Beyond The Basics

Transcript:

Welcome to Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

This week we’re going to be exploring Genesis chapter 8. We will be continuing the story of the flood that was started in Genesis chapter 7. If you remember from last episode, God had Noah build an ark because God was going to send rain to flood the earth as a result of the wickedness and violence that was on the earth at the time. And so God told Noah to build an ark to bring all the animals and his family on board so that there would be a remnant left on the earth.

So picking up the story in Genesis 8, we find that God now sends a wind over the earth and the waters recede. The waters recede for a total of seven and a half months. That’s the total amount of time that it takes for the waters to evaporate off the face of the earth. Noah sends out birds at various times to test the conditions of the earth to see if the waters have subsided until he is finally able to leave the ark one year and ten days after the rains stop. So he gets out of the ark, he offers sacrifices to God, and then God promises to never flood the earth again. And so we’ll look at all those things in detail.

So this chapter gives us a timeline of the flood from the time the rain falls all the way to the time Noah is able to leave the ark. we already know from the previous chapter that the rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights. And then in verses 2 through 5, it describes the waters receding. And so after the rain stops, it takes 150 days for the waters to recede, which is five months-ish, around there, if the month is about 30 days or so. So the Ark came to rest, it tells us, in the seventh month on the seventeenth day, and then the mountaintops were able to be seen in the tenth month on the first day.

So then Noah sends out birds in verses six through 12. He sends out a raven 40 days after the mountaintops were seen. So again, in the tenth month on the first day, the mountaintops were seen 40 days later. So in the 11th month, in the 11th day-ish, somewhere around there, Noah sends out a raven. And that raven goes to and fro. And it tells us it went to and fro until the waters were dried up. Then later, he sends out a dove. And the dove returns. And then seven days after Noah sent out that dove, he sends out another dove. And this time, the dove returns with an olive leaf. And then seven days later, again, Noah sends out a dove a third time, and this time the dove does not return.

And so then the chapter tells us that three months after the mountain tops were seen, the water had fully receded. Now that didn’t mean that they were able to get out of the ark because the ground was still too soggy for them to be able to actually leave. If they had gotten out of the ark, they would have all sunk in the mud. That is my assumption at least. I think of, I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, I was under the impression that quicksand was a much bigger problem than it actually is. I thought that quicksand was something that I would have to be dealing with on a regular basis throughout my life. This actually was a problem for them. They probably would have sunk right into the mud if they had gotten out of the ark.

So they had to wait even longer and then finally on the second month on the 27th day the land was dry enough for them to leave the ark.

So going back to verse one, it says that God remembered Noah. Now this is kind of a strange phrase when we consider that God knows everything and God was even the one who orchestrated this. So the question is, did God actually forget Noah?

I think that this word in Hebrew, zakar, it can also mean be mindful. So God was mindful of Noah. He thought about Noah. God was mindful of Noah and his situation. Essentially what it’s saying is that God turned his attention towards Noah. Noah was in the ark. He was in the ark for 40 days and 40 nights. God’s attention was on sending rain onto the earth. And now, God has turned his attention from sending rain to thinking about how to get Noah out of this boat.

We see this phrase several times throughout the Bible. God remembered Israel, God remembered Rachel, God remembered Hannah. We see it several times. It’s a strange phrase, but it’s not uncommon. It’s just a way that the Bible tells us that God has turned his attention toward this person.

Moving on in verse one, it says that God made a wind blow over the earth. And this is supposed to remind us of the creation story. This is supposed to remind us this word wind, it’s the breath or the spirit blowing across the earth.

In Genesis 1:1 it says: The spirit of God was hovering over the face of the earth. And remember that word spirit is the Hebrew word ruach, which means breath. So this is supposed to remind us of the creation story. God has decreated the earth through the flood and now he has begun the process of recreation here in verse one.

So we go through the timeline of the receding waters. We went through that already. We get to verse seven where Noah sends out the raven and then he sends out the dove. So these two birds are very, very different birds and a lot of people have a lot to say about these birds.

In researching this episode, I read a lot of what people had to say and I just chose to not include a whole lot because I’m still working through what the Bible has to say about these two birds. But what I do know is the raven is an unclean bird because it’s a scavenger. The dove is a clean bird. It’s a non scavenging bird. So that raven being an unclean bird, a scavenger bird, it would have fed on the carcasses that were floating on the top of the water. Whereas the dove would have needed a dry place to land in order to find food. So Noah sends out the raven. He sends out the three doves.

And then verse 16, God tells Noah to go out from the ark. I think this shows Noah’s faithfulness and trust in God, in that Noah waited for God to speak to leave the ark. He waited for God to say, it’s time for you to go out. I am sure he looked outside and saw that it was dry. I’m sure he and his family were cooped up. The animals were cooped up. Everybody was ready to leave. They’ve been inside this ark for over a year, but still Noah waited for God to give him permission to leave the ark.

