Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 8 and we are going to read Genesis 8:4-5:

And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

I will stop reading there. In our last study we discussed the word “Ararat.” It is Strong’s #780 and it is found only four times in the Bible. Two times it is translated as “Armenia” and two times it is translated as “Ararat.” In all four places it is used, we find that it is used by God in a way that identifies with the crushing blow given against types and figures of Satan and his kingdom. For instance, the two times it is translated as “Armenia” in 2Kings and Isaiah 37 are both describing the same event. The king of Assyria comes against Jerusalem and God fought for His people and 185,000 of the Assyrian army were destroyed “and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” Then we read that the king of Assyria fled and his two sons killed him and they escaped to the land of “Armenia.” That is Ararat. We see that the king of Assyria is a type of Satan and his army typifies his emissaries. The number “185,000” breaks down to “5 x 37 x 1,000,” pointing to atonement, judgment and the completeness of that atonement and judgment, as God exacted vengeance against Satan and his kingdom. The army of the Assyrians was destroyed and then the king himself was killed, just like Pharaoh was killed in the Red Sea along with the Egyptian army.

So, again, we see it is a picture of Judgment Day and the two men that killed their father, the king of Assyria, escaped to “Ararat,” so Ararat is a place of refuge or escape. It is a place where a blow is struck against Satan and his forces and then there is “rest.” These two that escaped rested on Ararat after they slew their enemy.

Then we went to Jeremiah, chapter 51 and I am going to read this verse again. It is the only other place we find in the Bible that uses the word “Ararat.” The entire chapter discusses God’s vengeance on Babylon that came after the Great Tribulation. God had turned over His people Judah to the Babylonians for judgment, but once the seventy years was completed, God turned around and judged the king of Babylon and the Babylonians for daring to put forth their hand against God’s anointed. Likewise, God judged the corporate New Testament churches through Satan and his emissaries, but once the actual 23-year Great Tribulation was completed on May 21, 2011, God turned around and judged Satan and his forces. That is the spiritual meaning of the language here in Jeremiah 51:27:

Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers.

God called these kingdoms against Babylon. And what spiritually represents kingdoms? It is the mountains. The Lord calls the mountains of Ararat, Minni and Ashchenaz against Babylon (against the kingdom of Satan) and that is exactly what we see strongly in view in the first few verses of Genesis, chapter 8 as God’s anger that was poured out through the waters was “appeased” and the waters asswaged. God’s anger was pacified because His enemies were destroyed. The destructive rain from heaven that signified the wrath of God was stopped and returned and the waters were “abated,” which we saw meant that they were decreased. God’s appeasement in regard to His wrath toward Satan and his kingdom (all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth) is satisfied and that will only happen at the very end of the world. Even though God says His wrath is appeased and the waters stopped at the 150-day mark (five months), we must not think that God poured out His wrath on May 21, 2011 for a literal five months, as we once thought, or for a figurative five months that would end on October 7, 2015, as we once thought, and then time continues. That is not possible because the wicked of the world are still here and they are still committing sins and these sins would need to be paid for, so the “finishing touch” of God’s wrath has to be the complete annihilation of the wicked and the destruction of the entire creation that is cursed with sin. So we must understand the five months spoken of in Revelation 9 and the five-month figure that God uses in the flood account as a picture of the entire prolonged judgment. That is why it was said that the waters asswaged and God’s wrath was appeased or that the water “stopped.” All of these things identify with a conclusion to the wrath of God. We saw that the ark “rested” and we saw that this identifies with when an enemy has been defeated and destroyed, as shown in the Book of Esther when they slew all the enemies of the Jews and they “rested.” All of the enemies of God’s elect will be slain once Judgment is completed. Again, there is a final destruction that we read about in 2Peter, chapter 3. In other words, as we read about the 150 days, a five-month period, it is information that assists us in understanding the overall judgment, but time went on with the flood account. That is because it is an historical parable. In the Bible God paints many pictures and He can give information about one spiritual picture in one verse and then in the next verse He can change the spiritual picture to something else. For instance, in the case of the last few verses in Daniel, chapter 12, we see that happen.

So, here, there is one teaching concerning the 150 days or five months, but there is also further teaching for a prolonged judgment period as represented by the year that Noah, his family and the animals stayed in the ark. They took care of the animals over the course of that year and that has to do with “feeding the sheep.” Likewise, the abating water in Genesis 8, verse 3 is the same word as “decreased” in Genesis 8, verse 5. Then it says in Genesis 8:5:

And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

The months in Noah’s day were counted as 30-day months and I do not see any other way of understanding it because God does the math for us. From 2/17 to 7/17 is 150 days and God tells us that, so that only works out with 30-day months. Going from the beginning of the flood on the seventeenth day of the second month until the first day of the tenth month is a period of 224 days. The number “224” can be broken down to “2 x 4 x 4 x 7,” so we see the number “2” that relates to the caretakers of the Word of God. Are the caretakers of the Word of God in view when we come to the time of judgment? Yes, they are, because God’s elect remain on the earth. The number “4” points to universality and it is doubled, so it could be “2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2,” so it could really be emphasizing the caretakers of God’s Word, but the number “4” points to the worldwide scope or universal aspect of what is taking place, as Judgment Day affects everyone on the face of the earth. The number “7” has to do with perfection and that is very closely related to completion.

