Genesis 8:5

“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.”  Genesis 8:5

Noah and his family can finally see the mountain tops.  They have hope that one day soon they will be able to get out and walk around on dry land.  They’ve been closed up in the ark for eight months and now they have renewed hope.

Genesis 8:4

“And on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.”  Genesis 8:4

After so long spent in a boating rocking along to the waves and winds the ark has finally stopped.  Back in Genesis 7:11 it says that it was the 17^th day of the 2^nd month that the flood started.  So it looks like they have been in the ark for five months.

The boat has stopped, but that doesn’t mean that there is any land visible yet.  Perhaps this was just a sign to Noah and his family that the waters are receding.  They couldn’t see the mountains yet, but they could feel from the movement of the ark that the bottom had sunk down low enough to rest on ground of some sort.

Just as God rested on the 7^th day of creation, now the ark is resting on the 7^th month.  If the ark hadn’t been over the Ararat mountains when the waters abated maybe it would have been longer before they hit ground and it would have been a different month.

The pattern shows that first there is work to be done, (God creating, Noah building and ark and caring for the animals and people loaded up in it) and then there is a period of rest.  If you find yourself working hard now, don’t worry, your rest is coming.

Genesis 8:3

“The water receded steadily from the earth.  At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down.”  Genesis 8:3

Now that God has stopped the rain and the springs of water from flooding the earth, the floodwaters are steadily receding.  There is a steady pace that the waters are going down.  I wonder if those people on the ark could tell.  If they looked out a window would they be able to see a difference?  If all you have is water I can’t image there would be any way to tell.  With no visible landmarks it may have just looked the same every day.

Just because we can’t see his work does not mean God is not still working for us.  Time goes on and things all look the same – the same struggles and trials as before – the same water-filled horizon and then one day we look out and there it is, the top of the mountain peeking out from the water.

Where the scripture is translated as “the water had gone down” the QBible shows that it could mean that the water was lacking or decreased or failed.  To go back to the idea that this is some great fight between the water and the land like we discussed in Genesis 7:18, it’s like the water had been winning the battle, but now it is starting to lose the fight.  The land is making it’s come back.  The water may have initially won the battle, but the war is not over.