And then in verse 17, God tells Noah to bring out all the animals, all the birds, all the creeping things, and he says that they may be fruitful and multiply on the earth. This indicates two things. It indicates the recreation of the earth, the process that had already been started with the wind or the breath blowing across the earth. Now God has secondly reiterated his original mandate to be fruitful and multiply on the earth. So he’s reiterating this mandate to be fruitful and multiplying so that the recreation of the earth can continue.

And then verse 20, Noah built an altar to the Lord. And this is Noah’s first act after leaving the ark. The first thing he does after leaving the ark is worship God. Not only is it Noah’s first act, but it’s also the first altar built in the Bible.

And I believe the reason for this is that before this, God lived in Eden. People could walk up to Eden. People could sacrifice at Eden. We talked about in chapter 4 that Cain and Abel likely brought their sacrifices up to the door in Eden. That’s where they sacrifice because that’s where God was. Eden essentially was like a temple. It’s like the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple or in the Tabernacle. In fact, those temples and the Tabernacle really were recreations of Eden. They were trying to recreate a setting where God lived and where man could approach and worship and sacrifice.

But now, after the flood Eden is destroyed. There is no more Eden. And so Noah has to build an altar.

The type of offering that he offered at the altar was a burnt offering. Some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird. Burnt offering means that the entire animal was sacrificed. Leviticus chapter 1 verse 13 tells us more about the burnt offering. It says: The priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

That burnt offering, the Leviticus tells us, the priest offered the entire animal. So this was the most costly offering a person could make. Many of the other offerings, the person making the offering would be able to keep some of the animal and eat it, or it was a grain offering. But this offering, none of the animal was left over, the entire thing was burnt.

And so, especially in context of the flood where there’s very little animals left, and for Noah to offer a burnt offering where the entire animal was offered to God, this was a very, very costly offering.

But in verse 21 it tells us that it was a pleasing aroma to God. He smelled the pleasing aroma. So this sacrifice is pleasing to God. We find that a costly sacrifice is a pleasing aroma. And it reminds us of Abel’s sacrifice. Abel’s sacrifice was costly. He had to sacrifice an entire animal. And that is what’s pleasing to God.

David understood this in 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 24. It says: But the king (David) said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price,” talking about some land that he was trying to buy to offer some sacrifices to the Lord. And the owner of the land was going to give it to the king for free. But David said, “No, I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

David understood that burnt offerings were supposed to be costly and he would not offer those at no cost. It’s the cost that God finds pleasing. And the reason for this is because, not because God is just a selfish, demanding God that sits up there in the sky expecting us to bring everything that we own up to Him and He gets it all and we get nothing because He’s God and we’re just ants. It’s not because of that.

It’s because God sacrificed everything for us. It’s because God sent His Son, Jesus, who sacrificed everything, including His entire life, so that we could live. So in response, when we sacrifice everything, when we identify with His sacrifice, He finds that pleasing.

And even these sacrifices before Jesus walked the earth, they were still identifying with the sacrifice that Jesus would one day make. And so this pleasing sacrifice, this burnt sacrifice that is pleasing to God, actually foreshadows three sacrifices that we read about in the New Testament.

The first sacrifice is obviously, as I mentioned, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Ephesians 5:2 says: Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Christ’s sacrifice was a fragrant offering. It was a pleasing aroma to God.

Secondly, it foreshadows our sacrifice of ourselves to God. 2 Corinthians 2:15 says: For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

When we lay down our lives for God, when we lay aside the things that we want for the things that God wants, when we submit ourselves to the leadership of Christ, when we sacrifice our own desires for God’s desires, that’s a pleasing aroma. It’s a pleasing sacrifice to God.

And then thirdly, it foreshadows our sacrifices that we make for each other. Philippians 4 verse 18 says: I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Paul was saying that these gifts that the Philippian church sent to him, these are financial gifts. And he’s saying that these financial gifts was a fragrant offering to God. A fragrant aroma, pleasing aroma to God. When we sacrifice for others, when we give our time, when we give our money in the service of others out of love, that’s a pleasing aroma to God. That’s an acceptable sacrifice to God.

And then it says: God smelled the pleasing aroma. He said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man.”

So it was only after the sacrifice that God vowed to never again curse the ground. Sacrifice averts God’s heart from judgment. A sacrifice appeals to God’s heart. It’s a form of intercession on behalf of the unjust. It’s a way to cry out for mercy for the wicked. What Noah was doing here by making this sacrifice was not just worshiping God. He was making intercession. He was saying, “God, all I have is yours. I have nothing left. There is nothing left, literally nothing left on this planet. And what little is left is yours.”

