Genesis 8:12-22
Ge 8:12
And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the
dove; which returned not again unto him any more.
Then the dove returned with an olive branch in its beak
and then in another seven days Noah had sent forth the dove again but this time
the dove did not return which means the dove saw the ground and was able to
start its life once again on dry ground allowing Noah to know that the ground
was now dry.
Ge 8:13
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.
Then finally the waters had dried up from the earth in
the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life.
In the first month on the first day which was Tisri on the civil
calendar. Then Noah had removed the
covering of the ark which would only have been a board or two and then he looked
out and saw that the waters on the earth abated and the ground was dry.
Ge 8:14
And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day
of the month, was the earth dried.
It was the month Zif which was the second month and on
the 27th day the earth was completely dried.
This meant the flood had lasted a total of 370 days which would have been
10 days more than the 360 day year.
Ge 8:15
And God spake unto Noah, saying,
Then God once again began communication with Noah for the
procedure to disembark all the animals and his family.
Ge 8:16
Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons,
and thy sons' wives with thee.
Then Noah and his family were to leave the ark.
Just as God commanded them to enter the ark, it was now time for them to
leave the ark. This is where the
foreshadow of Noah’s ark ends, those in Christ will never leave because they are
eternally secure.
Ge 8:17
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.
Then the command came for Noah to release all the
animals, birds, and insects back upon the earth so they may repopulate the
earth. So many questions as to how
did certain animals get to the various parts of the earth with oceans between
them? Well the answer is that the
earth was still comprised of one huge land mass as the continents were not yet
divided. This is the wisdom of God
as he kept the earth as is until all the animals began to find places to live
and procreate and then in the time of Peleg, in chapter 10, is when God divided
the earth into the continents we have now.
And unto Eber were born two sons:
the name of one was Peleg; for
in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name
was Joktan. (Genesis 10:25)
God had waited for the nationalities of people to begin to grow and then
he divided the earth into the continents.
Then the individual countries and their languages came
into existence in Chapter 11.
Ge 8:18
And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his
sons' wives with him:
So Noah and his entire family had now disembarked from
the ark. They must have landed in a
valley somewhere in the mountains of Ararat because the animals and Noah’s
family had to be able to leave the ark in safety and they couldn’t have done
that if they were on a mountain top somewhere or else they would have had to
descend steep peaks.
Ge 8:19
Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and
whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the
ark.
Then finally all the animals, birds, and insects came out
of the ark and went from there to begin to repopulate the earth.
Ge 8:20
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.
Then Noah had built an altar unto the LORD and he took of
the clean beasts and clean fowls and made an offering unto the LORD.
This is the first altar in the Bible where clean animals were offered
unto the LORD. It no doubt was a
thank you offering to God for keeping them safe during the entire deluge and
bringing them through to dry land.
The clean animals were the bullock, sheep, and goat.
The bullock could have been an ox.
Ge 8:21
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.
The LORD smelling a sweet savour or scent meant that he
happily accepted the sacrifices of Noah.
Then the LORD had made a decree that he would not curse the ground again
for man’s sake which means he will not send another universal flood on the
earth. There have been local floods but the entire earth is what the LORD was
speaking about. The LORD knows that
the imaginations of man are evil from the time of his birth to the time of his
death and he also well aware that Noah and his family also had the sin nature
which will once again flourish on the earth as man begins to populate the earth
but the LORD states that he will never again smite the earth in its entirety
again. The reason that God will not
smite the earth in its entirety is because as man’s numbers grow, so will the
number of God’s Elect among the unbelievers especially in the nation of Israel
under Moses. Judgment will be on an
individual basis on the last day but there will be some visible judgments before
that such as Korah’s rebellion or the judgment of King Saul and others but their
final judgment will be that the Great White Throne.
Ge 8:22
While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold
and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.