This transcript was autogenerated. 

We saw last time as the water began to recede on the surface Noah first sent out a raven. The Raven being is a scavenger. And would survive by eating carcasses floating in the water. Next, he releases a dove and the story continues in verse 8.

Then he 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.

(Gen 8: 8-9) 

This time he sends, out a dove, but unlike the raven the dove could only land on a dry place, and because it didn't find any such place it returns to 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.

(Gen 8: 10-12)

This time he doesn’t wait 40 days he only waits 7 The fact that the 1st dove returns with a fig leaf at least indicates that the waters had at least abated, however this did not indicate that the ground was perfectly dry because apparently an olive tree can produce leaves whilst waterlogged so maybe the process is not quite yet finished. Which is probably why Noah waited another 7 days and the last dove goes out this one does not return.  The failure of that dove to return was an indication that it had found dry ground. A pretty astute method of establishing the state of the ground.So, the flood has now completely receded. If you trace all these events chronologically and calculate the number of days according to these verses some have pointed out that the whole drying process took approx 9 months, or 284 days to be exact. I throw those figures at you for reason. 

Firstly, that’s a long time and secondly, what else take 285 days. What else take 9 months? It’s not just me but this fact has made some people kind a wonder, did God also allow 9 months for a new birth of the earth to take place? There are several principles involved here that I think are important to note. Firstly, is that God often uses natural means to bring about his purposes when we tend to seek supernatural means. We glory in the dramatic the theatrical but most of what God does he does through natural processes. So, if you’re sick, pray, but also go to a doctor. As a doctor told me once when I went to the him as a child with a badly cut chin. He put two stitches in me and said, “there you are God will now heal you, but I get paid for it”. God used the doctor to bring healing to me by natural means. But the other thing in this part of the passage that I think we can learn from is that God works at his pace not ours. Could he not have done it faster? Of course, he could. Perhaps one of those great lessons we need to learn in all this is patience. There is no greater area where this principle is truer than in the area of spiritual growth. Growth in the natural realm according to our perspective often seems to be very slow. As child when I planted something, I used to get very frustrated that it wouldn’t appear to grow so slow----ly. Did you put marks on the wall to mark the growth of your children? You know then growth is slow, and spiritual growth is often slow also. When God works, he often works slowly, but there is a reason he does this. Why, because that’s the only pace at which we can learn spiritual truths.  

Let's pick it up at verse 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. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

(Gen 8: 13-14) 

Here’s the point, that Noah waited 29 more days after releasing the 3rd dove. He could see the dry ground, but he still did not leave the ark. The occupants of the Ark had now been aboard for 371 days. Now I know some of you like to take and cruises, but 371 day, isn’t that’s pushing it a bit, even for those who love cruising. The story continues.

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 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.” 

(Gen 8: 15-17) 

God now says leave the ark and bring out the animals. They now should go out and, fill the earth. This is a re-commission of the command from Genesis Ch 1 when God said he wanted all the creatures to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. We shall follow that re-commissioning, following this re-birth in the next episode.