*Genesis 8:1-22
After the floodwaters recede, Noah gives thanks to God with a sacrifice, and God promises never again to destroy all living creatures.
- God Remembers Noah:
- After the floodwaters devastate the earth, God remembers Noah along with all the wild animals and livestock that were with him in the ark.
- God sends a wind over the earth, causing the water to recede.
- Receding Waters:
- The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens are closed, and the rain stops.
- Over the next several months, the water level steadily decreases. After 150 days, the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
- Noah Sends Out Birds:
- Noah first sends out a raven, which keeps flying back and forth until the water has dried up.
- He then sends out a dove to see if the water has receded from the surface of the ground. The dove finds nowhere to perch and returns to the ark.
- After waiting another seven days, Noah sends the dove out again, and this time it returns with a freshly plucked olive leaf, signifying that the water level has dropped.
- After waiting another seven days and sending the dove out again, it does not return, indicating dry land.
- Exiting the Ark:
- By the first day of the first month of Noah’s 601st year, the water has dried up from the earth. Noah then removes the covering from the ark and sees that the surface of the ground is dry.
- By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth is completely dry. God commands Noah to come out of the ark along with his family and all the animals so that they can multiply on the earth.
- Noah Builds an Altar:
- Noah builds an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, sacrifices burnt offerings on it.
- The Lord is pleased by the aroma of the sacrifice and promises in His heart never to curse the ground again because of humans, despite the inclination of the human heart being evil from childhood. God also promises never to destroy all living creatures as He did this time.
- Seasons and Harvest:
- God declares that as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.
Genesis 8:1-22 teaches us about patience, renewal, and gratitude. After the flood, Noah waited for God’s timing before leaving the ark, showing us the importance of trusting God even when we don’t see immediate answers. Just as God brought new life to the earth, He can bring new beginnings in our lives after difficult times. When Noah stepped out, he worshiped God with thankfulness, reminding us to be grateful for God’s blessings. This passage encourages us to be patient, trust in God’s plan, and respond to His goodness with a thankful heart.
Genesis 8:1-22 (WEB)
8:1 God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided. 2 The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained. 3 The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters receded. 4 The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s mountains. 5 The waters receded continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.6 At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ship which he had made, 7 and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth, until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 He himself sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from the surface of the ground, 9 but the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned into the ship to him, for the waters were on the surface of the whole earth. He put out his hand, and took her, and brought her to him into the ship. 10 He waited yet another seven days; and again he sent the dove out of the ship. 11 The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth. 12 He waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; and she didn’t return to him any more.13 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah removed the covering of the ship, and looked. He saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.15 God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ship, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply on the earth.”18 Noah went out, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, whatever moves on the earth, after their families, went out of the ship.20 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. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasant aroma. The LORD said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”