A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

110 The waters prevailed for 150 days. This number includes the 40 days of
rain (7:24).
74 The waters continually decreased from the 17th day of the 7th month and
mountain peaks began appearing by the 1st day of the 10th month (8:5).
This amounts to 74 days if one assumes a 30-day month (13+30+30+1=74).
40 Forty days later, Noah sent out the raven (8:6).
7 Seven days later, the dove was released for the first time (implied in 8:10-
”yet another 7 days”).
7 Seven days later, the dove was released for the 2nd time (8:10).
7 Seven days later, the dove was released for the 3rd time (8:12).
29 The covering of the ark was removed 29 days later (cf. 8:13).
57 Noah appears to have waited an additional 57 days before he and his
family left the ark (8:14).
371 Total days on the ark are 371 by this reckoning. But if Noah’s dates are
based on lunar months of 291/2 days rather than 30-day months, the above
numbers would need to be adjusted accordingly. The difference in this
case would amount to 6 days or a total of 365 days, exactly one solar year.
God did not forget Noah in the midst of the destruction, but rather “God remembered
Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark” (8:1). By cutting
off the supply of water and sending a wind to speed up evaporation, God began the long process
of drying the flood-soaked world. Nine months after the invitation to enter the ark, its first
occupant was released, a raven. This bird of prey did not return to the ark but “kept going to and
fro until the waters had dried up from the earth” (v. 7). No doubt this bird found plenty of food as
the floodwaters descended exposing the decomposing remains of those who had not been in the
ark.
A week later Noah released a second bird from the ark, a dove. Though the ark had been
grounded on Mount Ararat for more than four months by this time, it had been less than seven
weeks since the first mountain peaks had been visible to the occupants of the ark. Noah released
the dove to determine how low the waters had fallen. When the dove returned, he knew there
was still some water covering the ground. He repeated this experiment a week later and the dove
returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf indicating that vegetation had begun to grow on the
land. When the dove was released a third time a week later, it did not return. Presumably it found
the outside world a more suitable living environment.
Within a month of the final release of the dove, Noah removed the protective covering of
the ark and was able to gaze out at a very dry world. Still, Noah and his family remained on the
ark another fifty-seven days. They had entered the ark at the invitation of God and apparently
decided to remain on the ark until God told them to leave. The day finally came when God
announced it was time for their departure. Again Noah obeyed God. “So Noah went out, and his
sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. Every beast, every creeping thing, every bird,
and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark” (vv. 18-19).
PERSPECTIVE: BELIEVING WHAT WE’VE NEVER SEEN
Sin seems to be stronger than the influence of righteousness. Cain and those who followed him
plunged the world into a downward cycle that led to the judgment waters of the Flood. Sin