Genesis 8:1-22
Q.1. In what way did God remember Noah and those with him in the ark? What made the storm stop? How long did the flood last? – (Gen.8:1-5)
Noah and his family had been couped up for five long months in the ark, with lots of animals and birds – 1 But God remembered Noah and … caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; and the water receded steadily from the earth … (Gen.8:1-3). God put an end to the storm, and changed the atmosphere and climate to that as we know it today. We no longer have a water supply pouring out of the earth’s crust or have the same flooding rain from the upper watery canopy. However, the trial would not end until they had been in the ark for just over a year (c.f. Gen.7:11; 8:14)!
Q.2. Did Noah open the ark when it rested on Mount Ararat? What steps did Noah take to see if the earth was habitable? – (Gen.8:4-12)
The ark actually rested on Mount Ararat in the seventh month, with the mountain tops visible in the tenth month (Gen.8:4-5). Noah waited another forty days before he opened the hatch to send out a raven and then a dove. The dove could find no place of rest, and returned to the ark, since much water still remained on the earth (Gen.8:7-9). Noah waited a week, before sending the dove out again – the dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. Noah then knew that the water was abating from the earth (Gen.8:11). A week later he sent the dove out again, and it did not return. Concluding that the earth was sufficiently dry, Noah removed the coverings from the ark (Gen.8:12-13).
Q.3. How long did it take for the earth to dry? When did they leave the ark? What did God command them all to do? – (Gen.8:13-19)
They had entered the ark the seventeenth day of the second month in Noah’s six hundredth year. On the twenty seventh day of the second month in Noah’s six hundred and first year – the earth was dry (Gen.8:14). They had spent over a year in the ark. They did not leave the ark until God told Noah – 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 (Gen.8:16-17). They were to be fruitful and multiply on the earth. They embarked from the ark in their family groups.
Q.4. What do we learn about Noah from his first act after leaving the ark? What promise did God make to Noah? Did God believe man had learned his lesson? – (Gen.8:20-22)
Noah was a godly man, and upon leaving the ark he built an altar to make a substantial offering to God – … and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar (Gen.8:20). This pleased God, Who promised – 21 … 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 not cease (Gen.8:21-22). As long as the earth remains in its present form, God has promised to limit His judgment. Peter prophesied after this – 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells (2 Pet.3:10-13).