Genesis 8:1-18 Devotional
v1: Can God forget things? Why or why not? – God IS Omniscient (all knowing), otherwise, He would not be God!
The Hebrew word for “remember" is zakar = to remember, to recall, bring to mind!
v1-3: How did God stop the flooding? – stopped rain from the sky, closed all the springs from within the earth, blew dry the water with winds
End of v3 seem to contradict with Genesis 7:24? – the earth was flooded for 150 days, i.e. there was water on the earth for 150 days, THEN it dried up!
What are the sequence of events?
v4: ark “came to rest” on top of a mountain on the 17th day of the 7th month
v5: water receded till “tops of mounatins” were above water on 1st day of 10th month
v6-7: Noah opened a window (i.e. the whole ark was sealed) and allowed a raven to fly out
but just flew around the ark
v8-9: Noah allowed a dove to fly out but just came back to the ark
v10-11: after 7 days Noah freed another dove, this time when it came back the dove a a branch indicating there was now dry vegetation on earth
v12: after another 7 days, Noah freed another dove but this time it didn’t come back (indicating it found land to make a home)
v13: Noah opened the covering of the ark and saw dry land!
v14: the earth was “completely dry” from the flood (was there water left?) – v1-3 tells us that there is still water around and of course we can note rivers and seas after Noah and his family lived on earth
How did Noah know what to do to test if the flood was over? – Noah actually used his own wisdom “step by step” to see if there was now land
v15-16? God speaks! Why did God speak? – Noah and family could have been still afraid of flooding (did they even know how to swim??)
v17-18: Noah obeyed God; the rest followed!
What Biblical principles and life applications can we glean from this passage? – There will be times in life when we just have to take practical actions without hearing from God; BUT, when fears come, have a big ear to listen to God and obey!