In the previous lessons, we learned that God told Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark..." (Genesis 6:13-14) So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. (Genesis 7:7-10)
Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. ... And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. (Genesis 7:17-24)
Now, the flood was over and all living things were destroyed from the earth. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. (Genesis 8:2-5)
So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore. (Genesis 8:6-12)
Very simple test, but Noah and every living thing on the ark with him were not to leave until the ground was dry. ...the Lord shut him in. (Genesis 7:16) And He was not going to let them out before the time was right. Christ Jesus once taught, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." (John 10:28) When we become children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus, no one and nothing can destroy us, because we have received eternal life.
Noah believed and obeyed they Word of God. Christ Jesus is the Word of God, the Son of God, Lord God. (John 1:1-18) Because of his belief and obedience, God protected him from being destroyed by having him build an ark and then shutting him in it. The ark symbolized ...the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30) And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. (Genesis 8:13-14)
Then God spoke to Noah, saying, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. Then 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. (Genesis 8:15-20)
Two important things. First, we studied it in a previous lesson, but now we see the fulfillment here of God's promise to Satan, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed;..." (Genesis 3:15) Her Seed would come directly from the line of Adam and Eve, through the direct descendant of Noah and his wife and their son Shem and his wife, and not by ...the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. (Genesis 6:3) Satan's attempt to thwart God's plan did not work!
Finally, a sacrifice was required to God for what He had done for them. That's why God had originally told him, "You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth." (Genesis 7:2-3) And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. (Genesis 8:21) And we are to be ...a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1) For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. (II Corinthians 2:15-16)
No comments:
Post a Comment