Genesis 7 continues with the story of Noah. We see the ark being completed by a 600 year old Noah and his sons. The animals make their way to the ark just as the Lord said they would and the floodwaters come upon the earth. Can you imagine what that must have looked like from Noah's point of view or the other people of that time period? To see this giant ark being built, I can only imagine that Noah was the talk of the town. Then to see various animals some of which had probably never been seen before heading for that ark. I do not know about you but that would have been something to make me think. Oh, there is a pair of polar bears walking down the street, maybe I should be listening to that crazy man on the hill. For forty days and nights the rain came and flooded the earth. One hundred and fifty days the earth was flooded.
Genesis 8 is the beginning of the end of the flood. The flood waters begin to recede and the ark comes to rest on mount Ararat. As the waters continue to recede Noah begins his search for dry land by sending out a raven, which by the way I read it does absolutely nothing. Noah then waits a few more days and sends out a dove, which returns. Noah once again waits seven more days and sends the dove out again, this time it returns with an olive leaf. Once again Noah waits and sends the dove out one more time, this time the dove does not return. Noah once again waits before he opens the doors. Then after what I read to be one year one month and 27 days God tells Noah to open up the doors and come forth. I for one could not imagine what it must have been like spending that much time on the ark with all of those animals. The first thing Noah does is shows thanks to the Lord by building an altar and offering a sacrifice to the Lord.
Genesis 9 brings us a lot of redundancy in my opinion. I felt like I was reading over and over the same thing just written a few different ways. This chapter is about the covenant God created with Noah. We are told God will never flood the earth again and gives us the rainbow as his sign. One thing I did notice in the beginning of this was that God gave permission to eat animal. Which made me wonder if up till that point in time had people only eaten plants?
In our final chapter for today, Matthew 3, we are introduced to John the Baptist. John's description makes me think of a wild mountain man, but had an amazing gift of bringing people to the Lord. Jesus travels to John to be baptized and we have a small conflict. John does not feel that he is worthy to baptize Jesus, but he should be baptized by Jesus. If you have a red letter edition of the bible we see the first words said by Jesus in our readings so far. As I read this my mind traveled to those people that stood on the banks of the Jordan as Jesus was baptized. Just to be present when the heavens opened up and the voice of God spoke, I could not begin to imagine what that must have felt like.
Tomorrow's reading is:
Genesis 10, 11, 12 and Matthew 4
7. I know it's silly, but I totally think of Evan Almighty now when I read this. It's the picture in my head.
ReplyDelete8. The waiting to get off the ark would have been awful.
9.When I see terrible things happening in the news I thank God for the promise to never again destroy us. Sometimes I'm not so sure we don't deserve it.
3. It's funny to read about Jesus being baptized. It's like reading that a celebrity does they're own laundry or something. You sort of assume that it wouldn't be necessary for Jesus to be baptized. It also makes me feel that much closer to Jesus, that we shared such a powerful experience.