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Daily Bible Readings

Genesis 8:1-22(GNT)

Friday
July 3, 2009


Called to be Free to Trust in God's Promises


Introduction

Genesis 8:1-22: God remembers Noah and causes the waters to recede. Noah sends birds to determine whether or not dry land can be found. Finally, dry land is revealed, and Noah, his family, and all the creatures leave the boat. Noah makes sacrifices to God, and God promises never to destroy everything again.

Today's Scripture: Genesis 8:22

"As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."

How is this Scripture passage speaking to me today?

Today's Reading

The End of the Flood1God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down.2The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped,3and the water gradually went down for 150 days.4On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range.5The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.6After forty days Noah opened a window7and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone.8Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down,9but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to light. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in.10He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again.11It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down.12Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.13When Noah was 601 years old, on the first day of the first month, the water was gone. Noah removed the covering of the boat, looked around, and saw that the ground was getting dry.14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.15God said to Noah,16Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives.17Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth.18So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives.19All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.Noah Offers a Sacrifice20Noah built an altar to the Lord; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burned them whole as a sacrifice on the altar.21The odor of the sacrifice pleased the Lord, and he said to himself, Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time.22As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.

Reflect

Many ancient Near Eastern stories describe a terrible flood that destroyed much of humankind. One such story is the Gilgamesh Epic from Babylonia. The difference between the account of the flood in Genesis and that of other stories is that the Genesis story speaks not of many gods in conflict with one another, but of one God who is saddened by human behavior. How might knowing about other flood stories impact your understanding of the Bible's flood story?

Pray

God of Grace, just as you made the floodwaters recede and promised never to flood the earth again, so you promise to stay in loving relationship with me. Help me live into your grace, that I may be all the more worthy of your love. Amen.

Prayer Concern

Endangered species

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