Genesis 8:13-22

Bible Study Lesson for May 27

Usually on Wednesday nights, some in our community get together to share prayer requests, we pray together, and I bring a Bible lesson for them. Last week, we covered Genesis 7:17-8:12, so I will pick up today where we left off. First I’d like to talk about prayer requests. Online communication being what it is, I would rather not get into specific requests in this space, and will leave that for the more private communications that the church has with each other. But I do want to remember a few general prayer requests: -our government, those making decisions on our behalf -those in the medical community

-those in food service, grocery stores, and other essential businesses

-teachers and students still figuring out what the closures of schools means for them -prisoners and prison guards

-first responders

-those whose life and income has been disrupted by the current crisis.

I also want to remember all of those suffering from Covid-19 and the communities that it is affecting, including our own. Take a moment to pray for these folks now before we begin.

Now I hope you will take a moment to read and reflect on Genesis 8:13-22 before I offer my thoughts. In last week’s reading, Noah was waiting for the flood waters to recede. Noah spent more than a year in the ark, first tossed about on the waves and then resting at the top of Mount Ararat, waiting for the world outside to become safe again. He began to test if it was safe to leave the ark, first by sending out a raven and then a dove. 

Verse 13 begins on the first day of the first month of the year. The Hebrew calendar is 12 months and is based on the lunar year. Nisan, the first month, usually falls around March on our calendar. Last week I focused on the number of days Noah was in the ark, but this week I want to also emphasize the dates that we are given in the story:

2nd Month: Iyar 17 -  Rains begin (Noah’s 600th year) (April)— Genesis 7:11

40 Days of Rain— Genesis 7:17

150 Days of Swelling Waters— Genesis 7:24, 8:3

7th Month: Tishrei 17 - Ark rests on Ararat (September)— Genesis 8:4

10th Month: Tevet 1 - Tops of Mountains appear (December)— Genesis 8:5

40 Days later Noah opens the window and begins sending out birds—8:6

1st Month: Nisan 1 -  Noah Removes the covering of the ark (Noah’s 601st year) (March)— Genesis 8:13

2nd Month: Iyar 27 - Earth was dry, God tells Noah “come out” (Noah’s 601st year) (May)— Genesis 8:14-16

(I used the Bible and the Wikipedia page “Hebrew Calendar” to make this list)

Some of the numbers I cited last week were a bit inaccurate, but I think it bears emphasis that Noah was in the ark a lot longer than the proverbial 40 days of rain. Indeed, when the rain ends and the flood stops swelling, Noah’s family’s journey in the ark was just beginning. If we read the Bible too quickly, we will miss all the waiting Noah has to do. After all, it’s just a verse or two here and there.  But when we realize that between 8:4 and 8:6 130 days elapse, that kind of puts things in perspective.

The Bible isn’t interested in some of our questions here. Questions like: 

•  What did Noah and his family do on the ark all that time?

•  What did they eat? (But see 6:21)

•  Did any of the animals have babies?

Instead, we are given a bare bones account of Noah’s time in the ark. The flood is perhaps a “pause” in the story of humanity. What is important is what comes out of the story: how Noah and God respond to the flood.

8:13-19 The End of the Flood

When I read this part of the story, I imagine it like a movie. The morning breaks and the sun rises over the mountain behind the ark. God calls Noah and his family and says “it’s time.” And the animals and the people descend the ramp out of the boat, two by two. They look around and stretch their legs, squinting as their eyes adjust to the light. They are not where they were when all this started. A boat on open water is never a stationary thing. And anyway, perhaps the violent storm changed the shape of the land. Enough time has passed that the earth has dried and vegetation has begun to grow. The younger members of the family, perhaps, run and frolic in the open air. At some point it will set in that everyone else they knew is gone forever, but they’ve had plenty of time to dwell on that while they were inside the ark. For now, it’s just joyful, peaceful, and green.

8:20-22 Noah's Sacrifice and God’s Response

Now we know why Noah took seven pairs of every clean animal. Here he sacrifices from all of those animals, because he is grateful for God allowing him to weather the storm. This is one of the most expensive sacrifices in the Bible. The animals would be precious to Noah because of their rarity on the earth, and because of the amount of time he spent with them.

God responds to Noah’s sacrifices. In the Bible it is typical for God to receive a burnt offering as a “pleasing aroma.” I had an Old Testament Professor at Baylor who compared the “pleasing aroma” of the sacrifice to the pleasure of walking past a barbecue restaurant on a Summer afternoon. If you know those scenes in cartoons where the vapors of cooking food become visible and the character comes off his feet and floats toward the smell, you can imagine me when I lived in Texas. I can understand why God would love the smell of the smoke of offerings.

This part of God’s response is a characterized as movement within God’s heart. Noah has done nothing but sacrifice, and Noah won’t hear anything from God until the next chapter. But God here determines that God will never again “curse the ground.” Obviously God is referencing what has just happened: God submerged the very earth and killed everything on it. But this language is a repetition of Genesis 3:17: “cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all of the days of your life.” Later, in 5:29 Noah’s father Lamech predicts, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed [Noah] shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” I think that here, in 8:21, God is saying the chapter of creation characterized by the curse is coming to a close. What is coming now is the story of redemption.

Conclusion

Next week we will look at the covenant that God establishes with the families of the earth, that will descend from Noah’s family. For now, it is good that we should pause and reflect that here, the story of humanity effectively begins again. After the flood, and after the destruction, God promises to never “curse the ground” again. It’s not because humans have suddenly become better, however, for God still notes that “the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth.” Instead, God is beginning to point toward the plan for the redemption of the world. 

This story of redemption will have a lot of twists and turns. In a few chapters we will have a bump in the road with the Babel story and the confusion of languages that results from it. Immediately after that, God chooses one man, Abram, to bear the promise of redemption in his family. Out of Abram’s line will come the nation of Israel, and out of Israel will come the Messiah Jesus. It is a long and winding journey from Noah to Jesus. But it is wise to hold Jesus in view, because he carries the redemption God has planned into history in his life, his death, and his resurrection. The lesson we learn from the story of Noah in the Ark and the long history of God’s people is that redemption takes time. Are we willing to wait on God?