For the Birds Genesis 8:3-17
OPEN: An old Aztec legend tells of a man named Tapi who was a very pious man. The legend says that the creator told Tapi to build a boat that he would live in. He was told that he should take his wife, a pair of every animal that was alive into this boat. Naturally everyone thought he was crazy.
But then the rain started and the flood came.
Men and animals tried to climb the mountains but the mountains became flooded as well.
Finally the rain ended. And Tapi decided that the water had dried up when he let a DOVE loose that did not return.
ILLUS:In China there’s an ancient temple, and on one wall there’s a painting shows boat owned by a man named Fuhi (the Chinese version of Noah) out upon raging waters.
Dolphins are swimming around the boat and a DOVE with an olive branch in its beak is flying toward it.
ILLUS: In an ancient Babylonian Epic the hero Gilgamesh gives his story about a flood:
“When the seventh day dawned I loosed a DOVE and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting-place she returned. Then I loosed a swallow, and she flew away but finding no resting-place she returned. I loosed a RAVEN, she saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not come back. Then I threw everything open to the four winds, I made a sacrifice and poured out a libation on the mountain top.
One website I visited examined different flood stories from such diverse nations as
· East Africa
· Argentina
· Australia
· Bolivia
· Cuba
· Fiji
· Egypt
· Iceland
· India
· Mexico
· New Zealand
· Russia
· Vietnam
And of those 35 flood stories they examined ALL of them talk of humans being spared in the flood.
32 of them include a boat.
24 include an account of animals being spared.
At least 6 of them include references to a dove.
Two of those included references to a raven (one to a hawk).
Whenever archeologists encounter such similar stories like these from so many diverse peoples they tend to believe SOMETHING happened.
And of course... we know something DID happen. It was a flood for global proportions that destroyed all of mankind because of their wickedness.
In the midst of the Biblical account of the flood we read an intriguing story for the birds.
Two birds actually: A Raven and a Dove.
In Genesis, the Raven actually plays a fairly minor role in this play because all we’re told about it found in verses 6 and 7:
“After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.”
Now this isn’t the 40th day of the flood itself. Actually, the ark had been afloat for nearly 8 months now and the waters had begun to recede - so much so that they could see the tops of the mountains around them.
Noah released the raven 40 days after these mountaintops had appeared. And the bird never came back INTO the ark itself... it just kept flying around. Maybe it rested on the ark itself, maybe on the mountaintops in the distance.
But the raven never returned to the safety of the ark again.
Now the Dove gets a little more press.
It’s sent out from the ark 3 different times.
1. The first time, the bird finds no place to rest its feet ... and so it returns to Noah and Ark.
2. The 2nd time, the dove returns with an olive branch in its beak (indicating something is growing).
3. And the 3rd time – it flies away and doesn’t return at all.
Now, the question that came into my mind as I read this story was this:
· Why are we even being told about these birds?
· Why waste the ink?
· Why would God care?
Now I begin every study of Scripture with one basic concept.
II Timothy 3:16-17 tells us
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
ALL Scripture – not just the parts I like. Not just the parts I agree with. Not just the parts that “speak to me.” ALL Scripture... including this story. Thus, if God put these two birds in the story it would seem that there would be a reason
So, allow me – this evening – to give you my understanding of the message from the birds.
1st – These two birds are distinctly different.
The Raven, for example was an unclean bird
Leviticus 11 tells us: "’These are the birds you are to detest and not eat because they are detestable: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture... any kind of raven”. Leviticus 11:13 & 15
There were certain animals and birds that God’s people in the Old Testament were not allowed to eat and they were not allowed to offer as part of a sacrifice to God.
And every Raven was unclean.
These birds quite literally feed on death.
They eat the flesh of dead animals.
Ravens are scavengers...
They look for death.
By contrast, the dove was a clean animal.
Doves were birds the Israelites could not only eat - they could offer them in sacrifices to their God.
In Genesis 15 – when God cut His covenant with Abraham - Abraham was commanded to bring animals for sacrifice... one of which was dove.
Leviticus 1 says that doves could be offered as burnt offerings.
And Leviticus 12 says doves were to be offered for certain kinds of sin offerings.
So doves were clean animals.
But beyond that... God seems to have a very special place in His heart for these birds.
Jesus regarded them as symbolic of purity and innocence
Jesus told His disciples they should be as “innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16
But perhaps the most powerful image of doves in scripture happened after Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. Mark 1:10 tells us that “As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a DOVE.”
God made the dove the image that represented His Holy Spirit.
