If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.
3 January. Genesis chapters 8-11
Re-reading the story of Noah I was reminded that it is easy to think we remember a story, but forget important details. How long was Noah on the ark? Most people would say 40 days. But that is only how long it rained, starting on the 17th of the second month of Noah’s 600th year. But they did not leave the ark until the ground was completely dry, on the 27th of the second month of the following year. A whole year had passed in their life. Peoples around the world whose land gets flooded today will understand the implications of a year without sowing or reaping – the stores they brought with them will have to last another year (much of the ark’s lower decks must have been taken up with food and fodder!) But the Lord honours the Noah family’s commitment to him with a short poem or song (as it is set out in modern translations): “As long as the earth endures / seedtime and harvest, cold and heat / summer and winter, day and night / shall not cease.” John Bell’s modern worship song “While earth remains” celebrates this promise of the continuing seasons.
Another little detail is that before the dove – that symbol of peace, often shown with an olive branch in its mouth as recounted here – Noah sent out a raven. I recently saw an artwork showing this often-overlooked act. The raven gets no credit yet it did the hard work, flying around until the land appeared. Noah’s wife, surprisingly, is also not named anywhere in this story, although she must have worked her socks off caring for all those animals as well as her own family. Sometimes life feels like that, doing the hard work and getting none of the recognition. But God knows, and will honour our work for him even if others do not.