PATIENCE, RAVEN, DOVE AND PEACE

Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; – Genesis 8:8

By God’s sovereign move and gracious providence, the ark rested Mount Ararat (Gen.8:4). God designs and determines TIMES of REST and PLACES of settlement for His people after our much toiling and tossing. He often does these without our contraption and beyond our foresight. God told Noah when the flood would come and how long it would rain in order for him to prepare the ark; but He did not reveal how and how soon the waters would recede. Concealing these from him was perhaps part of the process of nurturing Noah’s faith and patience. When God chooses to hide some details, it is that we may be “followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb.6:12).

Noah, before and in the ark was a Model of PATIENCE: decades of construction; forty days of torrential rains; forty more days of slow subsidence of the waters, to undo the effects of the forty days’ rain; and then the intervals of seven days (Sabbaths) when the winged messengers were sent out. Counting the days, weeks and months and allowing the maturity of God’s counsel certainly required a great deal of patience and self-control!

There are also lessons from the RAVEN and the DOVE: God has a purpose and a mission for every creature. Noah sent these two missionaries on assignment: first, the Raven, an ominous bird of PREY and then the Dove, a bird of PEACE. Extremely different, but both were sent out to bring tidings of the world outside of the ark and to ascertain the drying up of the waters.

The raven – a bird that is strong of flight – seemed fitting for the task of bringing initial news on the state of the earth. Sent from the ark, it went flying about, perhaps feeding on floating carcasses, and had no reason to return into the ark. Noah then let a dove fly out three times, at intervals of seven days. A dove will only settle upon dry places and clean objects; hence it returned the first time without clear news. The second time, it remained out longer than before and brought a fresh olive leaf in its bill, indicating the emergence of fruit trees above water. The olive branch became a symbol of peace, and the dove the emblem of the Comforter, the messenger of peace. The third time the dove was released, it never returned, a sign that the waters had completely receded from the earth! What perseverance, what patience, what peace, on Noah’s part!!

Any symbolic significance for us? The fresh olive-leaf was the first sign of the earth’s resurrection to new life after the flood – an emblem of peace; the dove with the olive-leaf a herald of salvation. In another sense, the carnal heart, like the raven, embraces the world, and feeds on the flesh therein. The dove however symbolizes a gracious soul, which, finding no solid ground of satisfaction in this deluged world returns to Christ as to the ark, until eternal rest is found. As Noah reached out, took the dove, and pulled her to him, into the ark, so does Christ save, help and welcome those who flee to Him for rest – first in time and ultimately in eternity!