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Through the Bible with Uncle Ricky — Day 8: Genesis 8

Let’s talk about it

Uncle Ricky: Through the Bible with Uncle Ricky — Day 8: Genesis 8.

Uncle Ricky: Well, here we are — Day 8 of 1,189. Yesterday the waters covered the whole earth, fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, and the chapter ended with Noah and his family shut in by God for a hundred and fifty days of water everywhere they looked. Today the long wait turns a corner. The very first line is one of the sweetest in all of Genesis, the birds start flying, and by the end Noah is standing on dry ground building an altar. So let’s talk about it first — that way, when we read it, you’ll catch every detail, from the wind to the olive leaf.

Uncle Ricky: The chapter opens like this: “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.” God remembered Noah. Now isn’t that exciting? After all those days of judgment and silence and water, heaven’s first move is remembering the man in the ark.

Biscuit: Uncle Ricky, does “remembered” mean God had forgotten Noah for a while? Because a hundred and fifty days is a long time to feel forgotten.

Uncle Ricky: That’s the honest question everybody thinks, Biscuit, and no — in the Bible, when God “remembers” somebody, it doesn’t mean He forgot them and then it came back to Him. It means He is about to act for them. God never lost track of that ark for one minute. And look how He acts: He made a wind to pass over the earth, and the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain was restrained. The same God who opened the flood now shuts it off. Judgment had a stopping point because God set it.

Olive: So the wind was God starting to dry the whole world back out?

Uncle Ricky: It surely was, Olive. And slowly — very slowly — “the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.” Then comes the landing: “And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.” The ark didn’t crash, and it didn’t drift forever. It rested — right where God meant it to rest.

Biscuit: The ark came to rest on a mountain? While there was still water everywhere else?

Uncle Ricky: That’s right, Biscuit — up high on the mountains of Ararat, while the lower ground was still covered. And the waters kept going down: “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.” First the ark rests, then months later the mountaintops peek out. God was drying the earth in His own order and His own time — not all at once, and not one day late.

Olive: That’s a lot of waiting, Uncle Ricky. Resting, and then still waiting to even see a mountaintop.

Uncle Ricky: It is, Olive, and that may be the most human part of this chapter. Noah obeyed fast, but he had to wait slow. Then, at the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark and started sending out scouts — first a raven.

Biscuit: A raven first? Why a raven, Uncle Ricky?

Uncle Ricky: A raven is a strong flyer, Biscuit, and it can live off just about anything, so it could stay out a long time. The Bible says it “went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth” — it just kept flying back and forth, and it never really brought Noah any news. So Noah tried a different bird — and this is where it gets tender, Olive, so you listen close.

Olive: I’m listening, Uncle Ricky. This is my part, isn’t it?

Uncle Ricky: It surely touches your part, little lady. “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.” There was still no dry place for her anywhere. And listen to what Noah did: “then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.” He reached out his hand and pulled her in. I’d call that a gift from God — even the little dove was looked after, one careful hand at a time.

Olive: No rest for the sole of her foot — so she came home, and Noah pulled her in safe. I love that he didn’t just wait for her to find her own way in.

Uncle Ricky: He reached for her, Olive. Remember that picture. Then Noah did the hardest thing in the whole chapter: he waited again. “And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark.” Seven more days of patience, and then he sent her out a second time — and this time, friends, she brought the news the whole family had been praying for.

Olive: The olive leaf! She came back in the evening with an olive leaf, didn’t she?

Uncle Ricky: She did, Olive — “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.” An olive leaf — green, alive, growing somewhere out there. Not a dead twig from the flood, but a fresh leaf plucked off a living tree. Life was coming back to the world, and God sent the news home in the beak of a little dove. Now isn’t that exciting?

Uncle Ricky: And Noah waited yet again — “And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.” That time she didn’t come back, and her not coming back was the message: she had found a place to rest out there in the new world. Sometimes God answers by what doesn’t return, friends.

Biscuit: So how long was Noah in the ark altogether, Uncle Ricky? It feels like forever.

Uncle Ricky: Longer than most folks realize, Biscuit. “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.” Noah could see dry ground with his own eyes — and still he did not go out. He waited until the second month, until the earth was fully dried, and until God Himself spoke. Noah went in when God said come, and Noah would only go out when God said go.

Uncle Ricky: And then God did speak: “And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.” Go forth! Bring out every living thing — fowl and cattle and every creeping thing — “that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.” The world was starting over, and eight faithful people and a boatload of animals were carrying the whole future of it.

Biscuit: First thing I’d want after a year in that ark is fresh air and solid ground. What was the first thing Noah did, Uncle Ricky?

Uncle Ricky: The first thing Noah did tells you who Noah was, Biscuit. “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.” Before a house, before a farm, before anything for himself — an altar. And now you see why God had him take the clean animals by sevens back in Genesis 7: there were enough to offer to God and still keep every kind alive. Worship came first in the new world.

Olive: And God liked it, didn’t He? The sweet savour part?

Uncle Ricky: He did, Olive. “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.” And then God made a promise that is still holding this very morning: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Every sunrise you’ve ever seen, every season that ever rolled around on time, is that promise still keeping itself. Judgment was total back in Genesis 7 — and so, friends, is God’s mercy here in Genesis 8.

A question to think about while you read

Uncle Ricky: When God makes you wait in the ark longer than you wanted to wait, will you trust that He has remembered you — and wait for His word to go forth?

Biscuit: Uncle Ricky, will you read the chapter to us?

Uncle Ricky: I sure will, Biscuit. Genesis 8.

Now read the chapter — Genesis 8 (KJV)

1 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;

2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;

3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

5 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.

6 And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

7 And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

8 Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground;

9 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.

10 And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

11 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.

12 And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

13 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.

14 And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,

16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

17 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.

18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:

19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

20 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.

21 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.

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

And that is Genesis 8 — God remembered Noah, the waters went down, the dove brought home an olive leaf, and God’s promise of seedtime and harvest still stands today.

Tomorrow: Genesis 9 — God blesses Noah and his sons, sets the rainbow in the cloud as the sign of His covenant, and the story takes a hard turn in Noah’s own family. See you there.

— Uncle Ricky

If that fresh olive leaf is the sign of new beginnings you needed today, take a look at the “New Beginnings” olive-branch family tee in the shop — a simple way to carry the reminder that God remembers His own.