Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #16 of Genesis, chapter 8 and we are continuing to read Genesis 8:9-12:

But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

We saw in our last study that the dove found no rest for the “sole of her foot,” and this language relates to looking for the Promised Land of the new heaven and the new earth. God is looking for that land because it will also be His eternal dwelling place and the people of God are also looking for that land that God promised.

So the dove (Holy Spirit) went forth to see if the time was yet come, but she returned because she could find “no rest for the sole of her foot.” In other words, no new heaven and new earth are prepared as yet and we can tell from the context that it is in the preparation stages; the water is decreasing, indicated that it is almost time. The report from the Holy Spirit as it returned to Noah, a type of Christ, was a report to everyone within the ark and, in turn, it points to everyone who has become saved and are going through the prolonged period of Judgment Day. The “report” is that it is not quite yet the time, so Noah pulled the dove back in unto him in the ark.

Then we read in Genesis 8:10:

And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark;

We were beginning to look at the word “stayed” in our last study. It is Strong’s #2342 and it is a word that is really connected to childbirth and travailing in birth and we will look at a few verses that use the word that way.

But before we do that, let us look at another word in this verse. I will read it again. It says, “And he stayed yet other seven days,” and we wonder why God says “other” seven days. It is true that he pulled the dove back in and he stayed seven days and then he sent her forth and she returned again with the olive leave, it says in verse 12, “And he stayed yet other seven days.” We understand this in verse 12 because he had stayed a previous seven days, but why does it say in verse 10, “And he stayed yet other seven days,” as though he had already stayed or travailed for a previous seven-day period? When we backtrack and look at this account we see that at the start of the flood God spoke of rain for 40 days and 40 nights. He also spoke of 150 days. Then the ark rested and God mentioned the first day of the tenth month and a 40-day period following that, but when that 40 days elapsed the dove was sent forth and there was no previous period of seven days mentioned. Let me go to Genesis, chapter 29 and I will read a verse that shows what I mean in Genesis 29:30:

And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

This is the same word translated as “other.” This is a different period of time, but it is an identical length of time. So we would expect to find some identical seven-day period and we do not find it in chapter 8 and we did not find it after the flood began, but we do find a seven-day period before the flood began. It said in Genesis 7:4:

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

Then it says in Genesis 7:10:

And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

God gave the seven-day warning and then the seven days expired and the flood began. That seven-day period relates to 2Peter, chapter 3, spiritually, as God says, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” and it ties in with the year 4990BC when the flood started and seven thousand years later was 2011AD, the year that God completed His salvation program and began Judgment Day. We could say this was the year that all to enter the (spiritual) ark had entered in and that date was May 21, 2011 when God shut the door to heaven, just as He had shut the door of the ark after seven days on the seventeenth day of the second month.

During that seven thousand years God waited and He put up with the sins and transgressions of mankind while He waited to complete His salvation program. He waited the actual seven days (168 hours) until the door of the ark shut and the flood waters began. And now the seven thousand years that the seven days represented have also come to an end and as soon as the seven thousand years came to a close, God began to pour out his spiritual judgment upon the earth.

So when it says in Genesis 8, verse 10, “And he stayed yet other seven days,” it is referring back to Genesis 7, verse 10, when God told Noah, “For yet seven days.” It is Noah, the same person who is waiting, historically, and we can see how it would apply to him because he had to wait at that point for the judgment to get under way and now he is waiting for a different reason, but he is still waiting upon the Lord. He was waiting upon God to initiate the judgment of the flood previously and now he is waiting upon God to complete the judgment. The “figure” is that he is waiting on God to fulfill another aspect of His salvation program; it is really waiting upon God to save the elect, just as the seven thousand years was that extension of time in which God was longsuffering and patient. We are told in 2Peter 3, verse 15 that the reason God was longsuffering is “salvation.” God was merciful, gracious and longsuffering with mankind for the purpose of saving His elect, which was accomplished over the seven years, but that was the salvation of the soul and the completion of the first resurrection of the souls of all God’s elect. Now he stayed “yet other seven days,” but this one has no identification with “a day as a thousand years,” but it does point to the number of “completion” or “perfection.” It is pointing to the perfect completeness of God’s salvation program concerning those that were saved and it is as though these souls are on the ark and they are waiting for this period of judgment to finish so they can come out on dry ground on the new earth and they will receive new resurrected bodies and it will the perfect completion of their salvation. In other words, it is waiting in a similar way for salvation, but in this case it is waiting for the “second resurrection.” The Bible does not use the term “second resurrection,” but it is implied as the Bible speaks of the “first resurrection.” It is the salvation of our bodies. As we still live on this earth, our bodies are still sinful. They are corrupt. That is the reason our physical bodies will die and be put in the ground, but we have no sin in our souls because our souls have been born again. However, our physical bodies are still sinful and if you are sinful you need salvation and, therefore, our physical bodies are in need of being saved, too, so we are groaning and travailing, as it says in Romans chapter 8:21-22:

Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

It is interesting that this word “travaileth” is the word that is used when it says, “And Noah stayed yet seven other days,” and it is word that is translated as “pain” or “travail,” so Noah is “in pain” yet other seven days. He is, as it were, personifying what God is saying in Romans, chapter 8 concerning the creation and His people, as it says in Romans 8:22-23:

