The Great Recession

Well, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 8. Genesis chapter 8 for our time of study in, God's word, this morning in our study through this book, we come this morning to Genesis chapter 8, verse 1, and my goal this morning is to try to cover verses 1 through, 14. And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be The Great Recession. Only this is a good recession that we find recorded for us in Genesis chapter 8.

I was listening to the radio. this past week, and it was on Thursday, and there was a, weather reporter, a national weather reporter on this, broadcast who was talking about the rains that North and South Carolina can expect over the next day or so because of the approaching hurricane on the east coast. And the weatherman said there will be rain of biblical proportions. It turned out that that was a pretty good warning to his audience.

those states, North Carolina and South Carolina, other states as well are experiencing rains and floods, the likes of which they have not seen for over 200 years. For a weatherman to use the word biblical. When predicting rain is clearly an allusion to the event that we studied last week in chapter 7 where we saw the great flood of Noah's day break out upon the earth. We saw how the floodgates of the sky were open and the fountains of the great deep were bursting open and how rain fell upon the earth in a torrential downpour for 40 days and 40 nights straight.

And as a result, of this flood, the waters rose high enough not only to lift the ark to where it's floating on the surface of the waters, but the waters prevailed even more until they covered every mountain, everywhere, under the heavens on earth. We also saw that as a result of the great flood in chapter 7, every single land dwelling and sky flying creature perished from the earth, along with every human being, all except for the 8 humans in the ark and the animals which were with them on the ark.

And all of this happened we have seen because of sin. This was God's righteous judgment against the sin of the world, showing us that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The narrative last week was packed with action, full of tension with the water growing higher and higher and the destruction escalating with the rising waters. But then, The narrative came to an eerie stillness, an eerie calm at the end of verse 23. The entire earth is now covered with water, everything perishes, and then the text tells us that only Noah was left together with those who were with him in the ark and the water prevailed upon the earth for 150 days. And we were left last Sunday with the image of the ark looking like a tiny dot floating on the endless expanse of the water that was covering the entire earth.

I want us to just ponder for a moment. I want you to think for a moment, what would you be feeling at this 0.150 days in, if you were Noah? I am sure, I don't know this, but I'm pretty confident that Noah was not Mr. Calm and detached throughout all of the mayhem of the flood as it was unfolding.

Matthew Henry, the great commentator of 300 or so years ago, is probably accurate when he describes Noah in this way. Noah remains alive, cooped up in a closed place, alarmed with the terrors of the descending rain. The increasing flood and the shrieks and outcries of his perishing neighbors, his heart overwhelmed with melancholy thoughts of the desolations made. It's hard to know exactly the degree to which this statement by Matthew Henry might be true, but let's not forget that righteous Noah got himself drunk after the whole flood ordeal was over.

I don't think any of us can imagine the weight that Noah carried in his soul as a survivor of this cataclysm when everyone else on earth dies. And as the man responsible for the well-being of his family members and all of the animals on the ark for the year and 10 days that they were all aboard the ark, the entire history of human civilization is riding on this man. In an interview prior to the release of the movie Noah, that I think came out last year, Russell Crowe, who played Noah was talking about Noah in that interview and he described Noah by saying this about him.

This is the dude that stood by and watched the entire population of the planet perish.

He's not benevolent. He's not even nice, what? This is probably why Russell Crowe played an utterly unlikable Noah in the movie. I don't think Russell Crowe has a clue.

Honestly, about the character that he was playing. I don't think he has a clue about the thoroughly righteous and tender heart of Noah, a tenderness that we're actually going to see displayed in our passage today. Even at this point of the narrative. there's a lot for NOAA to be thinking about in addition to the weight of everything that I've just described.

imagine surviving a global flood like this and now you're left floating on a planet of water with no one else alive on the planet to come and rescue you. You have no navigational control of the vessel that you are in. Your visibility is just simply through a window under the eaves of the arc, and that visibility is very limited. And here you are floating on this endless expanse of sea.

How would you feel if you found yourself on such a vessel in the middle of the ocean with no dry land anywhere on the planet? And you knew that everyone else on the planet was dead. That's Noah at this point. That's Noah's family at this point of the narrative.

