Genesis 8:1 And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.
2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
3 And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.
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.
15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,
16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him;
19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.
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.
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.
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
11 And I will establish my covenant with you: neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations.
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
MEMORY VERSE: And I will establish my covenant with you: neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. Genesis 9:11
CENTRAL THOUGHT: After God brought Noah and his family safely through the flood, He established a covenant with them that no more will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; and He gave them the rainbow to be seen in the cloud as a reminder of His covenant.
WORD DEFINITIONS
Genesis 8:1, “asswaged”: Began to be lowered.
Verse 3, “abated”: Decreased and brought lower.
Verse 21, “sweet savour”: Soothing fragrance and sweet pleasing smell.
9:12, “token”: Sign. “perpetual generations”: Humanity unto the end of the world.
Verse 13, “bow”: Rainbow.
LESSON BACKGROUND
The flood had prevailed upon the earth for an hundred and fifty days. This equals about five months. For these five months Noah and his wife and their three sons and their wives had lived and sojourned in the ark along with all the animals and birds. We can imagine their state of life, activities, and responsibilities that they had endured during those many days: animals and birds to be fed, their own state to be handled and seen about from day to day. Thus, there was great patience, responsibility, and mastery of duty that each one shared in this long period of time. As it was with the other characters portrayed in this eleventh chapter of Hebrews, there was a great need of courage, devout determination, and steadfast faithfulness in each one of these individuals. We do not have much information about their daily routine and activity. We do have the scenes of Noah sending out the raven and then the dove to get a better concept of the situation. And when the dove came back from her second outing with an olive leaf in her mouth and then remained without coming back, this told Noah that things were getting more back to normal. Later God spoke to Noah that they could go forth from the ark and permit all the animals and birds to also make their exit. Could we imagine the activity that went on as the animals who had been caged in all this time were turned loose? It was probably quite a scene to be witnessed!
It is no wonder that Noah built an altar and made burnt offerings to the LORD. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour from the hearts of the family of Noah. This brings to our mind what we as born again Spirit-led children of God can look forward to welcoming and enjoying when our blessed Saviour bursts through the heavens in His second coming to receive His beloved Bride for everlasting embrace and happiness! Just as Noah was faithful and obedient to God and was richly rewarded, even so we also will have a blessed everlasting reward for being faithful and true! May we all be steadfast and true to our precious Saviour all the way! —Bro. Leslie Busbee
QUESTIONS:
- How long did the flood prevail upon the earth?
- When did Noah’s family with all the creatures come forth?
- Why did God want to make a covenant with Noah?
- What did God make a promise to do in this covenant?
- What was the token that God gave of this covenant?
COMMENTS AND APPLICATION
Despite the wickedness and evil that God was grieved about in the world back in the days of Noah and his family, He abounded with love, mercy, goodness, and kindness to this man Noah. He wanted to bless and pour out His wonderful goodness in a bright and glorious manner upon this man who had been so faithful and obedient to do what God had told him to do. It was a great big undertaking for Noah, with the help of his sons, to design and gather materials for the construction of this huge ship that would ride the waves of the flood that God was going to bring on. It was no small undertaking. While they were intensely applying their strength and skills to accomplish this great task, Noah had the world and society he lived among to witness to and explain the reason for his building this great big ship out on dry land. Think of the ridicule and scoffing he bore from the ungodly and darkened minds of the people! But Noah did not let any of this trouble hinder him from working at the task that God had put before him to do.
And Noah got it done and the ark was ready to take on the animals and birds that God had instructed him to gather for the trip. Sure enough, the animals were taken in and housed in the many various-sized rooms and places that the ark had to offer. It was a huge and difficult job that Noah did. And then when they were all loaded and God had shut them in, the rain began to fall. Probably many people came and begged to be given an entrance into the ark. But God had shut Noah in and had shut the world out. This is all a type of what God will do in that last great day. Now is the day of salvation, and now is the accepted time. We must yield our hearts to God and take His holy way and be ready to stand before Him in that last great day. God will be so glad to receive all who are faithful and true to Him in His great salvation! Let us be diligent to have faith in God and His Son Jesus and be accounted worthy to attain to the resurrection of the dead! —Bro. Leslie Busbee
REFLECTIONS
What a beautiful sight Noah and his family witnessed in that first rainbow as they stepped out of the ark into a newly cleansed world. This rainbow represented a covenant to mankind that is still in existence after 4,000 years! From time to time, there will be flooding in certain areas and regions of the world but never a total deluge.
Even now, it is always such a pleasure to search and find a rainbow in the clouds after the rain. In studying the prism of the rainbow, we know that the color red is followed by orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo and lastly violet. It is never distorted and the pattern is always the same. This is all created by the hand of an awesome and wonderful God. While it is fascinating to enjoy the beauty of the rainbow and to study the science of light refractions, this covenant is not to be esteemed lightly.
Let this rainbow covenant be a reminder that while the earth will never again be destroyed by water; the next time it will be melted and evaporated by fire. The God who created this world out of nothing is able also to make it disappear completely. Peter gave this warning, “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. . . Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness . . . Wherefore beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless.” Just as certain as the rainbow points back to the covenant made with Noah; it also points forward to a final judgment day. It pays to be sober, to be vigilant, to be ready. —Sis. LaDawna Adams
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