But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. 2Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; 3and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. 4In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. 5The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible. 6Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made; 7and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; 9but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself. 10So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. 11The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. 12Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; but she did not return to him again. 13Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16"Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17"Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." 18So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark. 20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. 22"While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall ot cease."
Questions:
1) v. 6 Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made;
Is this 40 days from the 150th day? The tons of references to days and months in this chapter get confusing.
2) v. 7-8: 7and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land;
Can someone explain the significance of sending out the raven first?
3) v. 21 21The LORD smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, "I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.
Just thought that it was interesting that the Lord smelled a 'soothing aroma' when clean animals were burned as offerings...... any thoughts on this? (being funny)-a soothing aroma to me would be vanilla or nag champa incense........
4) Please discuss why God decided at this point that he would not 'curse the ground' again on account of man. Was it the act of Noah obeying God that He solely made His decision on? Or was it that after all of this flooding and destruction God realized that due to the 'fall of man' in Eden that man really has a choice of his own to be good or bad......that God did not need to cause destruction on all men due to a few being disobedient............discuss (coffee talk accent).
8 comments:
hey cindy,
i think that you're right and the 40 days are after the 150 days. it almost sounds as if it's the 40 days after the ten months. that's what is sounds like to me.
well, i'm still researching the raven question but this is what i've found so far. one author of an article, says that some say it was because the ravens were expendable. Noah sent it out and if it did not come back then that was not too bad because they could neither eat it or sacrifice it. because of this, he was willing to risk losing the raven. however, an interesting note is to look at the fact that God saved the raven in spite of what Noah did. He had a plan for the raven later in the Bible. God used the raven to bring food to Elijah in the wilderness and if there would have been no ravens then Elijah could possibly have not been taken care of in the wilderness.
this might be a stretch but the author continues to say that God was using the raven as a picture. Noah considered the bird to be worthless and dispensable. he considered the bird to be unimportant to the point of risking its extinction. Elijah had the same attitude toward the people of Israel that he was supposed to be ministering to. God used the bird considered by Noah and most Jews because of its uncleanliness to be worthless to show Elijah that He can use even the lowest of creatures to perform great tasks just as if Elijah ministered to ministered to those he considered unreachable, the nation of Israel, God would use them to reach the world.
i'll keep looking to see if i find anything else but this article was interesting. it's on a website called www.minuteswithmessiah.tripod.com by Tim O'Hearn if you want to look at it for yourself.
the use of the description of smells being pleasing and unpleasing to God is a very common picture in the Bible. the temple has an incense table representing the prayers of the people, the Bible talks of the smell of sin in God's nostrils, and many other times including this example. a personification of how God feels when He smells something sweet and something rotten. kind of like the smell of fresh cookies or bread for the righteous prayers and sacrifices and old garbage for sin. that's how pleasing this sacrifice was to Him. i think it's a really neat picture.
ok...about the question of God not destroying the earth again. the key to this verse is in the phrase "as I have done" contained in God's response. in the next chapter, God promises never again to destroy the earth with water and that's the promise of not destroying the earth again. God says He will not destroy the earth as He did this time, not that He will never destroy the earth in any way. i know this is a detail but it's the key to interpreting this passage. God promises He will never again flood the earth because of man's sin. if this were not true, we would be under water. i hope this helps and i just want to say again how much fun this is posting on this site. it's been a long time since i've really dug into Genesis. i am loving this.
Can I get a few days more to respond???
Question 1: 40 days after 150
Yeah, I agree with Adam. After
Question 2: Why a raven?
Pure speculation here. The raven is thought to feed on dead animals. Therefore, if the raven did not return it may have found dead animals floating on water. If animals are still floating still deep water. While the dove will not eat dead floating things and found no where to land. It flew back to ark. When IT did not return the water had gone down. Again pure speculation. Can;t prove it at all.
Question 3: Smooth aroma. Adam is right. When the Lord smells good things it is akin to prayers. The altar of incence (good smelling--maybe even vanilla, if we're lucky =) ) is typical of prayers. See Rev 5:8;8:3-4
And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Rev 8:3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne.
Rev 8:4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand.
Question 4: Why now to not curse ground?
Good one. The ground was cursed after the Fall. That curse is ongoing even today. In this passage the curse seems to refer to a worldwide flooding of the gound. God is promising not to "curse" (i.e flood) the ground again in this manner. He will destroy this world (by fire)again but not with water. Also, he intends to build a new earth.
Add to the above.
God recognizes how evil humans are. Thus, he decides to be forebearing toward them in not destroying the whole world with water.
Did God decide not to "curse the ground" again because we have a choice between good and bad and he did not want to destroy everyone becasue of a few disobedient?
I think the answer is closer to that there is none good. We all deserve to be destroyed because we are evil people. However, God made a promise not to destroy the whole race of humans by water. He decided that He would be patience, then those who would not accept Christ would be destroyed by fire.
2Pe 3:7 And God has also commanded that the heavens and the earth will be consumed by fire on the day of judgment, when ungodly people will perish.
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