Genesis 8
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Genesis 8 (NIV)
At this point, Noah and his family had been in the ark for months with all the animals. The flood waters were so high even mountains were covered so they had to wait for the water to go down before they could get out of the ark. Eventually though, everything was cleared and everyone whose life had been preserved in the ark could go out again.
Lessons from Genesis 8
- God will always remember you, even in your season of wait: the Bible says that the waters flooded the earth for 150 days (Genesis 6:24), that’s close to 5 months. 5 months of being cooped up in the closed ark, 5 months of waiting for a semblance of normalcy to return, 5 months of wondering what next. God remembered Noah and sent a wind over the earth so the waters would recede and everyone could come out again. In your season of waiting, don’t get impatient and jump out of your ark (taking matters into your own hands), wait on God and trust that He has not forgotten you.
- Recession starts when the springs and floodgates are closed: for an increase to happen, incoming must be greater than outgoing (picture trying to fill a sieve with water vs trying to fill up a bucket with a tiny hole in it). You can apply this principle to many different areas of your life, for example:
- To increase financially, your income must surpass your expenditure.
- You recede financially, when your expenditure surpasses your income.
- When your inside springs (those that produce rivers of living water) clog up, you begin to experience a decline in your mental, emotional, and even physical and financial wellbeing, often leading to feelings of depression and lashing out.
- If you find yourself in a state of recession, find out what floodgates and springs have been closed and resolve the issue from the source.
- Change takes time, learn to appreciate the “little” results: even after the rains had ceased and the Lord had sent the wind over the earth, the flood waters did not completely recede immediately, it took time.
- Building new habits/breaking old habits takes time, don’t give up trying just because it didn’t all happen at once.
- Learning something new takes time, don’t give up just because you did not figure it all out in one day.
- It takes time to build strong relationships, don’t walk away because everything didn’t come together all at once.
- Growth takes time. Whatever it is you are looking forward to, whatever it is you are working on, don’t give up just because things seem slow. Celebrate the little wins and enjoy the journey. The time will come when you will look back and thank your younger self for not giving up.
- It takes a lot more [time, energy, effort, resources, etc.] to [re]build than to destroy: it took 40 days of rain to destroy everything but many many times more than that for the waters to completely recede, and even longer for the earth to regain its beauty.
- It is easier to break trust than it is to rebuild.
- It is easier to ruin a relationship than it is to repair it.
- It is easier to break a heart than it is to mend one.
- It takes less time to break down a structure than it does to build one up.
- With just a few words spoken in a few short minutes, you could completely wreck a person’s confidence but it takes a lot more to rebuild it.
- Before you decide to wreak havoc, stop to think of the repercussions. Imagine losing everything you worked hard for (relationships, career, business, etc.) just because you had a lapse of judgment or a brief moment of inattention, carelessness or emotional outburst… think before you act/speak.
- When your arms can’t reach and your eyes can’t see, send a helper: to gauge the water levels outside, Noah sent out first a raven and then a dove. In this world we are not expected to live isolated and figure everything out on our own. It is okay and even sometimes necessary to ask for help (or be the help someone else needs). As children of God, we have been sent a special helper from God: the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah!
- Remember the Lord in your season of jubilation: after everything was over, Noah offered a sacrifice to God and it so pleased the Lord, that He made a covenant with Noah. It pleases God when we remember Him and give Him honour.
- A time and season for everything: “As long as the earth endures, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” – Genesis 8:22 (NIV). Making the best of every season requires recognizing what the season is, and what needs to be done in that season. Pray for wisdom, discernment and discipline.
Reflection
- How can you exercise patience in your season of waiting?
- What “little” blessings in your life are you overlooking?
- How can you make the best of this current season of your life?
Affirmations
- God knows me, He loves me and will never forget or forsake me.
- God is my source and because He is, my supply will never run dry.
- My work will produce results, in all I do I shall prosper and everything I touch will be blessed.
- I will experience growth in every area of my life.
- I will use my words and abilities to build and not to break, to bless and not to curse.
- I am not alone, the Lord is my helper, my keeper and my provider.
- I will remember the Lord my God in my season of jubilation and I will honour Him with my harvest. And as I do, I will be abundantly blessed.
- I am like a tree planted beside the waters which bears fruit in season.
Further Reading
- Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) [“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”]
- John 14:16 (AMP) [“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), to be with you forever—”]
- John 15:26 (AMP) [“But when the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, He will testify and bear witness about Me.”]
- Psalms 1:3 (NIV) [“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”]
- Deuteronomy 8:17-18 NIV [“You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.”]
Prayer
Father, I thank you that you always remember me. Thank you for watching over me throughout all the seasons of my life. I pray for wisdom and discernment to identify different seasons, and discipline to make the best of every day. I will bear good fruits in due season. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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