The Rain has Stopped

Read Genesis 8:6-12

The rain has stopped, the boat has come to rest on top of a mountain range and now Noah wonders how long they should remain in the Ark. First he sends out a raven, then he sends out a dove, which returns and then Noah releases 2 more times before it returns to him with an olive branch in its mouth.

Noah was sending these birds out with the hope they would return with some evidence that the waters were gone and for some sign of life upon the earth, some regeneration after God’s flood of judgement.

Why he picked the raven as the first bird to send out we do not know. But why does it not return? A raven is a carrion bird, meaning it eats dead flesh, it was content living off, the death and aftermath of the flood. It was at home in a world filled with death.

The dove though was not content until life had returned. Ravens were considered unclean animals, doves symbolised purity and peace. The dove could never live in the world that the Raven was happy to live in.

So too it should be for us Christians, we can grow content like the Raven, feasting and enjoying the things of this world, the things which lead to death. We are happy consuming and delighting in that which is disgusting and putrid. We were called to something greater.

At Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove came and rested upon Jesus. Was Jesus someone who made his home in this world, who delighted in this life only?

Matthew 8:20 (ESV) ²⁰Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

Jesus lived as a foreigner, a wanderer in his world, for he knew his citizenship, his home was in heaven (Phil 3:20). So that is also the calling upon our lives. We are to grow utterly discontent with the things of this world, and seek zealously the prize of the upward call (Phil 3:14).

My friends, do not make your home in this world. Be unsatisfied with everything this world offers, eagerly looking forward to your true home in the age to come.

Questions:

Why do you think it is so easy to settle down in this world and have so little concern for the world to come?

What might be some ways you can encourage yourself and others, not to settle down in this world?