Thursday, June 18, 2015

Gen. 8:10-12

Gen. 8:10-12

While the Lord knew it hadn't yet been time for the waters to have gone down enough, He had let Noah try, knowing it would help build Noah's faith.  Many times what helps us grow closer to the Lord is waiting. Failure isn't always a bad thing, if you can learn something valuable and improve from it. Failure is just part of the normal problems of this fallen world.

Noah learned to draw closer to God and rely more on His perfect timing. He waited seven days. That he waited a week may show that he was considering Creation. God made the world in six days before a day of rest. So, he may have considered this seven days a good period of time to wait since God was having to create a new world from the ruins of the old.

Again, we only see the dove mentioned as we get to verse 11, where Noah sends her out again. The Lord wants us to focus on this dove because something very important happened. This time, the wait paid off, because the dove brought back an olive branch.

The olive branch and has become a symbol of peace. Probably, people don't realize that this is where it came from. The that this particular olive branch survived shows that God can bring anyone through anything.

One also notes that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, will one day return and set His foot on the Mount of Olives, with a new world being formed from the evils of the old, with God destroying this old, sinn-stained world during the Tribulation. However, the Jewish people will be brought throught he Tribulation and we have God's promise that he will save His chosen people. For an excellent radio series on the events leading up to, and in, the Millennium, see shows 59-63 here.

Of course, the world had to wait another week before the land was dry enough for the dove to fly away and begin building a nest. Things take time, and it was going to take a lot of time for this new world to totally recover. It makes one wonder how long it will take after the events of Revelation. The important thing, of course, is that Hecan and will do it. Sometimes He takes longer to help us increase or acquire patience, because He knows if we saw Him do everything right away yet might be too confusing for us or something.

The dove did not return to Noah anymore. This shows the instincts which had been built in, which told the dove that, now that there was actual land to get food, she could start building a nest. We don't have evidence but it is quite likely that the male dove left at this point and they begin mating.