[And He Walks With Me] Genesis 8
4 From the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month (7:11) to the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark was floating. Finally, six months after the flood began, the ark ran aground on the mountains of Ararat.
On the mountains of Ararat is at once a very specific and very ambiguous place. There is a specific Mt. Ararat in eastern Turkey, and many have assumed that the ark came to rest somewhere on its slopes. However, the word here translated mountains refers not to a singular mountain but to a range of mountains. Further, Ararat was not just a specific peak. Rather, the name was associated with Assyrian Urartu, a broad mountain kingdom spanning much of northern Mesopotamia and what is today eastern Turkey.[10]
5-14 After the ark ran aground, it was another 10 weeks before the tops of the mountains were visible. It is easy to forget how much time Noah and co. spent waiting, especially in our culture of fast everything (e.g., food, internet). These ten weeks, however, must have seemed especially long because they knew the ark was aground, but they could not yet see the resolution. Would the ark break apart as the waves crashed over it or the water receded from its hull? How would the landscape be changed in the aftermath of the cataclysmic flood? It was ten weeks before they could even begin to answer these questions. There are at least two lessons to learn here. First, we must train ourselves to wait. Waiting does not come easily, but it is essential. In fact, studies have shown that those who look forward to things for a time appreciate them more and are more satisfied and happy in the long run. We can train ourselves to wait by not satisfying every itch the moment it hits us. Save our money to buy that new toy rather than put it on credit. Think about something for a day or two before pulling the trigger. Deliberately slow down while traveling, spending more time getting from Point A to Point B so you can appreciate the sights along the way. Second, accept that some things take considerable amounts of time to discern, especially after life has been thoroughly disrupted. Noah and co. were only able to begin answering the questions they had after ten weeks. It would be another forty days before they even began to explore remotely what was going on outside the ark (6), another ten weeks or so after that before they even stepped out, and still another two months before the earth was dry and everything was finally revealed. After a major life disruption, we must slowly and deliberately explore all that has been changed if we are to be effective in the strange new world beyond.
7 Noah and his family did not immediately exit the ark when they began to see mountaintops. Instead, they sent out a raven knowing that, of all the creatures on the ark, it would be the most resilient land creature. If there was anything to cling to, anything at all that could sustain it, the raven would not return. Indeed, when the raven did not return, Noah interpreted it as a sign of hope that something could survive in the aftermath of the flood.
8-12 Noah’s second test to see if people could survive on the earth was to send out a dove. Doves are much less resilient than ravens, and they have much greater requirements for habitat. Therefore, if a dove could survive, then people probably could, too. Conversely, until the dove was confident it could survive, people should probably remain on the ark. The first time Noah sent the dove, it never found a suitable resting place for its foot and so returned to him in the ark. This was a clear sign that the earth was not ready for people to inhabit it again, but Noah did not interpret this as a failure. Often, in the aftermath of life disruption, we must experiment a bit. Sometimes, those experiments come back having not worked. This does not mean that all hope is lost, but that the one thing we tried was not successful. Therefore, we should tweak something and try again. In Noah’s case, he tweaked the timing. He waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark again. This second experiment also failed in that the dove came to him at evening. It is often disheartening when something does not work the second time around, but this time, the dove brought with it a plucked olive leaf. This indicated that life was returning to the earth, and it may be able to support human life again soon. In other words, the plan was sound, even if the timing was still wrong. So again, Noah tweaked the timing and sent out the dove one more time in vs 12. This time, it did not return. The experiment succeeded. Do not interpret one failed experiment as failure. Rather, think of it as Thomas Edison did the hundreds of experiments before he built a light bulb that worked. When asked about those failures, Edison responded that those experiments did not fail but rather discovered all the different ways that would not work. Do not be discouraged by one failure or two. Rather, recognize that those are merely ways that will not work. You are not a failure until you fail to learn from each experiment, stop tweaking, and give up searching for the one way that will work. Also, understand that a plan is sometimes completely sound, but the timing is not right. In such cases, persistence and perseverence are key to success. Just because you do not have immediate success does not mean there is something wrong with you or your plan. Keep listening to God and moving forward.
13 More than ten months after the flood began, Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw. He began disassembling the vehicle that allowed him and his family to arrive where they were, and no doubt, he began to build the house and other things they would need to move forward from what they salvaged from the ark. Even when life is so thoroughly disrupted as it was for Noah, our past can be leveraged to help us move into the uncertain future. The trick is that we may need to completely, carefully deconstruct our former models, harvest the fundamentals, and rebuild them in an entirely different form to do so.
14 One year and ten days after the flood began, the earth was dry. Finally, Noah and his family were able to walk on solid ground and begin rebuilding their lives. When life is disrupted, it may take a considerable amount of time before we are able to move forward with confidence. The trick is to keep doing what we can, cautiously, in the meantime so that we are ready to spring forward when the opportunity finally arrives.
15-19 Here is the first time God called someone to get out of the boat they were in. God told Noah the plan, which must have seemed daunting, even overwhelming, at the time, but Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. When God calls us to leave behind the methods and models that brought us this far, we must not hesitate to do so. Noah’s story was not a success until he and all the animals with him stepped off the ark in faith, and we will not succeed in the brave new world unless we do the same.
20 The first order of business after exiting the ark was to worship. Usually, when we come out of a disruption, we do so with a list of things that must be done post haste. However, it is important to pause to worship God for bringing us so far and for opening the way before us.
Furthermore, Noah’s worship involved offering birds as burnt offerings on the altar. That is, Noah sacrificed some of the creatures he and his family worked so hard to preserve. Often, worship is counterintuitive. Sometimes, it seems counterproductive, at least at first. However, worship is the meat of our relationship with God. It is a critical end in and of itself. Do not think worship a waste of time or resources. Rather, lean into it!
21-22 Once again, we see God’s essential nature manifest. He is not a destroying God but a creating one, and he is not a condemning God but a redeeming one. When Noah engaged in worship, it so moved God that he changed his posture toward mankind for all history! When we worship God in alignment with his character and command, it changes things!