The Ark and God's Timeline
God told Noah the earth would flood 40 days, but Noah was in the ark for 1 year and 10 days. That's a big difference in timing! But how many of us get off the ark after the rain, only to drown in the results of the flood because we didnt allow God to finish the process.
God closed the door, but Noah opened it.
And the Lord shut him in: the expression beautifully shows God’s fatherly touch, at the very brink of judgment. The same care that saw this matter through carries our salvation to its conclusion.
Interestingly, it is “God” who commands the group to enter the ark (v. 16a), but “the LORD” who shuts them in (16b). Perhaps this shift to God’s more personal name suggests that God is the protector of the ark.
Then the LORD shut him in.
When the Old Testament says that God remembered, it combines the ideas of faithful love (cf. Jer. 2:2; 31:20) and timely intervention: ‘God’s remembering always implies his movement towards the object of his memory,’ Cf. 19:29; Exodus 2:24; Luke 1:54, 55.
7–12. The raven and the dove almost ask to be treated as a parable; indeed the Holy Spirit, by taking the form of a dove, probably pointed to this episode with its suggestion of that which is sensitive and discriminating, the harbinger of the new creation (this, rather than peace, is the promise of the freshly plucked olive leaf, 11, RSV) and the guide of those who await it. The raven, in contrast, content with its carrion, was no harbinger of anything: its failure to return was as uninformative as would have been the report of a Demas (2 Tim. 4:10) on the state of society.
The little sequence, as von Rad points out,11 ‘subtly lets us witness the waiting and hoping of those enclosed in the ark’. Noah’s resourcefulness comes to light, and above all, in 13, 14, his self-discipline as he patiently awaits God’s time and word.
Suddenly the story shifts; God remembers Noah (8:1–22). Not Noah’s righteousness, or blamelessness, or his walk with God. Just Noah. There are seventy-three instances in the Old Testament where God is said to “remember.” This remembrance moves God to send a wind over the earth. One Hebrew word translates “wind” and “Spirit.” In 1:2 it is the Spirit who hovers over the waters. Twice the divine rûaḥ encounters the waters, first restraining them, now evaporating them. The sun plays no role in the drying up of the waters. In pagan myths this is exactly what happens. The ark finally comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat (in modern Armenia and eastern Turkey).
Noah must now determine whether the waters have receded sufficiently for dry land to reappear (8:6–14). To find out, Noah sends out first a raven, then a dove (twice). God does not tell Noah when the ground has dried out even though he did tell him about when the flood would start and exactly how to build the ark. Here Noah moves from being the passive recipient of revelation to being the active investigator of what and when the next move is.
The raven does not return because, as a carrion-eater, it is able to feed on the animal corpses on the mountain tops. The dove, by contrast, is a valley bird that feeds off food in the lower areas, the last to dry out. This is why it returns to the ark.
In verses 13 and 14 we have two Hebrew words for “dry,” just as we had two words for “rain” in chapter 7. The first (v. 13) means to be free of moisture. The second (v. 14) refers to the complete absence of waters. Thus the choice of verb and the progression from verse 13 to verse 14 is logical.
Twice God speaks in 8:15–22, once to Noah (vv. 15–17), and once to himself (vv. 21–22). Between these two speeches is the departure of Noah from the ark (vv. 18–19) and his act of worship (v. 20). Even though the dove does not return, Noah does not leave the ark until God tells him. God, and only God, can give the green light.
Noah stands out among his peers. He is righteous, blameless, and walks with God. Thus verse 9 supplies the answer to why Noah finds favor in the Lord’s eyes (v. 8). Divine favor is not something Noah wins; it is something he finds.