He’s saying, “This planet belongs to you.”

He’s saying, “I trust my future with you.”

And he’s crying out for mercy. He’s dedicating this new creation to God and saying God have mercy. No one knows that even though God has removed this wickedness from the earth, that there is still wickedness in his heart. And no one knows that if God doesn’t intervene, mankind is going to reach this point again and God’s gonna have to go through the whole thing again. And so this sacrifice is saying, “God have mercy. Have mercy on the unjust. Have mercy on the wicked.”

And God hears and promises, “I will never again curse the ground.”

So he actually promises two things. First, as I mentioned, he will never again curse the ground because of man, which the ground had already been cursed in Genesis chapter three. God cursed the ground after the fall of Adam. God cursed the ground and said that work will become toil. It says in Genesis 3 verses 17 and 18: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground.”

So that was the curse on the ground. And God is saying, “I’m not going to curse the ground again. It’s already hard enough. I’m not going to make it even harder than it was.”

Essentially, he’s saying that man is already wicked. He’s already wicked enough, and it’s useless and possibly even detrimental to curse the ground even further. So he says, “We’ll leave conditions the way they are. The ground is already cursed. I’m not going to curse the ground again.”

And then the second thing that God says he will never do, he says he will never again strike down every living creature. He is promising there’s always going to be a remnant. He’s never going to destroy every living thing like he did in the flood.

So how does this chapter point to Jesus?

We talked about Jesus sacrificing himself and he is the sacrifice that intercedes and atones for all creation. Just like Noah sacrificed a burnt offering to intercede for God’s mercy on all of creation, God heard and responded with a promise.

Jesus did the same thing. He sacrificed himself, all of himself, just like a burnt offering, and got heard, and he responded, and provided mercy, a way for humanity to finally approach him and commune with him as Adam did in Eden. And that sacrifice was an atoning sacrifice. Cleanse the sin and paid for the sin of all creation.

Another way that we can see that this points to Jesus is that Noah makes a sacrifice on a mountain. Thousands of years later we see once again a sacrifice on a mountain that sacrifices Jesus. And he will be sacrificed on the hill of Golgotha. So that mountain sacrifice points to Jesus being sacrificed on a high place.

So some questions for reflection.

First one, will we wait for God to speak when we are in unpleasant and uncertain situations? Or will impatience cause us to leave when God wants us to stay? And does our theology allow us to trust that God sometimes wants us to stay in unpleasant situations?

This is a tough question because many times when we’re in unpleasant or difficult situations, we pray and ask God to remove us or to remove the situation or to get us out or to get us through and sometimes are we okay with God asking us to stay in that situation potentially for a long period of time and then when God does release us from those unpleasant situations, what is our response? Is it worship? What is our response when God releases us?

Is our sacrifice a pleasing aroma to God? What does a pleasing sacrifice look like? What does that look like in your life?

What would be a sacrifice that you have made or need to make that would be a pleasing aroma to God?

And a related question, what are we willing to sacrifice that is very costly? Just like that burnt offering, what would be a costly sacrifice for you?

And again, related, what can we sacrifice for others that would be a pleasing aroma to God? How can we give up our lives for others?

Well, thank you for listening to another episode of Beyond the Basics. Just a reminder, if you would like to support the show, always very, very helpful if you can click subscribe or follow on whatever podcast app you’re using. Leave a rating as well. Help the show get found as people are searching for the show. All those things can help the show get found by random people.

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You can get all the questions for reflection that I ask with spaces to answer the questions. So I know I go kind of quickly with asking questions. This helps you slow down and contemplate these questions, ponder them, meditate on them, and you can write out your own answers. And then at the end of the study guide, there’s gonna be several questions that I don’t go over in the episode. These are questions for further study that will help you recognize patterns and themes in the Bible, different connections. So this is gonna help you in learning how to study the Bible in a deeper way.

Again, it’s $6 a month, you get access to all the study guides. And a new thing that I would like to do for subscribers, for monthly subscribers, is do a question and answer episode. And so this is going to be for the first eight chapters. I think we’ll start with the first eight chapters. We’ll see how we do. Any listener can ask a question. All you need to do is go to the website, go to the contact page, enter in the question on that submittal form, and submit the question. Any listener can do that. But if you want to hear the answer, you’ll have to subscribe. Because the question and answer episode is going to be for subscribers only.

So feel free to ask question if you want to hear the question and answer episode. You will need to subscribe if you want to hear your question answered. So go ahead and do that. We’ll see how this goes if I get some questions. If I get enough questions, we’ll go with the first episode being for chapters one through eight. If I don’t get enough questions, we’ll extend that a bit until I do get enough questions for a full episode. So go ahead and send in your questions, subscribe on the webpage.

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