In our passage today, we're going to witness God bringing about the abatement of the great flood. We will see that the receding of the waters and the landing of the ark on, and, and even the drying of the ground is just as miraculous and just as revealing about the character of God. As the flood itself was. Whatever sovereign power was needed to bring about the flood, it will take exactly that much power to cause the flood to subside.

And God, we will see, is up to that task. Let me read the passage to you beginning in verse 1 of Genesis 8. I'll be reading from the New American Standard. The text says, but God remembered Noah, and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark, and God caused the wind to pass over the earth and the water subsided.

Also, the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed and the rain from the sky was restrained, and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of 150 days, the water decreased. In the 7th month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. The water decreased steadily until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the 1st day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

Then it came about at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made, and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove from him to see if the water was abated from the face of the land, but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot. So she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her.

And brought her into the ark to himself. So he waited yet another 7 days and again he sent out the dove from the ark. The dove came to him toward evening and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth.

Then he waited yet another 7 days and sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again. Now it came about in the 601st year, in the first month, on the 1st 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. In the second month, on the 27th day of the month.

The earth was dry. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand His word this morning. What we're gonna do, the way we're gonna break down this passage is we're gonna observe 9 developments involved in the recession, the abatement of the great flood, and you're welcome to follow along with the notes that are in your bulletin, if you like. Development number 1 in this passage, as the curtains open on chapter 8, we see the text telling us that God remembers Noah.

And the inhabitants of the ark. The text says, but God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. This entire story of the rising of the waters in chapter 7, and then the subsiding of the waters in chapter 8, it all pivots on these two words, but God. But God, which sounds a lot like what passage?

Ephesians 2, right? Ephesians 2:4. In Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, and we walked according to the course of this world, and so forth. And then he says in verse 4, but God, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love, With which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he made us alive together with Christ.

For those of us who know the Lord, our entire life story pivots on the words, but God. It's the same vibe here in Genesis 8:1. Virtually everything on Earth was destroyed and looked hopeless, but God. The waters prevailed over the highest mountains, but God.

The waters prevailed for 150 days upon the earth, but God. And the rest of chapter eight is all about the chain of events that God set in motion which culminated in a freshly renewed earth ready for habitation again. What a chapter. What did God do?

The text tells us that God remembered Noah. This doesn't mean that God had forgotten about Noah and those who were on the ark. God's not up in heaven saying, hey, Gabriel, what's that box floating? On the water.

I thought I destroyed everything. It's Noah, Lord. Oh. That's right.

And so the text says, God remembered Noah. Is that what happened? No, I don't think so. In telling us that God remembered, no, when you see how the word remembered is used in context like this in the Old Testament, this is covenantal language, designating covenant faithfulness or fidelity.

It also conveys the idea when you see passages in the Old Testament saying that God remembered somebody. It has the idea of God responding to the prayers for deliverance that have been brought before him by someone who is in dire straits. This is the language that we find in situations like this which indicates that Noah and his family and the animals on the ark are right now in dire straits. They need deliverance.

And Moses, writing this tells us, but God remembered Noah and the inhabitants of the ark. Moses wants us to know as he tells this story of the waters receding, he wants it to be very clear upfront. That the waters receded from the earth and the earth was renewed after the flood because God remembered Noah and the animals who were aboard the ark. What God does in this chapter, he does for Noah.

His family and for all the animals that are on the ark. As one writer says, while those in the ark may have been safe at this point in time, they had not yet been saved. They still need God to move and work on their behalf, and God does move and work on their behalf. And this brings us to the next development where we learn.

That God causes the floodwaters to subside. He causes the floodwaters to subside. God remembered Noah and the inhabitants of the ark, and he causes the floodwaters to subside. In verse one, it says, and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water in response to the wind began to subside.

You might wanna make note of the fact that the Hebrew word for wind is ruak. Which is the Hebrew word that in other places in the Old Testament is translated as spirit. In fact, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 2, it tells us, the passage tells us that the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. It's the same word, the Ruach of God was moving over the face of the waters.

