Mon.’s Devo - After the Flood

Read: Genesis 8:1-10:32; Matthew 4:12-25; Psalm 4:1-8; Proverbs 1:20-23 When God had finished cleansing the earth, he caused a wind to blow across the earth and the floodwaters to recede. The waters that came from the abyss and the waters that came from heaven stopped after 150 days of flowing and raining. The ark rested on the 17th of the 7th month upon Mt. Ararat. “Ararat” means “the curse reversed.” It took 85 more days before Noah opened a window and sent out the raven and the dove. The raven left and just flew back and forth until the waters dried up. The dove kept coming back to give Noah information. That is the difference between Satan’s messengers and God’s. God wants to keep us informed about what he is doing. Satan is only concerned about himself. On the first day of Tishri, their New Year, Roshashana, Noah lifted the cover to see dry land. When it was completely dry, Noah released the animals and his family. The first thing Noah did was to build an altar to the Lord and sacrifice the animals he had seven of. God was pleased with his sacrifice and promised never to curse the ground nor kill everything living as he did in the flood. Seasons would continue. God blessed Noah and his sons telling them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. He put fear between the animals and man because he told man he could now eat meat as well as plants. But, they were never to eat an animal still living. He placed the rainbow in the sky as a sign of his covenant with man to never destroy man with a flood of water. The sons of Noah are mentioned but special attention was given to Ham. He is the father of Canaan. He was the bad seed. We see that in the next story. Noah got drunk over his own wine. The fact that he planted this vineyard and it produced grapes tells us that this took years to happen. What Ham saw or did in his father’s tent is not really spelled out for us but it was more than just noticing that his father was naked. It was something more that Noah knew instantly when he woke from his sleep. Shem and Japheth didn’t want any part of it and wanted to save their father from shame. Ham wasn’t cursed but his son, Canaan was. So, it was probably something that Canaan was doing with Noah that Ham either participated in or saw and told his brothers. Canaan was cursed to be a servant to servants. Shem and Japheth were blessed with God’s name. Canaan would eventually serve them both. Noah lived 350 years after the flood. Japheth’s descendants went to the countries that were accessible by sea like Europe, the peninsula of Lesser Asia and regions east of that. The sons of Ham immigrated south to Arabia, and Egypt. Nimrod was most famous of Ham’s children who became a mighty hunter. He founded the first kingdom in the world - Babel. Nimrod conquered the kingdom of Assur and named it Nineveh. This was in Shem’s territory making him the rebel who revolted against God’s divine distribution of land. (We are getting a clue to who Ham was.) Shem is distinguished as the ancestor of the Hebrews. He is given the countries of Armenia, Mesopotamia and Syria. His land included the valley of Shinar and Eden. There was an earthquake and Peleg was born and given his name in memory of the event. “Peleg” means divided. In Matthew, When Jesus heard of John’s arrest he continued John’s ministry of bringing light to the Gentiles. He began to teach John’s message of repentance. Jesus found 4 fishermen and called them from their fishing for fish and invited them to join him in fishing for men. They were Peter, Andrew, James and John. As Jesus traveled preaching and healing every disease, news quickly spread. He cast demons out of people freeing them of epilepsy, and paralysis. He soon had a huge following. Lord, thank you that your deliverance comes when we need it the most.