As I was researching this text on the Internet, one preacher indicated that he didn’t think doves and ravens were considered clean and unclean at the time of the Flood?
That’s unlikely. In Genesis 7:2 Noah was commanded to:
“Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate”
So even before the giving of the Law of Moses certain animals like the Dove were considered clean (7 were brought on the ark) and certain animals like the Raven were considered unclean (2 of each were on the ark).
So, now we return to our original question:
Why would Noah release an unclean bird (the Raven) AND THEN a clean bird (the Dove) from the Ark to “see if the waters had dried up from the earth?”
I think there’s a very simple answer to that.
I believe God told him to.
If I’m right, I can think of at least three things God wanted us to know.
1st God wanted to remind us of something – the flood brought death.
As I said before, Ravens literally feed on death.
They eat the flesh of dead animals.
They’re scavengers.
They look for death.
And after the flood, there was plenty of death.
Genesis 7:20-23 says that when the flood did its work: “The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished— birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.”
The flood brought death... because the flood brought God’s judgment upon mankind.
In Genesis 6:5-7 we’re told
“The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth— men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air— for I am grieved that I have made them."
The flood brought death.
Everything with the breath of life in its nostrils... died.
There was plenty of food now for the raven... because the Raven fed on death.
God tells us “The wages of sin is death...” Romans 6:23
* You can ignore it if you like but it’s still going to be true.
* The world would like to brush it aside if they could but they can’t
* Hollywood can laugh at it but it doesn’t change the reality.
ILLUS: How many of you have ever been to Niagara Falls?
I’ve visited Niagara Falls a few times and every time I’ve visited I’ve been struck by the fact that they don’t want you to get too close to THAT water. They’ve got fences up/ and they’ve got signs up - to WARN people... to keep people away
Why? Because, if I get too close to the waters of the Niagara, I could be dragged to my death.
Now, I can ignore those fences.
I can laugh at the signs that warn me not to get too close.
But if ignorant enough to get into those waters... I will die!
God wanted His people to remember: Sin brings death.
And God wanted to remind His people that the waters of the Flood were about judgment/ Death
So, first – the message of the birds is about death and judgment.
But the 2nd message is different.
The 2nd message of the birds is all about hope.
The Raven looked for death
But the Dove looked for life.
Do you remember what the Dove brought back to the Ark? (olive branch)
I’ve been told that the olive tree is one of the hardiest of plants. A cutting from such a tree can take root in good ground and grow quickly. It became a symbol of life for Israel... and it was a symbol of hope for those in the Ark.
Things were growing now from the ground!
For almost an entire year, Noah and his family had been confined to their boat.
For almost an entire year, the world around them has been covered with water.
For almost an entire year... they’ve been the only living things on earth.
But with that olive branch - God gave them a sign that said – things are turning around.
Things are going to get better now.
The Bible is filled with stories about Godly men and women who faced difficulties in their lives. They faced trials and hardships even death. But the repeated message in Scripture was that God always stood beside them.
Daniel, David, Shadrach/ Meshach and Abednego, Moses, Joshua, Esther.
Each of their stories gives the same message:
Isaiah 40:31 “... those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” (NKJV)
Or as Psalm 30:5 tells us: “Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” (KJV)
Our trials and tribulation won’t last forever.
We will not going to be confined to our Ark of troubles indefinitely.
There’s will come a time, when God will open the door and we will walk out on a new world of hope and encouragement.
But we have to wait for God’s timing.
The flood didn’t abate until God was ready for it to.
But when that time came... God sent His people a sign of hope.
So, the first message of the birds was that of death.
The 2nd message was that of hope.
And the 3rd message of life.
God doesn’t like death... He never has.
When the raven flew away from the ark, did it ever return?
No.
Genesis 8:7 says “...it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.”
By contrast, when the dove was released it “could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.” Genesis 8:9
The Dove returned to Noah and the safety of the Ark.
The Raven (the symbol of death) never did.
Why not?
Because Death is not welcome with God.
God did not create His people to die.
He created us to live forever. (PAUSE)
And that is why Jesus came and died on the cross in our place.
The wages of sin is death... but Jesus took our place
He paid the price for our sins.
Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Jesus shared in (our) humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death— that is, the devil”
Jesus came to conquer death.
And when He comes again, I Corinthians 15 says:
“Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (KJV)
The story of the birds... and that of the flood itself was all about life in the midst of death.
I Peter 3:20-22 tells us:
“...God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also— not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand— with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”
You can have that life from Jesus today.

INVITATION