And just as the Ruak of God moving over the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2 was a signal of good things to come, so the Ruak. That is now sweeping over the earth, sent by God is a signal of great things to come again. It is the wind of God, the Spirit of God, who chases the waters of judgment away and causes God's judgment to subside. In verse 2, we see that contributing to the subsiding of the waters is the fact that the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed and the rain from the sky.

was restrained. We also learn in verse 3 of another action that contributed to the decreasing of the waters. The text tells us and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of 150 days, the water decreased. The idea is after the expiration of that 150 day period where the waters prevailed over the earth, the waters began to subside in response to this wind that God had sent over the earth.

Ultimately, in these verses, we have clearly indicated. 4 causes of the abatement of the waters of the flood. God sends a wind, that's cause number 1. The floodgates of the sky are closed and the rains are restrained.

Number 3, the fountains of the deep are closed as well. And then number 4, the text tells us that the waters receded. You might want to mark this, the expression receded steadily in the Hebrew literally is the waters returned, going and returning. This twofold use of the word returning indicates that the waters are returning to the places from whence they came.

As one writer says, the waters came from both the heavens and the great deep and returned to each of them. Since God now wishes to restore the world to its normal state, it is essential that the water should return to their sources and that the reservoirs of the upper and lower water should be replenished. That's what's happening here. And so the water over the earth is subsiding.

As a result Before this great abatement or recession began, the waters were at least 15 cubits above the mountain tops. NOAA would have been able to surmise this. From the fact that the arc being 30 cubits high would have set in the water at least 15 cubits lower than the surface of the water. Without the bottom of the arc scraping against anything or touching or getting lodged on anything, but now the waters are beginning to subside rather quickly, and this brings us to the next development in this great recession of the waters over the earth, and that is the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

The ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat. In the 7th month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. The flood started on the 17th day of the 2nd month, and here we learned that on the 17th day of the 7th month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat, which is exactly how many months? What's 7 minus 2?

5, good, good. The ark has been floating all of this time for 5 months, but now it comes to rest upon the mountains of Ararat. Moses, it seems, is being very intentional and not identifying a particular peak of Ararat here. In fact, he seems intentionally being generic, which is why he uses the plural for mountains.

He's just simply telling us that the ark landed somewhere upon one of the mountains in the region of what is called Ararat in the days in which Genesis was being written. the region of Ararat is essentially the area that is presently in eastern Turkey, as you see on the map behind me. southern Russia, northwestern Iran, as you see there. there are many slopes, there are many peaks in this area, and Moses is simply telling us that the ark came to rest on one of these.

slopes. We would assume that the ark is coming to rest on one of the higher slopes because we learn in later verses that the mountain tops were not visible at this point. So we would presume that the ark landed on one of the higher of the mountain tops in the region of Ararat. So imagine that you are floating.

In this endless expanse of water with no land visible anywhere, and then the ark becomes lodged on, on something and then begins to stay there permanently. Noah doesn't know it yet, but as the water recedes, he will be able to later record. The fact that the ark became lodged and came to rest on one of the mountains of Ararat. We lose this in the English translation, but it should be pointed out that the word that is translated rested is actually the Hebrew word from which Noah gets his name.

Literally, the text reads, the ark Noah. Upon the mountains of Ararat. Think about what an amazing moment this must have been for Noah and his family to, to become lodged and come to rest on solid ground. The ark is clearly lodged on solid ground that's not visible at this point.

if it turns out that the land that the ark is becoming lodged on at this point is not sufficiently flat, then as the water subsides even further, the arc would become tilted. And be in trouble. I'm a worrier by nature. I would worry about that.

Yeah, we're lodged here, but as the water continues to subside. How flat of a surface are we lodged on? But it turns out that the ark landed on some ground that was sufficiently flat. As one writer says, divine Providence displays itself gloriously in all that befalls Noah and the ark.

And the mere fact that the ark came to rest on terra firma, solid ground, but primarily also in the fact that so huge a structure came to rest on an even keel, as it were. Where a pronounced tilt in the course of its settling might have resulted. In the perishing of all. So God is thinking of everything and taking good care of Noah and his family and all the animals who were aboard the ark.

