This chapter is the account of the flood duration and recession.
“Then [Noah] sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 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. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 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. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 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. 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.’ ” (v8-12.20-21)
This was a true test of Noah’s obedience and waiting on the Lord. Not only did Noah spend several years building the ark, he and the occupants spent more than a year on the ark (it’s 377 days if you do the math). Even after the earth was dry they waited another two months on the ark before God called them out (I’m assuming vegetation had to regrow). Noah had a profound patience and faith for waiting on the Lord – so much faith that he even sacrificed some of the clean animals before they had a chance to multiply (it’s okay, he had seven of each).
God makes a profound promise – that no matter how bad things get again, no matter how evil people become, He will never again completely destroy the earth or living things (at least not until the final judgement and they are replaced by the new heaven and new earth).
This one line is very important to understand because the entire scenario hinges on it: “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood” (v21b). This is true in other parts of scripture: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?” (Jer 17:9) “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” (Mat 15:19)
This judgement (flood), and the final judgement are justified because of God’s sovereignty and absolute holiness/righteousness – He cannot allow sin to exist forever, it is an abomination to who He is, and is contrary to His desire for His people. Habakkuk says to God: “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.” (Hab 1:13a) God permanently solves the sin issue, one way or another – through forgiveness and cleansing of unrighteousness made possible by Jesus’ death and resurrection, or through condemnation and eternal banishment from God’s presence (such as awaits Satan and his followers).
My prayer for today is that I learn to remain as steadfast as Noah, waiting on the Lord every single day, remaining faithfully obedient in every circumstance, knowing that God is delivering myself (and hopefully those with whom I interact) from eternal separation from him. Sure, there are some short-term sacrifices in this temporary life (I may not find time to watch that series on Netflix, or I may not win an earthly popularity contest), but the rewards are eternal and far outweigh any temporal sacrifice.
~ Conqueror in Training