"By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry." (Genesis 8:13-14) Noah and his family and the animals spent slightly over a year living on the ark. They entered the ark on the 17th day of the second month of Noah's six hundredth year and they emerged from the ark on the 27th day of the second month of Noah's six hundred and first year.
It is just me, or does Noah seem a bit reluctant to come out of the ark? Forty-seven days after the tops of the mountains became visible, a dove returned to him with an olive leaf in its mouth, according to yesterday's passage. Seven days after that the dove went out and did not return because the ground was dry enough for it to find food to eat. Then on the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, it appeared to him that the ground was dry, so he removed the ark's covering. But he kept living in the ark for almost another two months, for it's not til the 27th day of the following month that he finally exits the ark, and when he does it's because God tells him to come out.
Was Noah waiting for God to tell him he could leave the ark? Or did God have to tell Noah to leave the ark because Noah was afraid to leave the haven that kept him safe during the worst disaster in earth's history? If he was scared to come out, I can't blame him. The world has literally been turned upside down. Noah doesn't know how to live in it. Everything is different. Everyone he knew is gone, with the exception of his family. During the year he spent on the ark, it became a familiar and comforting place. It was cozy and warm. It shielded him from the reality of a world in which nothing would ever be the same. He may have felt that it shielded him from a God so holy that He was willing to bring such a catastrophe upon the earth in order to rid it of indescribable wickedness. Or it may have been that he had come to rely too much on the ark and not quite enough on the God who told him how to construct an ark capable of making it through the storm. I don't know that Noah was thinking any of these things, but it's human nature to struggle with doubts and fears, and no matter how faithfully Noah walked with God, I can't help thinking that he (like all of us) sometimes had troubling thoughts in the night. I can't help thinking he felt inadequate for the task of remaking society and that the thought of all that needed to be done appeared overwhelming to him.
If Noah and his family and the animals don't leave the ark, there's not going to be a fresh start for anyone. The world has to be repopulated. God isn't finished with man, with the animals, or with the earth. Life is going to go on. People are going to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. And in less than four thousand years, a descendant of Noah's is going to be the Redeemer of the souls of man. Noah can't stay on the ark. He has a role to play in God's plan, and he needs to get on with the Lord's work. "Then God said to Noah, 'Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you---the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground---so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.'" (Genesis 8:15-17)
God has a plan for each of us. When we know He is leading us in a particular direction, we mustn't keep sitting still. We need to move. When He says "stay" we need to stay, but when He says "move" we need to move. If we don't obey Him, we are going to miss out on some blessings. The road the Lord chooses for us won't always be easy, but as the saying goes, "I'd rather walk with God in the dark than walk alone in the light." There's a peace in knowing we are smack-dab in the middle of God's will. The storm may still rage around us. The winds may blow and the rain may fall, but there's no better place to be than where God has told us to be. Noah was living obediently in the will of God when he built the ark and entered it as God commanded him. No doubt it was a terrifying experience to go through the flood, but look what happened to those who weren't in God's will. They refused to believe and come aboard the ark, so they perished. Noah, who obeyed the Lord in spite of any fear he may have felt, survived the flood and lived to see a new day dawning on the earth. Imagine how his faith must have been strengthened after the Lord brought him through! When we obey the Lord, our faith is going to be strengthened. We are going to emerge with more confidence in our God. We are going to have practical experience of the faithfulness of God. Then we can say, like King David, "Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and Your servant loves them." (Psalm 119:140)
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