And once the ark becomes, comes to rest on this solid ground, the water, as the story unfolds continues to recede, which brings us to the next development. The water decreases until the mountain tops are visible. The water decreases until the mountain tops are visible. It says the water decreased steadily until the 10th month.

In the 10th month, on the 1st day of the month, the tops of the mountains. Become visible. Again, keep in mind that the ark is lodged in one of the mountains or on one of the mountains of Ararat. That doesn't mean that that mountain is visible at the point that the ark becomes lodged.

It just means that the land mass that the ark is now resting on is less than 22.5 ft from the surface of the waters. So the ark would have become lodged on this spot long before the spot itself became visible. And on the first day of the 10th month, which is 73 days after the ark came to rest, the mountain tops become visible to Noah as he looks out from whatever opening there was. To look and see.

The environment around him. So 73 days have gone by and the mountain tops are breaking the surface of the water enough so that Noah could see them through the opening provided for him. 40 more days go by and look at what happens next, which brings us to the fifth development. Noah sends out a raven which survives outside the ark.

The text says that it came about at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and he sent out a raven and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. This is 40 days after the mountain tops were becoming visible. I am sure that Noah and his family were very anxious and wanting to figure out what the status of things were outside of the ark. As one writer says, one can hardly conceive of how painful the suspense and the arc was growing at this time.

when, when our kids were small, we would gather them into the car and drive any distance, just the, the impatience, are we there yet? Are we there yet? We've not even left the neighborhood, hardly. Are we there yet?

Imagine what Noah and his family are feeling with this huge length of time just sitting there going nowhere and waiting for the waters to subside. We learn in verse 6 that there was a window on the ark, yet it's interesting, wherever the window on the ark was, it did not give Noah a view of the ground below. So that he could see the depths to which the waters had actually receded. some suggest that like the window was under the eaves of the roof of the ark and it didn't give Noah a very wide view and he couldn't really see down and we know this is true because Noah was unable to see the land below even after the waters had gone all the way down to the surface of the ground.

He was not able to see the land below until he had removed a covering. From over the ark. In verse 6 and in the following verses, we're gonna see Noah on 4 occasions now sending out a bird. First a raven and then 3 times he will send out the same dove.

As one writer says these actions by Noah are easily understood if we bear in mind the custom of the ancient seamen. Who when they were on the high seas used to send forth birds from their ships in order to learn from their flight if there was dry land near and in which direction it lay. This is just what seafarers did in this day. The text tells us that it came about at the end of 40 days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and he sent out a raven.

There's no stated purpose in the Hebrew text as to why Noah is sending out the raven, but he's clearly sending this raven out in order to observe its behavior and just see, is there anything I can learn from the way this bird behaves after I send him out. This teaches us something of interest about Noah. Noah has been relying upon the voice of God throughout all of this narrative to tell him what to do. And yet here we see him wanting to learn as much as he can from natural means.

Noah is the perfect picture. Of a man who studiously follows the spoken word of God, and also a man who is a student and an observer of nature. Why does Noah send a raven first? Well, the raven is a sturdy bird that can fly long distances.

Being a scavenger, it feeds on decaying carcasses, and if that's what it dines on, the raven obviously is not picky about any surface. That it lands on, right? If you're gonna send out a bird from the ark in circumstances like this, a raven is an excellent first choice and that's what NAh does. In verse 7, the text tells us that Noah sent out the raven and it says in the New American Standard, it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth.

Many commentators Understand this expression here and there to mean that the raven flew here and there and everywhere and never ever returned to the ark. That's the standard version of the story that is told and that's actually quite possible, but literally the text reads this, it flew going and returning. That's the literal Hebrew of the text, leading some commentators to understand from the text that the raven is making many journeys from the ark and back to the ark. With each night, each evening returning to the ark, and one indication that this might be an accurate way to view the behavior of the raven is that the text says that the raven did this until the water was dried up from the earth.

And then at that point, perhaps the raven stopped going back to the ark after everyone was out of the ark and the water had subsided completely from the earth. I'll let you figure that out. But either way, Noah doesn't stop there. Notice what he does next.