The other way of counting this is from the seventeenth day of the second month where the Lord told us it was 150 days and then if we count from that point to the first day of the tenth month, it is 74 days more. The number “74” breaks down to “2 x 37,” so the number “2” relates to the caretakers of the Word of God (the elect) and the number “37” is the number of judgment. Because everyone else is dead, historically, the focus of the flood from here through the duration of the time they are in the ark will be on those that are within the ark. There is no one outside the ark that is still alive. There is no person or animal with the breath of life alive anywhere in the world. It is as though God with that 150 days is showing us how He dealt with the unsaved people of the earth and I think the significance of the rest of the time in the ark until they disembark is geared toward the people of God, Noah and his wife, their three sons and their wives and the clean animals (typifying the elect) and even the not clean animals that represent the creation that is also “waiting” for the completion of judgment. That is why the number “2” is appearing with this date that the Lord gives us in Genesis 8, verse 5. It points to the people of God that are still on the earth and going through the judgment and, yet, protected through salvation in Christ, just as the ark protected everyone inside. Christ’s salvation protects everyone that is alive and remains on the earth, but are being brought before the judgment seat of Christ to make manifest that their sins have been paid.

After telling us that the waters decreased continually until the tenth month, it says, “in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.” On this first day of the tenth month of Noah’s 600th year (74 days after the 150 days was ended), the tops of the mountains can be seen. The ark had already rested upon the mountains of Ararat, but as far as I know they were not looking outside the ark because we read of the opening of the window in the next verse, so it does not necessarily mean that the people in the ark saw the tops of the mountains. However, God is indicating that at this point the tops of the mountain can be seen. It is an interesting situation that is going on because the waters represent the Word of God that brought the judgment and destroyed the enemies of the kingdom of heaven, but now the waters are decreasing continually; they had been 15 cubits above the highest mountain, so they had decreased at least 15 cubits or more so the tops of the mountain can be seen. This relates to the idea of “progressive revelation.” This is further confirmation to us that as we go through this prolonged spiritual judgment period that began on May 21, 2011 that the Word of God (as typified by the waters) will reveal certain information.

The first thing the waters reveal were “the tops of the mountains.” From this point on, the waters will continue to go further down and further down the mountains until it gets to the plains and level ground and, finally, the waters will be off the earth and everything that the waters had hidden will be revealed. Do you see how that fits in with how God spoke of the Bible in the Book of Daniel, “Seal up the words,” or seal up the waters, until the time of the end and at the time of the end the “waters” will be unsealed and the “waters” will reveal things? As the waters are going down and getting ever lower, they are revealing mountains and earth. The Bible speaks of the world prior to the flood as the “first earth.” Once Noah and everyone on board the ark disembarks and go onto dry land, it is what the Bible already reckons to be the “second earth.”

Of course, it is the same earth we live on today and it is the earth God is going to destroy, but it is a spiritual figure of Judgment coming on May 21, 20121 and they go through the long period of judgment and come out of the ark. It typifies God’s elect as they are given a new resurrected body to match their resurrected soul and they will be exalted and placed in the new heaven and the new earth. In other words, once Judgment Day is finished and this world is destroyed, as well as the entire creation, the Bible is very clear that God will create a new heaven and a new earth, so the people of God that are resurrected and raptured will go right from this annihilated creation into a newly formed creation that God will create and they will for evermore in that Promised Land. That was the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is given to the “seed,” which points in the first instance to Jesus and His seed (His elect) and we will be placed upon the new heaven and new earth. Therefore, as the waters decrease they are revealing of the new heaven and the new earth. In other words, it is the Bible’s information that will confirm and validate and let those that are in the ark know that the new heaven and new earth is almost here. It is an indication that you are almost ready to get out of the ark, which means the prolonged judgment is over and you are about to enter into the Promised Land that God spoke of for millenniums.

Yet, at this point on the first day of the tenth month of Noah’s 600th year, it is just the tops of the mountains that are seen. Mountains represent kingdoms and the word “tops” is Strong’s #7218 and it is a word that is translated as “head” or “heads” or “chief” and it is also translated as “beginning.” It says in Proverbs 8:23:

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

The beginning of the earth is in view here. Of course, this is speaking of “Wisdom.” There was a beginning of the earth and Christ was slain from the foundation of the world and His death in eternity past formed the foundation for this world, as well as the world to come. So, here, we read that “Wisdom” was set up “from the beginning” or, we could say, “from the top.”

Also, it says in Numbers 28:11:

And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto JEHOVAH…

This is the plural form of the same word.

In our verse in Genesis, we could say, “On the first day of the tenth month was the beginning of the kingdoms of God.” As far as the plural idea of mountains or kingdoms, remember what we read in Revelation, chapter 11 about the Day of Judgment. It says in Revelation 11:15:

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ and He shall reign forever. So, the ability to see the beginning of the kingdoms points to the new heaven and the new earth and the eternal reign of the Lord Jesus Christ as He reigns forever in that glorious new creation and His people will thankfully serve the Lord God forever and ever. In our verse we are seeing the beginning stage of a “revelation” from the “waters” as they continue to come down and reveal the full kingdom of the new earth.