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

It is the word “redemption” and that is a word that has to do with salvation – we are waiting for our bodies to be saved. I think that is why God says in our verse, “And Noah stayed yet seven other days.” It is an additional waiting period. Let me put it another way. Before May 21, 2011 and before we entered into the final Day of Judgment, a prolonged period of time, the focus of God’s people and the focus of God Himself was on the sending forth of the Word of God into the world to evangelize in order that the elect would hear and become saved in their souls. That was the focus of the “seven days” when God said to Noah: “And yet seven days.” Before the judgment came the focus was entirely on the first resurrection. But then the seven days or the seven thousand years did come and the door of the ark, historically, shut and the door of heaven shut, spiritually, on the day that God had broadcast to all the world that His salvation would be finished, May 21, 2011. It was as though all the people of God were safely shut in our chambers, just as the five wise virgins entered into the chamber and the door was shut. They went in with the bridegroom. Likewise, all the elect went into the kingdom of heaven, spiritually, where we are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and our lives are hid in Christ with God. All these things are done, as it says in Hebrews 10:36: “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” A huge part of our salvation has been worked out through salvation, but there is “yet other seven days” in which God is patiently involved in a work that we do not fully understand.

All we know is that we must go through this present time of Judgment Day and, by God’s grace, we have to endure to the end and then will come the completion of our salvation. Then will come the salvation of our bodies. Therefore, the elect of God are waiting on the Lord in a similar way to Noah, but different. It is similar in that we were waiting for the salvation of our souls aforetime, but now we are waiting for God to complete salvation through the salvation of our bodies. That process involves God trying us as gold and silver are tried and putting us through the fire and we are appearing before his judgment seat to demonstrate that we had been saved in Christ at the foundation of the world. The punishment of the wicked must be completed. There is also the need for us to follow the pattern set by the Lord Jesus Christ in taking up our cross and suffering and “dying,” in order to position ourselves in the right place to be raised up in the resurrection of the last day. We are being conformed to the image of God’s dear Son and we are being conformed to the image of His death in order that we will be conformable to the resurrection. All these things are under way and God is involved in the processing of all these things.

We know He will do this perfectly and wisely, but we wait and we wait in “pain.” It is a time of “travail” as we wait for God to bring us forth into the completion of our new creation, the new spiritual bodies and the new heaven and new earth where we will dwell with God eternally. Therefore, Noah stayed “yet other seven days.” As I mentioned before, the word “stayed” is Strong’s #2342 and it is the same word we find in Isaiah 26:17-18:

Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O JEHOVAH. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

Our word is translated here as “in pain.” You can see how the word is being used in regard to childbirth and, yet, the Lord is likening this childbirth to His people: “so have we been in thy sight, O JEHOVAH.”

We also find this word used in connection with God’s elect coming out of the city of Jerusalem, which typifies the corporate church, to dwell in the Babylon or the world. It says in Micah 4:10:

Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there JEHOVAH shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

We can really see the spiritual picture that God is presenting here. He is speaking of being “in pain” and laboring to bring forth and, yet, it is all tied, spiritually, to the people of God that have come out of the corporate churches and went out into the world and are waiting for God to bring us forth like a child to birth. We can see in Genesis 8 that it is a waiting for the deliverance of the body. It is a groaning and travailing for the new birth of our new resurrected bodies as well as for the new creation.

This word is also found in Psalm 90 and I think you will see how it relates to Genesis, chapter 8. It says in Psalm 90:1-2:

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Our word is translated here as “brought forth.” You can see how God is using this word as He speaks of forming the earth and the world and that would have to do with the original creation when God formed the earth and the world and He “brought forth” the mountains. Again, that reminds us of the world that is in view at this point in the ark’s voyage when the world is covered by water, just as God first created and then the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and from that initial stage the mountains were “brought forth” and the land mass was created and the earth began to take shape. In Genesis 8 we see the tops of the mountains emerging out of the water and the mountains are being “brought forth.” It is the birth of the new creation, as it were, of the “second earth.”

Spiritually, this points to God’s promise that He will not just destroy the world and leave it under judgment forever, but He will destroy this present world and complete His judgment and then He is going to bring forth the new heaven and new earth. It will be a wonderful and unspeakable dwelling place that He has promised to His people. This promise is from God who cannot lie. It is impossible for God to tell a falsehood and it is alien to His very nature and against everything that God is because He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the essence of truth and honesty and goodness and light and there is no darkness in Him. Therefore, He is not a man that He should lie, but He is God. He is the God that said to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob that this land would be an everlasting possession to Abraham and his seed. The seed was Christ and all the elect are counted for the seed in Him and that promise was made to all of God’s people. It is a promise that is absolute and immutable. It cannot change. It is a promise God fully intends to fulfill and the fulfillment is presently underway at this time.

That is what Genesis 8 is really teaching us. It is letting us know that it is not just destruction for this world, but God is busy working things out for what is to come after the judgment, the time when all onboard the ark can come forth and the door opens. We have talked a lot about a shut door, but the Bible also has information concerning the opening of the door, but it is not in regard to additional salvation. Well, in a way it is, because it is the completed salvation of our bodies and our inheritance of the new creation.