This brings us to the 6th development. Noah sends out a dove which returns to him. says in verse 8 that he sent out a dove from him to see if the water was abated from the face of the land. Now we have a specific motive that is stated on Noah's part as to why he sent out this dove.

We're told here that Noah sends out a dove. A dove is a clean animal that has a strictly vegetarian diet feeding primarily on seeds. It's not quite as sturdy and free-spirited as the raven is. So if the dove is able to survive outside the ark, that would be very informative for Noah, right?

They're two very different birds. And the wording of the text in verse 10 makes it clear that Noah sends out this dove 7 days after he had sent out the raven, and we know that because when he sends out the dove the second time, the text says, Noah waited again, another 7 days. And so we're able to see that in verse 10 and read back into the fact that Noah sends out the raven and then 7 days later, he sends out the dove. The text tells us in verse 9 that the dove found no resting place.

Again, this is the Hebrew word from which we get the name Noah. Literally, the dove found no Manoah. And the play on words here is very meaningful. One writer says it this way, she, the dove, looked for another Noah outside of the ark, but finding none, she returned to the Noah that she knew.

I want to linger over these words in the text for a couple of minutes here. The wording of this whole sequence provides a really touching glimpse of the tenderness of the heart of Noah and even a relationship between Noah and this bird. This dove. Literally, verse 8 tells us that Noah sent out the dove from with him.

That's literally what the Hebrew reads. and we don't find that language with the raven. The idea is that Noah sent out the dove from having been with him. He doesn't just send out the dove from the ark, he sends the dove out from him.

There's relationship here. This dove is clearly something of a pet to Noah. And when the dove returns, the text tells us that the dove returned to him. Into the ark.

The dove was not just returning to the ark, the dove was returning to Noah in the ark. We also see a touch of gentleness in what Noah did as well as the dove returns. Look at verse 9. Verse 9 tells us that as the dove returned, it says, then he, Noah, put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark to himself.

You see the language there? This reaching forth of Noah's hand. Beautifully indicates an affection and a sympathy in the heart of Noah for this dove who had found no resting place for her feet. And Noah doesn't just bring the dove into the ark, but he brought the dove to himself.

The picture is of Noah gathering the bird close to his bosom, the way someone would treat a pet bird that they care for. Do you guys get the visual here? One writer says it this way, the description of the return and the admission of the dove by Noah is unsurpassed for tenderness and beauty. Of imagination.

There's something almost achingly tender about this little segment in the story. Throughout chapter seven, there's absolute mayhem and destruction of every living thing and yet here we see a tender caring hand reaching out to receive a fragile bird, one of the most fragile animals on the ark. Noah's carrying hand reaches out for the bird and then gathers the bird to himself. This doesn't just teach us something guys about Noah.

The insertion of this tender hand into the narrative. is meant to soothe us by teaching us something about the God of Noah. God has shown his hand in chapter 7, in unleashing destruction on the earth on a massive scale, but here God's hand is seen in the form of Noah's hand reaching out to and gathering in a fragile bird. God is a God of fierce judgment.

God is a God of mind boggling wrath against sinners, and yet here he clearly has provided a tenderhearted caretaker. For this smallest of creatures that he intended to save. So many details are skipped in these weeks and months. We would love to know all the things that happened and yet just this little segment here.

Gives us some details that are meaningful for us. It's a beautiful little cameo that speaks volumes about the heart of Noah. Sorry, Russell Crowe. Noah was a benevolent man.

He was a tenderhearted man who cared very much for the animals that were on the ark. So Noah has sent out the raven that keeps going and returning, whatever that might mean, and 7 days later he sends out the dove who does return. So 7 more days go by and Noah decides to send out the dove again. Let's do this again and let's see what we can learn.

And that brings us to the 7th development. Noah sends out the dove again and it returns to him with an olive leaf. Verse 10, so he waited yet another 7 days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark. The fact that the text says the dove tells us this is the same dove.

That NOAA had sent out 7 days earlier. The dove this time seems to stay away all day and then in verse 11, we see that the dove came to him. Again, see the language there? The dove came to him.

