seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Genesis 8:1 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.
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.
Here's the link to the commentary I read with the verses. As a matter of fact, these comments are from that commentary.He sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro: Apparently the raven did not return to the ark. Perhaps this was because the raven is a scavenger, and might rest and feed upon dead, floating carcasses.
The dove found no resting place… she returned into the ark: Being a clean, non-scavenging bird, the dove would not land upon the earth until there was a dry, suitable place to land. When the dove returned into the ark, Noah knew that the waters had not yet drained enough to leave the ark.
Boy.... What a bleak story. The raven didn't come back because it could just land on its dinner, while the dove would have to wait for trees to come back.The 15 cubits in yesterday's verses bugged me all day. Why did the Bible make a point that the water went over the mountain tops and there was an addition 15 cubits of water above the highest mountain top. I kept mulling that verse.... it was annoying me... Why did God make that note that he wanted the water to rise so high?
Noah's boat didn't slide along on top of the water.... Noah's boat sat in the water, especially with all the weight of all those animals. The reason the water was 15 cubits higher than the tallest mountain was so Noah's boat wouldn't wreck on a mountain top.
God really thought that one out.
Noah was 600 years old when he went into the boat with his wife and sons and their wives. He was 601 when he came out.
I didn't see how old he was when he started building that boat. I wonder, did he build it all by himself while the rest of the world just laughed? Or did he contract some of the work out, so people were quieted by a paycheck? When he started to go into the boat... were his friends and employees begging to go? Did Noah and his family hear the people drowning or did closing that window shut out the horror?
Was it like when we pulled out of Afghanistan?
Did Noah and his family argue during that year in a closed boat? Did Noah have to separate the animals to keep the natural predator away? Did dogs and cats get along? Did anyone say... "Open the door... I'm done... I wanna get out of here!!!"?
Noah built an altar when he got on dry ground. He picked up rocks and piled them on top of one another... and that marked the spot.
Do you think any of them kissed the ground when they stepped off the boat?
I wonder how long it took to get their land legs back.
They were....
Stuck on a boat for a year!
