Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #21 of Genesis, chapter 8 and we are going to read Genesis 8:13-19:

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

I will stop reading there. In our last study we were looking at the word “covering” in verse 13 where it says, “and Noah removed the covering of the ark.” We saw that this word is used about 14 times in the Old Testament and the 13 other times it is used in association with the tabernacle God instructed Moses to build for carrying the ark and for the worship of God during their wilderness sojourn. After Israel entered into the Promised land the tabernacle remained in Shiloh for a period of time and that was the place of worship.

We saw that the covering for the tabernacle was made of animal skins. Let us take a look at Exodus 39:33-34:

And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his taches, his boards, his bars, and his pillars, and his sockets, And the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers' skins, and the vail of the covering,

It is interesting that these rams’ skins were dyed red, the color of blood. We have already discussed how the animal skin covering requires the death of the animal. The animal had to be slain and its blood had to be shed in order to obtain the skins which provided the covering over the tabernacle. Since it is the same Hebrew word that is used 13 other times in connection with the tabernacle in the wilderness and God has given us detail about what it was made from, we can be pretty sure the covering of the ark was also made of animal skins. It would have been flexible and it would be something Moses could remove when it was necessary to do so, as he is doing at this point.

The same word is used in Exodus 40:17-19:

And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars. And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as JEHOVAH commanded Moses.

It is interesting to note the date that is given for the setting up of the tabernacle. It was in the second year after coming out of Egypt and it was “on the first day of the month” that the tabernacle was reared up. Why is that significant? Again, it said in Genesis 8:13:

And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.

It is the same date of the “first day of the first month.” When the tabernacle was reared up the covering was on it and in the case of the flood account the covering of the ark was removed. I do not know why God is giving us the date, but there is obviously a tie-in. The word “covering” directed us there and we find that it is established. So let us go back to the question: Why is Noah removing the covering of the ark? The ark is a representation of deliverance, refuge and salvation, as well as many of the things in the ark. The “pitch” identifies with atonement. The ark is a picture of the salvation of God’s elect and, so, too, is the covering. The idea of this covering over the ark fits in perfectly, as there had to be the shedding of blood to indicate that there needed to be the blood shed by the Lord Jesus Christ in the atonement on behalf of His people.

We can clearly see that picture, but why remove the covering? Christ’s righteousness protected all the inhabitants of the ark, so if you remove the covering would it not be a picture of removing Christ’s righteousness from His people? No, because this word “covering” was used in association with the tabernacle and the tabernacle was a temporary dwellingplace for God. The tabernacle in the wilderness did make it into the Promised Land and it was situated in Shiloh for a time, but it was temporary until David made provision and Solomon built God a house. Then the tabernacle was no longer used. It points to the temporary nature of God’s people dwelling in this world and God dwelling with them at this time. He has told us He will never leave us or forsake us, so all the while God’s people are in the world they have a need for the “covering” of Christ. It is our protection and our place of refuge and “hiding place” from the storm, but that is in this world because of the danger. But once God has finished pouring out His wrath, then the need for the protection and to be hidden is only a need while there is a threat. Once the threat passes, then the covering can be removed, just as they will shortly come out of the ark and onto dry ground. Again, we could say that since the ark represents Christ and deliverance and refuge, are they losing deliverance? No, but the spiritual illustration is changing and God is indicating that the awful threat of Judgment Day has passed. So when Noah removes the covering from the ark and he notices the ground is dry, that is a key point, too, because the face of the ground is dry. So there is no longer a need for the animal skin covering and this protection from the wrath of God. The wrath of God has been appeased and the waters have abated.

It goes on to say in Genesis 8:14:

And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.

We looked at the word “dried” in an earlier study. We saw that this word translated as dried is Strong’s #3001 and it is a word that identifies with the dried up water of the Red Sea or the dried up water of Jordan. Again, it points to the removal of the wrath of God. And the only way the wrath of God is removed from a terrible judgment like this is that it has accomplished its purpose. His wrath has been meted out sufficiently as it was measured into the cup and it has been given to the unsaved inhabitants of the earth and now it is finished. God’s wrath is not unending, as the churches think. It is not merciless and without end. God does not just keep beating and beating and applying stripes. That is contrary to the Law of God. The Law is stated in Deuteronomy, chapter 25 and it says that a judge giving sentence may issue “forty stripes” and not exceed it. There is a limit concerning punishment.

God poured out His wrath in the waters going 15 cubits above the highest mountain of that day and it destroyed everything with the breath of life outside the ark. Then it was finished and done and the waters receded to the point where the ground was dry.

