Last 5 Days
LIFE IN THE MIDST OF DEATH - Noah Leaves the Ark
1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
God remembered Noah and sent a wind to stop and cause the waters to recede. At the end of 150 days, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. However, it was only on the first day of the tenth month that the mountain tops became visible after the waters started to recede. In other words, Noah waited another three months to see twenty feet of water recede. God could have caused the waters to recede instantly, but He did not do it.
We do not know why as it was His sovereign prerogative to do as He liked. Could be a test of Noah’s patience and obedience to Him as it was only after God told Him to come out of the ark then he came out as instructed by God?
Furthermore, it was in His sovereign grace and mercy to preserve the ark and those in it. For the waves and pressure of the waters could have torn the ark into pieces if He did not preserve them by not allowing it to happen. And if Noah did not obey God’s instructions and built the ark according to His instructions, the ark may not survive the waters and waves too. If Noah built it smaller than what God told him then the ark would have sunk quickly and drowned everyone in it. Whatever, it was, it was God’s miraculous protection over them that they survived the waters of the flood because He had promised Noah.
Noah and his family spent over ten months in the ark and trusted God even though the future did not look so bright. Our future may not be bright too. In fact, it may seem hopeless. We don’t know what is going to happen, but we can be sure that God is faithful to His promises. This calls for patience just as Noah waited patiently for ten months in the ark. Another forty before opening a window to send a raven and later a dove to see whether they could come out of the ark. Noah was not being impatient in sending the birds, but he was eager to know what the earth was like after spending ten months in the ark. God did not rebuke him for doing so.
Noah did not ask God to let them come out immediately but waited until the water receded and for God to call him to come out then he came out. The dove returned with an olive leaf in its beak. He knew that the water had subsided. But he did not come out of the ark. It was only when God called him to come out then he came out. The first thing Noah did when he came out was to build an altar to offer sacrifices to God. The flood lasted about a year. The earth only became completely dry on the twenty-seventh day of the second month of Noah 601’s birthday. On the contrary, Noah waited patiently for a whole year in the ark.
Like Noah, we must be patient in times of uncertainty. We must not insist on having our own ways or having immediate answers. It is not wrong to look for answers or look for a way out. But it should not cause us to act against God’s will or walk ahead of Him. We like to run ahead of God and get ourselves into trouble. Saul had his throne taken away from him because he was impatient. When Samuel was late to arrive, he took on himself to make sacrifices to God which only Samuel the servant of God could do.
Are you getting impatient with trusting God and want to act on your own accord because God is slow in answering your prayers? You are contemplating leaving your job because you did not get the promotion you expected. You have forgotten that not too long ago it was God who answered your prayer and gave you this job. If you are, can you be patient and trust God as He may have greater things for you to do? Amid the disappointment, adversity, and uncertainty, the promise of God is still true as it was to Noah in the flood. Do not take matters into your own hands but trust God and His promises. Do not let what you face cause you to doubt God or lose faith in Him. Do not react in any way that may destroy our Christian witness and shame the Name of God as well. Walk with God and let Him guide you. He may be asking you to wait or He may be testing you too. Whatever it might be, we want to be found to be trusting His promises.