Daily Scripture Reading Genesis 8:1-20

Humans tend to be impatient. If we are in a crisis, we want God to end our predicament as soon as possible. The longer our hardship lasts, the more likely we are to lose hope that it will ever end. If and when we lose hope, we blame God and doubt His love.

Noah and his family experienced a catastrophe. The saw God destroy the entire world with a flood. They were saved by an ark; however, the length of time they had to endure living on the ark is an example of the kind of patience we need to have when we face adversity in our lives.

The 7th chapter of Genesis tells us after Noah and his family entered the ark, it rained for 40 days. All the mountains were covered and all people and land animals who were not on the ark perished. There was so much water, the earth was covered for 150 days. That is almost 4 months.

Gen. 8:1 ¶ Then God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.

Gen. 8:2 Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained;

Gen. 8:3 and the water receded from the earth, going forth and returning, and at the end of 150 days the water decreased.

We see the words “150 days” in this verse. This is not in addition to the 150 days mentioned in Genesis 7:24. This verse simply repeats the fact that the water prevailed for 150 days.

Think about this from Noah’s perspective. He built the ark, per God’s instructions, but then it rained for 40 days. Did Noah doubt the rain would ever stop? Then they floated for 150 days. Did Noah doubt if they would ever see dry land again? Did Noah worry that their food supply would run out? Did Noah run out of patience?

It is easy to read the story of Noah, and overlook the patience and faith it took for Noah to remain optimistic about the future. 150 days is a long time to be on a boat with no land in sight.

How do we react when a crisis lasts 150 days or more? Do we begin to doubt God’s promises? Do we lose hope that the crisis will ever end?

Gen. 8:4 In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.

Notice the time marker. The ark rested on Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. Genesis 7:11 tells us the flood started on the seventeenth day of the second month. It was 5 months from the time it started raining until the ark rested on Ararat.

If you are trying to figure out how 40 days plus 150 days can equal 5 months, keep in mind that the 40 days and 150 days overlapped. The 40 days tells us how long it rained. The 150 days tell us how long the earth was flooded. The resting upon Ararat does not necessarily coincide with the end of the 150 days.

At this point it was 5 months since Noah and his family walked on dry land. Did they still have hope they would ever see dry land again? When you go through a crisis that lasts 5 months, do you lose hope?

Gen. 8:5 Now the water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

Note the time marker of the tenth month. Noah and his family entered the ark in the second month, so at this point they had been on the ark for 8 months.

Gen. 8:6 ¶ Then it happened at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made;

Look at the words “forty days”. Even after the tops of the mountains appeared, it was another 40 days before anything happened.

Humans tend to be impatient. Most of us would want off the ark as soon as we saw dry land again. However, Noah and his family continued on the ark for another 40 days.

Gen. 8:7 and he sent out a raven, and it went out flying back and forth until the water was dried up from the earth.

Gen. 8:8 Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land;

Gen. 8:9 but the dove found no resting place for the sole of its foot, so it returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he stretched out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark to himself.

Gen. 8:10 Then he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark.

Gen. 8:11 And the dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in its beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.

Gen. 8:12 Then he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove; but it did not return to him again.

Gen. 8:13 ¶ Now it happened in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up.

Note when Noah saw the earth was dry. It was the first day of the first month.

Gen. 8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

One month and 27 days after removing the cover of the ark, Noah and his family are still on the ark. They had now been on the ark for over 1 year. It would have been very easy for them to lose hope that their ordeal would ever end.

Gen. 8:15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying,

Gen. 8:16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.

Gen. 8:17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth, and that they may be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

Gen. 8:18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him.

Gen. 8:19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by their families from the ark.

Gen. 8:20 ¶ Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Notice that Noah sacrificed one of every clean animal and one of every clean bird. He was able to do this because, according to Genesis 7:2-3, he had taken 7 pairs of each clean animal and bird onto the ark with him.

Humans tend to be impatient. If we are in a crisis, we want God to end our predicament as soon as possible. The longer our hardship lasts, the more likely we are to lose hope, blame God, and doubt His love.

Noah and his family were saved from the flood by the ark. However, they had to live on the ark for over a year. They went months without seeing dry land. That is an example of the kind of patience we should aspire to have anytime we face a setback in our lives.

What is a calamity you experienced where it took a long time for you to come out of the calamity?

Were you patient, or did you develop a bad attitude?

What is the most trying thing you are experiencing in your life right now?

How is your patience and faith in God as you go through your current distress?

Thanks for visiting Bible Mountain. If you have already joined my email list, thank you and please tell others about Bible Mountain. If you have not joined my email list yet, please do so now. In order to join, go to Bible Mountain dotcom, click on subscribe, and that will take you to a page where you can sign up. Your email address will not be sold nor given away. Once again, thanks for visiting Bible Mountain.

“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”