March 29, 2026 | Lorain Fellowship
NKJV Genesis 8:1-14             
Noah’s Deliverance
1 Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 
2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 
3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.
4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.
7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.
8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 
9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself.
10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark.
11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 
12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.
13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.
14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
Life Study of Genesis Message 32
LIFE IN RESURRECTION
In the last message we saw that Noah and the people with him in the ark passed through the flood waters. As we have seen, passing through the water was a type of the baptism in the New Testament. After the flood, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat (Gen. 8:4). That also was a sign, a type, a shadow of the resurrection of Christ. According to the Bible, the ark was a type of Christ. The ark passing through water signifies Christ passing through the death waters under God’s judgment. When the ark rested upon the mountains, it signified that Christ was resurrected out of the death waters. 
Life in Resurrection
The Bible is marvelous. Genesis 8:4 says that the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. If you read the Bible carefully along with history and the best lexicons, you will find that, at the time of the Passover in Egypt, the seventh month was changed to the first (Exo. 12:2). The Jews have two kinds of calendars, the civil calendar and the sacred calendar. The civil calendar was the old one, and the sacred calendar was the new one, which began from the first Passover. When God told the Israelites to have the Passover, He told them that that month had to be counted as the first month of the year. In Hebrew the name of that month was Abib (Exo. 13:4), which means sprouting, budding, fresh ears of corn. This signifies that, in the eyes of God, the Passover was counted as a new beginning of life. Why do I point this out? Because the Lord Jesus was crucified on the day of the Passover, on the fourteenth day of the month (Exo. 12:6; John 18:28). According to the sacred calendar, He was crucified in the first month, and according to the civil calendar, He was crucified in the seventh month, the same month as when the ark rested upon the mount. The Lord was crucified on the fourteenth day of that month and was resurrected three days later. Thus, according to the sacred calendar, Christ was resurrected on the seventeenth day of the first month. According to the civil calendar, it was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the very day that the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. So, in that early type of the ark resting upon the mountain, we were told the exact date of the resurrection of Christ. This is wonderful.
In 1 Peter 3:20-21, Peter connected the resurrection of Christ to the ark. He said that ‘‘eight souls, were brought safely through by water: which figure also now saves you, baptism through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’’ The figure of baptism also saves us through resurrection. I say once again that the ark resting upon the mountaintop signified Christ’s resurrection out from the death waters. The month and day of both were exactly the same.
A Shadow of the Church
Resurrected with Christ
What do we find after the resurrection? We see a new living. Noah and the seven other people had a new living. I would also like to call your attention to the fact that the number of people in the ark was eight. The number eight means resurrection. A week has seven days, and the beginning of a new week is the eighth day. Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week, that is, on the eighth day (John 20:1). So, the number eight signifies resurrection. In this new living, the people were in resurrection. Whatever they did was in resurrection.
Not many Christians realize the true significance of the type in this portion of the Word. We should understand this portion of the Word in the way of typology. All Christians agree that the ark was a type of Christ, and 1 Peter 3:20-21 tells us clearly that the passing through the flood was a prefigure of baptism. Based upon these two facts, we must realize that everything related to Noah and to the seven people that were with him after the flood must also be a part of the complete type, forming a full picture of the type. We should not stop with saying that the passing through the flood was a type of baptism and that the ark resting on the mountain was a type of Christ’s resurrection. What about the life of the eight persons after the flood? In other words, what about the living of the people after the resurrection? What does the living of those eight people after the flood signify? It signifies the church life. The living of the resurrected people after the resurrection was the church life. This is absolutely logical. The eight persons in the ark signify us, the New Testament believers.
I would like to say a word to the young people. When I was a young Christian, I exercised my mentality very much about the statements in the Bible that say that we are in Christ. I tried to figure out how we could be in Christ. I could neither see the reality of this nor understand its significance. One day, as I was considering what Noah’s ark passed through, the Lord showed me that the eight persons in the ark were a picture showing us how it is that we are in Christ. Those eight persons were in the ark when the ark passed through the flood. Thus, they also passed through the flood in the ark, but they themselves did not touch the flood. It was the ark that withstood the flood waters. This answers the questions of how Christ’s crucifixion can be ours and how we were crucified in Christ. When the ark came out of the flood, the eight people in it also came out. When the ark rested upon the mountaintop, the eight persons also were resurrected and rested on the mountaintop in the ark. Ephesians 2:6 says that we were raised up together with Christ. Before we were born, we were resurrected. When Christ was resurrected out from the death waters, we were in Him. Therefore, in the church we are resurrected people.
A Sketch of Genesis
A Covenant Initiated by God
Before Noah, it seemed that God had hope that His purpose could be fulfilled by man. However, at the time of Noah, mixture came in, and man was exposed as being hopeless. God detests mixture. He loves purity and everything after its kind. Today God is cleansing us of our mixture. We either belong to God, or we belong to Satan. We cannot serve two masters. When God saw the mixture at Noah’s time, He sent the flood to destroy it. Eventually, only the eight people in Noah’s household were saved.
God established a covenant with Noah and with all living creatures in which He bore all the responsibility: “I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth” (Gen. 9:13). He would never again send a flood to destroy all flesh. This covenant with Noah was the first of a series of covenants that God made with man. He later made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (15:18; Exo. 2:24) and made a covenant with the people of Israel (Exo. 24:8).
This covenant between God and Noah began a new relationship between God and man. Before Noah, God had charged man, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen. 1:28). However, He made no such demands in His covenant with Noah. No matter how corrupt man would become, God would find a way to fulfill His purpose.
When Adam fell, God drove him from the garden of Eden. When Cain slew Abel, God drove him from His presence. When the sons of God mixed with the daughters of men, God sent the flood. God’s way at that time was to remove the offenders. Today, God no longer drives sinners away but draws them to Himself (John 12:32). When we fall, God encourages us to return to Him with boldness to receive mercy and grace (Heb. 4:16). He changed from “go away from Me” to “come to Me.” This is God’s way of working with man in the age of the new covenant.
In our experience, we are not in the age of Adam but in the age of God’s covenant with Noah. God doesn’t drive us away but invites us to come to Himself. Even though Israel crucified the Lord Jesus, the Bible still says, “All Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26). As in the covenant God made with Noah, God’s demand today is only on Himself and He bears all the responsibility. He has no expectation toward us. He doesn’t ask us to work for Him but carries out His work Himself. Praise the Lord! This is truly a good tiding.
Today we live in the age of the new covenant (Heb. 9:15). God initiated and established this covenant with us. He bears the responsibility, enabling us to carry out His will. Though Noah failed God in his behavior, God still fulfilled His desire through him. Today, God works in us to fulfill His desire, as Paul says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:8–10). He has no demands on man. His care, His mercy, and His blessing are all based on His faithfulness. This is the meaning of Noah’s experience. Our living is based entirely on God’s faithfulness!
Footnotes:
Gen 8:41 rest
The ark’s passing through the water of death and coming to rest on the mountains of Ararat is a type of Christ’s passing through death and resurrecting out of death.
Gen 8:71 raven
The raven is an unclean bird (Lev. 11:15) because it feeds on carcasses, i.e., on death. The raven signifies the fleshly believers who love the world judged by God and return to it to feed on the things of death. The dove (v. 8) is a clean bird because it feeds on seeds, i.e., on life. The dove signifies the spiritual believers who remain in the church life and care for life in the Spirit.
Gen 8:111a olive  -   Exo. 27:20; 30:24; Zech. 4:11
The olive is a type of the Spirit, and the fresh olive leaf signifies the new life in the Spirit. Thus, the olive leaf was a sign of life.