessing to you in your life and ministry. Please use them in any way God leads you.
These teaching notes are from a series of studies about the Book of Genesis.
[These notes are from a study from almost 45 years ago.]
Genesis 8:1-5
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 assuaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. 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.
God provides for His people. He sent a wind (rūaḥ) over the earth and the waters receded. This is well within scientific reason that wind will vaporize water or move water. It could be that God was vaporizing the Flood waters. It’s also possible that He moved the waters into new channels and/or basins.
Psalm 104:6-9 gives some insight to the supernaturalness of this wind. It’s speaking of the Flood that covered the mountains. Verses 7-8 read – “At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.” This wind may have been the very voice of God.
On the 17th day of the seventh month (150 days or five months) the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. This is a mountainous plateau in Western Asia. The Ark isn’t floating anymore. It’s stuck on Ararat.
About two-and-a-half months later, the tops of the mountains become visible. With the bottom of the Ark hitting Ararat 15 feet before actually seeing it, the waters may have receded at a rate of about six feet a month. That’s just a possibility.
Genesis 8:6-12
And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; 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. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 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. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; 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. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; 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. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
Noah waited forty days before he sent out the raven. Maybe he was going to see if the raven would find any meat to eat. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. The dove came back after a futile search for a resting place. Seven days later Noah sent the dove out again. This time when the dove returned it had an olive leaf in its beak, freshly plucked. Noah knew he water had receded. Seven days went by and Noah sent the dove out again. It apparently was able to find a tree to rest in. The first creature to touch the earth after judgment was a dove which is so often used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit and of peace.
Genesis 8:13-14
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. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
Ten-and-a-half months after the beginning of the Flood, water had dried up. Noah removed the Ark’s covering and looked out and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the 27th day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
Genesis 8:15-19
And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 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. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. 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. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
God is still in charge. He instructs Noah when the time is right leave the Ark. God is finished judging and is now ready to embark on a new phase of working out His promise to the world.
Genesis 8:20-22
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. 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. 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. 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. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
It must have been an amazing thing to stand on the earth where a year before millions of people had lived and worked and now not one of them was alive. How grateful Noah must have been.
Noah sacrificed some of the clean animals (some of each kind) and burned them as an offering to the Lord. God smelled the pleasing aroma and said in His heart that He would never again curse the ground because of man or destroy all living created as He had done. He promises that the earth-life would continue (seedtime, harvest, cold, heat, summer, winter, day and night) as long as the earth endured.
Some scholars believe that this last verse (22) is a statement of the change that took place after the Flood. Where before there was apparently a worldwide tropical climate, now the upper water canopy being dropped into the seas meant that the upper atmosphere was open to the sun’s rays at varying degrees during the year causing seasons of warm and cold. Some scholars also think the earth was tilted several degrees during the Flood causing the planet to be off center of its axis. The path of the earth around the sun might have also been affected by the cataclysm giving us the current oval path during the solar year.
Verse 21 shows that God was under no false assumptions concerning man’s behavior. The seed of sinful life had been carried into the new world by Noah and his family.
The inclination of their hearts were and would be sinful (evil) from childhood. This included Noah He was saved by God’s grace, not by his flesh-works.
There are many “flood” stories in ancient civilizations and even modern tribes and cultures. They are all distorted, but carry seeds of the original truth. The Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus, Chinese, Druids, Phrygians, Fiji Islanders, Esquimaux, Aboriginal Americans, Indians, Brazilians and every branch of the whole human race — Semitic, Aryan, Turanian — have traditions of a great deluge that destroyed all mankind, except one family. Such a universal belief, not springing from some instinctive principle of our nature, must be based on historical facts. (1)
Some of the fascinating archeological finds concerning the Flood are the Flood Tablets found in the library of Assur-barnipal at Ninevah, the Gilgamesh Epic and Seal, the Flood Deposits at Ur, Kish, and Fara.
(1) Halley’s Bible Handbook, pp 75-76
Next Time
We will look at Genesis Chapter 9 in the next part of our special series.
[Thank you for reading these teaching notes from almost 45 years ago. My prayer is they will be a blessing to you and your life and ministry.]
FloodGenesisGod's GraceNoah
Published by gracelifethoughts
Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
