Genesis 8

(Genesis 8:1-22): Noah was part of a second genesis for mankind. Unlike his ancestors, Adam and Eve, who were introduced to a new world with a sinless nature, Noah and his family already possessed a sinful nature when they left the Ark and became acquainted with their new world. God knew that when man began to be fruitful and multiply (Gen 9:1) that the sin seed would be transmitted to every child born. 

This meant that the imaginative quality of the heart, the seat of man’s cognition, emotions, and volition would be corrupted by sin (Gen 8:21), eventually spreading throughout the earth as the population increased. But unlike the doomed civilization before the flood, God made two promises to never curse the ground in this way again because of man or destroy every living thing as He had done (Gen 8:21). As long as the earth remains the seasons would remain (Gen 8:22).

God remembered (Gen 8:1), the waters receded (Gen 8:3), the ark rested (Gen 8:4), and Noah opened the window of the ark (Gen 8:6). Forty days after the Ark rested on Ararat, Noah sent two living probes into a lifeless world in search of ground (8:7-8). The raven apparently found bloated carcasses or cadavers for food and rest but only returned to perch on the outside of the Ark. When Noah released the dove (Gen 8:8), on the other hand, it found neither rest nor food and so returned to the bosom of the Ark (Gen 8:9). Seven days later, Noah sent out the dove again, and it brought back a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth (Gen 8:11). After seven more days Noah sent the dove out again, and it never returned (Gen 8:12).

Even after seeing that the ground was dry for himself (Gen 8:13), Noah waited on permission from mission control in Heaven for him to take that one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind for God’s glory. Noah was the first human to have walked on the surface of the new world we now call home. And permission was granted; Go out of the ark…. (Gen 8:16) … So Noah went out (Gen 8:18).

Noah built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings, the aroma was a sweet delight, pleasing and acceptable to the LORD. The promise of Yahweh’s forbearance continues today as long as the earth remains (Gen 8:22). There is absolutely no danger of any melting polar icecaps threatening man’s existence according to the biblical record; God promised (Gen 8:21; cf. Gen 9:11).

Father, Noah stepped onto a new world, not as an explorer or adventurer, but as a survivor, a sinner saved only by Your grace. The same exact grace that carried him there will also afford me an entrance into Your Heaven because Jesus Christ is the Ark of my salvation. I know when I am finally commanded to step forth from this body; my feet shall rest on the celestial ground, not for any good found within me, but because Jesus went to the beams as the Sacrifice for my sin. And the Holy Spirit descended upon me with a freshly plucked olive leaf in His mouth, and I drew Him into myself, and I now have peace with You through faith in Your Son, the Ark of my salvation! <><