Toward evening. Just when Noah might have started to think that the dove was not going to return, the dove returns to him. But something startling occurs this time that the dove returns. The dove returns.

With something in its beak. The text says, and behold, behold, this is a startling development. Behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf, so Noah knew that the water was successfully abating from the earth. The word fresh indicates that this leaf had just been plucked.

This was not some old leaf that was floating on the water. With the leaf being a fresh leaf, it would tell NAh that there is foliage that is growing again on Earth. The fact that it's an olive leaf would be significant from another standpoint. Olive trees generally grow below 6500 ft above sea level.

So NOAA would be able to infer from the fact that this is an olive leaf that the water level is working its way lower. And lower into the valleys. This would probably mean that right at this point, Running Springs, California. How many of you have been through Running Springs?

and maybe even crestline, for those of you that live in Crestline, is, is now bursting above the surface of the water. Just the fact that this is an olive leaf would give NAh this indication. Noah would see the olive leaf and say, whoa, crestline is probably above water right now. An olive leaf, guys, it's such a small thing.

But this is the first sign of life outside of the ark. Imagine how many hours Noah and his family spent just staring at this leaf and talking about this leaf. They didn't have anything else to do. And they're all just making hay over this leaf and like, whoa, look at this, what leaf is this and what does this tell us?

About what is happening outside of the ark as they try to tease out all of the ramifications of the presence of this leaf in the beak of this bird. As one writer says, as a fresh leaf, it was newly born and thus was confirmation that the earth was yielding its herbage. Olive trees sprout leaves just a few days actually after sprouting from the ground. So this tree that the leaf was plucked from could just be a few days old, in fact.

So what does Noah do next? Does he disembark? From the, from the ark, does he disembark from the ark? that just hit me.

No, here's what he does. This brings us to the 8th, development. Noah sends out the dove again 7 days later, and on this occasion, the dove does not return to him. Verse 12, then he waited yet another 7 days, and he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him.

Again, This dove was a pet, no doubt of Noah's, and for this dove to not return to him again means that she has found life quite comfortable outside of the ark. This would have communicated volumes to Noah, letting him know that the earth is growing progressively more habitable for life to such a degree that this vegetarian seed eating bird. is finding sufficient provision To live on. This bird does not have to go back to the ark anymore.

She will do just fine outside of the ark, and this sets us up for something that happens about a month or so later. Observe the final development and the unfolding of the great recession of waters, and that is the surface of the ground becomes completely dry. In verse 13, the text says, now it came about. In the 601st year, in the first month, on the 1st of the month, the water was dried up from the earth.

We are right now at this point of the story, about 10.5 months after the flood had begun. God had told Noah, I'm gonna send rain 40 days. And here we are and, and that's exactly what happened. The rain stopped after 40 days and 40 nights, but here is Noah, the cleanup operation is what takes the time.

Here is Noah 1015 months after the flood had begun. 5.5 months after the floodwaters had started receding. And we're told now that the water's dried up from the earth. Noah came to know this by observation because the text tells us that Noah removed the covering of the ark, and he looked, and behold, underline that word behold, this is a startling development.

Behold, the surface of the ground was dried up. Noah opens the hatch in order to get a clearer view and to be able to see the land below, indicating that he was not able to get a visual on the land below until this point. He removes the covering or the hatch from off of the ark somewhere maybe on the roof of the ark, and then he looks over and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up. The word behold tells us this was a startling observation for Noah.

Talk about seeing a sight for sore eyes. This said to have been a totally amazing spiritual experience for Noah. He had never been so happy to see ground before. What a gift.

What a gift. I'm sure even after this moment, years later, every time he looks at the ground, he's like, wow. The ground, this is amazing because he had come to appreciate it. Even though the text tells us that the ground was dried up.

This doesn't mean necessarily that the ground was completely dry, while the water, it just means that the water is not covering the ground anymore, but commentators say that the language here indicates that the ground was still muddy. Because for some reason, Noah sees the ground from a distance, from its high altitude, and decides I'm not getting off the ark yet. It wasn't time to leave. But look at verse 14, which takes us to 57 days after he first removed the covering from the ark and saw that the ground was pretty much dry.

