A New Start Series

Speed skater Cathy Turner prepared and waited years for her chance to win an Olympic gold medal. She won all her preliminary races, and she was in the final medal race. When the gun sounded Cathy had a fall just after the start. That was it. Her Olympic medal dreams were over.

One of the other skaters had started a fraction of a second too early. It was a false start. That meant the race would be restarted. Cathy Turner was able to put the terrible start behind her and begin again. She got a new start and won gold a medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics.

New Starts are exciting. If you move to a new city or start a new job, you have the opportunity to learn new things. You can move on beyond your past failures. When you hear of a success story you find a theme that they had a fall like a speed skater slipping on the ice, then they start again and make accomplishments that take them to new heights.

We are going to look at a New Start of humanity for Noah and has family in Genesis 9:7-11. It is a new start for Noah and for humanity.

As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.” 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” (Genesis 9:7-11)

This is a new start for mankind. God is the God of beginning again. The context of the new start if the flood of the whole earth. There was wickedness on the earth and the Lord’s response was to flood the earth. He would start over with righteous Noah and his family.

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. (Genesis 6:13-14)

God’s judgement was carried out. He flooded the earth. By God’s grace Noah and his family were spared. The earth was flooded, but the waters recede. God delivered Noah, his family and the animals on the ark unharmed. The past is behind them now. God did not forget about his faithful ones in the Ark. Now it is time for a new start.

God himself had directed the events regarding the flood. God also directed the events around the receding waters. God caused a wind to come and the waters to recede. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. (Genesis 8:1)

This flood was a catastrophic event.

• There were 40 days of rain.

• There remained 150 days at flood level.

• There were 30 days that the flood waters were above the mountains.

In 40 more days Noah sends out a raven. Then following that Noah sends out a dove. The dove returned with a freshly plucked Olive Branch. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. (Genesis 8:11)

The olive branch is the symbol of peace. The dove is a symbol of the holy spirit. The good news came back to Noah. Again, Noah sent out the dove. This time it never came back. By all indication it is now safe to come out of the ark.

That the dove never returned is good news for Noah. It is time to put the past behind and get on with the new work. Noah had a willing heart and was ready for the new start. But Noah waited in the ark for God’s instructions.

You must be willing to wait on God. Don’t let any new start you are about to take be a matter of self-effort. Let your new start be at the direction of God. Then God said to Noah, (Genesis 8:15) That is a short but important verse. Noah made his new start when he heard the voice of God.

You want your new start to be in God’s way and with God’s timing. It had been slightly over a year since the Lord led Noah to enter the ark. Now God had called him out. For 600 years Noah had known the old world and stood alone amidst the wickedness and corruption of that world. Now it is a brand-new start for Noah. There are only 8 people on earth now.