NOAH – RAIN CAME DOWN
Genesis 8:1 Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.
Did God forget His faithful servant? Does He forget about us?
It is an expression indicating divine solicitude and grace.
A touching indication of the tenderness of God toward His creatures is found in the statement that God also remembered, with Noah, all other living things.
He who proclaimed that although five sparrows are “sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6, 7; cf. Matt. 10:29–31; 6:26), will remember His faithful children, who “are of more value than many sparrows.”
Verse 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained.
Verse 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.
Verse 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
Have you heard of Mount Ararat in Armenia where people have been searching for the ark for many decades?
The world famous guide Salie who takes the hikers up the mountain told me that the ark is not there.
Ararat is not only one mountain. There are many Ararats.
What does the Bible call Armenia?
Ararat is called a kingdom in the Bible. Jeremiah 51:27.
On which one of the many mountains did the ark come to rest?
My choice is Mount Ughtasar near to the town of Sisian and the oldest observatory in archaeology.
If I do not do find any other suggestions, I will hold onto my conviction that this is the place where the ark came to rest
The slope of this mountain is logistically friendly. It allows you to access it very easily.
The closest archaeological site is called Zorats Karar which has been identified as the oldest stellar observatory in the world.
The oldest script in Armenia is found on Ughtasar, called petroglyphs.
To the best of our knowledge the 2000 stones that contain this script are tombstones.
If Noah and his family landed in this safe haven which is surrounded by mountains, they probably lived in close proximity of the huge ark.
Have you ever thought why the ark is not yet discovered? Could it be that Noah and his posterity used that good strong quality wood for centuries to build their houses with, and make furniture?
According to Heruni the oldest proof of the fall of man, is displayed on one of these stones.
The fact that the oldest archaeological evidence is in close proximity of Mount Ughasar, makes it a logical place to identify it as the place where the ark came to rest.
Why would they travel to distant places if they could use the facilities of the ark in the meantime?
Noah and his family brought all the knowledge and science from the old world and this enabled them to build the observatory to continue their studies of the night’s skies.
Verse 5 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.
The waters diminished gradually for two and one-half months after the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
Let me share with you a very interesting statement which I found in Patriarchs and Prophets p. 105:
The waters rose fifteen cubits above the highest mountains.
It often seemed to the family within the ark that they must perish, as for five long months their boat was tossed about, apparently at the mercy of wind and wave.
It was a trying ordeal; but Noah’s faith did not waver, for he had the assurance that the divine hand was upon the helm. {PP 105.1}
As the waters began to subside, the Lord caused the ark to drift into a spot protected by a group of mountains that had been preserved by His power.
What I saw on top of Mount Ughtasar and what I read in this statement, corresponds.
These mountains were but a little distance apart, and the ark moved about in this quiet haven, and was no longer driven upon the boundless ocean.
This gave great relief to the weary, tempest-tossed voyagers. {PP 105.2}
So typical of our caring God
Verse 6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.
Forty days after the appearance of the mountaintops, Noah became anxious to know the extent to which the waters had dried up, and whether it was safe for him to leave the ark.
As the waters had abated, the ark had already found safety from the tempests in a sheltered spot high in the mountains.
From such a position it was difficult to ascertain the extent to which the waters had receded in the lower valleys.
Not able to find a resting place, the raven flew about over the surface of the waters, returning from time to time to the ark (PP 105).
Verse 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.
Although it is not stated how long Noah waited before making another trial, the expression “and he stayed yet other seven days” (10) indicates that the first period of waiting had also been of the same duration.
A week later the dove remained away all day, but returned in the evening with an olive leaf apparently from a tree that had survived the flood.
In Hebrew the expression “plucked” clearly indicates that the leaf had not been found floating upon the surface of the water.
Noah recognized the olive leaf as evidence that the earth must be nearly dry, and that he might soon leave the ark.
A week later the dove did not return, evidence that conditions were sufficiently normal to permit it to remain outside the ark. How joyous must Noah’s feelings have been!
Verse 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.
Can you appreciate Noah’s anxious longing to get out of the ark after living in it for almost a year?
Verse 9 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.
Do you think this was the end of his experiments?
Verse 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark.
Do you think he will get exciting news this time?