Verse 14, the text says, in the 2nd month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dry. Noah is an amazingly patient man. And he, amongst other things, is learning patience in this whole episode. In the 2nd month, on the 27th day of the month, the earth was dry.

This is the day, and we'll get to this next week, that God speaks to Noah and says, it is OK. I, in fact, I'm, I'm commanding you to get out of the ark. In these verses, we find a threefold statement that the earth was dry, which, we have seen already in the book of Genesis that this is, Moses' way of putting an exclamation point on something. In verse 13, it says the water was dried up from the earth, verse 13, the surface of the ground was dried up, and then in verse 14, the Hebrew word switches, it's a totally different word than what we see in verse 13, where Moses tells us the earth was dry.

Why the word switch? why? Because in verse 14, when it says the earth was dry, Moses is now using the same word for dry earth that he used in Genesis chapter 1 verse 9, when God created the dry land. In Genesis 1:9, God said, let the dry land appear.

And here in Genesis 8:14, it brings us to the crowning moment of God's duplication of what he did on the third day of creation. The earth is now ready for habitation again. And so the miracle of the Great Recession is now fully complete, and the stage is now set for Noah and all the animals to leave the ark. And for the next phase of gospel history to continue to unfold.

Just real quickly guys, in these verses, we see God proving his faithfulness to those that he has committed himself to saving. We see his power and causing the flood to recede. We see here that God is a promise keeper, the ultimate promise keeper, God sent the flood exactly as he promised that he would. He has preserved Noah alive exactly as he promised that he would.

When God promises that he will judge, he will keep every one of those promises. When God promises that he will give grace and save, he will keep every one of those promises to you. God keeps every one of his promises of judgment. And of grace.

Let's remember also that this whole story hinges on the words, but God. But God, just as your personal story, if you're a believer in Jesus hinges on those two words, but God. For all of us who know the Lord, we can tell the story of our pre-salvation days with all the brokenness and all the mess, and then we can say, but God. And then tell the story of all that God has done for us in saving us and what our lives have been like since.

We find in the story today, the concept of rest in two places. God caused the waters to recede and position the ark in such a way that it came to rest. On the mountains of Ararat. And we see a dove having nowhere to rest the sole of her foot.

And so she returned to the man whose name meant rest. Are you looking for a solid rock to rest your life upon? Have you found no resting place, not for the sole of your foot, but have you found no resting place for your soul? You're like, man, I've been trying.

I found no resting place for my soul. Well, what? That's intentional. That's intentional, that's a grace that God has not allowed you to rest, have rest for your soul.

And maybe now it's time to return to him. To return to Him who is the ultimate Noah. Who is the ultimate bringer of rest to our souls. And if you do return to Him, if you run to him this morning, guess what?

He won't wait for you, he will reach out his arms and he will bring you, he will gather you to his bosom just like Noah did. That dove that returned to him. Come unto me, Jesus says in Matthew 11:29, all you who are weary and heavy laden, And I will give you rest. Let's pray together.

Lord, we're just so dazzled by not only your word, but just your power. we saw destruction and mayhem last week and judgment and wrath, a righteous fury against sin, and we were so instructed by that and here we see tenderness and we see grace, we see revival of life on earth. We see a new beginning. And we see you displayed in both of these.

You are a God of judgment. You are a God of wrath, and you are a God of grace, who uses your power to do good to those whom you have saved. And I suspect, Lord, that in a room this size, there are people in this room that are not walking with you, they're living in rebellion against you and you. are fighting against them.

And opposing them. Using your power, Lord. Perhaps in discipline and in judgment. But we pray, Lord, that you would work in their hearts and in all of our hearts that we would respond to you and return to you and walk in relationship with you and be recipients of your salvation to where this very same power of yours, Lord, is used.

In a saving way. And that we experience your wonderful tenderness and grace in Jesus. We thank you for all that you have given to us in Christ, especially the rest for our souls. We thank you for the opportunity to give our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds and do much with everything that is given in this offering for the glory of Jesus, for the ultimate Noah and the good news of salvation through Him.

We give ourselves to You, Lord. With thankfulness in our hearts in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.