At this point, it is a completely restructured earth. There had been a lot of new water that came upon the earth and there is much evidence of that. It may be needful for us to realize that God brought the earth into the path of deep space clouds that provided enormous amounts of new water in order to bring the water level to 15 cubits above the highest mountain. We should understand that the mountains prior to the flood were, in all probability, much lower than our highest mountains today. During the flood and after the flood, God operated in raising the mountains and He lowered the sea basins in order to handle all the excess water that had fallen upon the earth. At this point, all of the water has receded to its new boundaries for the oceans and the oceans would be much deeper than they had been previously. All the water that was on the dry land had gone back and the geography would have been changed in many ways, but the land was now dry again. When Noah and his family and the animals got to this twenty-seventh day of the second month, it is a spiritual declaration that all is “dry” or that God’s wrath is complete.

At this time, we are also living in the Day of Judgment and the wrath of God is upon the world and the unsaved inhabitants of the earth and even God’s elect are appearing before His judgment seat. There is furious anger being poured out upon the world and its subjects and we just cannot imagine a time when this wrath will be ended, but it will be removed because it will have been satisfied and it will have accomplished what it was sent forth to do. It will have meted out the necessary punishment that the Law demanded and then there will be no more. The Book of Revelation tells us there is no more curse and there is no more “sea,” as the sea points to the wrath of God, once this world and these heavens have passed away and the new earth and new heavens come into being. That is the picture here.

We can also know this is the spiritual picture because of the date we are given. We know the flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month in Noah’s 600th year and in our current verse it is the twenty-seventh day of the second month of Noah’s 601st year. As we have looked at the dates and the timeline, especially the 150-day period, we can only come to the conclusion that each month was 30 days and this was the calendar they used at the time of Noah. When we try (and anyone can do this) to use the monthly lunar time of 29.530 days and you use the start date of the seventeenth day of the second month and you go to the seventeenth day of the seventh month, you do not come up with 150 days. It is only when you use 30-day months that you get 150, so since that particular stretch of time was being counted out by God as 30-day months, we continue with that principal with the other dates we are given. When we do this, we find that the twenty-seventh day of the second month is exactly 370 days from the start of the flood. The number “370” breaks down very neatly to “10 x 37,” with the number “10” representing completeness and the number “37” being another number in the Bible that relates to judgment (like the number “23”). It points to complete judgment and that is exactly what we see with the official declaration that the earth is dry. It is on this day that God says in Genesis 3:15:

And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.

This is that wonderful and glorious day that the people of God throughout the centuries have looked forward to and that is the day that God fulfills His promise. Historically, it was not that day, but what it points to spiritually is the day of the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to all the seed of Abraham and that means Christ, the seed, and all the elect that are counted for His seed. All of God’s elect have received that promise of an everlasting land to be our possession and our eternal home. We will “inherit the earth,” as the New Testament puts it. It is what is in view here because the judgment has been completed. The end of the world has come. The finality of God’s judgment program has worked itself out and it is over and now will come the day of glory and the day of entering into the new heaven and the new earth. God has spoken and that is exactly what we can expect on the last day of this earth’s existence. God will speak and break the barrier of the supernatural and He will reveal Himself in the destruction of this creation and those that have rebelled against Him. He will exalt His people, including those whose bodies are in the graves and those that are remain and are alive on the earth at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on that day. It will be the fulfillment of His coming which actually began on May 21, 2011. His elect will arise into the new heaven and new earth into the kingdom of God which has always existed in “another realm” of being that man cannot access except by faith.

Everything will change. Everything will be different than what we know today. The things of this life will no longer be remembered or brought to mind and we will have a new reality. We will see God and dwell with Him for evermore and He will dwell with us. We will see the faithfulness of God and we will see His integrity in the fact that He cannot lie and He did not speak falsely to His people when He declared that He would bring His people into the new heaven and new earth.

So God speaks to Noah as God will speak to all in Christ and notice that He says that Noah and his family are to “Go forth of the ark,” and in verse 17, He says, “Bring forth with thee every living thing,” and He says in verse Genesis 8:18-19:

And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

Do you see that four times in four verses, God says, “Go forth,” and they went forth? We wonder why this is because there are other ways God could have expressed it, but He used this particular phrase, “Go forth,” and we cannot help but see the similarity to what Christ said when Lazarus had died and after four days Christ commands them to take away the stone to his grave. It says in John 11:39-44:

Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

This is an historical record of an actual resurrection of a physically dead man, Lazarus, which illustrates God’s work in saving the soul as well as His work of the resurrection that will take place at the time of the end. Notice that Christ commands, “Lazarus, come forth,” just as God commanded Noah, his wife, their sons and their sons’ wives, “Go forth.” It is a command that is basically declaring that there will be new resurrected bodies for the people of God. There will be a resurrection of the dead in Christ and those in the grave will come forth to a new glorious life in body and soul and to life for evermore.