Genesis Session 14

Water flooded the earth for 150 days. There are fewer characters in that sentence then there were days that water covered the earth.

A lot can happen in 150. That is roughly 5 months.

You can build a house in five months… maybe even two with the right crew and tools.

You can fall in love with someone and get married in 5 months.

You can complete basic training and be deployed on assignment within five months.

Imagine… being isolated in the Ark, caring for two of every kind of animal, floating high above the surface of the earth… for five months.

I don’t care for monotony very much. I need a change of scenery from time to time.

When I’m in the office, I routinely walk around the building or step outside for a brain break or change of atmosphere.

At home, I’ll jump in the car and go for a ride around Ktown just to clear my head or to keep from going stir crazy.

But where could a person go when the earth is covered with water? Imagine a few tings for a moment...

Imagine how noisy the Ark was… ALL THE TIME.

This wasn’t a pleasure cruise to the Caribbean… this wasn’t a personal yacht that had the ability to navigate the pristine oceans of the world.

This… was a floating zoo… housing EVERY kind of animal of the world. One family had the task of caring for these animals day in and out.

This included feeding them, giving them water, cleaning up after them, keeping them contained, and so on - FOR 150 DAYS!

I can just about bet… that Noah was more than ready to exit that Ark!

And I bet his anticipation grew… as the waters began to recede.

Genesis 8:1–5 NIV

1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

Can you imagine the bit of excitement this family must have felt once the tops of the mountains became visible once more?

The flood was ending! They had made it through the worst of it. God had NOT forgotten Noah and his family. Not only had God given them instruction on how to build the Ark, He now sent the winds to dry up the water and to expose the land.

The Ark was no longer floating freely in the flood waters as it had come to rest on the mountains. It was now stationary… which had to be a good feeling in and of itself.

So now… with the Ark stationary and the top of the mountains visible… it was time to get out there and start life over again, right?

That would certainly be how I would feel… but Noah and his family DO NOT exit the Ark!

Have you ever been in a situation that you were itching to get out of?

For instance, maybe you’re in a situation and you thought to yourself that the first moment you have to get of where you are… you would take it in a heartbeat...

Personally, I do not know how Noah did this… his patience is truly remarkable. And there is something I want us to see regarding Noah’s time spent on the Ark.

Go back to chapter 7 and look at something important in verse 16...

Genesis 7:16 NIV

16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

After everyone and everything were on board… who was it that closed the door? It was God. GOD CLOSED THE DOOR. God shut them in.

God led Noah, his family, and the animals into the Ark. Once inside, He closed the door. And once the door was closed, the flood began.

God kept them from experiencing the destruction that was taking place outside the Ark. He had brought them to this place… Noah, the family and the animals were not about to argue with God regarding the closing of the door.

And this remained true even in the days when it seemed as though the waters were receding. Noah would not open the door that God had shut. Noah remained faithful to God’s plan and timing - even after spending 150 days closed up in the Ark.

Tonight’s study is simple. yet it might be one of the hardest things for people to do. Noah allowed for God to close the doors… and to open the doors. Noah trusted God, His timing and His direction.

It is a staple prayer I pray when seeking God for both personal direction and for direction regarding the church.

“God, open the right doors and close the wrong doors.” And when I pray this prayer it comes with the understanding that I will not force open any doors God has shut nor will I close doors that God may open. Following the directive of God has NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW I FEEL but it has everything to do with my faith in Him.

Our feelings can cause us to get ency… our feelings can cause us to rush to things… our feelings can cause us to go the wrong direction. I’m sure Noah was ready to get out of the Ark… but he wouldn’t didn’t open the door that God had closed.

God’s Timing and Direction is Perfect.

Let’s read on in Genesis 8.

Genesis 8:6–14 NIV

6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

After the tops of the mountains began to appear… Noah… tested the waters a bit.

The test begins by sending out a Raven. What do we know about this bird?

It was considered unclean… why? Because it ate dead things. Scripture indicates that once it was released, it kept flying back and forth until the water dried up.

The raven found plenty to eat outside the Ark… everything had died… but it did not find a place to stay. Thus it returned to the Ark, not Noah, until the waters dried up.

The second test involved a dove that was sent three times over the course of a couple of weeks. It returned once with nothing, but with a sign the second time. The third time it did not return.

All of this was done to establish that the waters had in fact receded from the land. Furthermore, verse 14 declared that the earth was completely dry… Noah could observe that the flood waters were gone.

So with this evidence in hand, Noah and his family opened the cages, released the animals and got out of the Ark as fast as he could… uh… not exactly.

The dove had not returned. The land was dry. But Noah was NOT the one who led his family out of the Ark… God called them out.

Genesis 8:15–19 NIV

15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

My point? it was God who had shut them in the Ark and it was God who called them out of the Ark. Even with the excitement of leaving the Ark looming in their minds… they stayed on board until God said it was time.

We don’t know what might have happened had Noah prematurely opened the door. But what we do know is Noah trusted God to lead him every step of the way.

Church, we can get ourselves in real trouble when we try to open doors that God has shut. Such behavior is rebellion. Such behavior is disobedience. Such behavior is the same sort of corruption that led to the destruction of the earth by a flood in the first place.

Noah not only followed God’s instruction regarding the building of the Ark, He trusted God and His timing when it came to loading and unloading the Ark. He walked through the doors as the Lord opened them.

Trusting God in this way means we must learn to be patient and we must place faith over feelings.

Sometimes our feelings may not like to wait… sometimes we may feel like we know what to do. But church, none of us in this room know better than God knows.

Noah found favor with God because he fully trusted and obeyed the Lord. I would have been more than ready to leave that closed up, stinky, floating zoo after 150 days! But Noah knew that satisfying the will of God was far more important than satisfying his personal feelings.

It is imperative that we follow the leading of our Lord. And as God opens doors and leads us through… we need to be quick to do as Noah did… worship the Lord.

Worship Came First.

Genesis 8:20–22 NIV

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Before Noah built a house or before he built a farm… Noah built an altar. Noah worshipped the Lord.

God had brought them through. The mission God had given them was accomplished. Life had been saved because Noah remained faithful.

I’m sure it was quiet. I’m sure it was a scene like they had never experienced before.

In the days before the flood, they were mocked, ridiculed by a world that was dying in sin. But now they stood as the only survivors.

Worship was the first thing to fill the air. They were uncertain what the days ahead would look like… but Noah chose to start off by worshipping God.

As God moves… as God leads… we need to be quick to worship… and slow to complain. We need to be thankful in ALL seasons as we have much to be thankful for.

A new chapter had begun… and Noah opted to start it off right.

Worship helps keep things in proper perspective.

It gives honor to whom honor is due.

It keeps us humble as we remember it’s all about God.

God will open doors… and He will close doors. Sometimes God will operate in ways that our feelings do not understand. Yet His ways and His timing are perfect.

Trust God to lead. Wait upon His timing. Worship Him in all things.