Verse 11 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.
Will he repeat this investigation?
Verse 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.
Noah and his family anxiously waited for the decrease of the waters, for they longed to go forth again upon the earth.
Forty days after the tops of the mountains became visible, they sent out a raven, a bird of quick scent, to discover whether the earth had become dry.
This bird, finding nothing but water, continued to fly to and from the ark.
Seven days later a dove was sent forth, which, finding no footing, returned to the ark.
Noah waited seven days longer, and again sent forth the dove.
When she returned at evening with an olive leaf in her mouth, there was great rejoicing.
What a moment of rejoicing in the ark!
Later “Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.”
Still he waited patiently within the ark. As he had entered at God’s command, he waited for special directions to depart. {PP 105.3}
Verse 13 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.
An additional period of waiting is indicated, after which Noah felt the time had come to investigate for himself.
Inasmuch as little could be seen through the lattice openings below the roof of the ark, he removed a portion of the roof.
The word “covering,” mikseh, is used in the Old Testament to designate the roof of the tabernacle (Ex. 26:14), and also slip covers for the furniture of the sanctuary while it was being transported (Num. 4:10–12).
Since these coverings were made of skins, it is possible that the covering of the ark may have been also (see on 6:16).
Verse 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
To Noah the ground appeared sufficiently dry.
But God had closed the door of the ark, and Noah awaited God’s instruction as to when he was to leave it.
Altogether he waited 57 days longer before the waters were completely dried up and God could give the desired permission.
If we assume a 30-day month throughout (see on 7:24), a ship’s log for the ark during the Flood would read as follows:
Noah enters ark. 7:4,7,10
Door closed. 2 Month 10 Day 600 Year
2 17 600
Rain and prevailing wa-
ters (first 40 days of
Flood). 7:4, 12, 17. to.. 3 27 600
“Waters prevailed” (110
additional days). 7:24.
to………………………….. 7 17 600
The ark rests on the
mountains of Ararat.
8:4. ……………………….. 7 17 600
The mountains seen. 8:5…. 10 1 600
The raven released (40
days later). 8:6. ………… 11 11 600
The dove released (first
time). 8:8; PP 105. ……. 11 18 600
The dove released (sec-
ond time). 8:10. ……….. 11 25 600
The dove released (third
time). 8:12. ……………… 12 2 600
Covering of the ark re-
moved; waters dried.
8:13. ……………………… 1 1 601
Noah leaves the ark.
8:14-16…………………… 2 27 601
Verses 15,16 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
A period of exactly five months elapsed from the beginning of the Flood to the time the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat (7:11; 8:4).
This is also given as 150 days (7:24), thus indicating that the 5 months contained 30 days each.
It is uncertain, however, whether the year of Noah’s time was lunar or solar, and whether it began in the spring or in the autumn.
The ark is proof of the goodness of God and the obedient faith of Noah.
The ark was a refuge in time of peril, a home for the homeless, and a temple where the godly family of Noah worshiped.
It bore them safely from the old world to the new, from an environment of vice and sin to an earth purified from sin.
The ark was God’s appointed place of salvation, and outside of it there was no safety.
And as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be when this present age is brought to an abrupt close at the coming of the Son of man (see Matt. 24:37).
Those who wish to be saved must avail themselves of the provision God has made for their salvation.
Go out.
Noah had learned to trust in God and to wait patiently during his 120 years of preaching and building the ark.
That long period of active labor was followed by more than a year in the ark.
During the first weeks and months he had experienced incessant rain, raging tempest, and tremendous upheavals of the earth, which seemed ready to destroy his frail bark.
Later, as the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat, there began a tedious time of waiting, which lasted for more than seven months.
How often Noah might have felt that God had forgotten the lonely ark and its inmates on that high mountaintop.
Happy twin virtues—faith and patience! With what eager joy Noah must have listened once more to the voice of God, bidding him go forth.
Next time we will hear what God was telling Noah, the man of faith and patience, what to do after he has left the ark.
The same voice who told him to enter the ark, now told him the time to start a new life on a somewhat different planet.
May God help us to listen to His voice which tell us when to begin something and when to end something.
It is always safe and beneficial to obey our loving Lord in whatever He tells us to do.