Water's Recede - Genesis 8:1-19

1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf ! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 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. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 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 upon it." 18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds--everything that moves on the earth--came out of the ark, one kind after another. - Genesis 8:1-19

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS:
1) What happened after God remembered those who were aboard the ark?
2) What did Noah do after he opened the window of the ark?
3) How many times did the dove return to Noah?
4) When did Noah know that the waters had receded?
5) When did the inhabitants of the ark leave it?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:
1) What do you do to "remember" (or remind yourself of) the promises of God?
2) What do you do to test (or assure yourself of) the fulfillment of God's promises to you?
3) When do you know that God has fulfilled a promise to you (i.e., before or after it happens)?
4) How do you know that God will keep His promises (i.e., through the Bible and/or experience)?
5) How do you decide when to go to, stay, or leave a place the Lord sends you?

LIFE LESSONS:
1) God always remembers His promises to His children.
2) Followers of Christ are to wait on the Holy Spirit to direct and counsel us.
3) The peace of God infills us when we do those things that please the Lord.

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