Genesis 8 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Genesis 8:1-12

1 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. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 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. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

A. Find Out:

1. Why was the water receding? v.1,2
2. Where did the Ark “ground”? v.4
3. How much longer did it take for mountains to become visible? v.4,5
4. What did Noah first of all send out? v.6,7
5. How many times did he send out the dove? v.8-12
6. How did he know it was now all right? v.11,12

B. Think:

1. Note the four stages that indicate the receding of the flood and drying up of the earth.
2. How is the Lord seen to be active in the events recorded here?
3. What has Noah got to do?

C. Comment:

The judgement of God has come. Now we are in the waiting stage to see what God will do and when. The flood remained 150 days (5 months) and took another 7 months to completely dry out (compare 7:11, 8:4, 8:14) The removing of the flood is again seen as the hand of God. While it is happening, Noah has to sit tight and wait patiently.   

However, he shows his faith that God IS restoring the earth by sending out the birds to see how things are. The raven, the unclean bird, appears to give no help (v.6,7). The dove, that subsequently becomes a symbol of peace, goes and returns, goes and returns and goes (v.8-12). Noah is constantly looking for the sign of God having moved in salvation. Eventually he is rewarded. The dove must have been able to find another home at last.

In this passage Noah is a strong example to us. When things are bad, do we wait patiently for the Lord to bring His salvation, while constantly maintaining faith, looking for the sign of His appearing? Noah relied upon the word of God, what God had said, and trusted for that to be fulfilled. Do we?

D. Application?

1. Read Habakkuk 3:17,18 When all is not as good as it could be, will we trust God and maintain this attitude of praise, and worship.
2. Today declare your complete trust in him, whatever!

Passage: Genesis 8:13-22

13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 ‘Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you – the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground – so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.’

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds – everything that moves on land – came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 ‘As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.’

A. Find Out:

1. How long did Noah wait in the ark? v.13,14
2. Why did he leave the ark? v.15,16
3. What was the first thing Noah then did? v.20
4. How was the Lord aware of what Noah was doing? v.21
5. What did the Lord resolve to do? v.21
6. What reassuring promise did he make? v.22

B. Think:

1. Of what do you think Noah waiting in the Ark is a sign?
2. What do you think building an altar indicates?
3. How did that appear to melt God’s heart?

C. Comment :

For nearly two months Noah and all his passengers wait in the ark after the waters have gone (v.13,14). Here is a picture of a man who is just waiting patiently for God to say he can move. God put there; God will tell him he can come out. What a beautiful picture of just resting in the Lord. As soon as he is out, Noah builds an altar as a sign of worship, praise and thanksgiving (v.20). This is the first altar that is mentioned in the Bible, and it is quite significant. There is no mention that Noah was told to build it. It just seems instinctive, and as he does it and offers what appears to be the first burnt offering in the Bible, God is aware of Noah’s desire towards Him, and His heart is moved.

As Noah responds, the Lord’s activity in saving Noah is justified as He sees that in the midst of evil mankind there is still room for love and worship to come forth. He resolves therefore, never again to destroy all mankind (v.21). The Bible indicates again and again that WE can move God’s heart by who we are and what we do! What a challenge and motivation, if we really believe this!

D. Application? 

1. Thank the Lord that we can live in the security of His promise that he will never again wipe us out.
2. Give to Him today YOUR worship and praise as one of His children.
3. Remember as one of His children you can move Father’s heart.