<1>The process of destruction of those
corrupted souls was finished and now the preparation was beginning
for the new generation to assume possession of the earth.
"The fountains also of the deep and the windows
of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;"
(Genesis 8:2)
<2>"Fountains of the deep" refer to the
melted ice of the poles.
"And the
waters returned from
off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and
fifty days the waters
were abated." (Genesis 8:3)
<3>The
waters started to go
back to the places they were before (frozen at the two poles and
vapor in the sky).
"And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the
seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat."
(Genesis 8:4)
"And the
waters decreased
continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first
day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen." (Genesis
8:5)
<4>The ark rested on Mount Ararat. <5>The
new generation was saved. A new earth with a new environment
was prepared for them to live on. Now
God would further make
the earth ready for them to spread over.
"And it came to pass at the end of forty days,
that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:" (Genesis
8:6)
"And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to
and fro, until the
waters were dried up
from off the earth." (Genesis 8:7)
"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)
"But the dove found no rest for the sole of her
foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the
waters were on the
face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her,
and pulled her in unto him into the ark." (Genesis 8:9)
"And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he
sent forth the dove out of the ark;" (Genesis 8:10)
"And the dove came in to him in the evening; and,
lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the
waters were abated
from off the earth." (Genesis 8:11)
"And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent
forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more."
(Genesis 8:12)
"And it came to pass in the six hundredth and
first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the
waters were dried up
from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and
looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry." (Genesis 8:13)
<6>Now the new generation could come out of
their shelter and inhabit the new earth with its new climate which
suited them.
"And in the second month, on the seven and
twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried." (Genesis 8:14)
<7>The earth became ready and refined for the
new humans.
"And God
spake unto Noah, saying," (Genesis 8:15)
"Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy
sons, and thy sons' wives with thee." (Genesis 8:16)
<8>Now
God saw that the new
humans were ready to go forward and take over the earth.
"Bring forth with thee every living thing that is
with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed
abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the
earth." (Genesis 8:17)
<9>The new animals were ready also.
"And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife,
and his sons' wives with him:" (Genesis 8:18)
<10>The life of the new human generation
started.
"Every beast, every creeping thing, and every
fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds,
went forth out of the ark." (Genesis 8:19)
<11>The new generation of animals also
started.