Genesis 7:21 – 8:9

²¹ And all flesh died that moved on the land, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the land, and all humanity.

²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of life who were on the dry land died.

²³ He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the sky. They were wiped out from the land. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

²⁴ And the water remained on the land 150 days.

^8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the land, and the waters began to dry.

² The fountains of the deep and the windows of the sky were closed, the rain from the sky was restrained,

³ and the waters receded from the land continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had gone down,

⁴ and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

⁵ And the waters continued to go down until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶ At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made

⁷ and sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the waters were dried up from the land.

⁸ Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground.

⁹ But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned for him to the ark, for the water was still on the face of the whole land. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him.

_________________________________________

The Long Wait

Even after the flooding stopped, there was still a long wait for the water to recede. The judgment was so immense that it would take a long while before there was anything normal again. It gave Noah and his family plenty of time to reflect on the significance of what they endured.

LORD, forgive us for being impatient with your rescue.