Reading for February 9th

Read Genesis 8.1-22
In verse 1 the great turning point in the story is the phrase, God remembered
Noah and all the animals that were with him in the ark.
God remembered the covenant promises made to Noah in 6.18 and shifted from
destruction to reconstruction.
God's remembering previous covenant promises is often the signal of a major positive change in the fortunes of his people (Ex 2.24).
God begins a whole new creation.
He makes a wind blow over the watery chaos, just as God's wind over
the deep had begun the first creation (1.2).
In verses 2-12 the destroying flood of 7.11-24 is gradually reversed.
The mountains of Ararat are located in a region in modern-day southeast Turkey and northwest Iran.
The raven and the dove are sent out to test whether they find dry land.
The dove is sent out three times.
The first time the dove returns with nothing, then returns with an olive leaf or branch (v.11),
and finally does not return at all (v. 12).
The dove with an olive branch has become a symbol of peace, hope, and new life.
In the story, the dove with the olive branch is a sign of hope that the waters have
partially receded below the level of olive trees.
In verse 17 the phrase be fruitful and multiply calls to mind the same words
used in the first creation story in 1.28.
In verses 20-22 Noah's first building project after leaving the ark is an altar.
Noah offers ritually clean animals (7.2-3) upon the altar as burnt offerings to give thanks to God.
God smells the pleasing odor of the burnt offerings as the smoke rises to the heavens (Lev 1.9).
God resolves never again to curse the ground as he had done before (3.17; 4.11)
and never again to destroy every living creature (v.21).
The flood is not successful in changing the basic problem: the inclination of the
human heart is evil from youth (v.21) .
From here on, God will have to live with that fact and work within its reality.
In the meantime, God promises not to disrupt the basic created order of the seasons
and the agricultural rhythms of life (v.22).
Comments or Questions...